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Julia Robson finds the real McCoy of kilt-makers
BY Julia Robson | 03 December 2001
NESTLING on the banks of the Tweed in Galashiels, 30 miles south of Edinburgh, lies Lochcarron of Scotland's mill shop. Here, you will find the largest collection of authentic tartans in the world (1,200 at the last count), as well as luxurious cashmere knitwear, scarves and tam-o'-shanters at low, low prices.
Lochcarron is the real McCoy of kilts. A canny combination of traditional skills, craftmanship, top design and the "special properties" found in local waters has contributed to the success and worldwide reputation of this family-owned business, founded in 1853 by John Morris Buchan in Lochcarron in the Western Highlands.
Lochcarron kilts are worn by royalty (from George V to the Queen and Prince Charles), celebrities and the fash pack (it supplies tartan to leading fashion houses from Comme des Garçons and Burberry to Vivienne Westwood).
Hollywood leading man Samuel L Jackson was "kilted" out in the Montgomery clan check of his ancestors for the film The 51st State. The company also dressed the entire cast of Highlander and Scottish actor Ewan McGregor wore a Lochcarron kilt to the premiere of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, as did Liam Neeson on the opening night of Rob Roy.
In between kilt fittings, you can take a tour of the mill, which has a working water wheel. It is still Lochcarron's major manufacturing plant and annually weaves enough tartan to reach from Galashiels to France.
As they would say in Scotland, it's braw. | <urn:uuid:6cb3088e-bb0c-4f0b-9beb-38cc58d9933d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG3292338/The-ex-directory-Lochcarron-of-Scotland.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942389 | 367 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The founding fathers of this great country, the United States of America, had the wisdom and forethought to know that a nation and its government built of the people, by the people and for the people would endure the tests and trials of time. West Main Mission is extremely small in comparison to the greatest nation in the world. However, we believe it will also endure the tests and trials of time because it has been built and continues to stand on the same foundational principals.
In 1978, a Rutherford County business man, who is a Christian, received inspiration from God to do something for the people of Rutherford County in addition to his gifts to a local church. This led to an initial gift of $30,000 and the concept of what was soon to become the West Main Mission.
The basic idea was to develop an agency through which caring compassionate people could administer the love of Christ by helping meet the physical needs of all those who might come through its doors. Meeting the needs of Rutherford County people by local citizens is a long standing practice that sparks the fires of community spirit and neighborly love which still illuminates our community today.
West Main Mission began for the purpose of helping people in need and it continues today by the free-will gifts of Rutherford County citizens. The Mission is not a tax supported organization and is, therefore, not a tax burden on the people. The operational expenses are paid by gifts through the United Way of Rutherford County, and gifts given directly to the Mission by private citizens, churches, Sunday school classes, ladies church auxiliary groups, civic and charitable organizations and local businesses.
West Main Mission serves just over two-thousand families which translates into 4,750 individuals in Rutherford and Cannon Counties on average each year. The Mission provides clothing, shoes, emergency food boxes, take out lunches, Christmas gifts, school items, small appliances, and other household items, along with special gifts to those who lose their home to a fire, and do not have insurance.
Based on conservative estimates the Mission will distribute: $50,000 in clothing and household items. $50,000 in take out lunches. $6,500 in emergency food boxes. $30,000 in rags to Salvation Army. $2,000 in fire victim relief and $40,000 in Christmas gifts. The Mission is staffed by one full time employee, one part time employee, and a total of twenty volunteers. Donations are accepted from 8:00am to 3:00pm Monday thru Friday. Items are given out by appointment Tuesday thru Friday. Appointment times are 9:00am, 10:00am, 11:00am and 1:00pm
To offset the high cost of rent, each family that comes to the Mission pays a $15.00 registration fee each year. Under certain circumstances the registration fee might be reduced or waived by Jim Hargrove, the Mission Director. The registration fee gives each family seven visits to the Mission to get things. Plus the opportunity to register their kids for Christmas.
If you would like to help in any way please contact Rev. Jim Hargrove, Director, by writing or visiting the Mission. All cash and material donations are tax deductable. Come by and visit us Monday-Friday 8:00am - 3:00pm or call us at 893-8912. Thanks for any help you may give. | <urn:uuid:14dc30b5-b90d-4f3f-a0d8-d46402c9429f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.westmainmission.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96639 | 690 | 1.742188 | 2 |
My favourite word lately is humuhumunukunukuapua'a. As far as emotional responses, this one always gets a smile from others (of course it makes me
smile, else it wouldn't be my favourite!
)... either the word itself or by watching me try to say it.
Okay, Shade, now I have to chime in. I can verify the reactions you've posted!
Every now and then, I meet someone who has learned this word. Being that I'm part Hawaiian, they would try to impress me by trying to pronounce it. And it is a funny word to pronounce.
They tend to smile and laugh a lot because it sounds funny to them. It's fun to watch and listen to.
It makes me laugh, but I don't mock them. I don't embarrass them either but try tell them that it'd be easier, though less fun, to say "fish with a pig-like snout"- which is what that word means.
This, however, sometimes invokes another burst of laughter.
Incidentally, so far, I've only met one person who wasn't from The Islands who could actually pronounce this word fluently. But, she too, smiles whenever she says it.
I'm still fond of The Tick's battle-cry, "Spoon!"
Sometimes I'll randomly blurt it out during a conversation just to mess with the other person. Most people laugh and shake their heads. Those who know, say it back. | <urn:uuid:ab48b5ec-bb8a-42c4-bcf6-f405dc671ffc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.satannet.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=300107 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97951 | 311 | 1.59375 | 2 |
That's "404: File not found" for the technically inclined. For the not-so-technically inclined, that
means that the link you clicked, or the URL you typed into your browser, didn't work for some reason.
Here are some possible reasons why:
- We have a "bad" link floating out there and you were unlucky enough to click it.
- You may have typed the page address incorrectly.
So now what?
- Go to the home page and try to find the page.
- Search the site for your information.
- Go to the site map and try to find the page. | <urn:uuid:383613b5-d957-421f-a081-85185dfd544f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blueridgevets.com/site/view/127106_Appointments.pml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940533 | 132 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Back in May 2009 I wrote “Exploding Debt Threatens America” in the Financial Times. Unfortunately the federal debt is still exploding, but fortunately we are learning more about the threat thanks to research reported and carefully explained in a new piece by my colleague Michael Boskin.
The following chart is a quick summary of his amazing findings. It shows the enormous decline in American income (measured by GNP) if fiscal policy follows the path we are now on as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office. The stars represent several different estimates for the year 2040 reported in Michael’s paper. The ranges show CBO estimates under current policy or under the House Budget resolution of last spring. | <urn:uuid:a1ba917f-8bcd-4fbc-8c10-c6990eb78ffa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wallstreetpit.com/97599-exploding-debt-still-threatens-america/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950901 | 139 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern said he plans to board a plane to Cuba on Friday and visit old friend Fidel Castro for the first time in nearly 17 years.
McGovern, who turns 89 on July 19, said he wants to see Castro while the former Cuban president is still alive.
"I've lost enough friends with regrets that I didn't go see them while they were still alive, so I want to see him," McGovern said Wednesday from a grocery store near his winter home in St. Augustine, Fla.
McGovern last visited Cuba in 1994, which was his seventh trip to the island nation since 1975.
McGovern said he wasn't invited on his latest trip, but contacted people close to Castro, who assured him the 84-year-old former leader would be happy to meet with him.
McGovern said he has no agenda, and doesn't know what he and Castro will discuss. He said they likely will touch upon the United States' 49-year economic embargo against Cuba.
"It's a stupid policy," McGovern said of the embargo. "There's no reason why we can't be friends with the Cubans, and vice versa. A lot of them have relatives in the United States, and some Americans have relatives in Cuba, so we should have freedom of travel."
McGovern said embittered Cuban exiles in Miami have kept the embargo alive all these years by "making sure that every congressman knows that Castro is a monster and we shouldn't have anything to do with him."
The former presidential candidate called that thinking "foolish," saying Castro is an intelligent man who admires the United States.
"We seem to think it's safe to open the door to a billion communists in China ... but for some reason, we're scared to death of the Cubans," McGovern said.
McGovern served South Dakota in the U.S. House from 1957 to 1961, and in the U.S. Senate from 1963 to 1981. But he's best known for his loss to Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential race.
McGovern ran again in 1984, but he withdrew after the New Hampshire primary. | <urn:uuid:d8a67def-bec0-4487-ae9b-b7fdd48b6ce5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marconews.com/news/2011/jun/30/george-mcgovern-heading-cuba-visit-castro/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988281 | 442 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Last edited by kwanfan1818; 02-10-2011 at 08:13 PM.
"This, after all, is opera, opera in New York, not some dainty pastime like professional hockey..." -- Chip Brown, NYT Magazine 24 Mar 13
I used to work for a fashion retailer, and I sew very well (wedding gowns, skating dresses, drapes), so I tend to run off about this topic. I also worked for a tailoring shop through high school, so I picked up a lot of education from being in that environment. BTW, they were also furriers - don't leave your fur coats in mothballs. Have them cleaned, glazed and stored if you really care about preserving them. I wear fake fur, but I will say that well-kept real furs are a thing of beauty, more than on the original animal in many cases, lol.
Community colleges, community centers (JCC, YMCA), and high school extension classes offer classes in design and clothing construction/sewing. I actually learned to use my machine in high school and they had an evening program for people who weren't in school, but wanted to learn. After college, I took a high school extension course in the evenings on "fitting patterns" which was great, I just never got around to pattern-making or actual tailoring. Our local Joann's in NJ ran several courses, but they were really trying to sell sergers machines and supplies moreso than pattern fitting/tailoring skills. (Think about it: if you can make your own patterns, you don't need to pay $10 for them at Joann's.) Look at technical schools if you want a certificate or degree, but if you just want the knowledge and skills, look at the "Continuing Education" or "Adult Education" sections of college/universities. Online, you have to seek out their departments, because those courses aren't always listed as part of the regular mainstream degree program course schedules. Usually, the department webpage has a link to a pdf of their offerings. If you don't see what you want, ask - sometimes those departments have instructors to call, but they won't add a course to the schedule unless there's interest from the community.
I know of one "Cultural Center" that offers art classes in painting, drawing, sculpture and stained glass. Once or twice a year, they offer textile courses as they call them.
The Singer resource books are excellent and most libraries carry them. They might be out of print now, but I have a half-dozen that I've purchased over the years that I refuse to part with. The illustrations are great.
Many small fabric and sewing stores seem to be offering those type of classes these days. One such store offers pattern-making, fitting, and tailoring, but their big draw is a course that teaches the student how to get the most out of THEIR OWN sewing machines. You bring it in the shop and they teach you how to use and adjust it, even how to keep it running well through proper maintenance. That's great for someone who owns a machine but isn't really sure about what they can/cannot do with it. I have two friends who loved that course - they made something really simple, like a tote bag.
Sorry, I'm thread-jacking. It's a topic near and dear to my heart.
Last edited by FigureSpins; 02-10-2011 at 07:07 PM.
Johnny is Johnny. He loves to shock and outrage. You never know when he's being serious, and frankly when he's telling the truth. But he doesn't pretend to be someone he's not. I respect that a lot more then cultivating a public image that has nothing to do with who the person really is.
Damien Hirst didn't know how to work with formaldehyde or dead animals to do what he did (or how to get diamonds on a skull, for that matter). But he outsourced his idea to someone else.
But as you say, time will tell where Johnny fits in there.
He seems to spend a lot of time giving himself labels and referring to what other people say about him, but what's the real person? He also spends a great deal of time talking about brands and celebrities, which is classic "by association" image making - it's possible that his personality and values perfectly match those of Chanel, Lady Gaga, Sarah Jessica Parker, Faberge and Louis Vuitton, or it could very likely be that those are the brands he aspires to, not who he is.
In the end, is he really original and outrageous or whatever, or does he just want people to think he is?
A luxury condo demands a luxurious bed. Maybe Johnny would like this one?
Wealthy fans, be ready to contribute!
Ashley Wagner - America's Champion and PRIDE. How sweet it is!
If PETA starts hounding Johnny I'll happily send them (another) nasty letter. Probably in one of their own postage-paid envelopes (sadly the USPS got wise to taping those to boxes of scrap metal, though.) Every time PETA does something obnoxious I go out and buy an animal byproduct that I don't actually need out of sheer spite. Maybe I'll go buy a fur-trimmed coat from Julio Julio at the next ballroom comp--they do lots of fundraisers for the ASPCA, you know, selling fur. (Hm, you know, I could see Johnny in their jeans and menswear...)
I'm curious if Johnny (and/or whoever he's working with on designs) is going to take cut and shape from Russian traditional costume, besides pulling color from Russian decorative arts...that could be interesting.
I can barely follow a sewing pattern. So no comment on the difficulty of actual design.
That bed would probably almost fill up Johnny's bedroom.
I think FSU fans have figured it out:
Robin Wagner is going to train Johnny! Oh the threads we'll have between now and Sochi!
Are you joking? I thought Wagner coached out of Hackensack, NJ. Seems silly to move to Manhattan if you're training across the Hudson. Maybe she's at Chelsea Piers as well?
Maybe Tara can coach him. She's a coach.
Yep, 3-time National Champ, World Bronze Medalist, 2-time Olympian (placed second in the sp at 2006 Olympics) -- Nothing to sneer at, and many skaters would give anything for the chance just to go to the Olympics.
mmscfdcsu --Johnny's talent does make many fans feel he should have/ could have accomplished more, but that's life. And for Johnny, I think, and for his many fans, there's no reason to feel sad about what he accomplished, or didn't accomplish. He made mistakes, yes, (which he admits), but who doesn't? In any case, Johnny owns his mistakes and his successes... and he's moving forward with his life ... having fun and making and spending money. "Wow, how dare he -- why isn't he off in a corner feeling sad about his lack of accomplishments." Ah, well... what one person considers a mediocrity, might just be another's blessing and saving grace.
And, anyhoo, mmscfdcsu, how would you know whether or not Johnny is developing as an artist? Are you not developing as an artist?
www.zeitgeist.com – a very profound take about money, its lack of true value, but its weighty importance in our society – very educational films there if you have an open mind – click on the center film first.
On the issue of Johnny's supporters "annoying in their 'Poor victim Johnny!' mode," I see more of the people so concerned for Johnny and hating what they think he's become doing all the actual b**chin'/ bewailing about his so-called "victimhood." To say the judges shafted him at Olympics by keeping him in 6th place, does not make Johnny a victim. Why? Because he gave it his all -- he did the best he could do in that moment, in that time and place. Watch his Olympic performances, and his final reaction on his knees on the ice. Watch his Heartbroken exhibition, and if you don't feel anything, or can't see that this boy/ man/ diva/ skater/ athlete/ artist put his heart and soul into his skating, then truly that is the sad thing.
As far as his history of "bewailing" (Is that the word that always comes to mind when you think of Johnny?) -- yeah he has talked about growing up with modest means, but also that he didn't want for anything, and that his parents did everything in their power to nurture and support his gifts as an equestrian and a figure skater. Wow, not everyone is that lucky in life. Johnny admits his shortcomings, his blessings, his rebellions, his desires, and he probably, believe it or not, holds some things back from public scrutiny. This brouhaha about money, puhleeze... do give us links to all his bewailing. I seem to recall him talking in an interview about his limited income when COI folded (that tour was a lucrative source of income for skaters during the off-season). Also, it was Johnny's fans who decided to contribute money to a fund to help with his training. It matters not what anyone thinks or chooses to interpret about that. Those donations were gifts of unconditional love, thanks, and encouragement.
LOL, re Johnny's discussion with Howard Stern on "penis length." Truly this falls into the category of TMI. But, ha ha, Johnny was responding to Howard Stern after all. Kinda brave, or lunatic (take your pick) to go on that show. But if you agree with those who think Johnny is "marketing himself to the very bottom of the gene pool" ... then you probably didn't bother listening to the broadcast, but just happened to find out on FSU that he dared to discuss that body part. Your references to ..."dry humping" ... and "penis length"... seem like either a fixation, or a bewailing of Johnny having all the fun ...
Maybe he's really that conniving. Maybe he's really that confused. Or maybe he's just complicated like most everybody else on this earth.
Granted, I still thought reading his book excerpt was a waste of 10 minutes of my life I'd like to get back, but I don't begrudge him the ability to make his own decisions. | <urn:uuid:ecba3520-b1c1-4e74-a456-e72aae71f061> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/showthread.php?77497-Johnny-Closes-on-1-1-Million-Dollar-Condo&p=3069891&viewfull=1 | 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 | 0.981289 | 2,220 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Retirees hit hard by foreclosures
The real estate and mortgage crisis has not left the retiree population out of its wake. According to a report by the AARP, comparing mortgage data from 2007 through 2011, the over age 75 population has in fact been one of the most effected demographics by the foreclosure epidemic. More than 1.5 million Americans over age 50 lost their homes between 2007 and 2011 and the rate of foreclosures for this group has increased over the last couple years. In 2011 the 75+ age group had the highest foreclosure rate. To show the drastic change, in 2007 the rate of foreclosures for homeowners over 50 was 0.3% and in 2011 the rate was up to 2.9%. The reason for this rise in defaults on mortgages amongst the aging population is one, the bigger debt loads, older Americans increased their mortgage debt load significantly during the 20 years leading up to the real estate market dive in 2008. According to the AARP report, “This increase partly reflects increased borrowing that was spurred by historically low interest rates and high home values prior to the housing market collapse,” and went on to say, “It may indicate that the oldest borrowers have tapped their home equity to finance their needs in retirement.” This tactic has caused the “great recession” to be quite detrimental for many retirees and older Americans. Another big issue for many aging Americans is that their ATM accounts are empty and tapping into home equity is no longer a resolution for many as over 16% of borrowers over age 50 are underwater. Even though logic would be that the older population would have accrued more equity than younger people, 3.5 million homeowners age 50+ have zero equity. The delinquency rate for the aging borrowers has increased from around 1% in 2007 to 6% in 2011. Debra Whitman, executive vice president for policy at the AARP said, “America’s oldest homeowners have been struggling to maintain their financial security as their incomes are falling, and as mortgage payments, property taxes and health-care costs are increasing.” This is recipe for catastrophe in retirement and instead of enjoying their “golden years” many Americans will be struggling throughout their lives as retirement is becoming more and more out of reach for a large part of the population.
For questions, comments, and information on how to effectively plan for retirement, maximize a nest egg, utilize equity, and effectively invest savings visit the Annuity Think Tank.
To read the entire article on the state of foreclosures for retirees, click here. | <urn:uuid:331ae7a9-18f6-483b-aeee-a1636052710f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.annuitythinktank.com/retirees-hit-hard-by-foreclosures/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976286 | 522 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Author Evan S. Connell, best known for his novels "Mrs. Bridge" and "Mr. Bridge," died in his home in Santa Fe, N.M., according to family members. He was 88.
Connell was a recipient of the 2010 Los Angeles Times Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, which honors writers connected to the American West. His biography of Gen. George Armstrong Custer, "Son of the Morning Star," won an L.A. Times Book Prize in 1985 and was the basis for a television miniseries.
Connell's "Mrs. Bridge," published in 1959, was one of a long list of finalists for the National Book Award (it was won by Philip Roth, for "Goodbye, Columbus."). A decade later, in 1969, Connell published a companion piece, "Mr. Bridge." The two novels were made into the 1990 movie, "Mr. and Mrs. Bridge," which starred Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
Connell continued to write late into his life, publishing the story collection "Lost in Uttar Pradesh" in 2008. The Times' David L. Ulin called it "a willfully diverse collection." The book, Ulin wrote, "offers an unsettled glimpse of its author, with whom we can't quite come to terms. Brilliant in places, frustrating in others, enigmatic in both content and conception, it's a vivid metaphor for Connell's career." | <urn:uuid:94064203-e519-4dee-a4b7-0c51341ea6d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sun-sentinel.com/topic/entertainment/la-et-jc-author-evan-s-connell-has-died-20130110,0,6306021.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983238 | 291 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Obama reckons with economy at CBS News town hall
In an effort to make his case on the economy to a broad audience, President Obama sat down with CBS News this week for an hour long town-hall meeting at the Newseum in Washington.
The president's town hall appearance, which was taped Wednesday afternoon and broadcast on CBS News' "The Early Show" Thursday morning, came as the economy continues to struggle to emerge from recession. Gas prices have risen nearly a dollar since the year began, and now hover around $4 per gallon; unemployment stands at nine percent. And while Mr. Obama's saw an increase in his overall approval rating in last week's CBS News/New York Times poll tied to the killing of Osama bin Laden, his approval rating on the economy was just 34 percent - the lowest level of his presidency.
The town hall included a mix of questions from CBS News moderators Harry Smith, Erica Hill and Rebecca Jarvis and questions from an audience made up of Washington residents, college students, people who have participated in CBS News polls and CBS News viewers.Obama calls for "revamping" of farm subsidies
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Hill opened the questions by noting that when it comes to the economy, "sometimes it can feel like for every two steps forward, it's one step back." She asked Mr. Obama how Americans can get into a more positive mindset.
The president responded by stating that "you're absolutely right that people still aren't feeling" the economic recovery.
"I think a lot of people just feel like the American dream, the core notion that if you work hard and you act responsibly that you can pass on a better life to your kids and your grandkids -- a lot of folks aren't feeling that anymore," he said. "And so, that's why it's so important for us to focus not only on recovery from recession, but also dealing with some of those problems that existed before the recession so that middle class families are able to see their incomes go up, their savings go up, they can retire with dignity and respect, they can send their kids to college."
He later said the recovery has been "uneven," with sections like manufacturing doing relatively well while others lag. "And it's gonna take us several years for us to get back to where we need to be," he added. "But the important thing, though...is we're moving in the right direction."
A member of the audience then asked the president about what he planned to do about gas prices. He responded by stressing domestic production - rebuffing a Republican criticism - and noting that "we're producing more oil now than any time since 2003."
"Even after what happened in the Gulf, we're still saying to oil companies, 'You can drill, as long as you do it safely,'" he said. "We don't want to go through another oil spill like we had last summer. But we are gonna give you permits if you show us that you've got a good plan for containing it if something goes wrong." Mr. Obama then argued for the importance of a long-term energy policy and pointed to increased fuel-efficiency standards for cars, which he said would save 1.8 billion barrels of oil.
Karin Gallo told Mr. Obama about her difficult situation - she had lost her job and is seven-months pregnant and building a house - and asked him what he would do if he were in her shoes.
The president responded by stressing the importance of government workers - Gallo worked at the National Zoo - and pointed to Gallo's situation to argue that budget-cutting decisions have meaning.
"These are not abstract questions," he said. "And I think Karin makes it really clear that there are real consequences when we make these decisions." Mr. Obama later promised to speak to Gallo after the taping.
Jarvis read a question that came in over email asking how employers can become comfortable with hiring at a time of economic uncertainty. Pointing to improved jobs numbers, the president argued that employers are feeling more confident, adding that "the key is to recognize that some of the jobs that left aren't going to be coming back, but we've got to be creating new industries and new jobs here in America." He pointed to the clean energy industry to support his point.
Jarvis pointed to the fact that wages are stagnating even as companies make record profits. "If this isn't the right circumstance for raising wages and really going out and employing new people," she asked, "what will be?"
The president said in response that companies must "start placing their bets on America."
He pointed to government efforts to stabilize the economy and financial system, stating, "companies have benefited from that, and they're making a lot of money." He suggested they owed it to taxpayers to invest in "American workers and American products."
Another questioner told Mr. Obama that she owes more on her house than it is worth and asked him, "do you have any plans to help improve the housing market so hardworking Americans like myself don't lose their homes?"
Mr. Obama said the housing market, along with gas prices, is "the biggest headwind" facing the country. He pointed to loan modification programs that have helped "underwater" homeowners, prompting Smith to state that a lot of the administration's efforts haven't worked well.
"Well, it's not that it hasn't worked," the president responded. "The problem is, is that the need is so great. So it's like you have a huge pothole, and you only have so much gravel. And if you're talking about-- $5 trillion worth of home value, and a program that only has a few billion dollars, then there are a lot of people who are not going to be helped. And so what we're trying to do is to figure out how can we get the banks to do more."
Watch the full town hall below:
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- Why Obama should worry that current scandals might impact 2016 242 Comments | <urn:uuid:6eb4fb2b-4b0c-4cb5-8457-b0d9d4950921> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20062037-503544.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979075 | 1,363 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Nehemiah 9:38 describes very briefly a covenant reaffirmation among the people of God in Jerusalem after decades of exile in Babylon. Ezra comes to the end of his prayer and says,
Now because of all this, we are making an agreement [a covenant] in writing; and on this sealed document are the names of our leaders, our Levites and our priests.
Reasons Why I Chose This Text
I chose this text for our covenant reaffirmation Sunday for several reasons.
One is that it describes a covenant reaffirmation in the context of a great season worship. The people have been gathered in worship for over three weeks when Ezra brings things to a climax with this magnificent prayer and covenant reaffirmation. That's the spirit I long for us to be in as we reaffirm our covenant with each other and with the Lord.
The second reason for choosing this text is that the covenant reaffirmation described here involved the signing or sealing of the covenant. The leaders and Levites and priests set their names to the covenant. That seemed good for us to do too—all of us, since in the new covenant all the people are priests.
The third reason for choosing this text for today is that the prayer leading up to this covenant reaffirmation is full of God's free and sovereign grace and the glory of his name. And I want us as a people to understand and to feel this morning the massive foundation of our covenant life together. Our foundation is not in ourselves, or in own ability to fulfill the promises we make, but in God, and especially his inexhaustible grace.
Let me try to show you the setting that makes this covenant reaffirmation here in verse 38 so powerful, and gives us encouragement to follow through with our own covenant reaffirmation.
The Setting of Nehemiah's Covenant Reaffirmation
About 445 BC Nehemiah had brought a group of Israelites from captivity in Persia back to Jerusalem, and with them had rebuilt the walls of the city in spite of tremendous opposition from surrounding peoples. The wall is completed at the end of chapter 6. Chapter 7 gives the genealogy of those who had come back to Jerusalem in the first group with Zerubbabel.
The People Gather and Hear the Law
Then in chapter 8 on the first day of the seventh month (near the end of September) the people gather and ask Ezra the priest to read to them the law of Moses which they had neglected for a long time. This is the beginning of the worship that comes to a climax 24 days later in 9:38 with the renewal of the covenant.
Ezra reads the law, the people are grieved because of how much of God's will they have failed to do. They celebrate the feast of booths for seven days (last half of chapter 8), and then they consecrate themselves with fasting and worship (at the beginning of chapter 9) and Ezra begins his prayer.
His prayer is a response to verse 5 where the Levites say, "Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be thy glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise."
And that's what Ezra's prayer does: it blesses the glorious name of God which is so exalted that no blessing or praise can ever be high enough. But Ezra comes as close as a human will probably come.
Ezra's Prayer: God's Grace and Israel's Failures
He starts with creation and recounts the power and grace of God up to his own day against the backdrop of the repeated failures of Israel to trust and obey.
- Verse 6: You made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them.
- Verses 7–8: You chose Abram from all the peoples and made a covenant with him to give him and his descendents the promised land.
- Verses 9–10: You heard the cry of our fathers in Egypt and delivered them with signs and wonders and made a name for yourself that has lasted for centuries to this very day.
- Verse 12: You guided them with pillars of fire and cloud.
- Verse 13: You gave them good statutes and commandments.
- Verse 15: You gave bread from heaven and water from the rock and told them to take the land.
But in spite of all this, verse 16 says, the people acted arrogantly. They became stubborn and refused to listen, and tried to go back to Egypt.
But then comes a long list of God's added mercies in spite of Israel's disobedience.
- Verse 17: You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness; and you did not forsake them.
- Verses 18–19: "Even when they made for themselves a calf of molten metal and said, 'This is your God who brought you up from the land of Egypt,' and committed great blasphemies, you, in your great compassion, did not forsake them in the wilderness."
This is the focus and heart of Ezra's prayer that leads up to the covenant reaffirmation.
The Point to See in Ezra's Prayer
The point I want us to see in this prayer is that inexhaustible grace is the basis of our covenant affirmations. We are not taking a deep breath this morning and saying: Here goes, I'll give it my best shot. Instead we are saying: "With such a God as this, there is hope that I will get the help I need, and when I stumble and repent, he will forgive me and have me back. And I will press on in the promises I have made."
Let that sink in as we move on through the prayer.
Continuing the Prayer: Inexhaustible Grace
Not only did God not forsake them because of their sin, he pursued them with goodness and mercy again and again.
Verses 20ff.: You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You gave them manna and water. For 40 years their clothes did not wear out. They overcame kingdoms. They entered and possessed the land. They had cities, fertile land, houses, cisterns, vineyards, olive groves, fruit trees. And the end of verse 25 sums it up: "They reveled in your great goodness."
The response of the people in verse 26: They became disobedient and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back and killed the prophets and committed great blasphemies.
God's response? Verse 27: Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their oppressors who oppressed them, but when they cried to you in the time of their distress, you heard from heaven and according to your great compassion, you gave them deliverers who delivered them from the hand of their oppressors.
Again (v. 29): they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not listen.
But again (in v. 30): You bore with them for many years, and admonished them by your Spirit through your prophets.
But they would not give ear. So the Lord gives them into exile (v. 30b).
Yet! (this is what I mean by inexhaustible grace) in verse 31 Ezra prays, "In your great compassion you did not make an end of them of forsake them, for you are a gracious and compassionate God."
This brings Ezra to his petition—to ask for God's help and deliverance now in Jerusalem where they are in distress because of the peoples around them.
Verse 32 begins with NOW—now that we have seen what kind of God you are, help us again. What kind of God are you? "Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who dost keep covenant and loving-kindness"—that's the kind of God you are. GREAT, MIGHTY, AWESOME, COVENANT-KEEPING, LOVINGLY KIND.
Which brings us to the climax in verse 38: "Now because of all this [all what?—all the centuries-long, great, mighty, awesome, covenant-keeping, loving work of God—because of all that] we are making an agreement—a covenant—in writing."
Our Covenant Reaffirmation
That is how we come to our covenant reaffirmation this morning. We do not come in our own strength. We do not come sufficient in ourselves. We do not come mainly because of the beauty of covenant community. We come mainly—like Ezra—because God is a great, mighty, awesome, covenant-keeping, loving God, who will help us, and who will show his love for us through the covenant.
What we are doing this morning is declaring that we want to be a church for each other, for the wider cause of Christ, for the world, and for the glory of God. We are not claiming to be the only church, nor a perfect church, nor an unchangeable church. But a church as best we understand church to be. | <urn:uuid:3e8ae218-cfb2-4916-88cd-2d925e1e8708> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/renewing-the-covenant-for-the-sake-of-gods-name | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966344 | 1,857 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Once a month, then, for the past 44 months, a Tibetan has decided that China's occupation of Tibet warranted an act of martyrdom. And for each one of those who decided to take this final step, there are thousands, even millions, who stand in solid sympathy with this action. These martyrs (now saints in the minds of many Tibetans) had their own reasons for undertaking this dire action. But they all shared one reason: to call attention to the current plight of the Tibetan people, all 6 million of them, who daily face torture, beating, and deprivation of their civil & religious rights at the hands of the Chinese.
The Tibetans have succeeded in that central aim. Most of the world who pays attention to human rights, or who follows the Dalai Lama, or China, or India, or Tibet, or human cruelty, will know that, currently, the Tibetan people are suffering.
That's the easy part. But as the Tibetans burn, and publicize their plight, and call our attention to their plight, each of them hoped, as they died, that those who saw what was happening would do something about what was happening. Not only for those Tibetans who are currently living under this regime, but for future generations of Tibetans and for all those whose daily lives are diminished by the Chinese Communist Party. They hoped we might do something.
That's the hard part.
What can you do? Realize what you're up against. After the ordinary political mechanisms are exhausted—blog, Facebook, Twitter, emails, donations, letters, protests—realize that our national economy is dedicated to trading with China, and that while your letters are important, it will take more than letters to stop this profit-making machine and ask it to rethink its strategies in light of the welfare of 6 million Tibetans.
I'm going to say something I can't verify: Lloyd Craig Blankfein, the current CEO of Goldman Sachs, doesn't care enough about the human rights violations in China either to resign in helpful and enlightening protest or to counsel against investing in China until the Dalai Lama is allowed to return to Tibet. You will not change Mr. Blankfein's mind, I suspect, nor will you alter Goldman Sachs' policies. You already knew this. And maybe you even knew that stopping Mr. Blankfein, and what he represents, was beyond your capabilities.
But here's something you can do. You can remake yourself, a little each day. And you can do that by repeating to yourself three times a day—set your watch—one of the Dalai Lama's teachings that you find moving. Maybe one on compassion. Or maybe on nonviolence. And attach this teaching to an image of Tibetan suffering—a nun or monk in chains; a self-immolator engulfed in flames; an elderly Tibetan in Lhasa; a young Tibetan unemployed and increasingly removed from his heritage.
Do this every day for two weeks. And then three weeks. And then try it for a month.
You will then begin to make decisions, even say things, that reflect your awareness of how deeply the roots of human cruelty lie within you. And within all of us.
And here's what typically happens next. You signed that letter that came from the latest Save-Tibet nonprofit, and it went to your senator, and you got up the next morning and saw that number 58 killed herself in Amdo, and you thought, logically enough, that your letter did no good. You felt tired. Maybe numb. You didn't save the Tibetan people, after all.
But then you recalled the teaching you'd memorized, and you saw that your capacity for disliking the Chinese had maybe gotten a little smaller. Next, it occurred to you that no single group of people is ever responsible for any single tragedy, and that the responsibility for problems of this complexity sits on many shoulders, and that the source of this tragedy in Tibet has many authors, and you, who for so long said nothing about the violence in your own heart, are no longer surprised that the only reasonable and logical response to international violence, after the letters are written, the protests organized, the tweets tweeted, is to address the violence that runs through your own works and days.
And so for a month you have done that. And you feel better, better enough to continue for another month. Slowly, you see the nature of the struggle for peace has goals that the media often misses, but that you don't. You don't miss these goals because you've relocated the source of the struggle from Tibet, which you've never visited, to your own heart, which you see now you need to visit more regularly. You see that a deeply peaceful heart that shows up for five minutes in the middle of an argument with your best friend or your spouse is a great victory for the quiet, unpublicized struggle that you've engaged.
Good for you. Say that. "Good for you." And repeat the teachings. One more time. And visualize the images.
You listened deeply to the instructions that have now been beamed at you 57 times. And you're doing the only thing that you can do—engaging the fight for peace and nonviolence and tolerance on the only field that matters. The field of your heart.
Good for you. | <urn:uuid:9cf53564-13a7-46ad-9d82-fca11d010e4a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://readwrite.typepad.com/artibet/2012/10/self-immolation-tibet-hhdl-china-humanrights.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964971 | 1,090 | 1.539063 | 2 |
November 30, 2000
Dr. Lee Bycel ushers in a new era of Jewish unity for Simi Valley institute.
One of the wonderful things about the Brandeis-Bardin Institute (BBI), the Jewish retreat center nestled in the mountains of Simi Valley, is the devotion it attracts from those who have stayed there. It is not unusual to meet someone on a Grandparents Weekend at BBI who has been visiting since the early 1950s and can quote by heart from founder Shlomo Bardin's speeches.
But what remains Brandeis' most positive quality can also work to its detriment, causing the retreat center to become increasingly insular over the course of the past two decades. Sure, the day camp and away camps are full to bursting every summer, and BBI still attracts a legion of college students from across the country to spend six weeks getting in touch with their Jewish side. Institute leaders even introduced a new program in 1997, the Cotsen Institute for Newly Married Couples, a free retreat for qualifying newlyweds. But until recently one still had the sense, talking to some longtime BBI devotees, that unless you'd been visiting semiannually since 1975 or belonged to a family with at least two generations of BBI'ers, your credentials were suspect.
Enter Dr. Lee T. Bycel. The new president, who took over as director of BBI in May, recognizes the need to extend the institute's reach further into the Los Angeles Jewish community and beyond. His aim is to continue BBI's reputation for attracting the crème de la crème of the Jewish world as guest lecturers while also making the institute more accessible, more affordable and more in tune with today's diverse Jewish culture and lifestyles.
"We have a challenging agenda ahead of us here at Brandeis," Bycel told visitors during a recent Shabbaton. "We are going to offer more family programs and more activities where there will be simultaneous children's activities. We are going to reach out to all Jews. I want to see a Brandeis where Jews from the former Soviet Union and from Israel and Iran, where men and women from our community who may be gay or lesbian, [or] are divorced or widowed, where people who are lonely or alienated can find a way back into Jewish life by being a part of one of our programs."
The new state of affairs was highlighted at the recent Open House Weekend held Nov. 18 and 19. The event was free to daytime visitors; overnight guests paid a special rate of $180 for the weekend (about 35 percent less than a typical BBI retreat).
Speakers were carefully selected to represent not only some of the best that Los Angeles has to offer but also to reach out to the Jewish community on both sides of the hill. On Saturday, Rabbi Ed Feinstein of Valley Beth Shalom gave a spirited talk linking the names of the five books of the Torah with the current period in American history. The discussion was followed by a Melaveh Malkah evening program featuring renowned Cantor Nathan Lam of Stephen S. Wise Temple. On Sunday, painter and art historian Ruth Weisberg, a professor at the University of Southern California, spoke about her life as a Jewish artist; Rabbi Steven Z. Leder of Wilshire Boulevard Temple then wrapped up the weekend with readings from his acclaimed book, "The Extraordinary Nature of Ordinary Things."
Leder said it was "a delight" to speak at BBI.
"Whenever you're invited to speak here, you always know you're going to find a knowledgeable, open-minded, serious but friendly audience," he said, adding that it was the perfect place to get across the idea of Jewish education as not only approachable but essential. "If the Torah does not lead to an examination of one's own life, then you've missed the point of Torah," Leder said. "Torah is not about our ancestors, it's about us. It's a uniting force, and Brandeis is one of those places where everyone can feel comfortable learning."
The weekend showcased several new additions to BBI designed to further attract young families. Attendees were taken on a hike of the new trail designed by Mickey Bergman, summer staffer and Israeli commando, and John Varble, the institute's ranch manager. In typical BBI "makes you think" fashion, there are signs along the trail with quotes to ponder, such as: "The Torah begins with the creation of heaven and earth. Why were human beings created last in the order of creation?"
There were also multiple activities for the children, designed not only to keep kids occupied while parents enjoyed the lectures but also to boost their Judaica quotient as well. The theme for the Shabbaton was tzedakah and the children were given the opportunity to make their own pushkes. There was also a storytelling hour that attracted a record crowd of 50 families.
It is this type of multigenerational programming that staffers hope will increase the presence of young couples and families.
"The purpose of the weekend is not only to have fun and make friends but to learn how to bring Judaism into the home and keep it there," said Richard Glicksman, who traveled with his wife, Cynthia, from their home in Yorba Linda to attend the opening weekend. "Ultimately with Brandeis you can have a greater sense of being Jewish in a world that doesn't always want you to be Jewish. The journey begins here," he said.
Richard and Cynthia first visited BBI through the Cotsen program in October 1999. Since then, they have returned three times for weekend retreats to recharge their spiritual batteries.
"Like Rabbi Bycel said in his opening speech, this [experience] is real, and we need to bring that reality into the world of facades," Cynthia said. "If we can keep this feeling with us and bring it into the world of our work and our friends and family, it's going to make us feel more at peace and like we are fulfilling our purpose. I really feel like I'm the best I can be when I'm at Brandeis."
The Glicksmans, like many interviewed at the close of this first weekend, said one of the main reasons they keep coming back is the warmth and enthusiasm of Bycel. Even BBI board members who have met a long line of distinguished figures in the Jewish community said they were impressed by Bycel's ability to bring together people of all ages and denominations into a close-knit group.
"He's a great dreamer and visionary but also very practical," said Mickey Wapner, wife of former BBI president Judge Joseph A. Wapner. "He has a graciousness to people that is very inclusive."
Leder, who as a rabbi at a major Los Angeles synagogue knows the potential for dissension within the Jewish community, also credited Bycel for his inclusiveness.
"One of the first things Dr. Bycel did [as director] was reach out to the rabbis of the Los Angeles Jewish community, and that was an important and well-received gesture," Leder said. "He understands how beneficial congregational life is to Brandeis and how beneficial Brandeis is to congregational life, and I couldn't be happier."
Bycel himself will be the main attraction for this year's first scholar-in-residence weekend at BBI Dec. 8-10. The rabbi, who also holds a doctoral degree from the Claremont School of Theology, has strong ties to the L.A. community, including 15 years as dean of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. In addition to strengthening BBI's connections locally, Bycel said that he hoped the institute would be at the forefront of the movement toward Jewish renewal across the nation.
"There is a Jewish renaissance going on in America and throughout the world," he said. "Indeed, there is a renaissance going on right here. This gift of 3,000 acres is one where we can be recharged, where our spirits can be enlivened, where our souls can be enriched. It is here that we can become more devoted in our quest to bring the ancient, multilayered insights of our tradition into daily practice."
For more information on upcoming weekends or House of the Book lectures at BBI, call (805) 582-4450.
What to Do With Your Kids
A selection of this week's Jewish events for children:
Sunday, Dec. 3:
The Shpieler Troupe performs their musical theater adventure "Mac and the Bees," capturing the joys and traditions of Chanukah. Two performances today: 12:30 p.m. at Valley Beth Shalom, 15739 Ventura Blvd., Encino. Call (818) 788-6000. Also, 4:30 p.m. at Temple Menorah, 1101 Camino Real, Redondo Beach. Call (310) 316-8444.
Diana Shmiana promotes awareness of Jewish multiculturalism in her show "The Book of Wonders." The show features Mizrahi and Sephardi stories and music, along with puppets, clowning and audience participation. Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, 1434 N. Altadena Dr., Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 967-3656.
Chad Attie helps workshop participants create multimedia collages in his family-centered class "Portraits: More Than Meets the Eye." 2 p.m. $5. Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. For reservations, call (310) 440-4636. | <urn:uuid:e319e9d0-e2a9-4ca5-8f79-45ff8290590f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishjournal.com/articles/print/brandeis_renaissance_20001201 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969174 | 2,002 | 1.578125 | 2 |
City of Colorado Springs offers free emergency training to citizens
The City of Colorado Springs, in cooperation with the Colorado Citizen Corps, is urging citizens to take time now to prepare for possible emergencies. Winter weather in the Colorado Springs area can be unpredictable. History shows that conditions can very quickly turn dangerous with ice, strong winds and heavy snow. Now is the time to prepare and a great time to ask the question, "Am I ready?"
The Colorado Springs Office of Emergency Management is offering a free two-day Citizen Emergency Response Training (CERT) class on January 22 and 23. The class will be held at the Fire Department Complex, 375 Printers Parkway, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.
CERT provides comprehensive training in disaster preparedness and response. Through classroom learning and hands-on training, participants will learn how to help themselves, their families and their neighbors during and immediately following a disaster. Topics covered include disaster preparedness; disaster medical assistance; light search and rescue; fire safety; terrorism and disaster psychology. This course does not offer certification in CPR or first aid. Citizens must know how to be self-sufficient during the first critical 72 hours immediately following any type of disaster, whether natural or human-caused. CERT is designed to fulfill those needs.Online registration forms and additional class dates are available through the Office of Emergency Management?s website at www.springsgov.com. | <urn:uuid:41f880b9-8890-4ac7-be2d-1660e2d3caba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://springsgov.com/News.aspx?NewsID=776 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941872 | 294 | 1.796875 | 2 |
UP debt estimated to cross Rs 2.3 lakh cr in 2013-14
In its annual financial detail and analysis of financial state, the state government has projected a debt burden of Rs 2,39,878.35 crore in 2013-2014, which would be 29.5 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP).
If divided by the total population of the state, which is around 20 crore, the per capita debt burden works out to Rs 11,994 per individual.
The debt burden of the state has almost doubled in the last nine financial years.
While the debt burden of the state was at Rs 1,21,126.55 crore in the financial year 2004-05, it rose to Rs 2,19,304.01 crore in the ongoing 2012-13 financial year.
As per the estimates, the state would be required to pay Rs 17,054.54 crore as interest on debt during the current fiscal. This would be 8.1 per cent of the total budget size.
The fiscal deficit of the state has also increased in the last nine financial years.
While fiscal deficit was at Rs 12,997 crore in the 2004-05 financial year, it is estimated at around Rs 23,913.29 crore in the current fiscal.
Be the first to comment. | <urn:uuid:7d0c2d67-76ca-4ecd-a719-5fbae1d96fde> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.financialexpress.com/news/up-debt-estimated-to-cross-rs-2.3-lakh-cr-in-201314/1076561 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949292 | 271 | 1.75 | 2 |
Altitude: Around 1,220 m
Summer Temperature: 34 0 C to 23 0 C
Winter Temperature: 280 C to 110 C
Best Time to Visit: February to June and September to December
Mount Abu boasts of an extremely congenial and pleasant climate. Unlike
the rest of the state, the picturesque hill resort is a perfect
destination to head for during the summer vacation. This implies that
summer months offer best weather conditions for the tourists, saving
them from the undue heat. Besides, the monsoons and winters have their
own charm. The hazy and cloudy mountains during the rainy seasons
provide ideal sights for the visitors. On the other hand, cold winter
nights have their own specialty as you can enjoy the slight of the
season, sipping your favorite drinks amidst scenic surroundings. To know
more about the climatic conditions of Mount Abu, read on.
The summer season starts from the month of March and continues up till
June. Though the rest of the state bears the brunt of the harsh sun
during this season, Mount Abu is quite pleasant. The average temperature
at this time of the year hovers around a maximum of 340 C to
a minimum of 230 C. Owing to congenial climatic conditions,
summers are regarded as the best time to visit the bounteous hill
The monsoon showers drench the town during the months of July and
August. The average rainfall during this season is around 65cm - 177 cm.
It is not advised to visit Mount Abu during this time as the frequent
incessant rain spells can keep you locked indoors, thereby spoiling your
trip. The humidity level also rises up, making the weather uncomfortable
and sultry. However, those who wish to experience the renewed lush fauna
of the place after being washed away by the rain from their window side,
head on. The romantic and misty environment will woo your heart forever.
Being a hill station, the winter months are expected to be chilly.
Though the weather is quite cold, it does not snatch any opportunity of
enjoyment from you. The balmy climate is just perfect for honeymoon
couples, who can cozy up and make some unforgettable memories sitting by
the fire place. The average temperature ranges between 280 C
to 110 C. It is advised to carry light woolens during this
season as the climate can get chilly anytime. | <urn:uuid:fd8bb7b2-f28d-48fa-b3ac-f68e10407785> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mountabu-hotels.com/weather.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947073 | 505 | 1.617188 | 2 |
By Evan Ramstad
Korea Real Time is just two months old but we decided to join the grand tradition of news organizations everywhere that rank top stories at the end of the year.
This blog is produced by the 15 Seoul-based reporters, editors and translators of the Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. All but two are South Korean, so we think our yearend list is a good look at how Koreans feel about the news of the year.
We also decided to show you our vote totals. Each vote for first place got 10 points, meaning, with 15 voters, the maximum a story or topic could get was 150 points. Each vote for second got 9 points and so on.
1. North Korea aggression – 136 points
No surprise here. The biggest story in South Korea this year was North Korea’s violence against it. The sinking of the Cheonan warship in March, killing 46 sailors, was the most hostile act against the South since the North brought down a Korean Airlines plane in the late 1980s. North Korea continues to deny involvement.
Then, in late November, came the surprise shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, killing two soldiers and two civilians, and North Korea quickly took credit. Dozens of artillery rounds landed on the island’s village, where 1,400 people lived. Very few have returned.
North Korea said it attacked the island because marines there fired into North Korean waters during the South’s monthly artillery test. South Korea said the marines fired away from North Korea as they usually do. It took awhile for people to realize that North Korea was claiming all the water around the island as its own and had used the attack to escalate its long-running dispute of the maritime border in the Yellow Sea.
Speculation is rampant about why North Korea lashed out as it has, but mainly focused on its anger at being cut off from South Korean aid in 2008 and the work of the family of Kim Jong Il to preserve its power…which we’ll turn to next.
2. Kim Jong Eun, North Korea’s third dictator, 96 points
Since early 2009, reports have been coming from North Korea that dictator Kim Jong Il, after suffering a stroke-like illness in August 2008, was maneuvering to create a path for his youngest son, Kim Jong Eun, to succeed him. Those reports intensified through 2010 and, in late September, the father made the son, who is 26 or 27 years old, a four-star general. That move was considered the official sign that Kim Jong Eun is the heir apparent and will become the country’s third dictator.
Whether North Koreans will allow that to happen is more of a question than it was when Kim Jong Il was tapped by his father Kim Il Sung to take over. North Korea is a lot poorer now than it was then and North Koreans know more about the outside world than ever.
North Korea, however, knows how to attract media attention. In early October, it invited in TV networks and news photographers to shoot pictures of Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Eun watching a giant parade of its military hardware and high-stepping soldiers. But when the first pictures of Kim Jong Eun as an adult came out, South Koreans reacted almost in unison: he is a fat boy.
3. G-20 Summit in Seoul, 91 points
South Korea was always set to be the chair of the G-20 this year. But the importance of that role was raised by the economic crisis in 2008, which transformed the G-20 from a forum for finance ministers into one for presidents and prime ministers to discuss world economic problems.
President Lee Myung-bak and the man he appointed to lead the summit planning, Sakong Il, promoted Seoul’s hosting of the November summit of G-20 leaders as a hugely symbolic moment in the country’s economic history, recognition of how far South Korea has come in its development. Nearly everyone joined in, with corporations plastering welcome signs on the sides of skyscrapers, pop stars singing welcome songs and Seoul-area residents abandoning their cars to ease traffic during the summit itself.
The meeting itself, of course, didn’t do much to change some of the fundamental problems in the global economy, such as trade imbalances that make currencies volatile. Still, it was great couple of days for South Korea in the international spotlight.
4. Golden Girl Kim Yu-na, 87 points
The most emotional and most exciting moment of the year in South Korea came on a Wednesday afternoon in February when figure skater Kim Yu-na performed the first of her two programs in the women’s singles competition at the Vancouver Olympics.
For two years, Ms. Kim had won nearly every competition she entered. In the months leading up to the Olympics, she had signed so many endorsements that she became the highest-paid athlete in the nation’s history. She was in so many advertisements that her face seemed to be everywhere.
Figure skating had come to be seen as a rich nation’s sport and, to many people, Ms. Kim’s success reflected South Korea’s. Expectations were so high that some people worried how the public would react if Ms. Kim failed to win. Ever mindful of the zeitgeist, Nike, one of her endorsers, created a series of ads about the enormous pressure faced by Ms. Kim, who was just 19 years old.
In offices and schools around the nation that afternoon (a Tuesday evening in Vancouver), people cheered with every jump that Ms. Kim landed in her short program. When it was done, Ms. Kim had beat her own world record and was so far ahead that victory seemed assured. Two days later, she dazzled in the free skate, set another record and the gold medal was hers. The applause began and Ms. Kim burst in tears as the weight of a nation fell from her shoulders.
She later had a falling out with her coach and some of her endorsers dropped off as their marketing interests turned elsewhere. But no doubt, South Koreans will talk about Ms. Kim – and where they were on those winter afternoons when she skated so perfectly – for years to come. “Every athlete is important, but her medal is more important than the others,” one South Korean Olympic official said later. “She is beautiful. She’s our pride.”
5. KOSPI 2000, 68 points
When the Kospi, South Korea’s main stock market index climbed back above 2,000 in December, there were the expected headlines and pictures. When it first reached 2,000, in 2008 not long before the global economic downturn, it was considered another milestone in the country’s economic prosperity.
The focus on getting back to 2,000, however, has obscured what it took to get there. South Korea’s stock market is up more than 20% this, well above the growth rate of other advanced markets.
Rounding out our top 10:
6. Hyundai E&C battle, 53 points
This is a takeover fight that has more than the usual drama and has actually turned into quite a soap opera. Two spinoffs of what used to be South Korea’s largest business group, Hyundai, are trying to buy the original Hyundai company, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, which has been controlled by bank creditors for more than a decade. Neither of the bidders – Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Group – have a business case to own a construction company, though their hired advisors will argue otherwise. Instead, this is a saga of second-generation family owners trying to extend or reshape their control of conglomerates that, by the third generation, may break up anyway. But who knows, really? None of them will talk. The nation remains riveted, nonetheless.
7. Soccer, 52 points
That soccer finished so high on our list shows how the sport has come to so thoroughly dominate South Korean culture. The men’s team accomplished its goal of advancing to the knock-out round in the World Cup held in South Africa in June. But the bigger news came with the young women’s teams. The Under-17 women’s team won the World Cup and the Under-20 women’s team came in third.
8. Comeback Economy, 42 points
South Korea will finish the year with GDP growth of around 6%, way above last year’s 2% growth rate and the marginal performance of 2008. Taken together, the country has averaged just over 2% growth over the last three years. For 2011, most economists forecast growth in the 3.5% to 4.5% range, a rate that would be considered normal for the country. Government officials are pushing for 5% growth and have announced plenty of capital spending to drive it.
9. Capital controls, 33 points
South Korean officials prefer the term “macroprudential regulation.” But whatever you call it, the main thing that government economic officials have been thinking about is how to prevent another outflow of capital of the kind the country experienced in the 2008 crisis. Nomura Securities says South Korea is now the least likely of any country in Asia to experience a currency crisis. But no matter, the new rules keep coming.
10. Girl Power, 30 points
This wasn’t vote-manipulated just so we could put a picture of Girls’ Generation in this post, but the group does have plenty of fans in our office. Their popularity overseas (the first Korean group to sellout a stadium in Japan) is the latest twist in what’s known here as the “Korean Wave,” the export of South Korean culture. And it’s not just in Asia. SM Entertainment, the label that has the Girls and several other K-pop stars, filled Staples Center in Los Angeles with its “dream lineup” for several nights this summer. Gee, gee, gee.
We had a list of about 25 big stories that we considered in making our Top 10 list. A sampling of the rest:
Samsung Electronics’ stellar year; profits will reach nearly 16 trillion won, far more than any South Korean company has ever made ever. Its stock climbed to new heights and finished the year close to 1 million won a share.
Hyundai Motor Co.’s global reach; China became the company’s biggest market this year and Hyundai began construction of its third factory there. It also opened a new factory in Russia and started building one in Brazil.
Bank of Korea; the nation’s central bank, under a new governor, kept interest rates low far longer than most outside economists thought prudent. But with household debt very high and the real estate market sagging, the BOK’s rate-setters had more than the usual inflation guidelines to influence them.
Politics; the Democratic Party scored psychological wins in important races in June, but the ruling Grand National Party still sets the agenda.
Tourism; South Korea had a record 9 million visitors this year. The Japanese again came in droves, thanks to the cheap value of the won versus the Japanese yen. But the biggest surprise of the year has been the huge number of Chinese visitors. | <urn:uuid:733c3f24-97b3-4da8-91a0-0fc74883fbcf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2010/12/30/koreas-top-10-news-of-the-year/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970322 | 2,336 | 1.5 | 2 |
The characteristic streets of Dublin’s city center lead visitors on an interesting stroll among the antique Victorian houses, the folkloristic pubs, as well as the typical sounds and smells that define the city. One of the main attractions in the center is Trinity College, Ireland’s oldest university, which at one time housed the likes of Jonathan Swift and Oscar Wilde. One of the more famous streets of the city center is Grafton Street, which is the stage for a number of beautiful and fantastically colorful flower markets. Grafton Street is also the place where you’ll bump into the statues of historical and mythological Irish personalities of some importance, mostly made out of iron. There’s James Joyce, as well as Molly Malone.
To catch all the action going on in this area, you should consider one of the many Dublin hotels in the city center. If you’re on a budget, visit EasyToBook.com for suggestions on discount hotels. Dublin center is a hotspot for tourist activity, thanks also to its vicinity to other attractions, like St. Stephen’s Green and the famous Temple Bar district. Research the hotels in Dublin around the city center ahead of time, especially if you’re looking for Dublin cheap hotels, to make sure you get the best deals.
Please provide this reference number to our customer service center representative on request, so we can help you better | <urn:uuid:f17b05db-656f-47b3-a30a-b76a2b0be4fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.easytobook.com/en/ireland/dublin/dublin/landmarks/city-center-hotels/?currency=KWD | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939746 | 289 | 1.539063 | 2 |
SACRAMENTO - Three people tested positive and 17 more were exposed in a possible norovirus outbreak at a prominent Sacramento restaurant, according to the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services.
The findings come on the heels of an investigation centering on diners and employees who ate or worked at Mulvaney's Restaurant between Feb. 23 and Feb. 26.
According to the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services, Mulvaney's received a green placard after passing a health inspection on Feb. 13. Following that inspection, the health department received a complaint from an unidentified source and performed a follow-up inspection.
After the reinspection, two employees and one customer were confirmed to have tested positive, and 17 people exposed to the virus were being tested, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
On Wednesday, Sacramento County Public Health spokesperson Laura McCasland said the additional 17 people linked to the outbreak were "assumed" to have contracted the virus due to the fact the other three had tested positive.
Mulvaney's chef Mark Mayo said reports of a possible norovirus outbreak haven't put a dent in the restaurant's reservations, and a Wednesday lunch crowd seemed typical for a rainy day.
"In seven years of being open, it's the first time this has happened, so we'd like to think that's a very isolated case," Mayo said.
Sacramento County health officials said the restaurant contacted them when they started to hear complaints of symptoms.
"Mulvaney's has been very forthcoming and gave us all the information we needed, and they are cooperating fully with us, and we did not see any need to shut the restaurant down," public health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said.
No one has died or had to be hospitalized from any of the cases. If the restaurant is confirmed as the source, it could face further review.
Norovirus sickens 21 million Americans and kills 800 more annually, per the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Highly contagious, it can be transmitted via contaminated food or surfaces, as well as by personal contact. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea and nausea.
The virus can live in the body for as long as three weeks once the symptoms have passed. | <urn:uuid:70835458-8f94-45ca-8027-1c988f428f62> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news10.net/news/local/article/236835/2/HHS-20-afflicted-in-possible-norovirus-outbreak-at-popular-restaurant | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977352 | 463 | 1.585938 | 2 |
People With Severe Acne Have Increased Suicide RiskNovember 13th, 2010 - 1:26 am ICT by Angela Kaye Mason
Nov 12 (THAINDIAN NEWS) A new study suggests that the increased suicide risk in users of the drug Isotretinoin, which is sold under names including Accutane, Roaccutane, Clarus, Decutan and others, may actually be sue to the fact that severe acne sufferers are more prone to suicidal thoughts, and not the fault of the drug.
These medications have been prescribed to acne patients since the 1980s, but have had a few bad reviews when it was announced that there was an increased suicide rate among users of the drug.
Now scientists are saying that it is more likely that these mental health patients would have been suicidal anyway, since those people who have severe acne are more often suicidal than those who do not suffer from the skin condition.
They went on to say that even with treatment for the acne, if the social life of the sufferer did not improve, they still may become more suicidal. Depression from the constant ribbing by other school kids, or social shunning may contribute to the suicidal thoughts.
The authors of the study, Anders Sundstrom and his colleagues stated, “Severe acne is not a trivial condition. It is associated with an increased risk of attempted suicide.” They discovered that the amount of suicide attempts actually were higher before treatment, which implies that the drug may not have caused the depression, but the condition itself.
- Severe acne may increase suicidal behavior, study says - Nov 13, 2010
- Severe acne may raise suicide risk - Nov 12, 2010
- Roche's Accutane Lawsuit settled out of court - May 13, 2010
- Acne is more than a nuisance for some adolescents - Mar 16, 2011
- Salma Hayek opens up about acne trouble - Apr 01, 2012
- Pimples? Go for garlic juice or chemical peels - May 18, 2011
- Is Isotretinoin really a cure? - Mar 25, 2009
- Accutane Lawsuit Settled By Roche Out Of Court - May 13, 2010
- Injected drug linked to higher suicide risk - Dec 26, 2011
- Accutane Lawsuit Resolved Out Of Court - May 13, 2010
- Acne drug ''may cause more abortions'' - Aug 25, 2008
- Diabetes drug may boost power of anti-depressants - May 03, 2012
- Harmless bug makes you suicidal - Aug 19, 2012
- Magnetic pulse therapy may help treat depression: Study - May 10, 2012
- Mums-to-be on prescription drugs likely to have kids with congenital defects - Nov 18, 2009
Tags: accutane, acne, acne patients, acne sufferers, attempted suicide, decutan, drug isotretinoin, mental health patients, ribbing, roaccutane, school kids, severe acne, skin condition, sufferer, suicidal depression, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, suicide rate, suicide risk, sundstrom | <urn:uuid:50a0b4ab-f337-45c1-9553-3bf917b84a38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health1/people-with-severe-acne-have-increased-suicide-risk_100458982.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950071 | 638 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Competing reports on cost of Voter ID reflect two viewsPublished 9:39am Thursday, September 13, 2012
By Tim Pugmire
Minnesota Public Radio News
If Minnesotans approve a proposed constitutional amendment that would require voters to present identification at the polls, many government officials, say it will come with a multimillion dollar price tag that will ultimately fall to taxpayers.
State Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat, has warned for months that the costs could be at least $50 million.
A Minneapolis-based advocacy group that opposes voter ID suggests even higher costs. The group Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota estimates combined state and local costs of from $36 million to $78 million.
But another new report downplays the financial effect of voter ID and suggests possible long-term savings. The different assessments reflect deep disagreement between amendment supporters and opponents about every aspect of the proposed requirement.
Ritchie, an outspoken critic of the amendment, has discussed its potential costs with local officials throughout the state.
“Some of the costs are short term,” he said. “They’re immediate; they require cash. Some of the costs are long term, so they can just require tax increases or some other revenue source. But in both instances, there are very significant costs to the implementation of the proposed constitutional amendment.”
Ritchie has largely relied on a 2011 estimate state Minnesota Management and Budget officials prepared for a voter ID bill that Gov. Mark Dayton later vetoed. It showed roughly $32 million in start-up costs for the state, and another $24 million for counties.
The up to $78 million in costs projected by Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota include the production and distribution of ID cards, a public education campaign and the equipment needed for a new provisional balloting system, which would accommodate voters who show up without the proper identification.
The group’s report also estimates costs to individuals in the range of $16 million to $72 million, Executive Director Kathy Bonnifield said. She said those costs are primarily related to securing the documents needed for people to obtain an ID.
“Not everyone has easy access to their birth certificate or their marriage certificate,” Bonnifield said. “And not everyone is close to a location to get access to their birth certificate or their marriage certificate, or even to have their photograph taken.”
The author of a competing study for a pro-amendment organization rejects those numbers. Peter Nelson, director of public policy at the Center of the American Experiment, said he thinks Bonnifield’s analysis misinterprets the amendment language and overstates the number of voters who would need provisional ballots.
“In places where they have same-day registration, it’s about .1 percent of the voting population that uses provisional balloting,” Nelson said. “That’s a very small number. In Minnesota, if it was .1 percent, that’s less than 3,000 voters. That’s less than one voter per precinct. So, we don’t believe that provisional balloting is going to be a serious cost to the system.”
Nelson estimated the first-year implementation costs at just $2.9 million.
Under his analysis, each expense category is significantly less than the estimates by amendment opponents and state officials.
Nelson contends Minnesota could save money over time because a streamlined system for registration and identification would require fewer election judges. He said counties would also save money if there is less voter fraud to investigate and prosecute.
Still, Nelson said his estimates might not hold up once lawmakers begin crafting the enabling legislation needed to put the voter ID requirement in place.
“It’s certainly possible that the Legislature will come back next year and put into place laws that cost more than we’ve estimated, because we’ve basically laid out the low-cost path,” he said. “But the truth is, the cost will depend on how lawmakers decide to implement this.”
Nelson’s analysis has faced strong criticism. Officials with the anti-amendment campaign Our Vote Our Future responded with a statement that said his estimates “defy common sense.”
Ritchie said he likes the idea of potential savings, but he warned that counties might face a new expense in dealing with legal challenges from voters who are wrongly turned away at the polls. | <urn:uuid:2f2eb06f-557c-4f2e-91b2-37f8c66e5abc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.austindailyherald.com/2012/09/13/competing-reports-on-cost-of-voter-id-reflect-two-views/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959159 | 918 | 1.554688 | 2 |
To the average person, the number of computers in my home is appalling. There are three computers downstairs alone, one for the other members of my family. Then there’s my office.
One problem with the downstairs computers is that they all, without exception, have web filtering software on them. I am not under the delusion that they are a substitute for parental oversight–there’s a reason the kids computers are in a public room–but it’s nice to have something around to catch most accidental exposures to inappropriate material. Let’s face it, when the kids are old enough, if they want to get around the filters, they’ll figure out a way.
Meanwhile, I occasionally use the kids computers. Mostly it’s because I like to go downstairs when the kids are trying to go to sleep. It’s also nice to have a change of environment. However, the web filters end up creating problems for me when I try to, say, read my RSS feeds and people link to the latest cool video on YouTube. Or I want to check what’s happening on Plurk or Twitter. Unfortunately, it means fighting with the web filter.
Now I suppose I cold buy a “better” web filter rather than rely on K9 Web Protection from Blue Coat, but I like the filter. It generally works, it’s free, does a fairly good job of catching inappropriate or questionable websites, and doesn’t try and do everything. It also helps that their CEO used to be in charge of the part of Nokia I worked for many, many moons ago, and I thought he was a nice guy.
The solution: a portable computing environment embedded in a flash drive. I could dual boot the computers, but that creates other problems. The flash drive solution is clean.
Linux is the only feasible OS one can install on a flash drive–at least easily. There are actually a number of different distributions you can install on a USB flash drive, many of which are featured–complete with step-by-step instructions on how to install it–on a site called Pen Drive Linux.
I wasted an evening on trying to get Ubuntu (along with various derivatives) installed on a flash drive, but ran into a problem where the distribution was failing to boot because it was trying to find the non-existent floppy drive on this IBM ThinkPad T43 I am using.
What ended up working the best for me, at least, was Slax. It is based on Slackware Linux, which has been around forever. It was one of the first Linux distributions I started playing with in the mid-1990s. It includes a number of modules, including a relatively recent build of Firefox 2 complete with Adobe Flash integrated. It’s not set up the most optimally out of the box–for example, the default user runs as root, which is almost as bad as the default Windows behavior–but with a little bit of hacking, it works just fine without needing to run as root.
I now have my own environment complete with some local storage on a older 1 gigabit flash drive. I can stick it into any computer that is able to boot off of USB, and it should give me access to the Internet and a few other programs. Works pretty well for me.
photo credit: boredzo | <urn:uuid:6cd82e20-c927-4863-b3d4-58e6e86a4db6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://phoneboy.com/category/linux | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960733 | 691 | 1.8125 | 2 |
20 Years and Counting
|Pat Bearnson, Cancer Survivor|
"I consider myself the luckiest woman in the world," says cancer survivor Pat Bearnson. Diagnosed with a rare peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma in the summer of 1991, she wondered if she'd ever live to see snow again. "I've seen snow now for 20 seasons," Pat says.
After initial rounds of chemotherapy and surgery to remove the tumor from her leg, a chest X-ray revealed masses on her lungs. Her primary oncologist consulted with Patrick Beatty, MD, at the University of Utah's then newly opened BMT unit, and the doctors decided a bone marrow transplant would be the best course. Pat was the unit's thirteenth patient to receive a transplant. "I'm so thankful that I got that treatment when I did—that it was available for me. I think if [the cancer] had happened much earlier, I wouldn't have survived."
After recovering in the hospital for five weeks, Pat returned home. The cancer, however, never returned. She felt lucky to be alive, but was also sad that the chemotherapy had left her menopausal before she'd had a chance to have children.
About a year after the transplant, Pat had earned her medical degree and was working as a gynecologist. Soon after, she started experiencing the same symptoms she heard about from her pregnant patients. She took a pregnancy test at her clinic, and after the results turned up positive, she immediately had an ultrasound. It revealed she was nine weeks along. "It was just amazing," she says. "I had thought I would never be able to get pregnant." Her son, now 18, is in his first year of college.
"I'm blessed in so many ways," Pat says. "I'm so happy to be here and to get to be a mom and to have this gift of a son who is just such a joy. It's a really great life."
|Bearnson addresses the crowd at the hospital expansion dedication ceremony| | <urn:uuid:7fd5cae8-260c-4030-8ec4-500e0e937d53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://huntsmancancer.org/about-us/annual-report/2011-annual-report/survivor-story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990492 | 422 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Theodore Roosevelt's Home will remain closed until the rehabilitation project is completed
Theodore Roosevelt's Home will remain closed until the rehabilitation project is completed. The Visitor Center, Theodore Roosevelt Museum, and the park grounds are open. Due to the mandatory, across-the-board budget cuts, Sagamore Hill will remain on its More »
Sagamore Hill Celebrates Independence Day 2011
The National Park Service and the Friends of Sagamore Hill invite you to celebrate Independence Day at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site on Monday, July 4. Independence Day was an important holiday for Theodore Roosevelt. After speaking at the festivities in Oyster Bay, TR would gather his extended family and friends at Sagamore Hill for a day of patriotic celebration. This year's celebration will feature a variety of exciting programs beginning at 11:00am and ending at 4:00pm, all of which are free and open to the public.
Come meet and talk with President Theodore Roosevelt, as portrayed by James Foote. Play a part in an interactive story about famous American heroes performed by storyteller Jonathan Kruk. Watch an equestrian demonstration by "Rough Rider" re-enactors. Join in on one of TR's favorite activities, an Obstacle Walk, where the only rule is that when you meet an obstacle along the way you must go under, over or through the obstacle, but never around. Learn about the connection between Presidents and National Parks during a ranger talk. Explore the grounds and beaches of Sagamore Hill on a guided nature walk. Join in old-fashioned children's games that the Roosevelt children enjoyed and make patriotic crafts to celebrate the day.
At 2:00pm the Sagamore Hill Band will perform under the direction of Steve Walker. The Sagamore Hill Band will present works by John Phillips Sousa, period campaign songs and popular music of the early twentieth century. Seating is on the front lawn, so please bring a blanket or a lawn chair. In addition to the band performance, there will be speeches by local dignitaries, and an appearance by Theodore Roosevelt himself as portrayed by James Foote.
The first floor of the Roosevelt Home will be open to all visitors free of charge (tickets are not necessary) from 10:00am to 4:00pm National Park Service rangers and park volunteers will be available to answer questions and tell stories about family life at TR's "Summer White House."
From 11:00am to 4pm traditional American fare such as hot dogs, hamburgers, popcorn, soft drinks and ice cream will be available for purchase on site.
Did You Know?
Theodore Roosevelt died around 4 o'clock in the morning January 6, 1919 when he was sixty years old. Many dignitaries attended Roosevelt's funeral including Vice-president Thomas Marshall who said that "Death had to take him sleeping, for if Roosevelt had been awake, there would have been a fight." | <urn:uuid:ec7864b6-a882-4787-9edd-6fd36bb6c422> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nps.gov/sahi/parknews/sagamore-hill-celebrates-independence-day-2011.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954453 | 604 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Last year, the Foxbrook Road in Hopewell was number 4 on the list of the top 10 worst roads in Atlantic Canada and is back again this year in third place.
The list is compiled by the Canadian Automobile Association as part of its online voting for the worst roads contest. Other Pictou County roads on the list include Mark Road, Eureka, Marshdale Road in Hopewell, East River West Side Road in Eureka, Elgin Road in Hopewell and the River Road in Eureka.
The second CAA Atlantic Worst Roads campaign attracted 3,199 votes to identify the worst roads through a web-based voting platform. Voters could only vote for one road on one occasion.
“You are taking your life in your hands travelling this road,” said Lori Dewer. “I have a big crack in my windshield because of it. I was coming home from work and I couldn’t avoid a pothole because something was coming towards me. Now there is a six-inch crater in my windshield.”
She said the crack wasn’t caused by something chipping her windshield, but rather by the jarring of the vehicle.
District 12 councillor Chester Dewer said residents in the area are making constant repairs to their vehicles because of the poor road conditions. He said his top list of the worst roads in the area include the Marshdale Road, Elgin Road, Glengarry Road, Foxbrook Road and Mark Road.
As councillor he will listen to people’s complaints, but he is quick to point them in the direction of their MLA.
“The (transportation) employees are terrific and they can only do so much,” he said. “The money has to come from the province.”
John Currie agrees that roads are “badly breaking up” in the Hopewell area and the Department of Transportation’s attempts to cold patch some potholes isn’t helping the situation very much.
“The trucks travel on some of the roads here and they beat it all up,” he said.
Betty Dwyer said she is unable to take her horse trailer out on the Elgin Road because it is in such poor condition.
“It’s down right embarrassing,” she said. “We have a beautiful country and we are not able to get in a vehicle and see it. There is no need of it.”
Dwyer said she gave up complaining about the condition of the roads, because it hasn’t gotten residents any closer to getting the proper repairs done.
According the CAA, the campaign helps to put a real focus on problem and dangerous road conditions in the region.
“By doing so we can actively engage all necessary levels of government to encourage repairs and changes,” said Gary Howard of CAA. “Last year’s campaign was very successful. To the credit of our four provincial governments, of the top 20 worst roads from 2011, 14 were repaired or are in the process of being repaired. Your government is listening to you.”
When Foxbrook Road in Hopewell placed fourth last, the CAA reported that maintenance repairs were carried out that included routine pavement patching with cold mix asphalt, as well as isolated patching of potholes and severe surface defects with hot mix asphalt concrete. | <urn:uuid:03461a49-2a6f-49e8-941f-cdcb82fb525a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailybusinessbuzz.ca/Construction-%26amp%3B-Transportation/2012-04-27/article-2965416/Several-local-roads-make-it-to-CAA-worst-list/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970721 | 709 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Facebook just recently hit 500 million active users but not all social networks are enjoying its explosive growth. On the contrary, some older, established networks are beginning to fall out of popularity.
It’s also interesting to see how popularity of networks changes across borders – for example you may not have heard of Google’s Orkut, but in Brazil it’s bigger than Facebook. Also, people are beginning to spend more and more time interacting via social networks…
The chart above clearly shows the winners and the losers in the social networking game. Facebook is spreading like wildfire, Twitter has seen a healthy growth over the last year too.
One of Google’s earlier attempts at social networking – Orkut – is growing too. In Brazil it’s more popular than Facebook and Twitter combined though not much elsewhere. Facebook dominates the other territories, usually by a lot.
Facebook is the most popular social network in most countries • Time spent on Facebook increases
MySpace and Flickr are on the losing side of the equation. Blogging platform Bebo is heading down to zero and I haven’t even heard of Friends Reunited, which doesn’t speak well of its (falling) popularity.
Also interesting to look at are the statistics on how much time a month users spend on average on Facebook. The Australians seem particularly addicted, spending up to three hours longer than they used in June 2009. | <urn:uuid:0c81e0f5-d102-4723-80d7-42af33ed6fc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.gsmarena.com/a-tale-of-winners-and-losers-in-the-land-of-social-networks-let-the-numbers-speak/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945435 | 291 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The open cloud manifesto is the start of a great document. At this moment the document only contains words and information that is not particularly interesting for anyone. Cloud providers (Amazon, Microsoft, Sun, Rackspace, etc) can do very little with it, since it does not get into any technical details. Cloud users can do even less, since it does not mention the way the goals of the document are going to get accomplish.
In my opinion the Open Cloud Manifesto does one thing. Starts the processes and if the market, vendors, and users are mature enough they will know that standardization is an important word of every technology. The document also have some specific points that are as far the contributors of the document, the most important to get into a technical agreement. I am outlining those here, and If you want to comment on them be my guest.
- Data and Application Interoperability
- Data and Application Portability
- Governance and Management
- Metering and Monitoring | <urn:uuid:3f70aee1-cdb6-43a3-9df1-c259277099a2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kiragiannis.com/cloud-computing/open-cloud-manifesto/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93502 | 200 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Try as I might, I can't get that worked up about carrier exclusivity. If a cell phone carrier and a manufacturer want to pair up and offer a handset for a certain period, I'm not going to oppose it purely on principle. Granted, such deals may not be fair to absolutely everyone, but I'd argue that there are much bigger problems with how the U.S. wireless industry operates.
Yet, a few U.S. Senators don't appear to agree. On July 7, a few weeks after a Senate committee grilled national carrier reps on device exclusivity, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) wrote letters to both the federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department's antitrust division asking the agencies to investigate the issue and suggest possible regulatory proposals.
"The practice of large cell phone companies gaining exclusive deals to the most in-demand cell phones is a serious barrier to competition," Kohl wrote. "Consumers are unlikely to obtain cell phone service from companies if they cannot obtain desired handsets."
I'm no carrier lackey, but I find it fascinating that Congress is just now noticing that carrier exclusivity exists. The practice, which is hardly unique to the United States, has been around for a long time. So from where is the sudden interest coming?
… Read more | <urn:uuid:51ab5048-a489-4b53-83b4-0418b1573039> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://download.cnet.com/8300-5_4-0-5.html?keyword=Fees | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970058 | 266 | 1.570313 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Banks and credit card issuers got a break Wednesday from the Federal Reserve.
The agency passed a cap on the fees that the biggest banks charge retailers when customers use debit cards, and it turned out to be more generous than some banks and card issuers had anticipated.
The Fed approved a 21-cent limit on so-called swipe fees - about half of the current average swipe fee of 44 cents. In addition, the Fed proposed a variable additional fee of a few cents to allow for the cost of fraud prevention.
On a $40 debit charge, the swipe fee could be as high as 24 cents, according to an analysis by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.
The Fed had originally proposed a 12-cent cap back in December, but its board members said they thought their final decision took into consideration the concerns of all the industries impacted.
Banking groups say the 21 cent cap on swipe fees will slash revenue by 45%.
The Fed was expected to ease the swipe-fee cap, since Chairman Ben Bernanke had said on several occasions that he was worried about how the new rule would affect small banks, even though the law is squarely aimed at big banks.
He and other board members said the more generous cap aimed to strike a balance between retailers, banks and consumers.
Yet, Bernanke left the door open for future changes, saying that the Fed would continue to monitor the consequences of the new caps and "assess whether the statute and the rule are accomplishing their intended goals."
Last year's Dodd-Frank Act mandated the Federal Reserve to cap so-called "interchange" or "swipe" fees charged by the largest banks.
The new cap kicks in on Oct. 1, later than originally proposed, a blow to retailers.
"While we are disappointed that the Fed did not follow through to the full extent of swipe fee reform, we take some comfort in knowing that we were able to shine a light on these deceptive practices and bring some relief to merchants and their customers," said National Retail Federation President and CEO Matthew Shay.
The final impact on the banking industry and consumers will depend on how banks and retailers respond to the new caps, a Fed staffer explained. Consumers will benefit if banks don't curtail other perks nor raise other fees; and if merchants pass on savings by lowering prices on goods.
All the banks and credit unions had teamed up and lobbied hard to delay or ease the cap on fees, saying the 12-cent cap wouldn't cover their cost to fight debit card fraud, among other things.
But small banks and credit unions maintain they will be hit the hardest by the new caps, even though they are actually exempt from the new limits. They say market forces will put the crunch on them too.
Plus, there's nothing in the rules to stop mom-and-pop retailers from prohibiting customers from using debit cards issued by a smaller bank that can charge what it wants.
"The landscape of retail banking will be forever changed as a result of this congressionally mandated price fixing," said Consumer Bakers Association president Richard Hunt. "Unfortunately, it is consumers who will ultimately bear the burden of Congress' gift to big box retailers."
Other banking groups seemed more optimistic about the caps, commending the Fed for "recognizing that there are a whole range of costs for which banks should receive reimbursement," said American Bankers Association president Frank Keating.
Both sides of the swipe fee battle spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying and advertising, and claim to be looking out for consumers' pocketbooks.
And consumers are feeling an impact. For example, banks have taken steps to curtail customer reward programs and some are even threatening spending limits on debit cards, saying the new Fed crackdown leaves them no choice.
|Much faster Wi-Fi coming soon|
|J.D. Power ranks GM tops in quality for first time|
|Dow sinks 200 points after Fed hints at stimulus easing|
|Fed sets road map for end of stimulus|
|Dunkin' Donuts to offer gluten-free donuts, muffins|
|Overnight Avg Rate||Latest||Change||Last Week|
|30 yr fixed||4.05%||4.05%|
|15 yr fixed||3.15%||3.18%|
|30 yr refi||4.04%||4.03%|
|15 yr refi||3.14%||3.16%|
Today's featured rates:
|Latest Report||Next Update|
|Home prices||Aug 28|
|Consumer confidence||Aug 28|
|Manufacturing (ISM)||Sept 4|
|Inflation (CPI)||Sept 14|
|Retail sales||Sept 14| | <urn:uuid:18c96c0c-dba7-489d-83c4-54492d8f481b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/29/news/economy/debit_card_fees/index.htm?iid=EL | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950465 | 983 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Toolkits from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), aimed to help reduce errors in tax returns, have been broadly welcomed by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) as they could help busy accountancy advisors.
HMRC is in the process of sending out reminder letters to tax agents about the existence of these toolkits and want feedback from those who are already using them.
There are 20 toolkits covering a range of taxes including Income Tax, Corporation Tax, Capital Gains Tax (CGT) and Value Added Tax (VAT). Some specific areas include Directors’ Loan Accounts, Losses and Capital Allowances.
The toolkits provide guidance on areas of error that HMRC frequently see in returns and set out the steps that professional agents can take to reduce those errors. They aim to help and support, but are not mandatory, in:
- ensuring returns are completed correctly, minimising errors
- focusing on the areas of possible error that HMRC consider key
- demonstrating reasonable care.
They are updated at least annually to make sure they are up-to-date and relevant.
Chas Roy-Chowdhury, ACCA’s head of taxation, said: 'These toolkits are helpful guidance for tax professionals which they can use when they are completing tax returns for their clients.
'The toolkits can help to reduce preparation time for the returns for submission deadlines. Tax has become a lot more complicated, so toolkits can make life a little easier for professional advisors will make a difference.
'HMRC is also keen to receive feedback about the toolkits, which you can give on its website.'
- To find an ACCA accountant to hire for a variety of financial services, and to feed back about the HMRC toolkits, visit the 'Related Links' section, to the left of this article. | <urn:uuid:ffa9c91c-567d-434c-855b-82cd6428f6b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.accaglobal.com/en/discover/news/2012/11/hmrc-toolkits.html?from=1343602800000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949877 | 390 | 1.625 | 2 |
|Shivashakti - male and female energies combine in one body.|
I've always found this odd, since the asteroids so clearly fill a huge, yawning gender gap in astrology – at least nominally. The traditional planets have a 5-2 balance in favour of the masculine, but once the three new outer planets were added in the 19th and 20th centuries, that balance shifted to 8-2.
Now I don't believe that's a good representation of the human spirit, do you? Or even of life on Earth.
In fact, just when women in the real world were gaining more power and freedom than they had ever had in history, astrology was marginalising the feminine even further.
Demetra Georgiou's book Asteroid Goddesses published in the 1970s was a lonely attempt to pay those ladies some heed. That was the decade when second wave feminism was supposedly shaking things up. But in the world of astrology everyone was too taken with a new boy, Chiron, to pay much attention to those old ladies, who, by then had been known for nigh 170 years.
Reams were written about Chiron. It became pretty standard to include Chiron in charts. But still the asteroids were neglected.
But now, as we've been surfing through the the world-changing energies that have come into play this decade, trying not to get sucked under by a big wave, interest in the asteroids has grown like a groundswell. And the astronomers promoted Ceres to a "dwarf planet", the same classification as Pluto.
The asteroid belt lies between Jupiter and Mars. If Ceres had been reclassified as a planet – as was mooted – she would have been the fifth rock from the Sun. Chiron and the centaurs, in contrast are way out between Saturn and Uranus.
We all contain what could loosely be termed masculine and feminine energies within ourselves – and we always have done, whether we want to acknowledge that or not. The arrival of the asteroids in the conversation acknowledges the feminine side of human nature explicitly.
But when Ceres, Juno, Vesta or Pallas is added to the chart, the meaning is often fuzzy, overlaid with a gauze of wishful thinking. In this context, it's always as well to remember that interpretations of planetary meanings reflect the times. So for example, poor Juno, the goddess of marriage, seems to get a rotten press from some astrologers who don't like the institution itself, whereas Ceres, the goddess of the corn, is expected to be benevolent because she is associated with mother earth.
Planetary energies are not good or bad, benevolent or malevolent, in my view. It is we people who work with them for good or ill. A well-placed Jupiter may help you to great wealth by running a Ponzi scheme, or you great generosity of spirit. It is up t to you to choose.
Nor are the planets fair. Some people are luckier, prettier, cleverer and more successful than others. But give or take war, famine or plague, happiness is something we can all try to achieve. We can all work with what we've been given, with the energies of the times we are in and try to do our best.When you think about the meanings of the asteroids, it's as well to ask yourself, "Where's the evidence?"
Here are some previous articles I've written about:
Seeing Pregancy Through Ceres Eyes
Happy Birthday, Mother Goddess
Ceres, Food and Revolution
The UK Riots: Mummy I'm Hungry
New of the World: The Bitter End
From Beneath the Earth...
When It Rains...
Who Has True Grit? Looking at War Correspondents Charts
Anne Sinclair: The Power Behind DSK
Pallas Athena and The God of War
Why Pallas Athena Is the Astrologer's Asteroid
Britain and Ireland: A Miserable Marriage Turns into a Beautiful Friendship
Valentine's Day, Aquarius and the Goddess of Marriage
Royal Wedding Astrology: Juno Lends a Helping Hand
The Astrology of Anorexia
Why Capricorn Nigella is a Modern Vestal (Un)Virgin | <urn:uuid:14276e77-3de6-4254-962b-72479d23831e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oxford-astrologer.blogspot.com/2012/04/balancing-masculine-and-feminine.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959784 | 878 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Days after buying his Samsung Electronics Co. Galaxy Nexus smartphone from Verizon Wireless, David Jacobs found himself switching off the fourth-generation broadband connection that had drawn him to the $300 device in the first place.
"I love everything about the phone, but with 4G on, it just sucks down the battery," said the 25-year-old Mr. Jacobs, who lives in Los Angeles and works in digital advertising. "It's very frustrating. Why can't I get a phone to last a whole day?"
Mr. Jacobs is among the rising number of 4G smartphone users who are discovering their speedy broadband service also zips through battery life. The main culprit is spotty 4G service—even in the nation's largest cities—which requires the phones to search constantly for a signal, draining their batteries.
IHS Global Insight Daily Analysis
Apple Sues Motorola and Samsung As EC Warns over Patent Misuse
Los Angeles Times
Selling the iPhone Eats into Profits
Fourth-generation service is just starting to take hold, but complaints about battery life could slow the push by wireless carriers to convert customers to the higher-speed networks. Smartphone makers, however, are working on ways to respond to the new power demands.
Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. are investing billions of dollars to expand their 4G networks over the next two to three years on a technological standard known as long-term evolution, or LTE, with the promise of speeds of as much as 10 times those of the ubiquitous 3G service.
The carriers want customers to switch to the new networks because the technology requires less bandwidth to deliver datathan 3G, leaving room for more customers to download music or television shows. And with faster download speeds, 4G users are inclined to use more data, meaning they will need pricier service plans.
"Every time we add a customer to LTE, it is a much more efficient and cost-effective network than the 3G network," Verizon Communications Inc. Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo told investors at a conference last month. Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group PLC co-own Verizon Wireless.
Device makers such as Samsung and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. are banking on their 4G devices to put a dent in sales of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, which continues to gain market share even though it lacks the faster service. Apple, with its new iPhone 4S, was the only smartphone manufacturer in the top five to gain U.S. market share in last year's final quarter, according to comScore.
The spottiness of 4G stems at least in part from the measured approach carriers have taken to it, rolling out the service city by city. There were just 6.3 million subscribers of 4G LTE in the U.S. at the end of last year out of a total of 138.4 million smartphone users, according to research firm Informa Telecoms & Media.
Tips and Tricks For Battery Life
There are a few things smartphone users can do to help limit battery drain on their 4G devices:
- Ensure that you live in an area with 4G LTE service. If AT&T and Verizon Wireless don't offer 4G in your city, your phone can search in vain all day for a signal.
- Turn off your 4G connection when you aren't using it, such as when you sleep. You also can switch it off when you don't need the fastest speeds— when using email, for instance.
- Switch off your Bluetooth and GPS when not in use.
- Dim your screen, except when you need it for streaming videos. Screens can account for a big drain on battery power.
- Many applications run all day and night and can eat into a battery's charge. Use a program such as JuiceDefender to search for apps you may have downloaded that you don't need to run all the time, and erase them.
- Switch off Wi-Fi capability unless you have a strong signal. As with 4G, a weak signal can cause your phone to keep searching, and drain your battery. Conversely, switching to Wi-Fi only where your signal is strong can help to extend battery life.
Verizon Wireless's 4G network covers 200 million Americans, while AT&T reaches less than 80 million. Sprint, which has just begun to build out its 4G LTE service, offers 4G today on a competing technology known as WiMax that it will phase out.
Despite the fact the carriers are offering 4G service, they don't have it on every block, as they do with 3G," said Carl Howe, a vice president for research firm Yankee Group. "So you've got a situation where the phones are sending out their signals searching and searching for a 4G tower, and that eats up your battery."
Verizon Wireless and Sprint both said through representatives that battery life should improve as 4G LTE network upgrades reduce the need for phones to search for a signal. An AT&T spokesman declined to comment.
But erratic service isn't the only problem. Battery technology isn't keeping pace with smartphone advances. As consumers demand more powerful smartphones packed with features, device makers are rapidly improving processing speeds and the operating software that drives the phones. At the same time, developers are increasing battery life by just 1% each year, on average, according to Mr. Howe.
Samsung recently promised to roll out smartphones this year that can last all day with regular use on a single charge by bulking up the batteries themselves and reworking how phones seek out wireless signals. Last month Motorola Mobility brought out a version of its Droid Razr smartphone, known as the Maxx, with a larger battery for longer life.
"Of course Motorola came out with a better battery life right after I bought my regular Droid Razr" a few days after Christmas, said Dan Antonucci, a 31-year-old Los Angeles resident.
Mr. Antonucci said he turns off Verizon Wireless's 4G LTE connection while in his office at a casting agency, though he uses the high-speed mobile network to watch basketball games at home. "I can sit on one side of my couch and get a signal, but on the other side I don't, and the phone just searches," he said. "I think I don't turn off my 4G enough."
Bita Goldman, 28, an attorney in New York, said she carries an extra charger with her for her HTC Evo smartphone, which runs on Sprint's WiMax 4G network. "By 4 o'clock, I have to charge it," said Ms. Goldman, who typically keeps her phone's 4G connection switched off. She said she has considered buying the $55 extended-life battery, but found it too bulky.
Tom Harlin , an HTC Corp. spokesman, said HTC is building longer-lasting batteries and updating the phones' software.
Most customers, though, are still on 3G networks that don't demand as much from their batteries. Jason Taylor, a manager of the Wireless Zone store in Kansas City, Mo., which sells Verizon Wireless products, said 4G devices are selling well but they are geared more for customers who are interested in streaming video and using lots of data.
"For people looking to just send email and do some Web surfing, we sell them the iPhone," Mr. Taylor said.
Write to Greg Bensinger at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:5d4dfd3b-df6f-4b32-94da-3270b2c4dc6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204369404577205001921978364.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959244 | 1,536 | 1.59375 | 2 |
No American Military Assistance to Nations that ignore Recruitment of Child Soldiers
Daya Gamage – US Bureau Asian Tribune
Washington, D.C. 21 April (Asiantribune.com): A bill introduced this week in the U.S. Senate would put restrictions on U.S. military assistance for governments that use child soldiers. The legislation was intended to encourage governments to prohibit, demobilize and rehabilitate child soldiers from national forces and government-supported militias.
Several human rights organizations including Amnesty International USA and World Vision US in a letter to the United States Congress have urged to get the U.S. administration to work with the international community to bring to justice rebel leaders that kidnap children for use as child soldiers.
It has been reported that an estimated 250,000 children are exploited in state-run armies, paramilitaries and rebel groups around the world. They serve as combatants, porters, human mine detectors and sex slaves. Their health and lives are endangered and their childhoods are sacrificed.
Introduced April 19 by Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Sam Brownback (R-KS), the bill would curtail U.S. military assistance to governments that fail to take steps to demobilize and stop recruiting children into the armed forces or government-supported militias. Countries that take steps to demobilize child soldiers would be eligible for certain forms of assistance in that process for up to two years, to help professionalize their forces and ensure U.S. taxpayer dollars are not used to finance the exploitation of children in armed conflict.
"This bill creates strong incentives for foreign governments to end any involvement in the use of children as soldiers," said Joseph Mettimano, director of public policy and advocacy for World Vision U.S.
World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.
Mettimano will testify at a Senate hearing on "Casualties of War: Child Soldiers and the Law," to be held Tuesday, April 24. Other speakers will include Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier who is author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier; Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch; and Anwen Hughes, senior counsel for Human Rights First's refugee protection program.
In a letter to lawmakers, Mettimano and his counterparts at Human
Rights Watch, the Center for Defense Information and Amnesty International USA urge support for the legislation, which is in alignment with the standards the U.S. has accepted for its own armed forces under the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, ratified in 2002. It also encourages the U.S. to expand funding to rehabilitate former child soldiers and work in international cooperation to bring to justice rebel leaders that kidnap children for use as soldiers.
- Asian Tribune - | <urn:uuid:d0145561-f260-4fa6-beb0-2a2064071f18> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/5407 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950239 | 599 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Christians are the elect of God, as Ephesians 1:4 says, "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love (verse 5), He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will -- to the praise of His glorious grace."
Holiness is the result, not the basis, of God's choosing. It refers both to the holiness imparted to the believer because of Jesus Christ, and to the believer's personal sanctification.
(See 1st Cor.1:2) Here Paul said: "To those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy." "Sanctified" means to be set apart for the Lord. It can also mean "made holy," which is done by (1) being declared holy through faith in Jesus Christ's atoning death on the cross, and (2) being made holy by the works of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians.
We are sanctified, not because of our conduct, but because of our relationship to Christ.
All Christians are called of God; they are called to specific service, in that they are to be His witnesses and to be the children of God through the saving power of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:7a says, "In Him [meaning Jesus,] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin."
Ephesians were familiar with the Roman practice of redemption; slaves were freed by the payment of a ransom. The ransom necessary to free sinners from the bondage of sin was, and is, the death of Christ (called here His blood). "Through His blood" means the same -- His death on the cross. This is what we mean when we ask, "Are you saved," or say, "You should be saved."
All Christians are "saved" or have come into relationship with Jesus Christ. (God the Father, God the Son-Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit, the three-in-one, and the one-in-three, the blessed Holy Trinity. Amen!)
We often hear of Christians being called to preach, called to be evangelists or pastors, and this is true of God. But actually, all Christians are called, first to be sanctified children living holy, daily lives for Christ, and to be His witnesses, telling how Christ saved them and how He wants to save others, also.
When I was a Young Christian, I wondered what Jesus wanted me to do. Should I be a preacher and go into the ministry? I thought about this and prayed about it, but felt no compelling conviction to be a minister. Finally, I went to the home of a prominent Baptist minister and discussed the situation with him. His counsel was for me to continue to pray about it, for he felt that if I really was called by God to preach, I would not be able to resist His certain call.
After that, I began to feel God wanted me to be a dedicated layman and teacher in the church. I have followed this advice all of my Christian life, and now, as an old man, I still teach His glorious word and have been blessed as Christ's witness, and have experienced the Holy Spirit, using my testimony and presentation of the gospel of Christ to save those He chooses to save.
If you have not been saved by accepting Christ and believing in Him, I pray you will accept Him as you read this article. If you have felt in your heart you should believe in God through faith in Jesus Christ, do you realize you have been chosen to become one of the elect of God, to have the great blessings of the high calling of God?
Yes! It is true, you can be saved only if you believe and repent of your sins. (See Romans 10:9) Go to church this Sunday and talk with the pastor. Tell him of your conviction to become a Christian, and he will gladly lead you to Christ! May God bless you and give you courage. | <urn:uuid:bd1e3527-fbc1-4d4a-9681-52575862ef57> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news-daily.com/news/2010/feb/19/the-higher-calling-of-jesus-christ-james-bell/?sports | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975308 | 838 | 1.75 | 2 |
SAN DIEGO - Three UC San Diego researchers were elected to the
National Academy of Sciences, which advises the federal government
in matters of science and technology, University of California
officials announced Thursday.
The lifetime appointments were made during the NAS's 143rd
annual meeting this week in Washington, D.C.
The UCSD researchers elected to the academy are:
- Don W. Cleveland, professor and head, Laboratory of Cell
Biology, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research;
- Jose N. Onuchic, co-director, Center for Theoretical
Biological Physics and professor of physics; and
- Mark H. Thiemens, dean, division of physical sciences,
professor of chemistry and Chancellor's Associates chair.
The National Academy of Sciences, which was established in 1863
by Congress to promote science and its use for the general welfare,
has grown to 2,013 members.
The UCSD researchers were among 14 from the University of
California elected to the NAS.
Five are with UC Berkeley, three with UCSD, two each with UC
Irvine and UC Santa Cruz and one each with UC Davis and UCLA. | <urn:uuid:36b00b7e-7786-4a4a-912f-26a60a72bca6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2006/apr/28/three-uc-san-diego-researchers-elected-to/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954916 | 243 | 1.578125 | 2 |
A recent review conducted by an outside agency confirmed how much the Placer County Building Department’s code enforcement program has improved over the last few years.
County Chief Building Official Bob Martino asked for the review, because he was convinced it would show the program has improved dramatically since the last review in 2002.
The reviews are done by the Insurance Services Office, an insurer-supported organization that provides advisory insurance and rating information to insurance companies.
ISO rates code enforcement programs on a 1-to-10 scale, with 1 being the best and 10 the worst.
In 2002, Placer County’s program received a score of 7.
This time around, it wound up with a next-to-the best score of 2 in both categories evaluated by ISO: residential properties with one or two units and commercial and industrial properties.
“We were very pleased,” Martino said, noting that he and his staff have worked hard over the last year and a half to provide more consistent, higher-quality service.
His department provides code enforcement services in unincorporated areas of Placer County. The Building Department is one of several departments that are under the umbrella of the county Community Development Resource Agency.
ISO’s evaluations analyze both the building codes adopted by local governments and their efforts to enforce the codes properly. The company considers such criteria as staffing levels, staff qualifications, public awareness programs and the extent to which construction documents are reviewed to ensure they comply with building codes.
Insurance companies are not required to use ISO’s advisory ratings when issuing individual property insurance policies.
In a letter to the county, ISO said insurance companies that have adopted its rating program sometimes provide rating credits on individual policies in recognition of an area’s efforts to mitigate property damage from natural disasters.
“These insurers may use the Building Code Effectiveness Grading Classification we have recently developed for your community as a basis for the credits used,” the letter explained.
“While individual insurers may use different credits or different effective dates, the ISO program will apply credits to new construction within Placer County that has been issued a certificate of occupancy in the year 2008 and forward.”
In a summary of its rating program, ISO explained the premise is simple. “Municipalities with well-enforced, up-to-date codes demonstrate better loss experience, and their citizens’ insurance rates can reflect that,” it said. “The prospect of minimizing catastrophe-related damage and ultimately lowering insurance costs gives communities an incentive to enforce their building codes rigorously.”
ISO has evaluated building code enforcement programs at more than 7,000 agencies across the United States. | <urn:uuid:a3502ebe-c548-4e6d-a8b1-5073e670a0b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.placer.ca.gov/News/2008/May/CodeEnforce.aspx?p=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958803 | 554 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Apple made no mobile phones prior to 2007. Five years ago, the then-Apple Computer released the iPhone. Unlike the iPod release of 2001, there was some variety available in the initial product memory-specs. But it was still The iPhone--available Stateside and locked for a single carrier.
The device was an instant status-symbol and media darling--Time Magazine called it the "Invention of the Year." People loved its form and function, if not the service of its anointed carrier in the USA. Of course, modified versions of the phone, which could be used with different carriers, were traded across the world. Apple officially frowned on this practice, but the sales (estimated at half a million handsets in China alone) and brand-development probably didn't hurt.
Enterprises were slow to adopt policies aimed at the iPhone (and its later cousin, the iPad), but the BYOD-culture has forced CIOs to adapt. The communication power of these handhelds has changed culture, behavior and security-policies from SMEs to regulated banks.
But the iPhone has fallen from grace. When it was a shiny new icon, there was no equivalent. Few craved a Motorola Razr in late-2007. And the release of the iPhone 4 in 2010 was a gestalt-shift. Since then?
In the mobile-space, it's "what have you done for me lately?" What Apple's done is release a marginally better unit: the 4S. Its "secret weapon," Siri--a voice-activated digital "assistant"--hasn't set the mobile world spinning. Instead, units from vendors like Samsung which, unlike Apple's, offer a variety of screen sizes, output-ports, replaceable batteries and memory-expansion slots, have become popular. Take a look around any MTR carriage.
Apple's business-model, which includes the iPad tablet and its line of computing products, has made them the world's largest technology company. They've had other issues: lawsuits alleging copyright infringement, questionable working conditions at plants that manufacture their components, creeping malware issues, the rollout of iCloud, and dissent on the value of their latest OS X release. The success of the iPad has been unprecedented, as has the acceptance of Macintosh computers in the workplace. Perhaps Apple took its eye off the ball when it comes to the iPhone.
Still, Cupertino reigns as the 800-pound gorilla (remember when Microsoft was the unassailable juggernaut in both OS and browser?). They have no incentive to give up their iPhone "walled garden" ecosystem based on iOS and iTunes. But as the launch of the iPhone 5 (best current guess: September 21) approaches, rumors of a nano-SIM card and a new connector (yet more non-standard formats) persist. Apple marches to the beat of its own drummer--you want an iPhone, you buy one. Lines will form overnight, media outlets will swarm and clog their outlets with news of The Release, and the official price won't matter in Mongkok.
And despite one of the better retail supply-chain operations around, it will be difficult to get one--at first. Apple has been hoisted on its own petard: after the iPhone 5 launch, they need to address iPad issues. Will they release a smaller/cheaper iPad this year? That rumor's persisted for months.
The lesson for enterprises in all this: BYOD is here to stay, and regardless of device, company policies are essential to protect company-data. Breaches were noted with the first iPod: people walked into retail shops selling Apple computers, plugged in the device using a FireWire 400 cable, and copied files (the original iPod appeared as a hard disk). Nowadays, the cable isn't needed, nor is an Apple device.
With corporate-network security, the devices change but the principle remains the same: lock it or lose it. | <urn:uuid:33c69286-0b43-4e1e-9e68-15673d2500ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipad-iphone/news/?newsid=3377672&pagtype=allchandate | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957771 | 806 | 1.601563 | 2 |
October 3-5, 2013
This is an advanced three-day course designed for nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists and other health care providers who are seeking a better understanding of the various bowel disorders that affect children, women and men; and the specific rehabilitation strategies that are useful in treating these disorders.
The course is appropriate for clinicians who have already attended a basic didactic course that has covered rehabilitation and biofeedback treatment for pelvic floor disorders.
Accordingly, the presenter will assume that the participants have a good understanding of the structure of the pelvis, pelvic floor muscle anatomy and general biofeedback treatments for pelvic floor muscle dysfunction. The emphasis of this course will be to comprehensively present specific neuromuscular re-education and sensory training with bowel management strategies that are designed to improve bowel storage and evacuation function and resolve complaints of pain associated with these disorders.
Dr. Tries received a BS in Occupational Therapy from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in 1978, a MS in clinical psychology in 1989 and a PhD in Educational Psychology in 2000 from Marquette University. She has worked in the field of incontinence and pelvic floor disorders since 1986 and has published in numerous scientific journals and medical textbooks. She has consulted on national and international policy boards interested in the problems of incontinence and pelvic floor disorders and contributed to the Agency for Healthcare Policy and Research Clinical Practice Guideline on Urinary Incontinence. Dr. Tries has been a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, College of Medicine at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago where she directed therapy services within the Colon-Rectal Surgery Department for over 15 years. She has worked with Eugene Eisman, PhD in developing new measurement methods to assess pelvic floor muscle function in pediatrics and adults. Currently, Dr. Tries directs rehabilitation treatment at The Aurora Womenís Pavilionís Center for Continence and Pelvic Floor Disorders in Milwaukee, WI. She is a senior fellow of the Biofeedback Certification International Alliance and is certified in pelvic muscle dysfunction biofeedback.
Anatomy and physiology of bowel function.
Pathophysiology, Etiology and Testing
Surgical and Medical Treatments
Behavioral and Rehabilitation Treatments
Case study presentations will include pediatric cases and complex co-morbid conditions in men and women.
Thursday - October 3 - Registration 8:30A, Course 9:00A - 5:00P
Friday - October 4 - Course 9:00A - 5:00P
Saturday - October 5 - Course 8:00A - 2:00P
$595 (includes breakfast, lunch and snacks)
$100 of the tuition will be a donation to the PT Faculty Student Scholarship Fund. Donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.
Marquette University is also hosting Treatment of Bowel, Bladder, and Pelvic Floor Disorders Anatomical, Physiological, and Behavioral Foundations for Clinical Practice- June 19 - 22, 2013. | <urn:uuid:bb89473e-5241-47b9-805d-c6f828ebc283> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marquette.edu/health-sciences/continuing-ed-boweldisorder.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939566 | 601 | 1.742188 | 2 |
The Department of Health and Human Services today announced a proposed rule that, according to an agency press release, lays out "how nonprofit religious organizations, such as nonprofit religious hospitals or institutions of higher education, that object to contraception on religious grounds can receive an accommodation that provides their enrollees separate contraceptive coverage, and with no co-pays, but at no cost to the religious organization."
Here's the HHS fact sheet and proposed rule.
Kaiser Health News: Religious Nonprofits Won't Pay For Contraceptive Coverage Under New Rule
After a year of lawsuits and public outcry, the Obama administration proposed Friday a way for women who work at nonprofit religious institutions to get free birth control without requiring their employers to pay for it. Instead, institutions that insure themselves such as hospitals and universities can use a third party to find a separate health policy that would pay for and provide the coverage. Costs will be covered by the fees insurers pay to participate in the new online health marketplaces set to open in October under the health law (Gold, 2/1).
The New York Times: White House Proposes Compromise on Contraception Coverage
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said the proposal would guarantee free coverage of birth control "while respecting religious concerns." ... The White House has struggled for more than two years to balance its commitment to women's rights and health care for all with the need to protect religious liberty. The contraception plan provoked a furor during last year's presidential campaign, and the administration was forced to say that it would provide an accomodation for groups with religious objections. The subject of contraception coverage became part of a broader campaign dialogue over women's issues (Pear, 2/1).
Los Angeles Times: Obama Administration Proposes Contraception Compromise
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and a leading critic of the contraceptive mandate, was noncommittal Friday. "We welcome the opportunity to study the proposed regulations closely. We look forward to issuing a more detailed statement later," he said. But a religious-rights group that represents employers said the new proposal does not go far enough (Levey, 2/1).
The Wall Street Journal: Opt-Out Of Contraception Rule Proposed
The White House has been trying for more than a year to find a compromise to a standoff with religious groups over requirements in the health law that most employers fully cover birth control in their workers' insurance plans (Radnofsky, 2/1).
Politico: Obama Administration Changes Contraception Rules
Women will get a small separate insurance policy that covers contraception that is not paid for by the religious employer and does not cost the woman anything. Costs will be covered by fees insurers pay to participate in the new federal health exchanges being set up under Obamacare. The new policy also expands the definition of “religious employer,” potentially allowing more institutions to get out of the requirement. The new policy eliminates the requirement that they have religious values in their purpose, employ people of the same religion and primarily serve people with the same religious values (Slack and Haberkorn, 2/1).
The Hill's Healthwatch: HHS Rejects Calls For Broad Opt-Out To Contraception Mandate
The Obama administration said Friday that it will not provide broad exceptions to the contraception mandate in its signature healthcare law. The Health and Human Services Department rejected calls to let any employer opt out of the mandate based on religious objections to contraception. Instead, the department released regulations that hew largely to the policy it had previously announced (Baker, 2/1).
The Associated Press: Obama Administration Offers Faith Groups New Birth Control Rule
Obama had promised to change the birth control requirement so insurance companies — and not faith-affiliated employers — would pay for the coverage, but religious leaders said more changes were needed to make the plan work. Since then, more than 40 lawsuits have been filed by religious nonprofits and secular for-profit businesses claiming the mandate violates their religious beliefs. As expected, this latest regulation does not provide any accommodation for individual business owners who have religious objections to the rule (Zoll and Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/1).
USA Today: HHS Issues Proposed Contraception Coverage Rule
Under the proposed rule, religious organizations would inform their insurer of their exemption, and then the insurer would inform the organization's employees that the insurer would provide them with no-cost contraceptive coverage through a separate insurance policy not connected to the religious employer (Kennedy, 12/1).
The Washington Times: Obama Admin. Easing Contraception Mandate In Health Law
It is unclear if the new rules will placate the dozens of religious nonprofits and corporate owners that have filed lawsuits to protest the mandate contained in Mr. Obama's sweeping new health care law, which passed in 2010 and was largely upheld by the Supreme Court last June. The plaintiffs say the use of preventive contraception or "morning-after" pills is at odds with their religious beliefs (Howell, 2/1).
The Washington Post's Wonkblog: The White House's Contraceptives Compromise
Reactions also reflected the huge diversity within Catholicism of this issue. University of Notre Dame, a key barometer of American Catholicism, said in a statement officials wouldn’t comment until they’d studied the proposal more closely. Notre Dame stirred the ire of traditional Catholics when it honored President Obama in 2009 by giving him an honorary degree and hosting him as commencement speaker. Three years later, the school joined dozens of other mostly Catholic non profits in suing the administration over the mandate. More liberal Catholic figures – who are statistically more in line with the contraception practices of most American Catholics – applauded the White House Friday (Kliff, 2/1).
Kaiser Health News will continue to update information about this development through the afternoon. | <urn:uuid:fc9acf91-ca77-4a13-b02e-a549d87c48c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2013/February/01/contraception-rule.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+khn+%28All+Kaiser+Health+News%29 | 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 | 0.953636 | 1,207 | 1.757813 | 2 |
For some people who live on paycheck to paycheck monthly, getting a life insurance is not really a priority. Others even avoid the discussion about death totally thinking that it’s a morbid topic. We must understand, however, that death is one of the things that’s certain in life and having a life insurance is a way to prepare for our loved ones future.
Life insurance can provide income replacement so that the surviving party will not be financially crippled in the event of death. Also, life insurance can also serve as some sort of mortgage protection especially if the dependents depend on the insured’s income to pay for a mortgage. They can use the life insurance benefits to pay for the mortgage and not end up being homeless. In addition, life insurance can make sure that a person’s loved ones will not be burdened with all those funeral expenses, burial costs and medical bills after he or she pass away.
There are lots of insurance companies that offer life insurance. If you check out life insurance quotes from websites such as Advantage One that allow consumers to shop from up to 120 companies online, you might be able to find a life insurance term that fits your lifestyle and budget.
You should get a life insurance. Now, my question is, “will you?” | <urn:uuid:97193a8d-e470-4f07-bd4d-68b2c89f25eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wahwm.com/tag/insurance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953083 | 263 | 1.625 | 2 |
Recently I sat at the hairdresser chatting to the 20 odd year old owner of the salon. Our conversation led to education – hmm, surprise, surprise – she was soon telling me how she hated every day of school and by grade 10 she was failing ever subject. At this point she walked out of the school system and straight into hairdressing school – something she had wanted to do from the age of 5.
Within no time she way flying and getting A’s. She soon qualified and today she owns a salon and is about to open her second salon, whilst her peers are just leaving university and beginning to pay off their studies.
She then proceeded to tell me how a teacher from her previous school had popped past the salon recently and asked her to please take some time to meet with a girl who was just not coping at school. They wanted this girl to meet with the one who the school viewed as their biggest failure and that things can turn out alright. Hmmm, compliment or insult we are still debating this….
This got me thinking – yet once again- about our definition of success. Is it only being accepted into the university of your choice so that you may gain a qualification that usually requires you to spend the majority of your adult life working for someone else. Looking back I can’t help but also follow this thought with – what if when you are 30 you no longer want to do what you chose to qualify as when you were a mere 18 years old? Yet this is all you are qualified to do. Is this when you stop living life to the full and start counting the days till your retirement?
Please understand me there are many reasons to go to university, if this is what a child is created to do and become. However not all children are created for this path. Becoming a hairdresser, plumber, photographer, dancer, mother, author, actor or blogger are no less than a doctor, lawyer or teacher.
I honestly believe God has placed within everyone of us a way to make a living. As parents it’s our responsibility to help our children spark their dreams. Know what they are passionate about. They need to know who they are, where their giftings lie and to then have the confidence to follow their dreams to the end. They need to know we believe in them and all they were created to be.
Taking a brief glimpse at history we see again and again people who are seen by the experts as being failures and inadequate and yet people who had confidence in who they were and where their giftings lay they outshone all those around.
So take courage today. Stand up for your child and who they were created to be. Help them find their dreams and let them build upon these so that they are able to live their lives to the full!
(picture above from facebook) | <urn:uuid:c59cd28d-1ea2-479d-b43e-2f293cffd70b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://castleforkeeps.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987994 | 584 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The Solar Energy Consortium Uses IVCi's Managed Services to Hold Multi-Point
The use of IVCi's managed services allowed the Consortium to focus on its meeting and not the technology
By Nina Parker
The Solar Energy Consortium (TSEC) is a not-for-profit organization that engages in scientific and educational activities to promote the use of solar power in New York State. TSEC's members include universities and technology development companies located all over New York, so getting members together in one location for project meetings proved difficult due to scheduling conflicts and travel-related expenses.
In 2009, TSEC received a government grant to install Polycom video conferencing systems at three of its sites; Hudson Valley, Clarkson, and New York City. These locations are now considered conferencing centers, and members can travel to the nearest center to attend a meeting with the other sites. TSEC Board Vice Chair Frank Falatyn was instrumental in securing the funds for TSEC's video conferencing systems. "We wanted to make meetings easier to attend," he said. "Instead of having people travel when costs are so high, it is more efficient for us to have video calls among conference centers in our members' regions. Without video conferencing we would have problems getting members to attend project meetings because everyone has busy schedules and are trying to contain their costs."
Although TSEC's video systems were covered by the grant, infrastructure products such as a bridge, gateway, gatekeeper, firewall traversal solution, and service for managing the calls were not included. Because multi-point calls can be complex to set up and manage, many users choose to outsource this task to a managed service that has the necessary expertise. When planning its next meeting, TSEC recognized that it was going to need to bring additional sites into the conference, and faced the challenge of setting up the meeting without sufficient resources.
They were able to link up a wide variety of systems and have them work seamlessly and flawlessly together.”
Frank Falatyn, TSEC Board Vice Chair
TSEC chose industry expert IVCi to implement its Polycom solution, so when TSEC informed IVCi of its need to conduct a multi-point conference and its limited ability to manage it, a unique agreement was reached. Although TSEC was not a managed services customer, IVCi offered a one-time service of hosting the call. IVCi used its in-house Polycom HDX 9004 video system, its Polycom RMX 2000 MCU (multipoint control unit), and its RSS 2000 system for live streaming and recording.
Six conference rooms were connected over video for this meeting, and four other participants joined over streaming video. One of the requirements of the conference was to record each participant's comments so that information from the meeting could be easily added to project documents when the meeting was finished. Mr. Falatyn said he would not have attempted this type of call without a managed service. "We had three hours to get through all of our material, so we couldn't afford for something to go wrong," he said. "In addition to needing the call to run seamlessly, the streaming component was very valuable to us. IVCi recorded the entire conference and then posted the link so that people could go online and download an archived version of the entire call."
Mr. Falatyn was pleased with the outcome of TSEC's three-hour multi-point call using IVCi's equipment and services. "Having IVCi's managed services team coordinate our meeting was extremely helpful and important," he said. "They were able to link up a wide variety of systems and have them work seamlessly and flawlessly together. IVCi's managed service allowed us to have a successful meeting without worrying about the technology and wondering whether everything was functioning properly."
As it does for many of its managed services clients, IVCi provided a "service in the cloud" by utilizing its own infrastructure to bridge the various video conferencing systems, establish firewall traversal, ensure the proper bandwidth configuration, and conduct troubleshooting before and during the call. Using IVCi's services allowed TSEC to save valuable transit time, which Mr. Falatyn described as beneficial, because TSEC could "more easily get everyone together and not have to have all this downtime for travel."
"This was a real eye opener for us," Mr. Falatyn said. "Some of our agency workers had never been on a video call before, and we still don't know all that it takes behind the scenes to make the call seamless. However, the end result was that it was a truly successful meeting, and everyone thought the experience was just spectacular."
For more information on IVCi's Managed Conferencing Services, click here, or call 1-800-224-7083 today.
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IVCi Corporate Brochure.
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Click here for the IVCi IntelliNet MCS Brochure.
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Click here for IVCi Customer Service Survey Results.
Click here for a Buyer's Guide to Video Conferencing.
For video conferencing system pricing or additional information call 1-800-224-7083, or click here to have an IVCi Representative contact you. | <urn:uuid:79d0ae41-e3c0-4723-9790-c98ef8168ed3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ivci.com/newsletter0310part2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969248 | 1,278 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Have You “Herd” About Stillwater’s Goats?
Stillwater, like every other city, is filled with nooks and crannies that can’t be reached without expensive heavy equipment. So the city’s turning to a decidedly low-tech option….goats. Langston University’s delivered a dozen goats to a gully just off South Western Road in Stillwater. They’ll trim back the vegetation in a little more than a week , without the added noise and expense of a crew of workers…
It’s a stampede to the buffet of leaves, branches, and anything else in the ditch. Terry Gibson heads up Langston University’s goat, yes goat, program.
“There’s a lot of brush in there that’s very desirable for them, very palatable. Now they’re just going through and selecting the highly desirable brush and stripping those off and then they’ll come back and finish off with some of the ones that are undesirable.”
Stillwater is far from the first community to get the lawnmowing animals. Gibson’s brought the goats to communities all over the state. He says they’ll eat just about anything, and don’t require a whole lot of care, just a fence to keep them in.
“You don’t have to come in and use chemicals, you don’t have to come in and use mechanical means such as chainsaws or other types of labor intensive activities. So it’s a nice way of taking undesirable brush and converting it into a very usable product.”
Stillwater’s Storm Water Programs Manager Cody Whittenburg first proposed the program and got a lot of long stares. Whittenburg says with a strong fence and residents on alert, he doesn’t expect any problems keeping the goats in the gully.
“People want to come by and see them I don’t think that’s a problem at all, but let them do their thing and you do your thing and I think everything will be great.”
Oklahoma State University senior Evan Patten lives in the house next to the gully. Patten didn’t believe what he was hearing at first.
“I thought it was a complete joke. My roommate told me and I did not believe him for two days. And then he forwarded me the email and I was like ‘Are you kidding me?’. I don’t know how they’re going to keep drunk college kids from messing with them.”
Whittenburg didn’t have to do a whole lot of convincing of his bosses. John McClenny’s the city’s Director of External Services. After getting the initial proposal, he read up on the history of animals acting as lawnmowers. And once he heard one story, he was sold…
“They used sheep to maintain the White House lawn during World War One, so I thought if they could do it there, we could do it here.”
The goats should go through the plants and grass in a little over a week. Whittenburg says they’ll see how the program works out, and then decide whether to send the goats to take on other gullies. | <urn:uuid:ed1d40b3-5ef4-4bad-84fe-6dcbc9ef6b2d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kosu.org/2011/10/have-you-herd-about-stillwaters-goats/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953933 | 702 | 1.75 | 2 |
Ok, I'm not a forum poster, not even really involved in Aiki practice fully, but I did some Aikido years ago. I just read and enjoy and the "spirited" (full pun intended
) debate has been fun and amusing to read. Like George stated I've been assimilated!
I'm recollecting from 20 years ago when I was a student of philosophy and cultural anthro in religion, myth and magic and throwing in my opinion to boot... "Spirit" comes from the latin "spiritus" which means "breath", espiritus meaning "holy breath" - many scholars link the terminology from the gnostic traditions and a close bond with, what were at the time, the religious centers of Northern India and Iran (centers of the Mahayana, Varjayana & Tantric Buddhist traditions). Essentially that what is "spirit" is physical and its simple. The simple act of breathing is what is the divine (zen). Ego makes it a complex "out there" thing. If you stop breathing, your dead, that's it. But our ego takes our minds away with drifting musings and visions of religious grandeur and the mind becomes disconnected from the simple act of breathing, blah blah everyone knows the rest..
Take the practice further and you start getting into the simple act of breathing leading to yogic bodyworks. Yogic bodyworks leading to amazing controls of body functions from heart rate, core temperature, etc. Take those yogic type body works and apply them to muscular/skeletal functioning and application toward movement like martial arts and "spirit" that started as simple breathing becomes a deeper holistic body system. Hence you keep going more and more "internal" in the process.
I'm relatively new to IP/IS but have been working on the path. When I do "get it" occasionally and move someone (who isn't compliant) it is "magical or mystical" in a sense because I'm not at a level to fully understand how it works yet. But I believe if there is "enlightenment" it is a mind/body connection and the body stuff comes down to can you REALLY do it, i.e. perform your aiki on fully resisting non-choreographed opposition?
ok back to the shadows...
Personally, I wonder if much of this disconnect is more about the shift from an indigenous mind to a Post-Cartesian/Post Industrial mind. I recently went to see the movie The Raven. In one scene, Edgar Allen Poe is listening to a woman recite her recently written poem. She was honoring a bee that was bumbling about and called it a "honey-making thing". His retort was superb.
In today's world, herbs are reduced to their biochemical compounds, a person's life is often reduced to what he produces in the work place, Aiki is reduced to internal physical practices.
In a pre-industrial mind, perhaps in the mind of Deguchi Nao (1836–1918) and Deguchi Onisaburō (1871–1948), spirit and flesh were not divided. earth and heaven was one organic whole. And all life was a giant cacaphony of in and yo. | <urn:uuid:b6282e4e-6071-4163-a52c-735dde04fd72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showpost.php?p=311826&postcount=272 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96594 | 664 | 1.5625 | 2 |
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Saturday, May 18, 2013
High iron count and rash
My husband had a defibilator put in the beg. of July. Since then there have been a lot of things going on his body that cannot be diagnosed. Starting with a rash from head to toe. He was put on two doses of sterids which made his face swell he is still very itchy and the rash has sudsided. Now he was diagnosed with high iron levels so he is going for an ultrasound today to look at his liver. Please help
I would recommend that you discuss all of these issues with your doctor(s) in light of tests that are still pending.
Certainly, if you live close to Columbus, Ohio, we would be happy to offer you consultation at our hematology clinic for evaluation of your husband's high iron levels. You may contact Daphne Lockett at 614-293-9441.
Mark Wurster, MD
Former Clinical Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine
College of Medicine
The Ohio State University | <urn:uuid:42b9e7e3-e791-4751-a138-17a816d5b6b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netwellness.uc.edu/question.cfm/56929.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977178 | 246 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Saudi sends another aid package to Iraq
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent another convoy of humanitarian aid into Iraq last week. Sixteen trucks carrying over 400 tons of food, water, medicine and other basic supplies to aid the Iraqi people left Riyadh for Baghdad, where distribution of Saudi relief aid is on-going.
With this convoy of aid, the Kingdom has also donated six fully-equipped ambulances destined for Iraqi hospitals. In addition, Saudi Arabia is operating a large field hospital with about 180 medical staff that reached Iraq two weeks ago and is now treating as many as 800 patients a day.
The Kingdom also started to airlift Iraqi patients to Saudi hospitals for specialized treatment. On their outward flights, the planes carry medicine and medical equipment for the field hospital. “Saudi Arabia remains committed to, and calls upon the international community to join it in, addressing the urgent humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people,” according to a foreign ministry press release. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com) | <urn:uuid:b4714729-c969-4a84-a3c1-c2dd2c2938d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.albawaba.com/business/saudi-sends-another-aid-package-iraq | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936464 | 215 | 1.507813 | 2 |
|Teaching Drew to Drive
Author: gilmoreluver06 PM
Sarah teaches Drew to drive.Rated: Fiction K - English - Family - Drew H. & Sarah B. - Words: 272 - Reviews: 1 - Favs: 1 - Follows: 1 - Published: 07-20-11 - Status: Complete - id: 7201737
|A+ A- Full 3/4 1/2 Expand Tighten|
One day after Drew turns 15 he is downstairs playing the wii in the livingroom and thinking that it's time for him to start driving so he tops his game turning it off and makes his way slowly up the stairs and knocks on his moms closed bedroom door.
"yeah...come on in." she says
Drew takes a deep breath and opens the door "M...Mom." he says quitely
"hey hunnie...whats up?" she wonders looking up at him from writting on her yellow writting pad
Drew just shuts the door "nothing." he says looking down at his shoes
"hunniee..." she wonders
"I...I've just been thinking." he tells her
"oh, thinking about what hunnie?" she wonders
"um driving." he barley says
"what was that?" she wonders
"driving, I think I want to learn how to drive." he tells her
"oh...wow well this is new." she says kind of surprised
"yeah." he says softly
"but if you don't want to that's fine too." he tells her
"oh no it's not that I don't want to because I do but...a...are you sure you're ready hunnie?" she wonders looking at him
"y...yeah I think so." he tells her
she smiles "okay, well lets go drive then." she says and smiles
"okay." he says watching her get off the bed and she messes up his hair then opens the door and leaves the room.
Drew watches them follows her downstairs to the kitchen.
Sarah hands him the keys and they leave the house to go out to the car and get in. | <urn:uuid:183e9fd1-3bf9-42a4-af3f-79fda040f9a1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7201737/1/Teaching-Drew-to-Drive | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969061 | 448 | 1.570313 | 2 |
I've got a theory on marriage that I believe is starting to become the new norm.
I was coaching a client the other day and we got into a very interesting discussion about marriage. He said, "David, my parents have been married for over 50 years now, and it's one of the most beautiful things in the entire world. My dad still adores my mom, my mom adores my dad just as much. They still pay attention to each other. They still do little things for each other. The same little things they did for each other when they first met in the 1940s."
I don't have to tell you that the 1940s were a completely different time to be married or be in a relationship. And I really think that technology has a lot to do with it.
What am I talking about here? I'm talking about pre-computer technology that was completely manual. Trips to another city that required long-term scheduling. Telephones where you could only reach the other person through an operator, and only if the person you were trying to reach was in front of the phone. Days when people actually sat down and communicated by writing each other letters. Conversations that developed over months, even years. Days when people talked face-to-face, with people they actually knew on a personal level.
Today, technology is slick, fast, and changing constantly.
In the '40s, if you had relationship trouble, you sat around and talked to your friends. Today, if you have trouble in your relationship, you get online, type "relationship advice" into Google, and you can read and read, download books, and you get access to a neverending stream of information.
And everything that you read about will either confirm the way you feel, challenge the way you feel, leave you more confused, or simply tell you that your partner is not for you.
We have access to so much information that we really suffer from a kind of information overload.
And the problem is that when it comes down to relationship advice, every day a new expert launches a new book or a new blog, telling you that they've got the cure for divorce, or the secret to a great marriage, or the five keys toward living a happy life.
The problem is that when you've got this much information that comes at you 24/7 at the click of a button, it's very easy to confirm any of your beliefs. It doesn't matter what your beliefs are. You will always find somebody out there who will agree with you. You'll find at least one person who wrote an article that states and confirms your situation in life and why you should not be married anymore.
I believe that this kind of information overload is killing marriages today. It's leading to higher divorce rates. You can hop on YouTube right now and watch singles go at it. You can watch reality TV shows that give you a glimpse of you all that your life can be after divorce.
In essence, we've stopped working at our marriages. We've quit them. Marriages may soon be a thing of the past. In the next 20 or 30 years, who knows, technology may develop a better way to have a relationship.
Today, less people are having children, less people are getting married, and less people are building families. We've got a rapidly-changing world budding.
We live in a replacement society. Every moment, new technology and new information comes out, and when that technology and information gets old, something new easily comes along the next instant to replace it.
The concept of constant change is really accelerating. We used to invest in stocks for the long-term; today online stock traders want to be in and out of a stock trade in 30 seconds to make as much money as possible.
It's not a stretch to call us a society of online relationship traders. At any moment right now, you can get on Match.com and find a new mate. You can find five new dates this week if you really wanted to. People used to be so excited about getting that one date with that one special person.
Now we plow through dates as quickly as we possibly can. Why? Because we have so much instant access to people and information that we can immediately find somebody else out there for us. We believe that there's always somebody just a little bit better. A more perfect match. We're really a society of the bigger, better deal. And we no longer believe in the institution of marriage.
So I want you to look at your divorce (or your marriage if you've contemplated divorce) and ask yourself how much all this information out there helped with your final decision? And would your marriage have survived if you were living in a different time? If all the information wasn't as readily accessible to change your mind about the meaning of marriage, if all you had was the neighborhood coffee shop to sit and chat, phone calls to friends, letters to relatives, would you still have gotten this divorce? Would your marriage still have faltered?
Or would you have worked at it, because deep down you truly believe in the institution of marriage and you believe in your ability to make it work?
Follow David Wygant on Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidwygant | <urn:uuid:087fc1a8-91fe-4841-86e0-b9746f1d3747> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-wygant/does-too-much-technology-_b_1074449.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976502 | 1,085 | 1.601563 | 2 |
The interview is the most important 60 minutes of the job search. Yet it takes only seconds to botch a first impression. In his recently released assessment, John Liptak helps job seekers discover how their interview style may be keeping them from winning job offers.
We welcome you to JobBank USA and hope your job hunting experience
is a pleasant one. We hope you find our resources useful.
July 25, 2007
Indianapolis, IN - According to a survey of recruiters by Korn/Ferry International, the most common mistakes candidates make during a job interview include talking too much, lacking knowledge about the company, having an over-inflated ego, and appearing overconfident.
Within seconds these mistakes can turn an employer off to the idea of hiring a candidate. Yet, many job seekers repeatedly make these mistakes, unknowingly costing themselves job offers. A new assessment, Interview Style Inventory, suggests the key to overcoming these interview blunders is for job seekers to understand how their personality influences their interview style.
John Liptak, author of the assessment, says, "Job candidates who understand their personality type and are aware of their interview strengths and weaknesses can better explore ways to improve their interview performance."
In the assessment, Liptak breaks down a person's interview style into four scales that represent the four major personality styles: achiever, intuitor, energizer, and analyzer. Each style connects to a set of interview strengths and weaknesses a job seeker may possess. For example, the intuitor part of a person's personality indicates the person possesses effective listening skills, but may need to be more assertive and enthusiastic in interviews.
According to Liptak, job seekers who want to improve their interview performance should use these interview styles to identify where their strengths and weaknesses are. Additionally, it's essential for job seekers to not only improve the interview style linked to their personality, but to develop traits within other interview styles as well. Doing so will help a job seeker adapt to a variety of interview situations and showcase him or her as a highly-qualified, outstanding candidate to recruiters and hiring managers.
"An analysis of your interview style will help you make better use of your strengths, become more aware of your weaknesses, and learn ways to integrate all of the four styles to be a more effective interviewer," says Liptak.
Interview Style Inventory is available from the publisher (www.jist.com or 1.800.648.JIST). For a free media copy or to speak with the author, contact Natalie Ostrom.
JIST, America's Career Publisher, is a division of EMC/Paradigm Publishing and is the leading publisher of job search, career, occupational information, life skills and character education books, workbooks, assessments, videos and software. | <urn:uuid:f29a86df-509a-4db8-85c7-a0933832cf16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jobbankusa.com/news/employment_careers/interview_style_blame_for_blunders.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933706 | 572 | 1.648438 | 2 |
At a Neolithic town site in the Fertile Crescent, archeologists found seeds from more than a hundred plant species. These seeds represented a cumulative knowledge of edible plants that had been tested and handed down from generation to generation, and would ultimately pave the way for civilisation. This was culturally transmitted knowledge, accepted by each new generation on human testimony.
The same can be said for a number of things; faith – or whether gay marriage is a good idea, to name but a couple.
I was shocked when I read in granny Herald today that the NZ Teacher’s Council stated that in the last 2 years, nine teachers have been deregistered by them due to sexual abuse of minors.
Given the angst between Catholic Christians and non-Catholic Christians over historical and dogmatic issues, I must admit I’ve been happy to keep mum when someone in my presence has been slagging off those dirty Catholic Priests. Shame on me.
No more, I think this scandal has demonstrated one thing perfectly clearly, any Institution (even one inspired by God), that by it’s nature has adults alone with children is going to attract deviants. We must be viligilant and understand that human nuture is that of a fallen group, and personally I put more trust in the Catholic Church to fix it’s issues than the NZ Teacher’s Council. I also wonder how many deviants have been attracted to my denomination and just haven’t been found out yet – a scary thought.
Still a week to go but I’d thought I’d get in early:
- The Olympics are economic suicide. If a politician in your country starts talking about making a bid for them and the “economic benefits”, tell them to kindly shut up.
- In Eventing the horses should get the medals. The riders simply tell the ones competing what to do. This is called coaching – and coaches don’t get medals.
- Traithlon is great but Ironmans are better. I’d love there to be an event where the competitors say, “we swim 3.8 km, ride 180 km, oh and then we run a marathon.”
- There are too many things on a bike. Road, track, mountain and BMX. From 250km to a few hundred metres. Just have one race, about 40km, on the track, on a BMX.
NZ has had a good Olympics, it’s good to see so many of our athletes competitive. The number of medals and top 20 finishes is pretty amazing for a small country. Lets remember why we do well, it isn’t because of any inherent brillance as a group (certianly individual brillance is on display) but because of a culture of sport and a system of society where people are free (at least in a sporting context) to follow their passions. These things along with the wealth that enables the training required can be lost.
“NZs luck in settling a fertile country watered by plentiful rain is envied by many. As the food bowl of the South Pacific, we are eyed by all countries worried about their ability to feed a population growing in numbers and quality of life. ”
Fairfax NZ 13/6/12
Boy am I glad we gutted our military. Lucky our politicians saw that NOBODY in the world wants more fertile land and is willing to kill to get it.
Apparently Margaret Thatcher has won the 1979 UK General Election! This marvelous woman should lead the UK well through it’s much needed reforms.
In retrospect, maybe this post should be called, The Last Good News From Europe.
Basically what the Supreme Court has ruled is that, if you are a US citizen your existence attracts a compulsary “health tax”, and the Federal government can waive that tax if you buy health insurance from a private company.
So the government isn’t forcing you to buy a private company’s product, it’s giving you a tax break!
Oh that benevolent US government.
It would seem the battlelines are clearly drawn for the 2012 election.
I remembering commenting on The Standard that the “Arab Spring” in Eygpt was not going to lead to anything good for Eygptians. When pressed by the marxists I said, “because Eygptians will vote for sharia law”. To which the predictable reply, “if they vote for it, surely it is their right?”
“Sure”, I said but if that leads to a new Islamic dictatorship or oppressive law how is that desirable?
To me it is a cultural problem caused by Islam (which I don’t even count as a religion as such but a quasi-facist-political-belief system). To understand Islam and it’s derivative sharia law, is to understand that the Islamic middle east will never have lasting freedom and functional democracy.
For example; sharia decrees that in a Court man’s testimony is worth twice that of a woman’s, only a man can initiate divorce proceedings, and there are three times in which it is legal to kill (I’d say murder); killing of woman for “honour”, killing infidels (Jews and Christians especially) and apostates (including Muslims who critise Jihad). Hardly freedom, even if democratically chosen.
Within Islam there is also a fundamental refusal to live alongside anyone with a different worldview, hence the constant attempts to merge Mosque and State. Witness the nonsensical, ongoing massacres between Sunni and Shia, modern examples include the Iran-Iraq War and currently Alawites and Sunnis massacring women and children in Syria. Massacres over who the “true descendants of Mohammed were”. Historically there has been violence between Christian denominations especially since 1517, the 30 year German war and Ireland come to mind, but nothing like the 1300 years of violence in the name of the “true followers of Allah” that has dominated Islam. Disagreement between “Catholics” and “Protestants” is almost solely restricted to blogs and Theological departments these days, and many Christians, myself included, would strenously object to loss of seperation between Church and State.
The West should work for stability in Islamic countries, whoever is in charge, as the citizenry sadly has no concept of stability in freedom. | <urn:uuid:9a9468ce-044d-402c-a873-73c9127523ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pinkofreezone.wordpress.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962252 | 1,344 | 1.835938 | 2 |
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"What have you suffered to make you think like this?" asked Raphael.
"I myself have been forsaken for an inheritance," she said, striking an attitude that displayed all her charms; "and yet I had worked night and day to keep my lover! I am not to be gulled by any smile or vow, and I have set myself to make one long entertainment of my life."
"But does not happiness come from the soul within?" cried Raphael.
"It may be so," Aquilina answered; "but is it nothing to be conscious of admiration and flattery; to triumph over other women, even over the most virtuous, humiliating them before our beauty and our splendor? Not only so; one day of our life is worth ten years of a bourgeoise existence, and so it is all summed up."
"Is not a woman hateful without virtue?" Emile said to Raphael.
Euphrasia's glance was like a viper's, as she said, with an irony in her voice that cannot be rendered:
"Virtue! we leave that to deformity and to ugly women. What would the poor things be without it?"
"Hush, be quiet," Emile broke in. "Don't talk about something you have never known."
"That I have never known!" Euphrasia answered. "You give yourself for life to some person you abominate; you must bring up children who will neglect you, who wound your very heart, and you must say, 'Thank you!' for it; and these are the virtues you prescribe to woman. And that is not enough. By way of requiting her self-denial, you must come and add to her sorrows by trying to lead her astray; and though you are rebuffed, she is compromised. A nice life! How far better to keep one's freedom, to follow one's inclinations in love, and die young!"
"Have you no fear of the price to be paid some day for all this?"
"Even then," she said, "instead of mingling pleasures and troubles, my life will consist of two separate parts--a youth of happiness is secure, and there may come a hazy, uncertain old age, during which I can suffer at my leisure."
"She has never loved," came in the deep tones of Aquilina's voice. "She never went a hundred leagues to drink in one look and a denial with untold raptures. She has not hung her own life on a thread, nor tried to stab more than one man to save her sovereign lord, her king, her divinity. . . . Love, for her, meant a fascinating colonel."
"Here she is with her La Rochelle," Euphrasia made answer. "Love comes like the wind, no one knows whence. And, for that matter, if one of those brutes had once fallen in love with you, you would hold sensible men in horror."
"Brutes are put out of the question by the Code," said the tall, sarcastic Aquilina.
"I thought you had more kindness for the army," laughed Euphrasia.
"How happy they are in their power of dethroning their reason in this way," Raphael exclaimed.
"Happy?" asked Aquilina, with dreadful look, and a smile full of pity and terror. "Ah, you do not know what it is to be condemned to a life of pleasure, with your dead hidden in your heart. . . ."
A moment's consideration of the rooms was like a foretaste of Milton's Pandemonium. The faces of those still capable of drinking wore a hideous blue tint, from burning draughts of punch. Mad dances were kept up with wild energy; excited laughter and outcries broke out like the explosion of fireworks. The boudoir and a small adjoining room were strewn like a battlefield with the insensible and incapable. Wine, pleasure, and dispute had heated the atmosphere. Wine and love, delirium and unconsciousness possessed them, and were written upon all faces, upon the furniture; were expressed by the surrounding disorder, and brought light films over the vision of those assembled, so that the air seemed full of intoxicating vapor. A glittering dust arose, as in the luminous paths made by a ray of sunlight, the most bizarre forms flitted through it, grotesque struggles were seen athwart it. Groups of interlaced figures blended with the white marbles, the noble masterpieces of sculpture that adorned the rooms.
Though the two friends yet preserved a sort of fallacious clearness in their ideas and voices, a feeble appearance and faint thrill of animation, it was yet almost impossible to distinguish what was real among the fantastic absurdities before them, or what foundation there was for the impossible pictures that passed unceasingly before their weary eyes. The strangest phenomena of dreams beset them, the lowering heavens, the fervid sweetness caught by faces in our visions, and unheard-of agility under a load of chains,--all these so vividly, that they took the pranks of the orgy about them for the freaks of some nightmare in which all movement is silent, and cries never reach the ear. The valet de chambre succeeded just then, after some little difficulty, in drawing his master into the ante-chamber to whisper to him:
"The neighbors are all at their windows, complaining of the racket, sir."
"If noise alarms them, why don't they lay down straw before their doors?" was Taillefer's rejoinder.
Raphael's sudden burst of laughter was so unseasonable and abrupt, that his friend demanded the reason of his unseemly hilarity.
"You will hardly understand me," he replied. "In the first place, I must admit that you stopped me on the Quai Voltaire just as I was about to throw myself into the Seine, and you would like to know, no doubt, my motives for dying. And when I proceed to tell you that by an almost miraculous chance the most poetic memorials of the material world had but just then been summed up for me as a symbolical interpretation of human wisdom; whilst at this minute the remains of all the intellectual treasures ravaged by us at table are comprised in these two women, the living and authentic types of folly, would you be any the wiser? Our profound apathy towards men and things supplied the half-tones in a crudely contrasted picture of two theories of life so diametrically opposed. If you were not drunk, you might perhaps catch a gleam of philosophy in this."
"And if you had not both feet on that fascinating Aquilina, whose heavy breathing suggests an analogy with the sounds of a storm about to burst," replied Emile, absently engaged in the harmless amusement of winding and unwinding Euphrasia's hair, "you would be ashamed of your inebriated garrulity. Both your systems can be packed in a phrase, and reduced to a single idea. The mere routine of living brings a stupid kind of wisdom with it, by blunting our intelligence with work; and on the other hand, a life passed in the limbo of the abstract or in the abysses of the moral world, produces a sort of wisdom run mad. The conditions may be summed up in brief; we may extinguish emotion, and so live to old age, or we may choose to die young as martyrs to contending passions. And yet this decree is at variance with the temperaments with which we were endowed by the bitter jester who modeled all creatures."
"Idiot!" Raphael burst in. "Go on epitomizing yourself after that fashion, and you will fill volumes. If I attempted to formulate those two ideas clearly, I might as well say that man is corrupted by the exercise of his wits, and purified by ignorance. You are calling the whole fabric of society to account. But whether we live with the wise or perish with the fool, isn't the result the same sooner or later? And have not the prime constituents of the quintessence of both systems been before expressed in a couple of words--Carymary, Carymara."
"You make me doubt the existence of a God, for your stupidity is greater than His power," said Emile. "Our beloved Rabelais summed it all up in a shorter word than your 'Carymary, Carymara'; from his Peut-etre Montaigne derived his own Que sais-je? After all, this last word of moral science is scarcely more than the cry of Pyrrhus set betwixt good and evil, or Buridan's ass between the two measures of oats. But let this everlasting question alone, resolved to-day by a 'Yes' and a 'No.' What experience did you look to find by a jump into the Seine? Were you jealous of the hydraulic machine on the Pont Notre Dame?"
"Ah, if you but knew my history!"
"Pooh," said Emile; "I did not think you could be so commonplace; that remark is hackneyed. Don't you know that every one of us claims to have suffered as no other ever did?"
"Ah!" Raphael sighed.
"What a mountebank art thou with thy 'Ah'! Look here, now. Does some disease of the mind or body, by contracting your muscles, bring back of a morning the wild horses that tear you in pieces at night, as with Damiens once upon a time? Were you driven to sup off your own dog in a garret, uncooked and without salt? Have your children ever cried, 'I am hungry'? Have you sold your mistress' hair to hazard the money at play? Have you ever drawn a sham bill of exchange on a fictitious uncle at a sham address, and feared lest you should not be in time to take it up? Come now, I am attending! If you were going to drown yourself for some woman, or by way of a protest, or out of sheer dulness, I disown you. Make your confession, and no lies! I don't at all want a historical memoir. And, above all things, be as concise as your clouded intellect permits; I am as critical as a professor, and as sleepy as a woman at her vespers."
"You silly fool!" said Raphael. "When has not suffering been keener for a more susceptible nature? Some day when science has attained to a pitch that enables us to study the natural history of hearts, when they are named and classified in genera, sub-genera, and families; into crustaceae, fossils, saurians, infusoria, or whatever it is, then, my dear fellow, it will be ascertained that there are natures as tender and fragile as flowers, that are broken by the slight bruises that some stony hearts do not even feel----"
"For pity's sake, spare me thy exordium," said Emile, as, half plaintive, half amused, he took Raphael's hand.
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The Magic Skin -by- Honore de Balzac | <urn:uuid:06814798-1f7c-4b5d-8d51-859dc601a56a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.public-domain-content.com/books/Balzac_Skin/C1P12.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969168 | 2,349 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The Supreme Court was a fitting venue for this demonstration both to honor Dr. King and demonstrate solidarity with the #OWS (Occupy Wall Street) movement. As Dr. West said prior to being arrested, there is “a relation between corporate greed and what goes on too often in Supreme Court decisions.”How is that "far greater detail"? With no reference to Supreme Court at all, it seems like less detail. Or by "detail," did Ms. Thisltethwaite mean verbosity? Thisltethwaite continues:
In Democracy Matters, West makes this point in far greater detail “(The) illicit marriage of corporate and political elites — so blatant and flagrant in our time — not only undermines the trust of informed citizens in those who rule over them. It also promotes the pervasive sleepwalking of the populace, who see that the false prophets are handsomely rewarded with money, status, and access to more power.” (p. 4)
Here’s the point: If you are content to think that corporations are people and money is speech, as the Supreme Court decided in the by a vote of 5-4, in their Citizens United v Federal Election Commission decision, then indeed you are sleepwalking through your citizenship and giving over your faith to false prophets.
I believe, when future accounts of this era are written, historians will judge that the wake up call for many people in America was in early 2010 with that Supreme Court decision. The winter of 2010 is what led to the #OWS demonstrations in the fall of 2011.
Can we as citizens accept this definition of person, and of speech? This is what Dr. West, by his action on the steps of the Supreme Court, is asking us to stop and ponder. Corporation as person? A soulless legal entity as human being? No. We can’t and we must not. As I have written before, God didn’t create corporations.And God didn't create The Washington Post, which is a corporation. Could Congress criminalize WaPo's reporting about political candidates in the 2-month period preceding an election? It would protect us from distorted ravings like yours, Ms. Thisltethwaite. What do you say? You must say yes! I mean, if you care about coherence. And I know you don't.
... Dr. West did not call for anger, he actually called for “deep love” in his remarks before his arrest, and he spoke his solidarity even with the police, those who were about to arrest him.
This is worthy of another jail, at another time. In 1963, Dr. King wrote, in his Letter from Birmingham Jail.... | <urn:uuid:69bbef7f-346e-4bce-bfc6-e7a7eed4af88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/10/cornel-west-protesting-citizens-united.html?showComment=1318875641361 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973891 | 554 | 1.710938 | 2 |
This database begins with Joseph Austin, born about 1616 in England, and who died before 1 July 1663 in Cocheco, New Hampshire. He married Sarah Starbuck about 1649. Joseph appeared in Hampton, New Hampshire in 1642 before removing to Dover about 1647. He appears on the earliest tax record of Dover in 1647, where he was part-owner of a sawmill. A number of his descendants were members of the Society of Friends.
Most of the content of this database is based on the manuscript by Edith Austin Moore, Joseph Austin of Dover, New Hampshire and Matthew Austin of Wells, ME. This latest update by Carol R. Austin includes corrections from contributors via e-mail, and letters.
Carol R. Austin is serving as compiler of this database, so please send additions and corrections directly to her.
Please note: For privacy reasons, this database follows the criteria for living people.
Browse the list of non-Austin surnames
Browse the database starting at the top with Joseph Austin | <urn:uuid:941796ab-c96d-454f-8402-d2b853ee1f0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.afaoa.org/DB_Dir/Joseph_Austin_NH/Joseph_Austin_NH.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956133 | 212 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Food Bank of El Dorado County benefits from ‘Operation Gobble’
Thanks to the collaboration of two well-known California politicians and the generosity of an area utility company, many of El Dorado County’s less fortunate were able to gather around a turkey this holiday season. It’s known as “Operation Gobble,” a team effort by California State Sen. Ted Gaines, Assemblywoman Beth Gaines and California American Water.
Operation Gobble is a joint charitable venture between California water companies and local state legislators. This program is estimated to deliver some 30,000 turkeys to under privileged families throughout the state this holiday season. First begun in 1990, the program pairs local knowledge of state legislators with the resources of the private sector to benefit those in need.
“I’m so proud to be associated with the annual event that fills such an important need within our community,” said Ted Gaines. “By providing local non profit partners with hundreds of Thanksgiving turkeys, we’re helping ensure that Sacramento area families can enjoy a traditional holiday meal together.”
The turkeys were provided at below cost by Savemart Supermarkets to benefit the numerous non profit organizations. In addition to the Food Bank of El Dorado County, last Tuesday’s event donated 900 turkeys amongst various organization including the Twin Lakes Food Bank and Food Banks in Orangevale, and Placer County received a share of the hearty birds along with the Salvation Army of Roseville and Auburn and a number of local organizations. The Pollock Pines Community Center and the Upper Room of Placerville were among the recipients in El Dorado County.
“Savemart Supermarkets is grateful for the opportunity to play a small part in helping California American Water, Assemblywoman Gaines and Senator Gaines meet the increasing need of those in the community this holiday season,” said Alicia Rockwell, director of Public Affairs and Communications for Savemart Supermarkets.
Nearly 20 different organizations gathered outside the offices of the Gaines Tuesday afternoon as the large truck from California American Water rolled into the parking lot to distribute the turkeys. Both Ted and Beth Gaines were present for the affair.
“Operation Gobble is an important community partnership that helps bring together a local business with some of the most supportive non-profits in my district,” said Beth Gaines. “Through this innovative partnership, we are going to deliver a Thanksgiving meal to thousands in Sacramento who may have otherwise gone without.”
The Food Bank of El Dorado County received 50 turkeys from Operation Gobble. On Tuesday afternoon, a portion of the birds were delivered to members of our local at risk population on the Shingle Springs Rancheria. The additional birds were distributed through various charities in the Food Banks Emergency Food Assistance Network.
“This is true collaboration at its finest,” said Mike Sproull, founder of the Food Bank of El Dorado County. “Government agencies, local businesses, grocers and charities working together to guarantee an efficient and effective distribution to our at risk population.”
Founded in 1886, American Water is the largest publicly traded U.S. Water and wastewater utility company. Headquartered in New Jersey, the company employees more than 7,000 people and supplies approximately 15 million people in more than 30 states as well as parts of Canada with drinking and waste water services.
“California American Water has more than 80 employees who live and work here in Sacramento,” said General Manager Andy Soule. “This program is an opportunity for us to give back to our customers, our neighbors and our families.”
The food bank is the largest collaborative charity in El Dorado County. It partners with more than 40 local emergency food response sites provides assistance on a daily basis, to abused and abandoned children’s homes, battered women’s shelters, senior centers, local food pantries, soup kitchens, maternity homes and more. To learn about the food bank visit foodbankedc.org, call at (530) 621-9950 or e-mail [email protected].
Short URL: http://www.villagelife.com/?p=14071This story falls on page "" | <urn:uuid:b545eb43-9e03-48ba-9197-95faaf1cee42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.villagelife.com/news/food-bank-of-el-dorado-county-benefits-from-operation-gobble/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943861 | 885 | 1.75 | 2 |
If this scene looks a bit familiar, that is because I posted previous versions of it as well, in November 2009. This version is updated though, and so is still worth viewing, or so I hope. The end is a bit rough: the 'Fish' is visible for a short while only, which is intentional, and so I thought I could get away with a limited amount of detail. There is a better quality version on the site: simply go to the plant page and select the arrox tree.
Here is a short 'making of'. The plants were all designed with XFrog, a program aimed wholly at structures that branch and grow, i.e., plants. The various rules and settings can be quite complex, but it allows very good control over the characteristics of any plant you create with it. There are not many good plant editors about. One of the few other candidates is the plant editor inside Vue, but that is unfortunately geared towards changing and mutating existing plants, and does not allow the creation of a plant from scratch. Vue has the advantage that it allows its own plants to move in a breeze, which certainly adds to the liveliness of a scene.
The image above shows one of the flowering plants in the swamp scene, as it looks inside XFrog.
The next stage is to produce a suitable environment, for which I use Vue Infinite. Basically you start with a 'terrain', which in this case is the ground with some grooves in it to hold streams. Vue allows the user to define 'ecosystems' as collections of 3D objects that are placed according to rules. For instance, one such system could be limited to high points in the terrain. In this swamp scene the arrox trees only grow on such relatively high ground. The marsh growths, with reeds etc., are limited to medium height zones, while in this case hardly anything grows in the lowest ones. That is on purpose, as they would be obscured by muddy water anyway.
Once the playing filed is ready, the camera is set to fly through the scene, and to produce a ray-traced image 24 times a second, or more. A simple scene lasting 4 seconds may take about 10 hours, so a short film of one minute takes many nights of lonely processing (for the computer, that is; I will be asleep).
And then it is a matter of turning the individual frames into films, for which I use VirtualDub. The resulting clips are much too large to show on the internet so they have to be compressed, at the loss of quality. Adding sound and titles adds to the fun, for which I use Adobe's Premiere (Elements).
And there we are; a Furahan scene that does not actually look that alien. One reason for this is that plants may yield less obvious visual 'alienness' than animals. Regardless , I could not resist putting in an animal at the end. a specimen of a 'Fishes IV' species. I do not yet know how to make the parts of their body move, something that would add greatly to the visual quality of the film. But this is the level of my animation skills at present. I do not think that I will try to become good at it, as there is too little time for that.
Click to enlarge. From left to right, typical examples of species from the Fishes IV, V and VI groups. Copyright Gert van Dijk
But I guess that some of you will want to know more about the various 'Fishes', that are just called that by Furahan people because the word came easily, not because it is biologically correct. In this sense the early Horizonists seem to have gone for the old custom of labelling just about any type of water animal a 'Fish'. 'Crayfish' and 'starfish' come to mind as well. I will not go into the early development of Fishes I, II and II, that follow one another in geological time. Not so for Fishes IV, V and VI, shown above in a rough sketch. Here is a quote from an authoritative source, Nyoroge's "Broad Stokes":
"From this point on hexapod evolution becomes more complex. ‘Fishes III’ gave rise to three new groups, ‘Fishes IV, V and VI’, all of which had three pairs of fins. This has caused a great deal of confusion. There are two schools of thought trying to explain the ‘Fishes III Division’, as the debate has become known. The ‘Hexaphile School’ holds that Fishes IV, V and VI evolved separately from multifinned ancestors, and have three pairs of limbs in common, because three pairs of limbs are innately superior to any other number, without actually explaining in much detail why this should be the case. The ‘Monophyletic School’ contends that all three groups have three pairs simply because they all stem from a single ancestor. This is somewhat surprising in view of other differences between Fishes IV, V and VI, which do not suggest a common ancestry. The ‘Contingency View’, which has been gaining strength lately, holds that there is no innate advantage in any number of limbs, and that all three groups have the same number of limbs by accident. Molecular Cladisticians keep silent about the matter, due to a lack of clear evidence one way or the other." | <urn:uuid:d025ca25-2304-46fe-b8df-ff2e32dc9356> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2010/11/furaha-swamp-scene-ii.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965354 | 1,125 | 1.75 | 2 |
Written by PETA
This one’s for our campaign to encourage Chicago to maintain its ban on foie gras. With a different slogan, it could probably also be pressed into service as a reminder to tip your waiters. Either way, I’m a big fan of it. It features the wonderful Brooke Johnson, and a plea to Chicago’s alderman to put a stop to the hideous practice of force-feeding ducks and geese so that rich people can pretend there’s something civilized about chewing on their livers. Check it out:
you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail [email protected]. If you need to report cruelty to
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Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. For whatever reason, you are now asking the question: Why should animals have rights? Read more. | <urn:uuid:49920052-9186-467c-9b4d-9c6720bbd910> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2007/12/07/Get-a-Taste-for-Foie-Gras.aspx | 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 | 0.950506 | 284 | 1.5 | 2 |
People often come back from Israel and share their photos and anecdotes. Brooke Weinbaum came back and founded a magazine.
"I wanted others to love Israel, too," says the publisher of Yalla Israel, which she started as a student at Florida Atlantic University. "I want them to see how fun and modern it is."
Score another success for Birthright Israel, which sends college-age people to the Jewish state. Now in its 13th year — its bar mitzvah year, as supporters call it — Birthright Israel has sponsored free 10-day trips for 300,000 young people.
"It has reached heights we never dreamed of," says Charles Bronfman, a philanthropist and one of the program founders, who donated several million in seed money for Birthright Israel. "We need a strong diaspora as well as a strong Israel. [Birthright Israel] has brought tremendous positive results."
Running on a $120 million budget, the organization is based in New York, with regional workers in several cities including Hollywood, Fla. Birthright Israel has sent about 40,000 young Jews to Israel each year, coming from all U.S. states and Canadian provinces, plus more than 50 countries. More than 12,000 young adults from South Florida have taken the trips.
In Israel, the youths visit sites from the Golan Heights to Jerusalem to the Negev Desert. They see museums, sample regional foods, and mix with Israeli soldiers and each other.
In so doing, many grow a bond with the land and with other Jews.
Weinbaum traveled in 2010 with Birthright Israel. She'd previously visited the land, but saw it with different eyes the second time. Upon returning to FAU, she got an internship with the Israel on Campus Coalition, which later gave her a grant to start the magazine.
The online-only publication, at yallaisraelmagazine.com, started with South Florida events in February, along with news from Israel. Three issues since have broadened to events nationwide.
"It shows the real Israel — the people, places, culture — a taste of everything," says Weinbaum, 22, of the magazine whose name is drawn from the Arabic word for "let's go."
Weinbaum, who earned a degree in Jewish studies in May, plans to return to the Jewish state with Masa Israel, a longterm immersion program. She'll spend five months in Tel Aviv and continue publishing the magazine.
"Even if people don't go to Israel, I want them to know about it," she said.
Birthright Israel was designed for young Jews like Greg Matus. Before his trip in January 2001, he was a lukewarm Jew whose family attended Sabbath sporadically, although they did the major holidays. Afterward, he became an active member of the Jewish Federation of Broward County and Temple Kol Ami Emanu-El in Plantation.
"It had a profound effect on me at the most important time in my life," says Matus, 34, regional manager for a real estate investment company. "It woke me up to where I came from. It made me think about my connection to Jewish culture and heritage."
Matus married a Jewish woman, and their three children attend the temple's day school. The family went to Israel in 2008. And even though eldest son Max is only 5 1/2 years old, Matus is already planning to have his bar mitzvah in Israel.
"You don't know on the front end the effect it can have on you," Matus says of Birthright Israel. "If any young Jewish person called me to talk about it, I'd say, go."
Matus' story closely tracks study results at Brandeis University. In 2009-2010, researchers there found that Birthright Israel alumni felt more connected to Israel and a stronger sense of identity as Jews. The alumni also were more likely to marry other Jews and to raise their children as Jewish. And even spouses who didn't go on the tours were four times as likely to convert to Judaism.
"Nobody leans on anybody," Bronfman says. "We don't care what they do, as long as they have an emotional attachment to Israel and they're happy to be Jewish."
The latest numbers say that 70 percent of Birthright participants say the tours "changed their lives," Bronfman says.
Michael Miller, 22, was among those who felt a change. The FAU economics major was raised in a "High Holy Days household" — observing Passover and Hanukkah. But he didn't attend Sabbath services or Hebrew school.
In college, he "started to get an itch for something spiritual," Miller says. "I wanted to be part of something larger than myself."
He took a Birthright Israel trip in May 2011 and got hooked. It was more than the sights — although those included places like Masada, the Dead Sea and the Western Wall. It was also the soldiers who traveled with the group. And the late-night talks over the nature of God and the role of Judaism in daily life.
"There is something about a nation of Jews that makes you crave a Jewish identity," Miller says. "It's a beautiful country and great people who are enthralled with their Judaism."
Even more: Many lived like Jews without an emphasis on ritual, he says. "In Israel, Judaism is whatever you want it to be. I gained an optimistic feeling toward Judaism. I felt confident of my place in the community."
These days, the group has begun adding "niche tours." Some specialize in Middle Eastern food or archaeology. Some are geared toward photography or high-tech industry. Outdoorsy types can go hiking or rafting or kayaking. Paraplegics, too, can find Birthright tours for them.
The biggest challenge is money. This year, Birthright Israel can afford to send only 42,000 of the 75,000 applicants. And the challenge will only grow: Starting in 2013, the group wants to increase the travelers to 51,000 each year.
Bronfman remains optimistic. "We won't rest until Birthright Israel is as important a passage to adulthood as a bar or bat mitzvah. We think that's where we're going."
[email protected] or 954-356-4730. | <urn:uuid:c2410d61-1e8a-4d48-b32e-d74fdffa3f52> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ky3.com/topic/fl-birthright-jewish-travel-program-20120810,0,236962.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976632 | 1,317 | 1.625 | 2 |
The suicide of famed programmer and free access advocate Aaron Swartz shocked the world. However, the underlying story of the how the Obama Administration prosecuted — and, in the eyes of many, persecuted — Swartz for seeking to publish academic papers which were later released by MIT without charge. Nevertheless, United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and the Obama Administration relentlessly pursued Swartz and sought an absurd 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines before he took his own life. His family blames the Justice Department and Ortiz for his suicide. Swartz opposed the Administration’s fight against public access and particularly President Obama’s “Kill List.” . . .
Swartz was one of this country’s most extraordinary individuals. At age 14, he helped create RSS, the tool allowing people to subscribe to online information. He later was a founder of a company that merged with Reddit where we get many of our daily stories . . .
Like many of us, Swartz was critical of increasingly stringent laws balkanizing information in our society from works to words to even common images. He however took that crusade to extraordinary lengths.
In 2008, he took on PACER, or Public Access to Court Electronic Records, for its charging of 10 cents a page for documents. I agreed with Swartz about this charge as being a barrier to public access to our courts and important cases. He argued correctly that there should be free access . . .
In 2011, Swartz took on JSTOR, the academic repository of papers and research. It is a subscription based service. He broke into the computer system at MIT through a utility closet using a laptop and a false identity. He downloaded 4.8 million documents. Notably, however, MIT chose not to pursue charges — to its credit. For many years, academics argued that such material should be free to the public as a matter of principle. Two days before Swartz’s death, MIT releases all documents publicly free of charge . . .
However, despite MIT’s position that it did not want to bring charges, Carmen M. Ortiz saw her chance. Ortiz is the United States Attorney for Massachusetts and a graduate of our law school who spoke recently at our commencement. Industry groups and lobbyists have long gotten what they wanted from Obama on criminalizing trademark and copyright violations. States have shown the same capture by industry groups. Swartz was a prime target as an advocate of public access and the Obama Administration threw everything that they had at him . . .
The abuse of Swartz speaks of industry capture of our government that has now claimed the life of one of the brightest of our country. He is the ultimate personification of how our copyright and trademark laws have been flipped on their head. Rather than protect creativity, they now stifle such creativity. We now have prosecutors and lawyers pursuing people like Swartz to prevent public access to information. His tragic image hanging in his apartment speaks to the dismal state of information control in this country. His was truly a beautiful mind and his death should galvanize his cause to empower citizens in their demand to breakdown the rising barriers to information in this country.It is so alarming that time and time again President Barack Obama and his administration are permitted to thumb their nose at our constitution and our laws and simply rule by executive fiat to the great harm of our citizens--something our forefathers fought and sacrificed life and limb to win our country's independence from the British. Or even worse, to sit idly by while Congress passes and the President signs into law legislation that permits the President to order the assassination of any American citizen whenever a clique of national security experts deems such killing as necessary for national security interests. People who claim to be advocates and fighters of civil liberties and rights are shamelessly silent, as if all of a sudden it is okay when it's being done by a man with whom they have a frightening cult-like affinity. One liberal, pro-gay rights blog was filled with hateful comments demonizing Swartz because he refused to identify as a gay, straight or bisexual person, believing that his sexual oriention should be irrelevant to who he was as a person. And then people wonder how leaders like Adolph Hitler can come to power and commit such horrific human atrocities before finally being brought to justice. God help us. | <urn:uuid:c14f1e32-997b-403b-b0bd-9fed80dcdaff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2013/01/turley-on-aaron-swartz-death-by.html?showComment=1358209587873 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975539 | 874 | 1.5 | 2 |
The cycle carries on paying no attention to our pleas of "slow down" or "hurry up." In the blink of an eye, a decade is gone and an infant in arms is now pitching a no hitter at his little league game. What is more astonishing is how each of those years can dilute what were once strong felt memories and emotions.
How many times in the past 11 years have you stopped to think about the moment you learned our nation had fallen under attack on September 11th? Last week, as you flipped the calendar to the next month, did September 11 stick out to you the way it has done in years past or was it just another Tuesday hiding in the busy workweek?
Together, we vowed to stand as one nation, fight for freedom and protect the core values that had made innocent Americans a target for attack.
It is disheartening to see the divisive, hateful course that our country has taken since that day we stood in solidarity. Now, apathy has become the unrelenting force eroding our foundation, creating a great abyss where patriotism is left to drown while the principles of our founding fathers wash ashore.
The attacks of 9/11 were the work of pure evil played out for the entire world to see. We can't be naive to the fact that nations who do not value our freedom and liberty will continue to go to great lengths to ensure that what is right and just for humanity collapses like the Twin Towers. Call it ignorance, jealousy or just pure evil.
No matter how you label it there will never be an answer to justify these atrocities. I shake my head when I think that on this 11th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, we as Americans are giving terrorists the upper hand- doing their dirty work for them. We take for granted our freedoms. We overlook the brave soldiers who volunteer time away from home, family, and loved ones to protect the rights of each and every American. Yes, even the rights of those who protest against the very existence of our armed forces and seek to eradicate military funding.
Brave soldiers willingly face the ultimate sacrifice to protect and uphold the promise which our founding fathers built this nation upon: freedom. It's not something you can buy with money, hold in your hand or admire in a store. Yet it is the most precious gift ever given to the citizens of this nation. One so precious it is worth dying for. This gift was bought and paid for with the blood, sweat and tears of honest, hard-working Americans.
Those who are determined to destroy our nation and the freedom it upholds want nothing more than to see us collapse by destroying each other. We are on the fast track to do more damage to ourselves than they could ever dream of.
It is time that we remember what was under attack on September 11, 2011. It was not just our land or our people; it was our principles, our values and our foundation. Remembering should not be a case of overwhelming ourselves with the anger and sadness evoked by those unspeakable acts. Rather, we must continue to grow and learn from these despicable acts.
Each time our minds and our hearts return to the piles of rubble in New York City, the charred wreckage in a peaceful Pennsylvania pasture, or the noble halls of the Pentagon, we are guided to make decisions that strengthen the nation our founding fathers had envisioned- honoring freedom, liberty and individual rights.
Our nation's leaders have wasted too much time shrinking away from our adversaries, apologetic for the successful nation that was built by our founding fathers.
We remember to rebuild so that sacrifices made by brave men and women overseas will not be in vain. We remember to honor the brave men and women who willingly choose to serve and protect our freedom as much as we remember those who weren't given the choice of life or freedom on September 11, 2011 in New York, Pennsylvania or Washington DC.
It's as if each soul lost that day serves as a guardian angel over our nation- guiding us back to the path clearly marked by our founding fathers.
How long have we ignored their gentle nudges?
It seems far too long that our nation has been headed down a dark and dangerous path. Joining together, we must move our great country forward and protect our citizens by strengthening our military, stimulating our economy, advancing education for our nation's youth and restoring the innovative, entrepreneurial spirit of America to our communities.
This September 11, remember the day we lost our innocence as a nation and remember the moment we stood together promising that our future would reflect the freedom and prosperity that our founding fathers envisioned.
What path will we take tomorrow? | <urn:uuid:a2f083af-cd17-4aea-89f8-bf5df8047f08> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rockmartjrl.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Sen-+Bill+Heath+urges+everyone+to+remember+Sept-+11%20&id=20099284&instance=secondary_stories_left_column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962253 | 944 | 1.523438 | 2 |
It's called "contraceptive equity," and it's one of the newest and most important demands being raised by union activists.
They're insisting that employers, whose health insurance plans pay for many preventive drugs, devices and services, cover the cost of drugs, devices and services aimed at the unwanted pregnancies that inflict such an emotional and financial toll on millions of American women and their families.
More than half the plans do not include such coverage, notes the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), which is leading the drive for "contraceptive equity."
That's true even of plans in which the impotence drug Viagra is among the prescription medicines that are covered.
As a CLUW activist advised employers with such plans: "If you can pay to crank it up, you'd better pay far the consequences."
CLUW cites rulings made over the past two years by the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and several courts. They held that employers who deny contraceptive benefits while providing benefits for other preventive care are illegally discriminating against women.
Federal agencies and those of 20 state governments provide contraceptive benefits. The states also have enacted laws requiring employers who provide preventive care benefits to include contraceptive coverage.
Problem is, says CLUW, the laws and the court and federal rulings are only laxly enforced.
CLUW is pushing hard for much stronger enforcement, as well as for enactment of a federal law. But the main effort is to help unions win contraceptive benefits in their contract negotiations with employers.
Studies show the cost would be less than $1.50 a month per employee, less than 1 percent of the average cost of health insurance overall. And even that small cost could be offset -- and then some -- by reducing the number of employee pregnancies and thus absenteeism and avoiding the medical costs related to unintended pregnancies.
The ever-rising cost of health insurance could be reduced, too. The Center for Reproductive Rights estimates that a sexually active woman not using contraceptives over a five-year period could become pregnant at least four times at a cost for care of $14,000 to her health insurance provider. Five years worth of the most common contraceptive pill would cost about $2,300.
Certainly the health care costs of women workers would be reduced. CLUW notes that "women pay on average 68 percent more out of pocket for health care expenses than men -- largely as a result of having to pay for contraception out of pocket." Overall, their out-of-pocket payments average nearly $600 a year.
CLUW, with 20,000 members, has set out to marshal broad support for the ambitious -- and long overdue -- drive for "contraceptive equity," organizing forums around the country to address the issue with a wide variety of union activists.
The drive already has wan the backing of the AFL-CIO and many individual unions. That significantly includes the 1.4 million-member Teamsters and 1.3 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
An important side effect of the drive could be to bring more women into the labor movement by providing them with a vital issue that seriously affects them. Currently, only about 12 percent of working women belong to unions.
Few would dispute, in any case, the conclusion of CLUW's Gloria T. Johnson that "there simply is no excuse for excluding women from health care coverage in an area so important to them and to our society."
Copyright © 2005 Dick Meister, a San Francisco-based freelance columnist who has covered labor issues for more than four decades as a reporter, editor and commentator. ([email protected], www.dickmeister.com). | <urn:uuid:af9eae85-6dd8-4ce1-bd58-0a42496c5dba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zcommunications.org/contraceptive-equity-by-dick-meister | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965517 | 759 | 1.820313 | 2 |
I’m re-reading Arthur Koestler’s Scum of the Earth at the moment. It’s autobiographical reportage and reflections on his time as a political prisoner in France during World War 2. His accounts of the night terrors of his fellow detainees prompt this post.
“Each of us carried a weight in his memory to put in the Past scale of the balance and lift the Present scale. Yankel carried the weight of his two pogroms and the prison in Lublyana, where people were made to talk by introducing rubber tubes into their nostrils and pouring water through them; Mario carried the weight of his nine years of prison in Italy, including torture by electric shock during the preliminary investigation; Tamas, the Hungarian poet, had his three years of hard labour in Szeged – to quote only my three immediate neighbours in Hutment number 34 in Le Vernet. The fourth one, myself, had his hundred days under sentence of death in Seville.
Most of us had our periodical nightmares, dreams of falling once more into the hands of our persecutors, regularly recurring repetitions of the rubber tubes, the electric shocks, the death patio in Seville. Those amongst us who had no personal experience of torture replaced it by the fear of it. They had more acute, obsessive fear of the O.V.R.A and the Gestapo than those who had actually passed through their hands.” (p94)
He says of his Italian former-Communist friend Mario, whom he left in the appalling conditions of forced labour at Le Vernet shortly before the French turned it over to the Gestapo:
“I could never argue against that particular quiet smile of Mario’s; it made me feel futile and childish although he was younger than I. I knew it had taken nine years of imprisonment to form that smile – three years fermenting in solitary confinement and a further six years to become ripe and mellow while he shared twelve square yards of space with comrades. He had been nineteen when the cell door closed behind him – and twenty-eight when it opened again two years ago. This kind of experience either crushes a man or produces something very rare and perfect – Mario belonged to the latter category.” (p99)
See The Hub on the recent Saudi hunger strike to raise awareness of the Saudi human rights activists who have been detained without trial, several in solitary confinement for months. They went on 48 hour hunger strike earlier this month. Below is background and what has happened in the past week:
First a quick digression to say that the Hub – the media channel of human rights org WITNESS – is an impressive site as long as you keep in mind that mapping more human rights abuses for the US than the Democratic Republic of Congo doesn’t mean that the DRC is a better place to live, rights-wise. Imbalance and disproportionality dogs all participatory projects – in this case it’s probably explained by the fact that many human rights activists are from democracies and they – quite rightly – want to keep their own house in order. It kind of goes with the territory that the more restrictive the authorities in a country, the harder it may be to bear witness to human rights abuses. Taking that on board the untarnished records of Algeria and Iran don’t look quite so good. So basically don’t use the Google map mashup to judge concentration of abuse – it won’t tell you that.
So it’s important not to offer blind support to just anybody who is touted as a human rights activist. Some people and organisations adopt the human rights mantle to sow repression and hate. For example, we have the Islamic Human Rights Commission whose values are exemplified by the following (David T):
“What astonishes me is that the IHRC is regarded as a serious organisation, whose views on muslim issues should be listened to. It should certainly not be regarded as a Human Rights body. This is, after all, the group which shortlisted – as Islamophobe of the Year 2006
“King Mohammed VI of Morocco For his ’so called reforms’ aimed at removing Islam from the the Moroccan people.”.
The reforms in question were the prohibition of polygamy, and the legislation which made it easier for women to divorce their husbands. This the the IHRC’s definition of “Islamophobia”. This is the IHRC’s notion of “Human Rights”.
But shrugging and ignoring threatened human rights activists because we don’t have full reliable information about them risks depriving the people who need it most of international solidarity. The fundamental question should always be not who are they, but what do they want. And to look to trusted sources like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, and cross reference those with participatory sites such as The Hub (which has a conspicuous disclaimer acknowledging they can’t vouch for the veracity of the reports the host, but which has the potential to reach the parts that official NGOs can’t). End of digression.
The Saudi detainees on behalf of whom the hunger strike was observed are all political prisoners – academics, lawyers, writers, jailed for their opinions. Amnesty summarises how nine of them came to be arrested:
“The men are prisoners of conscience detained for their advocacy of peaceful political change and the protection and promotion of human rights, and are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.
All of those named above, except for Dr Matrouk al-Faleh, were arrested in the cities of Jeddah and Madinah on 03 February 2007 and are held in Dhahban prison in western Saudi Arabia.
These eight men were targeted because they had issued a petition calling for political reform and discussed the idea of establishing a human rights organization and challenging the impunity enjoyed by the Ministry of Interior’s arresting authorities. The Ministry of Interior, on the other hand, issued a statement claiming the detainees had been arrested because they were collecting money to supportterrorism.
Dr Matrouk al-Faleh was arrested in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, on 19 May 2008. He is held without charge in al-Ha’ir prison for political detainees in Riyadh. He has not been permitted access to a lawyer since his arrest and on occasions has been refused family visits. He is also reported to be denied access to medical attention.”
Human Rights Watch background - overlapping but going by the names, slightly different – I’m not sure how many campaigns are going on:
“In March 2004, Saudi authorities arrested al-Lahim, Ali al-Dumaini, Matrook al-Faleh, Abdullah al-Hamid, and eight other activists for having signed and circulated petitions calling for reform. Al-Lahim, who was released without charge, became the lead defense lawyer for the trial against al-Dumaini, al-Hamid, and al-Faleh, which started in August 2004. In November 2004, the authorities rearrested al-Lahim after he stated on Al Jazeera satellite television that he believed his clients to be innocent. A court in May 2005 sentenced al-Dumaini, al-Hamid, and al-Faleh to nine, seven, and six years in prison, respectively(http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/05/16/saudia10955.htm). Al-Lahim remained in solitary confinement in al-Ha’ir political prison until King Abdullah pardoned and released all four just days after acceding to the throne in August 2005. The other activists arrested in March 2004 also remain banned from foreign travel.
Al-Lahim quickly returned to human rights legal advocacy, defending two teachers in court against charges of blasphemy introduced by their colleagues and students who disapproved of their modern, unorthodox teaching methods. King Abdullah pardoned both teachers.
Al-Lahim was the first lawyer to bring a criminal case against Saudi Arabia’s religious police in a court of law. In 2005, he represented a woman, Umm Faisal, in a case against the religious police for wrongful deprivation of liberty. A court ruled that the religious police are “not to be held accountable.”
Religious policemen had stopped Faisal’s car, forced her driver out, and drove Faisal and her daughter at high speed through Riyadh before crashing the car, taking away the women’s mobile phones, locking them inside the car, and fleeing on foot. Al-Lahim is now representing Faisal in her lawsuit against the religious police for damages in that case in a civil court.
In 2007, al-Lahim also represented the family of Salman al-Huraisi in appealing a court’s acquittal of two religious policemen who faced charges of beating al-Huraisi to death in May 2007. The appeal is pending.
Al-Lahim came to prominence in Saudi Arabia and the wider region when he represented the “Girl of Qatif” in her appeal of a sentence to 90 lashes for having in 2006 illegally “mingled” with an unrelated man in a car, before a gang of seven men set upon her and the man and raped them both. After al-Lahim spoke out about the injustice of punishing the victim (http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/11/28/saudia17433.htm), the appeals court increased her sentence to 200 lashes and six months in prison and confiscated his law license (http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/11/16/saudia17363.htm).
Al-Lahim stood firmly in support of the woman while senior clerics, judges, and the Ministry of Justice besmirched the young woman’s reputation and others called him a “traitor to the country.” In December 2007, King Abdullah set aside the sentences of the woman and man. “
The prisoners, as listed on the Facebook site:
- Professor Matrook H. Al-Faleh, political science professor at King Saud University in Riyadh, detained by security forces in May 19, 2008.
- Attorney Suliman Ibrahim Al-Reshoudi, former judge and human-right advocate, detained in February 2, 2007.
- Attorney Dr. Mousa Mohammed Al-Qarni, former university professor and human-right activist, detained in February 2, 2007.
- Professor Abdulrahman Abdullah Al-Shomairy, former professor of education and human-right activist, detained in February 2, 2007.
- Dr. Abdulaziz Suliman Al-Khereiji, human-right activist, detained in February 2, 2007.
- Saifaldeen Faisal Al-Sherif, human-right activist, detained in February 2, 2007.
- Fahd Alskaree Al-Qurashi, human-right activist, detained in February 2, 2007.
- Abdulrahman Bin Sadiq, Human-right activist, detained in February 2, 2007.
- Dr. Saud Mohammed Al-Hashemi, human-right activist, detained in February 2, 2007.
- Ali Khosifan Al-Qarni, human-right activist, detained in February 2, 2007.
- Mansour Salim Al-Otha, human-right activist, detained in December 12, 2007.
Their defence teams who observed the hunger strike:
- Ayman Mohammad Al-Rashed, human-right activist.
- Saud Ahmed Al-Degaither, human-right activist.
- Professor Abdulkareem Yousef Al-Khadher, College of Islamic Jurisprudence, Qassim University.
- Dr. Abdulrahman Hamed Al-Hamed, professor of Islamic economics.
- Abdullah Mohammad Al-Zahrani, human-right activist.
- Abdulmohsin Ali Al-Ayashi, human-right activist.
- Fahd Abdulaziz Al-Oraini, human-right activist.
mobile# +966502566678 email: [email protected]
- Fowzan Mohsin Al-Harbi, Human-right activist.
mobile# +966501916774 email: [email protected]
- Dr. Mohammad Fahd Al-Qahtani, college professor and TV show host.
mobile# +966555464345 email: [email protected]
- Mohana Mohammed Al-Faleh, human-right activist.
- Nasser Salim Al-Otha, human-right activist.
- Hashim Abdullah Al-Refai, writer and activist.
- Waleed Sami Abu Alkhair, writer and activist.
mobile# +966567761788 email: [email protected]
Others are listed too, 65 in total. These people are unbelievable courageous to stick their necks out in that authoritarian regime. They could all end up in prison and worse. It is a very rare act of protest and it mustn’t go to waste. This is why it is important that the Saudi government understands that if they do they will not be forgotten. Amnesty (scroll to the bottom of the following link) lists the addresses of the relevant officials to appeal to by post or fax.
What did they strike for? Most immediately, the rights due their clients according to Saudi’s own Criminal Procedure Law and Arrest and Detention Law, specifically habeas corpus (an instrument to safeguard individual rights against detainment without trial by their state; an independent court decides whether a custodian has the right to hold the detainee; pivotal, in James Somersett’s case, to abolishing slavery in Britain), access to legal representation, periods in solitary confinement to be restricted to 60 days, visits, and a fair trial. More on Saudi law and these detainees from Emudeer on the participatory site Now Public (I wish he’d link to the odd source). Indirectly they were hunger striking for the right to continue their work on constitutional reform – the right for Saudis to gather and express themselves freely.
What happened further to the strike?
Nothing on Amnesty since 11th. Nothing on the Facebook site Recent News since Oct 25 – the Wall is alive but there’s no news.
The last thing I found was The Hub reporting blowback from the action:
“As in example of the latest witch hunts against human right activists is the cancellation of Dr.Mohammad Fahad Al-Qahtani’s TV talk show (Economic Issues) in Al-Eqtisadiah Business Channel (a Pan-Arab satellite channel) in response to the interviews he had with the international media outlets during the hunger strike. The episodes of blocking blogs that belong to human right activists continue, the authority’s latest casualty is Mr. Esam Mudeer’s Blog which has been blocked because of his involvements in publicizing, publishing, following and participating in the hunger strike. Unfortunately, these suppressive steps become the inevitable fates for those Saudi activists who intend to uplift and call for human rights.
The activists’ responses to the government’s suppressive campaigns have been very remarkable. The crackdown on venues for expressions has drawn activists closer to one another, and attracts new waves of sympathizers who will eventually join the human right activities. In particular, young followers are fascinated by the culture of human rights and justice due to the fact that it is built around virtues of peace and civic means, their supports to that culture are clear examples of the solidarity and dedication they showed to such a noble cause.”
Why are things so quiet?
As mentioned above Amnesty gives addresses of Saudi officials. I have a hunch they’re not so amenable to grass roots action so I will be contacting my MP and Foreign Secretary David Miliband. | <urn:uuid:6204ed45-fc70-4e31-908f-32427fdce4d0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/saudi-hunger-strikers-why-the-silence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954561 | 3,360 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Rising Middle East tensions are boosting crude oil prices again, but are unlikely to impact U.S. gasoline prices for now, experts say.
As Israel massed tanks and troops along the Gaza Strip and Palestinian militants launched hundreds of missile strikes deep into the country, crude oil futures spiked 1.3% to nearly $87 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday. Behind the third straight price jump: fears that a broadening of the conflict could cause supply disruptions from oil-producing countries in the region, which supply about 20% of the world's oil.
Last winter, crude oil spiked to about $100 a barrel when Iran threatened to cut off supplies. "The elephant does seem to be back in the room,'' says Patrick DeHaan, senior analyst for price tracker gasbuddy.com.
Offsetting a potential jump in gas prices: lower demand and ample supplies, fueled in part by rising U.S. production U.S. crude oil inventories are up about 11% from year-ago levels.
Gas prices have been dropping sharply in the past month, with Saturday's national average at $3.42 a gallon, down 32 cents from $3.74 a month ago, according to the Oil Price Information Service. Prices have dropped even more sharply in California, where refinery and supply woes that drove prices to $5 in some markets have plummeted nearly 80 cents the past month to $3.80 a gallon.
Rising production and slow global economic growth have helped keep prices down, muting a major war-related spike in crude oil prices. Last week, the International Energy Agency cut its global oil-demand forecast through year's end by nearly 300,000 a day, based on the weak European economy and residual effects of Super storm Sandy in the U.S.
"Unless there are signs of further destabilization in the region, rising prices is kind of a non-story,'' DeHann says. "I don't see a dramatic bump in prices, at least for now."
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Latest Middle East conflict shouldn't boost gas prices | <urn:uuid:e29c79a3-9550-417f-af95-c2d74cc0bbf8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fdlreporter.com/usatoday/article/1711049?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Cimg%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938397 | 438 | 1.84375 | 2 |
It's one thing to visit the United States to negotiate a business deal or participate in training and company meetings. Thousands of people do this every year, many using a B-1 visa to gain entry -- and it's hardly worth noticing. Or is it? A lawsuit by an Infosys employee alleges that the giant Indian outsourcer is committing fraud by using the temporary visas to import foreign workers who would normally have to be admitted under the more more stringent, and often-abused, H-1B visa program.
Jack Palmer, a 43-year-old IT pro in Lowndes County, Ala., filed the suit, claiming that he was disciplined and ostracized after declining to write fraudulent letters in support of visa applicants who were really planning to work in the United States for Infosys.
Palmer's charges are ugly. If they prove to be true, one of India's most important and respected companies will have been exposed for engaging in a pattern of deliberate fraud and tax evasion, all while thumbing its nose at laws designed to protect American workers.
Yes, that's outrageous, but there's more disturbing news this week about the use of foreign tech workers to undermine wages and working conditions. I've seen ads by two companies -- Newt Global of Texas and Digital-X of Sunnyvale, Calif. -- that are hosting job fairs in India to recruit workers to come to the United States on H-1B visas.
The job market is showing signs of improvement, in Silicon Valley at least, but with tens of thousands of IT workers still looking for work, recruiting foreign workers makes no sense at all. Still, it's not surprising.
American firms are doing all they can to squeeze costs, and the H-1Bs, designed to alleviate a labor shortage that no longer exists, are a tool to that end. What's so startling about Palmer's case is that Infosys is allegedly going a step further by using a visa that was never intended to bring workers into the country.
Before I go further, let me say that I do not -- and you should not -- blame the workers from India and other countries who seek those visas. Like us, they want good jobs and a better life for their families.
Infosys wavering in response
Earlier this month, Infosys essentially denied Palmer's accusations, saying:
While it is our policy not to comment on pending litigation, I can tell you that we stand by our 30-year legacy of transparency and integrity in every area of our business, a legacy that has earned Infosys respect from our clients, employees, shareholders and the communities where we do business. | <urn:uuid:18dbe9fc-817d-4a49-9dfb-b39d656a167e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/inside-infosyss-alleged-illegal-visa-practices-269 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968161 | 544 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Every city and neighborhood has their pioneers, people who are creating abundance for their neighbors and local citizens. These people have a different vision for their communities. We do not have to train community builders, we only have to give them visibility. When we will see how many there are learn from, our vision for our local communities will shift. This list is a beginning.
ABCD in Action is a website focused on ways to apply the principles and practices of Asset-Based Community Development and related strength-based and commonsense approaches. As of July 2012, the site’s members include practitioners from the US, Canada, Australia, England, Wales and Ireland with interest and experience in grass roots practice, health applications, social policy, evaluation and outcomes, education and daily life.
A Small Group is a network of citizens in Cincinnati engaged in caring for their community. They are shifting the way people gather in the city and shifting the narrative of the city from one of problem to one of possibility. They hold intensive, community conversations, a monthly meeting and a civic engagement series to make this happen.
Minette and her group have created a way to circle “youth-at-risk” with a supportive group of neighborhood people. They provide a positive alternative to the criminal justice system.
Bill is a pioneer in understanding the power of relationships as community-building tools; his book Community Dreams remains the best eye-opener regarding possibilities for local invention.
This group uses community building and cooperative strategies to get at the root causes of poverty in cities across Canada and New Zealand. They are research based and engage people at the lower levels and margins of society to develop new thinking for a difficult and stubborn issue. They are getting some amazing results.
Hear Tamarack president and co-founder Paul Born discuss ways to get people with different backgrounds and roles to blur the lines that divide them in “Why You Should Bring Community to the Table,” a July 2011 interview with Hildy Gottlieb, co-founder of Creating the Future, in The Chronicle of Philanthrophy.
Gordon and Alison, based at St.Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada, have become leaders of an international movement focusing on the power of local relationships and assets in the village development process.
Jim led the City of Seattle’s neighborhood department to support neighborhood invention and problem solving. His book, Neighbor Power: Building Community the Seattle Way, describes the diversity of initiatives that neighbors undertake when government supports rather than controls or ignores their efforts.
Since the mid 90's Dan has been helping communities, funders, nonprofits and governmental entities, both nationally and internationally, create greater community change through the principles of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD). He is one of the original faculty of John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann's Asset Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University and has a long history as a neighborhood organizer, nonprofit agency and United Way CEO, and university adjunct faculty member.
Tim and April are members of a citizen engagement organization in Sarasota, Florida, where their leadership in focusing the community on the importance of local relationships and assets has resulted in a climate of invention.
Joe, in Cincinnati, and Sandra, in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, are masters at creating local initiatives that draw marginal and labeled people back into neighborhood relationships.
Al is a leading social inventor in Canada who has learned how to create effective associations that support labeled people outside service systems. We can all learn from his explorations of effective new problem-solving networks.
This is an international group of creative practitioners of an asset-based approach to community building. Their biographies and contact information are on their website.
These two Canadian First Nation leaders have helped renew the traditional knowledge that powerful nations are gift centered.
Ann has learned how to protect a supportive association from lapsing into becoming one more service agency. Her association has provided opportunities for addicted people to create useful, productive neighborhood initiatives and relationships.
As the pastor of an inner-city congregation in Indianapolis, Mike has invented and supported new initiatives to create productive neighborhood friendships.
Allison is leading the way toward new understandings of the creativity and inventiveness of a neighborhood’s young children. The Scavengers are enabling new roles for children to be community builders.
Jackie has led the organizing effort of EBV on Chicago’s West Side. The organization creates unique webs of relationships among neighbors whose mutual support creates amazing opportunities.
If you want to contact Olivia, please let us know ([email protected]).
Olivia is an associate professor of economics at the College of the Bahamas. She is a voice for an economics based on abundance rather than scarcity. Her thinking is grounded in her deep commitment to find an alternative to the modern forms of colonialism. Her efforts are directed to exposing and celebrating the gifts inherent in individuals, communities, and nations. Both are refreshing to find in the academy.
Lois has led a group of neighbors in Ames, Iowa, in creating an open door for people leaving the welfare system. The group understands that their hospitality includes money, friends, and a new meaning for life.
Judith has been a key inventor of Circles of Support, now an international movement creating new community relationships around excluded and marginalized people.
Frances is innovating new approaches for people in politics. The wife of the former governor of Ohio, Ted Strickland, she uses this platform to build cooperation in the human service and educational system world. Her message and way of engaging others always affirms the capacities of citizens and people at the local level.
Ray has fashioned a new institutional role: the school–community connector. His innovative experiments creating new, two-way relationships between a local school and its surrounding neighborhood are groundbreaking.
Marian founded La Leche League, an association of women supporting family life in their own community. The movement is now worldwide and growing in aspiration and influence.
If you want to see the face of authentic health care reform, study the work that Paul is doing. He is a thoracic surgeon in practice but is a force for choosing health over disease. He has demonstrated the healing effects of collaborative care, and the practical and curative effects of focusing on people’s gifts and capacities.
Brighde is a peace builder in Northern Ireland. She has given her life to becoming a bridge for groups who believed that their history and stories made connection impossible. She completely embodies the power of a door-to-door, patient, persistent, person-to-person strategy for changing the world.
This magazine and website cover an elegant scope of wisdom and insight, from large policy questions like the restructuring of our financial system to what individuals and small associations are doing to transform their neighborhoods and thereby the world. An indispensable source for those who care for the well-being of us all.
Louise and those around her are engaged in nation building in South Africa. They embody a relationship-based and collaborative stance to creating the future. If there is a country in the world that will show us that a society based on compassion and accountability is possible, it will beSouth Africa. Louise will be in the forefront of creating that possibility.
For decades, Bob has led initiatives in low-income minority communities that demonstrate how local community relationships are the ultimate source of power and empowerment. | <urn:uuid:e25e137c-0efe-4115-a142-f72e097c4e14> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abundantcommunity.com/home/recommended_links/community_pioneers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956801 | 1,512 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food. ~Hippocrates
Fertility is the ability to fully inhabit a moment, to be completely present. That is where life happens—and that is the creative force of the mother. When we can learn how to connect consciously with what is happening in each moment, however painful, allowing and trusting the unfolding of life on life’s terms—rather than controlling and forcing outcomes—we more simply open, to life. ~ Robin Tiberi, DAOM, L.Ac, Clinical Director The Fertile Soul
My colleague Lorne Brown L.Ac. has put a lot of energy into creating the Acubalance Fertile Diet. Its inspiration came from years of counseling couples in his clinic on how to eat to optimize their fertility. The following is his thorough and balanced approach to nutrition for fertility.
While Chinese physicians have been treating infertility with diet for centuries, Western science is just starting to catch up to the significant role that diet plays in the ovulatory causes of infertility. A landmark study published in 2008, based on the Harvard Nurses Study, makes startling connections between diet and conception. As the most comprehensive research to date on diet and fertility, this study associates a slow carb, whole food, mostly plant based diet with a six-fold increase in fertility.
The Acubalance Fertile Diet is an effort to blend the wisdom of Chinese medicine with groundbreaking western research to help women and couples learn what and how to eat to optimize fertility. The diet includes meal plans, recipes, shopping lists, and tips on mindful eating to help you get started.
But before you launch into this diet (or any other), you might want to take a minute to think about the following.
In my clinical practice women ask me daily about what foods to eat and what foods to avoid in order to lose weight and to be fertile. And to my surprise, when I pursue this question further with them, they all seem to already know the answers.
So I began to wonder why, when we have tons of information about nutrition and diet, we still eat in ways that we know are not healthy for us? Even Oprah, with her access to the very best nutritional expertise, can’t maintain a healthy weight. What’s going on?
I think Bob Greene (Oprah’s trainer) is onto something when he says “that when someone overeats, they are hungry—but what they really crave isn’t necessarily food.” He goes on to say that “people often turn to food as their drug of choice”
when that can’t get what they need in other areas of their life.
I was inspired to reconsider the whole issue of healthy eating and weight loss when I attended a presentation by Paul Pitchford, author of Healing with Whole Foods – Asian Traditions in Modern Nutrition. During his years of experience
counseling people on diet, Paul realized that getting someone to change their diet was like getting them to convert to a new religion. And most people don’t have the discipline it takes to make that change.
He found that if he took the focus off diet and instead concentrated on getting his patients to exercise more and take care of their well-being through meditation and walks in nature, they began to feel better emotionally and could then naturally
gravitate to eating better.
This was an AHA! moment for me. I was in the process of developing the Acubalance Fertile Diet. But despite providing all the great resources it contains, I knew the trick would be in helping my clients feel motivated to make the change to this new way of eating.
It became clear to me that you don’t first focus on changing eating habits; rather, you start by “feeding” the underlying aspects of body, mind, and spirit that are undernourished. You need to find balance and emotional and spiritual
satisfaction in other areas of your life so you won’t be so inclined to use food to fill a void. This led me to come up with three simple steps to feeling better and getting on the path to healthy, joyful, fertile living. | <urn:uuid:3c4454c9-4bf1-443f-af50-6269f311695c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reproductiveacupuncture.com/nutrition/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971374 | 869 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Friday, July 20, 2012
Chicago Versus Austrian Libertarianism (Part I)
The following is in honor of my wife, who has undertaken the reading of Murray Rothbard’s For a New Liberty as means to better understand me, Mark Pelta, who got me going on this topic and Michael Makovi, who will likely disagree with everything I say here.
Within libertarianism there are two basic schools, the Chicago school, often associated with Milton Friedman, and the Austrian school, in its politically active form usually associated with Murray Rothbard. While they have their differences in terms of economic theory, particularly in regards to their understanding of money and the use of a Federal Reserve, I will focus here on the larger ideological question why be a libertarian and support free market policies over state solutions. I know I am being simplistic here, but I hope readers will bear with me. The Chicago school tends to argue for free market policies based on pragmatic arguments. The Austrian school tends to base itself around first principles. One starts with basic liberal principles, which people on the left claim to support, such as non-aggression, and then proceeds to argue that logical consistency demands that one accept libertarianism.
Take, for example, the issue of welfare. A Chicago school libertarian will tell you that government sponsored welfare is a mistake precisely because it does not help poor people. Through the process of "rent seeking," the money will be squandered by bureaucrats or by people who learn to game the system, living off of welfare instead of working. Even the money that makes it into the hands of the truly needy will cause them more harm than good in the long one as they will become dependent upon government and lose the instinctual ability to work their way out of poverty. An Austrian does not care whether or not government welfare is an effective remedy for poverty. What matters is that private property is protected and no coercive force be initiated. Funding welfare requires tax dollars which come from private individuals. Money is personal property and no person can be made to part with it without their consent. Furthermore government is a form of coercion as any time the government does something it is with the implied threat that if people do not comply they will be arrested and, if they go far enough in resisting, possibly killed. Thus, as Lysander Spooner famously argued, the government is essentially a highway man, who refuses to leave you alone after he has taken your money, lectures you about how you should live your life and insists that you should be grateful for the service he is providing by “protecting” you. Thus, from an Austrian perspective, the issue is not whether he has a heart to help the poor; it is that those who claim to be fighting poverty through government are really little Torquemadas, who are destroying personal liberty.
Both the Chicago and Austrian schools have their potential vulnerabilities. The pragmatism of the Chicago school leads it to make ideological compromises on liberty out of a belief that a specific government intervention will benefit the public or at least out of a hope that by going along with the program they can convince the politicians to go with a less damaging plan. Thus, for example, Milton Friedman advocated school vouchers and a negative income tax. Instead of public schools, parents would receive a voucher that would allow them to send their children to a private school of their choice. Instead of welfare, people would receive a guaranteed income. Friedman’s purpose with these plans was to eliminate the government bureaucracies associated with these institutions, which he saw as the main threat, while still offering protection for the poor. Such a position, though, fails to confront the essential problem for the Austrian, mainly that private citizens are still being coerced into paying taxes to support programs that are not even designed to benefit them, but are essentially forms of wealth redistribution in favor of those the government deems “more deserving.”
In practice we have seen over the past few decades Milton Friedman and his followers making a Faustian bargain with the Republican Party (to say nothing of dictators like General Augusto Pinochet of Chile). In exchange for serving as the intellectual front of the Republican Party, the GOP has rhetorically committed itself to the cause of “small government” and in practice has even attempted to at least slow the expansion of the welfare state. While allying with the Republican Party has given libertarians a voice within mainstream politics and may have even produced some positive policy results, the past few years have made it clear that the price paid for these gains has been high, perhaps a little too high. Libertarians have found themselves having to defend a Bush administration that was far from libertarian, making libertarians appear hypocritical. Furthermore, libertarians came to be associated with the non-libertarian excesses of the Republican Party, religious extremism, militarism and a vulnerability to the manipulations of big business. This has created a situation in which, at a time when it should be clear as to the limitations of government interventions in the housing market and on Wall Street, the left has been able to argue that the economic crisis was a product of deregulation.
The Austrian school also has its vulnerabilities. Instead of offering a list of policies that people can pick and choose from, depending on what strikes their fancy, it offers a single package as an all or nothing proposition based on a very specific ideology. It then seeks to convert people to this ideology without offering them a means by which they can come to it on their own. Part of the problem with distinct non-mainstream ideologies is that most people see themselves as “non-ideological.” What this usually means is that they are simply prejudiced to the dominant ideology. (Part of the advantage of being a dominant ideology is that you can claim to not be an ideology, but simple common sense. The disadvantage is that such an ideology cannot afford to create believers. A person who consciously believes in something is free from the delusion that he is not an ideologue.) Furthermore most people are not particularly concerned with ideas, but think in terms of relationships. One can wish all one likes to live in a country where people cared more about ideas, but one has to advance the cause of liberty with the people he has.
As an ideology whose main claim to authority is its consistency, Austrian style libertarianism is vulnerable to extreme ethical dilemmas. For example if a million people were about to die unless they received a drug, whose supply was in the possession of one individual, who refused to sell, an Austrian libertarian would have to admit that the private property rights of the one should override the interests of the many and that a million people should die rather than have the government use force to expropriate the supply of drugs. When faced with the Austrian love for hypothetical things like liberty and private property over tangible utilitarian goods such as providing lifesaving medication to those who need it, most people are going to conclude that libertarians at best lack a firm grip on reality and at worst are heartless selfish people, who care nothing for others.
This is not to say that either the Chicago or Austrian schools are wrong. Simply that each position carries a price, which must be weighed very carefully.
(To be continued …) | <urn:uuid:2437a930-38a0-4d07-b98e-567d5eefb94d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://izgad.blogspot.jp/2012/07/chicago-versus-austrian-libertarianism.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975024 | 1,457 | 1.664063 | 2 |
A Reader's Feast
It’s disheartening to learn, for example, that the organic food business has come to mirror its industrial counterpart. Organic milk may be free of growth hormone, but the cows that produce it are rarely treated any better than their counterparts in non-organic dairies.
There are exceptions, of course. Pollan describes a farm in rural Virginia, where emphasis is put on cyclical, symbiotic land use practices. The farmer calls his operation "beyond organic" – a term that arose from widespread misgivings about the much-compromised "organic" label. At the Polyface Farm, cows graze on a schedule that is optimal for the grass, on which the cows ultimately depend. Hens enter the pasture a few days after the cows and eat the grubs and larvae that grow in the dung. Not only do the hens get a meal, but their activity helps break down the manure and minimize the bug problem on the farm, which helps stave off disease.
Pollan’s ‘last supper’ is the most extreme: He attempts to hunt, grow and forage all the ingredients of a meal – a mission that involves boar hunting in Northern California. Upon killing his quarry, Pollans emotions run the course from primal fulfillment to sympathetic remorse. He is fully involved in his food.
Since reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma" I've found myself pausing to reflect before chomping down whatever i'm about to put in my mouth. Whatever else I got out of the book, it has made me a more conscious eater. | <urn:uuid:77b3c6bd-a38e-43e6-bdf5-828a6117e0a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sierraclub.org/compass/2006/05/readers-feast_26.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955406 | 335 | 1.71875 | 2 |
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ST. LOUIS (AP) - Express Scripts aims to help patients stay on their meds with a product that predicts who will stop taking prescriptions before the person actually does it.
The pharmacy benefits manager is launching ScreenRx, a program that uses a computer to sift through hundreds of factors that affect patients and forecast who is most likely to forget a refill or simply stop taking their drugs. The company then plans to contact those patients to help them stick with their doctor’s orders.
Express Scripts executives say their new program is focused on a big target.
They estimate that about $317 billion in additional medical expenses were heaped on the U.S. health care system last year because people didn’t comply with prescriptions. These additional expenses might include a heart attack for someone who stops taking cholesterol medicines or an amputation for someone who doesn’t adhere to diabetes treatment.
The St. Louis company runs prescription drug plans for employers, government agencies and other clients. Chief Scientist Bob Nease said the data Express Scripts collects gives it a fairly good sense for factors that keep people from complying with a prescription. For instance, those less likely to comply include younger patients, parents with small children or men who have female doctors.
People who live with a partner or are married are slightly more likely to comply than those who live alone.
The analysis, called predictive modeling, doesn’t delve into why patients stop taking their meds. It sorts through more than 400 variables that could affect a patient to see which people have enough red flags to warrant concern. For instance, a young, single male with a house full of kids who sees a female doctor might draw the program’s attention.
“You can think of it as a screening test,” Nease said. “You want to identify people who are at risk … before their symptoms arrive, and then you want to intervene in a way that addresses their problem.”
Once a patient has been flagged, they receive a phone call. An Express Scripts representative will talk to the person to see if they need help. The PBM then might send the patient a pill box if they have a hard time remembering their prescriptions or a special beeper that goes off when it’s time to take medicine.
If the patient struggles to pay for the drugs, Express Scripts could provide information on assistance programs.
Such a program could be useful, according to Dr. Michael Venturini, an Indianapolis cardiologist who estimates that as many as 30 percent of the patients he sees every week have trouble sticking with their medications.
“Compliance is a large problem,” he said, noting that the cost of the drugs is probably the largest reason behind it. Analysts say predictive modeling programs that aim to forecast patient behavior and improve care have been evolving in health care over the past few years, and the Express Scripts product is the latest evolution.
“They have put a lot of money behind really trying to get the patient, the consumer to make good decisions,” said Arthur Henderson, an analyst who covers Express Scripts Holding Co. for the investment banking group Jefferies & Co.
(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) | <urn:uuid:1897bfa0-02f7-4f5d-a8aa-6105aed05dec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2012/04/15/express-scripts-launches-screenrx/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958543 | 700 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The Suffolk County Legislature banned the sale of chemicals found in some bath salts on Tuesday, resulting in a product it determined was "powdered synthetic cocaine" and has been ingested as a hallucinogen.
Sale of such bath salts has already been banned in Louisiana, North Dakota, and Florida, as well as other local municipalities, according to the county, and several others are considering the ban.
While the synthetic chemicals are most commonly found in and marketed as bath salts, they can also be found in other products that "manufacturers make with a wink of an eye," said the sponsor of the bill that calls for the ban.
"We're not banning bath salts at all, per se," said Jon Cooper, D-Huntington. "We are banning the chemical compounds, that's the best way to describe it. Because the manufacturer will call it a bath salt, or pond scum remover, or deodorizer. But what it is, is a drug."
The text of the resolution states that active synthetic ingredients in bath salts include methylone, mephedrone, and MDPV, among others, some of which bear similarities to ingredients extracted from the khat plant, an African plant with a similar stimulant effect as cocaine.
Cooper said that as a legislator eight years ago, he penned the nation's first bill to ban ephedra. Eight months later, he said, it was banned on the federal level.
"I'm hoping to see something similar to that," he said. "Because these chemicals are synthetically produced and relatively new, they have fallen under the radar screen."
Bath salts not including the harmful chemicals are exempt from the ban.
The measure passed by a unanimous 18-0 vote.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy has not yet signed the bill into law. | <urn:uuid:278491ea-e87e-4580-b791-7bed3f1eecf1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://riverhead.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/suffolk-legislators-ban-sale-of-synthetic-cocaine-dise0f4d7d76f | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97436 | 378 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Peace activist Cindy Sheehan has announced she is stepping back from her role as a leading campaigner against the Iraq war. We take a look back at how she helped galvanize the antiwar movement over the past two-and-a-half years following the death of her son Casey in Iraq. [includes rush transcript]
- Democracy Now! looks back at Cindy Sheehan’s antiwar activism after her son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004.
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn to Cindy Sheehan, who has just announced she is stepping away from the antiwar movement after two years of being the nation’s most visible critic of the war in Iraq. She began speaking out against the invasion and occupation of Iraq after her twenty-four-year-old son, Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, was killed in Iraq in Sadr City on April 4, 2004. Cindy Sheehan made headlines around the world in August 2005, when she staged a camp out to pressure President Bush to meet her as he vacationed at his Crawford estate.
On Monday, Cindy Sheehan announced her resignation as the face of the antiwar movement. She said she’s stepping back in part because of hostility from Democrats, who she has criticized for supporting the war. Cindy Sheehan also cited repeated threats on her life, strains on our health and family, and divisions inside the peace movement. She wrote, "When I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the 'left' started labeling me with the same slurs the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of 'left or right,' but 'right and wrong.'"
In a few minutes, Cindy Sheehan will join us in Sacramento, but first we look back at how she helped galvanize the antiwar movement over the past two-and-a-half years. Her name was first mentioned in the national press a month before the 2004 election, when she appeared in a TV ad sponsored by the MoveOn PAC.
CINDY SHEEHAN: His sergeant said, "Sheehan, you don’t have to go," because my son was a mechanic. He was a Humvee mechanic. And Casey said, "Where my chief goes, I go." And he knew what had to be done. He died in his best friend’s arms in Iraq. I imagined it would have hurt if one of my kids was killed, but I never thought it would hurt this bad, especially someone so honest and brave as Casey, my son.
When you haven’t been honest with us, when you and your advisors rushed us into this war, how do you think we felt when we heard the Senate report that said there was no link between Iraq and 9/11?
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: I, George Walker Bush, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute…
AMY GOODMAN: After President Bush was reelected, Sheehan formed Gold Star Families for Peace with Celeste Zappala and other mothers. They traveled to Washington to protest President Bush’s inauguration.
CINDY SHEEHAN: Well, yesterday I was with Celeste when we tried to get a meeting with our Secretary of Defense, and we’ve been trying for weeks. We’ve been emailing, writing, calling. They finally stopped taking our calls. And I just saw all these people today cheering for them and their policies. And I think if I had like $25 grand, I would probably have access to everybody in this administration, but I’ve paid a price that is priceless. You can’t put a price on what I’ve given to this country. I gave them my only — my oldest son — not my only son, but my oldest son, and they don’t even have the courtesy to reply to us to say, "No, we’re not going to meet with you," or, "You know, maybe later," or "Would you like to meet with another aide?" They don’t even have the courtesy to meet with Gold Star Families.
AMY GOODMAN: Cindy Sheehan was ignored by the Bush administration and much of the corporate press. By August of 2005, she could no longer be silenced. Joined by a group of veterans and antiwar activists, Cindy Sheehan set up what became known as Camp Casey outside President Bush’s estate in Crawford, Texas. She said she would stay there until the President met with her so she could ask him a question: for what noble cause did my son die?
CINDY SHEEHAN: And if I have to stay out here all month in this heat, it’s not anything compared to what our soldiers are going through and what the people of Iraq are going through.
AMY GOODMAN: As hundreds joined Cindy Sheehan in Crawford, President Bush refused to meet with her.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: You know, listen, I sympathize with Mrs. Sheehan. She feels strongly about her — about her position. And she has every right in the world to say what she believes. This is America. She has a right to her position. And I’ve thought long and hard about her position. I’ve heard her position from others, which is "Get out of Iraq now." And it would be a mistake for the security of this country and the ability to lay the foundations for peace in the long run, if we were to do so.
AMY GOODMAN: Cindy Sheehan soon became the frequent target of media attacks from Bill O’Reilly and others.
BILL O’REILLY: I think Mrs. Sheehan bears some responsibility for this and also for the responsibility of other American families who have lost sons and daughters in Iraq who feel that this kind of behavior borders on treasonous.
AMY GOODMAN: Despite the attacks, Camp Casey continued to grow. This is former State Department official, Ann Wright.
ANN WRIGHT: We started with one car staying overnight — one tent, two tents, three tents. Now, we’ve got — I counted last night, we had eighty cars and about forty tents that stayed the night here. And during the course of the day, we’ll be having probably 300 to 400 people that will be coming through from all over the country to spend a couple of hours, maybe a day or two. It’s a remarkable outpouring from America.
AMY GOODMAN: Nadia McCaffrey and other mothers who lost sons in Iraq also joined Cindy in Crawford.
NADIA McCAFFREY: I had to be here. I had to support Cindy. I had to support the mothers. I came because what she started is very important. I think it’s going to make history. This is the first time when we have some attention. I’m talking about the war, the Gold Star Families especially. And all the mothers must join, and we are doing it right now.
AMY GOODMAN: President Bush left Crawford without meeting Cindy Sheehan, but by then she had become the face of the antiwar movement and one of the most famous peace activists in the world.
CINDY SHEEHAN: I can’t believe it. Everybody is coming up to me and saying, "Thank you for being here." Thank you for being here! If it wasn’t for the thousands and thousands of people that came to Camp Casey, if it wasn’t for the millions that supported us, I would still be sitting in that ditch. But you guys got me out of the ditch. You got us to our nation’s capital. And we mean business, George Bush. And we’re going to Congress, and we’re going to ask them how many more of other people’s children are you willing to sacrifice for the lies?
AMY GOODMAN: As the Iraq war intensified, Cindy Sheehan shifted her criticism to include the Democratic Party, as well.
CINDY SHEEHAN: We have basically right now in Congress a one-party system. We have very few Democrats who are speaking to our core values as progressive liberal Democrats. And they are rubber-stamping and bobble-heading everything that this administration wants to do. And it’s so urgent right now that we have an opposition party. And I believe if Democrats courageously spoke out to their core values, saying, "This war is wrong; if we voted for it, we shouldn’t have," and to call for an end to the occupation of Iraq, I believe that we could have a government that is run with integrity, and we could — the Democrats could have a landslide victory in November, if they would act different from the Republicans. And I’m supporting these candidates who are saying that this war is wrong, we need to bring our troops home, and we are not going to support the Republicans who are corrupt and who are leading our country down this path of destruction.
AMY GOODMAN: After the Democrats took control of Congress, Cindy Sheehan continued to pressure Democrats over the war and called for the impeachment of President Bush.
CINDY SHEEHAN: This is what we have to do. Right now, at this minute, we have to start calling the offices of John Conyers, Nancy Pelosi, Henry Waxman, Steny Hoyer, Harry Reid, your congressperson, and start saying, "We want accountability."
AMY GOODMAN: Now, nearly two years after starting Camp Casey, Cindy Sheehan has announced she is stepping back from her role as a leader of the antiwar movement. When we come back from break, Cindy Sheehan joins us live from Sacramento, California, where she has gone home. | <urn:uuid:901b5f67-a9f4-45da-b05a-c11e674958f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.democracynow.org/2007/5/30/cindy_sheehan_from_grieving_mother_to | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975482 | 2,088 | 1.632813 | 2 |
McKelvey Elementary named 2012 Missouri School of Character
McKelvey Elementary School was named a "2012 Missouri State School of Character" by CHARACTERplus. McKelvey is one of only ten elementary schools in the state of Missouri to receive the prestigious award.
"I am so proud of my staff, students and community members for the very important role they play in developing and promoting strong character among our children," says Principal Kim Cohen.
With 615 students from over 20 countries, McKelvey's character education committee has worked as a group for the past four years to guide implementation of the 11 principles of character education. The school has also been nominated for national recognition.
"We help students understand that strong character is something they will carry with them throughout their life," says Kim. "It is essential that children understand that the McKelvey Code of Conduct (McKelvey students are responsible, respectful, safe and cooperative learners) will serve them well in and out of school."
The school will hold the State Schools of Character honor for three years. McKelvey was formally honored at the CHARACTERplus Character Education Conference June 25-27, 2012 at the St. Charles Convention Center.
CHARACTERplus, a project of Cooperating School Districts, works to advance the cause of character education and sustain its impact on the lives of educators and students by:
- designing, promoting and facilitating processes and best practices;
- serving educators and enhancing their commitment to character education
- actively recruiting and developing community support; and
- continually evaluating the impact of our programs and services.
The process itself is modeled after the National Schools of Character program founded by the Character Education Partnership (CEP) in Washington D.C. in 1998. There are more than 130 indicators assessed, including the reduction of bullying and incivility and the development of intrinsic motivation, meaningful curriculum, student empowerment, staff collegiality, service, and shared moral leadership among staff, students and parents. | <urn:uuid:c9debf49-28e7-4992-840a-738c38001509> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pkwy.k12.mo.us/inside/news/story.cfm?ID=7CAFEED5-E29F-EAD5-C25934657A1D9620 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967423 | 409 | 1.789063 | 2 |
World | UK | England | Diving Scilly Isles:
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Scuba Diving in the Scilly Isles, England
Dive Site: Gilstone Reef
Location: St. Mary's, Scilly Isles (49°54'40"N 06°17'20"W)
Depth: 8 - 23 metres (26 - 75 feet)
Visibility: 10 metres (30 feet)
There are at least two Gilstone Rocks in the Scilly Isles, this one located a short distance east of St. Mary's southern and most prominent point Peninnis Head, barely breaking the surface. Insignificant in its terrestrial outlook, but go below the waterline and it's a jewel in the Scilly's crown. I've heard other excited divers say that it is a superb site, as they describe one particular route around the rock, approx. 4-5m diameter at the surface. I've concluded that many dives are needed on this reef to appreciate all its qualities but it's now our turn to dive it!
This particular profile starts down the shot line as always, and as the other divers of the group descend to the shelf at 21-23m below us and make their own memorable journey, we spot are sharp corner on the left, at 17m. Coming off the shot and turning left, the whole slightly under hanging vertical rock is on view. A dense plastering of closed orange & yellow plumose anemones extend some 10m in height above and below, and about 10m across. A delight to see, and if that wasn't enough to occupy for 20mins or more, straight after are a series of vertical angular rocky outcrops all containing large conurbations of same coloured jewel anemones. These anemones are different to many others seen as they have much more subtle colour undertones, blending colours in a completely different way. It's as if someone has gone into one of the DIY stores mixed some of the paints that wouldn't otherwise be mixed and thrown the resulting colour on a wall! Yellows & greens, lilacs & oranges, the list is endless, as is the pleasure, its hypnotic! Always wondering what is around the next corner, you can easily forget the depth of 18m, bottom time and air. The whole dive could be spent in the first 20m of wall or less but if you do move on, a plateau at 20m is encountered covered in a sparse head of kelp fronds behind which are deep cut gullies leading into the rocks centre.
Dogfish can be encountered, but look into the water column for the numerous pollack, mackerel, and in the fissures for the plentiful wrasse varieties. Ascent is probably needed now either due to air or lack of bottom time remaining. If you follow the dive into the rock, it naturally goes upwards and provides for a great multilevel dive, enabling more time to be spent around 8-10m. Any higher and surge can become problematic. Fields of deep green kelp are interspersed with yet more rocks daubed in anemones and filter feeders, whilst numerous fish varieties idle by. All too soon (60 minutes is not enough) it's time to launch the delayed SMB, safety stop and surface.
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One of my favorite places to hang out online is Brain Pickings, an eclectic culture blog founded and curated by Maria Popova, a 27-year-old Bulgaria native who now lives in Brooklyn. The success of the site, founded in 2006, has earned Popova gigs with The Atlantic, Wired, GOOD, and at MIT as a (appropriately) "Futures of Entertainment Fellow."
The Internet, and the information age that it has spawned, can be overwhelming for many people: who can keep up with the latest news, memes, and fads? How can we sort the good from the bad and the ugly on the unregulated net? What do we do about its many brain-numbing distractions?
Through the mire, Popova has created a website that is more like a museum than it is like a blog. She culls through the vast torrents of Internet content to find and highlight bits and pieces that celebrate creativity, ingenuity, and human happiness. In between working two jobs, tweeting compulsively, and going to the gym, Popova writes about three well-crafted posts a day for Brain Pickings, and each of them is unique and inspiring in its own way.
Because creativity, after all, is a combinatorial force. It’s our ability to tap into the mental pool of resources — ideas, insights, knowledge, inspiration — that we’ve accumulated over the years just by being present and alive and awake to the world, and to combine them in extraordinary new ways. In order for us to truly create and contribute to the world, we have to be able to connect countless dots, to cross-pollinate ideas from a wealth of disciplines, to combine and recombine these ideas and build new ideas — like LEGOs. The more of these building blocks we have, and the more diverse their shapes and colors, the more interesting our creations will become.
Brain Pickings is your LEGO treasure chest, full of pieces across art, design, science, technology, philosophy, history, politics, psychology, sociology, ecology, anthropology, you-name-itology. Pieces that enrich your mental pool of resources and empower you to combine them into original concepts that are stronger, smarter, richer, deeper and more impactful. Please enjoy.
The themes that she returns to are transcendent and ever-relevant: what makes a good story, minimalism in art, originality and creativity, and popular science. I especially liked a recent post, which was picked up by NPR, on Richard Feynman and "key to science in 63 seconds":
Richard Feynman — Nobel-winning physics icon, curiosity champion, graphic novel hero, bongo drummer, wager-maker, no ordinary genius — would have been 94 today. To celebrate, here is one of Feynman’s most beloved classics, a 1964 lecture in which he distills with equal parts wit and wisdom the essence of the scientific method.
You can watch Feynman's lecture at Popova's blog. Here's the text of it (though you're better of watching it, since the text can't capture Feynman's charisma in communicating these simple principles):
In general, we look for a new law by the following process: First we guess it; then we compute the consequences of the guess to see what would be implied if this law that we guessed is right; then we compare the result of the computation to nature, with experiment or experience, compare it directly with observation, to see if it works. If it disagrees with experiment, it is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It does not make any difference how beautiful your guess is, it does not make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is — if it disagrees with experiment, it is wrong.
As I mentioned, Popova's blog is eclectic. But one thing unites each of her posts: "interestingness":
Brain Pickings is a human-powered discovery engine for interestingness, culling and curating cross-disciplinary curiosity-quenchers, and separating the signal from the noise to bring you things you didn’t know you were interested in until you are.
I can't think of anyone who embodies the ethos of the information age more than Popova. She knows that there is a large quantity of fascinating material out there; she's hyperactively in pursuit of it; and she shares it with the rest of world. Brain Pickings, according to one report, has "earned millions of page views." Popova has almost 181,000 followers on Twitter. There's a demand for the ideas that she wants to share. | <urn:uuid:9088bec4-b99d-4e9f-ba69-8d7a0389f257> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newcriterion.com/posts.cfm/Brain-Pickings--A-quirky-place-to-hang-out-online-6798 | 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 | 0.951718 | 958 | 1.796875 | 2 |
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Little Zombie Susie (2010)
Little Zombie Susie Game is about family of zombies trying to survive in our human world. You play little zombie-girl Susie, helping her parents and little brother find a medicine against their disease, fighting with humans, solving puzzles.
Game Mechanics: The player begins in a graveyard. Player should rule family members to avoid traps and defend him self against humans. Also player should feed his family members, when they are hungry, they became slow and weak.
End Game The game ends when player finds cure to be normal human.
Download demo (Windows, ~160mb) here
Deadly light (2008) Intel Level Up 2008, 1st special place
Deadly light Game is more tech demo, then actual game. Try to reach end of level and avoid angry zombie attacks.
Game Mechanics: The player begins in industrial undeground. Player should find exit from the level and avoid automatic turrels.
End Game The game ends when the player finds exit from level.
Download demo (Windows, ~100mb) here
I know your Deeds (2009) Intel Level Up 2009 Winner
I know your deeds challenges players to survive over the course of months and years, trapped in a city dominated by nightmarish zombies. While of course concerned with the ever-present threat these creatures represent, the player will face long-term concerns like obtaining sources of food and water, building shelter from attack, and the overall survival of the human race.
Download demo (Windows, ~63mb) here
Game Mechanics: The player begins in a village environment. A full day and night will take place over the course of 20 minutes, the proportions of which will depend on the time of year (i.e. More of that twenty minutes is day in the summer, less in the winter). During the day, the player enjoys relative safety from zombie attacks (at least outdoors), and those encountered tend to be lethargic and confused. Days are typically spent scavenging for supplies and building materials, constructing barricades and traps, and investigating scripted plot points.
Crafting A crafting system exists in the game, in which players need to collect tools and materials to build and reinforce whatever position they've chosen as their base of operations. Stress is induced in the player as collecting these materials, building, and setting up the barricades and traps will take up more time than they have allocated in a given day, and the attacks that will occur all night wears down these defenses, requiring repairs the next day.
Sleep Sleep also takes a major position in the game. If the player refuses to sleep, they will begin falling asleep while performing tasks, and generally perform miserably. Sleeping during the day is safer, but sacrifices critical time that could be spent building and scavenging. Sleeping at night means you may be rudely (and suddenly) awakened by a zombie chewing on your throat. Additionally, nighttime sleep is less restful, due to the loud noises going on outside. Going to sleep on a daily basis thus becomes a thing of terror, rather than relaxation.
Freeform Unlike most survival horror games, there are very few scripted events in I know your deeds, beyond the seeding of background story information and certain key events which are linked to game timeline. The plot is developed by finding items which piece together a patchwork background story, eventually resulting in a method of destroying the zombies en masse. The player can ‘hole up' in any building they choose, and reinforce it as they can. Items and buildings are pseudo-randomly generated in a manner that makes each game unique, but also consistently playable and interesting.
Difficulty curve As time goes on, more and more of the framework of society begins to fail (for example, initially the electrical grid may still be working, but will eventually collapse), creating an increasingly difficult environment in which to survive, and forcing the player to continually be allocating time to deal with these situations, instead of ‘base building'. Additionally, as time goes on, the zombie threat becomes continually more intense and ferocious.
End Game The game ends when either the player can no longer handle the zombie threat and is overcome, or the player gathers the information and materials necessary to build a device which will end the zombie threat.
Author of concept - Angus McQuarrie, concept used with permission. | <urn:uuid:564e8467-7e4d-4cb3-9e46-ce0877df0f10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.glow3d.com/games.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953538 | 898 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Before opening up The Melting Pot, Cogen was a stay-at-home mother of three, until she discovered that her passion for “batik,” the hand-dyed clothing, could be transformed into a business venture. The Melting Pot will be celebrating it's 40th anniversary on Saturday, Oct. 20, and Sunday, Oct. 21, with a two-day event bringing the community together.
The celebration event will feature demonstrations, workshops and entertainment.
The specialty store, which is located at 492 Atlantic Avenue, is run by Cogen and her daughter Tammy Johnson, who joined her mother in the business in 1990. Both women hand make the batik-style t-shirts that are sold in the store.
Over the past 40 years, clothes from the shop have been features on “The Cosby Show,” “The Door in the Floor,” and “Rachel at the Weeding.”
Now as the store celebrates its ruby anniversary, Johnson hopes to see it through the next 40 years. Cogen handed the reins over to her daughter in 2006, but she continues to work alongside Johnson describing herself as a “semi-retired volunteer.”
Both women take pride in the fact that all of the products produced at The Melting Pot are made using all-natural fibers. The graphics that have been features on the t-shirts over the years include renderings of dragons, hearts, flowers, birds, pandas and other animals, with around 70 basic patterns in rotation.
“The Dragon t-shirt was practically a uniform for St. Ann's School in the 1970s,” Cogen said. “Parents liked it for the quality of the fabric and kids were drawn to it for the bright colors and the image of a happy, smiling one-fanged creature whose tail continues to the back of the shirt.”
But The Melting Pot isn't limited to shirts, with a line of pillows, totes, scarves, baby items and other accessories for children and adults. “Perhaps the most fun we had was when we designed men's underwear,” Cogen said.
During the anniversary event, the store will give workshops on Oil Pastel Resistant Watercolor drawing from 2 to 4 p.m., and everyone will be invited to partake in the 40 percent-off sale. There will be face painting for children and cookies will be distributed during the events.
And expect to see Cogen around the shop whenever she can make it.
“I'd feel guilty just sitting at home,” she said. | <urn:uuid:8b4d2525-3015-4fb2-9ccd-534aea4c1a19> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.queensledger.com/view/full_story/20431832/article-Local-clothing-store-celebrating-40-years | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972079 | 543 | 1.507813 | 2 |
By Bader al Kiyumi — The Sultanate of Oman has got beautiful lengthy wadis. A wadi is basically an Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. After heavy rains, water from mountains and rocks pour into the wadi with great force. Some wadis have water flowing throughout the year. However, some of them stream only during rainy monsoons.
Qurayat is nestled between tall mountains, valleys, flat plains and sea waters. The unique geographical location has bestowed on it numerous advantages that help in the fusing of its natural formations with places of historical and economic importance. Many factors have contributed to its fame in the fields of agriculture, trade and tourism. The Fins Village with its beautiful beach, towering mountains and lush foothills make this place a weekend getaway for local and expat tourists.
Wadi Al Arbyeen is one of the top tourism spots in Oman. It is about 115 kilometres from Wadi Hattat Roundabout and 36 kilometres from the centre of the Wilayat of Quriyat. Wadi Al Arbyeen provides an exciting vacation destination and those that crave for adventure in their trips will want to seriously consider making this a top choice in places to visit. It offers visitors a lot of spectacular destinations with and pristine natural beauty. These are places where one can bask in total silence.
Tourists who like to walk on foot in Wadi Al Arbyeen, can stroll for many days through many beautiful places. Some of them go for camping in this amazing wadi for days.
Wadi Al Arbyeen is characterised by its abundant water flows through the year. It has six villages, including Al Silaifi, Al Suwaih, Al Far’a, Al Batha, Al Hail and Al Magrah.
Al Suwaih Village is a popular tourist spot in Wadi Al Arbyeen where one can spend an adventurous weekend. Al Suwaih Village is the biggest village in this wadi. It is famous for a variety of cultivations chief among them being lemons and bananas. The village is spotted with some beautiful lakes. Visitors can indulge in activities like swimming and nature walks on the surrounding mountains.
Al Silaifi is another tourist destination in Wadi Al Arbyeen. It has lots of beautiful views and crystal like waters, lovely lakes and wonderful waterfalls. The best activity in this village is swimming in the lakes and under the waterfall. Going for hikes on the huge mountain slopes is another exhilarating experience. The tropical waters here are said to have the most fish species compared to other lakes of the world. Al Silaifi is popular with tourists during holidays and weekends and attract a large number of regional and international visitors in addition to hordes of citizens and expats.
Wadi Al Arbyeen is well-known for the cultivation of several types of dates including Al Nijal and Khalas. Besides, the village is famous for mangoes, lemons and bananas. The residents of this wadi practise many crafts including manufacturing mats and textiles.
Nasser bin Abdullah al Salmy, a visitor from Al Rustaq, who came with his friends, said: “It is a wonderful wadi because it has a mixture of stunning scenic landscapes and fantastic views. The beautiful lakes and mountains make this wadi a magnificent place for outdoor activities.”
“We spent our time by climbing mountains and swimming in the pools. We found the place very cool and calm and plan to come back soon for camping,” Al Salmy added.
How to reach Wadi Al Arbyeen?
Wadi Al Arbyeen is 115 kilometres away from the Wadi Hattat roundabout, and can be visited easily by road. To get there from Muscat, drive from Wadi Hattat roundabout to Qurayat, via Wadi Owdai-Al Amerat road.
Then, follow the new Qurayat-Sur road. About 36 kilometres from the Qurayat roundabout, a signpost points you to drive right to Wadi Al Arbyeen. After 500 metres, turn right and proceed along this bumpy trail which weaves in and out of the wadi and through rugged terrain for about 17 kilometres. Four-wheel-drive is a must to access this rugged road.
The sink hole at Hayiyat Najm Park, which is located 30 kilometres away from the centre of the wilayat, is another tourist attraction in Qurayat. Several stories have been narrated about this. Some say it was made by a meteorite dating back many years and that its water has medicinal value.
The Muscat Municipality is now developing this sink hole into a park. At the bottom, many metres down the sink hole, visitors can see blue water. — Pictures by Fasial al Balushi | <urn:uuid:df67d659-00e4-423b-ad14-7f0fe83a356a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://main.omanobserver.om/node/90213 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953665 | 996 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Putting Jesus in the Friend Zone
Readings: Exodus 12:30-–27:21
As I continue reading through the Bible and the Book of Exodus, a picture has emerged in my mind as I reflect and consider the passages I’ve read in parallel with life and culture. I would caution about reading too much into my metaphor of “Friend Zone,” but it seems an accurate assessment if not taken too literally. #enddisclaimer
One theme I know is true, but never seem to remember how boldly it is proclaimed is God’s call for purity, fidelity, focus, and detail with the scope of relationship between God and man. God establishes laws, boundaries, and instructions for every aspect of living in community with Him and even extends the same measure of detail for living and relationships for the community itself. Essentially, after freeing the covenant peoples of Israel, God defines the relationship; He dictates the conditions to Moses and Moses reads them aloud in painstaking detail to the people.
“Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people: and they said, ‘All that the LORD as spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’”(Exodus 24:7)
Even with the oath and proclamation of obedience by the people, God knows in advance they will not “be perfect as He is perfect.” He establishes a means of forgiveness and cleansing for the sins of the people in the system of sacrifices and offerings; therefore, when the people fail to follow the rules of relationship, there is a means of reconciliation in place to prevent fracture and break-up and provide restoration.
As the years pass, so does the honeymoon stage of the relationship between the covenant people and God. The relationship itself is taken for granted by the people and the sacrificial system becomes a justifying means to an end. The attitudes of the people become apathetic, non-committal, and adulterous toward their God. The sacrifices necessary for redemption, reconciliation, and restoration of the people mean nothing to those who offer the sacrifices and ultimately mean nothing to God (Isaiah 1:11-12; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21).
I hope I’m not reading too much into what I’ve perceived, but it seems to me that the trajectory of the relationship was something like this: God establishes and defines the relationship between He and the Israelites; the Israelites agree to the lifestyle of purity, civility, and fidelity God defines; God provides a means for the Israelites restoration when they fail their commitment. As the timeline continues and the commitment made by the Israelites is diluted through their generations, the people move from offering sacrifices for their failures to not recognizing their failures at all. In effect, the people, by the association of their actions, redefine the relationship with their God. What God calls sin, the people fail or rarely recognize as such. The people boldly engage in worship of false gods, mistreat their fellow human beings, lie, cheat, and steal from one another…and more, all of which were clearly defined as abhorrent and unacceptable to God. It appears a combination of things occurred in the hearts and minds of this former covenant keeping people; one is that they stopped caring about the Creator God who had rescued and provided for them all the years of their existence, and another is that it appeared they no longer considered many of their actions sin.
Years pass and Jesus steps into the scene. No longer, does man have to live behind the blemished façade of a false self; God comes to dwell amongst men and provide them a means to be wholly reconciled and fully restored to the imago dei (Image of God). Man no longer has to live in sin (hamartia: missing the mark of God), but God in the flesh shows man the way to accurately reflect and embody the divine nature.
Fast Forward Some More
Here we are; today, the world in which we live. It often seems the more things change, the more they stay the same. From ancient middle-eastern culture to modern western society, the attitudes and excuses of living and life seem to spring remarkably from the same headwaters: selfish pride. We enjoy having “God on our side.” We like the benefits of name-dropping; “Yo, me and J.C. are tight.” It is comforting to us to think we have an omnipotent God to turn to when the pressures of life squeeze tight. While we might not say it, we often treat God like our “Ace in the hole” only calling Him out when all our other “cards” fail to produce the winning hand for us. Many of us, calling ourselves Christians, live a dual life—keeping God separate from most of the messier areas of our life—our relationship with God resembles the “pretty room” many of us might remember we or our friends had as kids growing up. You know the one I’m talking about; it’s the room that was perfect that no one was allowed to go in or sit on the furniture and strictly made for looking at…no practical function whatsoever. Yeah, that’s the sum of much Christianity today, except that in reality it is not even pretty to look at if we are truly honest with one another and it certainly doesn’t look like anything passable for the Christianity that is modeled in our Bibles.
What Is Wrong
My opinions are my own, but I would like to offer them for consideration. I think there are several factors that are damaging the cause of spiritual transformation in the image of Christ. The first problem is a theology that has deviated from the Trinitarian example of our Lord Jesus. Many people seem to have abandoned the God of the Old Testament entirely or relegated Him to “mean and angry old God” status, openly thankful that they do not have to deal with that God now that Jesus has “taken over.” This attitude and belief is a form of Marcionism, which was denounced as heresy as early as the mid second century. Interestingly enough, this belief seems as strong and prevalent as it ever may have been if not stronger. Other heresies involving Jesus that have significant impact on how we respond to God and His work of spiritual transformation in us include forms of Docetism and Eutychianism, both of which argue points of Jesus’ nature of being fully man and fully God. The damaging point for us as followers is that embracing these beliefs (even through ignorance) presents challenges that can be almost impossible to overcome. I have heard it said many, many times from believers; “I cannot follow Jesus and be like him. Jesus was God and I am not.” While Jesus is God and I am not is a true statement, the greater truth is that we can follow him. God has imparted the divine nature to be shared in us (2 Peter 1:3-7) for the very reason of walking as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6).
I think the bottom line after accounting for the ignorance of our beliefs and heresies, is that many of us have not “died to self,” which is arguably the first step to becoming a disciple of Christ and becoming transformed into the image of God (Luke 14:25-27). Without this critical first step, we remain in charge of ourselves and constantly redefine the relationships (be that as it may) that we have with the Trinitarian God to suit our own needs at the time whatever they may be. This is not Christianity—it is Meianity and it doesn’t fly with the call of Christ to “Follow Me.”
God Almighty came to this earth setting aside his divine right, so we might become one with the Godhead (Philippians 2:5-7; John 17:20-23). It is the desire of God to share intimately His oneness with us, but there are conditions and distinctives He has given us for that level of relationship to be made true in us. We, listen to the words of God who defines the relationship and become dismayed, but we like Jesus…we just don’t want to marry Him. Jesus wants intimacy and monogamy, we do not want that level of commitment and want to be free to do what we want when we want. So, we respond; “Jesus, can’t we just be friends?” I believe the Bible teaches us that proposition is rejected, at least in the sense that we mean it. Being friends with Jesus inside the marriage relationship is good and “yes.” Trying to be friends with Jesus outside of the covenant of marriage with Him is difficult to impossible and in my opinion an emphatic “no.” Truly, we cannot relegate God to the “Friend Zone” and expect to be a part of His Kingdom. The teaching of the Bible does not support that ideology (Matthew 7:21). | <urn:uuid:b307a1a7-30ae-4c42-90ef-d3d6fe479232> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://icrucified.com/icruciblog/2013/putting-jesus-in-the-friend-zone/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970909 | 1,876 | 1.796875 | 2 |
STORM (Society to Over-Rule Misery) is a group of kids brought together by 14 year-old Andrew, a computer genius and software designing multimillionaire. Andrew’s vision is for STORM to use science & technology to make the world a better place…even though the members are all kids. Andrew has recruited Will, an inventor whose specialty is cutting-edge gadgets, Gaia, a brilliant chemist who speaks several different languages, and Caspian, a brilliant astro physicist.
With the latest computer technology at their fingertips, the kids uncover a plan that involves the building of a top secret weapon. Who is building it, and why? Using their brains, their gadgets and their trust in each other, the kids race to find and dismantle the weapon while trying to figure out who is behind the sinister plot.
The author, E.L. Young, a science writer for New Scientist magazine, puts a lot high-tech gadgetry in the story. What’s interesting is that she bases these gadgets on genuine research, inventions & patents. At the end of the book she explains the science and gadgets she has used in STORM. It’s hard to believe some of the things are actually real!
The author says “I wanted to write an exciting story about characters that might in other circumstances be dismissed as nerds. Science isn’t often seen as particularly glamorous. And yet it’s transforming lives all the time, and the biggest threats facing the world today—climate change, water shortages, bio-terror attacks, and so on—need scientific heroes to overcome them.” Author: E.L. Young
If you are a fan of Alex Rider, Artemis Fowl, or H.I.V.E. – give STORM a try. The STORM kids also appear in STORM The Ghost Machine.Print This Post | <urn:uuid:31ecd211-888c-42ff-b137-6c39b2a38443> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imcpl.org/kids/blog/?cat=129&paged=34 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943615 | 388 | 1.796875 | 2 |
When was the last time that you shared the gospel with someone? The answer to this question can at times can lead us to feel ashamed because we just do not share the gospel as much as we should; if at all. Do we believe that the gospel is the power of God that leads to salvation? (Rom 1:16). Do we believe that everyone needs to hear the gospel and obey it? We may say wholeheartily that we believe these things, but do our actions show this?
“What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself” (James 2:14-17, NASB).
At times we are like those in this verse who say, “be warmed and filled” but do nothing to help them. These people claim to be Christians, but their actions do not show this to be true. If we really believe something to be true, will we not act? The Lord has given us a mission. If we really believe that the Lord wants us to evangelize, We will evangelize. If we really believe the gospel must be heard and obeyed for someone to be saved, we will tell it to the lost.
Do you have faith that the gospel is the power of God that leads to salvation? Do a lost person a favor. Prove it! | <urn:uuid:a39b5fae-2a3d-4a29-8a4e-c208c4de89da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.evangelismhelp.com/tag/believe/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973444 | 358 | 1.585938 | 2 |
To address these needs and to compensate Amtrak for increased costs and revenue lost during Hurricane Sandy, Amtrak is requesting $336 million in emergency federal funding. Of this amount, $276 million would be for measures that provide enhanced protection and improved recovery capability of Penn Station New York and its tunnels against flooding or emergency disruptions and to begin design and construction of elements of the capacity increasing Gateway Program. The additional $60 million would be to cover estimated operating losses incurred as a result of the storm.
Boardman said the hurricane exposed "the fragility of century-old structures and the challenges that come when we're confronted with weather and conditions the designers never anticipated."
He highlighted three projects that illustrate how key investments can buy both capacity and resilience in the Northeast Corridor rail network.
First, design a high density signaling system to provide greater operational flexibility in the four East River Tunnels used by Amtrak and Long Island Railroad. Two of these four tunnels flooded, received extensive damage and while re-opened, have not yet returned to full service. If high density signaling was installed, the two undamaged tunnels could handle a heavier traffic load and provide higher service levels. The two North River Tunnels used by Amtrak and New Jersey Transit have high density signaling system in place.
Second, a major electrical substation at Kearny, N.J., that supplies power to the North
River Tunnels and Penn Station New York needs to be rebuilt atop a platform that will be above the high water line and large enough so that more electrical capacity can be added at some point in the future to support plans for additional track capacity and more passenger trains into and out of New York. This substation was completely flooded during the storm, its outage hampered service recovery and has been restored to full service.
And third, in order to provide permanent and substantial new levels of flood prevention, redundancy and capacity, Amtrak would advance design and early construction elements of the Gateway Program, including for two new Hudson River tunnels between New York and New Jersey. The two existing tunnels flooded during the hurricane and vividly demonstrated the need for more tunnel capacity that could have aided in service recovery.
"We need a system that's robust enough to support our operational needs not just on good days, but every day," Boardman explained. | <urn:uuid:1952fbd8-75a1-49ac-8ba0-760365dcae1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rtands.com/index.php/passenger/intercity/amtrak-requests-336-million-in-emergency-funds.html?channel=62 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963852 | 458 | 1.734375 | 2 |
"The Performer" - A wonderful new artwork by Grant Jarrett
Hello Opera Lovers,
From incredible original opera posters that jump out at you - to opera art, opera tee shirts, singers, conductors, composers and all things opera, (including some some great performances), you'll find it here at Opera Arts.
What's so great about opera?
Perhaps it's the music or perhaps it's much more.
Certainly, opera is a combination of several art forms including singing, orchestration, set design, costume and of course, the story…often so dramatic it stretches belief. Add in the spectacle and the emotion and any fan of opera will tell you when it all comes together, there is nothing quite like it!
Opera is an art-form that many of us like to lose ourselves in. Who cares if the story is as mad as our hero or heroine? All we can be sure of, is that the music will invade our emotions and overcome our logic to the point where we will believe, until the curtain falls on the last act.
For some it will be the range of emotions we feel throughout the opera- the joy of eternal love, the passion of love betrayed, the grief of loss, or just the sheer beauty of hope amongst the angst of despair. It will carry us along in its wings regardless until he is shot or stabbed, or she goes mad or takes poison and drops dead… if she doesn't jump! Sometimes they even live happily ever after…but not too often.
We opera aficionados are a weird lot; some would say we are as mad as the operas we love. Many of us know every note and nuance of the piece and woe betide any singer that falls short of expectations – the claques are always waiting!
Directors we love or loathe depending on their vision of our most precious imaginings…and conductors (whom we reverentially call "Maestros") can be our darlings or our demons depending how they beat time for the band! When everything goes right, we can throw flowers and scream "bravo" (M) or "brava" (F). When it all goes sour some Italians have been known to throw fruit and veggies.
In opera our heroes, heroines and villains don't always look like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie…but more than a few are ravishingly beautiful or handsome in the extreme.
Some can be quite plain and others can even more resemble Mack trucks, but when they open their mouths to sing, all is forgiven…after all, its all about the music when all is said and done.
Who cares if she's fifty playing a seventeen year old? A seventeen year old couldn't make a noise like that anyhow and we all know her "young lover" will take off his hair at the end of the performance and leave it on a block!
Most of us speak basic Italian- well, we've never had a lesson but we are so familiar with vital words like perdona, ascolta, andiam, signor, crudel, perduta, abbandonata, morto, fatale, and of course, amore! This is all we need……we can easily fill in the rest!
Many of us will collect vinyl records- others CD's and DVD's or photos. We will scour books and the Internet to find memorabilia or scores, lost recordings or even pirated performances. Some of us will collect many recordings of the same opera- just to compare different casts or singers.
We are all delightfully hooked on the addiction of sheer pleasure for which there is no cure. Once hooked, it's usually got us for life. That's just all part of the mad, bad wonderful world of opera. Dare we hope that this website will help to feed the afflicted and addicted…perhaps even you?
Maria Callas & Tito Gobbi in the 1965 production of Tosca at Covent Garden.
Conducted by Carlo Felice Cilario.
Artists in the Top Banner L/R: Cornell McNeil, Birgit Nilsson, Fiorenza Cosotto, Joan Sutherland, Maria Callas, Renata Scotto, Roberto Alagna | <urn:uuid:2a1d45fb-a66d-45c5-93ce-a644c9806a4d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.operaarts.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933333 | 878 | 1.664063 | 2 |
ADVANCED ENERGY BLOG -- DAVE KARPINSKI
Building offshore wind expertise in Northeast Ohio
Blog entry: December 20, 2012, 4:30 am | Author: DAVE KARPINSKI
is Vice President of NorTech
and Director of NorTech Energy Enterprise
. He leads the organizations efforts to accelerate economic growth in Northeast Ohio's advanced energy industry and has over 20 years of private sector experience in a variety of manufacturing-related industries.
Our region's initiative to harness the abundant wind energy in Lake Erie to generate electrical power for the region recently received some good news.
Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo), a regional economic development organization created to grow an offshore wind energy industry in Northeast Ohio, recently received a $4 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), plus $1 million from LEEDCo's partners on the project. DOE funded LEEDCo to pursue the initial step in creating this new industry by first building a demonstration project in Lake Erie. This infusion of capital will allow the project, called “Icebreaker,” to move forward into the engineering, permitting and development phase, and then eventually compete for an additional $47 million to construct the project - five to nine wind turbines / 20-30 megawatts capacity - located seven miles off the coast of Cleveland in Lake Erie.
Remarkably, for such an abundant resource, there are no offshore wind turbines installed in US waters. However, it's a burgeoning market elsewhere, with a value at over $200 billion in investments. Europe alone has 1,500 turbines already connected to the grid in ten countries, and is on track to employing over 250,000 people by 2030. China, India and Japan are evolving their wind turbine projects into the commercialization stage. South Korea recently invested $9 billion for a project to be completed by 2019. The offshore wind industry represents a tremendous opportunity for the country, and specifically for Northeast Ohio.
To borrow the phrase “it takes a village,” an undertaking of this magnitude takes the teaming of best practices and experienced partners who have already done it in Europe, with local firms and people with deep knowledge about our region, the Lake, our assets, and our community. This combination of firms with first-hand experience coupled with committed, knowledgeable and competent local companies is the best way to get the project done successfully and on time while building the industry here. LEEDCo has been focused on building the industry here since its inception and the approach of marrying real-world offshore wind experience with local firms has been a core element of LEEDCo's strategy from the outset. LEEDCo has assembled such a world class team and that team was a key component of winning the grant from DOE.
As part of this strategy, LEEDCo is partnering with the maritime and energy experts from DNV KEMA Energy & Sustainability. Headquartered in the Netherlands, DNV KEMA will provide engineering, testing, inspection & certification, and verification services essential to the project. Their offshore wind project know-how and experience will bring established knowledge and best practices to bear on what is an industry here in the States just being born.
However, while proven knowledge of the offshore wind industry is critical, just as important are those in our region who are experts in a number of other areas equally critical to success, including:
• County, state and regional regulatory practices
• State policies
• Deep understanding of the history and characteristics of Lake Erie
• Water transportation on the Lake
• Local large equipment manufacturing
• Building local community support
One such local LEEDCo partner is environmental law firm McMahon DeGulis. This group is adept at understanding the regulation of growing industries that provide alternative sources of energy. Their expertise includes environmental permitting, local zoning issues, transactional matters and enforcement. They have already proven to be an extremely valuable partner to LEEDCo over the past several years. Their contribution over the next year of the project will be extremely important.
The meshing of international industry and local experience will not only help build a platform for the growth of offshore wind industry expertise in Ohio, but will also make our region attractive to additional European based companies to set up shop in our region and hire locally. Companies specializing in geotech services, offshore construction and engineering and project management may all find a U.S. home in Northeast Ohio not too far down the road. | <urn:uuid:5e4642b2-34d6-4d17-b31f-7dfcbe90f6bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20121220/BLOGS05/312209989/0/www.nlj.com&template=printart&template=printart | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941444 | 909 | 1.625 | 2 |
This blog post is a continuation of this one – the actual harvesting of the olives:
Yesterday evening we went to the Druze olive press – bet baad in Hebrew – in the ancient village of Pekiin. I had called ahead to check to make sure they were open and crushing olives – they were. When we got there, just a short drive from Ma’alot, there were Druze abound with hundreds of kilos of olives in large sacks. I had brought along the small box of olives I had picked from the trees in our backyard and set my stock down on a small stool.
As we watched the numerous Druzi men unloading the sacks of olives into the hopper on the floor we were deafened by the din of the harvest in full-swing. The olives piled high waiting for the first machine to be turned on. Once on, the olives are lifted up on a conveyor belt and are cleaned in the washing machine. Nice and clean, the olives are then taken into the crusher where they are churned within a great rectangular machine. The olive pulp is separated for other uses and the watery oil is transferred into the next machine where the pure olive oil is skimmed off. The water goes one way and the oil goes to the next stage – filtration. The pure, golden-green olive oil is then dispensed through large vats into the waiting oil canisters and jerry-cans. The full containers are then put on a scale for weighing and are then carted off – ten percent of olive oil going to the bet baad’s owner.
The process in pictures:
Here is a panoramic picture of most of the warehouse – from the olive unloading at the far right, the washing between the pillar and the fireplace, the crushing between the fireplace and the faux leather armchair, the filtering behind the yellow oil containers and the bottling all the way in the distant corner on the far left. (Click on it to see it enlarged)
My small crop was not processed right away – I had to trade my 16 kilos of olives for 50 shekels of oil bottled the previous day. Our business was first opened with small cups of tea poured by the owner:
Here is my crop and the oily result… well, in lieu of the actual result:
The small store set up within the warehouse had special tasting for the oils freshly pressed and of course, bottled oils of all varieties and qualities – all local stock.
Before we left, another huge load of olives came – a long night of olive pressing for those guys! | <urn:uuid:342820c8-f1da-44dc-a729-00fea14c89cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://israelsgoodname.wordpress.com/2011/11/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963635 | 543 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Air quality forecasting officially begins Wednesday for the 2013 summer season, and St. Louis residents will want to pay attention in order to protect their health.
Officials with the American Lung Association say that's because the air in St. Louis is getting worse. Their latest State of the Air report shows the Gateway City is now ranked 25th worst in the nation for ozone pollution. We were 34th last year.
And St. Louis is 12th when it comes to year round particulate pollution. That's a slight improvement over our 10th place finish last year. But officials say it still means St. Louis is among the most polluted metropolitan areas in the nation.
Residents who want to receive air quality updates by email, can sign up at the Clean Air St. Louis website. | <urn:uuid:71abcde2-6325-47a9-9a3c-eae50dcf5b7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ktrs.com/news/local-news/itemlist/tag/American%20Lung%20Association | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952338 | 157 | 1.773438 | 2 |
But at Dave Mogil’s restaurant on Noble Street, the doors will be shut — unless somebody organizes a private event.
“I’d like to have a big party, with wings and beer and steak and fish,” said Mogil, owner of Damn Yankees. “I’d make a lot of money.”
Mogil has wings, and steak and fish. It’s the beer that’s the problem. In Anniston, as in much of the state, alcohol sales are banned on Sundays. Mogil, who serves drinks the rest of the week, says that without a chance to sell beer, he can’t afford to open on Sunday.
He could get that chance soon. State Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, is planning to file a bill that would give the Anniston City Council the choice of legalizing Sunday alcohol sales. Supporters of the measure — called the Anniston Ecotourism Beverage Bill — say it would help the city bring in more visitors to events like the Woodstock 5K and the Sunny King Criterium bike race.
“Most people like to have a beer after a race,” said Patrick Wigley, owner of Wig’s Wheels, a bicycle shop on Noble Street. “If people can have one with their meal, they’re less likely to split on Sunday afternoon.”
Opponents worry that Sunday sales would lead to an increase in the amount of drinking, and the social problems that go along with it.
The Model City’s ban on Sunday alcohol sales has a long history. Two, actually.
After Prohibition ended following the passage of the 21st Amendment in December 1933 — voters in both Anniston and Calhoun County had approved repeal in July of that year — states and local governments retained the option to keep out alcohol.
Alabama is still making up its mind. Twenty-five of the state’s 67 counties ban alcohol sales altogether, according to the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. But 24 of those counties contain cities where alcohol is legal. Drive straight across the state and you’ll drift into and out of the Prohibition era, seemingly at random.
But not on Sunday. For years, outside the state’s biggest cities of Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile and Huntsville, it was hard to find a beer on the Sabbath.
That’s because of the state’s long tradition of “blue laws” — local restrictions, now mostly abandoned or ignored, that once forced businesses to close on Sundays.
For politicians, the combination of booze and the Sabbath is still potentially explosive.
“You’re going to get me in trouble,” said Rep. Barbara Boyd, D-Anniston, when The Star asked her about the bill. Boyd said she supported giving city leaders a choice in the matter.
“I’m for it as long as there are no sales during worship-service hours,” she said.
That’s been the rule in the state’s larger cities, where beer and wine can usually be purchased in the afternoons and evenings on Sunday.
However, that approach seems now to be trickling down to medium-sized and small cities. Tuscaloosa passed a Sunday-sales ordinance in 2011, and neighboring Northport followed suit the same year. Last year, Selma and the small Sumter County town of York legalized Sunday sales as well.
Officials at the Alabama League of Municipalities say they can’t tell whether it’s a trend. The mishmash of alcohol laws is so complicated, the changes are too hard to track.
Beer or baseball?
From Montgomery’s Tallapoosa Street, Sunday alcohol looks like a complete success.
Much of the capital city’s downtown is dead on weekends, typical of a Deep South city center. But near the city’s riverfront is the Montgomery Biscuits’ minor-league baseball stadium. On Sunday afternoons, the ballpark disgorges hundreds of fans who fill the pubs and restaurants across the street. Even on non-game Sundays, people stop by at Dreamland Barbecue or the Alley Bar, where beer — including Gadsden-made Truck Stop Honey — is on tap.
Getting the Biscuits would have been a lot harder without Sunday sales, said Dawn Hathcock, vice president of the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Visitors and Convention Bureau.
“It really helps to be able to serve beer at those Sunday games,” she said. Attempts to reach Biscuits officials for comment were unsuccessful.
When officials try to assess the economic impact of Sunday sales, it’s hard to tell where the beer effect begins and the baseball effect ends.
Officials in Birmingham and Mobile, where Sunday sales have long been legal, said they didn’t have any way to sort out the effect of Sunday sales on city revenue. Tuscaloosa city revenue director Linda McKinney said she was confident the city’s new Sunday-sales policy has helped a little, though the effect was hard to measure.
“We’re more affected by the number of home games than by Sunday sales,” she said, referring to the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide.
Sid Nichols says the social cost of drinking gets lost in the talk of Sunday sales. People don’t consider the effect of additional drunk drivers on the road and other social problems, he said.
But for Nichols, director of missions for the Calhoun Baptist Association, it isn’t really about the money.
“They’ve got all the right arguments, according to what the world thinks,” Nichols said. “But how much of the Lord’s day are we going to chip away?”
Nichols said he has written to Rep. Steve Hurst, R-Munford, in opposition to Sunday sales, and is beginning to organize churches in the effort.
Hurst, a member of Calhoun County’s delegation, said he hasn’t read the bill yet and hasn’t made up his mind. But he said he was skeptical of calls for Sunday sales.
“It’s already pretty easy to get alcohol,” he noted.
Studies suggest Sunday sales don’t lead to an increase in drunk driving, said Mark Stehr, an economist at Pennsylvania’s Drexel University who studies blue laws. They don’t lead to a bonanza of wealth, either.
“The increase in sales is usually around 2 to 3 percent,” Stehr said.
Stehr said the laws in neighboring areas would shape the impact of Sunday sales. When small states like Delaware and Rhode Island legalized Sunday sales, he said, they saw big boosts in sales, because neighboring states didn’t have Sunday sales.
“Delaware’s sales went up 7 percent,” he said. “That’s a bigger change than you’d see from the Delaware population alone.”
Anniston could see a similar effect, on a different scale, he said. No surrounding cities have Sunday sales.
Stehr said most of the Delaware sales were in stores, not bars, which is why drunk driving didn’t increase.
“Generally, people don’t drive to another city to get drunk in a bar,” he said.
To the average resident, however, Anniston’s nearest neighbor doesn’t always feel like a separate city. Anniston stands cheek-to-cheek with Oxford, a town of similar size. Stehr said he didn’t know how Sunday sales would play out in a wet Sunday city so close to a dry Sunday city.
‘What the people want’
Sam Sutchaleo’s restaurant has a bar, he said, but he’s quick to point out that his place isn’t a bar.
Sutchaleo owns Thai One On, an Asian restaurant on Noble Street. He closes on Sunday, he said, because business is slow. With Sunday sales, he predicts, he’d be able to draw enough of a crowd to open.
“It would be good for us,” he said.
Wigley, of Wig’s Wheels, said he doesn’t expect Sunday sales to turn Noble Street into a bar district. In the past, he said, locals have pushed back against some efforts to open more bars.
“Even if it did become an entertainment district, maybe that’s not so bad,” he said. “We’ve tried a lot of other things.”
Mogil, of Damn Yankees, said he didn’t expect to draw big crowds from Oxford looking just for drinks. He says people just want the same meal they’d get on any other day of the week.
“It’s disrespecting the community,” he said of the Sunday sales ban. “When people come here from out of town and hear that they can’t have a beer because it’s Sunday, they think this is the most backward place.”
Still, it isn’t out-of-towners who will sway legislators on the issue. Rep. Randy Wood, R-Anniston, said he hasn’t made up his mind on the issue yet, largely because he hasn’t seen the bill. But he said he’s asking people around town to see how they feel about it.
“I like to do what the people want,” he said.
Capitol & statewide correspondent: 256-294-4193. On Twitter @TLockette_Star. | <urn:uuid:94760e51-6fec-4368-934d-b3fc61414b3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.annistonstar.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Taps+for+dry+Sundays-+Tourism-+special+events+would+stand+to+benefit+from+one+more+day+of+beer+%20&id=21538544&instance=lead_story_left_column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954772 | 2,079 | 1.632813 | 2 |
A Policy Enforced By Thermometer
In a previous post about The Politics of the Open Shul Window, I recommended setting a policy based on using thermometers and creating a committee or a person to enforce a temperature based policy. A recent incident caused me to re-evaluate that suggestion.
A New Clock Arrives
My weekday Shul is in a small room that fits about 35 people and it can get quite warm when the window is closed, which it often is. It’s basically a grin and bear it situation. Recently, one of the Mispallim donated a big new atomic clock (it’s a Neitz (sunrise) minyan), with a digital thermometer visible to all. After davening, I looked at the thermometer and it was 78 degrees. I went to the Gabbai and mentioned that 78 degrees is warm by objective standards, and I asked if perhaps it can be remedied.
Returning to the Scene
I was away for a few days, and when I came back it was cooler in the room, because the window had been open, but the thermometer was changed to Celsius. When I noted the Celsius change to the Gabbai, he just smiled. He also mentioned that a local Rav had a thermometer to monitor the temperature, but subsequently removed it.
The Problem of Objective Standards
On the surface objective standards seem fine, because they’re measurable and fair. The problem comes because the objective standard makes everybody a potential enforcer of the policy and that’s usually unworkable. With an objective standard, any person can insist that one degree above the agreed upon temperature requires the window to be open. There usually needs to be some discretion in policy enforcement and the objective standard eliminates that.
What’s the solution? Assign someone to be responsible for the temperature and opening of the windows, but don’t state an objective standard that can be called to enforcement by any member. | <urn:uuid:ab51bd33-4f54-4df5-a7a6-a24621aacf80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shulpolitics.com/2013/02/13/clocks-thermometers-and-window-monitors/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964703 | 407 | 1.5 | 2 |
In Vincere, veteran Italian director Marco Bellocchio has created both a stylish historical drama and a political parable. His crashing and resounding film about images and torrid affairs calls into question our love affair with the image and our weakness for the power of political aesthetic.
Bellocchio films have always dealt with the relationship between the personal and the political. His 1965 Fist in His Pocket imagined a disabled, and deeply dysfunctional, Italian family as a representation of the post-war Italian republic. His follow-up China is Near, a bedroom farce and send-up of the Italian Left, did the same through the story of a working class couple who scheme to marry into an aristocratic family of socialists.
The 70-year old director’s latest explores the rise of fascism through the experience of Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), a woman who had a passionate affair with a the young Mussolini in the days before World War I. She apparently married the future fascist impresario and had a child with him. He broke contact with her during World War I, remarried, started a new family and quickly rose to power. Vincere chronicles the tragedy of Dalser and her son, both of whom ended up institutionalized.
If you watch Vincere with the idea that you are about to encounter a standard biopic, you will quickly find yourself knocked down and pulled out to sea in the undertow of the cinematography. The pacing of the first half of the film matches Mussolini’s fiery temperament and rapid rise to power. His taking of Ida, including the steamy scenes where he bullies her into orgasm, reflects the passion of political rallies where he seduces and makes Italy his own.
Vincere purposefully forces us to consider the power of aesthetic images in political and personal tragedy, skillfully showing how the two are intertwined. Newsreels at the beginning of World War I lead Mussolini and his supporters to exchange blows with left-wing opponents of Italy’s entrance into the conflict. A beautiful and disturbing scene in a field hospital features a wounded Mussolini somnolently watching a scene of Christ dying on the cross from D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance. Dalser watching Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid offers a clue about her emotional life and its relationship to the screen.
Cinematographer Daniele Cipri attacks us with this welter of imagery, splicing real and fake newsreels, found footage, political slogans and even a few animations into the powerful small scenes between Ida and her charismatic lover. I’m fighting not to employ the much over-used “operatic” as a description, but this is historical drama as Wagner would tell it.
The frenetic assault suddenly slows down in the second half of the film that deals primarily with Ida’s captivity in the asylum. Fillipo Timi as Mussolini disappears and we see the dictator only as his image, in statues, in newsreels and in photographs. This conceit allows the film to fully realize its primary trope, the transfiguration of reality into aesthetic experience. Timi appears as Mussolini’s illegitimate son, Benito Jr., including one masterful scene where he satires his father’s histrionic speechmaking with chin thrusting, eyes bulging, and fists pummeling the air.
Mezzogiorno owns this movie and makes the absent Mussolini, living only as an image, seem increasingly pallid and absurd as the film progresses. The power of her portrayal of Dalser (she was a runner-up at Cannes to Charlotte Gainsbourg’s harrowing performance in Antichrist) has led most critics to see her character a bit more sympathetically than I think Bellocchio would wish. Her obsession with Il Duce has catastrophic consequences for her and her son, a fatal obsession that mirrors Italy’s willingness to give themselves to the dictator’s dreams of glory.
For a number of years, recent Italian cinema simply did not have the cachet among art house-goers as French films. Its worth noting that Vincere is really the first Bellocchio film that has received something resembling wide distribution in the United States, making him perhaps one of the greatest living directors many Americans have never heard of. Bellocchio’s masterpiece and the recent Gomorrah, directed by Matteo Garrone, will hopefully galvanize film lovers to discover that Italian film didn’t end with Fellini and that perhaps a new phase has been heralded with Vincere. | <urn:uuid:c0dc7da5-c901-48a3-bf50-5b9b7f118d7a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/129025-vincere/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965541 | 956 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Editors note: This is first in a series of stories about each school in Houston County. The list will go alphabetically elementary, middle and high school. The Sun News will follow Houston County with Peach County.
BONAIRE -- Bonaire Elementary School is one of the oldest schools in Houston County.
The main building was built in 1960, but the need for more classrooms caused the school to expand.
We are growing very quickly, said Principal J. Willis Jones, who has been with the school for three years. Prior to coming to Bonaire Elementary, Jones was the assistant principal for Kings Chapel Elementary and Perry Primary schools.
Bonaire Elementary has 727 students from pre-Kindergarten through fifth grade.
With 32 homerooms, the school has 48 teachers, three administrators, two full-time office staff, a bookkeeper, counselor and health technician.
Bonaire Elementary offers a number of clubs for students, including a percussion group called Bonaire Beat, a Junior Master Gardeners Club and a newspaper club.
The gardening around the school and in the courtyard is done by the students.
Bonaire Elementary has won several awards, both locally and statewide.
The school was one of six schools in Houston County that won Single Statewide Accountability System awards from the Governors Office of Student Achievement for the 2010-11 school year. It was among 259 schools in Georgia recognized for high achievement on standardized tests.
It was also named a Georgia School of Excellence in 1991 and 2009.
Its the teachers in the building that makes us a good school, said Jones.
During the summer, Jones is the only one who is contracted to be there, but he said he was never alone while he worked as teachers came in and worked on the new common core standards curriculum.
He noted some of his predecessors have been former superintendent David Carpenter and Eric Payne, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning at the Houston County Board of Education.
You really cant go wrong in Houston County, Jones said. | <urn:uuid:ff21b33d-913f-44c4-9534-c295214fb7c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macon.com/2012/09/12/2170986/bonaire-elementary-one-of-oldest.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980587 | 415 | 1.734375 | 2 |
In our family we have a saying. If someone states the obvious, or learns something basic they should already know. We say Duuuh, Big Red Truck. It's from a stupid joke, the punch line being, Duuuuh, Big Red Truck! In other words, Duh, your an idiot.
With that being said, We have a President that thinks the Executive branch of our Government is superior to the other two. His organizational chart would look something like this:
President Moron (with all due respect)
Do Nothing Congress Stoopid right wing court
Then way down here, Us Peons
Notice there are no states in between, he doesn't believe in states rights, or else he wouldn't be suing states like Arizona for prosecuting their immigration laws.
When he makes statements like if Congress isn't going to do it, then he will just have to do it and get it done. Duh, Mr President, Big Red Truck. That's how the checks and balances were created by men much more smarter than you. The Congress doesn't do the bidding of the President. Your supposed to work together, as EQUAL branches of the government. If you want something to pass through Congress, Hmm," pass through Congress" isn't that what usually happens, it's "passed" through Congress and dumped on us. As I was saying, sorry I get distracted, :) If you want something to pass through Congress go through the proper channels to do it, you don't have the right to bypass and just do it on your own. Wasn't this guy supposed to be a Constitutional Scholar? He should get his money back, because he was jacked!
Mr President, read the constitution, you might learn a thing or two! | <urn:uuid:835f5784-4c6c-4f22-85d3-917aa0c65063> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sasquatchrant.blogspot.com/2012/01/three-equal-branches.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983015 | 360 | 1.6875 | 2 |
“I felt then, as I feel now, that the politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organizing nothing better than legalized mass murder.”
- Harry Patch, last living American veteran of WWI
Patch was British, not American. Great man
“They say I’m so low key, I’m socially awkward, Only those that really know me are the ones that I talk with. They smile in the light, hate in the dark, You call it beef, to me it’s just a fuckin walk in the park
Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.
“Robert Williams was just a couple of years ahead of his time, but he laid a good groundwork, and he will be given credit in history for the stand he took.” — Malcolm X
Photo: Williams and his wife, Mabel
I do believe there will be a clash between East and West. I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice, and equality for everyone, and those that want to continue the systems of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don’t think it will be based upon the color of the skin, as Elijah Muhammad has taught it.
Malcolm X, 1965 | <urn:uuid:5bc15de1-5356-43d6-b208-07aa65015c88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rednotebooks.tumblr.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973567 | 308 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Are you as bewildered about the stages of menopause as we were? We wanted to understand what we were experiencing but also found that we needed this information to find the best menopause treatments for our symptoms?
Initially we were looking for just the ONE remedy to help with hot flashes and mood swings but soon found that we had to choose the right remedy for the menopause phase we were in.
Each phase has its own characteristics and symptoms that are caused by specific hormone changes in your body. This also means that each phase has different requirements for treatments. In some extreme cases, choosing the wrong treatment for your symptoms can make you feel even worse. Certainly not what you want!
So let's start to understand the different stages of menopause.
The menopausal transition is characterized by three broad phases:
These phases can be divided into several sub-phases but this is more of interest for researchers and not terribly important for your symptoms.
Every woman has a unique timeline and an individual journey through the different stages of menopause. If your personal experience does not fit the model, keep in mind that it is only a general picture of a woman's journey through the transition.
Experts found that although most women follow the model at least somewhat, a lot of women do NOT go through the transition in any orderly way.
Some women moved back and forth between the different stages of perimenopause, while other women skipped perimenopause altogether. So the transition is truly unique for every woman.
If you are saying: "Yeah I know all about the drop in estrogen" you might be surprised. It could be actually too much estrogen. Or maybe it is a lack of progesterone or a testosterone problem.
How do you know? Well your symptoms will tell you. (If you want to know about the relationship between your hormones and your symptoms, follow this link).
This phase has at least two clear stages in itself: the early and late perimenopause phase.
Early perimenopause has the following symptoms:
After several years, the symptoms of perimenopause will become more dominant. Hot flashes and night sweats appear in earnest and become bothersome. This is the beginning of the late perimenopausal transition.
You may not realize that the "strange" things" that are happening to your body and mind is associated with pre-menopause. (Follow this link to the list of 34 symptoms for explanations).
If you have not had a period for twelve months you have crossed the divide - you are now officially in post menopause.
This timeframe was chosen because a large majority of women will not have a period again. However, there are exceptions to every rule and some women will still have a period after 12 months without a cycle.
Again, post-menopause begins 12 months after the last period and lasts for the rest of your life. Several years after your last period, the hot flashes and night sweats disappear (at least in most women) as the body adjusts to the lower hormone levels.
If you have some vaginal bleeding after menopause, check with your doctor. This can also be a symptom of fibroids or a serious illness, not just a quirk of your menopause transition.
|If you have some vaginal bleeding after menopause, check with your doctor. This can also be a symptom of fibroids or a serious illness, not just a quirk of your menopause transition.|
Vaginal dryness is a way of life for most women post menopause. It is often accompanied by a low sex drive. Both are signs of low estrogen levels.
With lower estrogen being the norm, osteoporosis, heart disease and other symptoms become more likely.
Going through the stages of menopause can be a frightening time for women, especially if you experience some of the not so common symptoms. (Or if you are like us and had no clue that the fuzzy thinking and forgetfulness could be a sign of peri menopause).
It is important to find a health care provider that understands what you are going through. It is also important that your doctor does not dismiss your concerns as something you have to suffer through OR just brush you off with a prescription for hormones. Unfortunately this is still happening more often than it should.
If you feel that your concerns are not heard or not understood, find a menopause doctor. Here is the link to the database of the North American Menopause Society with names of specialists. (It will open in a new window).
After all today's women spend about one third or more of their lives after the change, so it is important to stay as healthy as possible while you are going through the stages of menopause. | <urn:uuid:c89e738b-b213-4515-bb93-5f9c48e34cce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehotflashera.com/stages-of-menopause.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965776 | 986 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Do You Really Need Three Phone Numbers?
GrandCentral, a phone service that wants to simplify your life.
We may live in an era of unprecedented change for telephones, but one thing has barely evolved in the last 125 years: the phone number. Between home, work, and cell, most of us have at least three of them to wrangle. When you think about it, the idea that both landline and wireless numbers must remain tied to specific equipment and geographical regions is pretty archaic. It's as if you needed separate e-mail addresses for every computer that you used—and had to change your e-mail address if you moved cross-country.
Enter GrandCentral, a service that tries to bring the phone number into the modern era. For starters, it gives you a number that isn't permanently associated with any line or handset in particular. Actually, GrandCentral rings all your phones at once, after you've registered your existing numbers on the company's Web site. And if you move, all your friends can keep calling your GrandCentral number rather than having to learn a new one. You simply have to register your new lines and delete the old ones.
In other words, as long as you're near any of your phones, you'll get every call that anyone makes to your GrandCentral number. Or not—many of the service's seemingly bottomless bag of tricks are designed to help you avoid talking to people. It screens calls with ruthless efficiency, forcing anyone whom it can't identify (through caller ID and your address book, which it can import from Microsoft Outlook or Gmail) to say who they are. It then tells you who's calling so you can decide if you want to answer. GrandCentral also blocks calls from known phone spammers; it can even play an uncannily realistic "you have reached a number that has been disconnected" recording for telemarketers or folks you just plain don't like.
Wait, there's more: It also lets you handle voicemail on the Web (including via your phone's browser). You can voyeuristically listen in on callers as they record messages, then interrupt to take the call if you so choose. One keypad press lets you record a call, or transfer it on the fly from one of your phones to another. Did I mention that you can replace the ringing noise that callers hear while they're waiting for you to pick up with any MP3 you want ... or that you can specify different MP3s (as well as custom voicemail greetings) for specific people?
On paper, this all sounds kind of amazing—and all the more so given that it carries no cost. During its beta period, GrandCentral is free; when the final version comes along at some unspecified point in the coming months, there will be both a free edition and a for-pay one with more features and customization options. Not one to pass up a can't-miss opportunity, I signed up for a number in my area code—266 area codes covering 47 states are now available, with more on the way—and began to spread the word.
From the start, I discovered that the real-world version of GrandCentral isn't always as snazzy as the theoretical version. For one thing, there's the way the service bills itself as "One Number ... for Life." I was instinctively skeptical about the "for life" part, given that I've already outlived multiple services that were vaguely akin to GrandCentral. But even the "one number" part is subject to debate. What you're really getting is half a phone number, since your GrandCentral digits are for incoming calls only. If you place a call from any of your phones to a cell phone, your phone's actual number—not your GrandCentral one—will show up, meaning that people who call you back from the log will bypass GrandCentral entirely. And cool features like the ability to record a conversation work only when someone's phoned you. During one call, I maniacally pounded on my phone's star button, believing it would let me transfer a call—which it didn't, since I was the one who'd made the call in the first place.
Convincing my cohorts to use my new GrandCentral number also proved surprisingly tricky. One buddy developed an irritating habit of trying it first and then, if I didn't pick up, proceeding to call each of my other numbers in succession until I did. It dawned on me that it's tough to train people to use a new phone number when a) the old numbers still work, and b) the new one mostly benefits you, not them.
"One Number ... for Life" isn't the only claim I'd quibble with. The most prominent promise on the service's home page is that you'll "Never Miss a Call You Want to Take." The very first call to my virgin GrandCentral number came from a friend confirming dinner plans. I was in a meeting when my cell phone rang; I sprang up, bolted for the door, and answered the line. Which promptly went dead. I'd forgotten that a department assistant answers my office line (which GrandCentral had simultaneously rung) when I don't. She had picked up the call back at her desk more swiftly than I had. Lesson learned: If there's any chance that someone other than you—be it a colleague or your offspring—might answer one of your phones, think twice before programming it into GrandCentral.
When the never-miss-a-call feature works, it's not always a good thing. After all, only the most slavish worker bee is willing to let absolutely any business acquaintance reach them at any hour of the day on any phone. GrandCentral does let you divvy your contact list into subgroups with different rules. For instance, you could tell it to ring all your phones if a family member's on the line, but only your office number if it's a co-worker. That helps, if you take the time to categorize everyone appropriately. But I found myself longing for time-based rules so that, say, business callers would reach my cell from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and get bounced to voicemail otherwise. You can tell GrandCentral not to ring your home number during work hours; oddly, you can't do the reverse, to stop corporate matters from intruding into your life once you've checked out for the day.
One thing I do like unreservedly is the service's approach to voicemail. When the iPhone shows up in late June, some hard-core phone freaks will undoubtedly plunk down $500 for its point-and-click "visual voicemail" feature alone. GrandCentral offers something roughly comparable right now for any phone with an audio player. You can immediately jump to any of your messages and don't have to remember whether pressing #3 will save a message to the archive or delete it forever. And the company says it'll keep all your mail indefinitely—a blessed change from Cingular, which won't even let me listen to new messages until I've weeded out ones that are just a few weeks old.
Harry McCracken is editor in chief of PC World.
Photograph of a telephone on Slate's home page by Ryan McVay/Getty Creative. | <urn:uuid:b292bcfd-3952-42ef-9a85-77c76d3757a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2007/05/do_you_really_need_three_phone_numbers.html?nav=tap3 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961924 | 1,507 | 1.546875 | 2 |
The only thing worse than dealing with haters of your company or product is not having any at all. The product without haters is destined for ignominy and failure. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that your product's success is positively correlated with the volume of venom directed at it.
But first, let's define a "hater."
There's valid criticism, and then there's hate. A hater, according to Urban Dictionary, feasts upon schadenfreude: "A person that simply cannot be happy for another person's success. So rather than be happy they make a point of exposing a flaw in that person." Jealousy factors heavily into a hater's temperament.
Yes, jealousy. After all, no one hates a loser. That company with 1% market share? No one bothers to expend energy trashing it. Not seriously, anyway.
No, haters reserve their hate for the winners.
It's Good To Be Hated
Don't believe me? Let's look at some outsized winners, like Apple.
Apple's market share may be sliding in both smartphones and tablets, in part because the market is growing around it, but Apple still commands profits (and revenues) that every company on the planet envies. It also commands disproportionate attention from haters. Social Mention pegs Apple's love-to-hate ratio at 2-1. Motherhood and apple pie? 7-1. (You can find similar results using Twendz or Amplicate, whose data indicates that 44% hate Apple and a massive 68% hate the iPhone.
All to the tune of $137 billion in the bank.
How about Microsoft? Haters have targeted it for years, including me. (Incidentally, I don't consider myself a hater, but that's beside the point: "hate" in this definition is what we do, not necessarily who we are. And I've written some serious broadsides against Microsoft for its early bullying of open source.)
How much is Microsoft hated? Amplicate details a 63% hate rate against Windows, 69% against the company, and a whopping 89% against Internet Explorer. Social Mention (3:1 love-to-hate ratio) and Twendz reveal similar data.
And yet Microsoft still manages to earn over $72 billion in revenue, with a "paltry" $68 billion in the bank.
The list goes on. MySQL? It was once pilloried as a database that lost data, performed poorly, etc. Now it's the third-most popular database in the world. Linux? Microsoft system administrators used to ridicule its security, performance, and most everything else. Now it owns 21% of the server market and keeps growing as it is the default OS for cloud, Big Data, and other emerging trends. Facebook was lambasted for not groking mobile, even as mobile has grown in two quarters from 14% to 23% of the company's billion-dollar quarters.
Responding To The Haters
I could go on, but you get the point: haters are actually leading indicators of success. The more vociferous your haters, the more likely that you're doing something right, and it's driving them insane. Bonus points if you can claim a Twitter spoof account, as Apple once could thanks to @FakeSteveJobs/@RealDanLyons. No one bothers to parody a losing company or product, as no one would get the joke.
This is not to suggest that you should ignore valid criticism, but rather to take it in stride and answer with product improvements, as each of the companies noted above has done. Even bile-fueled hate can be instructive, after all, so the key is to learn from it without becoming consumed by it.
While it's hard to resist responding, don't. Doing so simply legitimizes the hater and amplifies their voice, as you almost certainly have more distribution than they do. I once heard wise counsel about someone criticized in a local newspaper. When they wanted to respond, they were told, "Don't. Half the people in town don't get that paper. Half that do won't have read the article in question. Half of those who read it won't believe it. And half that read and believe it simply won't care." Content on the Internet has an exceptionally short shelf-life. Don't respond. Let it die. The best response is always by delivering on your product, as PDA CTO Eliot Murphy intimates.
The Only Thing Worse Than Having Haters...
Again, in our hyper-connected world it's simply impossible to succeed without accumulating haters along the way. They indicate you're doing something right, as SpringSource founder Rod Johnson suggests:
@mjasay Unless something's hated by some, it's likely irrelevant. And it's not displacing anything inferior. Great presentation idea!— Rod Johnson (@springrod) February 9, 2013
In other words, it's far better to have a popular but feverishly hated product than a Milque Toast product that no one can be bothered to criticize, as forum traffic on Oracle (Market cap: $164B), SAP ($94B), and CA ($11B) illustrates.
None of which is to suggest that everyone criticizes your product is a mindless hater and should be ignored. Far from it. But when haters start congregating around your product, listen to their criticism, evaluate its merits, don't respond, continually improve your product, and be very, very grateful that you have haters.
After all, most companies have few to no haters at all. Pity them.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock. | <urn:uuid:dba5e25e-f00b-4dd4-92bb-6adc30f2b43d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://readwrite.com/2013/02/25/haters-as-a-leading-indicator-of-success | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964675 | 1,179 | 1.578125 | 2 |
FY 2010 Foreign Assistance Goals
The goal of U.S. Government (USG) assistance in Montenegro is to support the country’s transition to a market-based democracy fully embedded in Euro-Atlantic institutions, including NATO and the European Union (EU). The United States assists these efforts by helping Montenegro ensure stability through broad-based prosperity, building an effective security partnership, strengthening the rule of law, and reinforcing democratic institutions. In addition, a top USG priority is building Montenegro’s capacity for combating corruption, thereby increasing public confidence in governance. Economic reform will also continue to play an important role in achieving U.S. goals for Montenegro. Job creation and economic revitalization, particularly in the impoverished and ethnically diverse North, are key elements to maintaining harmony among ethnic communities and sustaining Montenegro’s stabilizing influence in the region.
Total FY 2010 Foreign Operations Appropriated Assistance: $10.65 million*
(*Foreign Operations funding appropriated for FY 2010, not including centrally managed, regional Foreign Operations funding that is not budgeted for specific countries.)
Highlights of FY 2010 Performance by Area of Focus
Peace and Security
-- During FY 2010, the USG provided training and equipment to enhance the ability of Montenegrin Customs and Border Police to control Montenegro’s borders and interdict illicit trafficking. As a result, the Border Police mounted successful interdiction operations on Skadar Lake and elsewhere in Montenegro and continue to advance their maritime control capacity. Additionally, USG support contributed to Montenegro’s ability to conduct trade within the global rules-based system – in particular by enhancing its ability to license imports, exports, transits, transshipments and re-exports while ensuring compliance with UN Security Council resolutions, the multilateral nonproliferation regimes and EU requirements.
-- USG security assistance programs continue to prepare the Montenegrin defense establishment for future membership in NATO and for partnership in overseas contingency operations. In 2010, the Montenegrin Armed Forces procured night vision devices, GPS equipment, uniforms, and a variety of individual training equipment through USG funding.
-- USG programs trained over 100 prosecutors in asset forfeiture, cross-examination techniques, tracking of illicit proceeds, courtroom presentation of asset forfeiture cases, and in major case management. Programs also provided training to police and prosecutors on anti-money laundering.
-- USG assistance supported the formation of the Joint Investigative Team (JIT), a task force headed up by the Office of the Special Prosecutor. The JIT has already returned indictments for corruption against 21 customs and border police officers and is now pursuing the financial assets of a high-ranking global drug trafficker in cooperation with the Italian anti-mafia prosecutors. Fifty-one persons have been arrested on charges of trafficking one ton of cocaine from South America to Europe, with suspects arrested in several European countries. The JIT has overseen the arrest of one of the key drug traffickers in Europe and will be conducting a subsequent financial investigation aimed at seizing the assets of the suspect and his organization.
Governing Justly and Democratically
-- In FY 2010, USG assistance continued to help Parliament improve its lawmaking and oversight capacities and provided technical assistance and training. As a result, 55 public hearings were held in front of nine (out of 11) different parliamentary committees, demonstrating that Parliament has significantly increased its oversight of the Executive through the instrument of hearings. In addition to ministerial representatives, the police and the Agency for National Security, who participated in hearings over the last year, a number of representatives of NGOs, universities, governmental agencies, and the Supreme Audit Institution appeared before parliamentary committees to testify on a number of different topics. For the first time, the Secretary General testified to the Committee on Economy, Budget, and Finance, presenting transparent reports of parliamentary expenditures over the past year. The committee also invited the anti-corruption NGO MANS to attend a committee session and testify on its assessment of the reports.
-- As a result of USG efforts, Parliament now functions with a new administrative structure and operates with improved rules of procedure, and the political opposition has greater responsibility within parliament in the form of committee chairmanships and co-chairmanships. The role of parliamentary staff continued to develop through 2010, both through work with clerks on essential skills building and with parliamentary officials on devoting more resources to creating a professional staff.
-- The goal of the anti-corruption program, which ended in February 2010, was to work in partnership with a broad coalition of non-governmental and civil society organizations to advocate for the adoption of concrete anticorruption reforms that reflect the concerns of Montenegrin society as well as to monitor and assist in the implementation of such reform efforts. After 24 months of the implementation of the anti-corruption program, there has been an increase in the number of citizens reporting corruption, submitting complaints, requesting information, giving suggestions to local NGOs, and participating in an anti-corruption campaign. A total of 175 calls were made by citizens to hotlines sponsored under the program over a period of five months, making an average of 35 calls per month, or a 17 percent increase over 2009 figures.
-- During the reporting period, a local NGO and a team of investigative journalists drawn from three different independent media outlets in Montenegro continued to produce in-depth stories across six different thematic categories (all connected to corruption). These stories were posted on the internet portal created by the project and accessible to all media in Montenegro who are able to print the stories in their own media or elaborate on the stories themselves freely and without copyright problems. Training and technical support improved the capacity of journalists for investigative journalism.
-- Under the Legislative Strengthening & Watchdog Program, a total of five sub-grants were awarded to watchdog NGOs. One illustrative example of the success under this program is the NGO CDT (Center for Democratic Transition) initiative to monitor state and municipal political parties’ expenditure. The NGO collected all financial documentation on state and municipal expenditures for the period of 2004-2008 and a complete set of documentation from the Ministry of Finance pertaining to money transfers to the political parties from state and local government budgets for regular and campaign expenses. CDT reported to the public serious discrepancies in the amounts transferred to political parties compared to the limits prescribed in the Law on Financing of Political Parties. CDT reports and various TV shows on this subject provoked a sizeable political debate in the country about the use of government budget funds to support political parties. This NGO will continue its work through other funding.
-- Interest in USG exchange programs is steadily rising and alumni from both the high school and adult programs have joined together to officially register their alumni association as an NGO that is working in the fields of environmental awareness and academic development. Leveraging their experiences with volunteerism and civic participation in the U.S., these alumni will play an increasing role in program design in the future based on their increasingly active role in society.
-- Working with the Montenegrin Office for Fighting Human Trafficking, an education initiative was conducted to raise the awareness on the part of judges, prosecutors, police officers, social workers, labor inspectors and representatives of national and international organizations involved in combating human trafficking. This high profile event received widespread media coverage and raised awareness of trafficking in persons and its consequences. Raising awareness and understanding about human trafficking will be followed by training for police and other law enforcement officials as well as for prosecutors and judges.
-- In FY 2010, the USG provided significant help to the Association of Paraplegics of Montenegro. With USG support the association monitored the implementation of the Law on Spatial Adaptation and Building which states all new school buildings constructed must contain physical access for the disabled. During 2010, the association monitored 39 construction sites resulting in significantly increased awareness of the law and the challenges faced by the disabled community. Following this monitoring, the association worked in conjunction with in-house legal advice to compile and submit information to the National Building Inspection on five cases in which the Law on Spatial Adaptation and Building was being violated.
-- In FY 2010, training programs were conducted for judges, prosecutors, legal advisors, police and other criminal justice actors and stakeholders on significant changes to the Criminal Procedure Code including plea bargaining, investigation of corruption, asset forfeiture and investigation of financial crimes. As a result of introductory trainings, prosecutors recognize the benefits of resolving cases short of full evidentiary hearings/trials, but are not comfortable with the process of plea bargaining and are struggling with how to negotiate a plea agreement with defense counsel. Defense counsels are not convinced of the benefits of plea agreements, believing that resolving cases more quickly and without full trials will reduce their earnings. In FY 2011, the program will identify the specific obstacles to implementation of plea bargaining and develop training programs to address them.
-- Training in investigating corruption cases, along with extensive education on professional integrity and what constitutes corruption has succeeded in increasing the visibility of official corruption and raising the awareness of judges, prosecutors and other government officials involved in criminal justice. Montenegrin prosecutors are sensitive to the need to demonstrate diligence and competency in handling corruption cases, but are not performing proactively when it comes to leading investigations into corruption as required under the new Criminal Procedure Code provisions. A proposal is being prepared for training programs to teach prosecutors how to direct investigations and to work with police to take a proactive approach to crime, particularly organized crime and corruption.
-- With the overall goal of fostering private sector growth in the North as well as linking private sector producers and entrepreneurs in the North with investors and customers in the southern and central regions, in FY 2010, USG programs provided technical assistance as well as grants to support small and medium size businesses. As a result of collaboration at the local level, a Business Service Center concept was implemented in order to foster public and private partnerships and boost the competitiveness of enterprises, establishing the Center for Hospitality and Tourism Education – hospitality and tourism-specific skills training; the Center for Entrepreneurship – a hub for practical and environmentally sensitive business development and enhancement advice and services; and the Offices for Tourism and Entrepreneurship – establishment of a local tourism office as well as a new office to house a young entrepreneurship center. | <urn:uuid:200ccce6-8c59-46bf-b5b0-9701a2313b1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.state.gov/p/eur/rls/rpt/seedfy10/156895.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947476 | 2,072 | 1.601563 | 2 |
VCU Nursing Program Visits Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club for Family Night and Red Ribbon Week Celebration 31/10/2011
VCU Nursing Program Visits Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club for Family Night and Red Ribbon Week Celebration
In late October, faculty and students from Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Nursing visited The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club to take part in the Club's annual Red Ribbon Week celebration.
The group from VCU participated in the Club's Family Night festivities and held various sessions dealing with the topic of bullying; a very timely topic that so many of The Salvation Army club members face each and every day.
The Club members were divided into age groups, with each breakout session conducting age appropriate activities that dealt directly with the topic of bullying.
Those members that were 6 to 8 years old were read "Lucy and the Bully," and were asked to draw a bully, someone being bullied, or someone in their life who has stepped in to stop a bully. The 9 to 13 year old members were tasked with performing skits dealing with why bullying is a topic that is important to everyone. The 14 to 18 year old members played a game show that focused on raising awareness, "Bullying Blitz."
When the evening began, all the Club members were handed a piece of paper and told to crumple it, fold it, or tear it any way they wished. When the breakout sessions concluded, the Club members were then asked to take out that piece of paper and try to straighten it out and repair it the best way they could.
"The message of the paper was simple, bullying is something that leaves permanent emotional scars and something that youth today face day in and day out," said Hugh Jones, Executive Director for The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club.
"We were delighted that VCU could address this issue and help us continue to teach our Club members the importance of being better community citizens, better students, and to continue on the path to becoming the leaders of tomorrow."
Family Night ended after an Italian dinner, complete with spaghetti, salad and bread, and VCU gave all the Club members bracelets and their parents were provided information on how to prevent bullying to take home.
Other Red Ribbon Week activities included a visit from the City of Richmond fire department, Club staff and members taking drug free pledges, and the selection of the Club's members of the month; Kalasia Kenny, 8, the Itty Bitty of the Month; Brandon Pleasant, 12 the Tween of the Month; and Dachell Wilkins, 15, the Teen of the Month.
Red Ribbon Week is the nation's oldest and largest drug prevention program in the nation reaching millions of Americans during the last week of October every year. By wearing red ribbons and participating in community anti-drug events, young people pledge to live a drug-free life and pay tribute to DEA Special Agent Enriqué "Kiki" Camarena.
For more information about Red Ribbon Week, please visit http://www.justice.gov/dea/ongoing/redribbon_factsheet.html. | <urn:uuid:c31ba8d4-85fb-4d93-a084-f5c0df56bb25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.uss.salvationarmy.org/uss/www_uss_richmond.nsf/(TextFile)?OpenAgent&item=35207B8A73520ABA8525793A005E1418 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971442 | 636 | 1.53125 | 2 |
That’s without the books and DVDs that have to accompany them.
Solis and his law firm, Cohen & Grigsby in Bonita Springs, are working to bring 52 nuns and monks to the United States. Seven arrived in California on Monday. On Thursday, Solis travels to meet them.
The firm has filed 30 and has 22 more non-immigrant religious worker visa petitions to go.
The monks and nuns are members of Bat Nha Monastery in Vietnam. The members of Bat Nha follow the teachings of Thich Nhat Hahn, founder of the Unified Buddhist Church.
The Florida Community of Mindfulness practices in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hahn and holds meditation in Naples and other areas of the southwest. However, Solis said there are no plans to bring the nuns and monks who arrive in California to Florida.
Reports state that about 380 nuns and monks were violently forced out of the Bat Nha monastery in late September by government-backed mobs. Since then, the monastics have found refuge in another temple, but police harassment continues.
Solis, a native Floridian born to Cuban immigrants, learned of the religious violence when he attended a meditation retreat in August.
Thich Nhat Hahn was a speaker.
“The really amazing part of this story is the commitment these young people have to their vocation. In spite of all the danger, the threats, they’re committed,” he said. “That’s a great story, I think.”
Solis can’t remember how, or how many years ago, he came across Thich Nhat Hahn’s books.
“It made sense to me,” he said.
So did helping the Unified Buddhist Church.
Though Solis, 46, was born in the U.S., his siblings weren’t and his parents came to the country as exiles. He knew he had benefited from the help of others, particularly friends his father made as a student at the University of Florida in the 1950s.
So in January, Solis contacted the Unified Buddhist Church and offered his help. The visa application process was the answer.
Solis and his colleagues began by filing five applications at a time. With each batch, they would perfect the process.
The Unified Buddhist Church is the official petitioning group for the monastics. The applications require assorted information about the legitimacy of the petitioning organization and the religious workers. That’s where the informational books and DVDs help.
While Solis and partners have been providing legal counsel pro bono, the Unified Buddhist Church has had a hefty tab to pay _ $1,320 per petition. The application is $320, and the premium processing fee, which speeds the process of application review to within 15 days, is $1,000.
One of the first steps in any application review is a site visit, said Sharon Scheidhauer, spokeswoman for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes the applications.
“We do visit all of these sites, absolutely, before we even go much further into the applications,” she said.
That rule was added after a 2005 assessment of fraud in religious worker petitions.
The site visits are unannounced and used to verify if the organization exists and operates how the petitioner claims. Only organizations that have successfully passed a site inspection are allowed to file with premium processing.
Without premium processing, the applications take about five months to process, Scheidhauer said.
So far, 27 of the applications have been approved, and the other three are pending more information. Solis soon will start preparing the next 10.
In fiscal 2009, Citizenship and Immigration Services received 5,897 non-immigrant religious worker applications. The bureau approved 4,680.
Once Citizenship and Immigration Services approves an application, the petitioning worker must appear at a U.S. embassy before an R-1 visa is granted. R-1 visas are how worldwide religious organizations are able to temporarily rotate their members. The initial visa allows entrance for up to 2.5 years and can be renewed for another 2.5 years.
The Unified Buddhist Church has two main religious centers in the United States: Deer Park Monastery in Escondido, Calif., and Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush, N.Y.
Deer Park is where the monastics from Bat Nha will live and practice.
Solis said the presence of the monastics from Bat Nha will help the understaffed monastery, but the hope is for discussions between the church and Vietnamese government to proceed and allow the monastics to return to their monastery.
“They’re not seeking asylum. They’re not coming here to stay. They don’t want to stay,” Solis said.
Members of Bat Nha also are going to affiliated monasteries in Germany, France and Thailand. Thich Nhat Hahn and the church are based in southwestern France. | <urn:uuid:57093aa9-e3fe-464c-82f8-5decc0b5f69d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=61,9294,0,0,1,0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965348 | 1,037 | 1.703125 | 2 |
New Orleans -The blockbuster BP oil spill trial opened Monday with a scathing attack on the poor safety standards which led to the worst environmental disaster in US history.
Billions are at stake in the New Orleans courtroom where a federal judge is tasked with determining how much BP and its subcontractors should pay for the devastating Gulf of Mexico spill.
US prosecutors are determined to prove that gross negligence caused the April 20 2010 blast that killed 11 workers and sank the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, sending millions of barrels of oil gushing into the sea.
BP is equally determined to avoid a finding of gross negligence, which would drastically increase its environmental fines to as much as $17bn.
BP is also hoping to shift much of the blame - and cost - to rig operator Transocean and subcontractor Halliburton, which was responsible for the runaway well's faulty cement job.
Transocean's poor safety record was the focus of the first lawyer to speak, Jim Roy of the plaintiffs steering committee which represents thousands of individuals and business impacted by the spill.
Roy told the court that the Swiss giant's top safety official on the multimillion dollar rig "was not even minimally competent for this job".
"His training consisted of a three-day course. Amazingly, he had never been aboard the Deepwater Horizon," Roy said, noting that the blowout was the seventh major incident aboard a Transocean rig in the space of 17 months.
It took 87 days to cap BP's runaway well, which blackened beaches in five states and crippled the region's tourism and fishing industries in a tragedy that riveted the nation.
The British energy giant has already resolved thousands of lawsuits linked to the deadly disaster out of court, including a record $4.5bn plea deal with the US government in which BP pleaded guilty to criminal charges and a $7.8bn settlement with people and businesses affected by the spill.
BP spent more than $14bn on the response and cleanup and paid another $10bn to businesses, individuals and local governments that did not join the class action lawsuit.
It remains on the hook for billions in additional damages, including the cost of environmental rehabilitation.
The first phase of the civil trial at the federal courthouse in New Orleans will determine the cause and apportion fault for the disaster.
The second phase, not expected to start for several months, will determine exactly how much oil was spilled in order to calculate environmental fines.
The US government on Tuesday agreed not to count the 810 000 barrels of oil BP siphoned out of the runaway well before it could spill into the sea.
But a complicated battle looms over the rest, as BP insists the government overestimated how much oil gushed out of the well by "at least 20%".
The third phase will deal with environmental and economic damages.
"It's a very complex piece of litigation," said Ed Sherman, a Tulane Law professor who has closely monitored the case.
While the $7.8bn settlement reached last year resolved most of the economic and medical claims, scores more remain from insurers, racetracks, casinos, financial institutions and state and local governments.
Despite BP's avowal to "vigorously" defend itself against the gross negligence charge, many experts believe it could still reach an out-of-court settlement with the US government over environmental fines.
"BP cannot let this case proceed to judgment because the liability exposure is too great and the facts are squarely against them," Loyola University Law School professor Blaine LeCesne told AFP.
"Even if settlement isn't reached before trial it can still happen once the trial is under way."
Protesters camped outside the courthouse said they hope that Judge Carl Barbier will assess the maximum penalties possible under the law.
"This is not just about something that's going to take decades to clean up," said Chris Canfield, vice president of Gulf of Mexico conservation and restoration for the National Audubon Society.
"This is about making sure that bad actors are punished for a series of decisions that put profits ahead of people and the environment."
Follow Fin24 on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest. | <urn:uuid:0f53f690-3d89-4fb3-948b-f60f15197e2a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fin24.com/Companies/Mining/BP-comes-under-fire-in-oil-spill-trial-20130225 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966392 | 859 | 1.726563 | 2 |
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Ever wondered what it's like to...help children be better citizens?
Business isn't always about boardrooms, briefings and black coffee. So, in tribute to the North-East men and women who take a more unusual approach to enterprise, this week, Deputy Business Editor Lauren Pyrah takes a look at the unconventional, alternative or down right difficult careers in the region's economy. This week she speaks to David Foster, 48, who works for Fabrick Housing as a Peer Kids programme co-ordinator.
Tell us a little about what your job involves
I run a project working with Year Six pupils, who are in their final year at primary school and are aged ten and 11, from schools across Middlesbrough, which helps teach them about citizenship and being good members of the community.
We cover racism, bullying, and anti-social behaviour. It is about making kids understand how their actions can affect the community.
I go into schools over a ten to 12-week period to deliver the course.
We try to do it in a fun way, with lots of group work, art work, role play, games and DVDs.
Part of the course is to get children to make a promise on something they can do which will improve their estate in the future.
We have an assembly at the end of the course, where they all perform something they have written about what they have learned, and they are presented with their certificates as well as their laminated promise.
The promise is really effective, as it is something they come up with themselves, rather than something they are told to do.
How did the project get started?
It started about ten years ago, when I was working as a housing officer. The level of anti-social behaviour on some of the housing estates was something we wanted to address, and because I have a background as a youth worker, I was a good fit.
We asked if we could go into some of the schools. We started with one school, and it was so successful, the other schools approached us.
We successfully applied for funding from the Middlesbrough Children's Fund, and set it up as a full time project, rolling it out across more schools.
When the funding ran out, Fabrick Housing said they would contiue to pay for it because there was evidence the programme was working - they were getting fewer complaints about anti-social behaviour and a higher level of satisfaction from residents on the estates the project covered.
What sort of activities do you organise to keep the children interested?
We try to make it fun. We do a lot of group work, where we get them to think about their estate and what they like about it and what they don't like as much.
We do a show-and-tell exercise about the area, and play lots of games where you are penalised if your don't stick to the rules. This shows them the importance of rules. We link this to the law and what can happen outside if you break the law when you are more than ten-years-old, which is the criminal age of responsibility.
We do sessions on anti-social behaviour, where we do a bit of role-playing and get the kids to act in an anti-social way in different situations, then discuss the impact this would have on residents and shopkeepers.
We also get police officers and wardens involved in some of the activities, as well as the fire brigade.
Are there any similar projects to this one in other areas of the UK?
Sunderland run a project called Community Kids, which is what inspired our project, but we run ours very differently and completely independently of that.
I think what we do is quite unique.
We have even had other housing associations approach us about the course. We sold a franchise to Bernicia, one of the housing associations in Northumberland, which I supervise to make sure it's being delivered properly.
We also run the course at a school in Darlington and Redcar.
What's the best bit about the job?
It is seeing kids being kids. We cover serious subjects but in such a fun way they get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
Seeing that pride in themselves at the end of the course is just brilliant.
I've been doing this for about ten years now, and it's lovely when you see some of the kids who were on the course about eight or nine years ago, who are now 18 or 19. The thing they always seem to remember is the laminated promise, which is great. Some of them tell me they still have it.
Anything you don't like?
Honestly, no, other than the paperwork. I absolutely love it - my bosses know I would do it for nothing.
You do get the odd bad kid, but 99.9 per cent of them are absolutely fantastic and more than make up for a few bad bits.
Comments are closed on this article. | <urn:uuid:d51fa3d0-b88d-4fde-9922-c6988e1ff49a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/business/oddjobs/9948396.Ever_wondered_what_it_s_like_to___help_children_be_better_citizens_/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981571 | 1,033 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Our “Primary Highways” series continues apace with the state of Wisconsin. We begin with the state capital, Madison, which I wrote about during last year’s protests. We begin with a image of those protests. It looks very cold there, but also quite exciting. Some of us watched these protests in the hope that it would be the start of a resurgent progressive movement.
[Photos by Lost Albatross (Emily Mills) on flickr. Shared under Creative Commons license.]
In the eastern section of the capital, we encounter aptly named “Badger Interchange”, in which no fewer than three major interstates converge, I-90, I-94 and I-39. The interchange also includes state highway 30, a short freeway that connects to downtown Madison.
Highway 30 ends at US 151, which traverses the isthmus that holds downtown Madison and separates lakes Mendota and Monona. I don’t know of too many other cities concentrated on an isthmus like that. Certainly, the location between the two lakes makes for interesting views and architectural opportunities. Consider this view from Lake Monona featuring the State Capitol building book-ended symmetrically by large buildings and standing behind Frank Lloyd Wright’s Monona Terrace.
The city is also hope to the University of Wisconsin, and an arts and music scene. It might be a good place to play as part of that mythical “upper Midwest tour” that I keep saying that I want to do.
It of course did not take long for us to encounter a building by Frank Lloyd Wright, a native of Wisconsin. His summer home and studio, Taliesin, is in Spring Green, west of Madison. We take US 14 west from the capital through a green hilly landscape – it’s not hard to see why this might been inspiring for Wright’s prairie style architecture, with its use of horizontal lines and low angles that reflect the expanse of the landscape. Taliesin Preservation, Inc. now occupies the estate and is dedicated to the architect’s legacy.
If we head north from Madison along I-39 to its end near the city of Wausau, we can see several examples of Prairie School architecture, including additional Wright houses. This one has a more distinctly modern feel than Taliesin, with more emphasis on straight lines.
We return to Madison again, and this time stay with I-90/I-94 westward after they split from I-39. The highway goes by Wisconsin Dells, which looks like a major tourist trap. But the name actually comes from the interesting sandstone rock formations along the Wisconsin River. Skip the amusement parks and head to the river.
[Dells of the Wisconsin River taken in May of 2002 by Amadeust]
These formations which are vaguely reminiscent of the higher-elevation features in the southwest, were supposedly cut during catastrophic flooding as an ancient lake drained. The wide river and lush green vegetation, however, make it quite a different environment.
It was along I-90/I-94 that I also had a chance to sample Wisconsin’s famous dairy products in its basic form: milk out of a carton at a truck stop. I was skeptical that it would really be that much different, but I have to admit that the chocolate milk was better than anything I had in college (or public school before that). My time on that trip was limited, so I didn’t have a chance to explore the real product I was interested in: cheese. Of course, one can get Wisconsin cheese here in California, and I can live vicariously through blogs like Cheese Underground until I get a chance to go back.
Next, we head east from Madison on I-94 towards the state’s largest city, Milwaukee. As we approach the city, we pass through the Zoo Interchange, one of the states oldest and busiest. It currently serves as the junction of I-94 with I-894, the “Zoo Freeway” and US 45. I like the name “Zoo Freeway”. Of course, the name of both the freeway and interchange derives from proximity to the Milwaukee County Zoological Gardens.
I-94 continues towards downtown, passing through another large interchange, the Marquette Interchange with I-794, I-43, and US 41. It does look like a complicated tangle.
Heading north on I-43 from the interchange, we exit at WI 145 to see the former Pabst Brewery Complex, a shrine to contemporary hipsterdom.
[Taken by Jeramey Jannene, on September 8th, 2005 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (CC BY 2.5)]
The complex closed in 1997. I have to admit, the derelict buildings of the brewery appeal to me at least as much the beer would have. Another great place to photograph, and this one is the National Register of Historic Places so it can’t be torn down (at least, I don’t think it can). Sections have in fact been reopened recently as a “Best Place” and there is a major redevelopment project planned for the entire complex. It is certainly possible to have modern, functioning business inside of a post-industrial shell, so I hope this place does not lose its charm in the development process. I would love to hear from people in Milwaukee about what is happening here.
Just to the east, we approach the downtown area and the Milwaukee River. The urban riverfront has pedestrian access via the Riverwalk.
[Image from Wikipedia. Licence:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/]
This looks like a great way to see the city and its connection to the river, with buildings coming right up to its edge. The walk continues is segments north and south, including into the historic Third Ward with its older buildings, wedged between the river and I-794 (the Lake Freeway). We can travel along the lake on I-794, and then continue north on city streets back into the downtown. Here we can see the spectacular modernist wing of the Milwaukee Art Museum (designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava) jutting out onto Lake Michigan.
Milwaukee’s traditional architecture is more of the decorative style we see from American cities that grew in the early 20th Century, but also reflects the city’s German heritage (along with the beer).
From Milwaukee, we head north back into the state on US 41 towards Lake Winnebago, the state’s largest inland lake and the only lake in the U.S. named after a recreational vehicle. Along the lake, we pass the well-known towns of Fond du Lac and Oshkosh. This sunset view is looking from the east side of the lake towards Oshkosh, which is hidden below the setting sun.
US 41 passes the town crossing over Lake Butte des Morts (named for a nearby Native American burial ground) and the Fox River, continuing around Lake Winnebago and heading northward towards Green Bay.
There is one primary reason most of us are familiar with Green Bay: it is home of the successful NFL team, the Green Bay Packers, and the only major team is non-profit and community owned. And quite successful, too. Their fans wear cheese-shaped hats. You can see the approach into downtown Green Bay on US 41 via this video:
We turn south onto I-43 (which ends in Green Bay) over the mouth of the Fox River and come to the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, a large urban nature preserve. It is an opportunity for people in the city and beyond to see wildlife up close, in addition to being a center for the rehabilitation of local wildlife. Of course, we must feature one of the wild cats.
US 41 continues north along the western side of the Bay of Green Bay (as distinguished from the city of Green Bay), passing by more natural landscape before entering into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Wisconsin does not have much shoreline on Lake Superior compared to its neighbors – in particular, Michigan extends quite a bit westward along the south shore of the lake, but it does have the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. We can get there from Michigan on US 2, passing along the edge of Chequamegon Bay before turning north onto WI 13 along the waters edge to the Apostle Islands. In addition to wildlife and great views of Lake Superior, the islands have unusual “sea caves”, such as these at the edge of Sand Island.
In some ways they resemble the Dells that we saw much earlier in this article. We conclude with this lighthouse on the same island, one of several here that guide ships along this edge of the Lake Superior. | <urn:uuid:1568c682-9c70-499e-a0ec-b0c42a8a3514> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ptank.com/blog/tag/I-794/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96186 | 1,831 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Billboard event illustrates the flexibility and usefulness of wireless technology at live events
Last April, the Billboard Latin Music Awards celebrated its 15th anniversary with a big show at the Miami Arena. Produced and broadcast live for the first time on Telemundo, the event is Latin music's largest awards show, and recognizes artists on the basis of radio and retail chart performance. Performers included Arturo Sandoval, Gloria Estefan, Luis Fonsi, and Alicia Keys, among others.
From a technical point of view, this year's event was also noteworthy for making extensive use of wireless audio technology, both inside and outside the venue. The show included wireless systems from different manufacturers, including Audio-Technica and Shure, but Sennheiser systems were used most extensively. All of the Sennheiser tools were provided and operated by Professional Wireless Systems, a Masque Sound company out of Orlando, Fla.
Tallying the RFs used inside the venue, the additional systems used outside for the red-carpet portion of the event, plus those used by the ENG crew outside, Professional Wireless president James Stoffo estimates that around 150 wireless mics were used at the show site.
Onstage, a live performance by Alicia Keys made use of Sennheiser's new RF Evolution G2 Series. Keys sang and played piano on “If I Ain't Got You,” a duet with Cuban-American jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.
“She was using a Sennheiser G2 wireless monitor and the new SKM 935 transmitter with the MMD 935 dynamic capsule,” Stoffo says. “The G2 gear easily cut through the forest of RF.”
It didn't even require Stoffo's purpose-designed helical antenna system, he says. “We just had her G2 receiver backstage with the Sennheiser paddles, and the signal was solid the whole time. It was an interesting marriage of old and new technologies. The Evolution systems with the high-end Sennheiser equipment both performed flawlessly.”
Introduced at the beginning of this year, the Sennheiser G2 series features smaller bodypacks, expanded receivers, 1,440 available channels (due to a broader switching bandwidth of 36MHz), free channel search scan, and true diversity receivers and compatibility with earlier E series models.
Sennheiser's high-end EM 1046 multi-channel receiver systems were also used inside and outside the arena, along with lavalier microphones, SK 50 bodypack transmitters, and SKM 5000 series handhelds. Each receiver module of the 1046 can be tuned to one of 4,800 different frequencies, ensuring solid RF performance during the event despite the large number of devices in use.
Stoffo spent several years working at Vega Wireless in Los Angeles before starting Professional Wireless Systems in the early 1990s. He is well versed in the art of pulling clear bandwidth out of the cluttered airwaves, and his team again faced this challenge at the Billboard event.
“We've fallen into doing high-end, live broadcast wireless operations, whether it requires mics, coms, in-ear systems, or IFBs,” he says. “One of the main challenges we encounter is that with digital TV (taking up bandwidth normally used in wireless applications) it's kind of tough to find clean, uncongested areas.”
While Stoffo does use web resources to isolate problem areas for RF, he says he does that primarily when shipping gear. “But when we get onsite, we have spectrum analyzers, radio scanners, and intermodulation software to determine problem areas,” he adds. “Because once you get on site, there may be things that the web database doesn't know about.
“There's a ton of illegal stuff out there. There's always low-powered stations that are shifting around, and there's harmonics,” Stoffo continues. “I just did a sweep in Jacksonville for the (upcoming 2005) Super Bowl earlier this year. The stadium is right next to two huge RF towers. When you're that close to an FM transmitter, you're going to get spurs, harmonics, and intermods — very nasty. So we usually show up with a spectrum analyzer and the tools to coordinate realtime.”
In addition to these precautions, Professional Wireless Systems also custom designs and builds all of its own helical antennae, as well as its own splitters, combiners for in-ear monitor transmitters, and pretty much any outboard accessory gear.
Of course, even with proper planning and isolation of frequency bands, unavoidable problems are occasionally encountered. Before each event, Stoffo selects some back-up frequencies and makes sure they're clean, so that if the signals have to change during show, he'll already have a dozen places he can switch them to. Even so, Stoffo says he has to keep monitoring systems whenever he has an opportunity. For instance, as soon as the Billboard event would go to a commercial, he would kill the transmitter and look at the receiver. During a two-hour show, Stoffo says he may have to change frequencies a half-dozen times.
The show must go on
With so much competition for bandwidth, even increased receiver transmitter sensitivity and stability won't make much of a difference. This issue can make or break a show in short order, Stoffo says.
“That's why the producers of the Latin Billboard Awards told me ‘You are the frequency coordinator. You have complete authority to shut people down,’ ” he says. “Typically, on a show like this, it's the run-and-gun ENGs that will come in with 20 to 30 RF systems that you never anticipated. You've got to keep a watch on that, and be authorized to shut them down if they step on you.”
With so many potential problems, bringing versatile technology to the event is crucial. Stoffo says the Sennheiser RF system allowed the team to re-tune onsite and have the tools to reprogram across any bands — from 500 to 800MHz.
“Everybody else's equipment stays within a 24MHz band, and that's what you get. And that band may not work very well. You need to be able to shift things around a little, and it's fairly easy to do with Sennheiser.”
Inside and out at the Billboard event, Stoffo used the Sennheiser/Neumann hybrid RF handheld mic, which combines a 5000 Series wireless transmitter with the Neumann/Sennheiser KK 105 S capsule. The mics were used for the show's two hosts, Mauricio Islas and Candela Ferro, and for numerous live performers.
For those just getting started doing wireless work, Stoffo recommends focusing on frequency coordination.
“The reason that's so hard is that we can't see, hear, or smell RF. So your first indication that there's a problem is when it hits your mic: you get a loud noise burst through the system, and everybody yells at you. Monitor RF in advance and coordinate around it — whether you use a list that you pull off a server somewhere, or you bring an expensive spectrum analyzer. Basically, the next few years will present greater changes to the RF spectrum than any other time in history. So it's really important to pay attention to frequency coordination now.”
Alex Artaud pens SRO's audio column and is a musician, engineer, and writer based in Oakland, Calif. | <urn:uuid:48afb045-382c-40f0-9d64-f93e80f803c0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://livedesignonline.com/mag/latin_awards_go | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954217 | 1,596 | 1.554688 | 2 |
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