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What is the likely outcome of a confrontation between the US and Iran? I don't mean the la-la-land futurology, still being served up by friends of the Bush administration over the interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, about how the world will still be a safer place, and democracy will spread to areas other presidents couldn't reach.
I prefer to subscribe to a reality that says the US and its allies have screwed up twice, and that Washington is threatening to do so again. The reality is we sleep-walked into an unfolding disaster in Iraq, despite ample warnings of a tragic course. Then, still lawless Afghanistan -- awash with a bumper crop of opium -- is a glass more than half-empty. Reality says Iran is another accident about to happen.
US foreign policy is backfiring again. Seduced by its own ideological certainty that all it does is right, it continues to create a series of failed and fragile states, running seamlessly from the borders of Pakistan to within spitting distance of the Dead Sea. Osama bin Laden could not have planned it better.
Which leads to the question: is there any evidence at all that US President George W. Bush's new foreign policy team is likely to be more adept at dealing with Iran than with the previous two crises it confronted?
To deal with the issues first, Iran, it is true, presents a series of complex challenges. Operating by the same stretched criteria of distant threat that launched a war against Iraq, Iran appears even more dangerous. It has an extant civil nuclear program and has mastered key nuclear-military technologies. It has long-range missiles which might eventually carry a warhead. It has a long history of hostility to Israel. Factions in Iran's political order even now are interfering in Iraq. But the crucial issue is precisely what does this agglomeration of detail mean?
Seen from Washington, where all gaps these days seamlessly join up, it means that Iran is a hostile, terror-sponsoring state, meddling in Iraq, and on the verge of acquiring weapons to target Tel Aviv.
The European view, which has sought to negotiate a uranium enrichment freeze rather than confront Tehran, is more subtle and factors in the full spectrum of Iran's intentions. Iran, seen from this vantage point, is an infinitely more complex construction, with power structures that are both competitive and contradictory, and with the greatest competition for a more open society coming from Iran's younger generation.
Iran, too, displays a curious mindset. Through its culture and recent history, it sees itself as a player on the world stage. It pricks America in Iraq because it can, not because it has greater ambitions than to have a friendly state next door. Its endless foot-dragging over nuclear inspections and declarations, seen in this light, is inward-looking, defensive. It's as much about pride as hostile intentions.
Iran's nuclear ambiguity -- like former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's over his retention of weapons of mass destruction -- and its determination to show it has mastered key elements of the physics and engineering to make a bomb, also serves a purpose. In a world where the US has recently invaded two of Iran's neighbors in quick order, there are hawks who believe in the value of a nuclear deterrent, even if that deterrent is as yet incomplete. | <urn:uuid:ed1e5607-276a-4cb3-aa9c-446a0cdda6fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2004/11/23/2003212251 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964394 | 674 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Palestinians and Israelis will sit down again this summer to try to reach a peace agreement, but this time it will be 12 teenagers on a television show trying to do what the United Nations and dozens of diplomats could not - come up with a solution to the Middle East crisis. The show, The Saint-Saturnin Agreements, will pluck six teenagers from each nation and put them in a villa in the south of France for a month.
The show will follow their daily routine along with discussions on how to unravel one of the world's biggest diplomatic tangles. Mohammed Ulad, whose company, Avec Productions, is making the show, said the premise is to see if a younger generation can come up with a peace solution that continues to evade their leaders. "Far away from their families and countries, they will have to share a house and daily chores before negotiating a peace agreement based on their respective personal development.
"We found it essential to move these young people from their respective environments because the question of 'living together' is at the heart of the conflict," Mr Ulad said. "The place where young Israelis and Palestinians live is very marked politically, socially and territorially, among others. "They are only a few kilometres far from each other, but do not have the possibility of building a 'common world'."
Although the show is not looking to dramatise the situation, he said, the early episodes could be "marked by hostility and prejudice". The last episode will feature the participants handing their proposals to the Israeli prime minister and the president of the Palestinian Authority. He has not yet started casting, but Mr Ulad said the company will try to choose a dozen 18-year-olds who are representative of the geographical, sociological and religious backgrounds in each society.
"There will be a balance between boys and girls, but also, on the Israeli side, perhaps between a religious and a non-religious person, a new immigrant and someone whose family has been settled for several generations, an Israeli Arab, someone from the Golan, someone from the Negev desert. "On the Palestinian side, we will try to take people from both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, teenagers living in refugee camps, others from East Jerusalem, Muslims and Christians, religious and non-religious people, children from families linked to Fatah and Hamas."
The participants will each have a mentor who will meet the "team" before each negotiation round and help them when the debate gets too heated, and apply more pressure when needed. It is not the first time Palestinians and Israelis have been thrown together in an "experiment". In 2004, four Israelis and four Palestinians took part in Breaking the Ice, a 35-day expedition to Antarctica aimed at getting them to work together to climb a mountain.
Although the location for this series is not yet definite, the producers are looking at Saint-Saturnin, a peaceful village in Provence. "It is a village where olive trees, the symbol of peace, are cultivated. It is a village which reminds us of the climate of Israel and the Palestinian territories," Mr Ulad said. "It is a virgin land of few political or historical symbolism and connotations." Mr Ulad, who was born in Tangier and moved to Paris in 1986, said the series would be filmed this summer and he was talking with France Televisions, the French public national television broadcaster, about airing the eight-episode show sometime next year.
The director, who is married to the daughter of François Mitterand, the late French president, has several international awards for previous work. He plans to turn the series into a feature-length documentary for international distribution. Mr Ulad, who is co-writing the show with Sophie Nordmann, an Israeli author and philosopher, has produced several feature films and directed several documentaries.
But he said this series was personal. "This project is perhaps the one that comes closest to me, my dreams, and even my daily life." While the format may resemble that of reality TV, Mr Ulad prefers to describe it as a documentary. "Where reality TV offers an individual experience aimed only at entertaining the public, our documentary series aims to offer an experiment to come up with an appropriate answer to the main question: is peace between the new Israeli and Palestinian generations possible?
"Moreover, the series is far from being a reality TV since there is no interactivity with the viewer and no participant to eliminate. "There will be neither a winner nor a loser, and the series is not broadcast in real time," Mr Ulad said. "The viewer thus does not intervene in the course of the participants' stay and experience." Marwan Kraidy, who is writing a book called Screens of Contention: Reality Television and Arab Politics, said the success of the series depends on who watches it and what type of media coverage it gets.
"The media coverage can be completely dismissive of the attempt or it can be very analytical." Still, a younger generation may have some fresh ideas. "They are sick and tired of the system. They are not part of the establishment so they don't have much to lose; they have a lot to gain with the situation changing." [email protected] | <urn:uuid:22fac8bc-e2e1-428c-9f37-80479682b52f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/tv-shows-aims-to-settle-conflict | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971927 | 1,077 | 1.765625 | 2 |
By Judy Reed and Nancy Noreen
It was cause for celebration Saturday when residents gathered on Saturday, during the Cedar Springs Earth Day celebration, for a groundbreaking and tree planting ceremony at the new Veteran’s Memorial Park, at the corner of Oak and Main Streets in Cedar Springs.
“Being a veteran, this park has special meaning for me,” said Cedar Springs Mayor Charlie Watson. “I hope that everyone who uses it will remember those that served even one day in the military.”
Watson noted that everything was donated for the park. Other than the property, the city didn’t spend any money on it. Instead, Dan Brown, uncle to Timothy Brown, who was killed in action in Iraq, was the driving force behind the park. Watson thanked him for finding sponsors for the park, and thanked all the volunteers for their generosity.
Watson, Mayor Pro-tem Christine Fahl, Councilor Pat Capek, City manager Christine Burns, and sponsors Rob Rowland of Rowland Excavating and Rich Freiburger of Rapid Concrete turned the ceremonial first shovel of dirt with gold-painted shovels.
Burns announced that the push to get donations for the light poles in the park had been a success, and that there would now be five instead of only four.
Immediately following the groundbreaking, a small row of Cedar trees was planted along the east boundary of the new park. Brown, Rowland, Watson, Freiburger, Tim Brown Sr. and Nathan Brown were among those who helped place the trees in the ground.
Next on the Earth day schedule was the city cleanup. The volunteers who came to collect their t-shirts, trash bags and assigned work areas didn’t seem daunted by the weather. Some were sent to work on the White Pine Trail, others picked up trash along 17 Mile Road and out by the highway.
People also took advantage of the opportunity to recycle E-waste, shred documents, and buy seedlings at various stations around town that morning. “E-waste disposal was a much bigger hit than the hazardous waste disposal was last year,” said Burns. She said they would continue with the e-waste disposal as long as the vendor is available. She also noted that this year’s auction was also well attended.
At noon, volunteers gathered at the Legion for pizza and popcorn. During lunch there were recycling coloring books and posters for kids to color, a library book display, and the opportunity to make your own earth friendly toilet bowl cleaner and laundry sheets.
City Clerk Linda Branyan, with the help of Representative Tom Pierce and Mayor Charlie Watson, also took time during lunch to award prizes to the winners of the photography competition. (Watch for more on that next week.) | <urn:uuid:c9540d52-a2a4-4e9b-acf0-383c3f9a2819> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cedarspringspost.com/2010/04/29/city-celebrates-groundbreaking/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978013 | 574 | 1.53125 | 2 |
As the search engine giant Google releases new technologies ever so often, the talk about real-time search is now a thing of the past. Google launched real-time search sometime ago, allowing users to search and view updates on major social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. At that time you were able to search for a particular topic or keyword and find out what the buzz was on that topic.
Even though Google has stopped using real-time search for some time now, you will still find them indexing Twitter profiles and tweets as if they were regular pages. Some people may think there’s a secret to this, but only a few companies and persons have started optimizing their twitter profiles for great search engine performance.
By optimizing your profile page you will find that using Twitter will be a great and very effective way for you to build links naturally and increase traffic to your website and best of all, this works for almost all the major search engines.
So just in case you might want to start optimizing your twitter page for a better search engine performance, I have put together a few tips that will help you and your company, build quality links to your website and increase brand awareness.
Creating your Twitter handle
This is just about the most critical of all. Selecting a handle/username is not just about choosing a random name, but it should be something relevant to your brand name or a keyword in your niche.
Your choice of username must be done carefully as this cannot be changed and it will be used in your url when your profile is indexed by the search engines.
Optimize your profile bio
Another thing you should look at is the information contained in your bio. Twitter allows you to use only 160 characters in your profile bio, so you have to make it not only relevant, but interesting so that you could attract users.
This will be very helpful if done right as the search engines will use your profile bio as the description, and we all know how important it is to have a proper description.
Retweetable Tweets that are keyword rich
When thinking about something tweet, always remember to try and make sense with you tweets, while on the other hand staying on topic.
Twitter only allows you a certain amount of characters per tweet so try and make good use of each update by including your keywords in each update. While you would like your updates to be keyword-dense, you should not stuff it with keywords, as this will seem to be a bit spammy and will be a major turn off to your followers.
Links to your twitter profile
Just as links to your website are important, the same thing goes to your profile. Increasing the links to your twitter profile will make it stronger in the search engines. You could start by linking to profile via your website hereby passing on some of your domain authority to it.
Another thing you could do is try an increase your followers, as they too give a link to your profile from theirs, under the list of people they are following.
Twitter should not be used as your main strategy when it comes to your seo link building, but it sure is a start of things to come. Social media is all about the conversation, and the conversation can turn a visitor into a customer, and keep them coming back.
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- 5 US SEO Events to Visit to Spend a One Month Vacation with Purpose - May 9, 2013 | <urn:uuid:4c4f5e76-5fa7-4f26-af90-fc72dd57993d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dailyseotip.com/four-tips-for-optimizing-your-twitter-profile-for-better-search-engine-performance/1937/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944085 | 741 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Young Remington Walls was diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophagitis in October of 2004 at age 4. Since then he has not been able to eat or drink anything other than Water and a specially formulated drink for his nourishment.
Eosinophilic Esophagitis is a disease that deteriorates the tissue in the digestive tract thus robbing the patient of the ability to eat foods. That’s right no more chicken nuggets, pizza, hotdogs, ice cream or any of those wonderful treats every child enjoys. He has one flavor (Pineapple) of the specially formulated drink that he must consume 8-9 times a day to maintain a healthy weight. Many patients diagnosed with this terrible and rare disease are tube fed. Remington and his family must travel from Land O’ Lakes, FL to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital several times a year for biopsies on his esophagus to determine if a feeding tube is yet needed.
Despite of all that this now 9 year old child has gone through and continues to endure, he has maintained a very healthy and positive outlook. He is an outstanding baseball player (Land O Lakes Little League), enjoys playing outside with his friends and has found a true talent and passion for art.
Remington’s parents, Mike and Stephanie Walls are committed to making a difference in finding a cure for Eosinophilic Esophagitis. They have put together the Annual Remington Walls Golf Tournament. With the help of the Walls family, friends and local businesses like IERNA’s Heating & Cooling, they are raising money that goes directly to APFED (American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders), a not for profit organization that gives all proceeds from fundraising to support APFED’s Mission of Education, Awareness and Research of Eosinophilic Disorders.
APFED strives to:
- Create a credible source of information for physicians and patients.
- Reach out, find and support those who feel alone with their pain (patients and families).
- Unite the physician and patient communities in an effort to empower both sides with a better understanding of one another Teach the general public to understand what “eosinophilic” means to affected families.
- Promote and support research into the cause and cure of eosinophilic disorders
- Currently there are no known cures for Eosinophilic Esophagitis.
Rob Kress, Director of Marketing and Public Relations stated – “This is the 4th year we have been involved in this amazing event. The Walls family are a very special group of people who give so much and ask for nothing in return. Even though the costs for care for Remington are extremely high, they keep none of the money they raise for themselves. They give all proceeds directly to APFED to help find the cure that can one day hopefully free their son of this terrible disease and help the many others that suffer as well. They are truly selfless people. IERNA’s is proud to have been involved with the Remington Walls Golf Tournament and will continue to be involved as long as it takes to find a cure.” The Walls family has raised over $75,000 on behalf of APFED in honor of their son, Remington, and in hope of making a difference in finding a cure. “We are honored that Ierna’s shares in our commitment in making a difference. Our community is blessed to have such a supportive business,” says Stephanie Walls.
For more information about Eosinophilic Esophagitis or American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders, visit the website www.APFED.org. | <urn:uuid:e4011b7a-7c4a-4352-b064-9fb1dcd64f6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iernaair.com/blog/2009/04/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964864 | 772 | 1.765625 | 2 |
The Lancet Oncology, Volume 13, Issue 8
, Pages 770 - 771, August 2012
doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(12)70357-1Cite or Link Using DOI
Angelight Films: lights, camera, cancer!
“I thought I was having a dream…I didn't know that it was real, and that it would really happen”, Kyle Picard talks to the camera about the time he found out he had a brain tumour and was told he had to have surgery. Described as “the class clown” by his teacher, this sweet, strong, and funny boy explains that this short film, The Kyle Show , is about the family and friends who have helped him through hard times.
The Kyle Show is one of several films made by Angelight Films Production company, a non ...
To read this article in full you will need to login or make a payment
Already Registered? Please Login | <urn:uuid:74f1560b-cd5d-44f7-81c8-6ff91b422a82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(12)70357-1/fulltext | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98299 | 202 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Battleground and Opportunity
What’s wrong with this picture? A longtime member of the Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society wheels his cart to the front end of the co-op’s Lebanon, N.H., store and, to pay for his family’s groceries, proudly presents the cashier with a "select rewards" VISA card bearing the logo of the Upper Valley Community Credit Union, of which he is also a member.
On the surface, this sounds like a feel-good moment. The credit union in question is just a mile down the road and was literally founded inside the co-op’s flagship store in nearby Hanover. The bearer of the VISA card might well conclude that by using his credit union VISA card at his food co-op, he is embodying the sixth cooperative principle, cooperation among cooperatives. He also might conclude that a credit card bearing the logo of a consumer-owned financial institution should be a different, and more consumer-friendly, flavor of plastic.
The fine print on the flip side of the card discloses that the actual issuer is Elan Financial Services, an affiliate of USBank in Minneapolis. It’s the fifth largest commercial bank in the country. The credit union in question has long since given up its VISA business and has licensed its name and reputation to Elan. The alternative was too expensive and complicated, according to the credit union’s CEO.
It is true that, thanks to legislation signed into law by President Obama last year, credit cards have grown somewhat kinder to consumers. The bill reigns in techniques the banks use to impose late fees and related interest-rate hikes on unsuspecting customers—things like Sunday due dates, late bill mailings, and so-called "double cycle" billing by which consumers are charged interest on balances they have, in fact, already paid. A full description of the reforms is available at www.Affil.org, the website of Americans for Fairness in Lending (AFFIL).
But, as AFFIL points out, "the new law does not restrict the level of interest rates or the size of the rate increases that are allowed. It is silent on the industry practice of reducing credit limits at any time for any reason, and it does nothing to ban forced arbitration clauses in every credit card." With respect to the latter, do your members know they agreed not to sue their credit card company when they signed up for their VISA or MasterCard?
Late fees and interest rates, and the related issues that coalesce around the billing of retail customers, are not the only way in which credit cards and cooperative notions of transparency, equity, and consumer education are fundamentally incompatible. The reality is that members of food co-ops are paying millions of dollars a year in the form of unreasonable fees and charges borne by the co-ops themselves—expenses that, of course, are reflected in retail food prices.
For the past six years, the National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA) has been embroiled, albeit quietly, in antitrust litigation with VISA and MasterCard over so-called "interchange fees"—the fees paid by retailers to banks and their intermediaries for the processing of credit card and debit card transactions. The National Grocers Association and the National Restaurant Association are also plaintiffs.
The gist of the antitrust complaint is that these interchange fees are set by fiat, on orders of VISA and MasterCard, regardless of which bank any retailer uses to process its credit card and debit card transactions. And, as the complaint filed in the Brooklyn, N.Y., federal court recites, "contracts, combinations, and conspiracies in restraint of trade, are illegal under Section 1 of the Sherman [Anti-Trust] Act."
Secret: fees subsidize premium cards
Perhaps the biggest secret in American retailing is how drastically these fees vary, depending on the kind of card. A customer using a debit card, or even a basic credit card, at her co-op will trigger a significantly lower interchange fee for the co-op than a customer who uses a premium card that provides her with perks such as airline frequent flier miles or coupons from big retailers like the one founded by Leon Leonwood Bean in Freeport, Maine. It turns out that those miles and discounts are anything but free.
The aspect of interchange fees that is most inimical to cooperative values and principles has to do with steps that food co-ops, like all other retailers, are contractually prohibited from taking if they wish to do business with MasterCard, VISA, and their member banks. Stores may not impose surcharges on customers for credit card transactions. Worse, so-called "anti-steering restraints" in the applicable VISA and MasterCard rules prohibit retailers from disclosing the facts about interchange fees to customers at the point of sale.
A likely effect of the no-surcharge rule is laid out starkly in the complaint filed by the NCGA and other plaintiffs in federal court: "The No-Surcharge Rule compels inequitable and anticompetitive subsidies, running from the least-affluent U.S. consumers to the most-affluent. Because Merchants must mark up the prices of all goods to cover the costs of accepting Visa and MasterCard products, rather than impose a discrete surcharge on users of those products, the No-Surcharge Rule effectively compels cash payers and users of other low-cost payment forms to subsidize all of the costly perquisites given by Issuing Banks to consumers using more expensive payment forms such as Visa and MasterCard Payment Cards, including frequent-flier miles, rental-car insurance, free gifts, and even cash-back rewards."
Isn’t this precisely the kind of information that members of consumer cooperatives should have as they decide what to buy and how to pay for it at their stores? As Professor Brett Fairbairn of the University of Saskatchewan cogently pointed out in his 2003 article, "Three Strategic Concepts for the Guidance of Cooperatives," members support co-ops because "they trust that doing so will be in their own interest as well as the interest of other members." Fairbairn contends that central to cultivating this trust is assuring that "members understand the industry or sector of which their co-op is part . . . [so that] they can see ‘through’ their co-op to markets, forces, social and economic trends beyond." There are few forces with greater impact on retailing than VISA and MasterCard, given their omnipresence at the point of sale.
The banks have "worked pretty hard" to keep the interchange fee case from going to trial, reports an exasperated NCGA Executive Director Robynn Schrader. She reported in early June that the six-year-old case had by then spent the preceding year in mediation after two years of discovery (i.e., exchange of information in preparation for trial). Though both are valuable components of any litigation, they are also often opportunities for vulnerable parties to slow down the clock.
Fee reforms, but more needed
Happily, the financial reform legislation signed into law in 2010 contained modest interchange fee reforms, under an amendment authored by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois). Under the Durbin amendment, food co-ops and other grocery retailers will be free to offer discounts to customers who use cash rather than credit or debit cards. The Federal Reserve is empowered to limit interchange fees associated with debit cards (but, alas, not credit cards) to a sum that bears a reasonable relationship to the costs banks actually incur in processing these transactions. Retailers now enjoy a legal right to limit credit card purchases to $10 or above.
Lobbying unsuccessfully against the Durbin Amendment, a group of conservative activists led by Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform denounced the reforms as "corporate welfare" calculated to benefit investor-owned supermarket chains and other similar retailers. More temperate voices have pointed out that nothing in the bill requires retailers to pass the savings along to consumers.
However true that may be for investor-owned retailers, the interchange fee reforms are an opportunity for food co-ops to produce real benefits to member owners, not just by passing the savings along to customers but also in educating them about how interchange fees work. Such empowerment is crucial because, as Shrader points, out, "It’s impractical for people not to use credit cards" when buying groceries or anything else.
The Durbin Amendment does not completely resolve the interchange fee problem generally nor the NCGA lawsuit, which remains pending. The system remains fundamentally unfair, and co-ops like The Wedge, Linden Hills and Seward in Minneapolis, Outpost in Madison, and Wheatsville in Austin are fighting the system from within. They’ve done so by partnering with local credit unions to issue VISA or MasterCards bearing the food co-op’s logo.
This is a further assault on the interbank fees, albeit one achieved in sideways fashion, in the manner of a crab seeking its dinner. Neither the food co-op nor the credit union in question can lower the fees, but they can avoid issuing the kind of premium cards that increase those fees and raise retail prices (or eat up patronage refunds). And, under the byzantine system for remitting interchange fees, some of this money flows back to the credit union in question—which can then share it with the food co-op. In the case of The Wedge, the shared funds end up with the co-op’s charitable foundation.
Another benefit of such programs is the advancement of the "cooperation among cooperatives" principle. Credit unions, despite being cooperatives, have proven somewhat resistant to becoming connected to the rest of the movement. The National Cooperative Business Association has assembled a task force to address this very question.
Interestingly, though hardly coincidentally, the NCBA task force led directly to the creation of The Wedge’s credit card program. Lindy Bannister, The Wedge’s general manager, serves on the task force along with the CEO of Spire Federal Credit Union in Minneapolis. Bannister sat next to him at a task force gathering and simply put the proposition to him directly. Other virtues aside, the result is the best looking credit card in the business—it’s basically a plastic picture of ripe red raspberries, well-calculated to provoke conversation about cooperatives and cooperation even when consumers brandish them at conventional businesses.
A national NCGA credit card program is not under consideration, according to Shrader. In the view of NCGA, such a national credit card program would yield little value for NCGA members, given the high interchange fees. A key element of the local programs mentioned above is the requirement that holders of the food co-op credit cards become members of the issuing credit unions—and, of course, credit unions labor under "field of membership" restrictions that impose geographic and other limitations on who may join.
So where does that leave the member of the Hanover Co-op with his bank-issued credit card featuring a credit union logo? Rooting for NCGA in the antitrust lawsuit, writing his federal lawmakers in quest of credit card industry reform, and pestering his food co-op and his credit union to rediscover each other. And pester he should, whether in Hanover or Albuquerque, Portland or Pensacola. The use of credit cards presents food co-ops with a magic moment for creating transparency and building trust. | <urn:uuid:c8a7df9b-27bd-40cf-998b-38621cf93168> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cooperativegrocer.coop/articles/2010-10-05/battleground-and-opportunity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961194 | 2,388 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Morne Bruce and Kingshill residents have been told that the water woes which they experienced over the years are now a thing of the past.
That’s because Dominica’s sole water company DOWASCO has officially commissioned a $4.5 million dollars storage tank in Morne Bruce.
The tank which will store 500,000 gallons of water is also expected to cater for the cruise ships when on island and the city of Roseau.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit told the official commissioning ceremony Tuesday, that the project is manifestation of government’s committment to providing fresh portable water to every home and business in Dominica.
“Government has spent a tremendous sum of money to improve water supply in Dominica. We have gone to places which government felt wasn’t worth it because of the few people who lived there and the resources it would require,” he said.
According to Skerrit, the Dominica Labour Party believes in the investment in people and we see water as a social good.
“This is why even in Roseau South, we have spent $13-million to improve water supply project there,” he said. “And there are several water projects currently taking place on the island.”
Meantime Engineer of DOWASCO Magnus Williams says the new storage facility is the largest built storage tank DOWASCO now possesses.
He said it is second to the earth storage tank at Morne Daniel.
“The project is another major achievement for Dominica as we continue to improve lives of citizens through portable water and ensuring sanitation, health and comfortable living for all. Implications of water storage facility are many,” Williams said.
According to him, the storage tank will be supplied and filled from DOWASACO’s Antrim Facility. “Therefore there is no need to pump water with associated cost of electricity,” he said. “We are aware it becomes necessary to shut down Antrim because of inclement weather conditions however this will provide relief and ensure clean water for Roseau, Newtown and Kingshill”.
Tourism Minister Ian Douglas also addressed today’s function. He said the tourism aspect of the project must be appreciated.
“This will not only be useful for serving the people but an economic resource for supplying clean fresh water for the people visiting the island. Over the last few years, it has been a challenge to supply the necessary quality and quantity of water to the ships, however, with the commissioning of the new storage tank the issue of water quality will no longer pose that problem,” he said.
He pointed out that the storage tank illustrates that the improvement of tourism sector is a cross cutting activity which requires the assistance of everyone.
Water Resource Minister Reginald Austrie says by 2012, the entire world should have access to portable water; however Dominica will achieve that milestone before 2012.
He said 95 percent of Dominicans can boast of having portable water.
“The water system will alleviate the problem that the people of Morne Bruce and Kingshill have been crying about for several years,” he said.
According to Austrie, all necessary precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of the storage tank.
There is expected to be an annual maintenance cost associated with the project which was built with a loan from the National Bank of Dominica.
Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed. | <urn:uuid:79320f0f-0532-4ca7-868e-f9d755296faa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dominicanewsonline.com/news/homepage/news/economy-development/morne-bruce-water-tank-commissioned/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956717 | 739 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Elise Garber married the first boy she ever kissed. She met him at an Outward Boundstyle summer-camp program when she was 15, she "sort of dated" him for the summer, and then, like most teenage romances, it ended. Twenty-two years later, they met again on Facebook.
"I don't know why I looked him up," says the 37-year-old former advertising-agency executive in Chicago. Garber was showing a co-worker how Facebook works, and to demonstrate the search function a feature that allows users to search for the names of people they know she entered Harlan Robins, the name of the first boy she kissed. At the prodding of her co-worker, Garber sent Robins a message. And then she waited. Would he respond? Would he accept her friend request? Was it weird to contact an old summer-camp boyfriend?
As Facebook users have begun to skew older the website is now as popular with 30-, 40- and 50-somethings as with the college students who pioneered it they have found ways to reconnect with one another. And who better to get in touch with than an old flame? "Facebook makes it easier for you to take that first step of finding someone again," explains Rainer Romero-Canyas, a psychology research scientist at Columbia University. "It has finally provided a way for people to reach out to someone without fear of rejection." The Boston Phoenix even coined a term, retrosexuals, for people who are taking the plunge into recycled love.
"It was like opening a time capsule," says Drew Peterson, a 34-year-old former IT worker from Long Island, New York. Peterson's retrosexual experience occurred a few years ago when he found his high school girlfriend on MySpace "You know, before it became the cyberghetto of the Internet." The two dated during junior and senior year of high school; the last time the two saw each other was on the day they graduated. Sixteen years later, they exchanged MySpace messages, and then Peterson flew from New York to San Francisco to see what had become of the woman who had once captured his teenage heart. "I knew it wasn't going to turn out like some Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy," Peterson says. "I just wanted to see her again." The pair still got along, although this time just as friends.
Most retrosexual experiences seem to spring from an intense, almost uncontrollable mixture of nostalgia and interest. "You get a thrill out of finding an old girlfriend just to see if she still likes you," says W. Keith Campbell, a University of Georgia psychology professor and co-author of The Narcissism Epidemic. "You're curious to see what she looks like, and it's easy to fantasize about alternative courses your life might have taken." It's the same feeling that compels people to attend high school reunions. In a way, these meet-ups are the same thing, especially for people like Los Angeles film developer Jillian Stein, 30, who traveled to her hometown of Tampa, Fla., and had three Facebook- and MySpace-inspired reunions within 72 hours. | <urn:uuid:ca96a5ea-e768-4ba6-861a-fc36a9ad7743> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1921609,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978359 | 654 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The wonderful site Longreads is collating people’s picks of the best long features of the year. Some say that the internet is triggering a renaissance for long-form writing and I very much…
PUBLISHED: Dec. 24, 2011
LENGTH: 4 minutes (1121 words)
I marvel at Radiolab when I hear it. I feel jealous. Its co-creators Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich have digested all the storytelling and production tricks of everyone in public radio before them, invented some slick moves of their own, and ended up creating the rarest thing you can create in any medium: a new aesthetic. Take the opening of their show on the mathematics of random chance, stochasticity. The first aesthetic choice Jad and Robert make is that they don’t say you’re about to listen to a show about math or science. They don’t use the word stochasticity. They know those things would be a serious turn off for lots of people. In doing this, Jad and Robert sidestep most of the conventions of a normal science show – hell, of most normal broadcast journalism. | <urn:uuid:04e323ae-5083-4b5e-8932-f771206ab031> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://longreads.com/ashwinbellur/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931558 | 245 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Nine of the twelve disciples desire and are promised an inheritance in Christ’s kingdom when they die—The Three Nephites desire and are given power over death so as to remain on the earth until Jesus comes again—They are translated and see things not lawful to utter, and they are now ministering among men. About A.D. 34–35.
1 And it came to pass when Jesus had said these words, he spake unto his disciples, one by one, saying unto them: What is it that ye adesire of me, after that I am gone to the Father?
2 And they all spake, save it were three, saying: We desire that after we have lived unto the age of man, that our ministry, wherein thou hast called us, may have an end, that we may speedily come unto thee in thy kingdom.
3 And he said unto them: Blessed are ye because ye desired this thing of me; therefore, after that ye are aseventy and two years old ye shall come unto me in my bkingdom; and with me ye shall find crest.
7 Therefore, more blessed are ye, for ye shall anever taste of bdeath; but ye shall live to behold all the doings of the Father unto the children of men, even until all things shall be fulfilled according to the will of the Father, when I shall come in my glory with the cpowers of heaven.
8 And ye shall never endure the pains of death; but when I shall come in my glory ye shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye from amortality to bimmortality; and then shall ye be blessed in the kingdom of my Father.
9 And again, ye shall not have pain while ye shall dwell in the flesh, neither sorrow save it be for the asins of the world; and all this will I do because of the thing which ye have desired of me, for ye have desired that ye might bbring the souls of men unto me, while the world shall stand.
10 And for this cause ye shall have afulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are bone;
11 And the aHoly Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and the Father giveth the Holy Ghost unto the children of men, because of me.
12 And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words, he touched every one of them with his finger save it were the athree who were to tarry, and then he departed.
13 And behold, the heavens were opened, and they were acaught up into heaven, and saw and heard unspeakable things.
15 And whether they were in the body or out of the body, they could not tell; for it did seem unto them like a atransfiguration of them, that they were changed from this body of flesh into an immortal state, that they could behold the things of God.
16 But it came to pass that they did again minister upon the face of the earth; nevertheless they did not minister of the things which they had heard and seen, because of the commandment which was given them in heaven.
18 But this much I know, according to the record which hath been given—they did go forth upon the face of the land, and did minister unto all the people, uniting as many to the church as would believe in their preaching; baptizing them, and as many as were baptized did receive the Holy Ghost.
19 And they were cast into prison by them who did not belong to the church. And the aprisons could not hold them, for they were rent in twain.
20 And they were cast down into the earth; but they did smite the earth with the word of God, insomuch that by his apower they were delivered out of the depths of the earth; and therefore they could not dig pits sufficient to hold them.
21 And thrice they were cast into a afurnace and received no harm.
22 And twice were they cast into a aden of wild beasts; and behold they did play with the beasts as a child with a suckling lamb, and received no harm.
23 And it came to pass that thus they did go forth among all the people of Nephi, and did preach the agospel of Christ unto all people upon the face of the land; and they were converted unto the Lord, and were united unto the church of Christ, and thus the people of bthat generation were blessed, according to the word of Jesus.
24 And now I, aMormon, make an end of speaking concerning these things for a time.
25 Behold, I was about to write the anames of those who were never to taste of death, but the Lord forbade; therefore I write them not, for they are hid from the world.
26 But behold, aI have seen them, and they have ministered unto me.
27 And behold they will be aamong the Gentiles, and the Gentiles shall know them not.
29 And it shall come to pass, when the Lord seeth fit in his wisdom that they shall minister unto all the ascattered tribes of Israel, and unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, and shall bring out of them unto Jesus many souls, that their desire may be fulfilled, and also because of the convincing power of God which is in them.
30 And they are as the aangels of God, and if they shall pray unto the Father in the name of Jesus they can show themselves unto whatsoever man it seemeth them good.
31 Therefore, great and marvelous works shall be wrought by them, before the agreat and coming day when all people must surely stand before the judgment-seat of Christ;
32 Yea even among the Gentiles shall there be a agreat and marvelous work wrought by them, before that judgment day.
33 And if ye had aall the scriptures which give an account of all the marvelous works of Christ, ye would, according to the words of Christ, know that these things must surely come.
34 And wo be unto him that will anot hearken unto the words of Jesus, and also to them whom he hath chosen and bsent among them; for whoso creceiveth not the words of Jesus and the words of those whom he hath sent receiveth not him; and therefore he will not receive them at the last day;
35 And it would be better for them if they had not been born. For do ye suppose that ye can get rid of the justice of an aoffended God, who hath been btrampled under feet of men, that thereby salvation might come?
36 And now behold, as I spake concerning those whom the Lord hath chosen, yea, even three who were caught up into the heavens, that I knew not whether they were acleansed from bmortality to immortality—
37 But behold, since I wrote, I have inquired of the Lord, and he hath made it manifest unto me that there must needs be a change wrought upon their bodies, or else it needs be that they must taste of death;
39 Now this change was not equal to that which shall take place at the last day; but there was a change wrought upon them, insomuch that Satan could have no power over them, that he could not atempt them; and they were bsanctified in the flesh, that they were choly, and that the powers of the earth could not hold them.
40 And in this state they were to remain until the judgment day of Christ; and at that day they were to receive a greater change, and to be received into the kingdom of the Father to go no more out, but to dwell with God eternally in the heavens. | <urn:uuid:74b01ef6-3225-4447-b8e2-c715c1d690f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/28?lang=eng&country=afe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983477 | 1,657 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Two private member's bills have been introduced into Australian
parliament in the latest bid for same-sex marriage fairness.
The new bills mark a total of three formal submissions now
requesting gay marriage.
According to the Associated Foreign Press, the latter two were
submitted by Green Party's Adam Bandt and Labor's Stephen
Although neither have enough backing to pass into law, but they
are considered an important step in the long road to gay and
lesbian federal marriage.
Currently, Australia's Prime Minister - Julia Gillard - opposes
extending the institution to same-sex couples, despite increasing
public activism from campaigners.
"The Jones bill demonstrates the immense momentum behind
reform," Alex Greenwich, convenor of the Australian Marriage
Equality lobby group, told AFP.
"Three months ago the Labor Party was officially opposed to
reform and now we have a Labor member leading the way towards | <urn:uuid:1287b897-7c45-4178-b98f-8279a647ec0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.divamag.co.uk/category/news/bills-calling-for-gay-marriage-enter-australian-parliament.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933948 | 190 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Prior to the U.S. entering WWII, a small coterie of British spies in Washington, D.C., was formed. They called themselves the Baker Street Irregulars after the band of street urchins who were the eyes and ears of Sherlock Holmes in some Arthur Conan Doyle stories. This group constituted the very beginning of what would become M16, the British version of the CIA, and they helped support the fledgling American intelligence service, known at the time as the OSS. Among them were writers Raold Dahl, Ian Fleming, and the flamboyant Canadian industrialist turned professional saboteur William Stephenson, known by the code name “Intrepid,” upon whom Fleming would later base his fictional M16 agent James Bond. Richly detailed and carefully researched, Conant’s narrative uses never-before-seen wartime letters, diaries and interviews to create a fascinating, lively account of deceit, double dealing and moral ambiguityall in the name of victory.
“A thoroughly engrossing story, one Conant tells exceptionally well. [starred review]”
“A fascinating glimpse of the intrigue and spying inside the British-American alliance in wartime Washington.” | <urn:uuid:ad17f58b-c8a3-473c-85ae-02d6d2364ff7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.highbridgeaudio.com/irregulars.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93778 | 250 | 1.75 | 2 |
Registered: Feb 2008
07-25-12 02:55 AM
Hello Again to All.
Here is the Part II.
CORN PRICES came under pressure once again today, despite deteriorating crops, as storms rumbled through Chicago. USDA reports that 86% of the U.S. corn crop is silking, meaning that most of the crop is either in or has passed through its most critical stage under stress. As such, 22% of the crop is in the dough stage and 6% is dented, up 13 and 4 points respectively from the five-year average for this point in the season.
This week's crop rates a condition index score of 263 (500=perfect crop), down 1 point from the condition of the 1988 crop in the same week. This week's rating was down from 281 the previous week and down from 359 the previous year. The 10-year average for the week is 364. Farm Futures yield model puts the crop at 121.8 bushels per acre, within a range of 119 to 124 bushels per acre.
A Reuters' survey of trade analysts put the yield at 130.8 bushels per acre, producing an 11.4 billion bushel crop. That would assume harvested acres of just over 87 million, or 90% of planted acres. Abandonment in 1988 brought harvested acres down to 85.5%, with a similar number in '83. That would argue for harvested acres down another 5 million near 82 million acres. Keep in mind that 45% of the nation's corn crop is rated Poor to Very Poor as of this week.
Of course, the more you raise abandoned acres, the more you firm the yield estimate on the remaining acres. The bottom line is the total crop size, which the data indicates to me will likely be well below 11 billion bushels based on a current snap shot of the crop. USDA is currently assuming a crop near 13 billion bushels.
There are a lot of reasons for today's weakness, primary of which is emotions typical of a bull market. In essence, the market continued a cleansing process after Monday's break raised fears among weak longs (speculators holding bought positions). Softening charts created more weakness, along with increased margin requirements for the grains this week. Some traders also are believed to have liquidated positions to meet margin calls in other markets, as most of the commodity world continued to tumble on global economic concerns.
Ironically, corn prices came off the 40-cent daily limit immediately after the Reuters' survey results were released, pegging the corn crop at 11.4 billion bushels. I've already documented that I believe why I believe that estimate to be too high, but the market's reaction suggests that the bulk of fund managers had the crop much larger than that.
Prices remained in negative territory into the close, but well off their lows. As such, I see good odds of the market trying to turn the corner on Wednesday, as long as Midwest rains fail to exceed current expectations and/or further economic collapse on Wall Street raising margin requirements for traders.
SOYBEAN PRICES tumbled as the rains fell in Chicago. Rhetoric suggested that soybeans felt the most pressure because they have the greatest opportunity to respond. That assumes that this break is primarily weather related. While a contributor, I believe that the break is tied more to external factors already outlined. Soybeans hold massive large speculative fund positions, which is what left them most vulnerable when fears began to rise on economic worries.
USDA reports that 79% of the soybean crop is blooming, with 36% already setting pods, up 19 and 17 points respectively from the five-year average for the week. This week's crop rates a condition index score of 287, down from an index of 303 in the same week of 1988. This week's score comes in below the 298 index the previous week and below the 361 the previous year. The 10-year average index for the week is 357.
Farm Futures yield model puts the crop at 36.5 bushels per acre, down 1.3 bushels from the previous week and down 4 bushels from the previous year. The model yield is also down 4 bushels from USDA's latest estimate. The Reuters' survey put the soybean crop at 38.6 bushels per acre, with the total crop at 2.9 billion bushels.
That infers harvested acres of 75.1 million acres, down slightly from USDA's estimate of 75.3 million. That's pretty optimistic considering that 35% of the nation's crop is rated Poor to Very Poor and many double-crop acres were never planted. Harvested acres are likely between 73 and 74 million; dropping another 50 to 75 million off the crop on top of what is lost from yield reductions. Meanwhile, demand remains strong, suggesting that the market still has more work to do.
Soybean prices locked the 70-cent daily trading limit lower this morning soon after corn locked its limit lower. Prices came off their limit soon after corn started to firm once again. End users know that this crop is in trouble, so I look for demand to ratchet up on this price break once it shows signs of stabilizing. Fund managers tend to make moves in three day waves, so it's possible this market has another day of weakness ahead.
However, I look for prices to stabilize before we get to the weekend, unless rains provide much better relief than currently expected. I still wouldn't be surprised by August sliding to $15 or November soybeans to similar levels. However, that would not do major chart damage. I remain confident in the fundamentals, despite this pre-mature sell-off, which will likely make the rationing process much more difficult.
WHEAT PRICES still do not have enough legs to stand on their own when the rest of the commodity world is in decline. Only energy prices were moving higher today, with the bulk of commodities and equities in decline on economic concerns.
USDA reports that 82% of the winter wheat crop is harvested, up 9 points from the five-year average for the week. The spring wheat crop is 12% harvested, marking one of the earliest harvests in memory. The crop rates a condition index score of 356 this week, down from 367 the previous week and down from 382 the previous year. The 10-year average index score for the week is 363. Farm Futures yield model puts the crop at 41.1 bushels per acre, down 1 bushel on the week.
The Wheat Quality Council began its industry tour of the hard red spring wheat belt this morning, focusing primarily on North Dakota. It did sent a group into northern South Dakota, which found most fields harvested already. Back in North Dakota and western Minnesota, yields were generally similar to year ago levels or a bit less, with some fields more disappointing. Overall, it looks like a decent crop with good quality; perhaps a bit smaller than was expected. However, we need to see a summary of the next couple of days before we can draw any meaningful conclusions.
Chicago September wheat has strong support at $8, but look for it to turn when corn does. Similar support can be found at $8.05 in Kansas City and at $9 in Minneapolis. However, the larger driver right now is the price of corn. Continuation of this drought another 30 to 45 days would be expected to significantly raise the threat for the 2013 winter wheat crop, but that's a concern for another day. | <urn:uuid:0777d42a-2ba8-4421-95e7-b04097a96471> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=246486 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961308 | 1,550 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Info on 'Warcraft' game played by Norwegian killer
Confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik testified in Norway on Thursday that he played "World of Warcraft" for 16 hours a day in 2006. Breivik is in court in connection with last summer's attacks, in which Breivik killed eight people by setting off a bomb in central Oslo and then shot 69 others to death on the island of Utoya.
Here are some details about the game:
WHAT IT IS: "World of Warcraft" is a popular series of online role-playing games. Millions of people form a virtual universe and become such characters as orcs, trolls, humans and dwarves. Among other things, characters battle dragons and monsters in the game and interact with one another. They improve by collecting virtual goods such as weapons along the way.
PUBLISHER: It is made by Blizzard Entertainment, a unit of Activision Blizzard Inc. The "World of Warcraft" franchise is one of the top money-makers for the company, though it isn't as lucrative as the "Call of Duty" series.
USAGE: "World of Warcraft" had 10.2 million subscribers at the end of 2011. It's recognized by Guinness World Records as the most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, though that was based on a higher subscription total of more than 12 million in October 2010.
UPDATES: Although the game has been out since 2004, Blizzard has sold three updates to help keep it fresh. The latest, "Cataclysm," sold 3.3 million copies within 24 hours. Blizzard makes money from one-time sales of the updates as well as recurring subscription fees. A fourth update, "Mists of Pandaria," is in the works.
BEYOND GAMES: A live-action movie based on the game is in production. There are "World of Warcraft" comic books and a parody on "South Park." | <urn:uuid:03cc07ea-fe30-411b-9290-4dc70289ffd1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/entertainment/12007256834324/info-on-warcraft-game-played-by-norwegian-killer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972185 | 396 | 1.570313 | 2 |
All Tech Considered
Tue February 21, 2012
Twitter Diplomacy: State Department 2.0
The U.S. evacuated the staff of its embassy in Damascus earlier this month due to security issues. But that hasn't stopped Robert Ford, the U.S. ambassador to Syria, from using social media to keep in touch with events on the ground, and to try to shape them.
On the embassy's Facebook page, for instance, Ford has posted satellite images of tanks moving on cities and a pipeline fire spreading toxic fumes.
Ford is part of a new generation of diplomats using online tools such as Facebook and Twitter to get their message out. In fact, these days, U.S. diplomats take a course in what one State Department official calls "21st century statecraft" before they head out to their assignments.
"I tell all our ambassadors, remember, you only have one mouth but you have two ears, so use this as a way not just of communicating with the citizens of the country where you are serving, but also understanding the point of view of people who may not be sitting at a mahogany table inside the embassy," says Alec Ross, the State Department's senior adviser on innovation.
Sitting at such a table in the State Department's rare books room recently, Ross says it wasn't an easy start for Ford, the ambassador in Syria. He had early run-ins with pro-government bloggers, known as the Syrian Electronic Army.
But instead of "curling up into the fetal position," says Ross, Ford responded to the Syrian Electronic Army's misinformation. Many Syrians also turned against the pro-regime bloggers, who then retreated, Ross says.
Ross points to another ambassador, Michael McFaul in Russia, who is using social media to counter what's being said about him in the Russian press.
"Today if somebody is lying about you in the media — and there have been plenty of things that are factually inaccurate written about Ambassador McFaul — we now have the tools to get the real facts out there," Ross says.
Adapting To Social Media Tools
McFaul seems to be online 24 hours a day, batting back rumors, writing about his reset of relations with Russia or talking about date nights with his wife. John Brown, who teaches public diplomacy at Georgetown University, wonders if the ambassador can keep up that pace.
"I'm concerned about this, as someone who was involved in public diplomacy for over 20 years on behalf of our government, mostly in Eastern Europe, and ultimately, what's most important about public diplomacy in my view is not Facebook to Facebook, but face to face," he says.
Brown also says that the State Department still seems to be of two minds, promoting social media while also trying to control the message and keep tabs on personal blogs of foreign service officers.
As well, he says that given the 140-character Twitter limit, the State Department should hire a modern Emily Dickinson: "We could have these wonderfully short messages, but at the same time poetic and full of meaning," he says.
Former State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley was known for his pithy tweets — and for the heartburn they occasionally caused. For example, here's one of his tweets last year, after a government shakeup by Egypt's then-President Hosni Mubarak: "Egypt can't just reshuffle the deck and stand pat."
Crowley says the bureaucracy needs time to get used to these tools.
"Twitter is the ultimate tool for one-liners. I once had a tweet on some subject and someone was concerned about it and said, 'You lost the nuance,' " Crowley recalls. "And I said, at 140 characters, there is no nuance to Twitter."
Taking Risks, But Not Too Many
Crowley, who now teaches at Penn State's Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs, says ambassadors will undoubtedly get into trouble every now and then. But to be effective, they have to put themselves out there.
"The conduct of diplomacy is going to have to be much more decentralized than it has in the past, and that involves educated risk-taking," Crowley says. "That's the kind of thing you see a Mike McFaul and Robert Ford doing. They got to their posts and rather than sitting on the sidelines, they jumped into the pool."
"Social media is a lot less risky medium than live television — you can edit yourself, you can think ahead of time before you hit send," Ross says. "I actually think that if you look at the vast amount of communication that this administration has done over social media over the last few years, it's actually shocking that there have been as few mistakes as there have been."
Last Christmas, U.S. officials at the United Nations tweeted a picture of the Russian ambassador's face superimposed on the Grinch. Though it came at a tense time in U.S.-Russian ties, Ross says the tweet was a nonissue. | <urn:uuid:4f1c3454-238e-45f5-9ed2-0be46860a6d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wkyufm.org/post/twitter-diplomacy-state-department-20 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973712 | 1,023 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Spain/Morocco: Migrants shot dead at the border fence, Spain deploys army
Four people who took part in an onslaught by hundreds of African would-be migrants in an attempt to get across the border fence in the Spanish north African enclave of Ceuta were confirmed to have died in the early morning of 28 September 2005. Initial reports spoke of three deaths on the Moroccan side and two on the Spanish side of the border, although Moroccan authorities later lowered the official figure for deaths in Moroccan territory to two. Eye-witness reports claim that several Spanish Guardia Civil officers protecting the border fired rubber bullets at the migrants on the Moroccan side, through and above the fence, whose upper part is fitted with barbed wire. These reports claim that Moroccan officers subsequently appeared behind them penning the migrants in, and firing shots, thus catching them between two fires. Over a hundred were injured and taken to hospital, six with bullet wounds, and unofficial reports claim that up to six people may have died. It later surfaced from the autopsies of the two dead bodies from the Spanish side of the fence that they were shot, as they had bullet wounds, showing that live ammunition was fired. This is reportedly also the case for one of the migrants who died on the Moroccan side of the fence. A report by the Spanish police claims that the Moroccan gendarmerie used firearms and that the shots they fired were also responsible for the deaths on the Spanish side of the border. The Guardia Civil supports this view, claiming that the trajectory of the shots and the bullet that was found on Spanish soil (which is of a different kind from those with which the Guardia Civil is equipped) confirm this view. The Moroccan press agency MAP claimed that the shots that killed the migrants in Morocco came from the Spanish side. The two countries' prime ministers, Zapatero and Jettu, who were at a Moroccan-Spanish summit in Seville, announced that these events would be the object of a joint investigation.
The army has already been deployed to control the border for an "indefinite period", with two companies of 120 soldiers from the army bases in Ceuta and Melilla posted in each of the two towns' border fence areas. Melilla is the other Spanish enclave in northern Morocco, and has been the scene of a number of similar attempts to cross the border fence in large numbers using rustic ladders that are made for the occasion using branches over the last month, in which at least three migrants have died. The Guardia Civil was accused by eye-witnesses of responsibility in events resulting in the death of the first casualty, a man from Cameroon who died on 28 August on the Moroccan side of the fence in Melilla (which is set to be raised to six metres). An internal investigation by the Guardia Civil excluded that it had any responsibility in the death, but contrasting witness statements claimed that rubber bullets were fired at him at point-blank range, and that he was beaten on the Spanish side of the fence by officers. The Moroccan police, which is investigating the incident, denied these possibilities, claiming that the autopsy revealed that the likeliest cause of death was a fall. A number of witnesses claimed that two people had died rather than one, and that Guardia Civil officers had fired rubber bullets and struck migrants on the chest with the butts of their rifles. The second death took place on 8 September, when migrants brought an unconscious body to the border fence hours after the Guardia Civil had prevented a border crossing. The man was taken to hospital, where he died four days later. On 15 September, another migrant died in a hospital in Melilla after he was handed to officers shortly after a border crossing attempt (his companions claimed that he hadn't taken part in it) suffering from asphyxia and with wounds on his neck.
The Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía (APDHA) issued a statement to highlight the alarming situation and human rights violations that migrants are suffering in Morocco, which is described as having been subcontracted to do the EU's "dirty work" in the prevention of immigration. Another statement issued jointly with Andalucía Acoge and Chabaka, a network of northern Moroccan human rights groups, highlights that cooperation between Spain and the EU and Morocco, currently largely concerned with preventing "illegal" immigration, far from giving rise to an improvement in the human rights situation in the north African country, (one of its envisaged beneficial effects, according to official EU documents) is resulting in an increase in human right abuses. The NGOs have called for a delegation of international observers to visit the Ceuta and Melilla border areas to investigate the human rights situation. These organisations have been reporting human rights violations in the border region for several months. (see Statewatch news online, February & March 2005).
El País, 31.8, 1.9, 6.9, 7.9,16.9, 28.9, 29.9.2005. APDHA statements, 28.9.2005, available on http://www.apdha.org .
Previous Statewatch coverage (February 2005): Morocco/Spain: Update: Appeal highlights the human rights implications of the transfer of responsibility for immigration controls to third countries
Statewatch News online | Join Statewatch news e-mail list | Download a free sample issue of Statewatch bulletin
Statewatch does not have a corporate view, nor does it seek to create one, the views expressed are those of the author. Statewatch is not responsible for the content of external websites and inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement. | <urn:uuid:1b6602ba-04b9-4705-8067-f8e6df389513> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.statewatch.org/news/2005/oct/01spain-morocco.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976798 | 1,150 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Take the Beartooth Highway from the frontier town of Red Lodge to Yellowstone National Park. The route offers spectacular mountain views.
Big Sky is Montana’s premier ski resort and Billings is its largest city. Billings is surrounded by sandstone cliffs called “Rimrocks.”
Fort Peck Dam, near Glasgow, is one of the world’s largest dams. It forms Fort Peck Lake, which is popular for boating, fishing, camping and sightseeing.
In northwestern Montana lies the majestic Glacier National Park. More than 50 glaciers cling to the mountain slopes in this region.
Montana’s capital, Helena, has many historical points of interest. Attractions include the State Capitol building, St. Helena’s Cathedral and the original governor’s mansion.
Miles City is an original cowboy town and each year hosts one of the biggest gatherings in Montana. Rodeo shows and other western attractions take place and draw cowboys from all across the state.
Dinosaur bones can be found at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.
Scenic areas in Montana include the alpine lakes, wildflowers and glaciers of the Northwest Peaks, the 15,700 acres of the Ten Lakes near Canada and Ross Creek Scenic Area.
A herd of 300-500 bison are on the National Bison Range near Missoula.
Yellowstone National Park is one of America’s largest environmentally protected attractions. Three of its entrances lie in Montana. | <urn:uuid:6ed488ec-be87-4ed3-a9e3-9d44a2c2b321> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ef-italia.it/highschool/destinations/usa/region-choice/montana/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93017 | 311 | 1.820313 | 2 |
by Lawrence Cohler-Esses
Defense attorney Benjamin Brafman launched his summation this week in the Dov Hikind federal corruption trial. One of his first targets was The Jewish Week. “The evidence is incontrovertible this case began with a series of articles in The Jewish Week,” he told the jury. “Are they fair? Or are they simply an organization that didn’t like chasidim, or an Orthodox organization?”
Rabbi Mahir Reiss, a respected Brooklyn businessman and Orthodox Jewish philanthropist credited with resolving international Jewish religious disputes, was sentenced to 27 months and fined $6.3 million for his role in an international money-laundering scheme involving a Colombian drug ring. In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein on Wednesday based his decision on whether the 48-year-old Reiss knew that the illegal money he was laundering involved drugs. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Dunst contended Reiss knew.
With her 10-year-old son at her side, a disabled widow from Long Beach told a hushed group of 500 UJA-Federation lay and professional leaders that the local Jewish community center has "been there for us in the very darkest of times."
"I have an immune disease called fibromyalga," explained Harriet Cohen, 46, at the annual Long Island General Assembly in Roslyn, which provides UJA-Federation-funded organizations an opportunity to display their activities.
One of the key religious epiphanies is that we live in a world of illusions; not everything is as it seems. With all the justified emphasis on denominational feuds, each of the denominational publications have other things on their mind that are worth sharing across the Jewish Mason-Dixon lines.Jewish Action (Summer), the magazine of the Orthodox Union looks at the OU’s centennial, essentially Orthodoxy’s centennial in the United States.
A $17,000 grant to provide counseling and vocational training to women victims of domestic violence was one of two gifts awarded last week by the 3-year-old Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York. The foundation, which itself just received a $500,000 grant from UJA-Federation to hire clerical staff and cover promotional expenses, also presented a $25,000 check to the New York Legal Assistance Group. The goal of both grants is to educate low-income Jewish women so they can become economically self-sufficient and reduce their dependence on welfare programs. | <urn:uuid:78b3f601-43b3-4016-a62b-88d84bae5a68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new-york-news/bagels-ahmadinejad-post-taunts-irans-leader-swag?page=0%2C591 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968192 | 524 | 1.507813 | 2 |
By Kyle Munzenrieder
By Kyle Munzenrieder
By Kyle Munzenrieder
By Francisco Alvarado
By Tim Elfrink
By Kyle Munzenrieder
By Kyle Munzenrieder
By Tim Elfrink
This past January county commissioners voted to accept the findings of a study showing that companies owned by Hispanics and women have long suffered discrimination in their dealings with Dade County. It was the first step in what some commissioners believe will lead to a series of laws that will force the county to set aside public contracts, or portions of contracts, for firms headed by Hispanics and women.
Such a move will also give greater prominence to firms such as MCO Environmental (which stands to benefit from such laws) and to its president, Cruz Otazo, who has been an outspoken leader in the move to reform the way the county does business with women and Hispanics. At a press conference coinciding with the commission's vote, Otazo sounded a triumphant note: "Women are the perennial outsiders in Dade County. This is going to be our year." For "Cuqui" Otazo, such a year has been a long time coming.
Otazo refused to be interviewed for this article, but according to a Miami Herald profile published in June 1992, she was born in Havana and moved with her family to New York in 1960. She studied Spanish and literature at Adelphi University in New York before attending the State University of New York at Stonybrook, where she received a master's degree in 1974 in Spanish and literature.
In 1975 she reluctantly followed her family to Miami, where she became a substitute teacher for Dade County Public Schools. Otazo also taught at Archbishop Curley High School and West Lab, both private schools.
She moved on to higher education in 1977, teaching humanities for two years at Miami-Dade Community College. Her next step would be Florida International University, where she accepted a faculty position in 1979 as a grant writer, an experience she would later describe as invaluable. "I really had enough of teaching and I learned about public funds," Otazo told the Herald. "I think back every day now to FIU, how it taught and helped me."
In 1979 she was a founding member of the Coalition of Hispanic-American Women, a group that assists female Hispanic business owners. In 1981 she ventured into the world of business herself, opening the Children's Development Center, a day-care facility located on Flagler Street, which she ran until she became president of MCO Environmental.
Although the firm initially began as a construction company, the work soon shifted almost exclusively to asbestos removal. Cruz Otazo is listed as MCO's president, treasurer, and director. Corporate records list her husband, Julio Otazo, as vice president. No other directors or officers are registered with the Secretary of State's office in Tallahassee.
Ironically, according to officials at the Department of Professional Regulation's Construction Industry Licensing Board, Cruz Otazo herself is not certified to perform asbestos-removal work, which means she is unable to visit or supervise any of her work crews inside an asbestos-containment area. That job falls to her husband, who is certified.
Julio Otazo is a professor at FIU, in the construction management department. He has been with the university for twenty years and was awarded tenure in 1982. In addition to operating MCO, he carries a full-time teaching load. His classes include courses in hazardous waste and how to estimate the cost of construction projects. "He is an outstanding instructor and his classes are very popular with students and always get very good evaluations," says Jose Mitrani, chairman of FIU's construction management department. "He is a key member of this department."
Over the years, MCO's business has expanded and the firm counts among its clients the City of Miami and Dade County Parks and Recreation, as well as its largest clients A the Dade County Aviation Department and the Dade County Public Schools. Cruz Otazo once explained that an emphasis on taxpayer-funded projects was particularly necessary in the company's early days, when she and her husband were first looking for contracts. "We really had to rely on public work," Otazo told the Herald in June 1992, "and that wasn't good because you'd go to make a bid, and seventeen different contractors would be there. Everyone was driving down the prices."
While prices may have been driven down, Cruz Otazo's profile in the community was steadily rising. This past November, when an anti-crime coalition was formed A headed by community leaders such as Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, County Commission Chairman Art Teele, and then-school board chairwoman Janet McAliley A Otazo was one of the first recruited to sit on the panel.
Six months earlier, when We Will Rebuild was drawing fire for not including enough women on its board of directors, the hurricane relief group turned to Otazo as well, electing her to its ranks last May.
In 1992 she became the first woman to sit on the 21-member board of directors of the Hispanic-American Builders Association. "It was her staunch defense of Hispanic women's rights and enterprises, her ability to communicate, and her knowledge in the business field that attracted us to her," association executive director Roberto Cervera-Rojas stated at the time. By 1993 she became vice secretary of the association, which boasts more than 200 members.
And she has been increasingly active on the political stage. During last year's county commission elections, she was a prominent supporter of losing candidate Conchy Bretos and winner Natacha Millan, who became the first Hispanic woman to serve on the county commission. Otazo is also listed as a contributor to County Commissioner Alex Penelas's campaign. At the time, Penelas was chairman of the commission's aviation committee, which oversees projects at the airport.
Her political enthusiasm spilled over into MCO Environmental, according to employees, who say that Otazo encouraged some of them to contribute money to various commission candidates. Former office workers recall that during last year's commission races, they stuffed envelopes during working hours for at least one commission candidate, though they don't remember who.
Another aspect of the Otazos' success has been their tenacious approach to dealing with critics and governmental bureaucrats. This has become particularly evident in the past year as they have pressed for a settlement of $13 million in claims they have filed against the county for work at Miami International Airport.
Last summer, when Buddy Klein, founder and long-time head of DPC General Contractors, first heard that MCO Environmental was demanding more money for those projects, he began questioning the company's claims. Klein wrote airport officials asking to receive copies of the material MCO had submitted and he made it clear that if MCO was allowed such a substantial increase in its pay, his company might also consider submitting demands for additional money for similar work DPC had performed at the airport.
When MCO became aware of Klein's interest, the company's attorney, David Swimmer, wrote him a terse letter saying the Otazos had hired him to investigate Klein and to determine if DPC should be sued for questioning MCO's claims. "Unless your intention is to provoke litigation by MCO Environmental, Inc.," Swimmer wrote, "in which case MCO Environmental, Inc., is prepared to accommodate you, I suggest you refrain from any further attempts to interfere with MCO Environmental, Inc.'s relationship with [the Dade County Aviation Department] or its claim for additional compensation. I would prefer not renewing our acquaintance in a deposition or at a jury trial."
Klein says he read the letter a couple of times, made a photocopy of it, then scrawled his reply in bold letters across the page: "David A this is bullshit." He mailed it back to Swimmer.
MCO has yet to file suit against Klein and DPC, although Swimmer told New Times that was almost certain to happen. Swimmer also warned the newspaper that if it wasn't "careful" in preparing this article, it too would be sued.
Although MCO officials have refused to cooperate with New Times, they have expressed a keen interest in research for this story. Two days after the newspaper filed a public records request with the aviation department to review some of MCO's projects, the company, through Swimmer, filed its own public records request in an effort to determine what documents New Times had requested. Former MCO employees say such behavior is characteristic. "They believe that the world is out to get them," says one former employee who asked not to be named. "They always view themselves as the victims, that they are the underdogs."
That assessment found resonance earlier this month when the Miami Herald noted the controversy surrounding MCO's multimillion-dollar claims against the county's aviation department. "We have been treated like dirt," Cruz Otazo complained. "We are a Hispanic company and I am a woman. The minute you go out there and compete with the big boys, they are out to get you."
MCO Environmental appears ready to take a swing of its own at the big boys in Dade County government. On March 11 attorney David Swimmer sent a letter to Assistant County Attorney Deborah Mastin. Swimmer informed her he has been "instructed to immediately institute litigation" to recover more than $7.4 million the Otazos claim they are owed. The letter went on to state that a copy of the lawsuit would be delivered to the county in "a couple of days." As of March 25 the county had received nothing. | <urn:uuid:bdc2011a-8eb1-4017-a15d-47b12e9b87fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1994-03-30/news/the-otazos-ferociously-successful/full/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982189 | 1,986 | 1.71875 | 2 |
In 1983, Time magazine named the computer "Machine of the Year," and everybody shuddered at once because it would be the machine of every year to come, too. Half of the material on Mark Stewart's career retrospective, Kiss the Future (Soul Jazz), was released before that declaration, and half after. It's the pivot around which the disc spins, with a pronounced wobble (four years surveyed before that date, 22 after)—the moment, maybe, when Stewart realized that the spiny beast with its tongue down his throat was his future, or our present.
Stewart had begun his career as the 17-year-old singer of a band sarcastically named the Pop Group, and the three earliest tracks in the scrambled chronology of Kiss the Future are Pop Group songs from 1979: "She Is Beyond Good and Evil," "We Are All Prostitutes," and "We Are Time," exercises in steaming and leeching all the pop out of body music. The band had a steel-heavy post-disco groove, but everything else on their records was feedback, noise, and damage, and Stewart's tuneless pronouncements were distorted until they oozed.
After the Pop Group broke up, Stewart hooked up with a group he called the Maffia—drummer Keith LeBlanc, bassist Doug Wimbish, and guitarist Skip McDonald (who'd previously been the house band at early rap powerhouse Sugarhill Records), along with producer-mixer Adrian Sherwood. And he figured out how to use computers to represent the world he saw coming: a foot pounding down over and over (a digital kick drum or a soldier's jackboot) and endless, hollow declarations of freedom. "Control units are laid out geometrically," he moaned in 1982, while reggae-ettes crooned, "Welcome to Liberty City."
Especially on Kiss the Future's later recordings, LeBlanc's drumming, and the computerized beat-grids that supplemented and eventually replaced it, become the bars of a cage with filth splattered against and between them. Stewart's voice flies wildly around beats and notes, never in time, always sounding like a hot iron is hovering in front of his face. The Maffia worked with Stewart through the '80s, and they're also credited on the retrospective's one brand-new track, "Radio Freedom," which whacks and wobbles like their vintage material—Sherwood lards it with video-game noises and fragmentary info overload and cranks the beat until it warps. Stand in a crowded city's densest commercial district in 2005, and what you'll hear will be this, pretty much.
At the end of Kiss the Future, there's a tiny nod to the pop moment that coincided with Stewart's machine terror: A robotic voice from Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" barks "welcome" every few seconds as Stewart screams, "The lunatics are taking over the asylum," and then the whole thing fades into a brittle beat-box loop and a cluster of tape squiggles. It's a curiously apt reference: Frankie's mid-'80s label, Zang Tuum Tumb (co-founded by Paul Morley, about whom I wrote a few Smallmouths ago), was named after an Italian futurist slogan and originally intended as an outlet for experimental music.
That idea only really got as far as the records ZTT released by composer Andrew Poppy, which have just been reissued as the three-disc set Andrew Poppy on Zang Tuum Tumb (ZTT). His work (especially his first and best album, The Beating of Wings) was a sunnier kind of futurism: systems- and process-based compositional music, a clockwork mechanism with all the colors of a digital orchestra. But his records were marketed as pop (if a strange and elongated kind of pop), and the sounds of these pieces are the hyperreal sounds of hit records: samples, sequencers, booming drums, discrete rhythmic layers.
Poppy had briefly been a rock musician, although his main interest by the early '80s was the repetition-heavy school of Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and especially Michael Nyman, whose music is often very clearly the inspiration for the pieces on AP on ZTT. (Nyman had dabbled in pop around 1980, too, in collaboration with the Flying Lizards' David Cunningham; his "Mozart"/"Webern" single, in particular, has a familial likeness to Poppy's "32 Frames for Orchestra.") The Poppy works reproduced here are theory-driven creatures—the idea for a composition's structure always precedes the composition itself, you can tell—but they've been made geometrically precise by the Machine of the Year and cast in the model of dance tracks. (The 12-inch remixes of "32 Frames" and "The Amusement" included here aren't so far off from what, say, Cabaret Voltaire was doing in those days.)
Listen to any 20-second passage of Poppy's work, and you'll have an imperfect but reasonably reliable idea of what the next 20 seconds will be like. His future landscape is a sparkling city, laid out at right angles, kept in line by the same kind of omnipresent surveillance that Stewart rails against—"All's well in the world of interception/They're listening in," a voice declares. And both of them were sort of right about the sound of the world to come. Down on the street, 2005 sounds like Stewart imagined; ride the elevator 10 smooth flights up to the office, and you'll hear the rhythms Poppy knew the computer was bringing. | <urn:uuid:5292b882-c75f-48ad-a4c5-55587a03246e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seattleweekly.com/2005-07-06/music/kissing-the-future/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974173 | 1,182 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The music library in the basement of Santa Monica-based public radio station KCRW (89.9 FM and KCRW.com) houses a priceless collection of more than 60,000 recordings of great historical importance and cultural relevance. The station is launching a major effort to save this precious resource and preserve it for years to come with "The Music Match: A Campaign to Save KCRW’s Library."
There is no library in any radio station that is comparable to KCRW’s in breadth or depth. The library has been shaped over three decades and its influence has been profound as KCRW’s DJs have become major tastemakers. The resources of the library inspired soundtracks for entertainment vehicles like The Matrix, Six Feet Under, Shrek, Little Miss Sunshine and a myriad of commercials, video games and more. All of this is currently housed in a 15 X 20 foot room with CD drawers and vinyl racks stacked floor to ceiling – about the size of a walk-in closet.
This campaign will raise the funds necessary to store the contents of the library as the highest fidelity digital sound files and allow our DJs to explore the full range of music available to them without the current physical limitations. (Imagine having to climb a ladder to reach that perfect Miles Davis record every time you want to play it on air). The library is the primary resource for both KCRW’s on-air DJs and a 24/7 online music stream as well.
KCRW has been at the forefront of the changing media industry for more than a decade and in order for the station to grow, the library must grow along with it.
"KCRW is defined by its music. All of our music directors and hosts have expanded the library based on their unique tastes with only one thing in common – marvelous artistry,” said General Manager Ruth Seymour.
Within the stacks and shelves of the music library reside recordings in a variety of formats (vinyl, reel-to-reel, cassette, DAT, CD) and of all genres and eras, from rare jazz performances to the latest indie-rock sensations. A significant number of the recordings are rare and irreplaceable. They also include extensive live performances from KCRW’s studios that go back more than two decades.
"More than half of the vinyl – some 8,000 albums – are releases you'll never find on CD," says KCRW's first Music Director and current Cafe LA host, Tom Schnabel. "Much of it is priceless."
The Annenberg Foundation and RealNetworks have provided lead grants of $100,000, and proceeds from this year’s sold-out benefit concert, A Sounds Eclectic Evening, will go towards the modernization process. The station is also seeking matching funds from corporations, foundations, and major donors, in addition to KCRW’s loyal listeners.
The collection has been threatened by earthquake and flooding as well as the ravages of time – tape is disintegrating, vinyl is warping and CDs are becoming scratched. Bringing the library up to the same standards as KCRW’s state-of-the-art studios will allow us both to preserve the collection and make it more accessible and important as a resource for creative programming and innovation. | <urn:uuid:f1b45cdb-cab8-4493-94f8-6b11bbaaa24e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://globalrhythm.net/WorldNews/KCRWLaunchesCampaigntoSaveMusicLibrary.cfm | 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 | 0.953887 | 679 | 1.796875 | 2 |
"Internal Medicine is a specialty that deals with the entire patient, rather than a particular organ system, and covers diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases in adults."
Internal Medicine is an exciting and challenging area. Increased concern about ways to educate patients about chronic illness, changing health care economics, uncertainties about the best use of new technologies, and an evolution in multidisciplinary research—all create opportunities for internal medicine physicians to improve patient care and medical education.
India faces the twin onslaught of various infectious diseases of underdeveloped world and unhappy life style disease of the developed world. Adoption of healthy life style and healthy food habits with innovative application of preventive strategies is the need of the hour. Preventive and executive health check-ups for various age groups are tailored for helping early detection and appropriate care for many diseases that have the potential to adversely afflict various body systems of our productive population.
Department of Internal Medicine is managed by a team of six senior internists from varied backgrounds who are dedicated to excellence in comprehensive patient care, community obligations, clinical research and professional growth. We strive to provide various Internal Medicine related clinical services with scholarly inquisitive approach to clinical problem-solving as a continuum of primary care to subspecialty care with involvement of various super specialty team members. Logical & holistic approach to management of various lifestyle related diseases like obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiac & vascular diseases is rewarding and is logically given its due importance in day-to-day practice of Medicine.
Our team members are dedicated to the compassionate and balanced practice of medicine that is need based and cost-effective. We provide good quality outpatient medical services for adult population, emergency & indoor services for various medical problems and critical care in a comprehensive manner.
As a part of our social responsibility for community, we have an out-reach program for early detection of various diseases and helping sensitize the community in various health related problems.
Services and Treatments Offered
The Department is the principal provider of primary care for most of the incoming patients to BLK Super Speciality Hospital The Internal Medicine Service is one of the largest and comprehensive clinical services within the hospital for inpatient and outpatient.
Our highly skilled physicians treat each patient with compassion and dignity. Our physicians are committed to listening to each patient's concerns and addressing both acute and chronic ailments.
We specialize in Treating
- Hypertension (High Blood Pressure)
- Lipid Abnormalities (High Cholesterol)
- Obesity and Weight Management
- Asthma and Other Respiratory problems
- Infectious diseases
- HIV Counseling
- Management of drug overdoses & poisoning
- Environmental diseases and Animal Bites
- Pre-operation checks
- Health Check-up
Infectious diseases are major problem in our part of world. It includes Malaria, Typhoid fever, Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, Dengue fever etc. Most of these diseases present with fever & other symptoms, which are investigated in depth & treated.
HIV Counseling: Individual counseling for patients living with HIV/AIDS or newly diagnosed and concerned about coping with the illness, partner notification, community resources, and long-term psychosocial support. Pre- and post-test counseling as needed for patients seen at the BLK.
Management of drug overdoses & poisoning: All poisoning cases are very efficiently treated in our hospital in the very modern and world class standard intensive care unit, with very efficient nursing care and experienced interventionist and internist.
Environmental Diseases which include diseases due to Industrial chemical exposure, drowning, electrical injuries, radiation injuries, snake bite, lizard bite, dog bite, insect or scorpion bite are treated in department on Internal medicine.
Senior consultant of department of internal medicine are involved in preoperative checks in addition to anaesthetists assessment to manage &pick up existing medical problem prior to surgical procedures as well as to take appropriate measures prior to surgeries. | <urn:uuid:4b88757e-773c-4193-a8e8-5e39f735c513> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blkhospital.com/speciality.php?id=30&tab=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937782 | 797 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The Spokane Regional Health District reports 105 people have been hospitalized with the flu since October. That compares with 19 people hospitalized with the virus last year in the district.
KXLY reports of those hospitalized this year, 72 percent were over the age of 50.
The health district says February and March are the peak months for contracting the influenza virus.
The state Health Department says the flu is widespread in Washington. There have been 34 flu deaths this season, compared with 18 flu deaths last year in the state.-- The Associated Press | <urn:uuid:adf3c330-5482-4dfa-ba82-33cede9602a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2013/02/105_people_have_been_hospitali.html | 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 | 0.97597 | 106 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Is the alternative vote worth voting for?
April 12, 2011 2 Comments
This was the subject of a debate at UCL last night, where leading figures from the yes and no camps met alongside electoral experts and UCL students to argue the point.
For the yes side, Billy Bragg and Katie Ghose argued that the referendum provided an opportunity to offer greater choice to voters, to combat the sense of disenfranchisement among those who do not identify with the parties likely to win under first past the post, and to challenge MPs to target the wider population rather than swing voters.
For the no side, Jane Kennedy and Charlotte Vere called AV a timid reform, a shield for Liberal Democrat unpopularity, and a change that far from combating safe seats would just make different seats safe.
A third camp too emerged, of those who didn’t care for AV or FPTP, but wanted change of a different kind. For them different questions were important: if AV passes, will it be the start or the end of reform? Is AV a compromise worth making?
A quick poll at the end of the night indicated that the vast majority of those attending were in favour of the change to AV, but with a little under a month to go, it’s still all to play for. Last night showed how much we need this debate so, what do you think? Whether you think AV is progressive or regressive, a step towards or away from greater democracy, a political fix or a non-event, let us know… | <urn:uuid:ca524416-5465-404f-9fe9-d2aba249068e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://constitution-unit.com/2011/04/12/is-the-alternative-vote-worth-voting-for/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938928 | 313 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) recently surveyed its chapter members to learn more about their most pressing work challenges. Not surprisingly, trying to squeeze education and professional development dollars out of already tight budgets is a serious challenge.
There is no doubt that keeping up with technical advances through training courses is vitally important. Earning certification from Esri and the GIS Certification Institute demonstrates commitment to the profession to both current and potential employers.
Also important, and often overlooked, is nontechnical education. To advance into roles with more responsibility, GIS professionals must develop management and leadership skills. URISA offers some options to consider.
Rather than sending all their staff off-site to receive training, a number of organizations make the most of their limited training budgets by licensing URISA-certified workshops for presentation at their locations. Full-day workshops on topics such as GIS program management, GIS strategic planning, addresses and IS/GIS implementation, asset management, and cartography and map design are regularly peer-reviewed and improved, while new workshops are being proposed and evaluated.
URISA Connect virtual events delve into such topics as asset management, addressing and return on investment, and GIS maturity models.
The URISA Leadership Academy (ULA) is a five-day, intensive program that teaches GIS leadership. Offered annually, the next ULA will take place in Savannah, Georgia, June 11–15, 2012. It is a unique and highly valued educational program taught by GIS leaders.
URISA's educational options are extensive and evolving. Check them out at www.urisa.org. | <urn:uuid:6107d8ef-0e6d-498b-9c18-22431f778a80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/winter1112articles/urisas-professional-development-options.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953359 | 331 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Rereading and the Status of Women
As a 21st-century American woman—ie, a woman with more choices and more freedom to determine my own destiny than in any other place or time in history—I have been reading or rereading novels about the women of different places and times with a certain compassion and sometimes horror at how constricted their lives were and how little power they had to make decisions about how and with whom they would spend their lives.
I’ll start with Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, admitting that in this case I didn’t read the book but saw the movie, which was visually lush and ought to win the Oscar for costume design.
Now let’s look at Jane Austen, whose books I know well.
Imagine being born to a family of gentility—lots of social rules, limited society to interact with—but small fortune. As an unmarried daughter, you live at home. You owe endless “duty” to relatives and family dependents, no matter how silly, boring, or malicious they may happen to be. The only variety in your days is driving half a mile in the carriage for formal visits and the occasional dinner party to a set of people smaller than the number I can meet any day by simply going around the corner to the grocery store. For financial reasons, you must marry, but you meet a minuscule number of eligible men, unless your family can afford to take you to London for a “season” on the marriage mart—beyond the means of Austen families. While Austen allowed her heroines love and happy endings, reality more often consisted of an alliance with a man you might or might not be at all attracted to, who might or might not treat you well, and whom you hardly knew. Add to that the abysmal ignorance of unmarried women about sex. I’m sure many marriages consisted of a dreadful shock on the wedding night followed by anything from dreariness to nightmare, except for a few very lucky women.
And suppose, like Austen, you didn’t marry? She had her writing, you will say. Yes, but we all know how she had to write in secret, hiding her manuscript under the blotter when people came to call or family duty demanded her attention. No running out to Starbuck’s for a convivial latte to spur on the work. No DO NOT DISTURB sign on a closed door to repel distractions to the writer’s concentration. The skies would have fallen if Austen had treated her father or brother or even the housekeeper as I do my husband, who gets an urgent “GO AWAY!” if he tries to interrupt at the wrong moment.
Re-read Emma, and imagine yourself in Emma’s place. Yes, Emma is impatient, even cruel, to the boring Miss and Mrs. Davis, and she gets a thundering scold from Mr. Knightly for it. But would you elect a life in which you were forced to visit people you had so little interest in several times a week for life? And what about Emma’s father, with whom she does much better at kindness and solicitude? He’s a bundle of anxiety and hypochondria, must be endlessly reassured, and fails to supply a scrap of understanding or companionship. If she doesn’t manage to marry, she’ll be stuck with him for life. There aren’t a whole lot of people to love in Emma’s world, but she’s stuck with it, as Austen was with hers.
I had similar feelings on reading the novels of Anthony Trollope. I missed those earlier in my reading career (and missed them on television too), but was inspired by their availability on Kindle to try them. Writing fifty years after Austen, he still depicted a world in which women were under tremendous pressure to marry and completely dependent on father, husband, or another male relative for their economic needs. The choice of eligible husbands was still small, and the penalties for making the smallest mistake in social behavior or breaking of the boundaries of class were still severe. I could tolerate only a couple of them (Barchester Towers and The Eustace Diamonds) before deciding that the plight of women in these novels made them too painful to continue reading. | <urn:uuid:997790fd-8850-44b8-ad3f-7005115b72f3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.fr/2013/02/rereading-and-status-of-women.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975664 | 912 | 1.515625 | 2 |
My 3 yo holds his breath throughout the day. He'll breathe in (short), hold it for 3-7 seconds, then breathe out (short) and repeat that frequently. He does this when he's awake, but probably not conscious of what he's doing, like when he's watching TV. At night, when he's asleep, he doesn't hold his breath at all, he breathes normally, though his breathing seems a little short.
Could this be related to asthma?
We're scheduled to take him in to a breathing specialist to get it checked out in the next few weeks, but I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this before. | <urn:uuid:b45e7868-ff6a-493e-ac90-ce82e684a619> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://parenting.stackexchange.com/questions/589/why-would-a-child-hold-his-breath-regularly/6470 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991948 | 134 | 1.734375 | 2 |
The skeleton of the straw bale house has risen with remarkable speed. In little more than a week, we framed out the walls and almost finished the roof. Now there is no doubt that a house is coming into being, although at this point it is not obvious that it will be anything out of the ordinary. The trained eye will notice the lack of the evenly spaced studs that are normally needed to hang drywall, as well as the presence of a second set of wooden sill plates to support the inside edge of the 18-inch-thick straw bales.
We work with the tools of a conventional framing crew: hammer, pneumatic framing gun, tape measure and circular saw. My hands are starting to develop calluses and my body is getting stronger. I now have five raw spots on my hands, and at the end of the day I am physically exhausted. It’s awesome.
At the end of one work day, Allison VanLonkhuyzen, the woman who will move into the home we are building, came by with a cooler of homemade beers as a treat for the crew. Ours is the fourth home built by a volunteer crew with Community Rebuilds, and Allison is the fourth homeowner to take advantage of its affordable housing model.
“I feel like if it wasn’t green; if it wasn’t the sustainable living, I don’t think I would have been as interested,” she said. “It’s a ton of money. It’s a huge loan.”
Real estate in Moab is expensive for a small town because it’s a popular destination for mountain bikers, rafters, jeepers and all kinds of outdoor adventurers. But some of the adventurers who end up settling here don’t have much money and eke out a living in the tourism industry.
Allison makes $15 an hour as a park ranger in Arches National Park. In the last few years she has also worked as a waitress, a hike leader and a Transportation Security Administration employee at the regional airport to make ends meet.
Eric Boxrud and Nancy Morlock, the couple who live in the Community Rebuilds straw bale house built last spring, together earn less than $30,000 a year as mountain bike guides. “It was above and beyond our expectations about what affordable housing could look like,” Nancy said. “It feels like it was tailored to us.”
Affordable housing options in Moab tend to be doublewide trailers that were hastily constructed during the uranium mining boom of the 1940s and ’50s, before enforcement of building codes took hold in 1976. Because of those homes’ shoddy construction, banks now won’t finance pre-1976 trailers, according to Emily Niehaus, the executive director of Community Rebuilds.
When she worked as a bank loan officer, Emily says, she continually found herself saying no to people. Homeowners with old trailers could not get loans to fix them up, and people looking to buy one could not get loans to buy them. At the same time, they were expensive to heat and cool through the 100-degree summer days and below-freezing winter nights of the Utah desert.
Laurel Hagen, who owns the second Community Rebuilds straw bale home, says she used to pay a $500 monthly gas bill to heat her old trailer. In her new, super-insulated house, her heating bill is around $25 a month.
Sasha Pasler and Colleen Jarrett moved out of a trailer and into their passive solar straw bale house in December 2010. They went from burning three cords of wood in the winter to just half a cord in the straw bale house. In the summers, they went from running their swamp cooler constantly (most houses in Moab use this more efficient technology rather than traditional air conditioners, which suck moisture out of the air) to leaving it off for days on end.
Locally, “it was so extreme temperaturewise, a lot of people in town got so in debt from utility bills,” Colleen said. The pre-1976 trailers also tend to be full of old linoleum, carpeting, particle board and other manufactured building materials that emit unhealthy gases.
Emily said the idea of Community Rebuilds evolved as a solution to Moab’s housing stock problems: the shortage of affordable housing, the need to get rid of the old trailers and a lack of builders skilled in sustainable construction practices.
Critical to the success of the organization was finding financing that was affordable enough that low-income families could tear down the old trailers and build something better in their place. This financing came in the form of United States Department of Agriculture rural development loans. Emily helps potential homeowners through the process of applying for these low-interest, subsidized mortgages.
The mortgage, which runs for 33 years, covers both the land and the cost of building the house. Eric and Nancy’s is typical. They borrowed $183,000 from the U.S.D.A. at 3.25 percent interest: $92,000 for the land and $91,000 for construction, including landscaping. A government subsidy knocks almost $200 off their monthly mortgage payment, so the monthly bill, including homeowners insurance and property taxes, ends up at $709.
At a cost of just under $80 a square foot, they ended up with a 1,150-square-foot straw bale home with custom natural features like adobe floors embedded with radiant heating, a handmade Moroccan lime plaster, or tadelakt, bathtub, a metal roof and hand-troweled earthen plaster walls.
Then there’s the house for which nine interns, including my wife and me, are now donating the labor. Eric Plourde, the Community Rebuilds instructor who is guiding us, said that if he and his wife were relying on a hired crew, the house would cost well over $150 a square foot.
Straw bale construction is particularly suited to volunteer interns. The construction is labor-intensive, and mud and straw are a particularly forgiving medium for the amateur. By comparison, said Eric Plourde, the average price for no-frills conventional construction in Moab is over $100 per square foot.
For coming up with this affordable building model, Emily was honored this year by the White House as part of its Champions of Change program.
The owners of all three straw bale homes built so far said they loved their homes and were happy with their decision to work with Community Rebuilds, although paying the mortgage could be a challenge. Small superficial cracks in the earthen plaster are the only problem reported so far, and moisture in the bales, the biggest danger in straw bale construction, has not been an issue.
Eric Boxrud and Nancy Morlock said they actually preferred having their house built by a volunteer crew because they felt comfortable helping out with the construction and they made friends in the process. One former intern who worked on their house crashed on their couch when she came to town a few weeks ago — Nancy said she had really wanted the intern to sleep in her own creation.
We visited their home during our first week in Moab. My initial impression upon entering was an air of serenity. The thick earthen-colored walls blocked out virtually all sound from the outside and gave the space a stable and calm feel. The absence of an air-conditioning hum also helped. Although it was sweltering outside, Eric and Nancy had not yet needed to turn on their swamp cooler.
From the outside, the house looked a little squat and blocky. The wide eaves, designed to aid in passive solar design and keep rain away from the bale walls, give the appearance of a wide-brimmed hat pulled down low over the face of the house.
The earth that was excavated for the foundation of the house was used in the earthen plaster on the walls and in the floors, creating a visual unity with the landscape that made the house feel organic.
Inside, the adobe floor was cozy and soft underfoot. The kitchen cabinets and hardwood island countertop looked as though they had been professionally made. The floor plan, designed without hallways by the Salt Lake City architect Wayne J. Bingham, felt larger than its square footage. The walls undulated slightly, and the deep window sills and door frames curved in a pleasing way.
The plaster detailing had subtle artistic embellishments: a two-tone ceiling with a meandering seam, for example, and a wall with what looked like ripples on a pond, surrounding a “truth window” revealing the straw beneath.
“They troweled every bit of their energy into these walls,” Eric said of the interns. “And you can feel it,” Nancy said.
Allison said she initially felt guilt over free laborers’ constructing her house. But a few days into the build, one of the interns, Tyler Shean, assured her that he wasn’t building this house just for her. He was gaining skills and knowledge that would aid his career and enrich his life.
“I feel like it’s this symbiotic relationship, where we are helping each other out,” Allison said. | <urn:uuid:1a8d5b00-bcee-4dcd-ada4-786e289223c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/at-one-with-the-earth-and-the-clients/?src=twr | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972656 | 1,950 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Held at the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery: 20 July 2007.
Dr Patrica Barton, Centre for the Social History of Health and
Ian Baxter, London
Mrs Penny Brook, British Library
Paul Carter, British Library
Ms Marina Chellini, SOAS
Dr Anna Crozier, Centre for the Social History of Health and
Ms Renate Dohmen Ferguson, Centre for African and Asian Studies
Dr John Falconer, (p.m.) British Library
Dr Andrew Grout, University of Edinburgh
Mr Craig Jamieson, University of Cambridge Library
Ms Shellina Karmali, Institute of Ismaili Studies
Dr Nicholas Martland, SOAS
Mrs Francine Millard, National Library of Scotland
Dr Jim Mills, Centre for the Social History of Health and
Ms Leena Mitford, British Library
Dr Antonia Moon, British library
Ms Catherine Pickett, British library
Dr Avril Powell, SOAS
Ms Rachel Rowe, Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge
Ms Farzana Qureshi, SOAS
Mr Stefan Seeger, Institute for the Study of Islamic Civilisations
Ms Shashi Sen, British Library
Dr Samiksha Sehrawat, Centre for the Social History of Health and
Mrs Rosemary Seton, SOAS
Miss Jan Usher, National Library of Scotland
Delegates were welcomed to the National Library by Jan Usher, who was also standing in for Dr Kevin Halliwell, who is on long-term sick leave. Jan led delegates into the "Tea & Tigers: Stories of Scotland and South Asia" exhibition, and gave a short introduction. The exhibition was curated by Jan and by Dr Halliwell, and was an attempt to show a small part of the large South Asian collections in the National Library. The exhibition is themed by the occupations of Scots who went to India and their varied interests and activities while there. These included politicians, engineers, missionaries, civil servants and soldiers, featuring characters such as Dr Ronald Ross, Sir William Wedderburn, James Keir Hardie, Rev. Robert Caldwell and Sir John Malcolm, to name a few.
After delegates had viewed the exhibition, Jan Usher and Samiksha Sehrawat gave a presentation on "The Medical History of British India Project", which is a website consisting of digitised official publications varying from short reports to multi-volume histories related to disease, public health and medical research between circa 1850 to 1920. These are historical sources for a period which witnessed the transition from a humoral to a biochemical tradition, which was based on laboratorial science and document the important breakthroughs in bacteriology, parasitology and the developments of vaccines in a colonial context. The first phase of the project digitised around 50 volumes dealing with disease control; phase two will feature the health of the army; medicines; medical colleges & research institutes; lock (venereal disease) hospitals.
It was made possible by two generous awards by the Wellcome Trust, for £19,000 (phase 1) and £62,000 (phase 2). Dr Jim Mills was a co-applicant for phase 2, and Dr Samiksha Sehrawat, also from the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare, authored the text.
The site is freely available, and will be of interest to social, colonial and medical historians. The National Library hopes the site will be widely used, and plans to promote the site in India and North America are under development.
David McClay, the National Library's John Murray Archive curator, then gave an introduction and tour of the new permanent exhibition. John McMurray established the publishing house of John Murray in 1768. Over seven generations the firm grew to become one of the world's greatest publishers. The firm's historical archive (to 1920) of over 150,000 items is now at the National Library of Scotland. These items represent the lives and works of many great writers in the fields of literature, science, politics, travel and exploration. The exhibition hopes to lead the way in the accessibility and presentation of archives to the public.
After lunch, delegates gathered at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery to hear Dr John Falconer introduce and guide them through the exhibition "Capturing the silence: photography in India in the 19th century" which displays the pioneering work of British photographers who captured the beauty of India and its people, despite the difficulties of working with early photographic equipment in a tropical climate.
Sara Stevenson from the SNPG kindly gave SAALG the use of a meeting room for the business meeting. | <urn:uuid:6cb45a4f-6dc9-40d6-8ab7-e4ecb9f17f1f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/apac/meeting2007/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930756 | 951 | 1.757813 | 2 |
NEW YORK, NY – Lady Gaga announced that she will be filming the music video for “Born This Way” in outer space!
Apple’s iTunes announced on Friday that Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” was the fastest-selling track in the history of iTunes, selling more than 1 million copies in five days and hitting the #1 spot in all 23 countries with iTunes stores.
The announcement could not have come at a better time for Gaga, who recently made headlines by emerging from an egg during her performance at the Grammy’s and landing the #1 spot on the Billboard’s Hot 100.
But now that the Grammy’s are over, Gaga fans across the country are anxious to see what kind of over-the-top stunts the singer has planned for her “Born That Way” music video.
Fortunately, those fans won’t have to wait much longer, because in an exclusive interview with Weekly World News, Lady Gaga announced that she will be filming the entire music video in outer space.
The music video, the first ever to be filmed in space, will be directed by Jonas Akerlund, a Swedish film and music video producer. His last collaboration with Lady Gaga was for her 2010 video “Telephone.”
A source told the Weekly World News that the video was filmed over a two week period, and involved sending a fifteen-person camera crew into space on a private American space shuttle.
Since the footage for the video was filmed outside the shuttle, producers collaborated with NASA officials in order to make sure that all necessary precautions were taken during the outer-space filming.
“We knew we couldn’t have Lady Gaga just floating around in space,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “so we had to make sure she was outfitted with all of the proper gear – space suit and everything. It cost us a fortune, but the result was well worth it.”
According to insider reports, the space suit was fashioned by Thierry Mugler and was designed to look like a giant condom.
“If there’s one way to describe Lady Gaga, it’s ‘out of this world’” said Nicola Formichetti, Gaga’s personal stylist and close friend. “And what better way to demonstrate that than by shooting her video in outer space. I think it’s perfect!”
According to MTV France, Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way” music video is set to premier on February 24th. So mark your calendars everybody, because you’ll want to remember where you were on the day Lady Gaga made music video history. | <urn:uuid:7d7ee5bc-7e5f-4ae5-a551-e01bc85f4a23> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/29777/lady-gaga-video-in-outer-space/comment-page-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965976 | 571 | 1.601563 | 2 |
WASHINGTON — In America's most disheartening hours -- violence spreading, the poor getting poorer, inner cities imploding -- there's an occasional signal to rekindle one's faith, a sort of secular Easter or Passover.
One of those bright moments occurred in Washington in late March. Assembled in a single room were leaders of two financial giants (J.P. Morgan & Co. and Prudential Insurance), eight foundations famed for their size or imagination (Rockefeller, MacArthur, Surdna, Knight, Pew, Annie Casey, McKnight and the Metropolitan Life Foundation), and the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
And what were these power elite up to? They were celebrating, for once, a success -- the fact that the National Community Development Initiative, which most of them helped launch with a $60 million investment in 1991, has triggered construction or rehabilitation of 5,000 affordable homes, plus day care facilities for 1,000 children.
Now the leaders were announcing a new round of financial commitments -- an additional $87.65 million in grants and loans, which they predicted would stimulate a total of $750 billion in development in some of America's most hard-pressed cities and neighborhoods.
When you get up to three-quarters of a billion dollars, noted J.P. Morgan president Douglas Warner, you're starting to talk ''real money.''
With interactive television bringing the mayors of Philadelphia and Denver (Ed Rendell and Wellington Webb) into the room, broadcasting with community leaders at their side from building sites in their cities, the NCDI funders presented an image of an investment movement for poor neighborhoods truly coming of age.
OK, you may ask, where's the defect of this happy story?
My answer: The effort is exciting. It's just not enough. The number of funders, dollars, intermediaries and community development corporations are still not at the scale necessary to assure a turnaround of America's blighted neighborhoods.
Important progress is being made. America's foundations, for example, often flit from one fashionable cause to another. But here's a group not just renewing certain grants but committing themselves to community-based development for the long haul. And they're realistically insisting that the number of cities be held to 23, so as not to spread their efforts too thin.
The obvious deficiency: Only a small fraction of all U.S. foundation dollars go into community development. Hundreds more foundations ought to be involved, both with grant funds and investment of capital.
More Wall Street power is starting to move behind the effort. J.P. Morgan, for example, wasn't in on the first round in 1991. But it is now, and its participation ought to be a positive signal to other big-time financial houses. But whether they'll get the signal that these types of investments are prudent is far from certain.
The federal government wasn't a partner in NCDI's first round. But now, under HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, it is -- to the tune of $20 million, and making a sincere effort to be just one of the players and not stifle the effort in government red tape.
''Given what's out there in foundations,in pension funds and the investment community, it may be that HUD's job is to provide an investment share that other funders multiply several times over,'' Mr. Cisneros told me.
But it took a special action of Congress to let HUD come into this deal for $20 million. It would take a dramatic turnaround in congressional thinking to ''reinvent'' Washington's role in housing -- less as dominant investor, more as a subordinate player whose soft dollars draw foundations, pension funds and corporations to invest many times as much for a new generation of inner city housing deals.
And there are weaknesses in the scale of the housing and community development side that only government and foundations could correct. The fiscal intermediaries for NCDI -- the Local Initiatives Support Corp. and the Enterprise Foundation -- have made dramatic advances in securing more investment dollars. But either they should be quadrupled or quintupled in size, or awhole new set of intermediaries should be created, to the scale we need to rebuild decaying communities rapidly and well.
And though the CDCs seem to be coming of age with national recognition, hundreds of them remain dangerously undercapitalized and understaffed. Their numbers should probably be expanded from 2,000 to 5,000, with major government and foundation investments put behind the effort.
Would all that cost a lot more money? Yes. But we know we now have a multi-partner formula to construct housing that works, to increase shopping centers and other commercial developments, to build strong community in troubled neighborhoods.
Conceptually and practically, this is the polar opposite of the '60s and '70s formula of throwing billions of federal public housing money into neighborhoods devoid of strong grassroots organizations.
If we're to have a chance, strategically, to fight back the tides of decay and violence in urban America, this new formula is the compellingly obvious way to go. The costs of not spending several billion dollars now could be many times greater in social, physical and human destruction later.
Neal R. Peirce writes a column on state and urban affairs. | <urn:uuid:a06299b8-dc8e-496f-a892-acd81073cf13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1994-04-04/news/1994094110_1_wellington-webb-community-development-financial-commitments | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955209 | 1,085 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Barely a month after a Cleveland bus driver uppercut a disruptive female passenger on his route, another brawl between a bus operator and teenager on Monday in Baltimore went viral.
The video shows the two women scrapping throughout the bus until the driver finally gains control of the teen. At the 1:47, the driver is heard repeatedly asking the girl, “You wanna fight somebody? Does it make you feel better?”
It’s not exactly known why they began knuckling up, but when another passenger inquires about its origin, the driver replies, “It’s about being disrespectful.”
The driver, who has worked for the Maryland Transit Administration since 2003, according to the Baltimore Sun, has been suspended pending further investigation.
Watch the fight here:
MTA authorities have also spoken with the two participants, whose identities remain private. Commenting on the matter, MTA spokesman Terry Owens said that “police will review the YouTube video. They are also pulling the video from the bus to see if it provides a more thorough picture of what happened.”
All we have to ask is, can bus drivers and passengers get along?
Originally seen on http://newsone.com/ | <urn:uuid:4f094d3e-9e60-4395-95ee-5a8b2ef2b783> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hot1079philly.com/2956137/bus-driver-suspended-after-fighting-with-passenger-video/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965135 | 254 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The possible exposures happened when an infected Solano County resident was in the Sutter Medical Center neonatal unit in Sacramento in late March and was then in the Northbay Medical Center in Fairfield in early-to-mid April.
Dr. Michael Stacey is the Solano County Chief Medical Officer.
STACEY: "We have records of everybody that was in the NICU and we know when this person was in the NICU. And so, we are able to clearly define who was potentially exposed in the NICU setting and we've identified all of those infants."
Stacey say the families and babies identified as at-risk need to be tested. If any of them test positive…and he says the risk is low…then there is 6-to-9 months of treatment with medication.
Sacramento and Solano counties had about 110 cases of active tuberculosis last year. | <urn:uuid:3b331419-8307-4463-9858-1f26d76be3ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://archive2.capradio.org/articles/2012/05/22/babies-possibly-exposed-to-tuberculosis | 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 | 0.968144 | 182 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Q. My daughter said her volleyball coach suggested she lose some weight. Her doctor and I think she's fine. Should I speak to the coach?
A. It's hard not to want to scream at the coach about contributing to society's toxic messages to girls about being thin. But that's not good parenting. Speak with the coach in person (not by phone or e-mail) and ask him if he told your daughter to lose weight. If he did, request that he focus his comments solely on concrete ways to improve her game. If he didn't, discuss why your daughter has this impression and what he can do to address it. Usually I prefer for kids to advocate for themselves, but weight is such a sensitive and potentially humiliating issue that this is one of those times when you have to directly intervene.
Q. My 17-year-old son doesn't shower enough. Should I say something to him?
A. Here's a rule to follow when you want to talk to your son about something that makes you and/or him uncomfortable: Have the conversation side by side instead of face to face, maybe while driving in the car or watching TV. Then be direct: "Sam, I love you dearly, but you smell. You need to take showers more often. Every day before school would be ideal, but I'll be satisfied with once every other day." If he blows you off or seems to forget, I'd ask him straight up what's going on because his behavior may mean he's resigned to being rejected by his peers or he doesn't notice other people's reaction to him (i.e., he's depressed or he has social skills deficits). Either way, if the problem continues, I'd get him the appropriate psychological help.
Q. My 16-year-old daughter wants to spend Christmas at her boyfriend's house. We'd like her at home but not if she's going to be a grumpy teenager.
A. She should be home with you -- moody or not. That's what the holidays are for, right? Ungrateful, sullen teens moping about wishing they were somewhere else. Just keep her busy with a holiday project she's in charge of, like baking a pie or hanging out with an elderly or younger relative.
Q. After my son struggled through the first quarter of fifth grade, his teacher asked us to review his homework before he hands it in. But now our son says we're treating him like a first grader. Is there a better way we can handle this situation?
A. I'd back up a bit. This is an excellent opportunity for your son to develop some measure of control by learning to articulate the problem and find a solution. Have him meet with his teacher, with you sitting beside him as backup. He should ask her why she's unhappy with his work. If she says it's rushed or incomplete, why does your son think this is the case? He should also tell her what makes it hard for him to do his best and what helps him to do well. Then the two of them should create a plan. When you get home, allow your son to pick a designated homework time and help him organize his workspace.
Copyright © 2007. Used with permission from the December 2007 issue of Family Circle magazine. | <urn:uuid:9e0ff516-0cb5-4f97-a61a-afc0ed57c5b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.familycircle.com/teen/advice/rosalind/ask-rosalind-2007/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987273 | 674 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Publishing Student Work
posted by Frank Pasquale
I run a seminar each Spring and I often get terrific student papers. I encourage my students to publish their work, frequently referring them to Eugene Volokh’s extraordinarily helpful guide (and, yes, encouraging them to buy it!). I’m now trying to boil down some advice for them into a draft memo.
I’m inserting a rough draft of it after the jump. I’d love to hear any advice from readers about ways I could improve this memo…particularly if you know particular journals that welcome the work of students from outside their home institution. And, of course, if this humble effort can be of any aid to your students, please feel free to distribute it (with the caveat that it’s just a draft!).
Re: Publishing Your Paper
Congratulations on completing an excellent paper! I have written up this memo to give you some advice on the next steps you might take toward publishing it. While publication is never guaranteed, there is usually a venue that will agree to make your insights on timely issues available to the world. This memo focuses on
A) Why you should publish your piece.
B) How you can get it ready for publication.
C) Where you can send it to be published.
D) When you should have the piece prepared and submitted to journals.
A. Why Publish?
Publishing is both in your self-interest and in the public interest. First, if you start looking at the websites of successful lawyers, you will notice that many of them mention the books, articles, and practice guides they have written. A publication indicates that you have thought deeply about a subject, proposed a solution, and had both your analysis and conclusion validated by an external reviewer.
Moreover, to the extent you can believe in your conclusions, you are helping the world by publishing your piece. If your paper just sits on your hard drive, no one can access your thoughts. Publishing allows you to influence the course of events via original argument. Your ideas can matter, if you take the few extra steps mentioned below in order to disseminate them.
B. How to Publish?
Although the academic legal community does a great deal of substantive good in the world, it is also, for better or worse, obsessed with form. The most important step you can take now to assure publication of your paper is to make it look like a law review article. That includes the following steps.
1. Isolate a thesis that can be stated in a sentence.
2. In the paragraph of the introduction where you state your thesis, describe each section of the paper in a sentence.
3. Format the article like the attached sample article (you can use this document as a template—just type in your own title and name, and copy in the text of your article).
4. Write a brief letter describing your piece and requesting publication.
When you’ve got all this together, you can electronically submit your piece to most journals.
You should read the following document before you submit your work:
If you think it would be helpful, check out the entire book from the library, or purchase it yourself.
If this all sounds like too much work, you might just send in the paper as it is and take your chances. But note that the law reviews don’t like looking at the same piece twice, so it’s advisable to make your first effort your best.
C. Where to Publish?
1. Here is a service that allows you to simply check boxes and send your piece (and a letter of submission) to law reviews via email:
2. Note that this service is both over and underinclusive. It is overinclusive because it includes the main law reviews of each school. You will probably find that the main law review of each law school only publishes pieces from professors and students on that law review. It is underinclusive because it fails to mention some journals of “Law & (some other subject).” You therefore might want to independently submit to journals of “Law &,” such as journals of law & technology. The following URL’s can give you some leads on these journals:
Some of these journals require hard copy submissions, but virtually all the technology ones conduct their business via email.
D. When to Publish?
There really is no hard and fast rule here, but you should try to submit it in September/October, or March/April. If circumstances prevent you from doing so, feel free to submit it later on. Just know that some journals fill up as the year goes on. | <urn:uuid:c126b265-57e1-461e-b9af-72e2d2b259fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2006/04/publishing_stud.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944028 | 963 | 1.8125 | 2 |
U.S. House Republicans plan to try to slash $100 billion from the federal budget as early as January if they wrest power from Democrats in this year’s midterm elections, setting up possible early showdowns with President Barack Obama on taxes and spending.
A Republican House takeover would thrust new committee heads, such as Representative Dave Camp on the Ways and Means panel, into the spotlight within weeks, or days, of seizing their gavels in early January. They would confront quick political tests that could alienate independent voters and Tea Party activists alike, analysts said.
“The major issues are going to be fiscal, and fiscal issues are always contentious,” said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.
Carrying out spending cuts that Republicans have pledged to seek, which would amount to 21 percent of the government’s so-called discretionary money pot, could prove politically difficult. Reducing funds for programs such as college loans for low-income students or medical research at the National Institutes of Health is harder than promising to do that on the campaign trail.
Republicans “will quickly find out that across-the-board cuts have political repercussions,” Pitney said.
A lame-duck session of Congress convening two weeks after the Nov. 2 elections will try to fund the government next year and deal with Bush-era tax cuts expiring Dec. 31. Prospective Republican House control could be an obstacle to Democrats in finishing that work before adjourning. Camp and other Republicans would then need to grapple with those tasks as they take over, even as they push their promised budget cuts.
The backdrop is a federal deficit that the Congressional Budget Office said totaled $1.29 trillion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. At 8.9 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, it was the second-biggest shortfall since 1945.
The following reviews the battle lines likely to be drawn in top House committees under Republican rule, and looks at the potential panel leaders who would preside over the fights:
If Democrats fail to fund the government through September 2011, the end of the federal fiscal year, this committee would be the stage for that fight in the new Congress. And settling on the panel’s chairman would be one of the initial tasks facing Republicans.
House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio, his party’s speaker-in-waiting, called for the $100 billion budget cut on Sept. 23 as part of a governing agenda aimed at wooing voters. The cuts, which weren’t specified, would come from the $477 billion Congress allocated in 2010 for non-defense domestic discretionary programs. Social Security and Medicare are among the programs excluded from the proposed 21 percent reductions in discretionary spending.
Obama’s request for $73.4 billion for the Department of Education in the 2011 budget, including $23 billion for Pell Grants to help low-income students afford college, offers one example of the tough choices the Republicans would face. A 21 percent cut across-the-board would take about $15 billion from education. A 21 percent cut in Pell Grants would subtract almost $5 billion from the program.
Obama asked Congress for $76.4 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services. Almost half that, $32 billion, is for NIH, which includes the National Cancer Institute and other research facilities. A 21 percent cut would slash NIH funding by more $6 billion.
The question of which Republican would lead the Appropriations panel is complicated by the six-year limit the party placed on how long a lawmaker could serve as its leading member on a committee.
Representative Jerry Lewis, a California Republican, reaches that limit at year’s end. He has said he will seek a waiver to allow him to take the committee’s helm.
Lewis, 76, initially balked when Boehner pushed House Republicans to embrace a moratorium on lawmaker-sponsored projects, known as earmarks. Lewis reversed his position last year, gaining favor with Boehner.
Representative Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican, would be the likely committee head if Lewis fails in his bid. Rogers, 72, is known for steering funding for road improvements and other projects to his state and district. The Lexington, Kentucky, Herald Leader once dubbed him the “Prince of Pork.”
Representative Spencer Bachus of Alabama has two years left as the leading Republican on this panel, putting him in line for the chairmanship. Boehner’s staff tried to oust him two years ago for his handling of negotiations over the Troubled Asset Relief Program — they thought he agreed to a deal that they’d rejected. At this point, it looks like Bachus, 62, will avoid another challenge.
Still, the panel’s Republican membership, currently dominated by small-government, free-market advocates, could be reshuffled. Some of the 29 Republican members are expected to move to Ways and Means, particularly if their party wins the majority. And as the majority, Republicans could fill at least 12 additional slots on the financial services panel. It would be a plum assignment for freshmen who might face a tough contest two years from now, since the committee has become a good place to raise campaign cash.
The panel would be the scene for any move to revamp mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Republicans want to limit the government’s exposure to their loan portfolios.
While some Republicans talk of trying to repeal the president’s financial-markets overhaul, the party may resist that, given the virtual certainty of an Obama veto.
Ways and Means
Camp, of Michigan, typically favors policy debates over political sniping. He has the closest thing to a chairmanship lock on any of the so-called “A” committees, which include Appropriations and Energy and Commerce.
Should the lame-duck Congress end up deadlocked over extending the income tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush, Camp’s panel would be at the center of resolving the impasse. Republicans want to extend the cuts across the board, contending that would aid a U.S. economy struggling to grow after the longest recession in seven decades. Democrats want to limit the extensions, continuing the lower rates for individual income up to $200,000 and up to $250,000 for couples filing jointly.
Camp, 57, has advocated making all the cuts permanent.
One of the few Republicans offering concrete proposals for cutting federal spending has been Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who would take the helm of the Budget Committee.
His “Roadmap for America’s Future” would establish a voucher system for Medicare, scrap the current tax exemptions for employer-sponsored health benefits in favor of individual tax credits, and let workers under the age of 55 steer a portion of their Social Security taxes into private accounts.
The plan elevated Ryan, 40, from an up-and-comer to a full-fledged political star. It also became a punching bag for Democrats, and some Republicans distanced themselves from its proposals, concerned they would be viewed as too extreme by independent voters. How vigorously Ryan promotes his ideas in committee should provide early clues of how much sway the Tea Party push for significantly limited government has gained.
Energy and Commerce
Representative Joe Barton of Texas is term-limited as the top Republican on this panel, leaving three others likely to vie for the chairmanship: John Shimkus, 52, of Illinois, Cliff Stearns, 69, of Florida, and Fred Upton, 57, of Michigan, whose seniority on the committee gives him an edge.
The panel oversees the Department of Health and Human Services, which would give it a primary role in any bid to “repeal and replace” the health-care overhaul Obama got enacted this year. The committee could also keep a spotlight on the law — and make changes to it — through hearings on new rules the department will be writing to implement it.
Additionally, the panel has authority over the health-care industry, the energy sector, the telecommunications industry, and commercial products, including tobacco.
Upton, a journalism major at the University of Michigan, worked in the Office of Management and Budget under former President Ronald Reagan. He has taken some positions, such as supporting stem-cell research, that put him at odds with most of his Republican colleagues.
Oversight and Government Reform
Chairmanship of this panel would give Representative Darrell Issa of California subpoena power over the Obama administration in a Republican House, handing him a political tool he has said he would use.
Issa, 56, said he wants to work with Obama aides to probe the Minerals and Management Service and its cozy relationship with the industries it oversees.
Bipartisan comity might be tough to muster, though, if Issa also demands testimony from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner about government bailouts of Wall Street and the auto industry, or pushes to subpoena White House officials about job offers made to Democrats who challenged incumbent senators in primaries.
Any overhaul of immigration laws must go through this panel, which Representative Lamar Smith of Texas would preside over. Smith, whose first House race in 1986 was run by Republican political strategist Karl Rove, wants to shelve any discussion on such matters as a boost in visas for legal immigrant workers and a pathway to legal permanent residency for some of the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to focus solely on securing the border with Mexico.
“I’m still of the mind that we have to secure the border first,” said Smith, 62.
Transportation and Infrastructure
Obama has made infrastructure spending a priority, proposing a public-private fund to invest in roads, railways and an updated air-traffic control system.
Representative John Mica of Florida would likely head this committee for the Republicans. Mica, 67, supports focusing high-speed rail construction in the Northeast and opposes lines in Ohio and California that Obama has proposed. Mica also wants to speed the approval process for federal road-building projects.
Congress continues to grapple with whether to overturn the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which allows gay and lesbian soldiers to serve on condition they don’t reveal their sexual orientation. Under a Republican majority, Representative Howard P. “Buck” McKeon of California would oversee this panel’s debate on the issue.
McKeon, 72, has opposed previous efforts to kill the policy, most recently saying no change should be made until the Pentagon issues a report in December on attitudes within the ranks on such a move.
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Cuban-born Floridian who in 1982 became the first Hispanic woman elected to Congress, would head this committee. The issues facing it include whether to impose future sanctions on Iran.
Ros-Lehtinen, 58, is a staunch supporter of Israel. In an Oct. 20 speech, she said “extremists target Israeli citizens and seek Israel’s destruction. The UN isolates and demonizes the Jewish state.”
© Copyright 2013 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:da3e1c77-a975-453f-aab2-176cc0ca760d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.moneynews.com/InvestingAnalysis/Republicans-Plan-Budget-Cuts/2010/10/27/id/375067 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963499 | 2,317 | 1.5625 | 2 |
A Perspective For CNA’s
We have all been there. In a room at work, sitting in front of a TV monitor watching YET another in service video. Usually no one is actually teaching us anything. And often we are doing this in a hurry to make sure we have enough “hours” to count towards our state requirements for yearly on going training.
This is not the fault of the CNA. Because of budget issues and time factors, many nursing homes and other facilities do not bother to consider that CNA’s deserve better in services, better continuing education. Everyone agrees that CNA’s deliver 90% of all hands on care, yet we are often the last to receive important new information to help us stay up to date with new practices and procedures. Many CNA’s do not feel supported by their management teams to request attending seminars and conferences. And many CNA’s don’t really care- they have a life outside of work and don’t feel they should have to spend extra time learning things they think they already know.
I would like to address the first issue mentioned above- budget and time concerns- this might catch the attention of the management of a nursing home. This is really a simple to fix in my opinion. There are so many talented people who work in nursing homes, hospitals and similar facilities. We have dieticians, activity professionals, pastors/priests, nurses, OT’s, PT’s, Speech therapists. These are just a few folks who have a wealth of knowledge that can be shared. Some topics for consideration might be:
• Nutrition and Dehydration (DT)
• Socializing and Activities for residents (Activities Director)
• Religions- learning the basics (Pastors)
• New skin care protocols (Nurses)
• Understanding the Nursing Process (Nurses)**
• Feeding Techniques (Occupational Therapists)
• Range of Motion Exercises (Physical Therapists)
• Special communication devices and techniques (Speech Therapists)
**Many CNA’s do not know exactly what the nursing process is.
Also, many facilities have specially trained psyche nurses and doctors who regularly make visits. This person is a great resource for helping CNA’s learn to cope and deal with behaviorally challenged residents. I have heard from CNA’s who work for forward thinking organizations that actually request from their CNA’s what THEY would like to learn about.
Some of the ideas shared with me were:
Working together issues- communication with peers; how to deal with negativity in the workplace; how to re-direct angry co-workers, how to deal effectively with superiors….
Keeping up to date with all the new skin care protocols. Many, many a CNA has shared with me their despair of being certified years ago and not being told/taught about new trends. An example given was from one CNA in GA who told me about how she always massaged her residents’ reddened skin after washing the area. Of course new evidence suggests we don’t do this but she never got this, and she first learned of it online 13 years after she became a CNA.
Documenting/Language: I am always amazed at the numbers of CNA’s who just do not understand how important their role is in the entire care giving process, part of which is good documenting. Down this road also comes a need for CNA’s to understand and know the English language well enough to communicate with residents. It would always be a good investment to send foreign speaking aides to a local college to learn ESL (English as Second Language) classes. Not only is spoken language covered, but written language as well.
With a little thought, planning and research anyone can come up with content for the above mentioned ideas- online there are many good web sites to tap for info. Local colleges will work with facilities and may even come onsite to do training.
Finally I would like to address those CNA’s who think they know everything and don’t need any extra education. Smile- you’re not alone but you are going to become a DINOSAUR real fast. The young and up-coming CNA’s are motivated by learning and continuing to learn. You deserve to have opportunities to better yourself, to deliver better care to your residents. Since you have to keep your “hours” up to date, wouldn’t you rather learn something new and different vs. sitting in front of that silly monitor watching an infection control video that is 7 years old?? | <urn:uuid:a055703e-22a4-483b-9d65-e054e0e2d8ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nursingassistants.net/continuing-education-or-just-another-in-service/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965806 | 969 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Pamela RiemenschneiderFlower Sprouts are a hybrid cross between brussels sprouts and kale. Tozer Seed Ltd. was a runner up for the Fruit Logistica Innovation Award in Berlin for the product. BERLIN — It took 16 years to get a workable product, but Tozer Seeds Ltd. has a cross of two of the hottest vegetables in the consumer market.
Flower Sprouts are a nongenetically modified hybrid cross between brussels sprouts and kale that produces a stalk small rosette “flower” heads of kale. The heads have streaks of purple edged with frilly leaves.
The flavor is a great combination between the nutty taste of kale and sweet flavor of brussels sprouts, said David Rogers, United Kingdom sales director for Tozer Seeds.
“It’s very versatile, very easy to use,” he said. “It takes no preparation and can be stir-fried, steamed or even microwaved.”
Rogers said the company offers Flower Sprouts in the United Kingdom, available at select retailers, but it’s also grown in California.
“We’re very optimistic that it’s going to be available in various countries around the world very soon,” he said. | <urn:uuid:461f331b-c2e0-48eb-b461-ad831149fed1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thepacker.com/fruit-vegetable-news/Seed-company-rolls-out-brussels-sprout-kale-cross-191227871.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937702 | 276 | 1.71875 | 2 |
GSA can engineer and design specialized vehicles and address technical questions. Vehicles purchased by GSA are safe, durable, and economical.
GSA can also assist with any vehicle engineering issue, including:
- Development of customized specifications for any vehicle and application requirement;
- Proper vehicle selection for the specific application;
- Proper vehicle weight ratings and payloads;
- Proper selection of engines, transmissions, axles, frames, and electrical systems;
- Safety issues and vehicle reliability;
- Assistance in resolving warranty issues, vehicle defects, or other quality-related problems; and
- Responsible for Federal Vehicle Standards.
Contact GSA in the early planning stages for the acquisition of customized (non-standard) vehicles. GSA can greatly simplify the technical aspects of determining agency requirements as well as the procurement process. The GSA surcharge for non-standard vehicles is 10 percent for the first vehicle and 0 percent for additional vehicles on the same order.
The Federal Vehicle Standards classifies various types and sizes of commercially available vehicles, and establishes minimum technical, quality, and equipment options to maintain uniformity in the acquisition process. These standards are developed by GSA and are published annually to cover current model year vehicles. | <urn:uuid:a8e577cf-759c-4e49-bb76-a42729fdc5a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/100085 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941959 | 248 | 1.695313 | 2 |
As a kid, I was always frustrated when adults either didn't know or couldn't explain the answers to my questions, and now that I'm old enough to have some knowledge of my own, I've developed a passion for sharing that knowledge with anyone silly enough to ask. I love to explain things, from why waxed skis glide better on snow than unwaxed skis do to why pick-up trucks are more fuel efficient with their tailgates closed. On the drive to and from school, I bombard my parents with information including, but not limited to, quantum physics, FDA regulations, and why high-heeled shoes are impractical. In fact, I like explaining things so much that last week, while studying for a big physics test, I found myself teaching Newton's three laws to my pet rat Marcus. I doubt that Marcus actually understood any of it, but don't worry, I also help willing subjects understand things that they request me to explain. Truthfully, I have trouble saying "no" to such requests. I get more joy from properly explaining Stoichiometry to a struggling chemistry student than from finishing my own chemistry homework, and when a friend I tutored in math aced her test, I felt just as excited as, if not more excited than she was when she received her score. My love for explaining things will always be a part of me, and I'm grateful that I'm able to use that passion to help others understand things they otherwise wouldn't have, whether they're a person or a rat. | <urn:uuid:b7c1779c-48bb-4dbd-8f58-e636c848e33a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teenink.com/college_guide/college_essays/article/506883/Explaining-It-All/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979873 | 312 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Beyond the usual bug-fixes and feature enhancements, ht://Dig could use some key speed boosts. These would help scalability since many of the speed problems become quite pronounced for large databases. This is a proposal for some performance improvments.
The indexer itself could use a big speed boost. One key improvement would be to implement HTTP/1.1 and persistanct connections. The HTTP/1.1 protocol helps transactions in general, but is a big win for an indexer since it can make a very small number of connections. The server load is generally lower so the indexer can make more transactions. A good-looking GPL implementation is available: libghttp. Additionally, HTTP/1.1 supports byte-range requests, simplifying updates--the indexer could request 0 bytes to receive just the header.
An additional speedup could come from using a multi-threaded indexer. This would enable the indexer to connect to responsive servers while waiting for a long transaction. This might require considerable changes, but a "poor man's multithreading" is available with the new database merging code. Multiple copies of htdig can index separate subsets of a space and combine the results later. This provides much of the functionality while eliminating problems with file-locking and thread libraries.
One of the biggest possible speedups for htmerge would be to elminate it entirely. Careful design of a new database structure could remove this pass completely. The program would remain, if only to merge multiple database sets together. One bonus of redesigning the databases to eliminate the merge pass would be the ability to search the databases as they are updated.
Andrew said he had a nice solution for this problem. My suggestion would be to generate the binary reverse indexes on-the-fly and update them as nesscessary. This would require more disk transactions in the indexing phase, but should be an overall win by eliminating the merging phase and allowing for parallel indexing.
This requires little speed improvement. A welcome addition would be to send one e-mail per address by keeping a dictionary of pages by addresses.
Perhaps the biggest speed improvement for htfuzzy would be an n-gram fuzzy match. This would require an additional database of n-grams (probably trigrams) and words. This would be a nice fuzzy in and of itself, but it would also speed up the substring match. If the database is present, the substring match need only check words that contain all of the n-grams in the request. This would cut down the search set considerably.
This is perhaps the area of greatest possible improvement. Currently, we naively compile a list of all possible matches and sort the list by score (or eventually by other criteria). At best, this is O(n log n), which could take a considerably amount of time for large result sets.
Common sense and user logging indicate that most people only consider the first few matches, perhaps only the first page or two. So why do we gather matches with very low scores? Beyond that, why do we sort matches we never use in results?
One improvement would only sort matches we know we need. The simplest way to implement this "partial sort" IMHO, is to place the matches in a heap. A heapsort would then pop off as many matches as necessary while spending little effort on sorting the rest of the matches. For many results, this should be a very big speedup. Other techniques, such as radix sorting, are possible for integer comparisons.
Other optimizations focus on returning matches with very high score quickly. One source that I'm examining (I don't completely understand their algorithms yet) is Computing Iceberg Queries Efficiently and focuses on picking out high weight matches efficiently. These techniques require sampling and other probabilistic techniques. As such, they're probably not suited to small queries. | <urn:uuid:4e6bf75d-7b61-4c13-8b7e-c712b9228655> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.htdig.org/dev/internals/speed.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947783 | 801 | 1.570313 | 2 |
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Science books, lesson plans, and other activities to help you teach about the various parts and types of trees.
Curriculum director Ruth Manna describes her job responsibilities and points out the similarities with that of a classroom teacher.
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I’ve been an...
Helpful suggestions to ensure that your students have a a smooth, social transition into summer and the new academic year. | <urn:uuid:a20607a3-23f4-4621-9996-826a9e9de508> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-ideas/ruth-manna | 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 | 0.933859 | 372 | 1.546875 | 2 |
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Thu November 17, 2011
Occupy Wall Street: As Morning Rush Ends, Things Settle Down
I took a walk up and down the main arteries into Wall Street and things seem to be settling down. As the protesters dispersed this morning, they made the decision to leave large groups of people at different intersections in New York's Financial District.
What police have done to control the crowds is block access to certain blocks and they've also barricaded protesters in sidewalks. So what you have now is a fractured protest with, for example, 30 protesters at one intersection and 15 at another.
By far the biggest gathering I've seen is at the intersection of Pine and Nassau, where Wall Street workers have been walking through a tunnel of two rows of police officers. And every time a group of them walked by, the crowd started chanting.
"Whose street? Our street!"
It felt very much like workers crossing a picket line. Most of the workers kept their heads down, but a few stopped to talk to protesters, who tried to convince them to go home or "join their movement."
Nathan Storey, 29, was one of the protesters there. He was telling a couple of Wall Street workers that the sidewalks were occupied and that they had to turn around and be escorted by police if they wanted to get through.
One of the workers looked at him and said, "I'm not part of the 1 percent."
Storey said the Occupy Movement has already achieved its goal: People are talking about income inequality, he said, and "it's the first time that's happened in my entire life."
Although, he talked about those big ideas. Storey was also at the protest for very personal reasons. He said he took on a bunch of student-loan debt when he was young and "didn't know any better" and in November of 2008 he was laid off from his work at a non-profit. With a degree in film and TV, he said he hasn't been able to find work ever since. His only alternative was to go to graduate school for a degree in urban planning, work four jobs to survive and still take on more debt.
At the intersection of Wall Street and Pearl, a small group of people gathered with a set of drums. One police officer whispered into one of the drummer's ears, "We like the beat."
A couple of women were dancing and every once in a while someone from one of the buildings towering above would come out to take in the scene.
One man, who declined to give his name, but said he has worked on Wall Street for nine years, just shook his head. He was wearing a grey wool coat and his hair was neat and combed back. He stood at that corner for a while.
"This is ridiculous," he said. "I just don't understand why they're not out trying to find jobs."
He said he works 75 to 80 hours a week, so he deserves to be part of the one percent. He says he chose a degree in finance so he could make a lot of money.
I told him what Nathan Storey had told me. He was laid off in 2008 and still couldn't find a job.
The man shook his head.
"He could get jobs at McDonald's," he said. He conceded however that minimum wage isn't much money and he said he was willing to pay more taxes.
But he said he truly believes if you want to make money in this country, you can work hard and do that.
"This is the land of opportunity," he said.
We're sticking with coverage of the protests for the rest of the day. Just to give you an idea of what to expect, here's what Occupy Wall Street has planned:
-- At 3 p.m. ET. protesters say they will gather at 16 subway locations across the city. We will be at Union Square, where "mass student strike" is planned.
-- At 5 p.m. ET. protesters will join unions for a rally in front of City Hall. Protesters plan on marching to the Brooklyn Bridge. | <urn:uuid:8a86aa4c-024c-4c7f-a72c-4205aecb08e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wemu.org/post/occupy-wall-street-morning-rush-ends-things-settle-down | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986097 | 926 | 1.515625 | 2 |
|Audio clip of Billy Graham speaking (probably in late July 1956 at the Winona Lake Christian Assembly in Winona Lake, Indiana) about the upcoming 1957 New York City Crusade. 8 minutes.
would like to ask all of you to pray for us as we go to New York City
Our meetings in New York will begin on May the 15th. We have Madison Square Garden booked for five months. We can cancel that with any two week notice and we’re announcing the meetings to last for two months. We’re only announcing for eight weeks. We also are making arrangements for Ebbett’s Field, the Polo Grounds, and Yankee Stadium on...Stadium on Sundays. We're going to take a team of about fifteen or twenty evangelists. Our meetings will be held a long the line of the old Wilbur Chapman meetings, in which Wilbur Chapman would take a great host of evangelists and wherever they could get a group of people to listen, that evangelist would be preaching.
There are eleven million people in the New York area outside of a Protestant church. There are millions in New York that never darkened the door of any church, Catholic Protestant or Jewish. There are millions of unconverted people in New York City that need Christ. Someone has said that it’s the world’s greatest mission field. Someone else has said that there are more Christians in Hong Kong than there are in New York. I don’t know about that.
But I do know that there’s an appalling need. There’s a social need in New York. There’s a political need. There are economic needs. But it’s greatest need is spiritual. New York is the headquarters of the United Nations and therefore it’s considered the world capital. Whatever happens in New York effects the entire world. And so I’m going to ask all of you to join us in prayer that the Holy Spirit will give a great victory in New York next year. Because if we saw a revival, there it would make an impact on the entire nation.
We are going at New York on a much larger scale than we did even in London. We are praying that God will give us prayer support in every part of the world. I believe that if God’s people will unite in prayer we can see this great city that has been called godless and pagan shaken for God. God used Billy Sunday there many years ago. And Billy Sunday’s greatest campaign was in New York.
The time has changed but God hasn’t changed. Religious conditions in New York have changed. But God hasn’t changed. And Protestantism is very very minute and small in New York. There are only a handful of churches in all of New York that are considered large churches in comparison with some of the large churches in other parts of America. It’s a different situation in Chicago. Totally different in Detroit or even Pittsburgh. And it’s going to take God. God is going to have to do it. We can’t do it.
But Madison Square Garden is located right off Time Square and we believe that under God [brief gap in tape]
...receiving very wonderful cooperation from the churches the budget is going to be twice as high as any other budget we’ve ever had. And God is already sending in the finances to our New York office. Our New York offices are located right on Time Square. The head of our Crusade there, the chairman, is Mr. Roger Hull the executive vice president of Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. A very godly, great Christian man. And other outstanding leaders of the city have consented to be on various committees. And God is working in the hearts of many people already. We need your prayer.
And I hope that you'll plan to come to New York. You know, many people go to New York. And I’ve had many people all over America say, “We’re going to New York during part of that Crusade. We’re going to take our vacation there.” I hope you’ll come and help us. You can come up there and stay in a hotel, and help us at night there. We need you.
I believe it will be a great and historic moment in this country. And I’ve said, “Oh God, if you want to make it a great flop for your glory, we’re ready for it.” God is busy molding men. It’s not always going to be front page news. And it’s not always going to be big crowds. And it’s not always going to be successful as the world calls success. There are going to be some big defeats along the way from the world, it’s point of view, because God’s not interested in worldly success.
God will not share His glory with another. And when the hour of trial comes I’ve prayed, “Oh God. I pray that I will not flinch. Give me the strength and the courage and the boldness and the sweetness and the love to withstand the shocks of the enemy.”
And the enemy is beginning to train his guns. A lot of men who deny this book [the Bible] and who deny the basic tenets of our faith are beginning to train their guns our way. And I’ve prayed, “Oh God. Help me stand in the breech and make up the hedge for you, and stand with courage given only by the Holy Spirit as Elijah stood at Carmel.”
I need your prayers. I was never trained in theology. And I’ve been so busy traveling that I haven’t had time to stop and go to school. But I’ve tried daily to spend several hours studying this book. And I’ve said, “Oh Lord, make me a man of one book.” I don’t care to know all about philosophy and psychology and all these other things because I believe the answers are in this book. And I've said, “Lord, help to devour this book. Help to me learn it, to study it. Reveal things to me out of this book.”
And so I’m going to New York not to preach the wisdom of men, not with enticing words of men’s wisdom, not to quote Dr. So-and-so but to quote God’s Word. And to lift this book up that it might be a sword and a hammer to break open the hearts of men in New York that need God.
You pray for us as we go. We need your prayer. Now let us bow our heads in a moment of prayer. | <urn:uuid:b25ad60a-e76f-40d6-8350-0113cc144b28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/exhibits/NYC57/02sample11.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958319 | 1,418 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Always remember, you are in control. No matter what happens, you are always in control. Think about that for a second...no I am serious, think about it. Let your audience examine everthing that you let them, and not examine everything you dont. If someone grabs, it means you did a poor job of convincing them of what you were tying to put on.
This goes right into you patter, techinique, and missdirection (if needed.) I will take the example of the Color Monte, but this idea can be applied to any effect in my mind. The story that I use, like many others, is how I got swindled by a guy on the street. I take the audience through the story. Magic is just a story that has pictures and thats all. The story has magical moments, like when the colors are on top, in the middle and on bottom and such, and then the kicker ending, but it is still just a story. Take them on a journey. If you cant do that, then get out of magic.
The point is, practice more. Practice more on your techinique and practice more on your patter. edited, write out your patter to make it flawless and in the end you will be more seemless with your presentation which in turn will not make your spectators think "Oh crap, he just did a move, I had better call him on it!"
A great quote from my high school drama teacher is this "If I must screw up, I will do so with energy and entusiasim." What this means, in my opnion, is that your audience will enjoy your preformance more if you dont worry about moves, patter or what you are doing physically, as long as you are having fun telling them a story. How many times have you seen an actor, singer, etc do what they do but they have that uneasy face on them. A face that says that they are worried about what they are doing. Like they havent rehearsed the act enough and you actually feel bad for them. Why? Because they are focused inward rather than outward. Now have you seen a singer, actor, etc doing what they do horribly , but are loving every second of it and having a blast? You settle back in your seat and ride with it. It might not be the best thing ever, but at least they are focused on giving you a good time. This bit of advice has gotten me through many a bad situation in magic (being heckler or whatever.)
Yes you will get hecklers. We all do. Saying you are going to do the "Appearing Cane and push them off" is not only impracticle, its down right stupid, childish, and unperfessional. There are many other ways to deal with hecklers (did you see what I did there...I didn't say "Stop Hecklers", I said "Deal with Hecklers.)
But going back to the start of my post, you are the one that is in control. And hey, if this guy keeps pestering you, you have the control to simply walk away. | <urn:uuid:d23e355e-6813-45db-8621-e6d46571a49d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.penguinmagic.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=100254&start=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976571 | 646 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Chinese Diver Minxia Wu won the gold medal in synchronized diving yesterday. As part of her celebration, her family revealed to her that her mother had breast cancer and two of her grandparents died a year ago.
They hadn't shared this news before because they didn't want to distract her from her training.
As the athlete's father explained to the Shanghai Morning Post, the Wus are not a family deserving of joy:
"We accepted a long time ago that she doesn't belong entirely to us. I don't even dare to think about things like enjoying family happiness."
He added, in song:
"Santa Claus we never see /
Santa Claus—What's that? Who's he?"
Yahoo! News reports that Wu was training at a daily diving camp by age 6. At 16, she left home to begin living at a government-run aquatic sports institute.
Her mother's breast cancer is now in remission.
[Yahoo! News // Image via Getty] | <urn:uuid:a9c4a1be-df61-4dd0-a820-efb8757643bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gawker.com/5931208/chinese-divers-family-waits-until-she-wins-gold-to-reveal-her-loved-ones-are-all-dying-or-dead?popular=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982464 | 202 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Before a landowner can sign a lease for the rights to extract minerals from shale formations under their ground, they have to make sure someone else doesn't already have a claim.
In some cases, leases signed decades ago can provide a foothold to the minerals companies are clamoring for, but Ohio law provides a means to remove those outdated agreements.
Having an old lease on record, even if it wasn't fulfilled, can prevent someone from signing a new lease and receiving the substantial bonuses some landowners have been receiving as companies buy up rights to oil, natural gas and other minerals in the Utica and Marcellus shale formations made accessible by advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technology.
"They're going to say to you, the landowner, 'Why should we be dealing with you instead of this company that seems to have a valid lease?'" said local attorney Tom Webster.
Webster said his office has worked with 75 to 100 clients over the last six months to clear old mineral leases from their property before the time comes to sign a lease.
Mineral rights lease forfeiture process
Identification - The original holder of the lease might no longer be in business, or the lease may have changed hands. Assignments of leases are usually handwritten in the margins of the original lease document on file at the county recorder's office.
Notification - Notice must be served by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the lessee that the lease is to be terminated. If notice cannot be served by certified mail, it should be published in a local newspaper of general circulation.
Response - If the company releases the lease, the landowner is free to pursue other leasing options. If the company claims the lease remains in full force, the landowner must consider whether to challenge the lease through litigation. If there is no response, after at least 60 days, the landowner can ask the county recorder to add a notice of cancellation in the margin of the lease on file, at which point the lease is terminated.
Source: Matt Warnock, Bricker and Eckler LLP; Ohio Revised Code section 5301.332.
Many leases have a primary term and will terminate at the end of that period if a well isn't drilled, said Matt Warnock, a Columbus attorney who has worked on lease issues with residents of Washington, Monroe, Morgan, Noble and other counties in southeast Ohio. But if that well is drilled, there often isn't a secondary termination date and continued production or other factors may be enough to keep the lease in effect.
"We've seen handwritten leases where a well was drilled in the 1890s and it's still being held," he said.
Dale Arnold, director of energy policy for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, said people should be careful not to inadvertently renew an old lease. Individual documents vary, but common provisions involve the lease renewing if the landowner accepts payment for it or if they allow any "production activity."
"Read the lease provisions carefully," Arnold said. "Many things are considered a production activity and trigger renewal of the lease."
For example, a survey or environmental assessment on a site could be classified as a production activity, he said.
Sometimes, a new holder will send a landowner a check, saying they are owed a payment after a long period of inactivity. But cashing that check could also extend the lease, Arnold said.
The process of having an old lease forfeited begins with identifying who actually holds the lease. While people may have a copy of an old lease signed by a family member - sometimes with additional provisions handwritten in the margins, Arnold said - the only enforceable copy is the one on file in the county recorder's office.
Washington County Recorder Tracey Wright said some landowners recently have come in to get their lease documents, but she cautioned the process isn't that simple.
"It's a big misconception that you can come in here and we can just hand that information over to you," she said.
"We highly recommend an attorney, because there's so much involved," Wright said. "There's so many rules; there's so many laws."
The company that originally signed the lease may not even be in existence anymore, but the lease could have been assigned to another entity.
"A lot of these old leases have multiple assignments," Warnock said. "Some have five, some have 10, some have one, some have 15."
Once the holder has been identified, state law requires notice to be served via certified mail. If no one signs for receipt of the certified mail, the notice can be published in a local newspaper of general circulation.
A company can respond in one of three ways.
"Easiest and least painful is getting a release of that lease from the oil and gas company," said Warnock, adding that doesn't happen very often.
The other response is notification by letter that the lease remains in full force.
At that point, a landowner's "only real remedy is filing a lawsuit," Warnock said.
The third response is silence. If the company does not respond within 60 days of receiving the notice or its publication, the landowner can ask the county recorder to note the cancellation of the lease on the original document.
"From a legal standpoint, by filing that, the lease is terminated," Warnock said.
Marietta attorney Ethan Vessels said he's accepted some forfeiture cases recently involving non-producing wells.
"Some leases say (they'll last) as long as oil or gas is being produced," he said.
Others remain in effect if they're producing in "paying quantities," Vessels said. The question of what constitutes a "paying quantity" will have to be decided by a court, he said.
"It's really a nebulous thing," he said.
While oil and gas leases have been common in Ohio for more than a century, Vessels said he expects the courts to be dealing with more and more cases like this.
"People didn't care about their non-productive leases until the Utica shale thing came up," he said.
In some cases, the owner of the land may not have ever owned the rights to the minerals beneath it. A previous owner may have reserved the rights, or at least a portion of them.
"If you had someone reserve the rights 100 years ago, it would have followed to the heirs," said Marietta attorney Jennifer Garrison. The current property owner "would be trying to merge their mineral rights with the land rights."
Under the Ohio Dormant Minerals Act, a mineral interest can be declared abandoned if none of the following has happened in the previous 20 years - actual production or withdrawal of minerals, issuance of a drilling or mining permit, underground storage of gas, creation of a separate tax parcel number or transfer of the title of the mineral interest.
If those conditions are met, the process is similar to that of forfeiture, with the landowner required to serve notice to each holder of the lease, or their successors or assignees. If a holder does not file a claim on the interest within 60 days of the notice being served or published, it can be declared abandoned. | <urn:uuid:d904c140-22cb-4a10-96f0-239399221b5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mariettatimes.com/page/content.detail/id/542862/Old-lease-issues-may-arise-for-landowners.html?nav=5249 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972307 | 1,470 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The University Center for the Advancement of Teaching (UCAT) is available to help colleges, departments, programs, and individual faculty members redesign their curricula by helping you think through your desired learning outcomes, curricular organization, and course structure and content. We work with different sized groups and at a variety of levels of intensity.
Read More >>>
Does your research involve evaluating curriculum, implementing new curriculum, surveys, testing, or accessing identifiable data on students? Are you planning to disseminate results in academic journals or at professional conferences?
If so, federal regulations may require Institutional Review Board (IRB) or exempt review and approval before any research activities begin. For more information, please refer to the policy on Research Involving Human Subjects or consult Cheri Pettey in the Office of Responsible Research Practices for additional guidance.
In June 2009, UCAT began offering an exciting new series called the Course Design Institute (CDI). Due to high attendance and extremely positive participant feedback (some noted on the bottom), we are pleased to announce the new CDI schedule for the 2011-2012 academic year.
The goal of the CDI is to provide you with the tools, the time, and the collegial support to dig in and design or re-design any course. At the end of the institute, you will have created the basic structure of your new course, including plans for a syllabus, assignments, assessment tools, and a course outline. Perhaps even more importantly, you will have had a chance to interact with a diverse group of colleagues from across our university, allowing you to share your own ideas about teaching and gather new ideas from your peers.
We will continue offering the Course Design Institute throughout this coming academic year in two different formats: intensive and extended.
Our intensive version offers participants a focused format for accomplishing course design in five three-hour sessions over one week between quarters. Our participants tell us they enjoy the chance to dedicate a period of time solely to the goal of designing a course. This format also works well for instructors needing to plan a course quickly for an upcoming term.
Our extended version offers the same number of contact hours, but meets once per week for five weeks. This format works well for individuals that have time during the quarter, but may not be able to devote an entire week to the process between quarters. Participants who choose this format tell us they enjoy having time between sessions to further reflect on the assigned work and map out their new course design.
Each participant must commit to attending all five sessions, so please carefully consider your availability before applying. To create a close community environment, we limit registration to 12 participants for each institute and select our participants after reviewing all applications. We look forward to working with you!
Upcoming Course Design Institutes
“UCAT is an excellent and welcoming resource for curriculum redesign.”
“I am taking with me a real course, that didn’t exist before, that I actually really want to teach!”
“The logic of the [Institute] structure is incredibly valuable. The content was fantastic; broken down into logical steps.”
“Now I will not get overwhelmed with course design because I know how to break things down into manageable units with course design and assessment and grading rubrics.”
“I will use this same process for every course I teach. Thank you so much!”
“I have learned so much from the expertise and experiences from faculty of other disciplines, and that a course should be developed with structure, not just out of thin air.”
"Having this dedicated time really helped me think deeply about the nature of what I'm teaching. While being structured, I felt like I had the freedom to come to my own conclusions."
"I have a successful, effective go-to approach for revising or creating future courses. Most importantly, I have a plan and thoughtfully-prepared design for the course that I have to teach spring quarter."
As The Ohio State University moves through the transition to a semester
calendar, we face both many challenges and many opportunities. Perhaps most
challenging is the significant amount of intellectual effort required for
all of our academic programs to reformulate their curricula to fit into
eight semesters, rather than twelve quarters. However, this challenge brings
with it the opportunity to rethink programs to better fit our current and
future goals and desires.
Read More >>> | <urn:uuid:744d08a4-268c-4584-aa16-d1b580415e4f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ucat.osu.edu/semesters.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948927 | 913 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Set the Table Tulsa promotes family meals
BY SARA PLUMMER World Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
11/13/12 at 7:00 AM
Dinner conversation at the Thiel house covered an upcoming weekend trip to Oklahoma City for a Thunder game, everyone's like or dislike of tomatoes and adding another pet to the family.
"Let's talk about getting a Pomeranian," said 9-year-old Hailea.
"Let's not," her mother, Elizabeth Thiel, countered.
Eating dinner together wasn't a new experience at the Thiel home, but usually the family's attention was on the television.
Now the TV is off and the family of four, which includes Rick Thiel and the couple's 6-year-old daughter, Kynlee, spend dinner time talking to each other as part of an initiative to get families to sit down and eat together.
Global Gardens, a community garden organization working at several Tulsa-area schools, has partnered with the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma and the Tulsa City-County Library to encourage families to eat together at least four times a week during the month of November as part of Set the Table Tulsa initiative.
Ayschia Saiymeh, community outreach director of Global Gardens, said that when the program started, the hope was as students got involved with Global Gardens, their parents would follow suit.
"It's the sixth year of the program and we hadn't seen a lot of parental involvement," Saiymeh said, so the Family Food Farm program started this year and now this month a push for families to sit down and eat a meal together.
"Why don't we pose a challenge to families in Tulsa," she said. "I started researching this and there is this resurgence of interest in eating together. There's blogs and websites, but there's no community-led effort. Tulsa could jump on board with this and become a model."
Hailea, who participates in Global Garden's after-school program at Union's Rosa Parks Elementary, liked the idea and asked her family to take on the challenge.
"It gets us more involved with each other than if we were just watching TV," Rick Thiel said. "It brings the family together more. We sit down and talk over their problems and how their day went."
The idea may be simple, but it's hard to do with parents working and children involved in after-school activities.
"I have a family and know how difficult this is to accomplish. It's a tough challenge," said Eileen Bradshaw, executive director of the food bank. "It's complicated. There may be a parent who works an alternate shift. Kids are participating in sports or the arts. It's not easy to achieve, but it's worth it."
Studies and reports from Rutgers and Columbia universities have shown that children in families that eat together regularly are less likely to engage in risky behaviors such as tobacco, drug and alcohol use.
"When you take time to sit down and eat, you eat healthier generally," Saiymeh said. "You end up spending less money. That act of sitting down creates a ripple effect."
Elizabeth Thiel said with her daughters doing gymnastics, softball and after-school programs, it hasn't been easy, but she's found a way to make meals that she can prepare ahead of time. It's also given her a chance to try to new, healthier recipes, like baked chicken spaghetti, a new favorite.
"I was reading how some studies show when parents cook from home, they give out smaller portions than if you ate out," she said. "Home-cooked dinners usually have fewer calories."
Dinner may not always be the ideal meal though with busy parent and child schedules, so families could try breakfast or lunch.
"Our thing has been meal time, not dinner time. Make it work for your family," said Saiymeh, who added it's not about when you eat, but that you do it together. "Creating that time, it's important. It's just as important as the other things we make time for."
Hailea said she's enjoying the Set the Table challenge.
"I like it, being together," she said. "I like talking because we're always doing some kind of sport."
It's also important that when you do sit down to eat, you focus on the people at the table and limit distractions, Bradshaw said.
"It's a no cellphone zone, no television. We don't answer the home phone. It's a safe zone, no electronics. That makes a huge difference," she said. "Table conversation, we're kind of losing that art in our society."
Tips for family meal times
1. Make mealtime a priority: If everyone can't make it for dinner, eat breakfast or lunch together. It doesn't matter when the meal is, as long as everyone makes the time for it.
2. Have a plan: Know everyone's schedule, plan a menu and keep foods on hand that can easily be turned into a meal.
3. The food doesn't have to be home-cooked: It could be as easy as sandwiches or take-out. It's sitting down and eating together that counts.
4. Make mealtime positive with few distractions: Focus on each other, not phones, television or music.
SOURCE: Rutgers University
Family meal time statistics
Teens who have infrequent family dinners are:
- In 2011, 58 percent of teens report having dinner with their families at least five times a week. That's a decrease from 60 percent in 2010
- When asked what they consider to be the best part of family dinners, 54 percent of teens responded it was sharing, talking, interacting and having conversations
SOURCE: Importance of Family Dinner 2011 report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University
- Almost four times more likely to use tobacco
- Twice as likely to use alcohol
- Two and a half times more likely to use marijuana
Original Print Headline: Mealtime magic
Sara Plummer 918-581-8465
Rick Thiel serves dinner to his wife, Elizabeth, and daughter Kynlee at their home in Tulsa. The family is participating in Set the Table Tulsa, an effort to encourage families to eat together. MATT BARNARD / Tulsa World
Hailea Thiel (right) and her sister Kynlee sit with their family during dinner at their home in Tulsa. They are part of an organized effort to promote conversation as a family activity at mealtime. MATT BARNARD / Tulsa World
Kynlee Thiel, 6, takes a bite of spaghetti during dinner with her family at their home in Tulsa. The family is participating in Set the Table Tulsa, an effort to encourage families to eat together. MATT BARNARD / Tulsa World | <urn:uuid:11a9071b-ecf8-408f-8fc1-8e741002afdd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/printerfriendlystory.aspx?articleid=20121113_11_A1_CUTLIN863259 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977055 | 1,418 | 1.53125 | 2 |
September 13, 2007
Local Soldier Injured In Combat in Afghanistan
Just days before Americans remember one of the darkest days in recent history, the War of Terror that was sparked by the terrorist attacks of September 11th struck close to home as news was received that a local soldier was wounded in Afghanistan.
Stephen Schneider, 23, was injured during combat operations in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, September 8th. A road-side bomb detonated destroying the vehicle Schneider was in. The explosion killed one soldier and wounded four others, including Schneider, who was medivacked to the field hospital at the British base Camp Bastion.
“We received a call from Stephen’s commander on Sunday morning at 4:00 a.m. telling us that he had been in a vehicle that was destroyed by a roadside bomb, but that he was okay,” said Stephen’s father Dr. Robert Schneider of Memphis.
Robert and Sue received a call later that day from Stephen informing them that he had suffered smoke inhalation and corneal abrasions in the attack and had been flown from the base for treatment of his injuries.
Dr. Schneider learned that his son was on an IV and was receiving pain medication for what had been classified as non-serious injuries (NSI) but had left him with some vision problems and in need of the special medical attention.
According to the International Herald Tribune, the attack occurred approximately five miles west of the city of Sangien.
Up until the phone call on Sunday morning, the Schneiders did not even know where their son had been deployed.
Schneider, a hospital corpsman with the United States Navy, had been attached to the Marine Special Operations Command Detachment 2. Because of the nature of his operation, he was previously unable to tell his family where he was being sent when he received word of his six-month deployment to Afghanistan.
Ironically, that deployment was set to conclude, and Stephen had called his parents just the day before the incident to let them know he would be coming home soon.
“It definitely has been an emotional roller coaster, going from the excitement of knowing he was coming home soon to this,” said Dr. Schneider.
Those emotions turned to frustration for the family as they waited more than two days to get an update on their son’s medical condition. As of Tuesday morning, September 11th, the family still had not received any additional information.
“As ex-military, I understand the situation but that doesn’t make it any easier as parents needing to know how our son is,” Dr. Schneider said.
Finally Stephen was able to get in touch with his parents later Tuesday morning to let them know he had been transported to an Air Force base where he was continuing to receive treatment for blurry vision and lung irritation caused by smoke inhalation, but that he was alright and had some good news.
“He couldn’t tell us where he was, but he told us he would be boarding a ship pretty soon to come home for his leave, as had been planned before all of this happened,” Dr. Schneider stated. “Our prayers have been answered.” | <urn:uuid:0b0413f4-0135-434a-b696-df60bab22987> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.memphisdemocrat.com/2007/news/070913_stephen.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992599 | 656 | 1.695313 | 2 |
U.S. Coast Guard Executive Officer Cmdr. Blake Welborn, who is based at the Marine Safety Unit Morgan City, said northbound traffic on the Atchafalaya River has been reopened through Morgan City, while the north-south route locally to the Mississippi River through the Port Allen Locks, known as the Port Allen route, also has been re-opened.
While the water has dropped, Welborn warned that the current still is swift.
The high water also is forcing delays at the Bayou Boeuf Locks, where Welborn said it is taking between an hour to an hour and a half to “lock” boats through.
“The lock master is putting as many barges as they can, sometimes two or three tows apiece, to try to get them through there as quickly as possible,” he said.
Also, the barge in Bayou Chene should be removed around July 1, Welborn said the St. Mary Parish Levee District told him.
While the channel will be dredged to its authorized 400 foot wide by 20-foot depth, the rocks along the bank where the barge was placed will remain in place — in case the waterway needs to be blocked off hastily for future emergencies — and will be marked by the Coast Guard.
“It is creating a bottleneck to a certain extent there in the Bayou Chene area, so we’re very concerned about” getting them marked, so vessel operators are aware of them, Wellborn said.
It’s also troublesome for some of the port’s tenants.
“We (Port) have at least two tenants that it’s still impeding their commerce by having the Chene (blocked off). They understand it was a good thing to protect the community … but right now with the water falling, they’re still having to go back up the Houma (Navigation Canal) … back to their yard,” Commissioner Duane Lodrigue told Welborn in urging the opening of the waterway as quickly but safely as possible.
The Levee District is looking to remove the structure when the differntial between the protected and unprotected sides is at a foot. Right now a 2-foot difference exists.
While, Welborn said no shoaling has been reported along the Port Allen route, he said nine groundings were reported this past weekend within the 20 Grant Point area in Morgan City.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to begin dredging this area Thursday. The Corps has said it will take them approximately two days to clear that area of shoaling and to survey it.
Anh Nguyen of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ New Orleans District said surveying would begin in Berwick Bay now that the Burlington-Northern Santa Fe Railroad bridge has been opened.
She said surveying would be done in the Atchafalaya River and Bar Channel this week, but surveying in Bayou Chene will not be complete until the barge has been removed.
Surveying also will be done on the Berwick side of Berwick Bay to determine if any scouring has occurred from the swift current with increased velocities of the Atchafalaya as it passes the area and then whips around Tidwater Point.
Nguyen said about $8.5 million is in the port’s dredging account for work and the Corps may request up to an additional $23.5 million — $15 million for the Atchafalaya Bar Channel and $8.5 million for Bayou Chene — to conduct emergency dredging following this high water event.
She said costs could be better determined after the surveys are complete.
Port consultant Martin Cancienne of The Livingston Group in Washington, D.C. said that the number the Corps has been floating around for all of its emergency dredging needs following the high water event is $2 billion.
He said the possibility of funding an Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill for this work still is looming as Congress is waiting on the White House to send them its request.
If any emergency money is passed, Cancienne said Congress is going to want to offset the costs somewhere.
Commissioner Matt Ackel requested that Nguyen look at the installation of rock finger piers on the Berwick side of Berwick Bay using rocks from the Demonstration Channel Alignment Structure that was installed farther downstream but failed to work. The Corps has studied this fingerlings concept in the past as a way to channel the current to the middle of Berwick Bay, which Ackel reasoned may reduce dredging. | <urn:uuid:452f27c9-27fb-49be-8459-b1c979f353de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stmarynow.com/view/full_story/14324249/article-Waterways-are-reopening-on-Atchafalaya?instance=secondary_stories_left_column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973019 | 963 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Fall 2013 and Winter 2014 quarters
- Harumi Moruzzi cultural studies, film studies, literature , Tomoko Hirai Ulmer
- Fields of Study
- cultural studies, history, international studies, language studies, literature and moving image
- Preparatory for studies or careers in
- Japanese literature and culture, film studies, cultural studies and international relations.
Japan is a vital, energetic and dynamic country which has been constantly reinventing and revitalizing itself even in the midst of gargantuan natural disasters, while struggling to maintain a sense of cultural and social continuity from the long lost past. Meanwhile, the conception and image of Japan, both in Japan and throughout the West, has varied widely over time, mostly due to Japan’s changing political and economic situation in the world. In the late 19th century, when Japan re-emerged into Western consciousness, Lafcadio Hearn, the Greek-Irish-American writer who later became Japanese, thought of Japanese society and its people as quaintly charming and adorable. In contrast, Americans in the 1940s viewed Japan as frighteningly militaristic and irrational. The French philosopher/semiotician Roland Barthes was bewitched and liberated by Japan’s charmingly mystifying otherness during his visit in 1966, when Japan began to show its first sign of recovery from the devastation of the WWII. The Dutch journalist Karel Van Wolferen was disturbed by the intractable and irresponsible system of Japanese power in 1989, when the Japanese economy was viewed as threatening to existing international power relations. These examples show how Japan has been viewed by Westerners in the past. The idea and image of Japan is highly dependent on the point of view that an observer assumes and that history makes possible.
This full-time interdisciplinary program is devoted to understanding contemporary Japan, its culture and its people, from a historical point of view. We will study Japanese history, literature, cinema, culture and society through lectures, books, films, seminars and workshops, including study of Japanese language embedded in the program. Three levels of language study (1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-year Japanese) will be offered for 4 credits each during the fall and winter quarters.
In the fall quarter, we will explore the cultural roots of Japan in its history. In the winter quarter, we will examine Japan after 1952, when the Allied occupation ended. Special emphasis will be placed on the examination of contemporary Japanese popular culture and its position in economic and cultural globalization.
Students who are interested in experiencing Japan in person can take Japanese language classes in Tokyo through Harumi Moruzzi’s Individual Study: Japanese Culture, Literature, Film, Society, and Study Abroad in spring quarter.
- Campus Location
- Online Learning
- Enhanced Online Learning
- Greener Store
- Required Fees
- $30 per quarter for entrance fees.
- Offered During
- Day and Evening | <urn:uuid:a6f11ad7-d744-4020-b0dc-2dcc2045d390> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://evergreen.edu/catalog/2013-14/programs/japantodaystudiesofjapanesehistoryliteraturecinemaculturesocietyandlanguage-9222 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943609 | 597 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Tinkecad has been turning up the awesome dial on their WebGL browser based 3D modeling application over the past year but they just made it even better with the ability to import 3D STL files....
This will make it SUPER easy to customize an existing 3D model to 3D Print at Shapeways, whether it be your own file you have created in another software, or a downloadable file from Shapeways, or other 3D model repositories like Thingiverse and GrabCad. You can also grab multiples STL files and mash them together, add text, geometry, anything.... AWESOME.
One limitation is the STL import is currently limited to 25,000 triangles so don't go throwing zBrush madness at it just yet, and of course, make sure you have permission to use the 3D files, and if you modify them, be sure to adhere to the terms by which the original 3D model was shared..
Thanks to the Tinkercad crew for such a fantastic move. | <urn:uuid:ab1162e7-82ce-41ed-82db-4d611f1a6aa5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/1605-You-Can-Now-Import-3D-STL-Files-into-Tinkercad-Let-The-3D-Modifications-and-Mash-Ups-Begin.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937245 | 207 | 1.828125 | 2 |
by David Holden
Monday, October 15th, 2012
PRELIMINARY NOTES TOWARDS A PHONETIC ANALYSIS OF THE SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS OF OPHIDEAN IDEOLOGICAL EXPRESSION
this brief study is dedicated to Ariadna Theokopoulos and Jay Knott, who have pioneered the application of scientific method to deLiberation. the author would also like pro-actively to thank Naomi Wimbourne-Idrissi of JBIG for permission (pending) to use the extract discussed.
* * *
from You-Tube: In the following short recording, JBIG’s (Jews Boycotting Israeli Goods) leader presents her criticism of Gilad Atzmon. She also confirms that as far as ‘Jews within the movement’ are concerned Israel “should” and “needs” to exist as a “Jewish State”. This audio segment is taken from Gilad And All That Jazz, a documentary film about Gilad Atzmon, music, ideas and controversy:
the second part of the JBIG supremo’s argument is transcribed below. it breaks easily and naturally into five short sections referred to as A, B, C, D & E. for each section the starting point in time and the number of syllables are estimated. naturally, the extremely subtle stress-patterns used by such a skilful and experienced presenter can only be rather crudely expressed in print, but the upper-case words in the extract are more highly stressed – this rough-and-ready emphasis should at least serve as a moderately useful aide-memoire. the agogic information is supplemented by estimates of emotional intensity derived from significant pauses and the variation in syllables emitted per minute.
the italic and bold emphases do not relate to speech stress, but are intended to facilitate the reader’s navigation of the text in relation to the questions that have been added at the end to assist anyone who wishes to deepen their study of the JBIG philosophy. they are, naturally, only meant as suggestions.
A 0:42 (13)
i know that there are many people
in the movement
B 0:45 (14)
who share the opinion,
which is GENERAL
throughout the WEST,
C 0:49 (21)
NEEDS to exist
as a Jewish state
as a Jewish state
D 0:52 (13)
and there are many JEWS …….pause…….
in the movement
E 0:56 (13)
who don’t want to criticize
that fundamental FACT.
0:59 *** END
Section speech-rates in syllables per minute
A 270 B 210 C 420 D 195 E 260
-1. in section A, is the use of the term many, whilst technically permissible, nevertheless disturbingly ambiguous? there are, for example, many Jews in the world, yet they make up only 0.18% of the human population of planet Earth.
0. in section B does the use of the term share (in place of a more value-neutral term such as hold) serve as a rhetorical device to intensify an impression of consensus?
1. with reference to the phrase don’t want to criticize in section E, give your own view on to what extent criticism or non-criticism of any X should be determined by the expediency of individual emotional attachment to X, rather than by the results of an attempt to objectively assess the nature of X in the light of its relevance to significant events etc.
2. again concerning section E, in what circumstances could anyone reasonably be expected to criticize something acknowledged as a fundamental fact? what arguments are offered as to the factuality or fundamentality of what it is claimed many people do not want to criticize?
3. assess the speaker’s use of the term ‘movement’. if you believe that there is a genuine movement, what would you say are its goals?
4. give a brief definition of the phrase general throughout the WEST which occurs in section B.
5. what is the West?
6. discuss the referential inter-relation between the word opinion in section B and the word FACT in section E. is it reasonable to assume that the opinion (section B) and the FACT (section E) are both referring to what is asserted in section C?
7. examine the arguments for and against the idea that an opinion can also be a FACT.
8. in section C, the two modal verbs needs and should are used:
(a) explain in what sense Israel needs to exist as a Jewish state
(b) do you consider your answer to (a) suggests that should exist is a logical consequence of needs to exist, or is this connection better viewed as a deliberate or accidental rhetorical sleight of tongue?
9. suggest possible reasons for the very heavy emphasis placed on the phrase and OTHERS in section D. how would the meaning of the whole be affected by simply omitting this phrase from the text?
10. attempting to discount the superfluous post-alveolar fricative after the terminal dental stop of the word movement (sections A and D), do you think this statement is phonetically and semantically characteristic of an anthropic or of an ophidian* creature? if you believe it to be an anthropo-ophidian hybrid, give a rough estimate of the proportion of the creature’s genetic material you think comes from each source.
an ophidian is a snake-like spirit from Middle-Eastern (primarily Persian) mythology. Ophidians were said to come to a person as they woke up and steal their memories, especially the memories of what had happened to them while they were in the world ruled by Morpheus.
11. in the light of your answers to the preceding questions, can you suggest any explanation for the extremely rapid speech-rate observed in section C. | <urn:uuid:c6bae540-0a20-4481-849a-b59fd9a7319e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deliberation.info/naomis-homework/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942561 | 1,257 | 1.726563 | 2 |
On and offline protest is in the spotlight, pressurising brands towards greater accountability and genuine innovative responses to these engaged consumers.
This piece is the second in a weekly series of consumer comments exploring each of the trends Euromonitor International identified in the recent Top 10 Consumer Trends for 2012 article .
As world events have shown in the last year, consumers are dissatisfied and ever more articulate in protests that extend from neighbourhoods, cities and countries to the internet. This trend sees consumers who are now less loyal to brands getting together to make demands from companies and state institutions. They are often fuelled by widening income inequalities as well as price rises. Consumer anger is not just an old animosity toward corporate power but has morphed into personal disdain toward firms we deal with daily according to the latest report from the Center for Services Leadership at Arizona State University.
Debates on internet freedom versus control and censorship - are grabbing consumer attention. Whether it's the recent concerns from the UK's Advertising Standards Authority about the damage caused by possible “non-genuine” TripAdvisor reviews or extensive protest and controversy around the now postponed Stop Online Piracy Act and Google's controversial revised 'privacy' policy, or the fact that consumers are to gain the right to have their personal data erased via new European laws referred to as the 'Right to be Forgotten.'
In a thought-provoking Vanity Fair Article in January 2012: “You Say You Want a Devolution?” cultural critic Kurt Anderson sees nostalgia in today's radical grass-roots political movements. He calls them cover versions of protests from the past, but the form is different. In 2012, consumer vigilantes will have a sustained high profile protesting both in the physical and now in the online worlds. The lines are becoming increasingly blurred. In addition, with (instant) access to information that was previously only available to brands, consumers will be less tolerant of people, brands or processes that can't respond or adapt when asked “why?”
Internet reviews and the art of complaining
Consumers are increasingly tapping into their networks of friends, fans and followers to discover, discuss and purchase goods and services. New are the scale, speed and impact of word of mouth, now that social networks have made discovering and discussing potential purchases easy , while also throwing previously closed, small-scale conversations open to thousands. Changes made possible by Web 2.0 have put consumers at the centre of marketing with many brands left circling anxiously. For many onliners who spend less time going to the shops, information and delivery are more significant than the smiling face over the counter.
There are global examples of national and regional consumer vigilante 'victories' fuelled by a new consumer confidence and the people power of social networking, viral videos and actual protest. In Argentina, iPad fans, annoyed by the high tariffs making their tablets of choice costlier than in the USA, have launched the iPad2 index, a popular website for venting on the high price of imported gadgets. In Canada, in response to viewer complaints about loud ads, Canadian Radiott-television Telecommunications Commission is to limit the volume of advertising on TV from September 2012.
Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, a short YouTube video showing a man involved in a heated argument with supermarket staff over rotten produce has resonated with many locals. The two-minute video has sparked debate regarding a perceived lack of consumer protection in the Kingdom. Housing is a highly sensitive issue in Saudi Arabia too. Another recent short film, also a YouTube hit, highlighted the country's housing crisis. In some countries, consumers feel freer to voice an opinion online than they would offline.
Green /ethical trust
It is very significant that Euromonitor International's Annual Study 2011 found that consumer trust in green and ethical labels is lower than interest in them. This is a fundamental problem for brands because trust underlies the whole concept of green purchasing.
Although many consumers can't afford to buy green, they expect brands to be trailblazers and to clean up their act. Beyond pricing, the new focus on ethical trading and corporate transparency means the spotlight may fall on any and every stage in the supply chain. Consumers respect brands like outdoor gear Patagonia for taking back used products for rewards and recycling.
The consumer need to trust others is more than just green and broader ethical consumption . It is part and parcel of so-called collaborative consumption. Companies like AirBnB and Zimride, which allow people to open their homes or their cars to share or loan for a fee are examples of new ways of using and exchanging goods and services.
What's really interesting is that new forms of trust are being enabled by social networking technology now that it's been adopted en masse. People who have never met or transacted with each other are using social networks to validate each other. When you rent your home or car to someone, trust becomes critical. In 2012, this reputation-enhanced lending and trading will become more mainstream.
Brands fight back via crowdsourcing and a more 'human' touch
The web is full of brand responses to critical consumer feedback, even if some seem rather lame. Some companies are responding to the consumer trust in people they know. US-based site Cliq, for instance, which launched last autumn, helps consumers decide where to eat, what to buy and what to do based on the opinions of their social network.
GoodGuide, a US website that rates consumer products according to their safety, environmental sustainability and the ethics of the firms that make them has created a new “purchase analyser” app telling consumers whether they are the virtuous shoppers they say they want to be. It is aiming to stimulate peer pressure to push consumers into greener purchasing based on insights from behavioural economics.
Among myriad other commercial initiatives resonating with the consumer vigilante mood are Cantina da Estrela, a new Lisbon restaurant that allows diners to 'award' deserved prices, the Singapore-based retailer Zha Huo Dian (The Provision Shop) recently-launched initiative using social media 'likes' to decide on the items it sells within a US$6-40 price range, and Estonian Bribespot, an app letting smartphone users anonymously report bribes. This promises to “turn isolated users into a powerful movement against corrupt individuals and institutions”.
Look out for the third in the series: TOP 10 CONSUMER TRENDS FOR 2012: DIY Life
About Euromonitor International's Annual Study, Global Youth Survey and Quick Pulse Surveys
Euromonitor International's Annual Study surveyed 16,000 consumers of all ages (15-65+) in eight mature and developing markets in July and August 2011, questioning respondents on the following themes: health and wellness, food and drink, technology, shopping and leisure, personal traits and values.
Euromonitor International's Global Youth Survey reached out to young consumers living in 15 countries with the largest and fastest-growing youth populations. Fielded August-September 2011, the survey questioned 16-24 year olds on the following themes: financial expenditure, food and drink, technology, leisure activities, personal traits and values.
In Quick Pulse surveys, Passport Survey reaches out to Euromonitor's network of in-country analysts and in-house researchers around the world in order to find out more about current consumer attitudes and habits on a wide variety of topics, from economic outlook to daily activities.
Note: Euromonitor surveys are online surveys; all respondents are drawn from the online population in any given country, not its population as a whole. This means that in emerging markets, respondents tend to be more educated, affluent and urban.
Republished with permission from Euromonitor Market Research Blog, originally posted on 2 April 2012 | <urn:uuid:3e264784-26db-4e82-96f0-c815d32b4582> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketresearchworld.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4709&Itemid=76 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938765 | 1,579 | 1.757813 | 2 |
I had never heard of a lemon cucumber before, let alone seen one, so when our neighbor gave us a few from their garden along with a bushel of tomatoes, it took me a couple of days to figure out what the heck to do with them. The first thing I did was cut one open and taste it. Observation number one, there ain’t much too ‘em. By the time you gut the seed section, you are left with about a quarter inch of “meat”. I then tried peeling it with a paring knife which gave me the feeling I was about to lose a limb so I decided it was time to look it up on the interweb.
I started by searching for yellow cucumber and eventually stumbled upon what they actually were, lemon cucumbers. Turns out, you can eat them with the skin on; although, that seemed a little odd since they have little prickly parts to them. That didn’t sound too appetizing so I pressed on. Searching a bit more, I found a recipe for stuffing them which is when the light bulb went off: cucumber + tomatoes = GAZPACHO! Eureka.
To me, gazpacho is one of those un-recipes, similar to how I feel about chimichurri. Go through your kitchen and see what you have and throw it in a blender in whatever quantities make sense. Basics should include tomato, cucumber, garlic, onion, olive oil, salt, & pepper. From there, feel free to go crazy with basil, cilantro (careful not to make salsa), bread, peppers, vinegar, etc. In this case, I used a regular green cucumber along with the tomatoes from our neighbors garden, the other staples, and bread – put it all in the magic bullet – and voila, GAZPACHO! Scrape off the spikes and hollow out the lemon cucumbers then pour the cold soup in, top with a little Hawaiian black sea salt for effect, and serve chilled.
As you eat the gazpacho, you can scrape out the meat of the lemon cucumber which adds a nice lemony zest to the soup. Or, if you are a Neanderthal like me, you hold the cucumber like a cup and drink from it, taking bites out of the “bowl” as though it were an ice cream cone. Either way, it makes for a perfect small, cool appetizer on a warm summer evening while you are waiting for the grill to finish up. | <urn:uuid:6f51dddb-265f-49a0-8e23-52fced374636> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kalenkimm.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/what-to-do-with-a-lemon-cucumber/ | 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 | 0.967304 | 528 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Posted 6 months ago
This is a Wear-Ever branded aluminum container or canister. The stamp shows it was made by TACU Co. (The Aluminum Cooking Utensil Co.) New York. - It is marked product No. 112. - TACU Co. was established in 1901 as a cookware subsidiary of ALCOA Aluminum to market aluminum cooking utensils made by the Pittsburgh Reduction Company. The Wear-Ever brand was introduced in 1903. WearEver Cookware helped aluminum consumption by introducing one of the first widely accepted and available aluminum based consumer products of their time. Initially this cookware was sold door-to-door by college students and would later be purchased in large quantities by organizations. In 1912 the United States Marine Corps would adopt WearEver aluminum utensils as their standard issue utensils. Although I don't know the exact date of this item since I can find no reference to it, I believe it was used as a coffee canister or container. It was stored with my military collectibles and I would date it in the 1940's. | <urn:uuid:f7168f35-25dd-452e-8c3a-45fb1ef81a0d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/74002-wear-ever-aluminum-canister?in=collection-190 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980831 | 219 | 1.632813 | 2 |
As we reported back in January, the infamous Jelly Shoe is back. What’s our issue with this warm weather shoe trend? Most Jellies are made from dangerous PVC. But we finally found an eco friendly alternative.
These sweet and modern Three Strap Sandals by Vivienne Westwood and Melissa, an eco-friendly manufacturer are ethically made in Brazil from MEFLEX and are…Ta dah! 100% recyclable.
MEFLEX is a non-toxic plastic made from recycled plastic that is far more breathable than PVC. The Melissa shoe factory is itself a paragon of eco-friendly virtue when it comes to production. A startling 99.9% of Melissa’s factory water and waste is recycled and the Brazil-based company’s employees are paid above average wages and benefits. Since these shoes are so eco friendly I think I will splurge and get the red flat peep toe jellies too! | <urn:uuid:3a087df1-6f3f-4e07-8ef1-2158a1a4171f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.ideeli.com/todays-features/?currentPage=312 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945393 | 201 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Monday, March 31, 2008
(Some of you may recall the three cool but complicated crafts I presented at my daughter's Egyptian-themed 4th-birthday party--an amulet, a hieroglyphic name plate, and a clay scarab beetle. Yikes; I was a nut!)
But sometimes I forget that the simpler the materials, the greater potential there is for creative freedom--and fun.
I started out this morning wanting to create a snow globe with my toddler. However, he preferred this project:
Step 1: Pour beads through funnel into jar.
Step 2: Pour beads out of jar.
Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 until bored.
Step 4: Discover a shoelace with handmade beads strung on it.
Step 5: Strip off beads.
Step 6: Put beads back on shoelace.
Step 7: Repeat steps 5 and 6 until bored.
This past weekend we went to a maple festival in Vermont, and we checked out the Kids' Corner in the elementary-school art room. The kids and I sat for about an hour making small carvings out of Ivory soap. I remember carving Snoopy out of a bar of soap when I was in 4th grade, and I think that this is one of those vintage '70s crafts that needs to be revived. It's relaxing and easy, and the cleanup is simple! Plus, you end up smelling like you've just bathed, a plus when you're slogging through rural Vermont during mud season.
My son came home from school today and said, "You know how to make a Knitting Nancy, don't you?" I was touched that he considered me an expert in knitting after my three months of knitting on the same scarf.
But since I didn't even know what a Knitting Nancy was, he explained that one of his classmates had shared with the class that she was going to make one out of a toilet paper tube and popsicle sticks. "It's like a knitting mushroom," he explained further. His sister has a knitting mushroom, a wooden spool with metal loops at the top that you use to produce a knitted cord, aka I-cord, without knitting needles.
Intrigued, I did a quick search online and found a charming site by an engineer who has become an expert in Knitting Nancies of all kinds. He seems to have tested all of the mechanical knitting machines in existence. His site includes a picture of the popsicle-stick Knitting Nancy, which is easy to make. We're calling ours the Knitting Ned, just in case my son's masculinity is challenged by the Nancy label.
Here's what you need to make a Knitting Nancy or Knitting Ned:
Step 1 Decorate Knitting Ned/Nancy
(This step is optional, but we felt that it would set Ned apart from Nancy.)
Step 2 Attach the Popsicle Sticks
You will be placing the popsicle sticks an equal distance vertically around the outside of the toilet paper roll. The popsicle sticks should stick up above the edge of the tube by about one inch. You can eyeball this or make a mark on each popsicle stick one inch from the top.
Update: Bellaluna, a very helpful reader who tried out this activity, requested that I explain how to tie off the cords. Thanks, Bellaluna!
When the cord is as long as you like it, cut off the end of the yarn so that it's about six inches long.
Thread the yarn through a tapestry needle or other big-eyed needle. (Plastic needles for mesh canvas work really well.)
Pull the needle and yarn through each loop in turn, which will remove each loop from the popsicle stick.
After the needle goes through the last loop, the cord will drop down through the tube. Tighten the end of the yarn, and you're done!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Early March, the sun is shining through the lightly frosted trees.
I take a walk and hear
A symphony of incipient spring sounds.
The trees send down tiny shards of melting ice,
A tinkling of ice-edged rain.
The cardinals are busy in the evergreens,
Calling out to each other a hopeful morning song.
Melting snow rushes through the slate-lined creeks
And hurls itself into small waterfalls;
The rushing away of winter, I hope.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Apply glue to the outside edges of the "wrong" side of the book cover paper.
Step 3 (Optional)
Apply glue liberally to the smaller piece of paper and glue down onto inside of the cardboard cover and over the ribbon.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Maya is the winner of my first official contest, to pick the fabric for the pinafore bottom. She did have an edge over you others--she stays up as late as I do web surfing and sewing, and she's seen my stash of recycled fabrics! Thanks, Maya, for the constant inspiration!
Don't despair, there will be more contests to come!
I purchased the fabric from the Sew Green studio, which now has recycled fabrics and notions for sewing inspiration.
It took me a while to work up the courage to start the pinafore because it involved a new pattern method for me. I had to trace the pattern for the pinafore from a poster tucked in the middle of the magazine. I was very intimidated when I looked at the confusing mass of intersecting lines and colors for the patterns, but in the end it was a simple matter of tracing out three simple shapes, adding seam allowances all around, and cutting out the fabric.
The pinafore still needs a bottom to go with it. The first person to post a suggestion for a suitable matching fabric for a pair of shorts or pants will receive a handmade item in the mail. Special consideration goes to the person who suggests a vintage or reused fabric!
Monday, March 24, 2008
I guess our rabbit of Easter preferred being toasty and warm to braving the 20-degree a.m. temps outside.
This early Easter snuck up on me, so I didn't have anything crafty and Easter-related finished. The best I could do was a bouquet of tissue flowers for the dining table.
Luckily, the kids received an Easter package from their grandmother, so their handmade Easter needs were fulfilled by beautifully crafted pajamas. The boys wore theirs most of the day.
Friday, March 21, 2008
So, what, you may ask, does mass production have to do with creativity? Doesn't it kill the creative impulse by taking creativity out of the act of creating?
On a practical level, though, artists and crafters mass produce some items to sell in order to support themselves (or at the very least to make some extra cash to buy more supplies to continue creating). And these craftspeople have sites like Etsy, where artists can market their designs to people all over the world. Etsy and the revival of the handcrafted tradition seems to have sprung up in part as a reaction against the big box stores and from the renewed interest in sustainable living. According to buyhandmade.org, which asked people to pledge to buy only handmade gifts during the holidays:
Buying Handmade makes for better gift-giving.
The giver of a handmade gift has avoided the parking lots and long lines of the big chain stores in favor of something more meaningful. If the giver has purchased the gift, s/he feels the satisfaction of supporting an artist or crafter directly. The recipient of the handmade gift receives something that is one-of-a-kind, and made with care and attention that can be seen and touched. It is the result of skill and craftsmanship that is absent in the world of large-scale manufacturing.
Buying handmade is better for people.
The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left us dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. We are encouraged to be consumers, not producers, of our own culture. Our ties to the local and human sources of our goods have been lost. Buying handmade helps us reconnect.
Buying handmade is better for the environment.
The accumulating environmental effects of mass production are a major cause of global warming and the poisoning of our air, water and soil. Every item you make or purchase from a small-scale independent artist or crafter strikes a small blow to the forces of mass production.And certainly there are designers who produce their own creations in assembly-line fashion without losing their creative impulses. I'll mention only a few. Lori Marie, a textile artist who's been featured on Martha Stewart Living, has a beautiful post about her mass-production sewing sessions. She mass produces these beautifully designed and meticulously sewn treasures. And her tiny studio looks like a joy to work in. Beata, a mother and crafter, has a neat display of her assembly line (shown at right) for her babushka ornaments. Even though both artists are producing more than one of their creations, each reflects meticulous craftsmanship and a unique vision.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
My introduction to refashioning came a few years ago when my daughter and I saw notices for a SewGreen contest to create a new design out of old articles of clothing. We were all heavily into Project Runway at the time, so the little instigator urged me to enter the contest. (She thinks I'm the Sewing Queen because I've made Halloween costumes for her off and on since she was 2.) This year we actually entered the contest. The challenge was to use old cotton t-shirts and/or denim to create a new item. My daughter and I conceived of and sewed (mostly I sewed) a hoodie, a shirt to layer under the hoodie, and a last-minute jean skirt. Inconceivably, the two shirts won first and second place in the teen category.
It was pretty much a fluke how the hoodie came together. While browsing the men's t-shirt section at the Salvation Army, my young ecofashionista and I found a strange orange t-shirt with "Ask A Bug" in bold black letters on the front and a huge stink bug screen printed on the back. We both thought it was funny, so into the cart it went.
It took me a while to work up the courage to actually attack it with scissors, but I finally did so. Two things were a given: my daughter wanted a hoodie, and we knew we wanted the bug to be on the front rather than the back. With no other plan in mind, we cut the sides open, took a big chunk off the bottom, cut off the neck ribbing, and then trimmed the sides for a closer fit. My model patiently stood there while I draped the very sorry remnants of the once robust t-shirt around her. We played around with some color combinations of the t-shirts we had, but nothing seemed to work well. We were a little discouraged by our initial experiment.
A week or so later I had to drop off my mom at the airport in the city, and on the way home my toddler and I headed over to the Salvation Army to check out their supply of wool sweaters for a felting project.
Just as I was heading to the cash register because my son was ready to melt down--a combination of fatigue, hunger, general terrible-twoness, and his failure to appreciate the valuable life lesson I was teaching him by exposing him early on to sustainable fashion--we walked down the women's shirt aisle, and a black-and-white striped t-shirt caught my eye. I grabbed it and two other orange shirts nearby.
That incredibly fortuitous last-minute purchase became the hoodie's side stripe (a solution for having trimmed too much off the sides!), sleeves, hood, and bottom edge (a solution for having trimmed too much off the bottom!) So, it all came together from some happy accidents.
My daughter also wanted a fitted tank-style shirt to layer under the hoodie. We took a men's XL shirt and cut off the sleeves and neck and cut the side seams open. This time I was a little more strategic and cut a little less off the sides than I thought was necessary. I sewed up the side seams, and the shirt was initially too loose, but luckily that's an easier problem to fix than having it too tight. The sleeve openings were too big and gappy, so I took sleeves off an old t-shirt of mine and they became the sleeves for her new shirt. The whole process felt like two steps forward, three steps back and was very discouraging, but eventually it came together nicely.
The jean skirt that completed the ensemble was a very last-minute project. I started it the morning of the contest deadline. Having never made a skirt before, I had no idea what I was doing. I ended up cutting the legs off two pairs of jeans, opening them up at the seams, and then sewing them together into a tube. I made a waistband and, after studying a pair of old jeans, attached it the same way. The thick denim was really hard to sew, especially when four layers came together at the waistband. So my stitching was really rough looking, and my zipper was shoddily attached. But I made a skirt with no pattern, out of almost nothing, and in almost no time (OK, wait, that doesn't sound like something to be proud of).
While my daughter was keeping me company down in the basement when I was sewing away on the denim skirt, she told me that she would never have the courage to just jump in without a pattern and start cutting and sewing as I had done. She made it sound as if I was awfully brave. In fact, I think I was pretty foolhardy to attempt the project with almost no skills, and I was unsure of myself at each step and made many mistakes. But what I was proud of was that I kept at it and found solutions for the problems that I created from inexperience. It was very frustrating thinking of an idea, implementing it, and then having the three-dimensional structure not translate into what I intended. But figuring things out as I go along and making lots of mistakes seems to be my creative path right now, though I hope that will change as I get more experienced and adept at sewing techniques.
And surely all of this sewing will eventually rewire the parts of my brain dealing with spatial relationships so that the translation of flat fabric to wearable design comes more easily. Please?
There are lots of web sites related to ecofashion, and my co-designer and I consulted a few of them before we attempted to create the hoodie. The SewGreen site has a page with a few sites that are great introductions to creating t-shirt mashups. This site in particular provided lots of inspiration.
And thank you to my friend and fellow blogaholic Maya, who was the well-deserving SewGreen contest grand-prize winner for her denim baby kimono set with booties and stuffed elephant (see photo at right) (and whose kids' tea table and chairs set was a top 20 semifinalist in the Design Sponge DIY contest), for telling me about the following cool ecofashion links:
Monday, March 17, 2008
My mom is an expert seamstress and used to sew like crazy when I was younger. (She was a Home Ec major in college, so she really has the skills.) She made clothes for me until I was in middle school, when I became too designer-label conscious to wear anything handmade. I was so very picky about clothes, and in retrospect I realize that it must have been extrememly hard to sew for me. I couldn't stand anything itchy or tight, and I hated trying things on with pins in them. But I remember my all-time favorite outfit that she made for me. I must have worn it to school at least a few times a week. The pants were blue denim-weight cotton and had a very thin waistband so were very comfy. The shirt was a knit, white with orange flowers and had an elastic waistband. I think the shirt had a Peter Pan collar with a keyhole and button. I'm sure my friends must have thought I was strange, but I thought it was the coolest thing. My mom also went through an embroidery phase and made denim shirts with 60's/70's-era-cool icons--flowers, red and white mushroom, butterflies, strawberries. I wish we had kept those! (The shirt shown at right is an example from ebay, though it's nowhere near as elaborate and cool as the ones my mom made.) | <urn:uuid:79d212e7-b592-46dd-8f35-90a3af2c404a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zencrafting.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974227 | 3,480 | 1.734375 | 2 |
War and Peace and the Middle East
by Christopher Westley
by Christopher Westley
[T]he Israel Defense Forces once again looks like the neighborhood bully. A soldier was abducted in Gaza? All of Gaza will pay. Eight soldiers are killed and two abducted to Lebanon? All of Lebanon will pay. One and only one language is spoken by Israel, the language of force.
~ Gideon Levy in Haaretz, Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Is the Middle East cursed?
Up until last week, one might have thought not, because there had been relative calm there — relative, of course, to the situation that existed in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973, when many thought that confrontations in that unhappy region had the potential of becoming nuclear.
Today, it seems that those who consider that time of relative peace a mere break in the bloodshed are having their way, now that fighting has broken out between Israel and Hamas and Hizbollah, in response to provocations from both groups. The results, in terms of the loss of human life and increase of human suffering, are nothing less than diabolical.
But why now? Israel didn't have to respond to abductions and killings of Israeli soldiers by Hizbollah one week later (two events which, however uncalled for, also didn't happen in a vacuum) by dropping bombs in Beirut and Gaza.
Peaceful options were still available — and morally required.
If you disagree with this, then you must also disagree with the consensus (however weak) regarding the conflagration by the leaders of the G8 summit that just ended. You must disagree with the moral sense of the pope. And you must consider the lives of the abducted employees of the Israeli state to be of greater worth than the hundreds of innocent civilians that have been killed by Israel's bombs since then.
Whenever such fighting breaks out, I am reminded of a conversation I had with a Palestinian student several years ago. A Christian, he told me stories (told to him by his grandfather) about life in Palestine before 1948, when atrocities were rarer and it seemed like Christians, Jews, and Muslims coexisted in relative peace. He was mystified as to why this era had to end.
Having recently read Hans-Hermann Hoppe's Democracy: The God That Failed, I remember telling him that the creation of a state by any of these groups would naturally foment instability by introducing the legal use of force to the area. I'm sure that a Christian or a Muslim state would also have created the volatility that has characterized the area over the last six decades.
It has nothing to do with religion. Rather, it has to do with the nature of the state itself.
From this perspective, the Middle East is cursed, because the existence of a state overrides whatever mutually beneficial arrangements that might otherwise promote civilization. To argue this has nothing to do with love or hate for Israel. You can, after all, love your country and dislike your government, and in the same way, you can love Israel without equating it with the Israeli state. And it is the existence of the state that causes conflicts such as the one we are witnessing in the Holy Land today — conflicts that have been the rule, rather than the exception, since 1948.
With apologies to those who support the creation of a Palestinian state, what the Middle East needs is less government. This is because as statism recedes from the public square, trade and the interdependencies that it creates flourish, making war difficult. With trade, armaments and inflation are not the only costs that war planners take into consideration. When they must also consider loss in gains from trade, belligerents are more likely to find peaceful means of conflict resolution.
This is why Middle East peace requires, if not the abolition of government, then at least less socialist ones, with decentralized power structures and unhindered avenues for voluntary human interaction. Otherwise, war is as likely as night follows day. War, as noted Ludwig von Mises in Human Action (The Scholars Edition, pp. 680—681), rather than being the result of capitalism (which creates those interdependencies necessary for peace), is actually the result of "anticapitalist policies designed to check the functioning of capitalism. [War is] an outgrowth of the various governments' interference with business, of trade and migration barriers and discrimination against foreign labor, foreign products, and foreign capital."
To deny this requires loads of hypocrisy. So we see the United States government denounce the violence while ignoring its role as the chief arms supplier to the region. We see it bemoan the deaths of innocent civilians in Lebanon when as many as 100,000 innocent civilians have been killed in Iraq since 2003. We see governments, which claim to exist to protect and serve, engage in terrible actions that ensure a less secure future.
This applies not only to Israel, whose citizens must know that governments cannot kill and dismember the innocent without creating blowback later. It also applies to the U.S., which funds Israel's military. Many survivors in southern Beirut know that bombs that destroy their families and infrastructure have "Made in the USA" stamped on them. One of the costs of this stamp must be the threat of retaliation at home, as well as the loss of liberty that results when the federal government expands in the name of homeland security.
Such are the consequences of rejecting peace and prosperity for the language of force. Until the state's influence in the Middle East is removed or significantly reduced, its will continue to curse it in deadly cycles.
Chris Westley [send him mail] teaches economics at Jacksonville State University, Alabama.
Copyright © 2006 LewRockwell.com | <urn:uuid:1d6e724d-31e6-4dd8-acb6-d93a1eade007> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lewrockwell.com/westley/westley18.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96709 | 1,169 | 1.804688 | 2 |
How often do you hear about “no recovery” or “lunchtime” treatments when reading about plastic surgery in the media? Companies are trying to provide what the public wants: quick, low-risk, low- or no-recovery aesthetic treatments. But when these so call “no-recovery” treatments fall short of these goals, the word doesn’t always get out there. Many treatments billed as low- or no-recovery are anything but. Often, to get a substantial result these treatment modalities require a more aggressive version of the treatment with more recovery. Recently, the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS for short), the premier scientific society of board certified plastic surgeons who have focused their practice on aesthetic surgery, has released a set of standardized definitions that give new meaning to this nomenclature.
The Energy Based Therapies Committee of ASAPS, on which Dr. Bass serves, has issued guidelines for terms that are commonly used to describe the results and recovery associated with a variety of laser and other energy based aesthetic treatments. The impetus for doing this was the frequent use of terms like “no-recovery” and “lunch time treatment” for treatments that, as typically performed, have significant recovery. In order to have some common ground for what terms mean, the committee has provided guidelines for use.
The following terms were defined: downtime, bruising, redness, swelling and pain. See the reproduced standards below and the links to learn more specifics. The committee hopes to have device companies follow the guidelines in the marketing information they provide to doctors, as well as in the materials companies provide to the media (TV, magazines) about their products and to patients on their websites.
While the guidelines are not perfect, they are a very useful practical guide to providing patients and doctors with a clear understanding of typical recovery issues associated with each treatment. Hopefully, the scientific societies for other aesthetic providers, such as dermatologists, will join in encouraging adoption of these guidelines in the future. For now, ASAPS is leading the way to provide clarity and reality rather than market hype. Notice that even the lowest or essentially none category still can have some minor visible changes over the first day. This means that if your work or social obligations require you to look undetectable or perfect immediately after the treatment you may prefer to schedule it when you have the rest of the day or weekend to recover, or plan to apply concealer to hide the transient changes.
Allure article about the guidelines: http://www.allure.com/beauty-trends/blogs/daily-beauty-reporter/2011/10/anti-aging-news-recovery-from-laser-treatments.html
Downtime –the expected time to return to normal lifestyle
Essentially None: less than 24 hours
Minimal: 24-72 hours
Moderate: 3-7 days
Significant: more than 7 days
Bruising – visible on the skin without concealer
Essentially None: no bruising but there may be an immediate change in skin tone
Minimal: less than one week
Moderate: 1-2 weeks
Significant: more than 2 weeks
Redness –visible without concealer
Essentially None: returns to normal (pretreatment or improved) in less than 24 hours
Minimal: 1-3 days
Moderate: 4-7 days
Significant: more than 7 days
Swelling –obvious swelling
Essentially None: less than 3 days
Minimal: 3-7 days
Moderate: 8-14 days
Significant: > 14 days
Pain –significant discomfort associated with the treatment
Essentially None: no anesthesia or medication is needed except over the counter medication
Minimal: requires pretreatment with oral prescription medication, topical anesthetic agents or skin cooling and/or post-treatment prescriptions for pain management.
Moderate: same as minimal but with local anesthesia (injections)
Significant: same as minimal but with IV sedation or general anesthesia | <urn:uuid:3ec15deb-fe9c-4efc-a44f-23add360d8e6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://drbass.net/no-recovery-gets-its-semantics-straight-courtesy-of-asaps/ | 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 | 0.930615 | 852 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee River Pageant was a typically British affair. There was a spirit of amateurism about the proceedings: a procession of eccentric boats, some of which were apologetically small. Australians could be heard unfavourably comparing the spectacle to sea parades in Sydney Harbour.
But these days, the Thames isn’t really about pomp and ceremony, and our austerity pageant reflected that. It’s a working river — albeit a fairly quiet one — with ferries, police and pleasure boats making good use of its generous space. There is also freight transport, as the Londonist podcast has documented.
This selection documents the array of boats of the river, and it is merely coincidence that so many of these images feature looming clouds. Where the sun does break through, as it does with a dawn shot (image three), the river sparkles.
All images courtesy of Londonist Flickr pool contributors: marosvongrej, msganching, stevekeiretsu, jon smith, Stephskimo, _ADW_, D1v1D, thomas100, frenchconnector, violinconcertono3 and Andy Blackwell
See also London’s best boats and ships. | <urn:uuid:0a8799da-3b18-4efc-8894-66db77d2a357> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://londonist.com/2012/06/the-friday-photos-boats-on-the-river.php?showpage=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932734 | 254 | 1.742188 | 2 |
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Última modificación: 04/10/2012 19:49:47
City Year is a dynamic AmeriCorps organization built on the belief that young people can change the world. City Year is an education focused, nonprofit organization that unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service to keep students in school and on track to graduation. At City Year's 24 urban locations across the United States and two international affiliates, over 2,500 energetic, creative and idealistic corps members between the ages of 17-24 years old are making a difference in their communities, one student at a time. Corps members serve full-time in schools for the academic year as tutors, mentors and role models. Through attendance and behavior initiatives as well as one on and one and small group tutoring, corps members are able to help students stay on track to graduate. | <urn:uuid:2af99b97-2fab-47c8-9407-3fbbb4349bee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://es.idealist.org/view/org/tsWM4d3bF2fP/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948277 | 191 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Which of the following is the biggest obstacle to better measurement of the payback on marketing investments?
A) Lack of data
B) Low measurement skills
C) Drowning in a thousand metrics
D) Low credibility in the eyes of key stakeholders
While data and skills are critically important components of measurement success, there is no single obstacle more formidable than lack of credibility. Data, after all, can be estimated within reason. Skills can be “rented” while they are being developed. But credibility either exists or it doesn’t. And if it doesn’t, the road back can be long and winding.
Credibility is so crucial since so much of marketing measurement involves making assumptions. Assumptions about the impacts of tactics on prospects; assumptions about the interaction effects between tactics; assumptions about the effects of macroeconomic forces; etc. For every assumption, there is an element of credibility in both the assumption and the assumer. In other words, there are dozens or even hundreds of places where cracks can form in the credibility of any measurement framework.
Managing the credibility of any measurement effort can be broken down into four elements, each of which are necessary to preserve the “credibility chain”.
First, measurement efforts must be seen to be aligned to the needs of the business. Key questions being answered need to be clearly linked to the success of the business in both the current and future perspectives. In addition, those key questions need to be seen as worthy of the resources being allocated to pursuing answers, and “material” to the decisions the business will face.
Once aligned, the measurement effort needs to be seen as comprehensive. Every relevant dimension must be explored fully to leave no stone unturned in search of insight. If there are 100 stones which need to be uncovered and you only explore 99, you get no credit. Rather, you figuratively get hit in the head with the 100th stone by those who feel you may have conveniently ignored it for fear it contained secrets that would undermine your arguments.
But even being comprehensive isn’t sufficient… you need to also be seen as objective in your assessment of what you find under each rock - identifying both the supporting and refuting evidence observed. Yet objectivity is difficult for marketers who tend to see the world through rose-colored glasses, hoping that things we try will work in the marketplace. That’s a natural psychological mechanism in a profession where small failures happen every day on the path to learning. It just needs to be counter-balanced by a concerted effort to question those optimistic tendencies, if for no other reason than to demonstrate that your primary concern is truth, not “proof”.
And finally, when that aligned, comprehensive, objective assessment gets translated into recommendations for how money should be spent, accountability is the perceived result. And people who are seen to be accountable are usually entrusted with more resources and responsibilities.
When you line each of these components up, the end result is credibility in measurement.
If your key stakeholders are questioning the credibility of your measurement efforts, chances are your credibility chain is broken somewhere. Take a look back to see if you have clear alignment on what questions you are answering and how they are prioritized. Ask yourself if there are any other “rocks” that could be turned over. Test your observations with others to see if they are seen as objective. And then check to ensure your recommendations are directly linked to the insights you’ve gained in the process.
It clearly takes more effort to build and preserve a credibility chain than it does to throw ad-hoc metrics and data at your key stakeholders. But it almost always is an investment that leads to longer, more successful tenure in senior marketing roles.
Pat LaPointe is Managing Partner at MarketingNPV – specialty advisors on measuring and improving the payback on marketing investments, and publishers of MarketingNPV Journal available online free at www.MarketingNPV.com. | <urn:uuid:74057c6f-d6ed-474a-a92e-7cf2f2b02999> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marketingmeasurementtoday.blogspot.com/2010/09/measurement-problems-check-your.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948933 | 815 | 1.6875 | 2 |
If you didn’t know any better, you might think the airline industry crossed yet another line just before the Memorial Day holiday, the traditional start of the busy summer travel season.
Several media outlets reported that airlines are reserving more window and aisle seats for passengers willing to pay between $25 and $59 extra, which means family members who don’t cough up the money might not be able to sit together. At the peak of the summer travel season, the reports suggested, flying as a family might be nearly impossible.
The revelations drew a predictable response from consumer groups and at least one legislator. The Consumer Travel Alliance, an organization that I helped found and continue to serve as a volunteer advocate, issued a news release asking whether airlines “hate” families.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called on the airline industry to stop charging families seat reservation fees. “Children need access to their parents, and parents need access to their children,” the senator said in a prepared statement. “Unnecessary airline fees shouldn’t serve as a literal barrier between mother and child.”
I’ve been following this issue with some concern for several years, ever since many airlines started charging separately for confirmed seat reservations as a way to boost revenue when fuel prices were hitting record highs. As the father of three young children, I take a keen personal interest in the issue. Although being separated from my kids on a long flight appeals to me on one level, I am sensitive to the fact that it could be another passenger’s worst nightmare. So are air carriers.
“Airlines have always worked cooperatively with their customers to seat parties, including those traveling with children, together,” says Steve Lott, a spokesman for the airline trade group Airlines for America. “That has not changed.”
At the same time, Lott defended the industry’s current practices, which vary widely. Some carriers, such as Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways, allow families to board early but charge extra for more desirable economy-class seats. Others, such as US Airways, permit elite-level passengers to board first and give priority to families but also charge for certain economy-class seat reservations. And other air carriers don’t allow families to board early unless they’re elite-level frequent fliers or are willing to pay for the privilege. Among them: American Airlines and United.
“In a market as intensely competitive as the airline industry, the customer wins, having ultimate ability to vote with their spending on varying products that are priced differently,” Lott says. As a practical matter, airlines say, they do everything they can to keep families together while they’re on board.
“Our agents at the airport often scan the group that is in the lounge, waiting to see if any among them may need extra time or assistance,” says Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines. Having a family isn’t enough to get you on the plane early, but it can help, he says.
Patricia Mankin, an Escondido, Calif.-based travel agent, says that in her two decades of booking air travel on behalf of families with young children, she has never seen one split up. “Airlines that don’t offer advanced seating have always seated children with their parents if they are made aware in advance of the child’s age,” she told me.
I reviewed my own records, and although I saw a fair number of complaints from passengers who were unhappy with seat reservation fees – including several traveling with children – a search for parents who actually had been separated from their kids on board turned up nothing.
But my colleague Eileen Ogintz, who writes a nationally syndicated column about family travel called Taking the Kids, says that this is a “huge” issue. “I hear from parents all the time, complaining,” she says. “And they have a right to complain.”
Parents want assurances that they will be able to sit with their children. Ogintz recently worked with Schumer’s office to help one of his constituents ensure that she could fly beside her autistic twins, for example. Airlines shouldn’t need to bend a rule to make that possible. They ought to do it because their policy, federal regulation or the law requires it, Ogintz and other travel advocates say.
The easiest fix – and maybe the most logical one – is responsible parenting. There are a few proven ways parents can make sure that their families sit together, such as working with a travel agent with preferred access to seats or letting an airline know in advance that they’re traveling with young children. Even if a family is broken up, a group can show up at the airport a little early and ask a gate agent to seat them together. Agents know from experience that toddlers and strangers don’t make good seatmates. They make every effort to shuffle seat assignments.
Another possible remedy is to ask the Transportation Department to issue new guidance for airlines on the matter of separating children from their parents, something Schumer suggested in a recent letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. If that’s not possible, the issue might get taken up by Congress, although the airline industry probably would fight any resulting legislation.
Creating a new law could create new problems, as Charlie Leocha, director of the Consumer Travel Alliance, points out. Lawmakers would have to define what they mean by “family” and “children” and even “seated together.” Politically, that could be a slippery slope. “Trying to legislate family-friendly behavior by airlines would be as easy as trying to keep 3- and 4-year-olds from fighting,” Leocha says.
He adds that he doesn’t believe airlines “hate” families, but he thinks they could do a much better job of assuring worried parents that they will be able to sit with their children. Airlines aren’t holding the seats hostage, he says; they’re playing a game of “chicken” with passengers.
And they’re hoping that you’ll blink first. | <urn:uuid:725868ef-ee2a-41f6-b60f-0e2989fb38ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20120617/COLUMNISTS13/706179979/0/Lifestyle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971677 | 1,306 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The philosophy of education in Centers for Spiritual Living is to present Science of Mind as an exciting, contemporary educational model through which learners fully experience the spiritual reality of their being. This model recognizes that all aspects of life are spiritual, as the curriculum infuses the intellectual, emotional, and physical aspects of contemporary living. The educational program of Centers for Spiritual Living offers people of all ages the opportunity to realize the Presence of God, to discover their inherent creative power, and to experience the Presence and Power in their daily lives.
Those who "stay the course" form an incredible bond, unified by their dedication to apply spiritual principles to the everyday problems of human life. This is a movement from theory to embodiment. As we study the Science of Mind, we awaken to the dawning of new insights upon our consciousness. Suddenly, the words Life, Principle, Reality, the Law of Mind, Pure Awareness, God and Spiritual Mind Treatment take on a new significance. There is an excitement in working and supporting students in using the Science of Mind and Spirit, to more effectively, promptly, and constructively move through obstacles and ultimately to manifest desired results.
Courses are offered through our member communities or online:
|Find a member community near you.|
|To see a listing of our online classes, go to www.enhancing.com/foundational|
Each of our classes is designed to support the spiritual student to more fully express themselves as individuals. We not only carry forward the rich traditions of our past, but we also offer new ideas, new perspectives and ever-expanding methods of delivering ancient truth to the contemporary classroom. Our intention is to communicate with modern language and provide teaching methods based upon the best practices for adult learning and consciousness development.
PATHWAYS OF EDUCATION
A student may pursue Certificated Courses of Study either for personal growth or in preparation to become a Professional Practitioner or Minister in Centers for Spiritual Living.
The student enrolls in a Certificated Course at a member spiritual community (or online if there isn’t a member spiritual community near you). You start with foundational courses that introduce you to the Science of Mind teaching and how to apply it in your life. You continue to study courses that offer both spiritual practice and insight into meditation, spiritual visioning, and affirmative prayer. As you advance along the path, there are courses that explore different spiritual teachers and writers from across the ages, as well as contemporary writers and teachers. Centers for Spiritual Living offers a wide variety of courses that are sure to facilitate healing, opening, deepening, and greater understanding of your spiritual nature.
"Science of Mind principles are simple, and yet demand daily practice and application. When I was willing to do the work, that's when new and great manifestations started occurring in my life." C.F.
"Science of Mind saved my life. No kidding!. Through learning how to think I really did learn how to live a full rich life! " L.S.
"Classes keep me growing. When I am involved in classes I continually work my practices and learn more about myself, which reawakens within me my Divine greatness." C.L.
"I awoke to the inner dynamics of why I was experiencing such turmoil in my life!" M.T.
"Science of Mind classes were the door that opened me not only to the spiritual principles that govern my life, but to incredible bonding with my like-minded class members!" S.M.
"Seek and ye shall find. Well, classes gave me the permission to see with new eyes and to seek from within myself for the answers and the love I desired." M.S
"I wanted something to change and through classes I realized I needed to be the change I wanted to see." K.N. | <urn:uuid:0a522734-23c6-4f7f-ba41-b3862eeb4c79> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://csl.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=96&Itemid=327 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954399 | 775 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees employs and provides benefits for terrorists and criminals, asserts a former legal adviser to UNRWA who left the organization in 2007. James G. Lindsay, now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, served as an attorney with the US Justice Department for two decades before leaving to work for UNRWA in 2000Yet nowhere does Lindsay say anything remotely like this. He says that the UNRWA hires refugees, that the refugees support violence against Israel, and that, in his opinion, better steps should be taken to screen employees. But he rejects Israeli demands for screening, and, bottom line, he basically exonerates the organization:
As shown in the previous chapter, area staff are drawn from a Palestinian population that overwhelmingly supports violence against Israelis, so it would not be surprising if some staff members were involved in such attacks. Yet, of the nearly 5,000 area staff in West Bank and 10,000 in Gaza, few have been convicted of terrorism-related charges. Morever, the relatively few examples of staff involvement in anti-Israeli violence that critics often cite are, for the most part, not clearly convincing.And in commenting on the Nahd Atallah case, "[Atallah's] use of the UNLP [for allegedly transporting militants] within Gaza..and of the UNRWA vehicle were never established...Despite request from UNRWA, the Israeli authorities did not provide the dates or times when Atallah allegedly misused an agency vehicle." So, in fact, Lindsay refutes the critics of UNRWA on this point. The problem with the report is that once again it stakes out a position in the "middle," which represents what I call the liberal Israeli narrative (perhaps I should now include Fatah within that.) I have written about getting stuck in the middle elsewhere. Thus Hamas is entirely demonized; there is no attempt to understand the group as anything but a terrorist organization. Once again, we go back to the ridiculous issue of the Palestinian textbooks, as if bombing civilians and keeping them in a prison were not textbook enough for Palestinian hatred. So, yes, the textbooks don't promote peace, no, they aren't as bad as the critics say they are, etc., etc., Love that middle! The real purpose of the report is to deligitimize the political rights of the refugees and their supporters, to view the issue of the refugees a humanitarian one that should be solved by resettling them. The author clearly rejects calls for the return of the refugees because he accepts the liberal Israeli narrative. That is his prerogative. But his appeal to "depoliticize" UNRWA is itself a political one, a partisan stance, just as political as those who want UNRWA to foster Palestinian nationalism. The report would have been less disappointing had it been less partisan, had it attempted to present both sides of the story without landing in the (liberal Zionist) middle that is the accepted discourse in such circles. It has now been presented to the Obama administration. Let's hope the folks there take it with more than one grain of zahatar. | <urn:uuid:83d9692a-fd38-497a-b09b-fc8f16cb1e61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jeremiahhaber.com/2009_01_01_archive.html | 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 | 0.971348 | 636 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Those of us in the Slow Food movement applaud the movie, "Food Inc.," that was shown this past weekend at the True/False fest. It joins the pantheon of recent movies (King Corn, The Future of Food etc.) that lift the veil on how our food system operates.
If you saw the movie and feel moved to action, here is a simple way to voice your opinion. Go to
http://fooddeclaration.org/ and send a message to our policymakers. This declaration was signed at Slow Food Nation last September in San Francisco by all the heavyweights in the food-activist movement, including Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, Marion Nestle, Daniel Imhoff and Wendell Berry.
It's a beautifully written document that will inspire you to make a difference! Of course, we encourage you to join the Slow Food movement, as well. We're working hard locally, nationally and internationally to promote food that is good, clean and fair.
Join our local chapter (Slow Food Katy Trail) today at http://www.slowfoodusa.org/ | <urn:uuid:6178c6ed-a4d8-4423-8fac-4c5f253de78b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://slowfoodkatytrail.blogspot.com/2009/03/fed-up-with-food-system.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941793 | 220 | 1.726563 | 2 |
|My spider does nothing all day - what is wrong ?|
|Saturday, 05 August 2006|
My spider does nothing all day - what is wrong ?
Absolutely nothing ! Spiders that sit there, not moving, are, generally speaking, perfectly content. Perfect 'happy spider' pose is with legs spread out evenly, and palps resting on the ground. They 'look' relaxed, and if this is the normal state of your spider, then you are doing your job as keeper well.
Spiders that are less happy, or don't like their conditions will appear more agitated, move around more, climb excessively, and find it difficult to get comfortable. Over time, if they are forced to endure unsuitable conditions they may become uncharacteristically stressed, aggressive or flighty.
|Last Updated ( Sunday, 13 August 2006 )|
|< Prev||Next >| | <urn:uuid:ff2bd6c9-4efa-48bd-a178-955325408e6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thespiderdiaries.co.uk/content/view/88/30/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952231 | 181 | 1.625 | 2 |
Please click below for details on our projects.
This is an ongoing project (from the 2009/10 financial year), with objectives that include:
- To ensure that existing access centres (Telecentres and School Cyberlabs) are effectively operated and self sustainable over long term periods; and
- To allow the Agency to use its future budgets effectively to deploy more access centres in the country.
The project is designed to follow 5 phases, which are being implemented by a service provider that was appointed through a public bidding process. These include:
- Phase 1: Audit and Needs assessment of all existing access centres to determine their existing infrastructure and operational needs;
- Phase 2: Rehabilitation of all access centres, based on the findings of Phase 1;
- Phase 3: Training and skills development of access centre governance and operational structures;
- Phase 4: Signing of handover agreements (between the Agency and Governance Structures) and disbursement of necessary funds;
- Phase 5: Ongoing mentoring and monitoring and evaluation of operations.
The Rapid Deployment Project is designed to allow the sector to publicly bid for subsidies to deploy public access technologies that ensure access to ICT services in under-serviced and uneconomical areas of the country. The Invitation to Apply was published through national newspapers and the Government Gazette and a minimum of 3 entities will be issued with subsidies.
The objectives of this project include:
- To rapidly deploy public access technologies in under-serviced areas;
- To work in collaboration with the ICT sector to ensure long term sustainability of public access technologies in under-serviced areas;
- To ensure the deployment of innovative technologies in under-serviced areas; and
- To stimulate entrepreneurship in under-serviced areas.
The Set-Top Box Subsidy project seeks to:
- Ensure that the objectives of the “Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy of South Africa” are met;
- Ensure an efficient process of providing subsidies to poor TV-owning households; and
- Ensure that the 5 Million poor TV-owning households targeted for subsidisation do indeed purchase Set-Top Boxes and become part of a Digital South Africa.
The subsidy model that has been adopted by stakeholders in the BDM programme, and that is in line with the “Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy of South Africa” is the retailing model, where subsidies are provided directly to households through a process whereby:
- Households apply for subsidies through existing infrastructure, which includes Municipal Offices, Traditional Houses, Post Office and Retail Outlets that seek to participate;
- Information provided is verified against existing information sources (SABC TV License database, Social Development database, Municipal Indigent household lists, etc.); and
- Approved households receive coupons and use these to purchase an STB at a discount (one STB per poor TV-owning household).
b. As part of Phase 1, the only criteria to be used to determine a poor TV-owning household is a concessionary TV license, as issued by the SABC to TV-owning households that receive either a pension or social grant and to persons over the age of 70. There are over 810,000 concessionary TV license holders, according to the SABC. | <urn:uuid:aba23c97-4fa9-4f04-97bc-ca256f3864ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usaasa.org.za/usaif/projects.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932683 | 675 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Square Pegs, Round Holes, and Pet Parenting
Have you ever encountered one of those parents that insists their child grow up to be a doctor, lawyer, or run the family business while ignoring their child's innate talents, drives, and desires, often to the point of intentionally overlooking or downplaying skill and accomplishment in other arenas? Have you ever met the child who is a musical prodigy and yet whose parents are disappointed in her because she's not a math whiz?
These kind of situations always make me sad. Whether you believe God, genetics, drive, or passion creates success in a given field or specialty, the fact is that we are all blessed with very important, individual gifts. Gifts that we are meant to share with the world, gifts that, when left unwrapped, prevent us from reaching our full potential.
Believe it or not, the phenomena of trying to squeeze square pegs into round holes is as common in pet parenting as it is in parenting a human child.
People get a puppy and say...
"This puppy is going to be a service dog when she grows up."
"This puppy is going to be on the U.S. National agility team when he matures."
"This puppy is going to be a therapy animal."
"This adopted dog is going to love all kids and allow them to climb all over, pinch and poke at, and harass her, all while chewing happily on her bone."
"My new Jack Russell puppy is going to be a flyball champ."
The problem is, nobody consults the dogs when making these plans. Not every dog has the temperament to be a service dog. In fact, I'd venture that fewer than 5% of dogs can thrive in and actually ENJOY employment as service animals. You may have purchased a Lab because you want to participate in dock diving, only to find that your Lab really doesn't like swimming very much and would prefer to put her sniffer to work in a Nose Games class.
I wish people would pay more attention to what their dogs like, want, and need. Mokie has reliable enough behavior where I could probably put her in a therapy environment and I'm sure her beautiful fluffiness would bring much joy to the people she visited.
I could cue her to hold a stationary position while people petted her, fawned over her, and gave her kisses. However, she would hate it. The entire time she would look at me with these pathetic eyes as if to say, "I'm only doing this for you, can't wait until it's over, and wish you would get me out of here." She would tolerate this activity, but no part of her would enjoy it. I would feel like I let her down. If I do therapy work with a pet someday, I want it to be fun for both of us. If it's fun for me and miserable for my dog, I need to rethink my priorities.
There are many, many things I love about my mother. She is beautiful, strong, funny, intelligent, witty, devoted, and a total inspiration to me. She is an amazing woman. One of the things I love best about my mom is that no matter what I did, as long as I did my best at it, she was proud of me.
She was proud of me when I played sports, performed in concerts, plays, and musicals, celebrated academic accomplishments with me, and supported me when I went to college. She also supported me through some of my less glamorous endeavors, like my admittedly lucrative and successful but by no means respectable former career as a bartender in a number of dive bars. She supports me now, as a wife, author, dog trainer, and entrepreneur. No matter what I do, if I do my best and I do it with passion, I can count on her full support. Maybe she did want me to be a doctor, who knows? The impression I always got was just that she wanted me to succeed and, whenever possible, enjoy what I do and do what I enjoy.
I don't have human children, but I am blessed to share my home with four wonderful animals and one beautiful spirit Saint who watches over me from heaven each day. I want to be, to them, the kind of guardian and advocate my mom always was for me. I want to pay attention to what kind of activities they enjoy, to find ways to provide them with access to those opportunities, and to encourage their best efforts in their chosen interests.
I love Chows and also would like to do therapy work with one of my dogs someday. I have never thought to myself, "I'll just make Mokie do it!" knowing that she would hate it. I have, however, discovered that Mokie very much likes hiking, swimming, backpacking, and agility.
I also now have Cuba, who does seem to have delightful enthusiasm and potential for future therapy work and perhaps I will pursue that goal with him. Cuba likes swimming, but not as much as Mokie, and I don't see myself forcing him to become a dock diving star when he already seems to have an affinity for agility equipment. I'd like to do carting and weight pulling with him when he grows up, but only if he is an enthusiastic and willing partner in these types of activities. If he doesn't like it, we'll find something he does like.
If I was the kind of gal who hoped to have human children someday, I hope I would be the kind of parent that would be happy with her child, whether he grew up to be a garbage man or the President of the United States. The kind of parent that would provide him with the support and encouragement needed to do whatever it is that would make him happy and fulfilled according to HIS, not my own, definition of personal success. | <urn:uuid:777973a9-7f5b-47a1-8489-031336a6899d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dogster.com/lifestyle/square-pegs-round-holes-and-pet-parenting | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98803 | 1,203 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Where the world is your classroom: ITTT offers a variety of high quality, accredited TEFL / TESOL courses. Our teacher training courses enable our graduate English teachers to obtain EFL/ESL/TESOL jobs overseas and to teach English abroad. Internationally recognized courses in...Learn More
Jobs Abroad in Australia
- Search for 33 organizations offering a total of 85 Jobs Abroad programs -
Put In A Hard Day’s Yakka In Australia, Mate!
The iconic Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge, beautiful beaches, and friendly people are only a few of the many charms found in Australia. Spanning the quiet coasts of Perth, the desolate red rock of the Outback, and the pristine waters that surround the Great Barrier Reef, the land Down Under draws travelers of all kinds from around the world. But why not trade in your tourist visa and really get to know the true Aussie lifestyle — by working abroad in Australia.
A full moon and a beautiful vista in Melbourne, Australia by Troy Peden
How To Live And Work In Australia
Most people don’t realize that getting an Australian work visa is relatively easy. Filling out a simple online application and submitting some basic documents is usually all it takes to secure a one-year working visa in Australia. A standard work visa allows the holder to accept any sort of position for a maximum of 6 months during the year-long visa, and work up to 40 hours per week.
For most people, working abroad makes it possible to enjoy an extended stay in a foreign country, and enjoy all the benefits that come with it: travel, meeting people, and having new adventures. This visa allows for up to 6 months full-time employment, but allows the visa holder to stay for up to a year. It’s intended for visitors to work in various positions around Australia and to encourage them to explore the country. Most travelers get jobs in Australia in the service or hospitality industry (bars, restaurants, hotels, and guesthouses), or seek work through temp agencies that can find them short-term jobs in administrative office positions.
Beyond the Visa: Living Down Under
“Get a Flat and a Flatmate, Mate!” Finding housing while working abroad in Australia can pose a challenge, as there are many other foreigners in Australia also searching for living space. Finding a house-share is the most common way to secure housing and roommates in many areas of the country. Aussies tend to move around their own country almost as much as travelers do, so there is always someone looking to share a flat. A good place to start the housing search from abroad is with online classified ads, such as Gumtree (the Australian equivalent to Craigslist), or university websites with housing sections. Some travelers prefer to stay in a hostel or guesthouse for the first few days or weeks upon arrival, while getting to know the area and finding local resources for housing.
“How Ya Going?” English is spoken here, but don’t get too comfortable, English speakers: Aussie slang can seem like a foreign language! If an Australian asks you to “put the esky in the boot,” will you stare blankly at him, or will you know to put the cooler in the trunk? Aussies will often make up slang on the drop of the hat. Rolling with the punches and joining in on the fun of their dialogue will not only add to the experience, but will provide some great lingo to bring home!
“Gotta Love the Yanks.” While it may seem on the surface that Australia is only home to blonde surfer babes, it is actually a melting pot of cultures and a great place to meet people from around the world. Australia’s native Aboriginal culture shines through in many towns across the country, and there is always an opportunity to learn the history of its native land. Australia is a “backpacker nation,” as a popular destination for travelers from Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and it’s home to many Asian immigrants as well. The chance to interact with people from Sweden, Chile, and China in the same day is not at all uncommon.
“Let’s Grab a Schnitty and Chips!” A traditional country of the Commonwealth, Australia certainly partakes in the tradition of fish and chips; this ubiquitous dish is available in most of the restaurants or cafés around the country. But trying a chicken schnitzel is a must — do your taste buds a favor and add a savory topping to it, such as garlic prawns. Australians are big-time carnivores, so a juicy steak at the local pub is a common dinner for them. Adventurous visitors will want to sample the cooked kangaroo! The quintessential Aussie food, vegemite, is a must-try for any visitor Down Under. This very salty paste is a staple for almost all Aussies.
“Time for Holiday!” Besides the standard tourist destinations of Sydney, Melbourne, Uluru, and the Great Barrier Reef, Australia has many beautiful landscapes that will leave any visitor in awe. Small coastal towns are definitely worth the visit and can showcase the true Australian laid-back lifestyle with surfers, boys playing rugby in the sand, and sunbathers baking on the beach. Australians are sport fanatics, so when visiting the country, watching a game of footy or cricket is an absolute must! Gambling or “punting” in Aussie lingo is a favorite pastime of many Australians. You can catch many people making their way to the pub on a Saturday afternoon to watch horse races, or getting dolled up to head to the swanky racecourses in many towns to have a few beers and bet on the horses in person.
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Can't find what you're looking for? Get Advice! | <urn:uuid:9f4c8042-0fae-4e9b-b497-7527f9201541> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jobs.goabroad.com/search/australia/jobs-abroad-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936163 | 2,261 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The only purpose to raise taxes is to allow Congress to spend at their leisure. The idea to cut spending is heresy to Democrats. In fact, raising the debt limit was a mistake. Amassing trillion of dollars in yearly deficits will destroy this economy. Raising taxes will deter business to grow, business won't hire people, and may cause some business to go into bankruptcy. Also, it will cause more people to work less hard, less hours, and be less productive. In hope to spread the blame, Democrats want to share their stupidity in raising taxes with Republicans. I highly doubt Republicans will fall for it.
(Reuters) - Democrats want tax hikes to be the first item negotiated in "super committee" deficit-reduction talks, trying to force Republicans to confront an issue at the heart of this year's budget fights, sources told Reuters.
The tough stance by Democratic members of the powerful 12-member congressional panel reflects the party's wariness that Republicans might try to sideline the issue of revenue increases in the negotiations.
"They've raised the idea of doing taxes first," a Republican aide involved in the discussions said on Friday on condition of anonymity.
The panel has the task of finding ways of cutting the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. If it fails to agree on a plan by November 23, automatic spending cuts will be triggered, beginning in 2013.
If Democrats hold firm to their demand for taxes to be discussed first, that could make it hard for the committee to make the tight November deadline. Congress is due to vote on the panel's recommendations by December 23.
During the super committee's initial closed-door meetings, "Republicans wanted to just talk about spending cuts and Democrats said, 'No,'" the aide said.
Republicans strongly oppose tax hikes, arguing they will hurt an anemic economic recovery. But they have not ruled out closing some tax loopholes as part of tax reform. Democrats, including President Barack Obama, insist revenue increases must be part of any deficit reduction deal.
Democrats' calls for increasing taxes on the rich may have been bolstered by a new Congressional Research Service analysis. The September 23 report obtained by Reuters concluded that letting decade-old tax cuts for the wealthy expire at the end of next year as scheduled "could help reduce budget deficits in the short term without stifling the economic recovery." | <urn:uuid:1037f1d8-a7a3-47e2-bef6-b3f05cb32013> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://conservativeviewsforthegrassroots.blogspot.com/2011/10/democrat-senate-want-tax-hikes-to-be.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96465 | 476 | 1.679688 | 2 |
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - Gov. Andrew Cuomo is meeting with utility officials and state regulators as a wave of severe storms cross the state.
The National Weather Service gave Cuomo a pre-emptive warning about the possibility that severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.
Cuomo says he will meet Thursday with the leadership of Con Edison, the New York Power Authority, and the state Public Service Commission to make sure the New York City area is prepared.
About 10,000 utility customers in western New York and Sullivan County northwest of New York City have lost power as New Yorkers are being warned of the possibility of severe weather. The power losses Thursday morning came as thunderstorms move eastward across the state.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) | <urn:uuid:ff10b01c-f5b3-451f-a31d-bb0e4f5376f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news10.com/story/19121260/ny-braces-for-storms-10000-lose-power-in-ny | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94173 | 161 | 1.804688 | 2 |
The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) requires that all full-time teacher candidates who are seeking certification through regular teacher education programs be trained in a Professional Development School (PDS). These partnerships exist as collaborative coalitions among colleges and universities, school systems, and individual schools.The work of the PDS is centered in the goals of the individual school's plan for improvement based on specific goals and objectives that are aligned with state curriculum and testing mandates. Teacher interns must be in the PDS a minimum of 100 days in two consecutive semesters. Teacher interns become totally engaged in the outcome-based performances of preK-12 students and reflect that engagement through their own performance- and standards-based, and rubric assessed portfolios. Maryland has adopted the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium [InTASC] standards, to which Towson align all of our evaluation data.
During the past decade, PDS has
represented the most widespread reform in Maryland's teacher preparation programs. PDS sites have increased by 1,479%. Today 92% of all
new teachers graduating from Maryland's colleges and universities in regular teacher preparation programs are trained in PDS.
Recent research on the PDS produced the following data after following graduates for five years:
MARYLAND PDS RESEARCH FINDINGS:
FIVE YEARS: Retention: Class of 2001*
*N= 87 Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Ed. Graduates in 00-01.
A statewide accountability structure is in place to monitor and assess the proliferation of PDS for quality assurance and continued growth. MSDE staff meets regularly with school system PDS liaisons to ensure the necessary exchange of information about PDS. MSDE provides a high level of technical assistance to ensure that PDS continues to be the cornerstone of teacher preparation, and that data collection is ongoing and critically analyzed to facilitate the simultaneous excellence in teacher preparation and school improvement that PDS represents. Additional information can be found at the MSDE website click here to view.
Center for Professional Practice
Hawkins Hall, Room 303 | <urn:uuid:9c93ef5f-fb37-4b49-8267-9fac9db6dc25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.towson.edu/coe/cpp/pds/index.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932456 | 421 | 1.828125 | 2 |
SPOKANE, Wash. — Sister Mary Eucharista, 51, a member of the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church, remembers the day Pope Benedict XVI was elected. I can’t believe it; he’s the Pope, she recalls thinking.
It was a significant admission for Sister Mary Eucharista, who at the time was a member of the Religious Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen. As sedevacantists, they do not accept the legitimacy of the Popes since the Second Vatican Council because they have espoused modernist doctrines over traditional Catholic teachings.
Sister Mary Eucharista’s acceptance of Benedict as Pope caused an irreparable split in her community and would ultimately lead her and 14 other nuns to leave a place they had come to love.
According to William Marshner, professor of theology at Christendom College in Virginia, sedevacantists base their argument on an obscure bull issued in the 1550s by Pope Paul IV which pronounced excommunication against anyone who secretly held any sort of heresy. Anyone in the hierarchy who was even suspected of heresy was deprived of office.
But, says Marshner, sedevacantists seem be unaware of a canon from the Fourth Council of Constantinople that says one cannot accuse one’s ecclesiastical superior of heresy or of a crime without a canonical process. “You can’t set yourself up as judge and jury,” he said.
Sister Mary Eucharista began having doubts about sedevacantism as early as 1993. She prayed for guidance, and increasingly began talking with Catholics in the “mainstream” Church.
Mother Kathryn Joseph, mother general of the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church, left the schismatic congregation along with Sister Mary Eucharista. Her own sedevacantist views began to soften in 2000, when she took part in a pilgrimage to Rome and saw rank-and-file Catholics going to confession, praying the Rosary and being reverent in Church. She came home hopeful of a possible reconciliation with Rome.
By 2005, things reached a boiling point. Sister Mary Eucharista had spent much time in prayer and conversations with Catholics in communion with the Church, culminating with her acceptance of Pope Benedict upon his election. She spoke of her views with her fellow sisters, and her mother superior ordered her to remain silent.
The next year, some of the nuns went to the bishop of Spokane, William Skylstad, seeking to be regularized. Meanwhile, some of the Mary Immaculate nuns contacted Mark Pivarunas, the superior general of the organization, to ask him to do something about the division in their community. Pivarunas, in turn, wrote each of the “dissident” sisters telling them to keep quiet about their positions or leave the community. So, in June 2007, 15 of the nuns left.
With the blessing of Bishop Skylstad, the sisters formed the public association Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church. Their chief apostolates include teaching and working at Immaculate Heart Retreat Center in Spokane. It is still a period of discernment for the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church; some have already left to found new religious communities.
Bishop Skylstad is pleased with the outcome of the sisters’ journey. “It is with profound gratitude and appreciation of their courage that we received them into full communion with the Church,” he said. “Our prayers for unity were answered. It shows that with the power of the Holy Spirit, miracles can happen. It’s wonderful.”
A longer version of this article appeared at NCRegister.com.
Jim Graves writes from Newport Beach, California. | <urn:uuid:3efe6b2b-2179-475f-9f08-091004621da7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/sisters-reunite-with-church/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97311 | 787 | 1.539063 | 2 |
May 22, 2013
Crime, Poverty and Education: It’s Not Rocket Science
Posted on Sep 25, 2007
Truthdig regulars Sheerly Avni, James Harris and Josh Scheer put their heads together to try to figure out why the big problems that plague our communities never get solved.
Click here to listen to this interview.
James Harris: This is Truthdig. James Harris here with Josh Scheer and Sheerly Avni. I’ve got three Truthdiggers in the same room. If you haven’t read Sheerly’s article on Oakland, you certainly should do just that. She talks about the influence of Ecstasy, and Ecstasy being one of the contributors to the rise in crime and the rise in the murder rate in Oakland in 2006. Josh, you were sharing some statistics with me, and you were quite frankly surprised to see Oakland very high up on the murder list. Higher than Los Angeles, higher than some other cities that you mentioned. What shocked you so much about that?
Josh Scheer: It’s shocking to find them. I don’t know about Sheerly, whether it was hard to find them. But the ones I did find were from 2003. I was shocked that New York only has a 7.4 murder rate, whereas Detroit has a 39.4 murder rate. I could assume that some place like Camden, N.J., or Detroit, where they already have the bad media image; but certainly with Oakland or Atlanta, Ga., which has a high murder rate, I was shocked with St. Louis—I was shocked with St. Louis being one of the most dangerous cities in 2006.
Sheerly Avni: Well, I think for me, I would say that Ecstasy is more of a symptom and that the chief diseases are ones that we know really well. ... It has to do with the fact that we have a public school system that was so completely corrupt and dysfunctional that it had to be taken over by the state. You have broken families, you have Oakland being one of the first communities that was really devastated by the crack epidemic, which means you have multigenerational dysfunction in the families. The list goes on and on and on and on. The specific thing about Ecstasy that was important to me was that the only reason I even knew that Ecstasy was having a big impact on the lives of the kids was because I happen to work for this publication that goes into juvenile hall every week. And that’s been going on for the past 10 years. So I’ve been hearing about kids “thizzing,” which is what they call it, and taking Ecstasy in a way that’s completely different from the way in which most of the people in mainstream media, who write about drugs and Ecstasy, remember that particular drug. So, it was more that, like I said in the piece, we’re all sitting around trying to understand what’s happening. The blind people touching different parts of an elephant, trying to understand what’s going on, and nobody’s paying attention to the kids, who have been screaming literally for at least five years, “I’m being killed by an elephant.” When the kids describe what “thizzing” has done to them, they describe it in the same lethal terms that you hear some of the white and Latino kids talking about what crystal meth has done to them. Which is, it has straight-up destroyed their lives. So that’s why I wanted to bring it to the fore.
Harris: I don’t understand how you go from popping a pill, or rolling, to shooting somebody. So what was the correlation that they were drawing?
Avni: Well, a couple of kids have written that you take the pills in order to get the heart, or you take the pills to get the courage to go up and do something crazy. You take the pills because it’s a way of letting off steam, and you take the pills because at some times, “Oh, man, take this, it will make you feel really good.” And we all know Ecstasy makes people feel absolutely great. But the quality of, and the proportions of MDMA to speed that you can get in your drugs, has gone down over the course of the past decade, and now, let’s say in the club scene, in the white mainstream middle-class club scene, cocaine is so cheap that cocaine has pretty much replaced Ecstasy as the drug of choice, in part because it’s so hard to get pure MDMA. What the kids are getting, mostly through the Asian street gangs, is Ecstasy that, if it’s even got any MDMA in it, is cut with so much speed that they’re mixing—. So let’s say you’re taking speed to go up, you’re drinking cough syrup to go down, you are smoking weed to go down. What you end up with is a brain that’s just completely not functional. And as one of the kids in a poem for the piece wrote, “If you feel like killing, then you’re going to feel more like killing. If you’re feeling bad, it’s going to make you feel worse.” And these are children who for the most part, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder ... because usually they know someone has died in the past month—that’s how the statistics play out. So, yeah, they’re feeling bad, they’re feeling mean, they’re full of anger. Guns are really easy to get. And one of the things you read about more and more is that killings in Oakland used to be based on specific grievances and specific drug wars and specific revenge and turfs and this and that and the other. Now, many more of the killings are just random and violent. Someone was in the wrong place at the wrong time after someone got disrespected at a party. That, to me, is more of a culture of just like reckless abandon, going wild, going dumb, than anything we’ve seen in Oakland thus far.
New and Improved Comments | <urn:uuid:3324329c-13be-4f0c-833f-d59ac9115371> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070925_crime_poverty_and_education_its_not_rocket_science/?/interview/item/20070925_crime_poverty_and_education_its_not_rocket_science/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976207 | 1,306 | 1.625 | 2 |
Inge Borg Scott: Daydream
20 November 2009—1 February 2010
In the Gallery Café
Inge Borg Scott, August Moon. Acrylic on aluminium, diameter 91.5 cm In this exhibition of recent works by Inge Borg Scott, aluminium discs normally used in aircraft construction are fused with precious metals to reveal images of kaleidoscopic momentum.
Professor Maurice Cockrill RA, Keeper of the Royal Academy, says: "This exhibition is notable both for its technical and thematic differences and for its resplendent colour and vibrant, expressive handling of a range of materials, including the notoriously intractable encaustic.
"The colour is dynamic and rich and through a whole spectral range. The spate of lively imagery shows no sign of abating and this journey of discovery continues to unfold, revealing every new delights and pictorial inventions".
Inge Borg Scott was born and educated in Germany. She has organised many arts events and curated many exhibitions. Her work has been extensively exhibited in the United Kingdom and abroad. Further information can be found at www.ingeborgscott.com. | <urn:uuid:9f70c0f6-6a99-4a6e-9a2e-f78099c3978d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/gallery-cafe/inge-borg-scott-daydream,299,RAL.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948802 | 227 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Faithful to Canada, and Honoured by Canadians
In 2001, Beechwood became the home of the National Military Cemetery of the Canadian Forces. Section 103 is dedicated to honouring the memory of Canadian service personnel who faithfully served their country in war and peace, at home and abroad, sometimes making the supreme sacrifice on its behalf. It occupies 8.29 acres of beautifully landscaped terrain that is maintained by The Beechwood Cemetery Foundation in partnership with the Department of National Defence (DND). In 2003 DND exercised an option to purchase the burial rights to another section, expanding the National Military Cemetery by 2 hectares. It consists of about 12,000 spaces for traditional interments and cremated remains.
In 2007 The Beechwood Cemetery Foundation, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Department of National Defence and Veterans Affairs Canada established the National Military Cemetery. It brought together all those who died on active service, whose death was related to service or who served honourably and chose to rest among their comrades in the sacred grounds of sections 19, 27, 29 and 103.
All currently serving and honourably released Regular and Reserve Force members of The Canadian Forces, members honourably released from a former Canadian Service, Canadian Veterans of the World Wars or Korean War and the Canadian Merchant Navy, are eligible to be interred in the NMC. One designated family member may also be interred in the same plot as the service member. Verification of entitlement will be established in every case.
A completed application should be forwarded to the DND address below. Qualified applicants will be notified of their acceptance and authorized to make arrangements directly with the Liaison to the NMC.
c/o Director of Casualty Support Management
National Defence Headquarters
Major-General Georges R Pearkes Building
101 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0K2
Once eligibility has been determined, applicants may complete their pre-arrangements. Beechwood's Liaison will coordinate the purchase, production and installation of a headstone in accordance with specifications that are pre-determined by DND. Graves will not be pre-selected nor will they be allocated on the basis of rank, service, regiment or personal preference.
Subject to availability and according to the wishes of the family, a military presence can be made available at graveside service when conducted within Section 103. This includes an Honour Guard, Padre, Bugler or Piper. Military presence is provided out of respect to the member, and fees will not be assessed for this service.
Manon Bourbeau, Liaison to the National Military Cemetery
Michel Falardeau, Liaison to the National Military Cemetery | <urn:uuid:0e31c1ee-4218-49d7-8093-5e5c105bb3e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.beechwoodcemetery.com/index.php/en/the-cemetery/the-national-military-cemetery.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941593 | 545 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Father Pat's Pastoral Ponderings
September 30, 2007
Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost
The Lord's victory over death is the demonstration, not only of His power, but also of His compassion. Given the full human trauma of death, both remedies are required.
Death, after all, entails not only the collapse of the personal human structure (the separation of soul and body, the physical decay of the latter, and the eternal loss of the former), but also the radical dissolution of society, the decomposition of human relationships, the severing of those ties of love that bind us mortal beings together. If the power of Christ can be said to remedy the problem of personal corruption, perhaps we can say that the compassion of Christ is directed against our dilemma of social dissolution. Having considered the power of the risen Christ with respect to the one, therefore, it is time to reflect on His compassion with respect to the other.
When God's holy Word portrays the compassion of Jesus in the presence of death, our attention is directed chiefly at the obvious social consequence of death, the separation that it creates among loved ones. This perspective is clear, for instance, in the story of the widow of Nain, who had lost her only son. "When the Lord saw her," we are told, "He had compassion on her and said to her, 'Do not weep.' Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, 'Young man, I say to you, arise'" (Luke 7:13-14, emphasis added). In this text we observe that nothing is said about the Lord's concern for the dead man; it speaks only of his compassion for the mother. It is to her grieving heart that Jesus directs His attention. Indeed, our Lord exercises here His power over death in order to express His compassion over sorrow, and this priority is conveyed by Luke's remark that Jesus "presented him to his mother" (7:15).
The same perspective is also clear, I think, in the story of the raising of Lazarus. As our Lord approaches the tomb of His deceased friend, He first encounters the two sorrowing sisters, both of whom say, "If You had been here, my brother would not have died" (John 11:21,32). This near-reproach by the sisters gives voice not only to a fact but also to a feeling. Consequently, John goes on to portray the compassion of Jesus as He comes to the tomb. Prior to manifesting His power with respect to the dead man ("Lazarus, come forth!), Jesus first displays His compassion for the grieving sisters ("And Jesus wept.") That is to say, Jesus first addresses the feeling before He deals with the fact. Indeed, the prior depth of His mercy is what prompts the ensuing display of His power.
In both these cases the Lord's first attention is directed, then, not to the persons that have died, but to those that are left behind, the dear ones that death has touched and deeply wounded. For death is not only decay; it is also bereavement at the loss of loved ones. Just as the power of Christ prevails in the first, so His compassion prevails in the second, because victory over death means both things. Consequently, when "there shall be no more death," we are assured, there shall also be "no sorrow nor crying" (Revelation 21:4).
Significantly, our extant literature's first reference to the resurrection of the dead was addressed to Christians suffering bereavement at the loss of loved ones. In A. D. 50 Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, "I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13, emphasis added). The apostle then went on to expound the doctrine of the resurrection as the foundation of Christian comfort, and he finished by exhorting the bereaved, "Therefore comfort one another with these words" (4:18). That is to say, Paul wrote those expressions of hope in order to address, not the problem of despair, but the pangs of sadness.
What the resurrection promises to Christians, then, is not only their personal integrity recovered and transfigured in glory but also the final and transformed restoration of their community, all those loving tendrils that tie them together and comprise a "we." Thus, Paul uses entirely corporate language to describe this foundation of the Christian hope: "we shall always be with the Lord" (4:17). And again, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable" (1 Corinthians 15:19). For this reason, the hope of believers is necessarily a shared expectation of comfort, when "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (Revelation 7:17).
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Read past essays and listen to podcasts by Fr. Reardon.
Books by Fr. Reardon: | <urn:uuid:f0dbee81-8049-4239-904c-e252fc39cd7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles7/ReardonCompassion.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961166 | 1,053 | 1.828125 | 2 |
ASSEF Announces 2012 Recipients
The America Responds Memorial Scholarship and the Harry Taback 9/11 Memorial Scholarship were created after the terrorist attacks to honor those who were killed.
The American Society of Safety Engineers Foundation has announced the 2012 recipients of the America Responds Memorial Scholarship and the Harry Taback 9/11 Memorial Scholarship, both of which were established after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to honor those who died.
The America Responds scholarship provides $1,000 each year to an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in occupational safety and health or a closely related field, and this year's recipient is Charles Frey, who is studying fire protection and safety technology at Oklahoma State University. The Taback scholarship's recipient is Shane Ferguson, who is studying safety sciences at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Past winners of the America Responds scholarship include Frank Disori, who studied at Millersville University in Millersville, Pa.; Wade Baily, Indiana University of PA; Bethany Holyoak, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; Benjamin Jon Mollman, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; Ryan Kiley, Millersville University; Jacqueline Harvey, Slippery Rock University, Pa.; Nicholas Anthony Borsa, Indiana University of PA; Christopher Skipper, Millersville University; and Eric Kerns, Marshall University, Huntington, W.Va.
The Taback scholarshp was established by the children of Harry Taback, a Marsh and McLennan executive and ASSE member who died while at work in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Cheryl, Lori and Tracy Taback donated $23,000 to the ASSE Foundation to create it. According to the foundation, Taback helped to establish one of ASSEF's first corporate scholarships through Marsh.
Past recipients of the Taback scholarship include Scott Merrell, Millersville University; Julie Pendergrass, Millersville University; Megan Karie, Oakland University, Mich.; Patrick T. Karl, Slippery Rock University; Tyler Bean, Slippery Rock University; and, Julie Barbaro, Oakland University. | <urn:uuid:9f945297-61d0-4420-80b3-fc5865825162> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ohsonline.com/articles/2012/09/11/assef-announces-2012-recipients.aspx?admgarea=news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938386 | 433 | 1.515625 | 2 |
High school student heads to inaugurationby Nikki Tundel, Minnesota Public Radio,
Steven John, Minnesota Public Radio
People around the country are scrambling and scrounging to get tickets for Tuesday's presidential inaugural ceremonies. Not Erik Vergiels. The Fergus Falls high schooler has had his ticket for months.
Vergiels, 15, will be attending Barack Obama's inauguration as part of the five-day Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference. It was a teacher's nomination that landed the Minnesota student in the national leadership program.
Vergiels admits Obama wasn't his first choice to lead the nation. If he were old enough to vote, the high school sophomore would have cast his ballot for Republican John McCain. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't love to meet the president-elect.
"I would say, 'I'm very honored to meet you, Mr. Obama.' And, 'Good luck.' That's what I would say," said Vergiels. "Americans, no matter Republican or Democrat or independent, Americans should support the president, whoever it may be."
Vergiels says he's thrilled to be able to witness history firsthand. He loves politics and last year served as class president.
"Nothing too hard about it. Remember, it's basic high school class positions. You don't really get to do that much."
Eventually he's hoping to move on to more challenging political posts. And Vergiels doesn't rule out running for U.S. president himself someday. For now, though, the teenager's focus is on choosing the right attire for all the inaugural events he'll be attending.
"There's no day when you should be wearing causal, unless if you're in your hotel room. If you're in there, you can wear casual because you don't have any place to go to," said Vergiels. "But you should wear like polo shirts, sports jackets. And then we have to go to a ball where you should be very dressed up, more like a tuxedo with a bow tie."
"I'm imagining it to be like a fancier Snow Ball, because Snow Ball here is a pretty fancy event. But it's really just a lot of dancing."
Erik Vergiels will be dancing Tuesday night away at one of the many galas being held in conjunction with Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony. This year there will be 10 official inaugural balls, and countless unofficial ones.
- All Things Considered, 01/16/2009, 5:50 p.m.
Nikki Tundel reports and produces stories for MPR News' Minnesota Mix project. | <urn:uuid:4d648adc-2922-46f9-84b8-ee978a170d9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/01/16/student_iinauguration | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965917 | 546 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Boston College Steps Up Sustainability Initiatives
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. (August 2012) — Members of this year’s Boston College freshman class will be given reusable water bottles as an alternative to plastic containers, and all students living on campus will receive a free, energy-saving LED light bulb, as the University continues its campaign for sustainability.
Other recent sustainability initiatives have included the University’s first-ever “Zero Waste” event on Aug. 3, and the second installment of the “BC Clean” program to clear residence halls of trash and discarded student belongings.
“We’ve been very encouraged by the interest and enthusiasm shown throughout the Boston College community,” said Robert Pion, program director of the University’s Sustainability Program. “Whether it’s students or employees, there is clearly a lot of support on campus for sustainability efforts — and we look to expand these in the coming academic year.”
Pion said the plan to distribute water bottles to the Class of 2016 is a case of one sustainability initiative forming the basis for another. This past spring, Edmonds Hall won the “NRG Games” — a campus competition to see which residence hall can conserve the most energy — and earned the first prize of a pizza party for the hall’s residents. Instead, Edmonds representatives opted to donate the cost of the party to support another sustainable endeavor, Pion explained.
The Edmonds donation, with help from the Energy & Engineering Office and the Sustainability Program, will now go to encouraging this year’s freshman class to seek alternatives to purchasing bottled water. Reusable bottles, along with pamphlets on campus sustainability, will be distributed at the start of the fall semester, Pion said.
“The hope is to get freshmen off to a good start in conserving resources,” he said.
Also this fall, Pion said, in partnership with NStar, BC will offer residence hall students a free LED light bulb to replace a compact fluorescent or incandescent bulb. The LED bulb will save 80 to 90 percent energy in comparison to the replaced bulb.
On another front, Pion said the first “Zero Waste” event, which took place in conjunction with a cookout for the Facilities Services division, was a success. The goal, he said, is to keep the amount of trash to less than 10 percent of all waste generated at the event, by using compostable or recyclable materials wherever possible and encouraging attendees to dispose of these appropriately.
“There were 200 people at this event, and they really got into the ‘Zero Waste’ idea,” said Pion, who praised the cooperation shown by Facilities Services, the Bureau of Conferences and Dining Services. “Hopefully, it will serve as a model for future events on campus.”
Pion said this year’s “BC Clean” program showed tremendous growth from its debut last year, when it succeeded a similar initiative, “CleanSweep.”
“CleanSweep had been a very successful program, and many people across campus were generous with their time,” he said. “The idea to donate goods instead of disposing them made so much sense. However, while CleanSweep relied on volunteer and staff time, it required multiple moves of items being donated.
“With BC Clean, the two charities are on site and items are directly moved into the trucks, students’ cars or the dumpster. This program places responsibility on the students who have purchased and owned the various items.”
The amount of discarded furniture and other household items collected this past May and donated to the charity organization Household Goods Recycling Ministry was 35 percent above that of 2011. There also were increases in collections of clothing (48 percent) and food goods (38 percent), which were donated to St. Vincent de Paul.
“BC Clean demonstrates, again, how a coordinated effort can achieve great results,” said Pion, lauding the collaboration between Facilities Services and the offices of Residential Life and Waste Management, as well as the two charity organizations. | <urn:uuid:896dd3a2-d7dd-4f84-a4dc-907fd158e401> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/offices/pubaf/news/2012-jun-aug/sustainabilityupdate.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957283 | 871 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Ahh protein! Gotta have it, gotta love it! The million dollar questions are how much do we need per day and what is the best form to ingest? Let’s start with how much. Now, since this is a fitness site, I’m assuming those reading this are training on a regular basis and can benefit from the amounts discussed. The figures I’m about to present to you are based on research done by governing bodies like the FDA and Institute of Medicine’s Dietary Reference Intake. These experts, as well as experienced personal trainers and bodybuilders recommend 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight a day. For example, a 200 pound male should eat around 200 grams of protein throughout the day. This might sound like a lot, but if broken down to six meals a day, that’s about 34 grams per meal. The same formula also works for women. The type of proteins we eat is as important as how much. Protein comes in many forms. Meats, poultry, fish and nuts are the best forms of protein to choose from. You can also rely on protein powders to help supplement your diet. I always include some sort of protein with each meal to aid in building muscle and help speed up my metabolism. The more muscle you have, the more you metabolize fat. For the average fitness guru, a diet of lean meat, fish, fowl, eggs, dairy products, nuts and a protein drink once or twice a day will provide the protein and all-around nutrition required for muscle growth! Remember, if it swims or flies, eat it! | <urn:uuid:1fb183c8-19f1-4dbe-b890-6bc93bcc08b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mens-total-fitness.com/protein-the-right-way.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963787 | 333 | 1.78125 | 2 |
That's a paddlin'
Wikisimpsons - The Simpsons Wiki
After becoming a teacher at Springfield Elementary School after the teachers went on strike, Jasper was teaching Lisa's class. He threatened kids with a "paddlin'" if they did anything wrong, including simple stuff like looking out of the window.
Behind the Laughter
"That's a paddlin'" has became a minor meme on the Internet and is famous for Jasper threatening simple things with a "paddlin'". It has became somewhat of Jasper's unofficial catchphrase. | <urn:uuid:dda4016b-fafb-4536-bf4e-e8578dea42bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://simpsonswiki.net/wiki/That's_a_paddlin' | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961813 | 112 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Many of the writers at Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens have been contributing to a series of posts called “Plant This, Not That“. In each case, we highlight a couple of plants that are invasive and/or overused and then suggest some great native alternatives. In my most recent contribution, I focused on native groundcovers for Baltimore.
Today, I called attention to one of my absolute favorite books on native plants and one that happens to be organized along precisely the same lines. Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants, by C. Colston Burrell, is published by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and is consistently one of the most popular native plant books at local native plant sales. This is true among both novices and experienced native plant gardeners.
You can read my post there, Plant This, Not That: The Book, for the full review. | <urn:uuid:82403ccf-a0af-4a11-8e10-645abae540ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rolandparknative.org/blog/tag/biology/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95192 | 179 | 1.695313 | 2 |
09-10-2012 11:37 PM
This is a classic example of how far out of control and yet soooo important these scores have become. Once upon a time, the score could be likened to that of the label around a bottle of water. Today, I believe this same score is more like that of the water in the bottle. See, these scores determine if one obtains housing whether the application for this housing is to rent or to buy. Burden your mind with this, although the score is used to determine whether you obtain housing or not, it does not take into account ones rental history but hits one negatively if you do not have a mortgage. For this reason, I believe in full disclosure of all information that may or may not be used against me on the underwriters desk. In fact, lenders should allow the consumer to see their guidelines and pull the same score they will pull before them. I want my right to shop around without having to buy and/or be penalized for doing so.
10-01-2012 03:29 PM
How about giving us our credit scores for free. always. any time. FICO has every American by the short hairs. I refuse to pay you crooks for my own personal financial information. If anything, you should have to pay me for the priviledge of gathering my info. A person could spend hundreds of dollars chasing after credit scores that don't change. FICO should be ashamed of themselves. Making me pay for my own information is like coercion, or bribery. Your conduct is criminal, and hopefully in the future you'll all be jailed like the corporate criminals you are.
I think you are targeting the wrong company. FICO doesn't have a shred of data or info about you or your finances. FICO is a formula and it is the same for everyone. The ones you should be targeting are the credit reporting agencies. They are the ones that hold your personal info, your credit past, and it is through this information that a formula is used to create a number. And if you are mad that your personal financial info is floating out there, then you should be! If you close all of your accounts then the companies that you did business with will no longer use your personal info and keep it on record.
To the defense of the consumer who expressed their opinion on the score. I believe he is partially correct. As credit reports are to be free once annually so too should be the score on the same date and report it is pulled. Now with that out of the way, as taught in college, any product, good and/or service that claims to predict or come close too "actual truth" of specific future events is suspect because IT IS NOT SCIENCE. Ask yourself these questions, does the score take into account the consumers job going out of business and is that the fault of the consumer? Does the score take into account recidivism rate of ones likelyhood to file bankruptcy? There are many factors out of the consumers control that are not factored into the score. Why did that single mother not pay her revolving credit line for three months. Perhaps it was too pay a bill that does not report, to keep the roof over the head of her family. These products are no different than "Ma'dam Zelda" down the street with her crystal ball and numerology report she would love to sell you. My opinion of course.
10-04-2012 10:54 AM
10-04-2012 10:58 AM
11-03-2012 04:56 PM
It is not true that if you close your accounts, the company will remove you from their database and cease to "share" (i.e. sell) your information. They keep your information and continue to "share" anything they can legally get away with - which is a lot. Read the fine print in their so-called "privacy" notices.
That is why I am a firm believer in Competitive Intelligence. The companies spy and house data on us, why not a company that does the same with companies and provides those reports to consumers?
01-03-2013 09:40 PM
04-02-2013 07:45 PM
I think Barry was talking about change in the law. If the law changes, people will have to respect the change regardless of their viewpoint. I think Barry hit the nail right on the head. | <urn:uuid:d4cb0647-0568-4502-8fd3-17711bb3b9d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/What-you-should-know-about-the/What-you-should-know-about-the-Dodd-Frank-Act/m-p/1625200/highlight/true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967109 | 897 | 1.507813 | 2 |
EDUCATION is a crucial component of a nation's economic and social development, says Australia's acting High Commissioner Glenn Miles.
He made the comments during the official hand-over ceremony at the Sigatoka Methodist Primary School, marking the completion of renovation works on 24 classrooms, a staff room, the headteacher's office, library, a computer room and a toilet block.
"The funding for education ranks as a major impact-development investment and not only benefits individual students and their families but society as a whole," Mr Miles said.
"The assistance provided also included replacing the roofing structure and roofing iron of three classrooms and installing proper drainage to help the school be more resilient to future heavy rains.
"Renovation work, costing close to $160,000 followed damage caused by floods in April this year and was undertaken through the AusAID-funded Access to Quality Education Program (AQEP)."
Mr Miles hoped the renovations would help motivate the 850 school students. AQEP commenced in August last year and represents an injection into Fiji's education sector of up to $A50million (approximately $F91.7m) from 2011 to 2016. | <urn:uuid:c9ed3184-20e7-41f7-9e81-aee74a786329> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=212927 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963804 | 238 | 1.765625 | 2 |
CARLSBAD — The Carlsbad City Council made required updates Dec. 23 to a planning document that identifies how the city could accommodate the state estimate of needed moderate- and low-cost housing units. State law requires every city and county in California to update its plans for each housing cycle. The current housing cycle began July 1, 2005 and ends Dec. 31, 2012.
The city of Carlsbad needs more housing for moderate and low-income persons and families to meet state-mandated targets. With existing standards, developers have constructed several thousand units in Carlsbad that contribute toward meeting the state’s targets. However, Carlsbad’s existing policies and requirements, combined with its available land inventory, are not adequate to provide the number of homes necessary for persons and families in the lower and moderate income categories. The city is 3,566 units short of meeting the projections for these two income groups.
Called the General Plan Housing Element, this policy-level document does not result in the approval or construction of housing, change in land use designations or an increase in residential densities. Development projects and changes to zoning must still go through their own processes, including opportunities for public input.
In the updated Housing Element, the city will continue some previously approved programs that are underway, such as inclusionary housing. Other programs are new, and their implementation requires amendments to the General Plan, Zoning Ordinance and other city requirements before they are effective. These amendments would be subject to their own public review and hearings.
The changes to the Housing Element include programs to consider designating specific properties to higher densities and allowing mixed-use residential at shopping centers. The proposed high-density sites are distributed throughout the city, including in the village and Barrio areas, and in the Ponto area, as already anticipated by the approved Ponto Beachfront Village Vision Plan.
One of the areas to be considered for higher density is a former hard rock mine known as Quarry Creek in the northeast part of the city. The change would allow up to 500 residential units instead of the present land use designation of 165 units on the 100-acre site. Of the 500 units proposed to be allowed, 300 would be considered high-density at 20 units an acre, and 200 would be considered medium-high density at 12 units an acre. A significant percentage of the land will be set aside for open space.
According to the city, Housing Element preparation has taken place over several years and involved opportunities for public involvement. Public input opportunities began with workshops before the Housing Commission in 2004 and 2005. City staff’s request to submit the initial draft of the Housing Element to the state was also considered by the Housing Commission and approved by the City Council in 2007. Additionally, three drafts of the Housing Element were released for public review in 2007 and 2008.
“Despite the need for amendments to various land use documents, Carlsbad is a significant producer of affordable housing,” the city release said. More than 2,000 affordable units have been constructed throughout the city since 1993. A 2007 report, “Affordable By Choice: Trends in California Inclusionary Housing Programs”, reportedly identifies Carlsbad as one of California’s top producers of affordable housing. | <urn:uuid:ef8d4f9e-d2d3-41df-90ba-86ce46054caf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thecoastnews.com/2010/01/city-updates-low-income-housing-plan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955658 | 670 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Dozens of JuD activists joined a protest held outside the National Press Club in Islamabad hours after Guru was hanged and buried in Delhi's Tihar Jail this morning.
Similar protests were organised by the JuD in Lahore and Karachi.
JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, a mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, claimed Guru's execution amounted to “judicial terrorism”.
In a statement issued in Lahore, he said: “We strongly condemn the hanging of Afzal Guru. It is judicial terrorism and it cannot be approved of.”
Saeed claimed Guru was hanged because the Indian government wanted to divert the people's attention from “internal conflicts”.
He contended that the “freedom movement” in Jammu and Kashmir would continue as the execution had angered people.
In Muzaffarabad, the capital of PoK, about 400 members of Kashmiri groups joined a rally to protest the execution of Guru, who was convicted for his role in a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001.
The demonstrators burnt Indian flags and shouted slogans like “Down with India” and “We will continue Afzal Guru's mission”.
The protest was organised by Pasban-e-Hurriyat, which represents Kashmiris who migrated from Jammu and Kashmir.
Hurriyat leader Uzair Ahmad Ghazali said protestors will join a sit-in outside the United Nations office in Muzaffarabad on Monday.
PoK government spokesman Shaukat Javed Mir said there would be three days of mourning in the region and the flag would fly at half-mast during this period.
Officials claimed Guru was tried and executed under “draconian laws”.
Guru was found guilty of conspiring with and sheltering the terrorists who attacked Parliament in December 2001. | <urn:uuid:c217f84d-71a8-42eb-87e9-6dc2f82dfd5d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/1071981/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972517 | 384 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Car shoppers thinking small again
The jolt from rapidly rising gas prices has once-burned Americans stampeding back toward fuel-efficient vehicles.
This post comes from Lynn Mucken at MSN Money.
The American car-buying public may have short memories, but they are not slow learners.
Fifty-three percent of car shoppers on AutoTrader.com say they are more likely to consider a more fuel-efficient car than the one they currently own as a result of rising fuel prices, according to a survey of visitors to the car-shopping and information site in February.
This is higher than the 44% who indicated a desire to find a more fuel-efficient car in a similar survey AutoTrader conducted in August and September of 2008, when gas prices peaked at $4.11. Post continues after video.
Gas prices have been climbing quickly, a surge blamed on unrest in the Middle East. According to the AAA, gas prices nationwide averaged $3.51 on March 7, up from $3.38 a week earlier and $3.12 a month earlier. Prices are expected to reach $4; they are at $3.90 in California already.
- MSN Autos:Find the cheapest gas near you
"This survey indicates what we expected based on previous gas-price spikes," said AutoTrader president and CEO Chip Perry. "When gas prices rise, interest on our site in smaller and more fuel-efficient vehicles increases.”
At kbb.com, the Web portal for Kelley Blue Book, searches for hybrids and electrics jumped 73% from the weekend of Feb. 19-20 to Feb. 26-27, the Los Angeles Times reported. Traffic to compact cars as a segment blossomed 46% in the same period.
"Among individual models, every compact car we tracked was up a minimum of 20% week-over-week, and the Ford Fiesta jumped 77%," said Jack Nerad, an analyst with the auto information company.
- Calculator: How much vehicle can you afford?
Searches for fuel sippers such as the Hyundai Elantra, Ford Focus and Honda Accord each jumped more than 60%. On the hybrid/electric side, individual increases were even more dramatic, he said. The all-electric Nissan Leaf jumped 154%, while the Toyota Prius jumped 86%.
Yet, as recently as October, industry experts said Americans were slipping back into their old habits after the 2008 scare. At that time, for instance, U.S. sales of hybrids had dropped 8% in the previous year.
"Consumers today are not buying cars based on fuel economy," National Automobile Dealers Association chairman Ed Tonkin said then in a speech to auto dealers. "We may wish it were different. But that doesn't change anything.
"The fact is, manufacturers have struggled for years to make money on small cars," he said. "And consumers remain skeptical that small cars are safe."
Said AutoTrader's Perry: "When gas prices go back down, shoppers return to their normal shopping habits. The fact is, a large segment of the American car-shopping public likes and wants larger vehicles to accommodate their auto needs and wants. Consumers consider many things when shopping for a car -- things like style, utility, price, fuel economy and more. The current spike in gas prices has put fuel economy closer to the top of many shoppers' lists right now."
The AutoTrader poll shows that 21% of the survey respondents picked "Strongly Agree" to the statement "I am more likely to consider a more fuel efficient car the next time I am in the market to buy a car based on rising prices." Another 32% picked "Somewhat Agree."
Unlike 2008, however, when the auto industry was caught with a surplus of low-mileage vehicles, it is loaded with gas-stingy cars this time around.
Since then, manufacturers have "responded by bringing out stylish small cars and also by using technology and design solutions to squeeze more miles per gallon out of larger cars," Perry said. "Consumers looking for fuel efficiency in their vehicles today will find many more options than they had in the past."
Ford sales analysis manager George Pipas told Detroit TV station WWJ: "Obviously, we're starting to see a shift toward smaller vehicles, specifically subcompact and compact cars and small utilities."
Pipas said that "higher gas prices are taking away some of the discretionary income that consumers have. … For most things you buy, you get more. That's not true with gas. If you pay more, you get nothing more."
More from MSN Money:
I am one of a gas stations worst customers and darn GLAD as I have better things to with my money then stick hundreds a month into my gas tank.
Always have driven gas misers and always WILL and never have lived "out of town" for crazy commutes or have my kids bussed to school so they have to be up at the end of some road out in the "boonies" while it's still dark and are getting home when it's dark. No THANKS. People are freaking NUTS who do this and then wonder why we have a fuel crisis? If we invested in hybrids and electric cars like we should have 30 years ago instead of listening INCREASING our dependence on fossil fuels, not only would these vehicles be plentiful and as cheap as laptop computers, we would'nt be drilling the crap out of the country and our coastlines or be at war with the Middle East over friggin OIL, the environmental disasters we've been dealing with would have been greatly reduced too.
But who cares about that, eh as "The Gulf is just fine NOW,, the environment can always take care of itself and global warming is a hoax to raise everyone's taxes". "Keep trying to convince yourselves of that while we';re forced to subsidize the mega BILLION dollar OIL, COAL and GAS industry every year with our taxes as they do whatever they darn well please and render yet another entire ecosystem a total mess because of a major accident for 20 or more years and we foot most of the bill for the clean up or we pay for another war and thousands die in it while the greedy crab about Chevy Volts, Nissan Leafs or those rotten ol' electric cars/hybrids coming off the assembly lines as being too expensive to buy.
You don't need an SUV or a big fat pick up to do your grocery shopping so if you can't afford a hybrid right now, buy a Chevy Cruze or something similar. I did and I love it.
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Quotes are real-time for NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX. See delay times for other exchanges. | <urn:uuid:713c42e2-4de7-4ca4-8bf6-b549a5ef6735> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/post.aspx?post=b168fe32-c2ed-4b9d-be23-89a2b31fd459 | 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 | 0.961331 | 1,407 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Aire Projects is a Hackney based arts organisation dedicated to giving young people a voice. We do this by offering free photography and computer arts workshops to the less fortunate in the community. Founded by Jamie Leith, the long-term aim of Aire is to offer a range of engaging, educational and creative projects to the hardest to reach young people in the Hackney area and beyond.
Over the coming months we will be running a series of workshops and events conceptualised and created with the aim of telling the stories of the people we work with. These will culminate in exhibitions seen in a range of new and exciting ways, open to the whole community. We want to highlight the need for more creative resources for young people; places where they can feel inspired and free to learn and express themselves away from the pressures of a classroom environment. This would result in the participants acquiring skills and disciplines that can be transferred to other aspects of their lives. Whilst the students will be taking part in short term courses, these courses seek to provide them with skill sets which are very much focused on being more long-term solutions.
Aire Projects’ aim is to open a creative centre that is not only used, but nurtured by the people we work with. We want to be able to offer them the chance to work within the studio, furthering knowledge and potentially shaping a career. We are embarking on this journey at a time when government investment in such projects is at an all time low, but the social need is greater than it ever has been. If you are interested in helping out in any capacity, or feel you have something to offer, please contact us on:
I have been involved in helping to make this happen and am really excited about the future plans we have in store for Aire. We now have a tumblr blog documenting our current activities whilst the website is being built. Follow Aire projects on twitter, @aireprojects its the start of a very good thing...
This is a screenprint that I submitted to People of Print as part of their show at Druck Berlin in August. Marcroy is smashing it and has got some amazing artists together for this.
No way's NOT exhibition was this weekend (4 Helmet Row, London) I was helping out with some screenprinting workshops with Marcroy and Jim O Raw at People of Print | <urn:uuid:d146fdd4-0f33-496c-9cc5-2c2dc629615c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://aurelialange.blogspot.com/2011_10_01_archive.html | 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 | 0.969775 | 479 | 1.554688 | 2 |
SOAR (formerly Transitions) reflects the collective wisdom of our faculty, staff, and students.
SOAR- Student Orientation Acclimation & Retention is a program that is continuously adapting to the changing needs of our student based based on the results of continuing external research, local discussion, and data gathering involving the entire university community -- students, staff and faculty. The programs presented are written and assessed a dedicated group of faculty, staff and students who transform our collective wisdom into concrete programs that help all of our students to be successful.
S SOAR assists the needs of all incoming Students whether first time in college, transfer, commuter or returning adult
O SOAR conducts Orientation programs for all incoming students throughout the year
A SOAR helps students Acclimate to Clarion through Discovery Weekend and mentoring programs
R SOAR fosters Retention by networking support services and with programs such as MAP-Works.
Goals for SOAR
Our goal is to help students stay in college and develop permanent ties to Clarion University through programming and activities that:
Cement students' and families' commitment to Clarion University.
Forge positive and active relationships between students, and among students, faculty and staff.
Ensure that students are informed self-advocates who accept personal responsibility for their education.
Engage students in productive co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.
Three themes are present in programming through SOAR: 1) students must accept responsibility for their education, 2) students must develop relationships with each other, faculty, and staff, and 3) students must be engaged in Clarion University. | <urn:uuid:06c6ee78-2b8f-4f80-8d98-66d87de34537> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clarion.edu/1016/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95794 | 333 | 1.585938 | 2 |
April 15, 2011
As we blogged earlier, we were beyond thrilled to learn that the Swiss government agreed to sponsor our suzani revival project in Tajikistan. (That’s the country next to Afghanistan, Pakistan and China). And now the crazy dream to take back the suzani tradition from the history books and bring pride and economic empowerment to a strong but forgotten people is becoming a reality...
We will be led on this journey by the inimitable Nigora. Nigora does crazy things in her commitment to craft, like traveling right through the middle of battlefields to connect with people preserving their ancient traditions (I’m serious, she was just in Kabul. Yes, as in Kabul, Afghanistan).
So without further ado, I bring you the first in what we hope will be a series of updates and the start of a conversation. The journey begins setting off for Pamir, the Tajik mountain range.
If you have any questions or comments, we would really love your participation. This project is very much in process and your questions, comments or thoughts inspire our work, Nigora's work and most importantly the artisans’ work. The internet is everywhere and they do see this feedback and we will get their responses to you.
Pamir. Our team was so excited to explore Pamir to find if there were any living suzani masters that we didn’t mind the 18 hours drive from Dushanbe [capital of Tajikistan] and the lie down through mountainous roads. Those hours seemed nothing to us as we were heading to Pamir, to the roof of the world.
“If the sun will appear we will start our journey”- said Jamal, our driver, originally himself from Pamir. “But if the weather will get cool and cloudy we should stay in Dushanbe”. The weather was very mild and warm that we didn’t pay attention what he told. How true those words would be…and journey started…
Passing the beautiful mountainous roads and watching magnificent mountains Jamal told: “High and majestic mountains know everything but silent”, and really it seemed mountains were watching us and invisibly showing us the way..
Suddenly in the midday the weather has changed to rainy and snowy, Jamal started get worried, and we didn’t know why. “ We should pass the river before it gets dark otherwise we have to spend the night in the car, yesterday another car was washed away, happily passengers survived”-nervously told Jamal.
March and April considered to be the dangerous months for travelling to Pamir as the ice start melting on mountains, which brings floods and waterfalls. Our car safely passed through 3 big waterfalls owing to our driver and reached Pamir late night. Thank Jamal, you are the best. Sleep well tomorrow we wake up early to speak to villagers to see if there are any masters. I make my prayer and now to sleep.
The inimitable Nigora
Click here to buy your own unique Tajik suzani. You get beauty, you give possibility, you craft a more connected world.
April 14, 2011
April 07, 2011
April 05, 2011 | <urn:uuid:18efce81-c395-43c4-ad54-0cb6db74c83e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thebootstrapproject.com/index.php/blog/2011/04 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957774 | 665 | 1.601563 | 2 |
ADAMS The Town Council will pursue its own water source and water treatment center in an attempt to both expand the Adams Center water district and to counteract water supply issues that have limited its main supplier, the village of Adams.
Supervisor David W. Kellogg acknowledged the move might create friction between the two municipalities.
We dont want to get into a battle with them, he said. But we have a lot of people who need water, and if theres a way we can do that, we have to.
The Town Council at its meeting Thursday said it will invite engineers from Bernier, Carr & Associates, Watertown, to further discuss the issue, and the costs that it will entail.
The current water deal allows the town to receive as much as 200,000 gallons per day, and Mr. Kellogg said the town averages about 85,000 gallons per day. He said he had received complaints from town residents outside of the water district limits who would like to get into the district but cannot.
The village, which has faced several drought watches in the past few years, has spent several months and tens of thousands of dollars drilling for a potential new water source within the village, with limited success.
Mr. Kellogg acknowledged that he did not have any set information on pricing or whether the town would need to hire new employees. In addition to securing a new water supply and creating a treatment center, town employees may also need to complete new training to be properly licensed for the expanded water treatment work.
Theres a lot of stuff we have to explore, Mr. Kellogg said. | <urn:uuid:6117e2cc-ef41-4c23-a19d-674721fcf131> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://watertowndailytimes.com/article/20121207/NEWS03/712079859/1045 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978128 | 325 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Talk about Venezuela these days and people assume the argument splits neatly between two camps: nutty Pat Robertson-style Chavez-hating right-wingers who couldn't care less about the poor at home, let alone in South America; and sane, progressive folks with the sense to balance off concerns about Hugo Chavez's autocratic streak with admiration for his government's remarkable achievements in improving the lives of poor Venezuelans.
Personally, I'm in neither camp: I'm a radical anti-Chavez progressive. (We do exist, dammit, we do!!) Fighting poverty sustainably is right at the top of my agenda. In fact, it's one of the biggest reasons I oppose the guy.
"But what sense does that even make?" my friends back in the US will say, " Chavez has cut the poverty rate in half since 2003...what kind of progressive is radically against that?"
"A progressive," I'm tempted to answer, "who's concerned with the sustainability of poverty reduction." Because in Venezuela, we have a long, sad history of big advances in the fight against poverty that turn out to have been mirages when the economy tanks.
Chavez's claims to have halved the poverty rate aren't wrong, but they're incredibly misleading. If you'll allow a little parable, Chavez right now is like a mayor who, ten months into his term of office, calls a press conference to say:
"My fellow citizens, today we come together to celebrate our victory over the leaves. Think back on what this city was like back before my administration was elected last October. Our neighborhoods were blighted with dead leaves. They were everywhere: clogging up our gutters, making our streets and sidewalks dangerously slippery, sapping the life from our community. That was the city we inherited.It can surprise no one that poverty in Venezuela is lower now than it was five years ago, for the same reason that it can surprise no one that there are fewer dead leaves on the ground in August than in October. The reason is that Venezuela is a petrostate: 93% of what we sell to the world is oil, the government owns the only oil company, and oil prices rose every single year from the turn of the century through last year. Chavez has spent his decade in office swimming in cash!
"But this is a people's revolutionary government! We promised that we would get rid of the leaves...and we have. From the moment we took office, we never let up in our fight against the leaves. And the results are all around you. As we stand here in this brilliant August evening, our government has reduced the leaves-on-the-ground rate by more than 99%! The only way they're coming back is if the evil old regime ever manages to get their hands on power again somehow! No volveran!" | <urn:uuid:7598a322-a782-4854-a968-8b069bdb2991> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/francisco-toro/is-hugo-chavez-ready-for_b_160559.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973681 | 582 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Sunday, 8 July 2012
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, Shaftesbury
A few weeks ago I was visiting with my family, and my little niece got a talking doll, but her doll wasn't talking. She’s barely 4 years old yet she was able to confidently say that it needed new batteries. And this struck me as interesting, because she doesn't know what batteries are, but she’s heard that this is the problem.
And it seems to me that in this regard she actually sees more than many grown-ups: she sees that there is more to life than what she can understand for herself.
A child’s faith accepts what it does not understand –and this is why Christ praised those who have the faith of little children.
We live in a secular pseudo-scientific world that judges only by what it can see –as many people say, they cannot see God therefore there is no God.
In contrast, Christian Faith, and the eyes of faith, enables us to see a whole different world.
Let me point to three examples in today’s readings:
(a) 2 Cor 12:7-10, ‘My grace is sufficient for thee’
-we often demand to see God present in our life, in our suffering, in the thorn in our side.
But God’s presence isn’t limited to what we can see, rather, He is present most of all in our weakness, when we are most obviously in need of Him, even when we deny it and tell ourselves that we’re somehow alright without Him.
(b) Ez 2:2-5 ‘They shall know they have a prophet in their midst’
How shall they know? By God’s power being manifested –but only if their eyes are open to see it.
(c) Mk 6:1-6 ‘Prophet recognised as such everywhere but in his home country’
They didn’t recognise that God was present in His teaching and person
And so He worked few miracles among them
Because their eyes of faith were blind -God’s power was there, but they refused to see it, refused to call upon it.
We know electricity is present by its effects
We know grace is present by its effects -We know it is lacking by its effects, too:
We know the lack of grace in our stress and overworking:
–thinking we can survive without God, working on our own power, forgetting about God during the day because we somehow have ‘more important’ things to do.
We know the lack of grace in our sin:
Either, when we fail in love, and sin -In impatience, in selfishness, in hardness of heart
Or, in our blindness to sin, when we somehow fool ourselves into thinking we’ve not sinned -that there is nothing more that I owe God, my family, my neighbour -that I’m perfect!
These are a couple of the many signs to us that God is present, and that God is absent (absent in that we fail to let Him act in us)
To return to the example of my little niece,
She knows that there is more activity in the world than just what she can see
More than just what she can understand
If we would know that ‘there is a prophet here among us’
Then we must open our eyes too
Whether you’re heavily working, or whether you’re retired,
Or whether you have a hectic household with children,
just about to get more hectic as the summer holidays begin
Whatever our state of life, for all of us, we must open our eyes EVER MORE, Minute by minute,
To know that God is present, that God is active,
And He wishes to be MORE active in us
He is present in the Mass, in prayer, by His grace,
But it a presence we can only see if we open our eyes to see with the eyes of faith
–OTHERWISE GOD’S POWER CAN PASS US BY
If we do open our eyes to see then we will not have said of us what was said of the people of Jesus’s hometown: ‘He did not work many wonders among them, because of their lack of faith’ | <urn:uuid:ec1407d4-dabb-4bce-b9e7-4b1d9942551e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fatherdylanjames.blogspot.com/2012/07/14th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970363 | 912 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The Politics of Pretending to Save the Whales
Commentary by Captain Paul Watson
How can you sleep Peter Garrett when the whales are dying?
When is the Australian government going to get serious about saving the whales?
The Labor government of Kevin Rudd came into power a year ago on the crest of numerous promises to the people of Australia. One of those promises was to get tough with the illegal activities of the Japanese whaling fleet.
As someone who has spent a lifetime defending whales, I have to say that the performance of the Australian government in regard to the defense of the whales has been dismal and impotent. There has been plenty of posturing and posing, meetings and diplomatic ping pong but the plain simple truth is that the government has done nothing at all.
The Japanese whaling fleet is at sea, steaming south with the intent to slaughter the same number of whales as they targeted last year. 935 threatened Minke whales and 50 endangered Fin whales.
The verdict is plain - Kevin Rudd and Peter Garrett have failed to convince the Japanese whalers to budge an inch on their illegal activities.
The Japanese intend to kill endangered whales in an established whale sanctuary in violation of a global moratorium on commercial whaling and in direct contempt of an Australian Federal Court ruling specifically barring Japanese whalers from killing whales in the Australian Antarctic Territory.
They are giving a finger to Australia as they pass by on their way south. They arrogantly view Australians and New Zealanders with contempt. They know that the elected officials of both nations lack the courage, the passion, the motivation and the desire to do anything that might harm trade relations with Japan.
But the politicians have a problem. Australians and New Zealanders deeply love the great whales. Aussies and Kiwis have both the passion and the desire to protect the whales. In Australia last November they voted for a government that would take an aggressive stance against the whalers.
What they got has been appeasement, excuses, and the politics of retreat.
And they have made it clear that as defenders of the whales, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is no longer welcome in Australia.
Since October of 2005, Sea Shepherd has been based in Australia in our campaign to intervene against illegal Japanese whaling activities. From 2005 until December 2007, we were able to enjoy support and encouragement from the authorities.
All that changed with the election of Kevin Rudd and the appointment of Peter Garrett as Minister of the Environment.
Over the last year, it has become quite evident that using a passive aggressive approach, the government is working to force Sea Shepherd to take our ship elsewhere.
We continue to enjoy the overwhelming support of Australian citizens and it is only because of that that we believe Sea Shepherd has not been directly ordered to leave Australian shores.
Why do we believe this?
From 2005 until May 2008, we were given a free berth in Melbourne. We were then told that the berth would no longer be available and the only place we could go would be the commercial docks at $59,000 per month. The decision was made to move the ship to Brisbane where another dock was secured.
This was after Sydney harbor made it very clear we were not welcome.
We have also been told that we could not dock in Fremantle in Western Australia.
Upon arrival in Brisbane we were told we could not use the dock we had arranged because we were too large, despite the fact that larger ships than ours had used the berth. In fact the vessel that had just left was much larger. We were forced into a commercial dock at $500 per day. This means we have to pay some $80,000 dollars for a berth at the same time we delivered nearly a million dollars worth of business to port by hiring local contractors to construct a helicopter deck, install a new hydraulic crane and to outfit the ship with new boats.
It is frustrating to be fighting to protect and defend the whales and Australia's multi-million dollar whale watching industry and having to pay $80,000 just to have the ship stay at a berth that would otherwise be unoccupied.
In March of this year, I was struck by a bullet fired from the Japanese whaling ship. I was saved by the Kevlar vest I was wearing. Because of the threat of gunfire, I decided to provide my crew with Kevlar vests and requested permission to have them sent to Australian Customs to be brought onto the ship at departure. The request was refused thus directly endangering the lives of my crew.
When I landed last week at Sydney Airport, I was detained upon arrival and questioned for an hour and a half. They wanted to know what my agenda was, who I would be seeing, what I would be doing, where and when. They had a file on the desk of media clippings on Sea Shepherd, yet they said it was just a routine questioning.
The police have visited the ship to question the crew about our activities.
The Federal police last week sent a message to Australian Director Jeff Hansen in our Perth office requesting he come in for questioning. He did so and was asked what our plans were.
We have been told that should we return to Australia after the campaign we may have to pay "duty" on the ship for staying in Australian waters despite our Dutch registry. This would be in the area of $300,000 to $400,000 dollars.
Our application for charitable status has been in limbo for more than two years. This has cost us a great deal in loss donations.
At the IWC meeting in Santiago, Chile when I attempted on a few occasion to speak with Peter Garrett, he turned and walked away and refused to speak with me.
One of his aides told a member of the Australian delegation that they considered Sea Shepherd to be "an enemy" to the interests of Australia.
It looks like we will have no choice but not to return to Australia after this campaign.
Almost half of our crew will be Australian this year.
It seems to me that if the government of Australia is not willing to honour it's promise to the people who elected them then they should at least allow the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to do the job the government should be doing, but refuses to do.
Whales are being killed, international law is being broken, whale defenders are being assaulted and shot at and the best that Peter Garrett has to offer is to allocate $6 million dollars for non-lethal whale research to show the Japanese that such research can be done without killing whales.
Of course the Japanese know this but what Mr. Garrett does not seem to understand is that the whales are not and never have been slaughtered for "research." They have been killed for commercial profit - plain and simple. The Japanese are not interested in research that does not turn a profit.
It would have been better if the $6 million had been allocated to save the diminishing populations of Tasmanian devils. This allocation of funds is not going to save a single whale.
Or better yet, Mr. Garrett should have allocated some of that money to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Steve Irwin to allow us to be even more effective in our interventions against illegal Japanese whaling activities.
Of course that would never do - to provide support for a group that is actually protecting and defending whales instead of hanging banners and talking about saving whales.
The Australian government needs to get serious about protecting the whales and honouring their pre-election promises to do so. | <urn:uuid:0cf55701-e368-4e39-899d-c852383cea4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seashepherd.fr/news-and-media/editorial-081119-1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980728 | 1,519 | 1.835938 | 2 |
2006: Erklärung zum Raketentest Nordkoreas
The Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea PROK
Statement of the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK)
on the Missile Test-Launching by North Korea
July 7, 2006
"Peace Can Not Be Achieved By Weapons"The Peace Community Movement Center (PCMC) of the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK) is deeply disappointed with North Korea's decision to conduct missile tests on July 5, 2006, when we are consolidating all our efforts to achieve peace and security on the Korean peninsula as well as in the whole North-East Asia region. The missile issue is considered to be a tactic periodically used by North Korea to resolve the deadlock in relations between the USA and North Korea. However, we emphatically assert that this tactic of North Korea is seriously hampering the ongoing efforts of the international community to build peace in the North-East Asia region. The missile testing will surely intensify military tension among the concerned countries and increase international negative sentiment towards North Korea; this will in turn seriously affect the ongoing reconciliation process between North and South Korea.
Peace can not be achieved by weapons. We urge the North Korean government to not seek peace and security by reinforcing military force. We urgently appeal to the North Korean government that peace and security on the Korean peninsula can be achieved only through sincere cooperation and dialogue based on mutual trust between North Korea and neighbouring countries.
We believe that the missile testing by North Korea contributes to the deterioration of relations between North Korea and the US, and between North Korea and Japan. Therefore, we strongly assert that true peace in North-East Asia can not be established without normalizing diplomatic relations between North Korea and the US, and between North Korea and Japan.
At this critical point in time, we appeal once again to all countries in the North-East Asia region: peace can not be achieved by weapons. True peace can not be realized by a false security obtained forcefully by threatening the oppressors. Therefore, we urge all concerned countries to normalize their diplomatic relations with North Korea and transform the current situation of conflict into a constructive process toward peace.
Further, we urge the South Korean government to strengthen its relations with North Korea through cooperation and dialogue, for we believe that crisis can be a sign of hope.
Called by God to be peace-makers, we continue to pray and act together to transform the current crisis resulting from the missile tests into a momentum to open up a new era of dialogue and cooperation. We re-affirm our commitment to building mutual trust among nations in North-East Asia and to working for the ultimate realization of a "peace agreement" on the Korean peninsula and the disarmament of the region.
Yoon Kil-Soo, Rah Haek-Jib, Lee Hae-Hak
Peace Community Movement Center
The Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK) | <urn:uuid:309692b1-9b13-4af4-8a40-8a12f84ce4b5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.doam.org/index.php/partner/prok/1425-pa-prok-frieden-in-oa-4 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932862 | 602 | 1.515625 | 2 |
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