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Publication Date: Autumn 1997
CNYC's annual Cooperative Housing Conference, held each autumn
on a Sunday, is New York's most comprehensive source of cooperative
and condominium information and education. With product exhibits
to visit from early in the morning, a video theater showing
Co-op Roundtable throughout the
day, and dozens of workshops and seminars, the Conference
brings together hundreds of CNYC members for a day of learning
and sharing Reviewed below is a presentation from the 16th
annual Cooperative Housing Conference.
NEXT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT
When embarking on a major capital improvement project for your cooperative
or condominium, it always helps to know who the players are, what parts
they play, and, most importantly, how to go about directing them. Without
strong, decisive guidance, projects can easily veer off course -- and
the building often suffers.
According to Keith Skilling, a construction manager who addressed CNYC's
16th annual Conference, the number of parties involved in a project will
increase with the complexity of the work. If a unit owner wants to redo
his floors, he'd most likely go straight to a contractor. However, if
the board wants to redo the lobby, the cast of players increases. Participants
can include a board member or committee designated to oversee the project,
perhaps a construction manager to keep the job flowing smoothly, an architect,
engineer or designer, and the contractor. And, if things go wrong, the
players may also include an attorney.
COORDINATING THE PROJECT
The board's first responsibility is to decide what the building needs
and how much the corporation or association can afford to pay. Ideally,
the board should first appoint a committee or individual to investigate
the problem -- whether it be the roof, the boiler or anything in between.
The designated project coordinator will oversee each phase of the job,
making sure there are enough resources -- money and time -- for it to
be completed. They will also make sure the project has enough support
within the building to proceed as planned. If there's a very vocal opposition
to your lobby design plan, make sure the differences are resolved before
you begin incurring designer and contractor costs.
The coordinator should also understand that, while professionals and
contractors each have their specific responsibilities, overall responsibility
for the project falls on the cooperative or condominium. For example,
contractors are responsible for complying with City code when they do
the work. However, if they don't, it's the building that receives the
violation and fine.
In orchestrating the project, says Mr. Skilling, the coordinator must
take into account the limitations of each player. Contractors, for instance,
are only concerned with getting the job done quickly. They don't often
care about things like building security and quality of life, he notes.
Meanwhile, residents are mostly concerned with quality of life, which
generally translates as minimizing inconvenience. They might not care
if a window contractor can't get into the apartment at a designated time.
But if contractors cannot gain timely access, it could result in extra
costs. It is therefore the coordinator's responsibility to make sure everyone's
needs are met.
In larger or more complex projects, some buildings avoid this time-consuming
problem by hiring a professional construction manager. The manager's job
is to act on behalf of the board, solving problems and reporting on progress,
says Mr. Skilling.
THE ARCHITECT OR ENGINEER
As soon as the board decides it needs to undertake a project, it should
hire an architect, engineer, or interior/ exterior designer to create
a design. This will often include drawings and written specifications
for the project. In choosing professionals, the board should look for
a firm that fits the project, says Mr. Skilling. Some firms have a solid
track record in lobby and hallway design, while others have done a greater
number of exterior projects. Seek out recommendations from your building's
managing agent and neighboring buildings that have completed similar projects,
and consult CNYC for referrals, as well.
The architect/engineer is responsible for making sure the design complies
with local code and regulations, and that the finished product will perform
as intended. This second element is known as the "implied warranty".
For example, if the design of a roof deck causes the roof to leak, you
can go back to the architect to collect damages.
Architects, engineers and designers generally work on an hourly basis
-- so costs can skyrocket if you don't plan properly. Having reasonably
complete vision of what you want before you call the designer will help
prevent completely reworking your design after the professional has complied
with your original request. "Being decisive will save you money,"
Mr. Skilling says.
Once you have a design and written specifications for the job, you can
go ahead and bid the project out to contractors. As a rule of thumb, it
is best to obtain bids from at least three contractors to get a realistic
range of prices. To avoid potential conflicts of interest or collusion,
request that bids be sealed and sent to a reliable, impartial individual,
and make sure they're opened in the presence of the board of directors.
When you have selected a contractor, the next step is to hammer out a
contract. One important element of any contract is the schedule of completion.
You don't want the contractor hanging around the building forever. Similarly,
you don't want the contractor to delay the start date of the project,
says Mr. Skilling. "If you have chosen the low bidder, he may try
to start the job when it fits his schedule. That's not acceptable,"
To avoid this, the board needs to send the contractor a "notice
to proceed", instructing the contractor that he has 10 days from
the receipt of the notice to begin work. This is generally sent after
the contract has been signed. If the contractor does not comply with the
notice to proceed, it may be considered a breach of contract. In such
a case, Mr. Skilling advises handing the matter over to your building's
MANAGING THE PROJECT
One overriding principle in managing any improvement project is never
to make a final payment until you are satisfied with the job. The smart
way to proceed is to withhold a substantial portion of the money -- a
third or a quarter -- until you or your designer has signed off on the
Here's how it works: Towards the end of the project, the contractor will
inform you that the work has been "substantially completed"
-- meaning that the goal has been accomplished in the contractor's estimation.
At this point, you or your architect/engineer should walk through the
project and make a punchlist of items that need to be completed. When
you are completely satisfied that these items have been addressed, release
the final payment. If you pay the contractor before this punchlist has
been taken care of, "you'll never see the contractor again,"
says Mr. Skilling.
The most important piece of advice for any board member or committee
overseeing a project is to establish yourself as a leader. Designers may
take pride in their work, and contractors may want to earn their money,
but ultimately you are the ones who have to live in your building. Notes
Mr. Skilling: "If you don't display leadership, if you don't show
all the people involved that you know exactly what you want, you're never
going to like what you get." | <urn:uuid:b87a75e7-c6d9-4a7c-8776-3c0e981739e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnyc.coop/code/newsletters/1997/1997-aut-conference.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953962 | 1,609 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Obama announced in 2008 that he plans to make a domestic army as powerful as the US military.
This plan appears to be well underway. Obama says that he has defeated Al Qaeda, so what could be the motivation for this?
standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided, as dangerous to liberty
- Virginia Bill Of Rights
“Whereas civil-rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as military forces, which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.”
– Tench Coxe, in Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution
” … to disarm the people – that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.“
– George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380
“[The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation…(where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
–James Madison, The Federalist Papers, No. 46 | <urn:uuid:8b7338d5-5d47-4532-a765-b1dc09b35e16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/and-we-need-this-why/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972457 | 256 | 1.617188 | 2 |
John KerryU.S. Senator / U.S. Secretary of State
Born: 11 December 1943
Birthplace: Denver, Colorado
Best known as:
U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, 1984-2013
John Kerry is the U.S. Secretary of State, a former United States senator from Massachusetts, and was the Democratic candidate for president in 2004. John Kerry graduated from Yale University in 1966 and joined the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. He won the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts in action in Vietnam, and returned home as a hero who then became an outspoken opponent of the war; he earned national attention for his testimony before the U.S. Senate in 1971. He attended Boston College Law School and worked as a prosecuting attorney in Middlesex County, Massachusetts before jumping into politics. After two years as the state's lieutenant governor, John Kerry was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984. He was reelected in 1990, 1996, 2002 and 2008. (Despite his long tenure, he was still Massachusetts' junior senator until the death of Ted Kennedy in 2009.) Kerry ran for president in 2004; he won the Democratic Party nomination, but he and his running mate, Senator John Edwards, lost to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in the general election. In 2013 he was named Secretary of State by President Barack Obama, who was just beginning his second term. Kerry succeeded Hillary Clinton in the position.
John Kerry married his second wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, in 1995. She is the widow of H. John Heinz III, who served as a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania from 1977 until his death in a plane crash in 1991... Kerry's first wife was the former Julia Thorne, whom he married in 1970. The couple separated in 1982, and their divorce became final in 1988. The marriage was annulled by the Catholic Church in 1997. They have two children: Alexandra (b. 1973) and Vanessa (b. 1976)... John Kerry is no relation to former Nebraska senator Bob Kerrey, who also served in Vietnam and lost part of his leg to a grenade wound.
Copyright © 1998-2013 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.
More on John Kerry from Infoplease:
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:527908b9-3b9e-470b-a21b-82cc927d8b1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/johnkerry.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984985 | 486 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Chemistry at the University of Toronto since 1843
Historical Distillates examines the history of the Chemistry Department at the University of Toronto from its beginnings in 1843, when it was housed in simple quarters in the Parliament Buildings on Front Street and had just one faculty member. During the founding era (1843-1920) three British gentlemen professors guided the department through four homes; between 1920 and 1960 three Canadian heads built a highly influential department. Since 1960 eight chairmen have effectively managed a growing and diverse department while it ventured into exciting new fields and emerging sub-disciplines.
New colleges and a Nobel Prize have been highlights of the past two decades. With the completion of recent renovations and additions (such as the Davenport Research Building and Garden), with its distinguished faculty, top-rate staff, and excellent students, and with its dazzling array of equipment to support research, the department's future indeed looks bright.
GET SUPPORT MATERIAL / BUY THIS BOOK | <urn:uuid:dc4ba8ff-6a22-40bc-a5cf-165f26fceff4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dundurn.com/books/historical_distillates_0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956588 | 198 | 1.75 | 2 |
Most appreciated, gentlemen! I'll give it a try in the coming weeks and will report back! A couple more thoughts below.
if the transient is not too bad, it should work.
i would, however, split the rail: using the 2.7v to power the mcu and the dc/dc converter for the 5v device.
The datasheet for the boost regulator has a scope trace showing the transient, and it seems decently smooth. I thought about splitting the rail, but then I may have to level shift signals between the MCU and sensors, I'd prefer to avoid that if possible.
I would think it should work ok. The only caveat I can think of is that the brown out voltage detector reset might have to be disabled or set to a value lower then 2.7?
I said 2.7V because that's the BOD setting I'd use. The 1.8V setting seems too low to me. An in-between setting might be nice, but such is life! Certainly the battery will have some juice left at 2.7V, so it may be worth trying 1.8V. In that case I'd want to slow the system clock before turning the boost off, but that's straightforward enough.
I can't think of anything in the datasheet that contradicts what you want to do. Seems like a good idea to me.
I did find an Atmel application note about using the BOD that talked about variations in supply voltage, and the typical problems if they got below recommended levels, this is why the BOD should be used, etc. So that would seem to imply some variation is tolerable, but it didn't go into detail on that specifically.
If the processor will spend anytime polling 1 MHz (or even 128 KHz) may be a better choice.
Probably not much if any, but are you thinking more from a power conservation standpoint, or immunity to the Vcc fluctuation? | <urn:uuid:a70e3df9-7f01-4a95-ab6e-0a876951fca6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=140814.msg1057814 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969166 | 404 | 1.578125 | 2 |
One year after early parliamentary elections, seven months before regional ones and a year before those for the European Parliament, the Slovak political scene is bubbling with activity, namely political divorces. A fight for the leadership in the liberal Freedom and Solidarity Party led to a split in recent weeks and Christian Democrats are losing members to two new platforms launched by two of their former leading figures. For years, political analyst Grigorij Mesežnikov has followed the development of new political entities. Their rise was documented in a book called “Alternative Politics?”, which he co-authored with colleagues Oľga Gyárfášová and Zora Butorová from the Bratislava based Institute for Public Affairs. The book compares the situation with new parties in Slovakia with that in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.
30.4.2013 12:07 pridal:
The Polish - Slovak relations are great, however there is always a „but“ at the end of that sentence. Katarina Richterova travelled across northern Slovakia and southern Poland, with fellow Slovak and Polish journalists, to find out more about this neighbourly love of ours.
26.4.2013 16:50 pridal:
At the end of last year there were 67, 877 migrants legally living in Slovakia. How is their life here? This is a question that many experts have tried to answer, and they were not really successful in doing so. Anca Dragu reports.
26.3.2013 12:39 pridal:
Making fun of politicians was a big thing two decades ago as comedians and entertainers were free at last to make jokes of our top representatives and their flaws. Now, more than 22 years of free speech in the country, political satire is rather a scarcity. Are politicians no longer funny? - Katarina Richterova asks.
12.3.2013 09:04 pridal:
A group of 4 young Slovaks came up with a unique invention that could make lives of the blind and visually impaired so much easier. Katarina Richterova went to find out more about this “super belt” and what it is capable of.
01.3.2013 13:07 pridal:
Christopher George introduces Vagus, a streetwork NGO that works with the capital city’s homeless. Learn about the association and their next big plan, with Chairman Sergej Kára. Have a heart on Valentine’s day, and maybe think of a way you can support them.
14.2.2013 13:42 pridal:
It is the home of the Slovak Radio. A building loved but also hated by many. A unique building full of paradoxes and amysterious “feel”. Join Katarina Richterova on a tour of the Upside – down pyramid.
13.2.2013 17:58 pridal:
Imagine a company that makes a profit. And now imagine a company that helps certain groups of people or supports a good cause. Yes, there are plenty of companies in the profit as well as in the non-profit sector. However, what if we combine these together? Katarina Richterova reports about the rising phenomenon of Social Impact businesses in Slovakia.
04.2.2013 14:47 pridal:
Last year in March Slovakia held its first ever early Parliamentary elections and Slovaks experienced quite an election campaign dominated by corruption scandals, sex, jokes and pop rock. Katarina Richterova has more.
04.2.2013 14:45 pridal:
Wine makers will tell you that grapes are the only fruit that naturally contain everything you need to make wine, provided the conditions are present to start the process. So, how could anyone improve on that? One Slovak manufacturer says they’re doing just that. Join me as I get a look behind the scenes at one of Slovakia’s newest and most-high tech wineries.
14.1.2013 12:43 pridal:
sobota 25. mája 2013 ■ Meniny má Urban, zajtra Dušan | <urn:uuid:9ceb163a-5d93-46a5-9fe1-db3dbe8bdab7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slovakradio.sk/radio-international-en/society | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954289 | 863 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Amanda Guyer selected for William T. Grant Scholars award
CMB scientist Amanda Guyer has been selected for a highly prestigious William T. Grant Scholars award, which will support her research using neuroimaging to examine issues related to parenting, peer influences, brain function, and substance use in adolescents
The William T. Grant Scholars Program supports promising early-career researchers from diverse disciplines, who have demonstrated success in conducting high-quality research and are seeking to further develop and broaden their expertise.
Candidates are nominated by a supporting institution and must submit five-year research plans that demonstrate creativity, intellectual rigor, and a commitment to continued professional development. Every year, four to six William T. Grant Scholars are selected and each receives $350,000 distributed over a five-year period.
For details of this program, see http://www.wtgrantfoundation.org/funding_opportunities/fellowships/william_t__grant_scholars | <urn:uuid:f879e9b4-584f-4eeb-a669-77f96f9ee903> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mindbrain.ucdavis.edu/people/sjluck/cmb-news-and-information/amanda-guyer-selected-for-william-t-grant-scholars-award | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930256 | 200 | 1.632813 | 2 |
When visiting a sento or onsen for the first time, the proper way to do things may seem complicated. And do keep in mind, there is a certain way to do things. The Japanese culture is particular about manners. It is generally understood that foreigners might be in the dark about these manners, but seeing a foreigner do things right fills the Japanese with delight, or so some say. In any event, knowing the rules will make your visit more enjoyable and for some more genuinely Japanese.
The rules of the public bath start applying as soon as you walk through the door.
- The first you thing you will find is a genkan, a traditional Japanese entrance hall, where you take off your shoes and put them in a shoe locker.
- When visiting the smaller local bath, you will now need to choose between two doors: one that leads to the male section (男の湯, otoko no yu) and one that leads to the female (女の湯, onna no yu) section. If you plan to frequent sento or onsen it is probably wise to memorize these kanji. Be careful not to walk through the wrong door, because either you might not like what you see or you might be less than welcome.
When visiting a larger public bath the segregation of sexes doesn't happen until after you paid, but the idea is the same, two doors or curtains marked with the aforementioned kanji.
- In case of the small local bath house, right inside the door you will find the person you pay to, usually an old lady. Don't be discouraged by the fact that this old lady has a clear view into both the male and the female changing area.
For the larger establishments there is either a payment counter or a vending machine for tickets in the lobby.
- Once you're in the changing area, everything is pretty much the same, no matter the size of the bath you are in. The changing area will have a tatami floor and lockers on the walls to keep your clothes and valuables. Strip down to your birthday suit. The only thing you need in the bathing area is a small towel to wash yourself with and to cover your privates. Don't forget to bring any soaps, shampoos and other bathroom utensils you might like to use (toothbrush, razor, etc.). In larger public baths soap and shampoo is often provided.
- Once you're ready to enter the bathing area, walk through the sliding door. The first thing you will likely find is a small basin with warm water and a small bucket. Use the bucket and the water to rinse yourself.
- Before entering the baths, scrub yourself clean in the washing area that consisting of small stools, hot and cold taps and usually showers. Wash your whole body using the soap and the small towel you brought with you. After washing, rinse yourself well. Make sure all foam is gone from your body and your towel. Even though the towel shouldn't be taken into the water, it still should not contain any soap.
- Enjoy the various baths, but keep in mind the following:
- The small towel you brought with you should not be taken into the bath, but rather left on the rim of the bath.
- As said previously, make sure there is no shampoo or soap left on your body.
- If you feel embarrassed about being naked, feel free to use the small towel to cover your privates outside the bath.
- If you use the sauna, make sure you rinse off the sweat from your body before entering the bath again.
- It goes without saying, but DO NOT urinate in the water. The water in Japanese public baths contains a special chemical that turns the water and your body bright purple if it mixes with urine. ;-)
- Do not bathe when you are menstruating.
- Respect other people in the bath. Don't make a lot of noise and refrain from any other social un-niceties.
- When you are done soaking and are ready to get out, wipe your body with your towel before re-entering the changing area. There is usually an area between the sliding door to the bath and the tatami floor of the changing area where you can do so. | <urn:uuid:e6e11a74-48a6-47fa-b9d3-7d79229f9e0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sentoguide.info/etiquette/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942502 | 880 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Sep 9 2012
Stunning effects and raw courage signalled the end of the Paralympic Games in London.
The closing ceremony - billed as the Festival of the Flame - lived up to its name as flame throwers, blazing torches and a gigantic heart of fire lit up the Olympic Stadium.
The crowd had been moved by the grit and determination of legless war hero Captain Luke Sinnott - who hauled himself up a flagpole to proudly fly the Union Flag. The courageous 32-year-old lost his limbs in 2010 after volunteering to search an area "saturated" with improvised explosive devices to protect his comrades.
Blind autistic singer Lissa Hermans, who also performed at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this year, sang the National Anthem.
The spectacular and moving ceremony was another display of creativity and British eccentricity, and featured global megastars Coldplay, Rihanna and Jay-Z.
The audience roared as Britain's joint flagbearers wheelchair racer David Weir and cyclist Sarah Storey, who each won four golds, were joined by athletes from each country.
London mayor Boris Johnson passed the Paralympic Flag to the mayor of Rio Eduardo Paes.
Teenage swimming star - and face of the games - Ellie Simmonds, 17, was joined by sprinting sensation Jonnie Peacock, 19, to play a part in the final moments of the Games.
As the Paralympic cauldron was extinguished they transferred the final flame to a London Paralympic Torch, which was then used to light hundreds of torches held by members of the cast throughout the field of play.
Fountains of water rose from circular stages to finally extinguish the Paralympic Flame and the stunning send-off ended with a spectacular firework display that flashed over the Olympic Stadium and Park. | <urn:uuid:fc3c3123-090d-49ce-9d00-c7825d6cd8cb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.harrowobserver.co.uk/west-london-sport/world-uk-sport/2012/09/09/games-close-in-flaming-finale-116451-31801605/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954104 | 372 | 1.65625 | 2 |
• Companies report that linking material costs; inventory write-ups and write-downs that carry costs and capacity requirements; and material liability to the income statement and balance sheet not only deliver value, but align customer relationships to the internal organization and also extends into supplier relationships.
• Linking material, costs and availability with properly used contract management (CM) and other business-process-related technologies, mitigates potential risk areas by exposing the elements that are not in alignment or that create gaps.
• The business functions that contribute to and gain the most from CM technologies are sales, supply management, and legal services.
• CM technology provides an integrated, collaborative platform for ensuring reliable supply and reduction of risk for the customer, enterprise and supplier. The value is obvious in two measures: risk mitigation — use technology to reduce or remove factors that increase risk; return on investment (ROI) is the point of reference for the technology adoption and enablement across the enterprise and the cornerstone for the measurement of success.
AMR Research finds the average business has contracts for 85 per cent of their total customers and 55 per cent of their total suppliers. Most of these business contracts are stored in filing cabinets, compact disks, and personal hard drives located in sales, legal or procurement departments. The results of this highly fragmented business process are duplicate contracts at various prices, too much or too little inventory and wrong completion dates. The organizational risk posed by a decentralized, multi-functional and disparate CM process often goes ignored by companies. This article articulates an organization’s CM value, CM business process requirements, technologies that assist in closing the gap, and the calculation of the technology return on investment.
Income statement and balance sheet value
CM is the business process associated with a documented agreement of two or more parties. CM typically resides in the three functions of sales, legal and procurement. The management of contracts includes a contract repository, contract authoring and approval work flows, contract language and standardized terms, and the identification and tracking of the risk and liability of each contract. Risk-aware, performance-driven organizations understand the immediate value that comes from using CM technologies to improve product and service availability, reduce costs, and lower risks through a more holistic view of CM that spans the balance sheet and income statement.
Our research indicates that organizations are sharpening their focus on the availability and costs of materials that support revenue and working capital in three major areas (see Figure 1):
• material costs;
• inventory write-ups and write-downs that carry costs and capacity requirements; and
• material liability.
Companies report that linking these three areas to the income statement and balance sheet not only delivers value, but aligns customer relationships to the internal organization and extends into supplier relationships. The linked value is displayed in terms of pure numbers: the revenue, costs, inventory, and risk factors that come from aligning the contractual elements. The success in alignment is based on the current and future economic value derived. When done properly using CM and other business-process-related technologies the entire CM process mitigates potential risk areas by exposing the elements that are not in alignment or that create gaps.
A $7 billion discrete manufacturer found it had multiple contracts for the same customer based on different sales regions across one country. The customer did not know it had three different contracts and was charged three different prices for the same product and service. The discrete manufacturer consolidated the three contracts to one thereby reducing inventories and reducing their potential liabilities by 78 per cent. The VP of Sales noted, ‘Without an automated workflow provided by our CM vendor we were at risk of $1.4 million of excess inventory. ’
Business functions gain
The business functions that contribute to and gain the most from CM technologies are sales, supply management, and legal services.
Sales gains value by providing customer contracts with tangible, flexible requirements for revenue recognition. When some terms of the contract are not met, the customer can hold off payment or even walk away from the agreement. For these reasons, it’s in the sales organization’s best interests to not only use CM technologies, but also drive the requirements through service-level agreements (SLAs) to the rest of the organization and its suppliers. A tightly-knit contract cycle from revenue to supply enhances the ability to make the right decisions.
Example: A $2 billion discrete manufacturer introduced a CM product into its sales organization to improve the contract cycle time and standardize customer contracts. The organization mapped out its business process to the new CM technology resulting in immediate work flow improvements. Once effective training was implemented for users, the organization improved margins by 3 per cent and reduced the time to client signature by nine weeks. This resulted in an immediate enhancement to revenue and margin.
A recent AMR Research study shows that CM will be one of the largest areas of technology spending for supply management in 2008. This makes sense as companies, now more than ever, need a way to track their customer requirements via flow-down clauses, ensure compliance, and mitigate risk in their supply base. Supply management needs not only a repository, but authoring, workflow and compliance monitoring to ensure success.
CM technology is an engine that provides supply management efforts with the following:
• immediate visibility into the revenue flow-down requirements;
• the supplier’s requirements for inventory and capacity;
• cost of procured items over time;
• liabilities based on business requirements;
• collaboration across the enterprise; and
• a full financial impact of the supply side.
Example: A $5 billion high-tech company’s supply management organization used its CM technology to stop an insistent supplier’s proposed cost increase. The commodity manager segmented the contract by forecast, current and future contracted costs, inventory liabilities and capacity requirements. When the totals were calculated, the supplier was put on notice it had not fulfilled half of the contract obligations, including carrying inventory as well as the reduction of costs based on completed innovative process changes. The commodity manager not only stopped a proposed cost increase, but also reduced them because of the unmet contractual requirements.
Legal services is the contract engine within many organizations, touching all contracts from sales to supply. It is also the sanity check and final approver, protecting the assets of the firm if litigation is ever required. Verifying that risk mitigation is identified within contract clauses, it also serves as the checkpoint for finance. All aspects of authoring, repository, compliance and workflow in contract lifecycle management are required by legal.
Example: With its CM application, a US health insurance company found it could tie its contracts with customers directly into its network of employees and doctors in full compliance with all requirements across its ecosystem. This connection allowed the health insurance provider to offer the services required by its customers and employees as well as capture and analyze the costs and assist in liability planning across the ecosystem of payers, providers and patients.
Technologies that close the gaps
Technology vendors that provide CM products are AEC Soft, Ariba, Bravo Solution, CMA Contiki, Ecteon, Emptoris, Finetooth, Iasta, I-many, Lawson, Nextance (Versata), Oracle, SAP, Selectica, SpringCM, Symfact, and Upside Software. Although they all offer CM products, each company provides technology that is slightly different in approach. Still, their products provide visibility into trading-partner requirements and the risk and exposure for each enterprise.
Each provider has expertise that can be validated by current customer use. Companies considering CM products should speak to the reference customers and ask the reference about the value derived from the product including partnership risk reduction, improved visibility and ROI.
Consider a $24 billion discrete manufacturer’s experience:
‘Prior to using a CM product, we were in yearly litigation disputes, held our contracts in hundreds of filing cabinets around the world, and had no concrete idea of our contract value—whether or not we were over-exposed or going to run into a problem. We had no clue about the extension of our business to our partners.’
The company was experiencing strategic risk by not optimizing CM across its internal stakeholders. But after it implemented a CM application globally over 18 months, the manufacturer achieved 220 per cent ROI across the company, while improving contract cycle time by 68 per cent and reducing litigation cases by 80 per cent.
ROI of CM technology
CM technology provides an integrated, collaborative platform for ensuring reliable supply and reduction of risk for the customer, enterprise and supplier. The value is obvious in two measures: risk mitigation and ROI.
For CM, handling risk is straightforward: use the technology to reduce or remove factors that increase its effects. Without CM technology, risk factors can multiply.
Risk value can be calculated by multiplying the probability of risk and its impact (see Figure 2). This model can also be useful for communicating the value of contract lifecycle management to stakeholders, with company contracts reviewed against it to expose gaps.
As part of the selling process, the technology vendor typically calculates ROI. This then becomes the point of reference for the technology adoption and enablement across the enterprise. It’s also the cornerstone for measurement of success. Enterprises should ensure key elements are included in the ROI analysis (see Table 1). If the elements are not known, they should be estimated.
Example: An $8 billion High Tech chief purchasing office (CPO) needed CM technology because, as he put it, ‘My business process was fragmented and not under management. I knew that technology would provide a consistent work flow and repository. It was just up to my team and me to choose the right technology and achieve an immediate ROI.’ The CPO and his team chose a buy-side only technology product that was: quick and easy to install; streamlined their process by removing 31 days in the contract review process; implemented standard contracts based on supplier, product and business requirements; and reduced product risk exposure by 48 per cent.
Can you risk NOT using CM Technology?
Clearly, the advantages brought by CM functionality are numerous and spread across the organization and ecosystem of customers and suppliers. An organization’s financials are critical to success, but so is mitigating the risk of higher costs, too much inventory and unknown long-term financial liabilities. Do you know where your company’s liabilities are headed, short- and long-term? Do you know what is happening with your customers and suppliers? Contracts are an excellent way to monitor the availability, cost and liabilities of your trading partnerships. Can your organization risk NOT using CM technology?
Mickey North Rizza is a key member of the supply chain team and communicates effective supply chain, procurement, sourcing, and financial spend management strategies to AMR Research’s clients.
Prior to joining AMR Research, Mickey held the positions of vice president of global supply base management and director of procurement and sourcing At Moduslink Corporation, where she was responsible for implementing strategic sourcing programs, driving strategic positioning of materials in Europe and the Americas, and introducing new procurement technology. And prior to that was materials manager at M/A-Com, Inc., a division of Tyco International.
During her career, Mickey has aided many companies as they built their supply chain strategies, including the role of purchasing manager of Advanced Techcom Inc., Innova Corporation, and Motorola. | <urn:uuid:c72e1813-2130-4186-bfb2-6d185cfdd5ac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iaccm.com/news/contractingexcellence/?storyid=673 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945436 | 2,323 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Wichita's prodigal fast food chain is coming back home, but only for a day. White Castle executives and family members of the chain's founders are making a pilgrimage May 19 to Wichita, where he first White Castle was founded 90 years ago.
There will be a birthday celebration that afternoon offering Wichitans the chance to once again buy White Castle burgers.
"Home is where the heart is," said White Castle System Inc. vice president Jamie Richardson. "Knowing that we started in Wichita and that it is where it all began, we thought would be a great chance to bring some of the family members together."
From 4 to 6 p.m., Wichitans can buy the burgers the price of two for 90 cents. Grills will be set up in the Dillons grocery store parking lot at 7707 E. Central, near Rock Road.
All proceeds from the event will go to the Kansas Food Bank.
While in town, White Castle officials also plan to present a plaque to the Sunflower Bank branch at 201 N. Main, the site of the first White Castle restaurant, which was built in 1921.
The May 19 event also will coincide with another 90th anniversary celebration for a corporation with strong Kansas roots Dillons, Richardson said.
Although Dillon Cos. was officially founded in 1921, the organization's roots date back even earlier when John S. Dillon opened grocery stores in Hutchinson and Sterling.
Richardson said White Castle officials thought it was a good pairing to work with Dillons on the 90th anniversary project, in part because White Castle burgers are now sold in frozen food sections of grocery stores throughout the nation, including Dillons.
In 1921, two Wichitans Walt Anderson and Edgar Waldo "Billy" Ingram created White Castle. They chose the name because "White" signified cleanliness and purity; "Castle" signified strength, stability and permanence.
Their hamburger buildings were inspired by the design of Chicago's Water Tower in the shape of a castle.
Anderson had been making hamburgers in Wichita since 1916. He created what many believe were the beginnings of hamburgers as we now know them.
Anderson's hamburgers were made by pressing ground meat into a patty; punching holes to let the aroma come through; placing the patty on a grill with onions and pickles on top, and then serving the burgers on a dinner-roll-sized bun to absorb the juice.
Through the years, the burgers have affectionately have been nicknamed by their fans as "gut bombs," "Whiteys," "sliders," "roachburgers," "Castles," "Whitey one-bites" and "belly busters."
In 1933, White Castle moved its headquarters from Wichita to Columbus, Ohio.
Today there are no White Castles in Kansas. The last one in Wichita closed in 1938.
The White Castle corporation is considered America's first fast-food hamburger chain. It owns and operates more than 400 restaurants in 11 states.
The May 19 event will be filmed by a crew producing a documentary about the fast-food chain titled, "White Castle What America Craves." The film is slated for release in spring of 2012.
For more information on the film, visit www.whitecastlefilm.com. | <urn:uuid:c5748e1c-44d9-4ccd-825e-cd09f65f2c8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kansas.com/2011/05/12/1845732/buy-sliders-here-for-a-day.html?storylink=fbuser | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966147 | 678 | 1.6875 | 2 |
NEW YORK (AP) — The Boy Scouts of America may soon give sponsors of troops the authority to decide whether to accept gays as scouts and leaders — a potentially dramatic retreat from an exclusionary nationwide policy that has provoked relentless protests.
Under the change now being discussed, the different religious and civic groups that sponsor Scout units would be able to decide for themselves how to address the issue — either maintaining an exclusion of gays, as is now required of all units, or opening up their membership.
Gay-rights activists were elated at the prospect of change, sensing another milestone to go along with recent advances for same-sex marriage and the end of the ban on gays serving openly in the military.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry said emphatically Saturday that the Boy Scouts of America shouldn’t soften its strict no-gays membership policy, and dismissed the idea of bending the organization to the whims of “popular culture.” | <urn:uuid:13387b2a-338d-4959-a493-323fc558750a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wibw.com/home/nationalnews/headlines/189713881.html?site=full | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956923 | 188 | 1.601563 | 2 |
fences the first sheepmen cast across the land, processions
of cringing pitch or cedar posts pulling into the vanishing
point like fretboards carrying barbed melodies, windharp
narratives, songs of place, I'm thinking of the long cowboy
ballads Ray taught me the beginnings of and would have taught
me the ends if he could have remembered them.
was years ago when Ray swamped for ranches at a dollar a day
and found, and played guitar in a Saturday night band, and now
he is dead and I'm remembering near the end when he just needed
a drink before he could tie his shoes.
We'd stay up all night
playing the beginnings of songs like Falling Leaf, about a
girl who died of grief, and Zebra Dun, about a horse that
pawed the light out of the moon.
Sometimes Ray would break
through and recall a few more verses before he'd drop a line
or scramble a rhyme or just go blank, and his workfat hands
would drop the chords and fall away in disbelief.
songs he'd pull on the rum or unleash coughing fits that
sounded like nails in a paper bag.
Done, he'd straighten and
say, My cough's not just right, I need another cigarette, and
light the Parliament he bit at an upward angle like Roosevelt
and play the start of another song.
Then, played out and
drunk enough to go home, he'd pick up his hat and case and
make it, usually on a second try, through the front gate
and gently list out into the early morning dark, beginning
again some song without end, yodeling his vote under spangles. | <urn:uuid:fb8d4032-ef25-4a6e-ac7d-3f3310509334> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15472 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965391 | 360 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Thirty years after the publication of Lisa Birnbach's The Official Preppy Handbook, Eric Felten wonders if the culture of preppiness has actually been harmful to America's middle- and upper-classes? I think he may be overstating the case slightly, but it's well-written and it does point out that what was perhaps intended as satire suddenly became a bible for those who wish their lives were like something out of a Cecily von Ziegesar novel.
Via Tea at Trianon, to quote: -
The clothes may have been the most visible part of the preppy phenomenon, but they represented only a small part of the upper-class way of life Ms. Birnbach was championing (however cheerfully sly and subversive her advocacy may have been). Much of the book was devoted to a world-view that was casually aristocratic. Ms. Birnbach promised to make that outlook available to one and all. "In a true democracy," she wrote, "everyone can be upper class and live in Connecticut."
How could the suburban teenager from Peoria or Pomona all of sudden be "upper class"? It was less a matter of pink oxford cloth and Kelly-green poplin than of adopting an aristocratic lassitude, an attitude that exuded privilege by treating effort with contempt. One simply mustn't try too hard. A key principle of what Ms. Birnbach called the Preppy Value System was Effortlessness: "If life is a country club, then all functions should be free from strain."
There's no denying the seductive appeal of the old aristocratic disdain for those who strive. How much nicer (and, of course, easier) it is to adopt a blasé and boozy contempt for the grinds and geeks who put in effort than it is to compete with them. The original Handbook warned acolytes not to waste their college days studying "Professional majors" such as engineering, chemistry or mathematics, because they "all reek of practicality." Nor, we were told, did the preppy go for intellectually demanding subjects such as philosophy or linguistics because, "they smack of an equally undesirable effort."
And there's the rub. Unless you actually have a fat trust fund to underwrite your nonchalance, an aversion to effort is hardly a strategy for success. Which may explain some of our national woes. | <urn:uuid:4121fc62-14ee-4ec8-9064-7ccb273afdf8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://garethrussellcidevant.blogspot.com/2010/09/in-true-democracy-everyone-can-be-upper.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968983 | 493 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Phyllis Gertz identified Virginia Nelson in the group of ladies pictured in the History Center of Traverse City archive photo that appeared in the Community section on June 18. She said Nelson, who is wearing a hat, is the sixth woman on the left in the back row.
Gertz said Nelson was a teacher at the Union Street School in Traverse City. Her husband was Jack Nelson, a chemist with the Morgan Canning Company in Traverse City. Gertz said she baby-sat for the Nelson family.
History Center archive photos that appear in the Community section can be found online at www.record-eagle.com/history. | <urn:uuid:36ebbc7d-aaf7-42d1-965e-c4d7f1ab30d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://record-eagle.com/historyphotos/x1047721926/Reader-identifies-ladies-in-photo/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961352 | 135 | 1.5 | 2 |
SAN BRUNO — City officials will pour $350,000 over the next two years into an effort to keep up with Caltrain as a project to upgrade the city's rail crossings rockets forward on a high-speed schedule.
The money and the manpower it will buy are intended to help San Bruno keep the $165 million project on track for a July state funding deadline. Because the upgrades — which include overpasses at four rail crossings, known as grade separations, and a new train station — are in San Bruno, the city and Caltrain have to work together to complete them.
Officials also hope the extra resources will allow them to keep an eye on Caltrain and make sure design features such as landscaping and an elevator at the station will not be left out of the project's final plans. At present only two city staff members and one consultant are working on the designs with Caltrain, said Klara Fabry, San Bruno's public services director. She added that public works staff members also are reviewing how utilities such as water and sewer pipes will be affected by the work.
That should change soon. The City Council voted unanimously at its Tuesday meeting to free up $250,000 in redevelopment agency funds to hire consultants or temporary staff this year and another $100,000 the year after that. The money can be used for the project because it is inside the city's redevelopment zone, Fabry said. She added that no decision has been made yet on whether the
Caltrain's rush to get the project moving comes after years of delay and waiting. Officials and residents have been working on the project since 2002 but Caltrain authorities mothballed it in 2006 when they decided a statewide maintenance project was more urgent.
The San Bruno project jumped to the front of the line this summer when Caltrain applied for and got a $30 million grant from the state. However, Caltrain and San Bruno have to start the project by July or lose the money.
The sped-up schedule means both agencies are scrambling to get the project underway. If the group meets the deadline for the state funding, the remaining $135 million will come primarily from the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, which is funded by a half-cent sales tax.
City officials are worried the rush will mean the final product will be less than they had bargained for through a series of meetings between the city, the public and Caltrain.
"You know what happens when things are fast-tracked," said Councilman Rico Medina at Tuesday's meeting.
Caltrain officials have been silent on the topic so far, except to say they might not have enough money to pay for everything San Bruno wants. | <urn:uuid:664d8d35-8b02-4751-bd0b-680fa086b7ca> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_13302981 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968095 | 545 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The silver lining in June's dismal jobs report
(CBS News) BOSTON - The recession officially ended three years ago, but Friday's jobs report is more proof the recovery is painfully slow.
The June unemployment rate was 8.2 percent, unchanged from May. Employers added just 80,000 jobs.
That's three straight months of disappointing job creation. After a four-month stretch where growth was in the hundreds of thousands, it was the main issue today on the presidential campaign trail.
Our economy needs to add at least 125,000 new jobs every month just to keep up with population growth. At this pace it could take four more years for the U.S. job market to fully recover from the Great Recession
Mark DiNapoli, a general manager at the Suffolk Construction Company in Boston, just hired 122 people to work on six new projects.
"The men and women in the trades, a lot of them have been without work a long time," DiNapoli said. "We are seeing now after a year and half, two years, that they are really welcoming these opportunities."
But despite the modest pick-up in Boston construction, the number of unemployed Americans and the unemployment rate have basically stayed the same since February.
Michael Darda, a chief economist at MKM Partners, said there is a silver lining in today's lackluster report.
"I don't think we should fall into the trap of thinking that we're headed straight down, that's not the case," Darda said. "We're making progress -- it's just not fast enough to make everybody happy."
Workers added more hours to their week (up 0.1 hour to 34.5 hours) and wages increased slightly (up 0.06 an hour to $23.50 an hour) -- a possible sign of future job growth.
"If we can get a few more months of better jobs figures, those things could self reinforce each other and create a positive feedback loop helping to push the business cycle forward," Darda said.
Back in Boston, DiNapoli plans to keep adding jobs. His company's projects outnumber what they had at the height of the building boom in 2007.
"It is just wonderful to see a project of this nature and many others take off in this city," DiNapoli said.
The broader measure of unemployment numbers, which includes those who have given up their job search and have been forced to work part time, is $14.9 percent -- the highest level since February.
- Okla. tornado survivor finds dog buried alive under rubble
- Storm spotter: Oklahoma tornado "a nightmare"
- Injured third-grade teacher tells of trying to protect students
- Survivors pulled from Okla. school hit by tornado
- Poignant images capture tornado's emotional aftermath
- Oklahoma native's home destroyed for the second time
- Okla. family mourns child killed at school following tornado
- 5/21: Plaza Towers Elementary School: A look at the damage; Tornado injuries: A doctor's point of view
- Oklahoma tornado survivor: "Everything is gone"
- Tornado in Moore, Okla., was an EF5, the most powerful there is
- 5/21: Tornado in Moore, Okla., was an EF5, the most powerful there is
- Mother and daughter share stories of survival
- 5/21: Family's last-minute decision likely saved their lives; Closer look reveals extent of destruction in Moore
- Tornado survivor: "I'm very lucky I am still here"
- Saving the kids: One teacher's mission to keep her class safe
- Oklahoma: A state frequented by tragedy | <urn:uuid:beaa79c0-7232-4cc8-a6f4-ceae5c39920c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57467963/the-silver-lining-in-junes-dismal-jobs-report/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CBSNewsCourtWatch+%28CBS+News%3A+Court+Watch%29 | 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 | 0.959283 | 760 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
U.S. launched drone from secret Saudi base - reports
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is operating a secret base out of Saudi Arabia and used it to launch a CIA drone strike in 2011 that killed U.S.-born al Qaeda leader Anwar Al Awlaki, according to a media report.
The Washington Post, in a report on Wednesday, said the Middle East base was set up two years ago as part of U.S. officials effort to ramp up its search for members of the militant group.
Representatives for the CIA declined to comment on the report.
The disclosure is the latest on the nation's controversial drone strike policy ahead of White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan's Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday over his nomination to become CIA director.
White House officials had asked the newspaper to refrain from revealing the strategic base in the powerful oil nation, citing concerns that the information could undermine the hunt, the Washington Post said in its story.
"The Post learned Tuesday night that another news organisation was planning to reveal the location of the base, effectively ending an informal arrangement among several news organizations that had been aware of the location for more than a year," it wrote.
The New York Times' lead story on Wednesday also reported that Brennan worked closely with Saudi Arabia to gain approval to establish a secret drone base there.
A memo released earlier this week raised fresh questions about the drone policy. The memo, first reported by NBC News, outlined the legality of drone strikes to kill U.S. citizens abroad, an issue now likely to be raised at Brennan's hearing.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball and Susan Heavey; Editing by Philip Barbara) | <urn:uuid:2b500fb7-bba7-4af7-bd49-57f26b453c7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/2/7/worldupdates/us-launched-drone-from-secret-saudi-base-reports | 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 | 0.960952 | 348 | 1.765625 | 2 |
On-the-Move has been called “the happiest place in the world!” Whereas most programs serving individuals with disabilities are site-based programs where activities occur each day at a specific location, On-the-Move is a community-based program where we are active citizens participating in shaping our local culture. We do not stay behind closed doors!
On-the-Move activities have a health and wellness focus. Many groups volunteer for animal welfare organizations, exercise, go hiking, visit art galleries, farmer’s markets, and do cooking projects. We avoid the mall and fast food! We do lots of volunteer projects and always make a positive impact on our community. We educate ourselves and others on how to be respectful and responsible towards the environment.
While we are out making a difference in the world, community members who may not be familiar with inclusive practices can learn from us! We use the word integration because we facilitate a two-way exchange; integration is more than inclusion! | <urn:uuid:1f696ac6-f78d-4210-9d55-de2bf28171c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.onthemoveonline.org/about/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952024 | 201 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Published January 1, 2009.
We weren’t going to let a 24-hour marinade or the lack of a 900-degree oven keep us from turning this great Indian classic into an easy weeknight dinner.
Authentic versions call for a 24-hour marinade and a tandoor, a traditional beehive-shaped clay oven—requirements that keep the dish mainly in the realm of restaurants. But do you really need either of those things to create great-tasting chicken full of the same robust flavor?
We set out to reinvent this Indian classic into a recipe that could be made year-round in the oven.
Traditional tandoors produce moist, smoky meat because the fierce heat allows protein molecules on the meat’s surface to cross-link and contract, trapping moisture inside. Juices fall on the coals along with rendered fat, creating smoke that flavors the food. Trying to mimic the tandoor by cooking chicken in a very hot oven gave us disappointing results. Instead we turned to a technique we use to preserve the juiciness of thick-cut steaks. We baked the chicken in a low-temperature oven until almost done, then gave it a quick broil to char the exterior. However, there was still the problem of the 24-hour yogurt marinade, which took too long and made our chicken mushy. We tested marinating chicken for different lengths of time. Tasters preferred the chicken that had been dipped versus soaked for any length of time. This made sense, because yogurt contains acid, which breaks down proteins to tenderize meat. The longer meat is exposed to acid, the more its proteins break down, leading to mushiness. But without a long soak, how would we introduce other flavors to the meat? The answer was a salt-spice rub with garam masala, cumin, and chili powder bloomed in oil with ginger and garlic. We massaged the rub into chicken pieces to lock in juices and infuse flavor, then left them to sit. Following a dunk in yogurt flavored with the same spice mix, the chicken was ready for the oven. The results? Juicy, lightly charred, well-seasoned meat with just the right degree of tenderness.list of recipes | <urn:uuid:0e720e31-ffd7-436e-b2ad-1b88887c1d06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/print/article.asp?docid=18180&parentdocid=18062 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955059 | 466 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Engaging in link exchange will create too much outbound links on your site. Outbound links or outcoming links are links or URLs found on your blog or website that when clicked lead to another site. Outbound links are usually URLs you collect from link exchange, blog referral banners or widgets, image and html links, and even the webpages you cite on your articles. Note that too much outbound links decreases the authority of your website.
So what will happen?
If you are really willing to build your site and get more traffic or visitors, you must establish higher content authority. Remember that search engines crawl your site and when they found that another site is linked from your page but has similar keywords or contents, that site will be more likely to be indexed above you. Search engines detect that you are copying contents from other site or blog even though you are just citing a source. Citing sources of your articles could mean non-originality of the content you publish. Also, Search Engine robot could not or could hardly identify a cited link from the others.
Another thing that is associated with the content authority of your website is the Page Rank and they are directly proportional. This means that if your content authority is higher, you probably got higher page rank or, you got higher Page Rank because search engine detects you have content authority. Page rank usually measures the number of sites linking to your website or blog (backlinks) or the proportion of your backlinks over the outbound links. No exact formula is actually revealed but too much outbound links may decrease your Page Rank.
And the worst thing that could happen is, Google Adsense disabling your account. Deriving traffic from link referrals (which may considered as encouraged visit) and copied contents are violation of Google Adsense terms. So if you’re account has been disabled and you are clueless about what you violated, this could probably be the reason.
So how will you get backlinks without exchanging?
The answers is, share (like the buttons shown below) and comment on high Page Rank website and use your website as a signature. Participating in online forums or discussions will also get you valuable backlinks. | <urn:uuid:5c80c764-c76e-4c61-bf83-f859b74e4170> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freedomwall.net/tutorials/link-exchange-is-not-good-for-your-site-or-blog/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941314 | 441 | 1.625 | 2 |
It has previously been shown that specific microdeletions and microduplications, many of which also associated with cognitive impairment (CI), can present with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) represents an efficient method to screen for such recurrent microdeletions and microduplications.
In the current study, a total of 279 unrelated subjects ascertained for ASDs were screened for genomic disorders associated with CI using MLPA. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR) and/or direct DNA sequencing were used to validate potential microdeletions and microduplications. Methylation-sensitive MLPA was used to characterize individuals with duplications in the Prader-Willi/Angelman (PWA) region.
MLPA showed two subjects with typical ASD-associated interstitial duplications of the 15q11-q13 PWA region of maternal origin. Two additional subjects showed smaller, de novo duplications of the PWA region that had not been previously characterized. Genes in these two novel duplications include GABRB3 and ATP10A in one case, and MKRN3, MAGEL2 and NDN in the other. In addition, two subjects showed duplications of the 22q11/DiGeorge syndrome region. One individual was found to carry a 12 kb deletion in one copy of the ASPA gene on 17p13, which when mutated in both alleles leads to Canavan disease. Two subjects showed partial duplication of the TM4SF2 gene on Xp11.4, previously implicated in X-linked non-specific mental retardation, but in our subsequent analyses such variants were also found in controls. A partial duplication in the ASMT gene, located in the pseudoautosomal region 1 (PAR1) of the sex chromosomes and previously suggested to be involved in ASD susceptibility, was observed in 6–7% of the cases but in only 2% of controls (P = 0.003).
MLPA proves to be an efficient method to screen for chromosomal abnormalities. We identified duplications in 15q11-q13 and in 22q11, including new de novo small duplications, as likely contributing to ASD in the current sample by increasing liability and/or exacerbating symptoms. Our data indicate that duplications in TM4SF2 are not associated with the phenotype given their presence in controls. The results in PAR1/PAR2 are the first large-scale studies of gene dosage in these regions, and the findings at the ASMT locus indicate that further studies of the duplication of the ASMT gene are needed in order to gain insight into its potential involvement in ASD. Our studies also identify some limitations of MLPA, where single base changes in probe binding sequences alter results. In summary, our studies indicate that MLPA, with a focus on accepted medical genetic conditions, may be an inexpensive method for detection of microdeletions and microduplications in ASD patients for purposes of genetic counselling if MLPA-identified deletions are validated by additional methods. | <urn:uuid:c23bd647-33fd-47f5-b643-4d28999205eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pubmedcentralcanada.ca/pmcc/solr/reg?term=author%3A(%22Anagnostou%2C+Evdokia%22)&filterQuery=year_sint%3A79922008&sortby=score+desc | 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 | 0.939763 | 639 | 1.640625 | 2 |
One top food attorney says he is not wholly surprised by Monster Beverage Corporation's decision to reclassify its energy drinks as beverages rather than dietary supplements, and that it will actually remove many US regulatory complications.
Marc Ullman, from New York-based Ullman, Shapiro & Ullman told BeverageDaily.com that the move confirmed by Monster Beverage Corporation last week was, “not totally a surprise, as in many ways there are less regulatory complications when you market food (as opposed to supplements)”.
Once a company had completed the FDA’s Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) process for its ingredients, Ullman added, there was “really no reason not to make the move”.
“Conventional foods don’t have to report Serious Adverse Events, supplements do. Conventional foods are also manufactured under less rigorous GMP’s (Good Manufacturing Practices) than dietary supplements,” the lawyer told this publication.
Dousing the senatorial fires?
Ullman did not think Monster was making the move to counter criticism from politicians like Senator Dick Durbin, who argue that some energy brands masquerade as dietary supplements to bypass, for instance, the need to establish evidence of product safety [N.B. this point is tenuous] or adhere to upper limits on caffeine in soft drinks (200ppm).
“I’m not sure how the switch would have that effect [of countering criticism],” Ullman said. “There’s actually more information on the supplement labels. If the FDA is going to do anything, I don’t think it would matter much whether this product is a food or a supplement.”
(Monster rival Red Bull is already classified as a beverage, and must include a ‘Nutrition Facts’ label. A recent one is shown below, above a Monster Energy ‘Supplement Facts’ label from 2011.)
Finally, did Ullman think that Monster would have to reformulate the drink to cut out additives such as taurine (given the need for either an FDA pre-market review of novel ingredients, or GRAS status for them, now only applies to standard beverages), or cut caffeine levels?
“We don’t know if the company has completed a self-GRAS assessment for taurine or any of its other ingredients at this point,” Ullman said.
It’s probably pretty safe to assume that whatever ingredients are in the product when it comes out with a nutrition facts label will be GRAS. (Remember, there is no need to tell FDA when a company completes a self-GRAS assessment.)”
‘Busting some of the myths’
Justin Prochnow, a high-profile lawyer whose specialisms include beverage and supplement regulation at Denver, Colorado practice Greenberg Traurig, told BeverageDaily.com that he believed public misunderstanding was rife concerning laws surrounding energy drinks and supplements.
He said he would seek to “bust some of the myths” at a forthcoming speaking slot at Expo West/Nutracon 2013 (March 6-7, 2013).
Discussing how the labeling switch would affect controversial ingredients like taurine, Prochnow noted that this was actually GRAS at low levels for flavoring, despite not being GRAS regulated for use in foods.
“This does not mean it can't be GRAS and must be removed. It means that a company must get self-affirmed GRAS status for taurine to legally sell it. This can be achieved by either going through a service provider like GRAS Associates or AIBMR, on empaneling your own GRAS experts,” he said.
By reclassifying as a beverage, Monster was not required to list caffeine levels, Prochnow added, although CEO Rodney Sacks has been quoted in the media as saying that the company would do so.
“In fact, the only requirement is as a supplement. You are supposed to list the amount of each ingredient unless they are part of a proprietary blend,” Prochnow explained.
Historically, the FDA has told industry it doesn’t matter if a dietary supplement was packaged like a conventional food or beverage, as long as packaging featured a ‘supplement facts’ panels.
But 2009 draft guidance from the FDA on distinguishing beverages from supplements – in response to Durbin the agency said last August that it planned to publish full guidance “in the near future” – suggests that the agency will address supplement resemblance to conventional drinks. | <urn:uuid:15a9bc4b-5a3d-424f-b3f0-a33b51f04598> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Regulation/Monster-Energy-beverage-switch-slashes-regulatory-red-tape-Top-Attorney | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960493 | 964 | 1.632813 | 2 |
After Troutdale's City Hall was condemned last year by the city's building inspector, the City Council moved its meetings to the city's City Conference Building (CCB) at 223 SE Buxton Ave.
Fellow Troutdale resident John Wilson recently asked City of Troutdale Building Official Dick Bohlmann if the CCB's restrooms needed to be ADA compliant.
Bohlmann told Wilson they weren't, and haven't been ADA compliant since the city purchased the building in the early 1990's. Bohlmann also told Wilson that Troutdale's recently condemned City Hall restrooms were never in compliance with ADA standards, despite being the meeting place for City Council Meetings, City Court sessions, and Planning Commission meetings for many years.
Bohlmann also gave a short history of the CCB building. It was originally Troutdale's US Post Office. After the USPS moved to its new building in 1989, a church purchased the CCB. The church was given one year to make the restrooms ADA compliant as a condition of occupancy. But they never made them ADA compliant. Several years later, the City of Troutdale purchased the building. The City also failed to upgrade the building's restrooms to comply with ADA requirements.
Fast forward to a Troutdale City Council Meeting a few weeks ago. Wilson, speaking during the public comment portion of the City Council meeting, brought up the issue of the CCB restroom lack of ADA compliance and requested that the City Council direct city staff to bring the building into ADA compliance. Wilson asked how could the City require Troutdale residents, businesses, and developers to spend thousands of dollars to comply with ADA requirements when the City had ignored ADA laws for years.
The City Council refused to appropriate funds to bring the CCB building restrooms into ADA compliance. According to Wilson, a source from the city government stated this could be done for around $5,000. Even now, the CCB building is used weekly by city committees and local clubs and groups including the YMCA.
The City Council has directed the City Manager to enter into multi-year lease agreements for a non-city owned building in downtown Troutdale for meeting space to hold their City Council, Court, Planning Ccommission meetings etc.
The City Council has appropriated funds to bring this non city building's restroom and a wall ($5,000) into ADA compliance as well as another $10,000 in annual rent to hold their City Council, Court and planning meetings in. This pencils out to approx. to 70 meetings a year at a cost of $214.00 per meeting (1st year costs $15,000) the first year.
|Say Goodbye To Your Tax Dollars, Troutdalians!|
Troutdale taxpayers: Is this ok with you? $5,000 to make a city owned building's restrooms ADA compliant, versus spending $5,000 to make a non city owned building ADA compliant in addition to 1st year costs of $15,000 in rent? What other buildings in Troutdale are out of ADA compliance?
This belongs in the "It's easy to spend other people's money" category, if you ask me. | <urn:uuid:0dabee5b-b47a-45fb-86ec-ccb2e87fefe1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://troutdale.blogspot.com/2012/03/troutdale-council-continues-to-ignore.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972157 | 641 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Thanks to Doc Quatermass for the link.
Peel an orange, and other things Britons won't do - This Britain, UK - The Independent: "Oranges are declining in popularity, according to Grocer magazine. They were introduced to our larders and kitchens from Asia 1,000 years ago, and their juice is our favourite morning heart-starter – but the actual spherical bomb of vitamin C, fibre, potassium and folate is less appetising with every passing year.
Why? Not because we've gone off the taste, but because we find them too difficult to peel. It's pathetic but true. Compared with the easy-peel, lighter-weight satsuma and tangerine, the noble orange is considered too big, too messy and too inconvenient to denude with your human fingers." | <urn:uuid:e3544adf-9b1e-4341-87df-d27434a370f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://billcrider.blogspot.com/2008/06/8-things-britons-are-too-busy-to-do.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937883 | 167 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Opening Lecture, October 28 at the Clark, Captures the Passion and Drama in Fragonard’s Paintings
For Immediate Release
October 15, 2007
Explore the drama and passion in the work of Jean-Honoré Fragonard during “Fragonard’s Paintings of Love,” with guest curator Dr. Andrei Molotiu on Sunday, October 28, at 2 pm. This free lecture marks the opening of the exhibition Consuming Passion: Fragonard’s Allegories of Love at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.
The French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806) is usually associated with the exuberance and hedonism of the Rococo style of painting. However, during the 1780s, Fragonard changed his manner to create scenes characterized by the strong play of lights and shadows and by an atmosphere of profound eroticism. In his lecture, as in his book, Fragonard's Allegories of Love, Dr. Molotiu examines some of the most striking works belonging to this late period, a series of exquisite paintings that highlight Fragonard's move away from the Rococo and toward an early version of Romanticism. Molotiu draws parallels between the paintings and the writings of Rousseau and of other early Romantic novelists and poets, and explores the possible connections between the allegories and the upheaval of the French Revolution.
Dr. Molotiu taught art history at the University of Rochester, Indiana University, and the University of Louisville. He has published articles on 18th-century French painting in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts and other art journals.
Fragonard is best known as a painter of playful genre subjects, garden landscapes, and fantasy portraits, but in his later career he turned to the subject of romantic love. Consuming Passion: Fragonard’s Allegories of Love on view October 28, 2007 through January 21, 2008 focuses on Fragonard’s work during the 1780s and 1790s when he created a series of dramatic reflections on the subject of romantic allegories. This exhibition explores these mysteries and evocative works in a variety of themes: oil painting, drawings, prints, and illustrated books. Consuming Passion has been organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum in association with the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.
The Clark is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm (daily in July and August). Admission June 1 through October 31 is $12.50 for adults, free for children 18 and younger, members, and students with valid ID. Admission is free November through May. For more information, call 413-458-2303 or visit www.clarkart.edu. | <urn:uuid:c3ec98fd-84ac-4912-8938-83cb7ec8f35a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://clarkart.edu/about/press/content.cfm?ID=783&year=2007&email=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956964 | 586 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Mediation for entrepreneurs plays a very important role in the business development. Entrepreneurs have the vision to create new products, new ideas and new services. They develop their ideas and then begin to build their company around that set of creative thoughts, plans and goals, which are in a constant state of evolution. Rarely is the pace is slow and methodical. Most times the ideas, people and organizations seem to explode on the business marketplace.
No one person has the skill set to manage every aspect properly. People are hired, trained, retained and fired. Clients are nutured and developed, services are structured and provided, products are manufactured and sold, and the business changes literally every day.
Alternative Law entrepreneur mediators are specialized business mediators who have degrees in mediation and must have owned or developed business themselves. They must understand how business works from the top down and the bottom up. Conflict resolution must be interwoven within the marketplace of ideas and how people, owners and partners and employees relate to each other and to the public.
We used our own best ideas win program to foster resolution and results. We are the type of mediators that are active participants in the process of resolution. We are not the type of mediators that simply sit back or practice shuttle diplomacy, where ideas are repeatedly passed back and forth. The mediator that we select be both a highly qualified mediator and an entrepreneur and will move at your pace, meet your needs, address your conflicts and develop systematic plans for resolution of issues going forward or your money back. | <urn:uuid:c76d4959-9cec-42d7-b07b-662ab8d3f1ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://alternativelaw.com/entrepreneur-mediation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964949 | 313 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Human Anatomy, Physiology, and Medicine. Anything human!
to the last entry of oct 14,2008 & any one else w/ morgellons or collembollla--go to--http://www.SkinParasitesEbook.com. I bought it and it is worth the money and info. you need will help you.
I've been through some of this for the past 3 years.
mainly--we are infected. diet--what you eat affects what we have. It can get better. absolutely no sugar--it makes things worse!!! --they multiply and your immunity gets weaker. Eat quality foods--chicken, eggs, vegies, salads, lots of water. try to get rest--your mind,spirit and body need it to fight this. for support and [email protected]--Peace--pray for a cure--seek and ye shall find.
To the person who just want to curl up and die: ask your doctor to prescribe Doxycline for you and see if that doesn't help your situation. I don't think you ever had scabies although it probably looked just like it initially and you may find relief from certain antibiotics, particularly those usesd to treat Lyme Disease.
Hoping this helps,
To the best of my knowledge, I was infested by Collembola twice. So read on Friends! Let me stress the word, "was"! Although, I have no way of knowing exactly what I had, you can be assured that it was not black spider mites (scabies) or Morgellons (delusions). Which is how 3 seperate doctors and a Vet diagnosed my symptoms, scabies or yeah, I was crazy. Tell that to the people who wish to assasinate me for spreading the bug. This Bug lives in the pores of your skin. I was able to scrap my skin and under a microscope view a very small spot which exacly resembled a Collembolla parasite. Also, I would guess that since it is an insect, this animal goes through several stages of development and when it is adult it begins to reproduce. Thus, here is another clue on how to break their life cyle Some people, I believe are immune, due to the fact of their small pores and/or lack of them. You can defeat this infestation and that is how you should approach this.
First, consulte a Doctor, after he shakes his head and says your nuts, go to step Two. Quarantine yourself as much as possible. This way you stop spreading these mites as they will drop off where you sit or stand and then hop on a unsuspecting person. Third, Lice medication found in the pharmacy works pretty good, but it's expensive and not fullproof, besides being toxic. Fourth, and the ultimate cure, MINERAL OIL!!! It smothers (suffocates) the animal and bogs it down so it can not migrate. Buy a case of it, it's cheap, cover your entire body, from head to toe, 6-12 times a day. And as "stillsuffering" in the above blog stated, cover everything in plastic. Like where you sit and where you lie to sleep. Number Five, freezing temps, as insects become inert below 45', I would believe that freezing kills Collembola. Also, you may want to move to a frigid climate to speed the results. Heat above 130', may kill them, but at 115' they will buzz so loud you can hear them!
Look, I had this vicous creature infest every pore on my body, twice!!! I am not making it up. I feel guilty because I spread it to other people and wish to help those infested. If you follow what I related above, you can get out of it. My second infestation, from a very sexy lady, body to body contact, seriously, let's stay focused, with the above knowledge, it took 5 weeks before I was rid of this bug. So keep at it. Don't give up!!!
It's not your fault, you have no one to blame for spreading it and if you need spiritual help, read your New Testament. There is nothing that comes close to it in regard to Wisdom.
please help me i have had this problem 4 almost a year they r everywhere i cant stand it any longer all over my entire body house truck and everywhere i go i cant even hardly work because i repair other peoples homes im desprite and very low on funds i have moved twice been to the er 11 times the derm told me i was crazy gave them to my girlfriend now we are both miserable to emberesed to go any where losing hope and my mind tried diesel fuel head to toe about a thousand times i can actually see these white things there every where please share what you have learned
Ok I will help you to heal but I need your email address.If no address please let me know by contacting me at [no thanks, the forum do not condone or encourage unverified practice of medicine].
Hi there. I moved to an area in which "chigger mites" abound, and my home was on a wooded lot with many pines and sandy soil. I was being bitten, but my spouse was not. Some of my neighbors also were being bitten. I found a website that sells a natural product made from cedar oil that helped me. It has kept me from selling and moving away from my home. Fortunately for me, I found it before I aggravated my physician about it to the point he decided I was delusional!
The scientist who invented this product, when I emailed him directly, responded that I might have Collembola mites, but I think it was just the usual spring and summer red bug mites in my case. At any rate this product is not harmful, I use it on my dog, and myself. It has no poisons or chemicals other than cedar oil and some sort of ultra fine crystalline sandlike particles (you cannot feel them.) we have used some of the products he made especially as yard sprays and house sprays (these not for use on you or pets) with great success also.
The substance for personal use is a very fine oil, so fine that I put it into a plastic mist bottle from the dollar store for ease of use for me and my dog before and after walks, and can use this cheap spray bottle for about a year without clogging the nozzle. A little goes a long way, so although a quart is expensive, it really is less expensive than aerosol sprays of chemicals such as OFF, bought repeatedly.
I do not have any affiliation with this product, except I use it. It is
called Cedarcide, and by putting this word in a search engine you can
find the website. I hope I haven't broken any web rules by mentioning products, just hoping to help some people here.
I need some help. I currently have a collombolla and fungas gnat infestation. In addition I had mealworms and sow larvae on me until the last fumigation. I thought the fungus gnats were lice in my hair. Everyone, including the public health department says I am delusional. Does anyone know of a medical doctor in Ontario, Canada who can help me. At this point, I think I am more interested in being proved sane and that this horrible experience is all true. Please. Is there anyone out there
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Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests | <urn:uuid:afe3486f-fde9-4f68-82aa-6e09b0dcc430> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biology-online.org/biology-forum/about3318.html?p=142063&hilit=Usual | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970834 | 1,557 | 1.585938 | 2 |
MUSKEGON COUNTY, MI -- Muskegon County is going experience a scorcher of a weekend, kicking off today with a high of 85 degrees.
The good news is that the Lake Michigan water temperature will likely climb as a result.
The water temperature was hovering around 60 degrees early today, according to the Michigan Sea Grant Coastal Watch.
The National Weather Service has also issued an ozone action day and officials are asking residents of Muskegon, Ottawa, Allegan, Kent and Mason counties to limit their activities that would contribute to the thinning ozone layer.
Residents are urged to avoid activities “which lead to ozone formation,” according to the weather service.
Harmful activities include refueling vehicles, using gas-powered lawn mowers and using charcoal lighter fluid. The weather service suggests residents consider carpooling or biking to work and putting off errand running.
Meanwhile, the weather in Muskegon County will remain sunny and hot today, and then partly cloudy this evening with a low of around 63 days.
Saturday could reach 88 degrees, mostly sunny with temperatures dropping to 65 degrees in the evening. There’s a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms on Saturday as well.
Sunday, Father’s Day, is expected to be partly sunny with a high near 81 degrees, with a 40 percent chance of showers. Sunday night will be partly cloudy with a low of around 66 degrees. | <urn:uuid:5d0fd662-df2e-4b9c-adcd-1f52477a752e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2012/06/hot_sun_in_the_city_muskegons.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946263 | 296 | 1.804688 | 2 |
By Rachael McMillan
There are many ways to go about the business of recycling in Champaign-Urbana. Here is our list, categorized by the type of item to be recycled. (For household items that can be resold or distributed to others in need, we have developed another list that includes clothing, books, appliances, furniture and more; if you want to make money on your old stuff, check out our consignment posts as well.)
Metal, plastic, cardboard, and paper
Curbside pick-up of these items is available in Champaign through whichever waste service you have; in Urbana recycling is handled through its U-Cycle Program. For Champaign residents, whichever service you use, check with your provider to see which items they will accept; some take more variety than others.
If you live in a multi-family (apartment/condo) dwelling in Urbana, you should be able to recycle these items at your residence. Here’s info at the city of Champaign website.
If you want a drop-off option, check out Illini Recycling in Champaign, located at 420 Paul Ave. The company will take: cardboard, #1 -#7 plastic bottles, magazines, tin food cans, newspaper, aluminum cans, office paper, aluminum foil/pans; and clear, green or brown glass bottles.
Also in Champaign is Green Purpose, a membership club which combines a traditional recycling center with a green-shopping store, a materials exchange program, and custom repurposing solutions center. It is located at 807 Pioneer St.
The Golden Goat, the car-sized machines that pay for your old aluminum cans, has returned to Champaign at two locations: 1040 Bloomington Road (Carpet Master parking lot) and Helbling Auto Body, 501 East University.
If you have other scrap metals, you can take them over to Marco Recycling in Champaign (302 S. Market St.) just south of downtown, or Mack’s Twin City Recycling in Urbana. Rates paid vary. Items that you can recycle/scrap that you wouldn’t think of? Keys, Christmas lights, (landline) phone cords, old plumbing implements.
Urbana’s Landscape Recycling Center is the place to take the big bags of clippings, weeds, and other assorted natural debris that result from the process of turning your yard into a pruned paradise. Bags can be purchased at most landscape and home improvement stores, as well as at Meijer and Walmart, among other places. The LRC charges fees for their services, but they’re well worth it to responsibly rid yourself of yard waste.
Free curbside landscape recycling happens in Champaign in the spring and fall; you can sign up for email notices of future pick-up dates. Urbana also has free leaf pick-ups in the spring and fall, check its website for dates and zones.
Plastic grocery bags
As much as we all try to never be without our reusable grocery bags, there are times where are caught unprepared at the grocery store. Many local big-box stores offer recycling of plastic bags (and not just their own), including Schnuck’s, Meijer, Walmart, and most recently, Target. Some of the local trash collectors may accept them as part of their recycling program; be sure to ask.
Have unused or expired medication sitting around and don’t know what to do with it? Pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens both offer medication disposal options, for a small fee. The next DEA National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is on April 27, 2013.
Did you forget about the recent countywide electronics recycling event? Didn’t want to wait in line? Well, we have good news for you. There are are several options, which we’ve detailed in another article. Here’s a shorter version of that.
Marco Recycling in Champaign (302 S. Market St.) accepts computers, servers and network devices, monitors, printers, televisions, VCRs, DVD players, stereos, copiers, and cell phones for recycling without charge. They will not accept speakers or microwave ovens. For more information about Mervis Industries Electronics Recycling Program, call 217‐352‐3040.
Best Buy also recycles electronics, with some restrictions.
Compact Florescent Light bulbs
The Home Depot (located on 820 Bloomington Road, Champaign) offers a free program that allows customers to bring in any expired unbroken CFL bulbs, place them in a plastic bag and deposit them both into a collection unit.
The City of Urbana offers free single-use battery and rechargable batteries recycling at five locations, including the Anita Purves Nature Center; the Urbana Free Library; the Urbana City Building; the Philipps Recreation Center (single-use only at that location); and the Urbana Public Works. Before you put batteries in the receptacle, put a piece of transparent tape over the positive (sticky-outie) end of each one. At the Urbana Free Library, look for a drop-off container to the right of the circulation desk.
Didn’t find what you were looking for? Both the city of Champaign and the city of Urbana put out lists (although some of the information may be out of date) of places to take a host of other reusables/recyclables, from clothing to motor oil.
A former high school teacher who now is spending time at home with her two children, Jack and Kate, Rachael McMillan is a freelance writer and reading tutor. She is a regular contributor to chambanamoms.com | <urn:uuid:2eeab7eb-1a73-4f68-9973-f1137704c6e2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chambanamoms.com/2013/01/21/recyclingchampaignurbana2013/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932687 | 1,215 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Posted on Mar 24, 2009 | Comments 0
Having the right kind of lighting in your home is always very important.
You want your lighting to match the design and decorating theme of your wonderful surroundings.
Lighting has a way of changing the mood of a room [Mood lighting]. It can make a room feel warm and cozy.
The type of lighting you choose will portray your personality. However, current style trends will affect the lighting styles available. Each room in your home is used for different things and will require a certain lighting style. Your lighting idea should enhance the theme that you have chosen for each individual room.
Techniques of Lighting
1.Highlighting: This type of lighting is used when you want to bring attention to important or sentimental objects in a room. Highlighting an expensive painting or a very old antique piece will make it stand out for everyone to notice when they enter your home. The use of highlighting will compliment your sense of style.
2.Up Lighting: This is an illuminating lighting idea. If you would like to illuminate a certain wall in your home then you will want to use up lighting. Sometimes this is used when you can’t put any other lighting in the room.
3.Backlighting: Backlighting can make a room seem larger. It is usually used by letting the light shine through something that is translucent. This technique has become very popular and can give a wonderful effect to any room.
Types of Lighting
- Soft Lighting: Your lighting style should not be overbearing in certain rooms. You may want your bedroom to have this type of lighting. You can use lighting fixtures in your bedroom that let you turn down the lights which will create a romantic atmosphere. This type of lighting sets the mood of the room.
- Track Lighting: This lighting style allows you to choose how much light you want in your room and where you want to use this light. You have the option with track lighting to have several lights in a row that illuminate certain parts of your room. This style does away with larger types of lighting such as chandeliers. [Selecting a chandelier]
If your living room area has a western theme you may want to purchase lamps with cowboy themes or put western themed lighting sconces on your wall.
A breezy lighting idea for your sunroom would be to install a beautiful ceiling fan.This will not only provide air circulation in the room but it also provides the right amount of lighting.
Kitchens can benefit from track lighting especially over the sink.You can buy all types of track lighting depending on your kitchen’s theme. A room that is a work area will need a more aggressive type of lighting.
Since this is a work area you will want the lighting to be bright enough to be able to see what you are working with.
A good way to choose lighting for your home is to decide what you want the light to accomplish for your room. The rest is based on your own personal taste and theme you have chosen for your home.
Posted in: Lighting | <urn:uuid:de904cf3-d600-4a19-a618-272289558686> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.homeinteriorszone.com/home-accessories/lighting/design-and-decorate-your-home-with-lighting/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944249 | 625 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Reporting Alex DeMetrick
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — With all its attractions, Baltimore’s Inner Harbor was still missing something.
Alex DeMetrick reports that void has now been filled, with the city’s newest public park.
A year ago, it was a vacant lot filled with weeds. Tucked behind the Columbus Center and in front of Pier 5, that same space is now lush with plants and grass, and sculptures designed for kids to climb around.
“It’s the only space that really connects Harbor East with the Inner Harbor, so we’re really proud of ourselves for having found this spot, because I think it desperately needed this,” said park fund raiser Susan Flanigan.
It’s called Pierce’s Park, after Baltimore businessman and civic leader Pierce Flanigan. His sudden death put his widow on the path to this accomplishment after their daughter said there was no park in the harbor to take their grandchildren.
“Right after the service, everybody was e-mailing each other saying we have to do this park and we have to do it for Pierce,” said Susan Flanigan.
Working with the city, $2 million was raised, and what was once ignored is hard to ignore now.
The park was designed to not only be seen, but heard–turning sculptures into musical fences.
“We wanted to make it not just a playground and not just an empty park, but something that would grow and children would grow with it,” said Flanigan.
It’s a journey that starts Sunday, when the park opens.
Pierce’s Park will open with a ribbon cutting at 2 p.m. on Sunday, followed by children’s activities and live entertainment. The public is welcome. | <urn:uuid:1e554d78-69f6-4d8a-8ce8-9009c17ba6b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2012/05/01/baltimores-newest-public-park-set-to-open/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975794 | 380 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Internet business types vary a lot on the world wide web market these days. Everybody tries to sell, but what makes a difference is the way they promote products and services. In this direction, they promote one or more products/services that they advertise both by online and offline means, trying to increase market exposure every day. And the platform for all the online transactions is the WEBSITE.
Web design is the first step for an Internet business. This is also the reason why web masters make so much money from their design and optimization projects. While many managers have marketing knowledge and experience, very few actually design and maintain their own Internet business websites. In the majority of situations, business owners hire a web master and together discuss about the best ways to achieve a user-friendly interface. And you’ve got the first stage of Internet business growth.
Then follows search engine optimization. Traffic is essential for any Internet business, and you need to attract the web surfers with the highest potential of converting into clients. Therefore, SEO becomes the key process to get a high conversion rate. It starts with the selection of the most relevant keywords that define a certain product, service or domain. Every Internet user has to type some words in the search engine box to get results for a query.
If your website is well optimized and indexed, the search engine will display the link to your pages among the first results. Only websites with very good page rankings get in such positions. Then there are other aspects of Internet business marketing that you have to keep in mind in relation with SEO and advertising. It is not easy to achieve good page rankings, and this job takes a lot of time and constant monitoring of web performance.
There are many advertising solutions for an Internet business, and the ideal is to find those that are both efficient and little costly. Blog and social network posts, forum posts and article marketing are considered among the most efficient ways of attracting relevant traffic to your business website. Web developers have started to pay more attention to these elements in order to come up with alternatives or parallel solutions to costly pay-per-click advertising patterns like Google Adwords.
- Business Consulting – “Benefits Of Blogging In Internet Marketing” (dohertyassoc.com)
- How to Build a Successful Online Business – Lead With Value! (dohertyassoc.com)
- 6 Tips on Starting Your Own Online Business (moneyning.com)
- Starting A Small Online Business (marketersdaily.com)
- SEO.com Predicts the Top 9 SEO Strategies for 2011 (prweb.com) | <urn:uuid:5675c1e3-7819-497f-b287-cdc23ee0fe0a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://understandingecommerce.com/2011/01/a-success-internet-business-a-success-internet-marketing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93009 | 529 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Family Web Sites
Family Web Sites
Family Web Sites
Family Website is a valuable treasure trove of cutting-edge technology.
For the first time ever, you have access to the most sought-after
features and tools ever compiled in one convenient location. From our
online Photo Album and Blog to the Character Studio and File Cabinet,
your Family Website provides you and your family an entertaining and
safe place to play. To view a short, flash video presentation
describing each feature, simply click on the image next to it. The Family Tree
The Family Tree is a user-friendly genealogy chart that helps you record and map out your family's history. With this tool, you can create detailed profiles of every single person in your family, including physical traits, personality characteristics, and even a favorite saying or quote. The Family Tree is perfect for sharing your personal history with all of your friends and relatives, and it's a great way to help your children learn all about their ancestors.
Family Photo Album
The Photo Album is a wonderful way to share photographs with friends and family scattered all across the world. The Flash-based interface makes it easy for anyone to quickly upload and organize photos, and with features like the automatic resizing tool, you can be sure that your online photo albums always look professional. You can create as many photo albums as you want, and you will still have plenty of room left over for all your family members to create their own personal photo albums.
The online Scrapbook is a wonderful tool for capturing the most memorable events and holidays in your family's life. Pre-formatted layouts and themes make it easy for anyone to add pictures and captions to a basic Scrapbook page. Once you're comfortable with this tool, you will be able to customize every inch of your scrapbook with countless combinations of fonts, colors, images, shapes, backgrounds, and themes.
The Blog tool is an online journal that lets you and your family members share their thoughts and opinions with all the people who visit your Family Website. This incredibly popular technology gives everyone in your family a chance to create their own blog to write about anything they want: the family's summer vacation, a movie they recently watched, or any other special or important experiences. With extra features like rich-text editing and the ability to add photos to blog entries, you and your family are going to love creating and updating your own personal blogs.
If you've been looking for a place to find delicious new recipes to impress your friends and family, look no further than our Recipe Center. You will be able to access thousands of recipes collected from professional chefs and outstanding self-taught cooks like yourself, and who knows, you may even find a few "secret" recipes from some of the best chefs and restaurants across the globe.
The File Cabinet provides you with an ideal way to store and share large electronic files in a secure, remote location. It is almost impossible to send photos, music files, or large documents using e-mail, but with the File Cabinet tool, you and your friends and family can easily upload dozens of these files directly to one central, online location that all of you can access from any computer connected to the Internet.
The Calendar provides you and your family with an invaluable tool for organizing and managing all of the birthdays, appointments, events, and meetings in your hectic schedule. Create individual calendars for everyone in your family to keep track of their own important dates and events, and maintain one master calendar to manage all the soccer games, dance recitals, PTA meetings, business luncheons, and doctor's appointments in your family's busy life in one central location.
You ever wonder what you would look like as a cartoon? Why not experiment with your Family Website Character Studio and find out? Mix and match your body size, eye type, nose and eyebrow shape with a library of contemporary hairstyles and outfits. And while you're playing, go ahead and try on some blonde hair or see how you would look with a different nose or maybe a beard. The possibilities are as endless as your imagination. With the Character Studio tool, you can animate all of your loved ones - even the family dog!
Once you've finished creating cartoon versions of your family in the Character Studio, the real fun begins when you get to choose a background for you family using the Theme Park tool. You'll find a wide assortment of static and Flash-animated environments that allow you to place your family in locations like the beach, Mount Rushmore, or even in outer space. You'll also have the option of uploading your own photos as backgrounds, and even be able to set your Family Website as your Home page on the Internet. With over 150 different Theme Parks to choose from, you're sure to find a background that is perfect for you family.
Layered Password Protection
Instead of just using one general password to protect your entire Family Website, you have the ability to create passwords for all the individual components and sections on your site. Every single blog, calendar, photo album, and file cabinet can have its own unique password-even if it's already in a safe, private area that is also password protected. With these extra layers of security, you can be certain that only family and friends get in, and everyone else will be kept out.
The Guestbook tool offers you a fun way to keep track of everyone who has ever visited your Family Website. Through your Guestbook, both new and returning visitors may leave messages, share their impressions or simply just "sign in" to let you know that they were there. To protect the integrity of your site's content, the messages are not viewable until you have approved them - giving you control.
Free Family Domain Name
Everyone who purchases a Family Website automatically receives a free domain name with their new site. If you're having trouble thinking of a unique domain name for your Web site, you can always use our special Domain Name tool to generate a list of Web site addresses that incorporate your family's last name.
Once you have selected a domain name for your Family Website, you can create up to five different e-mail accounts that use your family's name in the e-mail address. Each account automatically comes with spam filtering tools, e-mail forwarding, plenty of storage space, and many other great features you won't find with basic e-mail service.
Syndicated News and Information (RSS)
The Syndicated News and Information tool uses a popular syndication technology called RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, to deliver real-time updates from a variety of popular Web sites directly to you. Browse through our list of nearly 150 different content providers, covering topics like local, national, and world news, travel, politics, sports, business, weather, and entertainment, and we will automatically update your Family Website whenever updates are made to one of the sites you selected.
In the Useful Links section, we've grouped together some of the Web's most popular sites in one place. For instance, say you need to purchase a ticket? Whether it's for a plane or a movie, you can order it on-line through your Useful Links page. Or, maybe you're looking for a safe place for your children to play? Just send them to the "Kids" section of Useful Links for access to their favorite G-rated sites. Do you feel like shopping for your favorite name brands? Just type your zip code into the "Sunday Saver" section to find out what the latest bargains are in your neighborhood. You can also find out the latest news and weather, what's on TV and your daily horoscope. You can even do your banking on-line and so much more. Your Family Website's Useful Links page is your doorway to what's hot on the Internet.
What is the coolest site you've come across lately? With the Internet growing exponentially, there is an abundance of hot new sites popping up every hour. How would you like an easy way to share your latest finds with all your friends and family? Through your Family Website's Favorite Links page, instant access to all of your favorites is just a few clicks away.
In addition to all the impressive tools and features our software developers have created, your Family Website also includes free membership to a variety of premier Web sites like: | <urn:uuid:45defbc8-4708-427c-95cb-682f586b73da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.controlmyownwebsite.com/family.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944901 | 1,701 | 1.601563 | 2 |
June 8, 2004
U-M’s child advocacy program marks 10 th anniversary
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—“Child advocacy work is no way to get rich, at least not in money,” said Donald Duquette, University of Michigan Clinical Professor of Law and director of the Child Advocacy Law Clinic (CALC). However, the people who choose this area of the law wouldn’t trade money for the satisfaction they gain from their work. CALC, which was established in 1976, is the oldest and most respected child advocacy law clinic in the country.
Now in its 10th year, the Bergstrom Child Welfare Law Summer Fellowship program at the University of Michigan is an outgrowth of the Law School’s commitment to child advocacy and Professor Duquette’s vision. It is a multidisciplinary program designed to equip people committed to child welfare advocacy with the tools to cope with today’s complex issues. Since 1994, 192 fellows from law schools throughout the country have completed this unique, all-expenses-paid training program.
Thirty fellows comprising the class of 2004 gathered at the Law School from May 20-24. This year’s class included four U-M Law students, as well as students representing the law schools at Harvard, Columbia, Penn State, University of California Berkeley and Davis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Wayne State University, among others.
This is not a program for students simply looking for a different kind of lawyering experience to add to their resumes. Participants are selected through a highly-competitive process and a determining factor is a demonstrated commitment to child advocacy. Dedicated to the well being of children, the program is designed to encourage the very best American law students to pursue child advocacy careers. The program provides four days of intensive interdisciplinary training in child welfare law and related issues and prepares fellows for summer internships with child advocacy agencies throughout the country.
“Many lawyers spend years seeking the training and insight into the child welfare process provided in the very intense and inspiring Bergstrom Fellowship program,” said Ann Reyes Robbins, a 1997 Bergstrom Fellow. “In the course of several days we had an opportunity to meet victims, perpetrators, service providers, and judicial officers, each conveyed their perspectives in a very candid manner about the legal process and what they believed helps families in need and what might have a negative impact on children, despite good intentions.”
Robbins, a 1998 graduate of the U-M Law School, has built a career dedicated to child advocacy with the training she received as a law student and as a fellow. Upon graduating from Law School, she became a certified probation officer for the state of Indiana working for the local juvenile court judge in Fort Wayne. Robbins later developed a family practice in Fort Wayne that involved complex custody and dissolution of marriage and paternity actions. She has also served as contract counsel for the Allen County Division of Family and Children, and a court-appointed guardian ad litem in more than 100 cases. These examples represent only a small portion of her activities in behalf of children and families.
Support for the fellowship program is supplied by an endowment from the Bergstrom Foundation in honor of the late Henry A. Bergstrom, a 1935 graduate of the Law School. This year, the foundation provided an additional challenge grant matching up to $30,000 in contributions that provided stipends to support fellows in their summer internships. Donors for the stipend grants included Sidney Kleinman, ’57, the Hon. Maurice Portley, ’78, Adrian Steel Jr., ’75, Joseph and Lynda Zengerle, ’72, and the law offices of Butzel Long, Detroit, and Goldberg, Kohn, Bell, Black, Rosenbloom & Moritz Ltd. in Chicago. | <urn:uuid:83552b59-155c-4ebf-814a-390a72c93742> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ns.umich.edu/index.html?Releases/2004/Jun04/r060904 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959802 | 786 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The phenomenon of gently turning the sreering wheel in response to bouncy, inspiring music. Usually not a conscious action, it may appear suspicious to law officials observing your driving.
No officer, I have not been drinking-- I must have been car dancing!
MOM! Quit car dancing. You are making me nervous.
To dance while iside of a moving vehicle. Usually dangerous if the driver is involved, and is the cause of 1/4 of car related deaths.*
*Information may not be accurate
While car dancing, a cop saw me drive past a stop sign without stopping. | <urn:uuid:9eda22de-7b3c-491f-8ae7-1cdb205bc68b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=car%20dancing&defid=4879232 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939694 | 123 | 1.585938 | 2 |
If Congress doesn't pass a budget this fiscal year, the Navy said it likely would not purchase a second Virginia-class submarine in 2014.
The Navy released its latest plan to Congress on Tuesday for how it will be affected if the government keeps operating on a continuing resolution that funds spending at last year's levels, and if Congress does not act before March 1 to prevent the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration.
The continuing resolution expires March 27, and Congress could extend it for the rest of the fiscal year.
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said the House Armed Services Committee created and passed a plan that authorized two submarines in 2014.
"Now it is incumbent on congressional appropriators to work with us to get the rest of the way there," he said. "The House's plate is full and time is running out to act. That is why last week I voted against Speaker Boehner's motion to adjourn, shutting down the House for 10 days that would be better used tackling these issues, supporting our critical defense priorities, and protecting our economy."
The Navy told Congress last month it would cancel a $45 million repair job on the USS Providence (SSN 719) at Electric Boat and two demolition projects involving three older buildings at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton unless Congress agreed on a new budget. And if sequestration occurs, the Navy said, it would delay repairs to the Groton-based USS Miami and cancel several ship deployments.
At that time, the Navy did not say the second submarine in 2014 was in jeopardy. A Navy spokeswoman said Tuesday's update provides a higher level of detail.
EB in Groton and Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia jointly build two attack submarines per year. The plans for two submarines in 2013 are not expected to change. | <urn:uuid:2410b3d9-f94e-48d9-b94d-24acc98ba395> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theday.com/article/20130219/NWS09/130219638/0/SPORTpro/Navy-to-Congress:-No-budget-no-second-submarine-in-2014 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962822 | 369 | 1.5 | 2 |
is to place people from different life experiences in an environment where they can exchange ideas and find universal connections
Cross Cultural Collaborative, Inc. is a non-profit educational organization that promotes cultural exchange and understanding. Our programs
emphasize multigenerational and multicultural collaborations encouraging participants to find rewards in different forms of creativity. We bring artists from different cultures together in a supportive environment where they can get to know each other through the language of art. At the core of our program is the belief that interaction between African and non-African artists enriches the creativity of both groups.
CCC, Inc. invites artists and scholars from all over the world to work with Ghanaians on collaborative projects that range from mosaic walls to documentary films. Most visitors to Ghana have only a superficial connection with the people. We find that by bringing people to live and work at
CCC, Inc. we break down stereotypical thinking. Our participants form lasting friendships and come to appreciate not only other
cultures, but their own as well.
Visitors have an opportunity to be immersed in a spiritual culture grounded in tradition where art is part of everyday life.
||THE CULTURAL CENTER -- ABA House
“our participants form lasting friendships”
Cross Cultural Collaborative, Inc. is a research center and meeting place for exhibits, community based art workshops, performances, conferences, classes and other venues that relate to cultural awareness and appreciation. In the true spirit of creativity
CCC, Inc. is an evolving group of people excited about new ways of thinking about world heritage and culture.
Workshops are held at our center located next to the ocean in a suburb of Accra. We provide double occupancy guest rooms with private bath, studio space and gallery. Meals are prepared by a local cook and there are many opportunities to socialize with Ghanaians and visit sites of historical interest.
CCC, Inc. has a Ghanaian staff, resident manager and is in a gated community. There are clinics and hospitals nearby.
for more about the cultural center: ABA
||BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CCC, Inc's Board of Directors are all leaders in the art/cultural community who support the organization's goals and who are committed to its growth and development.
president and clerk
Ellie graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1960 with a degree in Art
Education. She was an art teacher and supervisor in public schools for over 20 years and taught adult education classes in the Boston
area. She was also a professional potter and part owner of the Cambridge Artists Cooperative crafts gallery in Harvard
Square, Cambridge, MA. Always attracted to African art, Ellie took her first trip to Ghana in 1978.Since then she has returned many times to research and study traditional
crafts, do volunteer teaching and take people on crafts and culturally centered tours of
Ghana. She now devotes herself fulltime to directing Cross Cultural
Collaborative, Inc. and facilitating workshops held at its cultural center in Ghana. who is Aba
Kobina is a Ghanaian who has lived in the Boston area for many years.
He came to Boston as a scholarship recipient at Berklee College of Music
and went on to receive a Masters in Composition at Temple University.
He returns to Ghana often and is very active in Aba House programs.
director of outreach and business development
Dan is an experienced educational consultant and marketing/outreach director with over 15 years’ experience working in the Boston area. Dan was a senior research analyst and member services manager for over 100 universities nationally at
Eduventures, Inc., a higher education consulting firm in Boston. Before that, Dan was the research manager at the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Dan has also worked in consulting research at Ernst & Young LLP and
Accenture. Before getting his M.B.A., Dan worked as a marketing and corporate events manager at
OpenAir; equity research at Fidelity Investments; and university development at Harvard. Dan won the National Endowment for the Humanities Younger Scholar Award and served as a primary editor for Human Rights Journal at Harvard Law School. He was also a U.S. delegate to the International Honors Program (a global studies curriculum taught in 15 nations over one academic year). Dan is also a pop music songwriter signed to the Warner Brothers Music Group, BMG, Toshiba/EMI Records, and Popular Records. He has a B.A. cum laude in history and science from Harvard College, an
Ed.M. in international education policy (focus on cross-cultural adjustment issues) from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and an M.B.A. from
Babson. Dan directs several outreach and business development initiatives for the President of Cross Cultural Collaborative, Inc.
David is an associate professor of music at Tufts University. He overseas Tufts music exchange program in Ghana, brings Ghanaian musicians to do programs in the United States and has written books about Ghanaian
drumming. He is also an accomplished performer of traditional African dance and drumming.
John is a retired art professor from Boston University and holds an Honorary Doctorate from Lesley College. He is a respected figure in the arts community and his work is represented in many museums and private
collections including a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the
Capitol Rotunda in
Washington, DC. He is recognized as a preeminent painter and sculptor and has been archived by the Smithsonian Institution.
Ministry of Education, Accra, Ghana
Kwao is a Ghanaian who writes the art curriculum for the public schools in
Ghana. He holds a Masters Degree in Art Education, is a writer and illustrator of
children's stories and an illustrator of textbooks. Before becoming an administrator he taught art in public schools in Ghana and still runs teacher training
workshops. He is also co-director of Cross Cultural Collaborative, | <urn:uuid:444d1e82-bc88-496a-8377-578d2f88c7bd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://culturalcollaborative.org/aboutus.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960352 | 1,231 | 1.828125 | 2 |
It’s no surprise that college kids like to throw parties. You might be surprised by the kind of parties that some like to throw, though.
We got something of an idea last week when a number of UCSD students helped arrange a party called the “Compton Cookout,” which ridiculed African-Americans on the occasion of Black History Month.
That’s actually a more common party theme than you might think. They also go by the names “Pimps and Hos,” and “Gangsta” or “Ghetto” parties.
At these gangsta parties, students wear gold chains. They drink malt liquor. They flash gang signs.
Fraternities also have thrown parties making fun of Latinos. At Santa Clara University, students came dressed as gardeners and janitors. Some of the women put balloons under their shirts to look pregnant.
Poor white people are targets, too. A fraternity at the University of Idaho throws a big one at the end of the year. Partyers wear overalls and John Deere caps to the “White Trash Trailer Bash.”
Here’s another party concept: “Mekong Delta.” At the University of Florida, male students dressed up as U.S. soldiers and the women as Vietnamese prostitutes.
Whatever happened to togas?
So why is this happening? Daniel Widener, who teaches African-American history at UCSD, believes that the lack of black students on college campuses is partly to blame.
“The Cosby Show” probably boasted more blacks than UCSD. So the other students rarely get a chance to interact with average, everyday blacks, Widener said.
They get their cues from TV, which often portrays young blacks as gangsters and thugs, Widener said. And they aren’t told when they’re crossing the line because there’s no one to tell them so.
Society, in general, has tired of hearing about the plight of minorities, Widener said. That’s particularly true now, given how the economy is hurting all people, whites included. So fewer college students feel empathy.
They may even feel threatened by the rise of minorities, such as President Barack Obama.
Some students said that those involved in the party are not racists. They’re just normal guys who weren’t thinking, said Debbie Sert, a member of the sorority TriDelta.
“They were trying to be funny,” Sert said. “But it was ridiculous. I’d never take part in it.”
On campus last week, she was selling calendars that pictured members of different campus fraternities. The money is going to a local hospital.
“We’re shocked because it’s not what the Greek community is about,” Sert said.
Members of Pi Kappa Alpha — also known as Pike — the fraternity in question, are pictured in the calendar. They represent the month of August and are pictured in Speedos and holding foam noodles, which help keep you afloat.
In the back of the calendar is another picture of the students. There, they have the noodles sticking out from their crotches.
They’ve since cleared out their Web site, which had pictures of them partying. And partying.
They wouldn’t return phone calls or e-mails.
UCSD got hit with more controversy when a student-run television show was aired Thursday defending the students who threw the party and criticizing blacks for being offended. | <urn:uuid:94237385-0b91-4f10-b846-9055c86f1b5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2010/feb/21/bring-your-invitation-and-your-ignorance/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967808 | 747 | 1.671875 | 2 |
ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT (Chapters 1 through 182)
AGRICULTURE AND CONSERVATION
INLAND FISHERIES AND GAME AND OTHER NATURAL RESOURCES
Killing of game by owner or tenant of land; reports
Section 37. An owner or tenant of land or, if authorized by such owner or tenant, any member of his immediate family or his employee, as defined pursuant to section one of chapter sixty-two B, may, upon such land:—
(1) kill or attempt to kill, by means other than poisoning or trapping, any wild bird damaging his property, including domesticated animals, poultry and game on game-rearing farms or preserves, provided that such killing is not contrary to any federal law, rule or regulation.
(2) hunt or take by other means, except by poison or snare, any mammal which he finds damaging his property except grass growing on uncultivated land. No such owner or tenant shall authorize any person, other than a member of his immediate family or a person permanently employed by him, to place traps for the protection of said property other than during the open season, unless such owner or tenant has first obtained from the director a permit authorizing him so to do, which permit the director is hereby authorized to issue in his discretion, unless such authorized person holds a trapping license. All deer so killed shall be turned over to any environmental police officer and shall be disposed of by the director of law enforcement.
The following written reports shall be sent to the director by such owner or tenant acting under authority of this section:—(a) upon the taking of pheasant, ruffed grouse, hares or rabbits, or the wounding or killing of a deer, a report stating the time and place, kind and number of birds or mammals so taken, wounded or killed, within twenty-four hours of such taking, wounding or killing; (b) upon the taking of any other birds or mammals, a report on or before January thirty-first of each year, stating the number and kinds of birds or mammals taken under authority of this section during the previous year. This section shall not be construed to limit any other provisions of this chapter. | <urn:uuid:c02943d9-d820-46c1-997a-4060d958a990> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIX/Chapter131/Section37/Print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950225 | 460 | 1.726563 | 2 |
One of America's greatest estate homes, an icon of the automotive aristocracy, and the home of the founders of Oakland University
Meadow Brook Hall is the historic home of one the automotive aristocracy's most remarkable women, Matilda Dodge Wilson, her second husband Alfred Wilson, a lumber broker and their four children, Frances and Danny Dodge, and Richard and Barbara Wilson. It exists as an indirect product of the achievements and good fortune of her first husband, automotive pioneer John F. Dodge, co-founder of Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company who quickly prospered in the burgeoning auto industry before his tragic death in 1920, leaving Matilda one of the world's wealthiest women. This fortune not only built one of America's finest residences and country estates, it also supported numerous Detroit charities and organizations, and made possible the founding of Oakland University.
Meadow Brook Hall was built during the country place era, a time when wealthy American industrialists pursued rural life in settings of great beauty. It represents one of the finest examples of Tudor-revival architecture in America and is especially renowned for it superb craftsmanship, architectural detailing and grand scale of 88,000 square feet. Inspired by the country manor homes in England, it was designed and built by the Detroit architectural firm of Smith, Hinchman and Grylls between 1926 and1929, at a cost of nearly $4 million.
Carefully preserved with original family furnishings and art, the 110-room mansion is elaborately detailed with carved wood and stone, ornate plaster ceilings, Tiffany stained glass, custom made hardware, and filled with fine and decorative art. Although the interiors reflect various historic styles, the house is equipped with every "modern" amenity appropriate to the active lifestyle of the Wilson's and their children.
Meadow Brook Hall was built on the 320-acre farm estate John and Matilda Dodge had purchased years earlier as weekend country retreat. The Wilson's expanded the estate to include 1,500 acres and several residences. For the Dodge and Wilson families, the farm estate provided a splendid setting for recreational activities and pastimes such as equestrian sports, motoring, and gardening and developed into one of the finest agricultural complexes, producing the finest lines of pedigree livestock.
Building the Hall
Alfred and Matilda toured the great homes of England on their honeymoon and began planning Meadow Brook Hall, a 110-room, 88,000-square-foot, Tudor-revival style home. They commissioned the Detroit architectural firm of Smith, Hinchman & Grylls to design and build the hall at Meadow Brook Farm, the family's country retreat that Dodge had purchased. Groundbreaking ceremonies for the hall were held on Matilda's 43rd birthday on Oct. 19, 1926.
By all accounts, Matilda was the motivating force behind the design, construction and decoration of Meadow Brook Hall. She personally was involved in every detail from the design of switch plate covers and the selection of woods to the purchase of fine and decorative arts and furnishings. Her decorator, Wallace Newton, once said, "She would listen to my advice on design, but not color. She preferred stout colors. She did not like veneered furniture. She wanted solid woods and marble and set out to build a suitable monument for her children, heirs to the Dodge fortune."
In 1927, the Wilsons went on a second architectural tour of England accompanied by their architect. Many of the architectural details of the hall are based on specific examples of historic rooms they viewed on their trips to England. Although much of the home is inspired by English manor houses of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, Matilda was proud of the fact that the hall was made, to a large extent, of American materials and crafted by Americans. Unlike many wealthy American families of the day, the Wilsons did not import entire rooms of paneling and furniture overseas.
Meadow Brook Hall was completed in 1929 at a cost of nearly $4 million. The housewarming party, attended by 850 people, was held Nov. 19, 1929, just three weeks after the stock market crash that started the Great Depression.
Architecture and Interior
Meadow Brook Hall is especially renowned for its fine craftsmanship, exquisite architectural detailing and grand scale. The architecture is the embodiment of enduring quality in both its design and use of fine construction materials.
The exterior combines various textures and patterns using American materials of brick, sandstone, wood timbers and a roof of clay shingle tile. The house also features 39 uniquely designed brick chimneys that distinguish the picturesque roofline.
Interiors of the house are elaborately detailed with carved wood and stone, handmade hardware and ceramic art tile, ornately molded and carved plaster ceilings, stained glass window insets, crystal and art glass lighting fixtures, and gold-plated bathroom fittings. And while the interiors reflect various historic styles, the house is equipped with every modern amenity available in the late 1920s. It was fully electric with a central heating system, two elevators, four kitchens and a full size home theatre.
The exterior and most of the interior rooms at Meadow Brook Hall were designed in the Tudor-revival style. However, a few rooms were decorated in other period-revival styles: the dining room and Matilda's study are 18th-century Neo-classical, Matilda's room and the French bedroom are 18th-century French Rococo, and Frances' bedroom is American Colonial.
Meadow Brook Hall Collection
Matilda spent most of her lifetime filling Meadow Brook Hall with beautiful furniture, paintings and decorative art from across several centuries and around the world. This magnificent home carefully preserved with original furnishings and art, beautifully exemplifies the lavish lifestyles and era of the American industrialists of the early 20th century.
The Hall's collections include original paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings, furniture, ceramics, carpets, glass, silver, costumes and other textiles, and family archival materials. Highlights of the collection include Tiffany art glass, costumes by Paul Poiret, Stickley furniture, paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sèvres and Meissen porcelain, and Rookwood pottery.
The Dodge/Wilson Family Home
Excluding a period of time during the Depression, and then in Alfred's later years, Matilda lived in The Hall from the time it was built in 1929 until her death in 1967. She did close the hall for a few years during the Depression, partly for appearances and partly for financial reasons because maintaining a home of this size during that time was difficult.
Throughout the 38 years the Wilsons lived at Meadow Brook Hall, they hosted many family and social gatherings and took great pride in sharing this architectural masterpiece, its grounds, art and furnishings with guests.
Parties to remember include Frances Dodge's wedding in 1938, her 25th birthday party in 1939 where the entertainment included the Tommy Dorsey band and singer Frank Sinatra, Barbara Wilson's coming out party in 1950, and the largest gathering of Oakland University students, faculty and alumni in 1963 for Matilda's 80th birthday.
Meadow Brook Hall Today
In 1957, the Wilsons donated their residence, its collections, the estate's 1,500 acres and $2 million to found what would become Oakland University. Meadow Brook Hall was opened to the public in 1971, four years after Matilda's death.
Matilda, a long-time preservationist and member of the Historic Memorials Society, understood the significance of the property as both a testament to an important family and as a grand piece of architecture filled with beautiful and historically significant fine and decorative art. She felt strongly that history, art and architecture should be shared with future generations. "Knowledge of the past helps people face the challenges of the future," she once said. Matilda also understood that it is through the preservation of properties like Meadow Brook Hall that future generations will have the opportunity to be inspired and educated by their history.
Currently, The Hall welcomes more than 70,000 visitors each year to participate in tours, educational programs and a variety of special events. This historic house museum also provides a sense of tradition for Oakland University and is a research, scholarship and training resource for students and faculty.
A National Historic Landmark, Meadow Brook Hall strives to preserve and interpret its architecture, landscape, and fine and decorative art so that visitors may be entertained, educated and inspired by history. | <urn:uuid:b1202e9e-c792-41c1-8569-cc441e38b396> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.meadowbrookhall.org/explore/history/meadowbrookhall | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963394 | 1,742 | 1.726563 | 2 |
German Parliament approves Greek debt deal
Friday, November 30, 2012
BERLIN (AP) — The German Parliament has given its overwhelming backing to a deal aimed at trimming Greece's debt load and keeping the country financially afloat.
Lawmakers voted 473-100 on Friday to back the complex deal reached by European finance ministers earlier this week. There were 11 abstentions.
The agreement paves the way for Greece to receive €44 billion ($57 billion) in critical rescue loans, without which the country would face bankruptcy and a possible exit from the euro.
It also contains measures including a debt buyback program and an interest rate cut on loans. Those are aimed at cutting back Greece's debts and giving it more time to push through economic reforms and trim its budget deficit. | <urn:uuid:8a0969dc-8d2b-4224-ae23-6b5059e5b4c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newstribune.com/news/2012/nov/30/german-parliament-approves-greek-debt-deal/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971615 | 159 | 1.609375 | 2 |
As Speaker of the New York State Assembly, Sheldon Silver has dedicated his career in public service to improving education, protecting affordable housing, delivering quality healthcare to all New Yorkers and reforming our criminal justice system. Silver is the leading voice for working families in the state, spearheading the drive to increase the minimum wage. When it became clear the nation was facing a subprime mortgage crisis, Silver pushed legislation to help hard-working New Yorkers keep their homes. As the economy worsened, the Assembly passed legislation extending unemployment benefits. In 2011, working with the Governor and the Senate, Silver helped lead the successful push to revamp the state tax code, cutting taxes on middle-class families while creating a more progressive income tax system. Silver is a powerful advocate for increasing state support for higher education, specifically the SUNY and CUNY systems, so that a college education can be within the reach of all New Yorkers. He has also been a strong supporter of the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), which helps students pay for college. Education
Through the LADDER (Learning, Achieving, Developing By Directing Educational) program, New York established the first pre-kindergarten program for all four-year-olds in the nation. Thanks to Silverís leadership, state funding to New York City schools was increased by more than $1 billion. He established a School Overcrowding Task Force in Lower Manhattan that has successfully opened two new schools and continues to push for more. In 2010, the Assembly passed landmark reforms that improve teacher evaluations by bringing more accountability to the classroom. These innovative measures were key in winning hundreds of millions of dollars in education aide as part of President Obamaís Race to the Top competition, which recognized New York as one of the nationís leaders in education reform. Housing
A statewide leader on housing issues, Silver has consistently ensured that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers continue to enjoy the protections of rent control and regulation. In 2011, rent regulations were strengthened for the first time in decades, increasing protections for over a million apartments in New York City. The Assembly has also pursued an ambitious agenda aimed at ending vacancy decontrol and increasing penalties for landlords who harass tenants. In 2010, under Silverís leadership, the cityís loft law was made permanent, guaranteeing crucial protections for loft residents in New York City. Environment and Energy
Silver was named an "Eco-Star" in 2011 by the League of Conservation Voters for his work on clean energy and environmentally sustainable legislation. With Silverís strong support, the state enacted the Power NY Act, which clears the way for clean-energy development while protecting overburdened communities; creates green jobs and puts energy-efficiency improvements within reach for more homeowners; and charts a path for rapid growth in solar energy production. The Assembly has also passed a moratorium on the controversial gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, over concerns about its impact on drinking water. The state has also passed one of the nationís most progressive electronics waste recycling laws. Health
Silver passed legislation giving the state the ability to reject unreasonable increases in annual premiums and mandating coverage for autism spectrum disorders. Silver also successfully fought for passage of the Clinic Access and Anti-Stalking Act, which ensures women access to reproductive services and cracks down on violence against clinic workers. The Assembly also passed legislation that drastically reduces sulfur in heating oil, helping to fight the scourge of asthma. Criminal Justice
Silver helped lead the effort to reform the stateís draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws, giving non-violent offenders a path to treatment and productivity. Silver also guided the passage of legislation to protect citizens of wrongful conviction and expand the DNA database. In 2010, the Assembly passed a bill requiring the microstamping of shell casings so that police can trace the guns used in violent crimes. Under Silver's leadership, the Bias Crime Law, which combats violence associated with hatred, bigotry and prejudice, was enacted in 2000. Lower Manhattan Redevelopment
Following the 9/11 attacks, Silver, whose district includes the World Trade Center, led the way in making sure that the site was rebuilt and that Lower Manhattan is developed better and stronger than before. He authored a "Marshall Plan" for Lower Manhattan, which helped attract tens of thousands of new residents and provided incentives for businesses to relocate and create jobs. He helped resolve a dispute between landowners that kick-started the redevelopment at the Trade Center site and has been instrumental in transforming Lower Manhattan into a thriving, 24/7 community. Born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Silver is a graduate of Yeshiva University and Brooklyn Law School. In addition to his public service, he is a practicing attorney. He lives with his wife, Rosa, on the Lower East Side. The Silvers have four children, Edward, Janine, Michelle and Esther, and numerous grandchildren. | <urn:uuid:de4419f2-9ee9-440d-9e24-2105d64de3f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/Sheldon-Silver/bio/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956081 | 977 | 1.5 | 2 |
The Council for American Medical Innovation recently published a survey of 1,009 adults to assess the public’s opinion of American medical research. The survey was recently reviewed in BIOTech-NOW and I will briefly detail some of the significant findings below.
- Most Americans still view US medical innovation and research and development to be strong or very strong
- 48% of respondents believe that it is important for the US to be a leader in medical research and innovation in order to preserve jobs and to guarantee that new cures and treatments will be developed for people that need them
- 65% of respondents believe that America is losing its edge as the world’s leader in research and development
- 49% of respondents believe that America is losing its edge as a world leader in medical innovation and research
- 58% of respondents believe that the American government should increase its spending on medical research and innovation
- 72% of respondents believe that if America does not increase its spending on medical research and innovation it will have a significant impact on American’s quality of life, employment and economic growth
Below is a video from the American Medical Innovation’s conference “Medical Innovation at the Crossroads: Choosing the Path Ahead.” | <urn:uuid:cea2635f-43dd-4c57-996d-64ac7861f1b0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanbiotechnologist.com/blog/tag/american-medical-innovation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963631 | 250 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Zanesville, Ohio: Giant Circle of VasesZanesville is known for its pottery, hosts and annual pottery festival, and had been the site of the World's Largest Vase. The circle of custom decorated vases appear to have been part of a 2008 community art project; you'll find more around town.
- N Pine St., Zanesville, OH
- N Pine St. and US 40, near the southwestern tip of the Y-Bridge.
Visitor Tips and News About Giant Circle of Vases
While navigating the "Y" bridge (which was curious, but not terribly exciting, since we got there after dark), we came across a circle of giant vases! Each vase is taller than a person and is painted with a unique design. Perhaps a local art contest?
At the intersection of Pine Street and 40 Highway, you can pull over into what appears to be an empty car park and get out to tour the vases. We didn't see an explanation - so we made up our own![Gordon Family, 08/04/2011]
Zanesville was once home of the World's Largest Vase, and has a famous local pottery industry. | <urn:uuid:d96b94e0-fcc0-4d2f-bc7a-f601f89d6bd0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/29979 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964905 | 252 | 1.820313 | 2 |
MassDOT and the Housatonic Railroad today announced the extension of an agreement that will allow the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum to operate scenic rail rides along the Housatonic River for the next two seasons. This agreement is a valuable public private partnership that will continue to promote tourism and boost economic development in the Berkshires.
The Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum is located in the historic Berkshire County town of Lenox. Founded in 1984, it is a non-profit, living museum dedicated to preserving the history of railroading in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts. Located in the restored 1903 Lenox Station, the museum offers 20 mile, round trip scenic train rides in rail coaches as seen above through the picturesque towns of Lenox, Lee and Stockbridge on an active railroad line that follows the Housatonic River. The museum will open for the 2010 summer season on Saturday, May 29. For more information, visit the museum's website or call 413-637-2210.
Housatonic Railroad is a freight railroad that connects to the national rail system through CSX Transportation at Pittsfield. Housatonic operates approximately 38 miles in Massachusetts. The Berkshire Line passes through Pittsfield, Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Housatonic, Great Barrington and Sheffield. | <urn:uuid:e8822515-b90b-4459-9452-058d5d8517b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://transportation.blog.state.ma.us/blog/2010/05/berkshire-scenic-rail-rides-continue.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937744 | 270 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Girl Scouts of Southwest Indiana, Inc. | Programs | Girl Awards
We know you want to do good things for the world. Help the people who need it most. Protect animals that can't speak for themselves. Treat the environment with the respect it deserves. We know you have great ideas, ones that make a lasting difference. And that you're more than ready to work hard to put those ideas into motion. Girl Scouting's highest awards—the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards—are your chance to make a lasting difference in your community . . . and in the larger world. Click below. And start changing the world today!
The National Young Women of Distinction is the designation, and a special honor, conferred by GSUSA on ten Girl Scout Gold Award recipients whose final projects demonstrated extraordinary leadership, had a measurable and sustainable impact, and addressed a local challenge that related to a national and/or global issue. Here are videos of the 2013 awardees. | <urn:uuid:a3d62ecc-7ad3-4012-8bc2-ce5617bfd26d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.girlscouts-gssi.org/?programs/girl-awards | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943545 | 195 | 1.648438 | 2 |
When it comes to hair care, many men have the attitude that if a product leaves the hair free of oil and smelling fine, it's more than adequate; however, these same men often wonder why their hair has begun to thin or why it is difficult to manage. Purchasing the shampoo on the local store shelf that is the lowest price or has the most eye-catching packaging can actually hurt your hair more than help it. Many shampoos contain harsh cleansing agents that can actually destroy the cuticle of your hair. Without this protective coating, your hair becomes susceptible to breakage as well as to the effects of humidity, which make it harder to control.
Menscience Androceuticals Shampoos Products allow you to avoid these harsh chemicals completely. The products found in the Menscience Androceuticals Shampoos Products collection cleanse the hair and scalp with ingredients that are tough on grime, but easy on your hair follicles. Ideal for those with sensitive or itchy scalps and for men of all hair types, the Menscience Androceuticals Shampoo Products will leave your hair thicker and healthier.
To add one or more items to your bag, check the box to the left of each desired
item and then click the "Add to Bag" button at the top or bottom of the page. Items
are listed in SKU number order.
Additional Menscience Androceuticals Products Information
Wash your hair with something that is tough on dirt and oil by choosing Menscience Androceuticals Shampoos Products. These shampoos are highly effective at cleansing the hair and scalp, but won't damage the strands.
Menscience Daily Shampoo was developed with the needs of men's skin and hair in mind, so it solves a variety of common hair and scalp problems at once. Unlike many shampoos on the market, the Menscience shampoo leaves behind a great scent, that's not flowery or feminine. Free of harsh chemical surfactants, the shampoo provides the hair with nutrients that help it look its best without exposing it to ingredients that can damage it.
More than just a hair cleanser, Menscience Daily Shampoo helps to improve the health of the scalp. Its formula includes alpha and beta hydroxy acids, which eliminate the bonds that hold the old cells on the outermost layer of the scalp to the newer, stronger cells beneath. Exfoliating the scalp while you shampoo will help to prevent acne blemishes on the scalp and along the hairline. If you suffer from dandruff or a flaky scalp, the hydroxy acid complex will help make those embarrassing white flakes a thing of the past.
Each time you wash with Menscience Daily Shampoo, you'll be treating your hair to a nourishing blend of nutrients, including panthenol, protein and vitamin E. Together, these ingredients help to strengthen the hair shaft and smooth imperfections in the strands to make the hair more manageable and resistant to breakage. | <urn:uuid:b81acd18-21bb-4ce7-bea7-2528535c5496> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.skinstore.com/menscience-androceuticals-shampoos-products-l-1551.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943413 | 615 | 1.625 | 2 |
WATSON, Gordon Graham Gibbes, C.M.G.
Barrister and art administrator.
Gordon Graham Gibbes Watson was born at Wellington on 21 October 1891 and was educated at Wellington College and Victoria University College, where he graduated M.A., LL.B. He lectured in law for many years and served on the Council of the Wellington District Law Society, holding office as president in 1932. He served also on the Council of the New Zealand Law Society (1936–46) and was a member of its Disciplinary Committee for a long period. After many years in legal practice, during which time he was outstanding as an advocate at the Bar, he directed his interests mainly to art and commerce. From 1938 to 1949 he was president of New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. In 1938 Watson was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum, being a member of the Committee of Management of the National Art Gallery since 1941 and its chairman since 1944. In 1964 he became first chairman of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council. In 1955–56 he was a member of the Royal Commission on Monetary and Banking Matters in New Zealand. Because of the wide range of his interests, such as horticulture and welfare, he has given valuable service to many organisations. He is chairman of directors of several companies including British Petroleum Co. of New Zealand, the Wellington Investment, Trustee, and Agency Co. Ltd., and J. J. Niven and Co. Ltd., and he is also on the directorate of many other companies. G. G. Watson was awarded a C.M.G. in 1957. | <urn:uuid:3feaca55-7d0a-4e0d-95d2-507c14808863> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/watson-gordon-graham-gibbes-cmg | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987925 | 338 | 1.6875 | 2 |
FRANKFORT — Coal miners across Kentucky will receive an official state thank you next week as the Commonwealth celebrates its second annual Coal Miners Appreciation Week.
The event is held during the third week each August. It was established by the 2011 Kentucky General Assembly with the passage of House Bill 269, sponsored by State Rep. Rick Nelson of Bell County.
Nelson, an educator who is the son of a coal miner, said the annual event encourages coal mining businesses and all Kentuckians to thank coal miners for producing enough fuel to power more than half of the electricity used in the U.S.
“Our miners are the reason why energy is still affordable for many consumers in the U.S.,” said Nelson. “They are the reason why most of us—and nearly every person in Kentucky—can turn on a lamp, power on a computer or watch TV at an affordable rate. And we need to thank them for that.”
Over 90 percent of the electricity produced in Kentucky is generated by coal, according to the Institute for Energy Research, which credits coal-fired electricity for keeping Kentucky’s electricity affordable at around 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour.
Recent data from the federal Energy Information Administration shows that Kentucky has the third lowest average retail electricity costs in the nation.
Coal is also a major employer in Kentucky, employing 23,340 people directly and indirectly providing three additional jobs for every miner employed in an average year, based on state data from 2009. The average weekly wage for coal miners in Kentucky was $1,214 in 2009, according to the data.
Coal Miners Appreciation Week starts this Sunday, August 12. | <urn:uuid:d75aa423-2595-4ae7-98ea-04edb1dc4dab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.floydcountytimes.com/view/full_story/19746652/article-Second-annual-Coal-Miners-Appreciation-Week-begins-Sunday | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959223 | 346 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Romania, an Eastern-European country that is about to join European Union next year, has received an "yellow flag" from EU regarding the software piracy and the copyright issues. Many Romanian people use file-sharing software like DC++ to share music, movies and games. Some just for fun, others to burn CDs and sell them.
Here's a report about the actions of the police from Gardianul, a Romanian newspaper:
"A working group will be founded which will be led by a prosecutor from the General Prosecutor's Office. Through the protocol, an anti-piracy group will be founded that will be formed of two vice presidents, two people elected by the representatives of the signatory institutions. This organization will only solve half of the "turning green" of the yellow flag received by Romania in this field. The other half will be sold by the statistics of the police, so watch your computers at home! As our newspaper has announced, soon, at the General Prosecutor's Office, a protocol will be signed by 26 institutions for the protection of intellectual property. We call it the "Gramophone" protocol because this police operation is the one that disturbed tens of thousands of Romanians who procure their daily entertainment (movies, games, music) from the Internet. The signing of the protocol is yet another proof that all the actions of late connected to this matter are meant to "turn green" the yellow flag received by Romania in the copyright chapter. The European Union initially criticized us for lack of collaboration among the state institutions for protecting these rights. Hence the idea of the protocol appeared. The European Union is also criticizing us for the lack of sanctions given to those who violate intellectual property law. The statistics meant to hush the European Union will be made by the police. Through the protocol, two of the vice presidents of the Working Group on Matters of Intellectual Property will form an anti-piracy group that will also have in view the posting and downloading from the Internet of materials protected through the Copyright Law."
What people say about that:
"I download from some sites what's new and I don't think anyone will fine me. Anyway, I'm not the only one who does this."
"No one cares what's there, because everyone uses movies, music and software downloaded illegally."
It seems that police doesn't have the same opinion and tries to look very determined. The policemen use DC++ hubs to find people that share copyrighted content.
The situation is very strange because the Government should have made a campaign that explains the Copyright Law to people before letting the over-zealous policemen break in people's houses and arrest them. | <urn:uuid:c90dbcee-8458-40a6-8a73-e7a98430a3af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/06/gramophone-operation-romania-vs.html?showComment=1149539820000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962879 | 535 | 1.710938 | 2 |
I am writing to invite Local Action Teams in Brighton and Hove to take part in choosing the best wildlife sites in Brighton and Hove. Once chosen, these sites will be protected from development and will be the focus for future conservation work.
Over the past couple of years, around 150 potential sites in Brighton and Hove have been visited and surveyed in detail, both in the inner urban area and surrounding countryside. As well as recording important species and habitats, the surveys have taken account of the value of local green spaces as places simply to walk and enjoy nature.
The next stage is for the compiled survey information to be presented to selection panels. The panels will assess each site against pre-agreed criteria and decide whether they should be formally recognised as a 'Local Wildlife Site'. The panels will also be able to recommend sites to go forward for designation as Local Nature Reserves, which are protected by law.
It is important that the selection panels take full account of local knowledge, views and values, as well as more 'scientific' criteria, so you do not have to be an acknowledged expert in a particular species or habitat to be involved (although acknowledged experts are very welcome too!).
The selection panels take place at the following times and venues:
7pm, Tuesday 23rd April, Portslade Town Hall, Victoria Road, Brighton, BN41 1YF (for the Hove, Mile Oak and Portslade areas).
7pm, Monday 29th April, Saltdean Community Centre, Saltdean Park Road, Saltdean, BN2 8SP (for east Brighton, Rottingdean and Saltdean).
7pm, Tuesday 30th April, Brighton Town Hall, Bartholomews, Brighton, BN1 1JA (for central Brighton, Wild Park and farmland to the north).
If you, or a member of your Local Action Team would like to attend one or more of the selection panels, please reply to this e-mail, indicating which (or all) panel meetings you would like to attend.
Each selection panel is limited to 20 people and places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, so please reply promptly to secure your place. All confirmed panel members will receive more information shortly.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of the SNCI project, please contact me by e-mail or on 01273 292371.
Thank you for your interest and apologies if you receive this e-mail more than once.
Brighton & Hove City Council
Upper Hollingdean Road
Brighton BN1 7GA
Tel: 01273 292371 | <urn:uuid:9e659355-e97d-43f3-aace-b27db615d60d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mandyhost.co.uk/news/item/208-couple-who-smuggled-cocaine-in-noodles-jailed.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939712 | 544 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Munich, Germany (CNN) -- Iran will give "positive consideration" to a renewed prospect of one-on-one talks with the United States on its nuclear program, its foreign minister said Sunday.
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said a new round of talks between Iran and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members, plus Germany, would be held February 25 in Kazakhstan. Salehi spoke on the last day of the 49th Munich Security Conference, a day after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration remains willing to hold direct talks with the Islamic Republic.
"That offer stands, but it must be real and tangible, and there has to be an agenda that they're prepared to speak to," Biden said. "We are not just prepared to do it for the exercise."
The United States and Iran haven't had diplomatic relations since 1980. But U.S. and Iranian diplomats had occasional talks in Baghdad during the eight-year American war in Iraq, and U.S. President Barack Obama held out the prospect of talks with Iran when he came into office in 2009.
Salehi noted Sunday that both Biden and the new secretary of state, John Kerry, have mentioned the possibility of talks with Iran in recent days, and "We take these statements with positive consideration."
Salehi said Iran has "no red line" for bilateral talks and is ready for negotiations over its nuclear program. But he added, "We have to make sure this time -- and this I think is very fair of us -- to make sure the other side this time comes with an authentic intention, with a fair and real intention, to resolve the issue." "
Iran has defied international demands that it halt its production of enriched uranium, which it insists is to be used for civilian nuclear power and research reactors. But the United States and Israel have accused Iran of seeking the capability to produce nuclear weapons, and the International Atomic Energy Agency says it can no longer verify that Iran's nuclear program is strictly peaceful.
Iran's refusal to shut down its uranium enrichment plants has led to tougher and tougher economic sanctions that have crippled its economy. An oil embargo and banking restrictions have crashed the Iranian currency, the rial. New U.S. sanctions imposed in January targeted a handful of companies and individuals that Washington says are providing materials and technology to Tehran's nuclear program.
Biden said Saturday that U.S. policy "is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon," and said the clerical leadership in Tehran "need not sentence their people to economic deprivation and international isolation."
"There is still time, there is still space for diplomacy -- backed by pressure -- to succeed," he said. "The ball is in the government of Iran's court, and it's well past time for Tehran to adopt a serious, good-faith approach to negotiations with the P-5 plus 1."
During his confirmation hearing last week, Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that if Iran can prove its nuclear work is peaceful, "That's what we're seeking."
And Obama's nominee for secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, has in the past called for direct talks with Iran. It was a point of contention during his confirmation hearing, with some Republicans accusing him of being too soft on Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has urged the United States -- his country's leading ally -- to set a "red line" for nuclear development and make clear that if Iran crosses that line, it would risk war. Netanyahu, who won a new mandate in January, said Sunday that the job of preventing a nuclear-armed Iran "is becoming more complex, since Iran is equipping itself with cutting-edge centrifuges that shorten the time of enrichment. We must not accept this process."
CNN's Chelsea J. Carter and Mariano Castillo contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:c712fffa-4c08-488d-98f9-c93b26a2be9c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/03/world/europe/germany-iran-nuclear-talks/index.html?hpt=wo_bn8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973573 | 790 | 1.515625 | 2 |
- Presidential Inauguration
- President Rosa
- Calendar of Events
- Campus Info
- Inaugural History
- Inaugural Program
- Inaugural Speech
- Previous Presidents
The inauguration of Lt. Gen. John W. Rosa, the 19th president of The Citadel, took place Friday, April 21.
Some inaugural events took place on the evening of April 20 with the formal installation ceremony on the morning of April 21.
A 1973 graduate, Lt. Gen. Rosa officially took office on January 3, 2006.
This website is a permanent archive of news leading up to the inauguration, and news from the day of the inauguration.
The inaugural speech, titled "Principled Leadership and The Citadel of Tomorrow", is now posted.
Click here to replay General Rosa's speech at the April 21 Installation Ceremony (27 minutes).
(Windows Media Player is required.) | <urn:uuid:75034960-8810-4a72-bcff-fc46c4511043> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inauguration.citadel.edu/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937545 | 183 | 1.515625 | 2 |
America: Standing in the Way of Democracy
By Dave Lindorff
It is pathetic and even laughable to hear American leaders, and the leaders of the other Western democracies in Europe, cautioning that Egypt’s revolution needs to move slowly, as they call for a “transition” government that would be gently guided to elections by the very man, Omar Suleiman, who for years has headed the dreaded Mukhabarat, the Egyptian secret police, all under the protective umbrella of the Egyptian military.
What is this nonsense?
Did America’s revolutionary government have a slow transition to democracy? Did America’s revolutionaries sign the Declaration of Independence and then hand over the reins of government to a general from the British Army to oversee things as they prepared for elections? No. They immediately set up a democratic system, even in the midst of a bitter war for independence. Did the African National Congress turn to a general from the South African military to run a transition government in South Africa when they finally ousted the Apartheid regime in that country? No, they held an election, and went on to rule as the elected majority. When the People Power revolution in the Philippines toppled the Marcos dictatorship after a generation of autocratic and brutal martial law law, did the people turn to the country’s military and ask it to run the country for a transition year to democracy? No, of course not! They held a snap election and elected the widow, Corazon Aquino, wife of the martyred democracy activist Benigno Aquino.
Democracies don’t need “transitions” run by military rulers and hold-over tyrants. These are tactics designed to subvert, delay and even prevent true popular rule.
How tragic, sad and outrageous to hear our own political leaders, like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama, calling for a period of interim rule--either under the hated dictator Hosni Mubarak himself, or under his hated enforcer, Suleiman. Is this what the young people who have already defended, with their blood, the idea of a truly free, democratic Egypt, were struggling, and even dying, for? Of course not!
How many times have we heard that the vast army of 100 million unemployed, uneducated young people in the Middle East, including Egypt, is a vast “breeding ground” for terrorism, as if these young people were just some species of deadly mosquito larvae. And yet, here these young people are, in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Yemen, in Algeria, in Gaza , in Iraq, and even perhaps in Syria and Saudi Arabia, engaging not in terror, but in peaceful if militant protest to demand what we in the West take for granted: freedom and a voice in their own destiny...
For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF in ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent online alternative newspaper, please go to: ThisCantBeHappening! | <urn:uuid:61a6989a-4de4-467e-8944-19035486e868> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://warisacrime.org/content/america-standing-way-democracy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958558 | 613 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Dante’s Inferno is a video game inspired by the epic “Divina Commedia” (Divine Comedy) poem written by Dante Allighieri in the 1300′s. Italian mercenary Dante returns home from war to find that his beloved Beatrice has been murdered, and her soul pulled down into Hell by a dark force. He gives chase and subsequently fights through the nine circles of Hell to bring her back.
We recently got to sit down with Richard Larm, Lead Environment Artist and Ash Huang, Art Director for Dante’s Inferno at Visceral Studios, about the “hellacious” art and design for the game.
Could you talk about the design process for the development of the in-game enemies?
For some of the “big guy” characters, especially for the upper circles which are a little bit more fantastical in nature, we started on those early because they were a little more “out there” in terms of the circles. The character and creature designs started early on with Wayne Barlowe. We got together with Wayne in the pre-production process. We had ideas of what the characters were going to look like and he had some ideas so we threw them all into a mix. The foundation for came from the poem.
A good case study of that would be Cerberus. We knew traditionally that Cerberus was represented as a three-headed wolf, but we knew for Inferno we wanted to take things and twist them around a little bit in a horrific surreal kind of way. Wayne is a really good artist to approach for that because he has a way of twisting things in unusual ways.
The other thing that was important for all our creature designs, especially the bosses and Hell in general, was that we had to retain an aesthetic kick-back to some sense of humanity. You’ll notice in a lot of our creature designs that you could still see a person in there, and a lot of the time, the creatures are really about taking whatever sins they manifest and turning that into a physical attribute in a horrific, twisted and surreal way.
What about the character design of the main character Dante?
For Dante, that took the entire development process in terms of pre-production. He was in the pipe for three months, going back and forth trying to figure out what he would look like. It was very important to have a strong call back to the period, with the correct idea that he was a crusader. We did not want to get a Lord of the Rings look either.
Two big things about him, one was the myth, and the treatment of the cross and the tapestry, which was a vehicle for telling a story about him. He basically wears his sins. That came from back in the day when the crusaders would get a small little fabric cross to pin to their tunic. The idea for wearing the cross as a metaphor extended out as being something much more visible. At the same time it’s sewn into him, which suggests some kind of pain but also binds his arms. It’s the idea of him wearing the cross as he wears his sins but at the same time he is bound by the cross. That became a big visual treatment to his design.
The other thing was looking at traditional depictions of Dante. A lot of times you see pictures of him wearing a laurel on his head. So what we did was push that out as to something that is akin to a piece of armor. If you look at it, it is a pretty painful looking device, recalling the idea of the laurel of thorns. It still has a laurel feel about it but if he were to head butt you with that, it would really hurt!
When we were designing the armor, the expression that came out was that he had to be a warrior. He can’t be a passive poet. We knew we had to go there and if he was a warrior he had to be really adept at what he did. You think about soldiers or warriors that are really good at what they did, they probably customized their armor. So that’s where we took a little bit of liberty with that, and imagined where he would change his armor.
One of the problems, it would seem based on this is that there is a lot of art already in existence for Dante’s Inferno. Especially, from the classical story with Gustave Dore’s work. Did that play a big influence on your design process, or did you try to work away from that?
I would say that we looked at a lot of work that was already out there and it depended on what it was. For example Rodin was a really big influence on what we did simply because there was a certain kind of effect – what we call a “visual effect” to his art – and that was very inspirational. In a cases like that, it was an influencing factor but we did not use it directly. We looked at what had been done in precedent only as a reference.
There is also an artist name Zdzislaw Beksinski. He used to be an architect, and he has this way of painting the world in this incredible sense of a “time beyond time”. It’s so old, but at the same time it also has this great since of decay. That was very inspirational for the kind of world we wanted to paint in Hell in because Hell is a place that predates time. We wanted to come up with a “visual culture” of what Hell might be like. We knew it had to be ancient, and the influences come from everywhere really.
How much back and forth did the level designers and artist have in order to work with each other on DI?
Mike Cheng had the vision of the levels, the pacing and the big moments of combat that were fed by story elements. Before Mike started designing the levels, Jonathan Knight, Mike and I would sit in a room and talk about what the treatment had been in the script. That would play against the backdrop of what was going on in the poem in context of that particular circle, remembering important anchor points from the poem.
Then Mike would begin a high level treatment of the overall pacing of the entire level. There was a lot of back and forth where he would occasionally come over to the art room and we would throw ideas back and forth. We would influence each other. For example, he would have an idea of how a game play piece might work. We would ask, “What about if we tried this from an art perspective?” Then we would try to navigate that so that the game play would still work.
At the end of the day, we took the common ground that game play rules, so Mike would have the final say on whether or not whatever we were throwing out was appropriate to what he needs to achieve in terms of the game play.
Generally that’s how it worked. When he had a high level pass on it and we had a chance to move back and forth during that process to review it, it would be broken up and individual leads could start to drill down, distil it, add to it, embellish and add more meat to the framework of what he had laid out. At that point, they were literally building light box bases and had the hero running through un-textured white box areas. We’d lock down the game pacing and then from there Mike would run through it. Ash and myself (Richard) would ask about what we could do with it considering the technical limitations.
Once we felt good about these levels, we would take it to the art team and have them draw over screen grabs of the white box spaces and do paint-overs. Then it would come back to environment art and we would fill them out.
What are some other challenges you had to face while designing Dante’s Inferno?
One of the biggest things from an art and development perspective was that we had decided from the start that we would make a 60 FPS game. That decision from the get-go really begins to sculpt the sand box in which you can play in, which is much smaller than a 30 FPS game. That was a big challenge in the beginning; with figuring out with all the creatures, environment and characters, how are we going to make it look competitive with what’s already out there that running at 30 FPS and you only have half the bandwidth. We came up with a lot of different creative solutions from a technical perspective. This has been the only game I have worked on with this kind of collaboration between the artists, level designers, visual effects and animators.
Everybody had a limited budget to work with. 60 FPS breaks down to 16.66 milliseconds to draw a frame and inside of that each person gets an “allotment”. We had to be very aware of what was going in the levels. For example, if Mike needed eight non-player characters to attack Dante, that meant that animation and the effects were going to need a lot of room. So for that, Rich would have to scale back on, or be very clever about how to make use of his geometry budgets in order to put this together in a way that it still looked good. But the artist had to be very aware of any space away from the gameplay perspective so they could build it in an appropriate manner.
So in a sense you really had to be aware of the size and couldn’t go overboard with the textures or image maps size.
There are dozens of things that add to the entire accumulation of things. We were constantly juggling a dozen different technical hurdles. You can optimize one or axe another and all those things will lead you over budget. We had really good metering tools that we could see on screen, so we could see what the performance was at any given frame. It would let us know immediately if what we did would push it over or was cost effective.
How long did the art team have to conceptualize Dante’s Inferno?
Our process wasn’t like, “Our concept artists start a process and then it would end and then another phase of the production would begin”. Concepts were moving alongside, especially when we got into the environments concepts. They were leading out ahead of the environment guys by a bit, but the process ran through the entire length of the project. Up until the final two months we kind of petered out on the concepts because we had figured out what everything had to look like. In total time they were probably on the project at least eighteen months.
CG Channel thanks Richard Larm, Ash Huang, Electronic Arts and Visceral Games for enabling us to do this interview. For more information about Dante’s Inferno, check out the website at www.dantesinferno.com.
Dante’s Inferno Official Website | <urn:uuid:7f7afbb4-aa68-4844-9aaf-f3399a591456> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cgchannel.com/2010/05/the-art-of-dantes-inferno-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98814 | 2,242 | 1.546875 | 2 |
I am not particularly fond of raisins. I can’t put my finger on it nor trace back the origin of my prejudice, but there it is. For those who are MAD for raisins, however, there is a recipe that is MADE for them, and I CAN trace back its origin. Rosina Pie (it sounds so wistfully far away, from another time, when photographs were tinted sepia and a weathered life showed on a weathered face) is a memory of my Pennsylvania Dutch (actually Deutsch) heritage. Rosina (which means raisin in German) is served traditionally after funeral services. Raisins, which are plentiful and store well, are an obvious choice, but there’s something more to it than just the practical; the pie is cloyingly sweet, which makes it the ideal comfort food. You can hardly think of anything else while you are eating it. There will be those farm cooks who will dispute my recipe as not truly traditional, since it doesn’t use egg or milk for a custard base, but both my mother and I remember the pie as similar in preparation, taste and texture to English mincemeat. My mother never had a recipe handed down to her. This is my version as I recall it from many years ago, faded by memory, tinted sepia.
Rosina Pie (aka Funeral Pie)
This recipe will make one deep-dish pie (pictured), but there is enough filling to make 2 regular sized pies. If you make 2 regular sized pies, you will need two recipes of pastry.
2 – 15 oz. boxes dark raisins
3 cups water
3 packed cups dark brown sugar
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons your choice of very fresh ground cinnamon, cloves or nutmeg (plus ½ teaspoon for dusting crust)
2 tablespoons white granulated sugar
1 recipe pastry for double crust pie (your choice or recipe to follow)
In a large saucepan, combine raisins and water. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until raisins are plump and soft. Drain raisins and set aside to cool, returning cooking liquid to saucepan. Add all the sugar, lemon juice, zest and your choice of spice to the raisin liquid in saucepan, stirring with a wooden or plastic spoon to mix well. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes until the mixture starts to thicken into a syrup but not as thick as honey. The mixture will frequently threaten to boil over, so you do have to watch it and adjust the heat accordingly. Meantime, finely chop to a paste ½ the raisins in a food processor. Add them and all the whole raisins into the saucepan with the syrup, stirring well. Slowly boil for another 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. It will thicken even more and become sticky as it cools. It also needs to cool to prevent the crust (which will not be pre-baked) from getting soggy from a hot mixture.
Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare pastry. Roll out bottom crust and arrange in pie pan, making sure you have overhang around the rim. Fill with raisin mixture. Roll out top crust and arrange over filled pie shell allowing overhang again. Carefully lift both edges of pie dough tucking top dough under the bottom to create a very thick rustic edge. Pinch the edge with your fingers to flute or gently press down with tines of fork. Slit top crust to allow steam to escape and strew lightly with granulated white sugar.
Place the pie on a stable cookie sheet and position in middle of preheated oven. Bake for 45 minutes. If you are making smaller pies, 45 minutes is approximately enough. A deep dish will require ¼ to ½ hour longer. The pie is done when the crust is medium to dark golden brown and the filling bubbles up through the slits in the top crust.
Remove from oven, dusting with spice of your choice. Allow to cool to room temperature before cutting. The first cut will be very juicy. Filling will firm up nicely overnight.
Pastry (Adapted from Betty Groff’s recipe)
2 ½ Cups All Purpose White Flour
½ Stick Butter
½ Cup Vegetable Shortening
Cut or rub between fingers butter and shortening into flour until it resembles coarse meal. Add water a little at a time, tossing & folding with a rubber spatula between additions. As you continue to add, toss and fold small amounts of water, press the mixture with the spatula against the bowl until the dough can easily form a ball. Use as much ice water as you need. It is better the dough be moister than dry; dry dough will not roll out evenly. Transfer dough onto a well-floured rolling surface, gently shaping into an even ball. Cut the ball in ½ and reserve in plastic wrap for the top crust. Roll the bottom crust large enough so that you have overhang when you fit it in pie pan. Roll top crust in same manner. -- | <urn:uuid:4de02df0-46f1-4176-aeff-cb85f526a241> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thewellseasonedcook.blogspot.com/2007/03/sweet-sorrow-rosina-pie.html?showComment=1181398200000 | 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 | 0.935419 | 1,070 | 1.65625 | 2 |
When I first bought my laptop computer, the only thing that I told the technician who was assisting me is for him to install everything that I need in it. A word processor and spreadsheet software, the operating system, antivirus, etc. I have no patience when it comes to downloading or waiting for such programs to install – but when my hard drive had to be reformatted due to a crash, everything was gone.
I did not have a tech savvy friend and I really had to get back to work using my computer, so I had to start from scratch. After installing the operating system, my next problem was determining which antivirus software to install. Thankfully, my sister recommended BitDefender so I didn’t have to go through a trial-and-error process just to have my computer protected from viruses.
The Importance of Choosing a Good Antivirus Program
Here, I’ll be dishing out tips on what I think are the most important features of BitDefender, but let me start by enumerating the reasons why you need a good antivirus program in the first place. If you’re like me who works on a computer for more than eight hours a day and you’re always online, there is no telling what kind of viruses your hard drive might encounter. When you have a robust antivirus program, you would not have to worry about accidentally downloading files which might ruin your hard drive.
Aside from ruining your files, there are also viruses like malware or spyware which can act actually steal the password and personal information stored on your computer. To prevent these from happening, you do need to install a good antivirus program which is exactly what BitDefender is.
Why Should I Install BitDefender?
Developed by a company based in Romania called Softwin, BitDefender is an antivirus software which was first launched in the market in 2001. Some of the basic features of BitDefender are antivirus, antispyware, privacy controls, personal firewall, user control and backup. If you will take advantage of their Total Security Suite antivirus package, two additional features called Performance Optimizer and PC Tuneup are also included.
Now, since Windows 8 is what I currently have on my computer, I had to also find a BitDefender antivirus program which is suitable for the operating system. As such, the specific product that I bought to protect my system from harm is BitDefender Windows 8 Antivirus Software. What are its outstanding features? For me, what sets BitDefender apart from all the other software is that it is specifically designed for Windows 8.
Remember that Windows 8 is the latest among the Windows software versions released by Microsoft and it has an entirely different look and feel to it than Windows 7 or the other earlier versions of Windows. This means that an equally updated antivirus program is required, which is a task that BitDefender more than meets.
Here are a few characteristics of BitDefender Windows 8 Antivirus Software which makes it a standout product in my opinion:
• It has the second highest malware detection rate. As compared to other paid antivirus software, the malware detection rate of BitDefender for Windows 8 is 99.96%.
• Its malware removal rate is 90%.
• It is specifically tailored for Windows 8 and includes great features like the early start-up scanner. For this, you will be consistently informed of the security status of your computer.
• According to online reviews, the malware blocking and phishing protection features of BitDefender are among the best in the market. • Its other features include the Scan Boost Technology which offers top antimalware protection at high scanning speeds; the Proactive App Scanner which automatically analyses Windows 8 apps; and Security Info which prevents dangerous malware from infecting your system using the ELAM technology.
If you’re like me who’s a social networking aficionado, you can also take advantage of the privacy guardian feature that the software offers for Facebook and Twitter. Furthermore, it helps detect risky websites and there’s an ID theft protector to prevent your personal information from being stolen.
Are there Any Disadvantages to Installing BitDefender for Windows 8?
Perhaps the only disadvantage of installing the BitDefender Windows 8 Antivirus Software is that it is rather resource-intensive. This means that if the program is running a thorough or lengthy scan of your computer, its speed will be reduced. Other than that, BitDefender Windows 8 is dubbed as one of the best antivirus programs in the market today which is specifically designed for the newest operating system of Microsoft.
If you’re not a PC user, there is a similar program called BitDefender Antivirus for Mac. It has antivirus, anitphishing, antispyware, intelligent virus scanner and optimized performance features. Finally, for those who have not updated to Windows 8 yet, there are other products that you can take advantage of including BitDefender Sphere 2013, BitDefender Family Pack, BitDefender Total Security 2013, BitDefender Internet Security 2013 and BitDefender Antivirus Plus 2013.
It really is important to have an all-encompassing antivirus program installed on your computer to protect it from all sorts of harm. With BitDefender, that is exactly what you’ll get so make sure to have it installed in your system. | <urn:uuid:e07adfe5-7a52-4f9b-b00f-f7119b9bf8b7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.antivirusforwindows8.com/a-glimpse-at-the-features-of-the-bitdefender-windows-8-antivirus-software/447/bitdefender-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94345 | 1,114 | 1.835938 | 2 |
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THIS AFFAIR throws some light on the complex relations between Israel and the United States: who is wagging who--does the dog wag its tail or the tail its dog?
Olmert says that we must ignore Assad's peace offers, because we must not help him to escape Bush's wrath. Let's dwell on this utterance for a moment.
An Israeli patriot would, of course, have said exactly the opposite: If Assad is ready to make peace with us--even if only because he is afraid of the Americans--we should jump at this opportunity and exploit this situation to achieve at long last peace on our northern front.
Last week Olmert made a remarkable declaration: "As long as I am Prime Minister, we shall not give up the Golan for all eternity!" What does that mean? Either Olmert believes that his term of office coincides with God's term of office, and he will rule in eternity--or in Olmert's world, eternity extends to four years, at most.
Anyhow, until then, my taxi-driver and I shall have to wait for our lunch in Damascus. | <urn:uuid:2cf3ec33-74b2-4128-8917-8b25c66b1678> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.opednews.com/articles/3/opedne_uri_avne_061005_peace_with_syria__3ci_3e.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957727 | 237 | 1.5625 | 2 |
BAGHDAD — Two American soldiers were killed Sunday in Iraq, the military command said, making June the worst month in combat-related fatalities for United States forces in Iraq in more than two years. The casualties also reflected the dangers ahead as the United States prepares to withdraw all its troops from Iraq by the end of the year.
The June total of so-called hostile-related deaths of American soldiers is now 11, the most since May 2009, when 12 were killed, according to icasualties.org, an online database that tracks the deaths of foreign forces in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
In a statement issued Sunday night, the American military said the two soldiers were killed “conducting operations” in the north. It did not elaborate, but that terminology is usually meant to indicate the deaths were caused by enemy attack. In the deadliest single-day death toll since 2009, five soldiers were killed June 5 when a rocket struck Victory Base Complex, the military’s base near the Baghdad airport. A sixth later died of his wounds.
Many of the remaining American military bases in Iraq, particularly in the Shiite-dominated south, have faced an increasing number of rocket and mortar attacks. Officially, the United States is now in an advisory role to the Iraqi military — last year President Obama declared the official end of combat operations — which means United States forces are restricted from acting unilaterally. This has increased frustrations among the American military command, which believes the Iraqi government is reluctant to attack Shiite militias, many backed by Iran and some linked to political parties here, that are carrying out the attacks against Americans.
For example, American officials have said they believe that Moktada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric who disbanded his Mahdi Army in 2008 and has taken on a prominent political role, is still linked to some armed groups that attack Americans. Even more troubling for the Americans — and Iraqi Sunnis, for that matter — are Mr. Sadr’s frequent statements that he will reactivate the Mahdi Army if the American military does not withdraw by the end of this year. An agreement that binds the United States and Iraq requires that all American forces leave by year’s end, but the Iraqi political leadership is considering asking for American troops to stay to continue training the Iraqi forces.
Mr. Sadr’s statements about returning to violence if the Americans prolong their stay has created a political dilemma for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who relied on the support of Mr. Sadr’s followers in Parliament to secure a second term.
Mr. Sadr’s talk escalated this weekend when he appeared to endorse the idea of suicide bomb attacks against American troops. On a Web site, he replied to a letter in which followers vowed to conduct suicide attacks by saying, “Thank you my dear friends, God bless you.” Such tactics have been used by Sunni insurgent groups like Al Qaeda in Iraq, but not by militant Shiite groups, which use rocket and mortar attacks and improvised explosive devices.
At least one official in the Sadrist movement, Hatem Baidhani, denied that Mr. Sadr had approved suicide attacks. “There are some clerics who live outside Iraq that have given the green light to target the occupier military forces with suicide operations, but the Sadrists refuse this idea,” he said.
For years Mr. Sadr has been a nemesis to the American military, which fought two major battles against his Mahdi Army. In an e-mailed statement Sunday, an American military spokesman in Baghdad said that Mr. Sadr’s “statement speaks sufficiently for itself about his attitude toward the use of violence as an alternative to the democratic processes. It’s the same attitude that has caused so much violence for the Iraqi people in the past.”
In Sadr City, the Shiite slum in Baghdad and a stronghold of support for Mr. Sadr, men could be found on Sunday who said they were ready to become suicide bombers. “I will give myself as a gift to my country and to Moktada, and I will become a suicide bomber against the occupiers,” said Rafid al-Rubai, 32. “I will be a bomb that our leader Moktada can throw wherever he wants.” | <urn:uuid:f4147887-9f69-4ff1-aa46-8047d0f450ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=24374 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977478 | 897 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Some speculate ancient go boards were used for divination.
Go is so old that it certainly has dogma and tradition, as many religions do. Go players spend more time playing go than many "religious" people go to church (daily, not weekly)
Go Clubs are houses of worship, and our best players (pros) are clergy. The devout students study the works of the clergy...
Go is so sublime that it is surely mystical
"Go is just a game. However, the nature of the game allows it to provide a window into everyday situations. The choices made in a simple game turn out to be deeply representative of one's true character. When I play go, I am offered a window into another's complete spirit, and my own nature becomes transparent."
-- Jesse Chao, from AGA-EJ Volume 5, #62
Before you ask yes I am Buddhist, but not of this branch. | <urn:uuid:eef6365f-48ea-4ac9-a593-9769577eaceb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://senseis.xmp.net/?Religion | 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 | 0.970173 | 187 | 1.710938 | 2 |
No, I do not presume that. Quakers are also pacifists. My presumption is that pacifists are the exception and not the rule.
So it's not about excluding one religion as "true", but any that doesn't condone killing as undeserving of "death" per Bill Maher?
The organization does not deal with crime.
Indeed, the issue with at least one of the cases is
that they did not deal with it. Which is to say that with a horrifying confession from a man (that he had raped three different children, ages 5, 9 and 11) they simply "removed him from their midst." In disfellowshipping him, the elders reported his crimes and confession to the WT headquarters. No one contacted the authorities
The WT has no authority to insist people go to the authorities if no such law exists.
What about the decency to encourage
parents and elders to do the obviously moral thing, instead of leaving children at risk? Or even the moral certitude
to make the call themselves, when it was in their power to do so? Why would it ever require legislation or bad publicity to get an organization to encourage its membership to protect children
, and what does it say about an organization that it required
But you can't build an argument on what they can do.
I'm not sure what this means.
If you want to know someone doctrine or procedures shouldn't you go to the source?
To get the full story on a controversy surrounding an organization, I wouldn't rely on the organization as my only source of information, especially if all it does is repeat its policies. I try to find other sources and compare. Sure, an "opposer site" may have an inherent bias, so I focused on the report from NBC and the legal documents.
The page only highlights the Witnesses own internal means of establishing guilt.
It exposes how the organization's policies failed at protecting children, and how they modified their policies due to the threat of legal action and bad publicity.
PS- 'The page just highlights what they do' is a far cry from claiming that the site is "full of inaccuracies.
Let's just assume for a minute they are in fact God's only channel for providing spiritual food. In what way does that make the infallible? Was Israel not his channel in the past? Did they not make a tremendous amount of mistakes? Eventually they were rejected by God, but what the Witnesses have done in no way compares to the mistakes of Israel.
Israel was god's chosen nation, but that does not mean that each individual Israelite was god's channel for leadership. God chose specific individuals (fallible men, all of them) and granted them the mantle of leadership and/or prophecy, and the nation was expected to listen to them. Their predictions invariably bore good fruit, even in the rare case (Moses taking credit for getting water from a rock) where they acted improperly.
The nation of Israel suffered when it turned against those men, precisely because they had the support and inspiration of god. The same support and inspiration that the WT leadership claims for itself. Their record on prophesy and leadership is decidedly worse than that of the men that god chose to lead Israel. It's not rational to assume that god's standards have fallen, especially in the "end times" when it would seem critical to save as many people as possible.
Which wars are you referring to?
The Mongol conquests, taken as a whole, covered a period of more than 250 years and involved the death of anywhere from 8-17% of the world's population. Numerous wars and rebellions in China during the 1300s, 1600s, and 1800s not only killed large numbers as a percentage of world population, but it's possible that the Taiping Rebellion killed more people (in absolute numbers) than any other war on record. The Napoleonic wars were among a number of European wars going on in the 1800s that led to high casualties. The 1700s and 1800s were bloodier than the 1900s, even with the massive death tolls of the two world wars.
Technology has also allowed people to have more efficient means for killing others. I would say an atomic bomb is definately noteworthy in the history of war. What do you think?
I think it's noteworthy that as we continue to develop more destructive technologies and the methods for delivering them with extraordinary precision on a planet that is more populous than ever, we've managed to make war less destructive. Or perhaps I missed the war in the last 65 years that cost multiple billions of lives and tens of trillions of dollars due to the indiscriminate use of nuclear weapons and the leveling of entire metropolitan areas.
That would depend on who you are referring to when you say "us". Do you mean those on the battlefield?
I mean modern society. Triage, ambulances, dressing of wounds, anesthetics, EMTs... many of the medical and surgical advances that we enjoy today were developed on the battlefield. Many of the methods for dealing with traumatic injuries were, as well.
I have read a lot of material from opposers. But I've yet to see where I think the Witnesses intentionally misled people or caused people to sin. I think that is the crux of the matter.
I have also failed to see where you think
they did so. If that is the crux of the matter, I suspect we're at an impasse.
If we accept that other religions have "intentionally misled people or caused people to sin" but that individual witnesses are liable for their own missteps when they follow advice from their
leadership, doesn't that absolve those other religions? I don't know how many are guilty of causing people to sin, especially if we accept that the individuals in question --and not their acknowledged leaders-- are to blame for their misdeeds. Unless you arbitrarily decided that the concept only applies to one religion. That could affect what you think.
As for 'intentionally misleading,' go to http://corior.blogspot.com
and read any of their articles on creation-vs-evolution or the great flood of Genesis. You'll see the myriad ways in which the WT organization have misled their membership. Everything from taking quotes out of context so as to misrepresent the views of scientists, to accepting arguments from people who have no authority to make them and whose other views are either different from that of the WT organization, or even totally anathema. Just the material on Francis Hitching should be sufficient cause for concern on whether the WT organization is interested in the truth, or in butressing their beliefs regardless of the cost.
And to touch a little more on prophecy. The Bible says, "this good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabbited world." Wouldn't you say that anyone that predicted the end before that prophecy was fulfilled was inaccurate. How many hundreds of years ago was this prophecy realized? Anyone preaching the end would come before that was simply wrong. So things today are not as they were hundreds of years ago.
I think that anyone making end-times prophecies was flagrantly disrespecting Christ's admonition to his disciples that they were not to worry about 'the day or the hour'. Jesus warned his disciples that in the last days, "many false prophets would deceive many people." Wouldn't that apply to a group that repeatedly made wholly unnecessary end-of-world predictions that turned out to be wrong? What Biblical
reasoning led them to the "mistake" of deciding that it was important to warn people about dates and hours in direct contravention
of Jesus' word?
And there's a bigger problem with it. The organization bolsters its claim that it is the "faithful and discreet slave" by explaining that Jesus came to inspect the temple (god's chosen organization on Earth) in 1919, and that he found the slave providing for his believers. Except that what they were providing was both false (wrong predictions and teachings that have been almost wholly abandoned by the modern WT) and not in keeping with Christ's clear instructions that they not concern themselves with 'the day or hour.' Just how low did Jehovah set his expectations in 1919, that the WT organization managed to gain his approval?
I could be snarky, and marvel that a group so blessed by holy spirit bumbled so egregiously. Or I could be cynical, and take note of the effect that end-of-world predictions tended to have on membership numbers. Or I can close my mind and accept that a succession of men claiming divine inspiration repeatedly met their own definition of "false prophets", but they meant well
and therefore it was just a mistake.
In addition the Witnesses have long held that Babylon the Great (organized false religion) would be destroyed. Is this not actually starting to occur?
If I am remembering correctly, Rutherford claimed that this had begun in 1919 and I guess it's well underway by now. I think a more likely explanation is that it's the inexorable march of science and archeology that is causing people to abandon religion in growing numbers. I think it's a good thing.
In the old Revelation
book (the one with the bright red cover) the explanation was that the world powers would use the United Nations to bring false religion to catastrophic ruin, and the kings and merchants of the world would grieve over the loss. This would be a notable event or series of events, not the slow and gradual decline of membership. Has this view changed?
And what about where the Bible says he is going to "bring to ruin those ruining the earth". Isn't it only in more modern times that we have become truly capable of ruining the earth. Not only that but today not only is it possible but it seems highly likely. Anyone preaching the end would come before this was wrong. So because some people were wrong doesn't change the facts.
Oh, I'm sure there are plenty of examples where they misunderstood or misinterpreted the Bible and understood more clearly as time and circumstances provided more insight. I doubt that they're the only group to continue to 'progress in Biblical understanding' as time and science and understanding continue to chip away at religious myths and force 'readjustments in thinking.'
I just don't see how clear evidence of wrongdoing can be categorized as mistakes. Prophecies made with claims of divine inspiration when there was no logical or Biblical reason to make them, which leads followers astray, doesn't strike me as the sort of thing that a just and reasonable god would allow to happen under the stewardship of his approved people. Or any of the other things we've discussed. | <urn:uuid:49273735-50c4-46b2-925c-4a7930d0167f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/forums/index.php/topic,24545.msg546455.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979342 | 2,181 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Patrick Baz/Getty Images
Libyan rebels gather around a burning T-72 tank belonging to forces of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, which were targeted the day before by a French air strike, in Shat al-Bedin 50 kms West of Benghazi.
Allied attacks on Libya began over the weekend, in an attempt to disable Libya's air defenses. Pro-Ghadafi forces say that civilians have been injured by the allied bombings, a claim denied by the countries involved in the intervention.
We're joined by David Hartwell, a Middle East and North African analyst with IHS Jane's - an open source intelligence provider to governments and businesses in London. | <urn:uuid:eb556b98-212f-4c8c-8949-403c56f2f164> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scpr.org/programs/madeleine-brand/2011/03/21/18327/allied-forces-continue-attacks-on-gadhafis-forces-/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954655 | 138 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: 25 years, alex ferguson, coaching, Manchester United, sessions, style
My coaching word for this week is ‘perseverance’. I heard Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson talking about the attributes that make a good coach and that was the first one he named – and having been manager of Manchester United for 25 years, he’s likely to know!
Within a few days, I had experienced why this is such an important part of a coach’s toolkit. I was trying out a new session for my Under-10s, an exercise that uses movement, coordination, passing, receiving and sprinting – you’ll see it in Soccer Coach Weekly in a couple of weeks.
I know sometimes when directing exercises with young players in front of their parents it can be a bit awkward for you, particularly if the players don’t understand immediately what it is they have to do. I ran the exercise a couple of times and it was not going well. It needed some fine tuning and a few re-run demonstrations for the players to understand what I wanted.
It was eating into my coaching time but I thought it was worth persevering with it. After 10 minutes they were still struggling but suddenly one of the players shouted “got it, Dave!” Instinctively, he showed the others how it worked. And with demonstrations from both of us, the whole squad got the hang of it. It still took time to really get things motoring, but we played the exercise for the next 20 minutes and I took notes on how to change it… how to make it easier to understand for my Soccer Coach Weekly readers.
It had worked in the end but only because I was prepared to persevere with the session, and thanks in no small part to some visual aids and a player who could help me to show the others how to do it. After the session, a coach from one of our other teams (who had caught the final 10 minutes) came up and told me what a great session it was.
Rest assured he wouldn’t have said that at the start, but as a group we persevered, | <urn:uuid:723010a8-111b-41d3-8531-936a61ea8808> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://soccer-coaching-blog.com/tag/25-years/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986905 | 478 | 1.773438 | 2 |
A few short months ago, the idea that Apple would be moving into Grand Central was just a rumor, but this week, detailed renderings of the new space have been revealed and the tech company began construction. The renderings, released by the MTA, show a space that looks rather familiar. In fact, it looks just like Grand Central itself, with Apple adding little but tables full of iPads and Macbooks. The megastore will be larger than any of Apple’s current flagships, clocking in at 23,000 square feet and encompassing two adjacent second-floor balconies. No details have been revealed about any green features the space may have, but the MTA has made energy efficiency and sustainable practices a priority in the entire Grand Central Terminal, so at least we know the building is green.
To gain the prime retail space, Apple certainly paid a premium. The company booted out previous tenant Charlie Palmer’s Metrazur restaurant more than eight years before its lease was up by paying Palmer a cool $5 million. On top of that, Apple will be paying just a tad more in rent to the MTA: $1.1 million vs. $263,997. Apple is also spending its own cash to improve the space with changes including the installation of a new elevator.
Construction began this week on the new space, and Apple wants to have the space complete in time for the holiday season. Apple Insider reports that the company is working with the NYPD to best figure out how to handle the lines and crowds that are bound to form.
While its hard to say how green the store’s new features will actually be, it doesn’t look like Apple will be adding any unnecessary flare to the open balcony spaces, but rather working with the historic landmark’s gorgeous interior. And we all know that moving into a used space is much greener than building one from scratch.
Via The Real Deal | <urn:uuid:6932c91a-246a-489c-a964-1573b3168cdf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inhabitat.com/nyc/apples-new-grand-central-store-preserves-the-terminals-historic-aesthetic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953969 | 393 | 1.507813 | 2 |
is a simulation game, where the objective is to kill all humans on Earth with a disease. It is similar in design to the Pandemic
series of browser games. The game offers various types of plagues, such as Bacteria, Virus, Fungus all with their own characteristics. The disease is not controlled directly, but can be evolved to desired attributes. At some point the disease will be discovered, and humanity will start working on a cure. The game will only be won if all humans in all countries are dead. It is important to balance the infectivity, severity, and lethality of the plague. The game also contains a lot of information on different aspects of diseases.
There are no reviews for this game.
The Press Says
There are no rankings for this game.
There are currently no topics for this game.
There is no trivia on file for this game.
This entry was contributed by MrMamen (4241) | <urn:uuid:0ce690b5-9c70-4725-af6f-844557564cd9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mobygames.com/game/ipad/plague-inc | 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 | 0.944493 | 195 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
This is an AMAZING video showing experimentation with multi-touch screen technology! I particularly like the section with what look like turntables...the future DJ's tool? I can just see this technology used to incredible effect at live music shows where the music and musician can actually create stunning visuals while they play their instruments. They might even be able to program notes with specific images so that repetitive and cognitive messages can be directed through the music not only through aural but visual stimulation as well.
I love this kind of technology because it feels like we are learning to breakdown the rules of nature and twist its abilities to our purpose. Should this type of technology become a part of everyday life I often wonder how it may effect the workings of our own brains, even our evolution as a species.
Eitherway..as the vid says..this is from 2006... so by the time this gets into the shops...just imagine what they'll be working on by then? GASP!!!!
Video posted by arthckr on YouTube. | <urn:uuid:e0d4bb35-8b38-4949-86e2-5fb4f502b728> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://espvisuals.blogspot.com/2007/08/touch-me.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949543 | 217 | 1.59375 | 2 |
China considering curb on aluminum exports
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China is considering policy measures to restrain exports of low value-added aluminum products and bring China's foreign trade in aluminum into balance, an industry official said on Thursday.
Beijing is trying to reduce the country's exports of goods from heavily polluting or energy-intensive industries, especially as it faces recurring power shortages.
"We are aware that China is a net exporter of aluminum in the first four months, although we can see there were net imports of primary aluminum," said Jia Mingxing, vice chairman of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association.
Jia said the association was in discussions with the government, including the Ministry of Commerce, on adopting such policies, which could include raising export taxes on aluminum rod and other products.
He declined to give a possible time frame for implementing the measures.
"We will make decisions in accordance with the development of the trade situation," he told reporters at a conference held by the Shanghai Futures Exchange.
"We aim to secure balance in the aluminum trade situation in China," he said.
John Kemp, chief economist at RBS Sempra Metals said it was unlikely that China would remain such a massive exporter of aluminum, both primary and secondary, in the medium term.
"Clearly, the government policy is to deter energy-intensive sectors," he added, noting that the country's increasingly tight power availability would restrain energy-intensive sectors.
China exported 610,000 metric tons of aluminum products in the first four months of the year, while importing 222,714 metric tons. Imports of primary aluminum during the period totaled 48,993 metric tons, while exports were 22,080 metric tons.
(Reporting by Alfred Cang and Rujun Shen; Writing by Edmund Klamann; Editing by Keiron Henderson) | <urn:uuid:a6b33c64-9305-4e46-91bb-e18f5f585458> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/36998/print | 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 | 0.954726 | 381 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Kubicek Family Collection, 1965-1975
7 reels of 8mm film totaling 2,100 feet; 5 reels of Super 8mm film totaling 2,000 feet
1965 - 1975
1965 - 1975
These 8mm home movies document the Kubicek family of Dearborn, Michigan from 1965 to the mid 1970s. When donated to CFA, this collection was accompanied by detailed notes describing the people and places in the films. These notes are uncommonly personal, detailed and are very welcome as part of the collection. They provide a richness and context to the films and to the family seen in them. The films and paper documents in this collection will be invaluable as genealogical traces to coming generations of the Kubicek family.
These 8mm home movies document the Kubicek family of Dearborn, Michigan from 1965 to the mid 1970s. The first three reels (thirty minutes of footage) document the short life of their son who was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of two and passed away the following year. His final and third birthday is documented within this collection.
The remaining reels capture the Kubicek's life with their two other children, and contain numerous birthdays, backyard, sledding and holiday scenes. Oscar was of Czechoslovakian heritage and belonged to a Czech organization, Sokol Cultural Center (http://www.sokoldetroit.com), in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. Oscar sent his children there for camp, and shot footage of gymnastic performances while on the campgrounds. In the 1970s, the Kubicek family joined the Ford Travel Club and toured much of Michigan, resulting in several reels of camping footage, including an eerie Halloween costume display. Other highlights of the collection include a 1970s Detroit Lions game, a first communion, a day trip to the dunes along Lake Michigan, a family visit to Oklahoma & Disney World and shots of the Hudson's building in downtown Detroit, which was demolished in 1998.
Oscar John Kubicek was a Ford truck engineer, while Barbara Louise Kubicek was a homemaker. Three years after the tragic death of their three year old son in 1967, the Kubicek's adopted siblings David and Mary Kay. Oscar Kubicek shot the majority of the collection, spliced them together and placed them onto compiled reels.
These films were stored previously by David Kubicek, the son of the filmmaker Oscar Kubicek.
This collection is open to on-site access. Appointments must be made with Chicago Film Archives. Due to the fragile nature of the films, only video copies will be provided for on-site viewing.
Chicago Film Archives holds the copyright for the films in this collection. | <urn:uuid:5308a1f6-0f21-4063-9da3-50421f428ce2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chicagofilmarchives.org/collections/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/21 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942379 | 560 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The NAFC Senate is an integral part of the Friendship Centre Movement. Senators are individuals who are recognized for representing a set of core values which reflect the history and evolution of the Friendship Centre Movement.
Senators may be called upon to provide information, guidance or advice to the Friendship Centre Movement from time-to-time. They are role models to Aboriginal youth and are highly respected ambassadors of the Friendship Centre Movement.
Senator Marjorie White (Marge) was born in Port Alberni to the Huu-ay-aht First Nation. Marge left her reserve in 1956 to pursue a career in Nursing in Vancouver, BC. In 1957, Marge became a member and President of the Coqualeetza Fellowship organization located in Sardis, BC. Influenced by the Fellowships push for the need of an Indian Centre the Vancouver City Council in 1963 finally supported the efforts of Marge and her colleagues who were directed to create an ad hoc committee to establish the guidelines to opening an Aboriginal social centre, later that same year, the first official Indian Centre in Vancouver was opened and Marge and her ad… Read More >
Senator Roger Obonsawin is a member of the Abenaki Nation of Atlantic Canada and Northern U.S. For the past 35 years, Roger has been actively promoting and defending treaty and Aboriginal rights of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. He is also a successful business person and owner and President of the OI Group of Companies: Obonsawin-Irwin Consulting Inc., OI Employee Leasing Inc., Native Leasing Services and OI Personnel Services Ltd. Roger is the founding president of the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC) and Pedahbun Lodge (substance-abuse treatment centre). Roger has served on numerous Board of Directors including the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres (OFIFC), the Addiction Research Foundation and the… Read More >
Ray Fox was born and raised in North Battleford. His grandfather is Ed Fox (Mak-eh-cec) of the Sweetgrass First Nation. Ray has a long history of service and dedication to his people and his community. The constant theme in both his career and volunteer activities has been service to the community – whether as a politician, broadcaster, board member or director. He has also worked tirelessly to bring Aboriginal issues and perspectives to the forefront. Ray’s main employment is at the Battlefords Tribal Council as director of justice. He has extensive involvement in community justice awareness activities including public education and developing crime prevention strategies. Ray is one of five… Read More >
Senator Adeline Webber is a proud member of the Teslin Tlingit First Nation and was born and raised in Whitehorse, YT. Adeline became involved in the Skookum Jim Hall in the mid 1960’s, (later renamed Skookum Jim Friendship Centre.) She became a Skookum Jim Friendship Centre Board member in 1989 and would serve as President for ten years. After more than 15 years on the Board of Directors of the Skookum Jim Friendship Centre, having served on the executive during the entire period she retired in 2004 and was appointed honorary lifetime member of the society. In addition to her dedication to the Friendship Centre Movement, Adeline continues to be… Read More >
Senator Miriam YoungChief is a proud member of the Kehewin Cree Nation in Alberta. She is also a mother and grandmother, a sister and auntie. She first became involved in the Friendship Centre Movement in 1972 as a volunteer developing a feasibility study for a child care centre for the Canadian Native Friendship Centre of Edmonton. From there, her journey took her to the Sagitawa Friendship Centre in Peace River where, as program director she reintroduced youth involvement in traditional community activities. Then, as executive director, she developed training programs specifically designed for Friendship Centre staff and Boards of Directors. This was the first time anyone designed and delivered Friendship… Read More >
Senator T8aminik (Dominique) Rankin, a Native Algonquin from Abitibi (QC), lived in the forest according to the nomad way of life during his childhood. Carrier of 7 Sacred Pipes and close student of the regretted William Commanda, T8aminik's latest book, entitled “On nous appelait les Sauvages” (Editions Le Jour, 2011), recounts his incredible life story and the way he was able to heal from his six years at Amos Residential School. Vice Grand Chief and Grand Chief of the Algonquin First Nation from 1981 to 1989, he spent many years as the President of the Society for Education in Museology and Vice President of the International Movement for new Museology.… Read More >
Senator Helen Hudson-MacDonald was born and raised in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. Helen is a member of the Salt River First Nations. She has been involved in Aboriginal rights organizations and politics for many years in the Province of Saskatchewan and in the Northwest Territories. Helen became involved with the Friendship Centre Movement in 1971 spending many years as Board member of the Uranium City Friendship Centre and Saskatchewan representative at the national level. Upon her return to the Northwest Territories she became involved with the Uncle Gabes Friendship Centre filling the position of Secretary-Treasurer for four years before moving to Rae-Edzo, NWT. While in Rae-Edzo she became active in… Read More >
Senator Winston McLeod was born and raised in Selkirk, MB and has been an active member in his community all his life. Winston has served on the Selkirk Housing board as well as serving as board member of the Women’s shelter. Winston was instrumental in the building of the Selkirk Housing Co-operative and in the founding of the Selkirk Food Bank. Over the years, Winston has served as a board member of the Selkirk Friendship Centre and Vice President of the Manitoba Association of Friendship Centres. Read More >
Myrtle Banfield (nee Tooktoshina) was born in Otter Creek, Labrador and raised in Tessialuk; later moving to Happy Valley, Labrador. Myrtle presently lives in St. John’s and has two children, Lisa and Neil and is a proud grandmother to Steven and Emma. She is an accomplished Inuk woman and is a beneficiary to the Labrador Inuit Lands Claims Agreement in Nunatsiavut. Myrtle spent four years in Residential School in North West River, NL. Myrtle began working with the St. John’s Native Friendship Centre in June, 1988 and in 1991 became their sixth Executive Director. She has seen many changes in her Friendship Centre since it opened its doors in June… Read More > | <urn:uuid:30c41aa4-2cd4-45c3-ba6e-3821164b41d8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nafc.ca/en/content/senate | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974856 | 1,375 | 1.664063 | 2 |
A Note on Rebaptism to the Prospective Primitive Baptist
By Elder David Pyles
Some potential converts to the Primitive Baptists have difficulty understanding their policy of rebaptizing all who come to them from other orders. This ancient practice of Primitive Baptists has many points in its defense. I attempt to present some of them in what follows, and wish particularly to address the most common questions asked concerning the practice.
1) Of those who have come to the Primitive Baptists from other orders, a great number had a deep conviction they were in need of rebaptism. These probably represent the majority of cases in my experience. Such cases prove that a mere conviction on the part a candidate that their first baptism is satisfactory is not sufficient to prove it such. Because if two individuals come to the Primitive Baptists with essentially identical backgrounds, then surely what is right for one is right for the other. Therefore, if it is right to rebaptize in one case, then it must be right to rebaptize in all similar cases. Now when it observed that those who came desiring rebaptism subsequently proved to be devout disciples, and in some instances even proved to be persons of beneficial leadership, then the strength of this experience serves to corroborate their original conviction that rebaptism was the proper course.
2) The denominationalism existing in our present world is a sad condition that Primitive Baptists did not cause and do not endorse; nevertheless, they must deal with it in a sound and consistent manner. Since the scriptures offer no New Testament precedent for denominationalism, the problem must be addressed using general scriptural principle and rules of sound reasoning. Under such approach, one is constrained to conclude that it is inconsistent to permanently sever fellowship with another denomination but to then receive the baptisms of that denomination. This follows because if the local churches in that denomination are indeed recognized by God as valid churches, then fellowship with them should not have been severed. Instead, scriptural labor should have been conducted for their correction. On the other hand, if these churches are not recognized by God as valid, then there is no authority for receiving their baptisms because there is nothing in scripture serving to qualify the baptisms of a nonchurch institution. This reasoning might not pertain to an intra-denominational division wherein fellowship were temporarily suspended for corrective purposes, but it must be valid for those inter-denominational divisions that are viewed as permanent. In maintaining these permanent bars of fellowship against each other, the churches of the denominational world have in effect declared that they cannot certainly know that their rivals are Divinely recognized churches. This being the case, they cannot certainly know that the baptisms performed by their rivals are valid. It is therefore inconsistent to receive these baptisms as though there were no question concerning them.
3) The validity of any religious or solemn service is critically dependent upon the intent and understanding of those who participate in them. If the intent or understanding is significantly in error, then the service cannot be valid. For example, suppose a young couple were in a wedding service and suppose the woman understood the service to be merely a rehearsal whereas the man thought the service to be genuine. Surely this would not be a valid wedding, and once the misunderstanding were discovered, neither the woman nor the man would be satisfied until the service were performed again. As a second example, I know of an actual case where a young man participated in a communion service thinking that a snack was being served. This occurred in a denominational church where grapejuice and crackers were used. Though the actions of the young man were outwardly the same as all other participants, it is clear that this service was not true communion to him, nor could it be considered such even after his understanding were corrected. These examples show the importance of understanding in solemn service. Here is yet a third example to show the importance of intent: A certain man went into the woods with a gun intending to shoot a deer, but his shot went astray and killed another man. Then there was another man went into the woods with a gun intending to murder a man, but his shot went astray and killed a deer. Which man is a murderer and which man is innocent? Obviously, the answer to this question depends entirely upon the intents of the men. Accordingly, the understanding and intent mean everything to the baptismal service. If a person has been baptized under false doctrinal notions, a false concept of Christ or a false understanding of the purpose of the baptism, then there is need that the service be performed again.
4) If the Primitive Baptists are what they claim, then they are of the same lineage, doctrine and practice as the true New Testament church. If the Primitive Baptists are not true to this claim, then one has no reason for leaving another order to come to them. Now there is only one instance in the Bible where people were baptized apart from this lineage (Acts 19:1-7), and in that one instance, those people were rebaptized. This was done notwithstanding the fact that those people were sincere in their convictions when they were first baptized, and notwithstanding the fact that the Bible considered them to be believers when they were first baptized.
5) The most common objection to rebaptism is the claim that the individual had a good feeling during their prior baptism. Our reply to this is that the feelings one has concerning their baptism is no trivial matter and we do not dismiss them as unimportant, even when they pertain to a baptism we consider unsatisfactory. Nonetheless, feelings alone are not a reliable criteria for assessing a baptism, or anything else. Consider the fact that those who practice infant baptism generally have a very good feeling about the service. They are very sentimental about it and have even been known to resort to violence in its defense. But this certainly does not make the service valid. Nor can good feelings justify anything that is contrary to the revealed will of God or at variance with sound reasoning.
6) But even if the good feelings concerning the former baptism were due to the blessings and assurance of God, this would not make rebaptism redundant or unnecessary. It is indeed the case that God may have blessed the former baptism by granting a feeling of His approval and assurance. This was because the individual was then doing the best they could given the knowledge they had at the time. If such efforts do not secure the blessings of God, then none of us would have any hope of being blessed in our endeavors to obey. The best any man can do is to act in accordance with what he believes to be right in the light of what has been revealed to him. But to be blessed by God for our imperfect efforts does not imply that we should be satisfied with those efforts or do nothing to correct them. There have been many times that I have felt blessed to preach upon a particular subject, but later discovered that I had given improper explanations to certain texts in the course of the sermon. Am I to conclude that because I felt blessed in these efforts that I should do nothing to correct those errors? Or should I conclude that because I felt blessed in these efforts that what I preached was surely accurate notwithstanding clear objective evidence to the contrary? Surely this would not be the proper course. It is my responsibility to do the best I can now given the knowledge I have now, even as I did the best I could then given the knowledge I had then. The same may be said of that individual who was baptized under erroneous convictions yet was blessed in it because their actions were done in sincerity.
7) The Apostle Paul told the Corinthians:
"For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him." - 2Cor 11:4
This text asserts there is another Jesus preached in this world besides the true Jesus of the Bible. There is also another gospel and another Spirit. Those who preach the other Jesus are in fact preaching the same historic Jesus of the Bible, yet Paul called him "another" Jesus because he is not the same in concept with the Jesus of the Bible, and his doctrine is not the same as taught by the true Jesus. Accordingly, the Jesus taught by the denominational world is not the same Jesus taught by the Primitive Baptists. Nor do they teach the same gospel and same Spirit. Anyone failing to see these differences is not truly ready to be a Primitive Baptist, and if their perceptions were correct, they would stand nothing to gain by becoming a Primitive Baptist. What could be gained by coming to the Primitive Baptists from another order if the Primitive Baptists teach the same Jesus, gospel and Spirit? But if Primitive Baptists indeed preach the true Jesus, and if world preaches another Jesus, then it is surely a feeble and dubious testimony when a person has willfully submitted to baptism for the other Jesus but has refused baptism for the true one. It is difficult to see how that this can be the proper answer of a good conscience towards God (1Pet 3:21).
8) Baptism is a joyous experience in the heart of anyone who is filled with the Holy Ghost. Any experienced pastor has heard the most spiritual members of his congregation make statements like: "I would have joined the church again today if I could have," or "I would have been baptized again today if I could have," or "How could anyone not join after the wonderful meeting we had today?" Even John the Baptist, of whom the Lord required no baptism, expressed a desire for it (Mt 3:14). And I believe that if any child of God will carefully consider the points I have given, and if they will consider the blessedness of knowing the true Jesus and true Spirit, and of hearing the true gospel, then they will find baptism unto these to be their joy and desire.
Return to PBWS | <urn:uuid:1484a03b-7ba5-47d3-aa8b-61e23d9d623e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pb.org/pbdocs/rebaptism.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978261 | 2,036 | 1.5 | 2 |
An Old Gent and the Wheels of Progress
John E. Goslee
Sharptown, Maryland 21861
It will soon be fall of the year and already, due to the dry
summer, the corn looks like it is ready to harvest. That is this
new fancy-dangled kind they call Hybrid corn.
No, you don't see any other kind but this Hybrid yellow
corn, that is, unless you come and visit with a friend of mine who
has just turned eighty years old this past May 31st. This old
Christian gent is no other than Mr. Sherman Cooper who is well
known on the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland and Delaware.
The reason you can see something other than yellow corn is
because Mr. Cooper is running one of the very few water-powered
Grist Mills in the country today. He raises his own white corn and
makes the best corn meal and hominy there is to be found.
Now this old gent is a hard worker who puts in eight to ten
hours every day. His only help is an old colored man who is past
seventy and has been a deaf mute all his life. Mr. Cooper took him
in to raise before he was eighteen years old. He has been a
blessing to Mr. Cooper more than once in his help on the farm and
Mr. Cooper and his father were steam sawmill men for many years.
There is hardly a make of steam engine ever made from Stationary to
Traction engine that he hasn't run at sometime. He claims to be
the world's best fireman. (Of course he can spin a fast yarn
when he has competition.)
On the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Delaware we did not have
what fields like the West, but we out numbered them in sawmills
that at one time were all run by steam traction engines.
Mr. Cooper sells his meal and hominy to the local chain stores
A&P, Acme, Safeway, as well as the wholesale houses. It is the
only water ground meal available. He has to do his own maintenance,
such as repair of belts and bearings. About once a year he has to
replace fifty cogs made of oak in the crown gear that drives the
mill. I have made these several times. It is just as hard to
replace them as it is to make them. This is a job! It takes about
two days of hard fitting with saw and wood rasp. Then there is the
job of picking the mill stones. This requires sharp pick hammers, a
good back, and strong arms, of which he claims to have. He says he
can still hog-tie all of these young boys just feeling their
manhood. (Could be all talk. Ha!) | <urn:uuid:d785dc54-68f3-4b44-9a44-ac6e79bdd9e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://steamtraction.farmcollector.com/Equipment/An-Old-Gent-and-the-Wheels-of-Progress.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98063 | 585 | 1.71875 | 2 |
“Pissed Catholic Mother” is shocking and disturbing to say the least, and it’s probably safe to assume that most parents would not respond with such hurtful and abusive language if their child were to tell them he or she is an atheist. Perhaps what is more unsettling, however, is that the mother’s reaction reflects, albeit in a distorted and grossly amplified way, the sentiments of many Americans.
While Li goes on to talk about the stigma associated with atheism, he states the following:
Intolerance of atheists is so ingrained in our society that public figures can even openly attack atheists without injuring their reputation. During a campaign stop in Chicago in the summer of 1987, then Vice President George H. W. Bush was asked by a reporter for the American Atheist news journal if he “recognized the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists.” In response, Bush said, “No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.” Imagine if Bush had made the same comment about Catholics or Muslims.
That’s a dubious statement. While it may be true, the only person who heard it was the reporter in question, Rob Sherman. There’s no audio or video recording. And no other reporter at that press conference has vouched for it. We need to stop using that example…
Later in the article, Li writes about the only way we’ll shed the stigma, a message I strongly agree with:
t’s time for the atheist in America to come out of hiding. Atheists should be able to openly declare their beliefs without fear of alienation in the workplace, school, and home. The idea that belief in God is a prerequisite to morality must be dispelled so that atheists may receive the tolerance they deserve.
If the stigma of atheism is to disappear, however, atheists must have the courage to defend what they believe. And, as Richard Dawkins puts it, they must work to raise the public consciousness to the enormous prejudice that many atheists face everyday.
After praising Harvard’s New Humanism conference, Li concludes with this reiteration of his main point:
It is up to each individual to explain, and if need be, defend his or her own secular philosophy. Only when more atheists stand and speak up for their beliefs will people begin to shed their erroneous assumptions about atheism and decry bigotry against atheists. One can only hope that the “Pissed Catholic Mother” is of a dying breed.
Right on. We need to stop being scared. It’s not an easy road for many of us, but coming out to someone we trust (not the Catholic Mom) is a tremendous first step.
[tags]atheist, atheism, Jimmy Li, Harvard Crimson, Pissed Catholic Mother, George H. W. Bush, American Atheist, Catholics, Muslims, Rob Sherman, Richard Dawkins, New Humanism[/tags] | <urn:uuid:8dfafc36-9bb9-494c-922f-2762a2794ab3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2007/04/27/coming-out-of-the-atheist-closet/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958517 | 625 | 1.632813 | 2 |
It’s amazing how twisted things can get when politicians want to grab headlines…
Google, Apple Pressed to Remove DUI Checkpoint Apps
PC World. May 11 – Google and Apple are under pressure from Senator Charles Schumer to remove smartphone apps that alert users to the locations of nearby police DUI checkpoints. These apps typically use your device’s GPS capabilities to alert you to nearby speed traps, red light traffic cameras, and DUI checkpoints from a database of user-generated locations.
Schumer asked Apple and Google to consider whether these apps violate the companies’ respective terms of service by facilitating illegal activity. These apps "endanger public safety by allowing drunk drivers to avoid police checkpoints," Schumer said during a hearing for the new Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy and technology…
Guy Tribble, Apple’s vice president for software technology, also pointed out during the hearing that many police departments across the United States already publicize the locations of DUI checkpoints.
Offering checkpoint apps is "facilitating illegal activity"? Ok, Senator, here’s a refresher course on the Constitution….
A number of years ago the Michigan Supreme Court held that DUI roadblocks (aka "sobriety checkpoints) were unconstitutional. Such warrantless stops, the court correctly concluded, were a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution since American citizens cannot be stopped in their cars without reasonable suspicion to believe that they had committed a crime.
The United States Supreme Court thereafter reversed the state court. In Michigan v. Sitz, Chief Justice Rehnquist essentially admitted that the stops were violations of citizens’ rights — but found that these were only "minimal" violations. And these minimal intrusions, Rehnquist found, were outweighed by the more important interests of the government in ensuring safety on the highways. However, the Court left to the states the role of determining how to minimize these intrusions.
The first state supreme court decision to define these regulations was Ingersoll v. Palmer. In that landmark case, which has served as a model for other states, the California Supreme Court laid down ways to minimize the intrusions mentioned by the U.S. Supreme Court in Sitz. These procedures specifically included the use by police departments of "advance publicity":
"Advance publicity is important to the maintenance of a constitutionally permissible sobriety checkpoint. Publicity both reduces the intrusiveness of the stop and increases the deterrent effect of the roadblock.
"The concurring opinion in State ex rel. Ekstrom v. Justice Ct. of State, supra, 663 P.2d 992, at page 1001 explained the value of advance publicity: "Such publicity would warn those using the highways that they might expect to find roadblocks designed to check for sobriety; the warning may well decrease the chance of apprehending ‘ordinary’ criminals, but should certainly have a considerable deterring effect by either dissuading people from taking ‘one more for the road,’ persuading them to drink at home, or inducing them to take taxicabs.
"Any one of these goals, if achieved, would have the salutary effect of interfering with the lethal combination of alcohol and gasoline. Advance notice would limit intrusion upon personal dignity and security because those being stopped would anticipate and understand what was happening." (663 P.2d 992, 1001, conc. opn.Feldman, J.; see also State v. Deskins, supra, 673 P.2d 1174, 1182.) Publicity also serves to establish the legitimacy of sobriety checkpoints in the minds of motorists. Although the court in Jones v. State, supra, 459 So.2d 1068, found that advance publicity was not constitutionally mandated for all sobriety roadblocks, nevertheless the court offered the observation, consistent with finding reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment, that [43 Cal. 3d 1347] "’[A]dvance publication of the date of an intended roadblock, even without announcing its precise location, would have the virtue of reducing surprise, fear, and inconvenience.’ [Citation.]" (Id., at p. 1080.)"
Gee, maybe that’s why, as the Apple V.P. tried to explain to Senator Schumer, "many police departments across the United States already publicize the locations of DUI sobriety checkpoints".
On the other hand, maybe the Senators should subpoena the state supreme court justices and find out why they’re " facilitating illegal activity". | <urn:uuid:836e796e-4aa3-44f3-89aa-1613c38f0a7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.millerboycott.com/tag/apple/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949193 | 936 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Music is not made in a vacuum — not literally, because vacuums abhor jams, nor figuratively, because musicians are in bands, and bands are in scenes.
A “scene” can range from a handful of hopefuls going to see each other’s sets at the same local venues each week to larger-scale transformations, like the New York punk scene in the late ’70s, the Britpop scene, the San Francisco hippie scene, and so on.
For delving into larger scenes, eMusic’s Scenes app for the iPad does a fine job, as do other resources. But what about smaller music scenes? Specifically, what if you were part of one, and you want to document it before everybody gets too old to remember the details? Or maybe you want to track down the people from that band you used to open for and see what they’re up to — is there a way?
Matthew Rothenberg has been trying to document his erstwhile scene (San Diego ’80s) for years — an effort I wrote about for Wired.com back in ’08. Now, he wants you to provide funding for “the world’s first software that lets you add to and trace the history of your music scene.”
For the past four years, Rothenberg and his partners, Jason Brownell, and Jonathan Goldin, have been working on software designed to help people document music scenes — “a software time machine that lets you travel back to the places and eras that meant the most to you and explore the connections between the people, places and bands that built that scene.”
So far, they’ve produced a “rough” website called Sceneroller.com, which has yet to take off — an assertion we feel confident in making because there are only 11 bands listed for Brooklyn.
Now, they want $45,000 on IndieGoGo to evolve it further into two components.
First, a Sceneroller API would “provide the connective tissue to link music sites of every stripe — band sites, fan sites, blogs, archives and online magazines, web based or mobile — in an intelligent way,” based on real people in real music scenes. They say they have built this database already, and just need to turn it into an API so that other sites and apps can access it. And if you are or were in a scene, you’d be able to contribute to it.
For any listed band, be they famous or completely unknown, the API would deliver “shows that artist has performed, other acts that artist has played… details about the history and lineup of each… the venues and hangouts where it thrived, and important people who interacted with the performer but may never have taken the stage.”
Second, they want to build Android and iOS apps as clients of the Sceneroller API, so that you can access all of this stuff on mobile devices.
Aside from collectors, weirdos, and other obsessives, much of this information will likely be useful only to people who experienced scenes, either as performers, audience members, or, well, scenesters. And that’s fine.
Speaking from personal experience, I would thoroughly enjoy an API/app combination that explored “my” scene, from when I was playing rock music in front of people (San Francisco from ’97 to ’02 or so) — gigographies, biographies, recordings, photos, “where are they now” photos, and so on. Would I pay $5 to $5,000 to make it happen?
I’ll need to think about it. In order for an app like this to work, plenty of other people from the scene would have to be involved. Still, that is a possibility, because everybody’s on the internet now, and can ostensibly be found. If it works, SceneRoller will be pretty amazing, rescuing all sorts of things from obscurity, even if they only matter to the people who were there.
Photo of The Bottom of the Hill, where I used to play music: Flickr/AndrewYang | <urn:uuid:0c9bf641-30b0-4b3c-90aa-f7c20a0ad3ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.omusicawards.com/2012/12/sceneroller-your-music-scene-transformed-into-apps-api/ | 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 | 0.966848 | 871 | 1.664063 | 2 |
As I've been struggling with the concept behind the antagonist of my newest short story, I realized that I was asking the wrong questions. Once I asked the right questions, things just fell into place.
I felt like Detective Spooner in I, Robot, when Dr. Lanning's holograph tells him, "THAT, Detective Spooner, is the right question."
Once you ask that right question, the answers just seem to fall into place. I've had that experience with writing fiction as well as helping my clients write sales copy for a new program. What is the question we should be asking? What does our audience need to hear? What is the question?
Another movie reference, this time from the first Matrix....
Trinity: Please just listen. I know why you're here, Neo. I know what you've been doing. I know why you hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night you sit at your computer. You're looking for him. I know, because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me, he told me I wasn't really looking for him. I was looking for an answer. It's the question that drives us, Neo. It's the question that brought you here. You know the question just as I did.
Neo: What is the Matrix?
It's the question that drives us, not the answer. | <urn:uuid:57e997b2-daba-4f18-89a4-6542452e8192> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.writewellme.com/2010/10/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984934 | 290 | 1.796875 | 2 |
YIKES, talk about a trend and probably not one for the better ...
The marriage rate in the United States for those over the age of 18 has hit an all-time low 51%. This is compared to a 57% rate in 2000 and 72% in 1960. The average age of those marrying has risen slightly; however, the most alarming aspect of this data might be that nearly 40% of those polled say marriage is becoming obsolete.
Marriage rates in the US have hit an all-time low, as economic forces and social shifts have pushed couples to delay or avoid matrimony, according to an analysis of census data by the Pew Research Center.
Just 51 per cent of people over age 18 are married today, compared to 57 per cent in 2000 and 72 per cent in 1960, with trends pointing toward wedded couples becoming a social minority within a few years.
“Public attitudes about the institution of marriage are mixed,” the report said. “Nearly four-in-10 Americans say marriage is becoming obsolete,” yet most people who have never married say they would like to some day.
With the economy in the tank, individuals finances at risk, 401K uncertainty, more and more college grads returning to live home with mommy & daddy, and employers now covering live in boyfriends and girl friends on insurance plans, the institution of marriage has taken a hit. | <urn:uuid:0d527b87-f628-43c3-aeab-227a8e3cfa5e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scaredmonkeys.com/2011/12/15/us-marriage-rate-hits-all-time-low-at-51/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968132 | 287 | 1.757813 | 2 |
In the world of Assassin’s Creed, there are ancient relics to be found and people to slay. It is also more than just about saving the world from imminent peril; art and color have taken precedence. During gameplay, magnificent city views and colors stand out against hidden blades and swift assassinations. In the first game, Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre were gritty and lacked color. The prominent hues were gray, blue and white. It had great detail but it didn’t have much importance to the player’s eye. You were focused on the target rather than the view, but even then the occasional lofty View Point showed promise to what the game could provide aesthetically. Climbing up to certain crests, synchronized Altair- allowing him to perceive adjacent objectives, while also exhibiting a stunningly panoramic view of a city, village or field.
In the second game there was a vast shift towards art, mirroring the series’ transition into the Italian Renaissance. Buildings stood out and one couldn’t help but stop and stare. There was no way of ignoring the art and detail that was featured. One of the most interesting interactions in the game was with Leonardo Da Vinci. He was one of the most innovative artists during the Italian Renaissance and in the game; he helps Ezio throughout his missions. From flying machines to a wrist-mounted hand gun, Da Vinci’s contributions kept missions interesting and fun. This shift allowed the players to interact with actual influential people of the era, portraying history in a new light.
Another important figure was Machiavelli. The change brought a new light to the game. It wasn’t just about assassinating important figures in history; it was about the architecture and the pieces that surrounded the city. Not only did Ezio grow and become more resilient but also the art within the game took a bigger step as the story branched out to Brotherhood and Revelations.
As a player, I immersed myself head on into the world of Assassin’s Creed and I feel in love with the art along the way. I appreciated the amount of time it took to incorporate important pieces of the time. It made me want to learn more about the eras, art and the people. One couldn’t help but appreciate the inclusion of historical structures, each imploring the player to study their context outside of the game. The Assassin’s Creed franchise moved from a bleak world to a colorful one. As one walked the streets as Ezio, you felt as if you were in Venice, Florence or Rome, thanks to the game’s unprecedented amount of architectural detail. Most likely, players might have stopped in the middle a cobble-stoned street, just to enjoy the scenery.
In Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, architecture and art took even a bigger step forward. Although there were some buildings that were historically inaccurate, the amount of careful creation of actual structures was remarkable. That is the one thing that the Assassin’s Creed games have always been able to do. One of my favorite elements in Brotherhood was one of the missions that required Ezio to destroy the flying machine. The flying machine was first featured in the second game but it felt rushed and needed a lot more work. The new and improved flying machine had a cannon strapped on it that allowed more freedom and control. No longer did you have to depend on strategically placed fires, you could make your own fires that were able to sustain you in the air. The beginning of the mission required you to be stealthy and tactical. Not only did you have to burn the blueprints of the flying machine but you have to sneak your way to the machine itself. I used every weapon possible to pass through the guards and alerts which caused me to the on the edge of seat throughout the first part of the mission. I was rewarded with time flying, shooting guard towers and other prototypes of the flying machine. Everything about this mission captivated me and although I loved the storyline and the puzzles, this is what made me love this game.
The games not only gave a sense of the history that was happening at that time but also gave perspective of the color and art that surrounded the people of that era. The depth that the art and historical figures gave to the series was something that other games don’t often have. It was breath taking and made me want to stop to gaze at the scenery. I was ready to kill but also to study the detail of a work of art.
One bit of trivia: in each game, the highest point of each game isn’t a View Point: in Assassin’s Creed it’s located in fortress of Masyaf; in Assassin’s Creed II it is the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore; in Brotherhood it is the Castel Sant’Angelo while in Assassin’s Creed Revelations it’s the Galata Tower, or one of the Hagia Sophia’s minarets. | <urn:uuid:9f3d0aee-3bb5-4fbb-9d40-2efffc3ceaa6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tech-gaming.com/art-of-killing-the-splendor-of-assassins-creed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976733 | 1,024 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Connect with James Madison University and learn more about how our people and programs are making positive change in the world
Consider this your invitation to
Be the Change.
By Jacquelyn Walsh (’09)
With two young daughters and a gig working with animated films like The Princess and the Frog, it’s hard not to be king of your household. But Ted Boyke (’99) takes it in stride.
As assistant technical director in the Layout Finaling Department with Disney’s Feature Animation division in Los Angeles, Boyke adds lifelike animated details to the frames in animated films.
“It helps to have two little princesses in the house, my 5-year-old Molly and my 2-year-old Annie. They are big fans; I’m lucky I had the perfect target audience,” Boyke says.
During his work on The Princess and the Frog, Boyke gave animators technical and artistic support. “I was really happy to be working on a hand-drawn movie,” says Boyke, who traces his success back to his Madison Experience.
Toy Story, the film that set a new standard for animated feature films, was released in 1995, while Boyke was studying in the JMU School of Media Arts and Design. It was the first year that computer animation was offered at JMU. Boyke’s concentration was in media writing with a minor in film studies.
Since its beginning, the computer animation program has grown, boasting JMU alumni who work for companies including PIXAR, Blizzard Entertainment, Square Enix, Reel FX, Big Idea, Metrolight Studios, Bethesda Softworks and many others, says Peter Ratner, professor of art and creator of JMU’s 3-D computer animation program. “The JMU program focuses a lot on digital and technical skills that help students obtain positions such as Ted’s,” adds Ratner. “Our animation students realize it takes dedication, creativity and patience to succeed.”
JMU experiences outside the classroom also helped Boyke in his career. He was a film assistant at Grafton-Stovall Theatre for two years. He reviewed tons of movies and helped pick the features that students enjoyed. “Pulp Fiction was a really hot movie when I was working at Grafton-Stovall. We showed about four movies a week,” says Boyke, who also was part of the JMU film club Gemini Entertainment, now called Cinemuse.
The club was originally founded to create student films. “It became a way for students to produce short films using university equipment,” he says. “When students started Gemini they were actually able to get funds from the University Program Board, and that was key in affording the videotape, lights and various equipment. It was low-budget but UPB was very helpful.”
Disney Feature Animation film animator Ted Boyke (’99) took his JMU academic and extracurricular experiences to Hollywood and has worked on several blockbuster releases like 2010’s The Princess and the Frog.
The student film club piqued Boyke’s interest in film work, he says, and he used the camera work and editing he did for the group as a resumé-booster. It helped land Boyke an internship with HBO Sports in Manhattan after graduation. “They loved that I had extracurricular activities on my resumé,” says Boyke. “It was great. I got to work on featured boxing broadcasts and at the Goodwill Games. It was really cool having a backstage pass to those events.”
When his internship ended, HBO wasn’t hiring, so Boyke crashed at his parents’ basement before heading to the West Coast with Ashley Laplante (’99), his future wife. “We decided to just go for it and head to California,” he recalls. “We both wanted to be in the movie industry, and you really have to be in Los Angeles if you want to break in.”
Boyke got a foot in the door by temping at companies and studios in Los Angeles. He worked on some music video projects and worked for a music law firm before landing a temp job with the Disney Feature Animation department. “Animation was something that I found out I liked after college,” says Boyke, whose brother-in-law also is a JMU grad and works at Disney.
After a decade with Disney, Boyke has taken on projects in a variety of departments, worked nearly every shift possible and worked on 3-D aspects of movies. Once a film’s animators draw the characters, Boyke and other technical directors assist them with scanning characters into a computer to begin the digital process.
“It is a really enjoyable experience. An animator draws one butterfly, and I scan it into the computer and use the software to make that one butterfly into a cloud of butterflies, all flapping their wings at a different rate,” says Boyke, who also worked on the 2010 Disney release Tangled, based on the German fairy tale Rapunzel.
“My Madison Experience was a really well-rounded college experience,” adds Boyke. “The student clubs and activities I got involved in were just as instrumental in preparing me for my career as the academic classes.” | <urn:uuid:05428521-cd7d-4e8a-bda8-3d2851d752b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jmu.edu/bethechange/stories/harrisonburg_to_hollywood.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978962 | 1,136 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Bin Laden’s death at the hands of SEAL Team Six on Sunday has sent shockwaves around the world. The mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks who stayed out of reach of American forces for nearly a decade, given up as missing before President Bush was out of office, was found and slain in his plush Pakistani compound by America’s finest. In life bin Laden was a constant reminder of the limitations of American power, his survival daily proof that the Great Satan could be humbled and best. His death, and when it came, may be the last stand of the violent movement he personified. His defeat is not only vindication for an American public hungry for some kind of justice for the World Trade Center but one of the final nails in the coffin of the ideology of violent struggle he championed throughout his life.
The most obvious impact of bin Laden’s death is on the future of Al Qaeda. While global in nature the beating heart of the organization was bin Laden himself. He was the big money behind the group with a multi-million dollar fortune and fundraising operations the world over Known for being highly charismatic bin Laden was crucial for keeping the factions in Al Qaeda working together. It is very telling that new recruits to the organization did not swear their allegiance to the cause but to the man himself. Following the success of the September 11th attacks his star power, and by extension his organization’s, skyrocketed. Bin Laden was able to cultivate the mystique of a holy warrior striking righteous blows against the mighty Americans and living to tell the tale. His continued survival built up the myth of bin Laden with each day he remained alive and free a constant reminder of his victories over the Americans. His star power certainly didn’t hurt his ability to draw recruits to the organization. Killing bin Laden didn’t just destroy the man, it destroyed the myth he had built up. Just as Robert E. Lee’s image of invincibility in the North was wrecked following his defeat at Gettysburg bin Laden’s death destroys the idea that any terrorist can remain beyond the reach of the United States.
His death could also spell doom for Al Qaeda. Over the past decade American forces under Presidents Bush and Obama have tracked down Al Qaeda leaders and key commanders capturing the ones they could take alive and killing those they couldn’t. The constant attrition on the mid and upper levels of the organization, while having no obvious impact, could not have been healthy for the terrorists. Any organization, regardless of purpose, needs more than just its brilliant founders to lead the way. They need to build a deep bench of talent who can step up when the first generation falls or steps aside. The constant whittling away at this second string has left bin Laden’s followers with a much smaller reserve of talent. Following his death the most likely candidate to take control is his second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri who is certainly no bin Laden. With no clear successor Al Qaeda will be scrambling to piece together some kind of working leadership at a time when it can least afford it. The seizure of hard drives and other vital pieces of intelligence during the raid on his compound puts the security of information for Al Qaeda up in the air. As likely as it is that Al Qaeda operatives are preparing for retaliatory strikes against the US it would not be far-fetched to assume at least a few are sleeping with one eye open wondering if and when the US will come for them.
On a grander scale bin Laden’s death couldn’t have come at a better time. Jihadi terrorism gained much of its allure from the repressive nature of the governments of the Arab World. The long-term survival of stability of these governments, along with the naked brutality used against peaceful resistance, sent a message to would-be reformers that change can only come through violent action. Leaders took advantage of this impression channeling the rage of their restive people against Israel and the West further encouraging angry radicals to join the jihad abroad instead of causing problems at home. Tahrir Square loudly and soundly refuted this status quo. With the fall of the dictators in Tunisia and Egypt non-violent political opposition had gained its first real successes in Arab history. As long as violence was perceived as the only option for bringing about real political reforms peaceful resistance would always be seen as a pipe dream. Victory in Cairo legitimized the methods of the Egyptian activists inspiring similar revolts in Yemen, Libya, Syria, and Bahrain with even autocratic Saudi Arabia and theocratic Iran feeling the rumblings of discontent. When compared to the relatively dismal track record of jihadi groups which to date have yet to overthrow a single government, drive the US out of any Middle Eastern country, destroy Israel, or bring about any meaningful change the runaway successes in Tunisia and Egypt are likely much more appealing thanks to having worked as advertised. Every government brought down by the mostly peaceful Arab Spring is another nail in the coffin of jihadi terrorism.
Bin Laden’s death is, like the man himself, much bigger than the elimination of one notorious terrorist. Without him Al Qaeda has lost a valuable source of funding, recruitment, and the invincible reputation that came with his continued survival. His death coming during the height of the Arab Spring is a powerful contrast to the wave of peaceful democratic revolution sweeping across the Middle East showing the people of the Middle East there is another, better option than taking up the cause of holy war. This is not to say a bright future is certain. The revolts are still being fought out in the streets of Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, and Libya. Al Qaeda may be on its way out but they could always find new leadership and recover. The Taliban, in spite of losing a useful ally in bin Laden, continues to fight on in Afghanistan.
Events shaping the world offer the United States a golden opportunity to bring about an effective and lasting end to the threat of jihadi terrorism. The operation to take out bin Laden showed us the United States has highly effective, precise tools for fighting terrorism. Osama bin Laden was not brought down by an armored column but by a team of elite Navy SEALs. Unlike bloody insurgency operations in Iraq or drone strikes in Pakistan the SEAL team was able to accomplish their mission without inflicting any civilian casualties. Occupation of territory has similarly proven less than effective. Attempting to suppress terrorist havens in Afghanistan mostly succeeded in pushing bin Laden into Pakistan and tying down large numbers of American soldiers. The occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, far from successfully winning hearts and minds, have led to substantial civilian and military casualties, massive debt, and mostly succeeded in upsetting the Arab world more.
Change abroad should go hand in hand with change at home. In the past ten years we have seen steady encroachments on our civil liberties all in the name of security and the War on Terror. Yet for all that effort what consistently brought down terrorist plots and high value targets was not earned through the groping hands of the TSA or warrantless wiretapping but through conventional intelligence methods. Bin Laden’s demise is an excellent moment to show the world that we can do the right thing and our current flirtation with authoritarian mechanisms is a temporary aberration. Most of all we must do this for the sake of our rights. It is our duty to future generations that they do not inherit diminished rights because of a moment’s panic.
Also published at Ryan’s Desk | <urn:uuid:10b96ac0-18ad-4acb-a27b-df3521a0a45a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://politics.pagannewswirecollective.com/2011/05/05/the-end-of-jihad/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965102 | 1,514 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Until a few years ago, a box full of Grays Harbor’s historical gems sat, aging and forgotten, in a Seattle storage unit.
The box was full of 35mm film, featuring hours of amateur newsreels from around the Grays Harbor area from 1925 to 1933. The reels were donated to the University of Washington for preservation, and after years of work, have become a historical documentary which will be shown March 9 at Hoquiam’s 7th St. Theatre.
The finished product, called “Harbor Happenings: Reel Life in the 1920s,” shows small-town milestones and daily events like the opening of the Aberdeen-Willapa Highway, the sinking of the tugboat Harbor Queen on the Hoquiam River, Aberdeen Fire Department drills and cow herding in Elma.
The newsreels were digitized thanks to funding from the Apex Foundation. The documentary was made under the direction of Ann Coppel, producer/writer/director at UWTV. It includes selections from the newsreels and interviews with local Grays Harbor County historians and researchers who have helped identify the locations and content of the films. The documentary film was made possible with the efforts of the UW Libraries Special Collections and the support of many other organizations including the Grays Harbor Community Foundation, the UW Alumni Association and UWTV.
A presentation will be made by the UW Libraries team that worked on the project, and staff from the Polson Museum and the Aberdeen Museum of History will discuss and narrate some of the original newsreels.
The documentary screening and presentations on the project will take place at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Proceeds will benefit the 7th Street Theatre Association, the Aberdeen History Museum and the Polson Museum.
Doors open at 1:30 p.m. for the 2 p.m. presentation and at 6:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. event. All seats are $7 and tickets will be available at the door. Advance tickets are available at City Drug in Aberdeen, Harbor Drug in Hoquiam and online at www.harbor.brownpapertickets.com.
For more information call (360) 537-7400 or check the theater’s website, www.7thstreettheatre.com. | <urn:uuid:16b7ba3b-7fe5-4405-9f97-d7df4bb6e5b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thedailyworld.com/sections/news/local/1920s-harbor-newsreels-unveiled-march-9.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943804 | 483 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Transcending Reflections of Crime Victims (Paperback)
|Author: Howard Zehr|
|-- Are victims of crime destined to have the rest of their lives shaped by the crimes they've experienced? ("What happened to the road map for living the rest of my life?" asks a woman whose mother was murdered.)|
-- Will victims of crime always be bystanders in the justice system? ("We're having a problem forgiving the judge and the system, " says the father of a young man killed in prison.)
-- Is it possible for anyone to transcend such a comprehensively destructive, identity-altering occurrence? ("I thought, I'm going to run until I'm not angry anymore, " expresses a woman who was assaulted.)
Howard Zehr presents the portraits and the courageous stories of 39 victims of violent crime in Transcending: Reflections of Crime Victims. Many of these people were twice-wounded: once at the hands of an assailant; the second time by the courts, where there is no legal provision for a victim's participation.
"My hope, " says Zehr, "is that this book might hand down a rope to others who have experienced such tragedies and traumas, and that it might allow all who read it to live on the healing edge."
From the Publisher:
Presents the stories of crime victims, describing the thoughts, emotions, and actions surrounding their unforgetable experiences.Presents the stories of crime victims, describing the thoughts, emotions, and actions surrounding their unforgetable experiences. | <urn:uuid:507bec0a-c0fb-4da7-b30f-e732ad2e74da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rakuten.com/prod/transcending/30813806.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942266 | 316 | 1.617188 | 2 |
May 22, 2012
Effective coverage of modern reentry issues
The Christian Science Monitor has this terrific, lengthy piece discussing modern reentry challenges facing the nation in the months and years ahead. The piece is headlined "US prison inmates returning to society: How will they be received?". Here are excerpts:
From California to New York, Texas to Michigan, a record number of convicted criminals are either being released from cells or serving time in community-based programs as states, under pressure to cut costs, adopt new philosophies on how to handle nonviolent offenders and many inmates incarcerated in the 1970s and '80s near the end of their terms. In some cases, lawsuits designed to reduce overcrowding are forcing authorities to open prison doors as well.
These days roughly 700,000 ex-cons are hitting US streets each year -- a new high, according to Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based advocacy group. While the vast majority of the inmates are nonviolent, some ... served sentences for serious crimes and are now winning parole in higher numbers.
The result is an unprecedented test -- of authorities' ability to monitor the newly released prisoners, of social service groups' capacity to help them forge new lives, of the inmates' willingness to start over, of communities' tolerance to let them do so.
Nowhere is this social experiment playing out with more intensity than in California, the nation's largest jailer. It is looking to move as many as 33,000 prisoners out of state penitentiaries over the next year alone, many of whom could end up on the streets. It will provide the country's clearest look at how ready many criminals are to be on the outside -- and society's readiness to have them there.
America's arc in getting to this point involved a lot of clanking cell doors. From 1973 to 2009, the US prison population grew by more than 700 percent -- the result of an uptick in crime, huge numbers of drug arrests, and tough sentencing laws. At the end of that time more than 1.6 million people sat behind bars in federal and state penitentiaries, the largest inmate population in the world.
Yet in 2010, for the first time in 38 years, the US prison population declined. Experts cite myriad reasons for the modest (0.3 percent) drop: a decrease in crime in many cities, more use of alternative sentencing, and fewer people put back in prison for parole violations. Early release of inmates for good behavior was also a factor.
Half the states in the country reported a decrease in their prison populations last year. The number of inmates in Michigan, which hit a peak of 51,500 in 2006, now sits around 43,500. The state has closed down 17 penitentiaries and prison camps as a result.
Similarly, New York State has emptied more than 15,000 prison beds over the past decade, mostly through sentencing reform. New Jersey's prison population has dipped, too, in part because of early parole grants. Even rawhide-tough Texas gave up plans five years ago to build eight new prisons, channeling the money instead into probation programs, outpatient treatment, and drug courts.
"We're starting to see a triumph of sound science over sound bites," says Adam Gelb, who studies criminal justice issues at the Pew Center on the States, a Washington research group. "State leaders from both parties are adopting research-based strategies that are more effective and less expensive than putting more low-risk of-fenders into $30,000-a-year taxpayer-funded prison cells."
While states are emptying cell beds for different reasons, the one common motive is the high cost of keeping so many people behind bars. States now spend more than $51 billion a year on prisons -- the equivalent of the gross domestic product of Syria. Prisons represent one of the fastest-growing items in state budgets at a time of pressing fiscal penury. Many states face fraught decisions over whether to spend money on classrooms or concertina wire.
Reducing prison budgets, in part by sentencing nonviolent offenders to programs outside prison walls, is one of the few issues many groups on the left and right now agree on. "There's more cooperation on this topic than on any other that I can think of right now," says Marc Levin of Right on Crime, a conservative group whose supporters include former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, antitax crusader Grover Norquist, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
May 22, 2012 at 09:58 PM | Permalink
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How about jobs? That is the greatest anti-recidivism aide.
Posted by: tim rudisill | May 24, 2012 11:36:36 AM | <urn:uuid:05395cfe-022c-4939-a196-ab0b46d67ee7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2012/05/effective-coverage-of-modern-reentry-issues.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943532 | 986 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Drum loops play help in composing high quality songs in a very little time. When created and composed by professional drummers, these offer exceptional sound, beats, and serves as an unbeatable source for entertainment. Many a times, passionate music composers find it difficult to find them in the market. In order to ensure their convenience, a large number of online music stores offer them at the most astonishing rates in the industry. Every drum loop comes with over hundreds of free MIDI files collection supporting almost all popular formats in the industry, such as:
• WAV, AIFF & REX2
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Drum loops help the composers to create and form any fresh and new MIDI drum beats. These are basically simple repeating rhythms or beats, which are provided in loop form. These help composers to improve the same musical beats by adding or editing new form of music in them. The MIDI files are recorded in MIDI instruments, which are connected with MIDI-enabled input device and a sound generator, which is attached to the synthesizer. It completely depends on the composers as to how they would edit the MIDI files i.e. through the computer or directly on the synthesizer. The introduction of MIDI files has led to the composition of new and fresh music, and provides the guarantee that the drum beats or drum loops will altogether deliver a different theme and temperament.
Today, many online musical stores offer highly advanced and creative drum loops and drum beats at affordable rates, allowing composers to create new and fresh music, without straining their pocket. These are attracting millions of composers from all over the world, and are also useful for rock performers and song writers, as these support almost all file formats and also help in easy communication and synchronization by the composers.
Founded by drummer/producer/loop guru, Ryan Gruss, the Loop Loft is a boutique sample shop that records the best musicians on the planet, in order to create the highest quality drum loops, Refills, Ableton Live Packs & Multitrack Sessions available anywhere. The company does not use samplers or program beats, it just records the best musicians in the world, with an aim to provide loops that feel and sound human. For more information, please browse through http://www.thelooploft.com | <urn:uuid:d6abde23-92dd-400a-8b53-621693a726a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shvoong.com/entertainment/music/2289383-compose-quality-songs-quick-time/ | 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 | 0.935595 | 492 | 1.5 | 2 |
3PL Liabilities Exposed: Who Gets Stuck With the Bill?
3PL usage is increasing. Along with that are corollary increases in liability. Just what are the limits of liabilities for all partners—transport buyer, intermediary, carrier? Legally who is responsible for what? This feature explores 3PL liability limits as seen through the eyes of a top logistics legal expert.
While the term 3PL may be relatively new, there is nothing new about contractual relationships with third-party providers of transportation and logistics services. In my experience, the single most contentious issue has been defining the limits of liability for transport buyers who use the services of a third party, and providing transport buyers with transactions free of any secondary liability.
With the growing acceptance of the 3PL concept there are also growing risks for error in defining that relationship. Those relationship gray areas can, and will, lead to increased liabilities. All parties should understand their commercial duties and responsibilities, while safeguarding their legal liabilities, in order to optimize this important method of supply chain management, with minimal risk. To do so requires a better understanding of this three-party contractual relationship.
Many legal issues impact these relationships. Let's limit the scope of our focus to one important risk area: how transport buyers can manage the financial exposure of having to pay twice for carrier services, should their 3PL fail to pay for those services rendered on the transport buyer's behalf.
Surprising? It is to many transport buyers. They don't understand that without proper contractual and financial precautions, the law leaves them open to the possibility of paying first the 3PL contractor, and then being required to pay the carrier for the same services, if the 3PL contractor defaults. In some instances, within the context of brokered services, transport buyers have been held liable for payments of defaulting intermediaries, and should be made aware of steps they can take to minimize this risk.
3PL defaults to carriers sometimes occur when they use your carrier payment to fund other operating expenses. When an intermediary has cash flow problems that prevent full payment to carriers for services rendered, carriers then look to shippers or beneficial owners (consignees) of the goods for payment of those services. Ultimately, unless alternative resolution methods, such as mediation, are specified within the 3PL contract, a court is then called upon to decide the liabilities of the parties—customer, carrier, consignee, intermediary.
Understanding 3PL Relationships In the Law
Fundamentally, we have to accept the reality that the courts have, for many years, recognized under certain circumstances that a transport buyer could be required to pay for the carrier's services, even though the transport buyer had already paid the intermediary. This is so for a variety of historical reasons that are too complex for full review here.
Within this history, the United States Supreme Court has ruled on this issue in Southern Pacific Transportation Co. v. Commercial Metals Co., 456 U.S. 336 (1982). There the Court gave very succinct guidance to all who use third parties to manage some, or all, logistics needs. The Court noted, "a carrier has not only the right, but also the duty, to recover its proper charges for services performed." That can mean recovery from a transport buyer who has already paid an intermediary or 3PL under existing statutory and case law.
While recognizing that this responsibility may be properly shifted to a third party, the Court concluded, "the transfer of this responsibility must be clearly established by the agreement between the parties, or the circumstances surrounding the receipt and transportation of the goods."
Many cases before and after the Commercial Metals case reach the conclusion that because of the "circumstances," or failure to properly contract, an unsuspecting shipper must pay the carrier, even though it has already paid the intermediary or 3PL. Other cases reach a contrary conclusion.
A review of these cases adds little to our fundamental purpose. The point is that if we are to properly safeguard the developing 3PL relationship, we must take the advice of the Supreme Court in Commercial Metals. Shippers who utilize intermediaries, and transfer to them the responsibility to pay all carriers, should realize that, "the transfer of this responsibility must be clearly established by the agreement between the parties."
This means establishing not only proper functional responsibilities by the contract, but also delineating potential liabilities that could spring from those functions. To effectively achieve this protection we must fully understand the proper role of an intermediary, and how that functionary may be perceived in the law.
Get It In The Contract
By definition, a 3PL becomes a third party to the traditional two party (shipper/carrier), contract for transportation. Historically, the terms and conditions of this contract were specified in the bill of lading, if not more thoroughly in a separate express contract. The bill of lading identifies the shipper/beneficial owner (usually the consignee) and carrier, as well as the duties and responsibilities of each, including the obligation to pay the carrier.
When a 3PL is involved in this transaction on behalf of the shipper, it is important to specifically clarify these duties and responsibilities. Even assuming the 3PL is contracting directly with the carrier, unless properly addressed, the shipper may continue to be secondarily liable to the carrier by the terms and conditions of the bill of lading, especially where that bill of lading identifies the shipper and/or beneficial owner (consignee) as the responsible party.
As the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held in National Shipping Co. of Saudi Arabia, 106 F.3d 1544 (11th Cir. 1997), "unless a carrier intends to release a shipper from its duty to pay under the bill of lading, the shipper remains liable to the carrier, irrespective of the shipper's payment to a freight forwarder (i.e., intermediary)."
This begs the question: how does the shipper best protect against subsequent liability to carriers after paying the 3PL contractor for transportation charges? The "belt and suspenders" answer to this question is found in a three-dimensional approach to the contract with the 3PL.
Spell It Out Beforehand
First, the shipper should be careful to assure that all concerns are addressed within the express contract with the 3PL. While it is easy to get confused by the various court decisions on this issue, all agree that "the parties are free to allocate freight charges by contract as they wish, unaffected by 49 USC Section 10743. Re Roll Form Products Inc. 662 F2d ISO (1981); Consolidated Freightways v. Admiral Corp., 442 F2d 56 (1971)."
At the very least, this is advice from the courts—you can avoid court interpretation of duties and responsibilities among the parties by clearly defining those duties and responsibilities (including payment of carriers) within the four corners of the contract.
A contract that clearly defines the duty of the insolvent 3PL to pay all carriers is of little help, however, if the carrier is not a party to that contract, unless the carrier has in other ways indicated an agreement relying exclusively on the 3PL's credit and waived its right to collect from the shipper.
The exclusive reliance by the carrier on the creditworthiness of the 3PL (not on the transport buyer or consignee) can be indicated within the contracts between the 3PL and the carriers. This can be done by way of specific terms wherein the carriers agree to look entirely to the 3PL, not to the transport buyer, for payment.
Thus, the transport buyer is well advised to not only have carrier payment duty specified in the bilateral contract with the 3PL provider, but the buyer should further require proof from the 3PL that the 3PL contracts with carriers have specific language requiring the carrier to look exclusively to the 3PL for payment.
It is clear that a careful drafting of the bilateral contract between the shipper and 3PL contractor to specify the 3PL contractor's duty to pay carriers and indemnify the shipper, as well as providing for the release of the shipper by all contract carriers, is needed. There still remains perhaps the most singularly important element to completely safeguarding your participation in any 3PL relationship. It is as simple as being careful who you deal with.
The Court suggests buyers of transport wishing to avoid liability for double payment must take precautions to deal with reputable intermediaries. While "reputable" is subject to interpretation, the term, in this context, should include having a strong balance sheet with which to assure absolute indemnity protection to the shipper, should any carrier demand reparations from the shipper for services rendered to the 3PL.
The Bottom Line
Third-party logistics, as a sector within the transportation industry, is growing exponentially. Essentially, 3PL services amount to brokered transportation and other supply chain management services by the 3PL contractor for the shipper. While there are some variations to this methodology, the law will look clinically at these transactions in determining ultimate liability should the 3PL contractor default in payment to carriers.
Because the Courts make this determination after the fact, you cannot be oblivious to secondary liabilities. On the other hand, shippers with good legal advice and the right combination of protection will be fully insulated from further liability.
A Conflict of Interest?
It gets even more complicated if a third-party logistics provider is owned by, or affiliated with a carrier, and uses that carrier's equipment to transport the shipper's goods. A conflict of interest may arise when goods are lost or damaged, or vehicles are involved in an accident while in the 3PL's or its carrier's possession or control, as the 3PL may be representing both the shipper and the carrier at the same time.
The terms of the 3PL will reveal whether it is representing and protecting the interests of the property owner (the shipper or consignee) or protecting the interests of a parent carrier organization.
Here are the issues that generally reveal a 3PL's real interests:
- Whether the shipper will be paid for the full value of its products if lost or damaged in transit.
- Whether concealed loss or damage claims will be paid or subjected to an arbitrary formula.
- Whether shippers' load and count will be denied automatically, without regard for the facts.
- Whether the 3PL will incorporate its parent carrier's rules tariffs by reference in the government contracts.
- Whether the rate agreements will include limitations on the carrier's liability, including a "per piece" clause for partial losses.
- Whether the carriers will assess penalties for late payment of freight charges, such as "loss of discount" provision.
—SOURCE: Transportation and the Law (Augello, 2001) | <urn:uuid:be59163a-c100-401d-bc0e-7ede93b6765a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.inboundlogistics.com/cms/article/3pl-liabilities-exposed-who-gets-stuck-with-the-bill/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949711 | 2,200 | 1.578125 | 2 |
This section is devoted to analyzing the Australian Radio Amateur
Statistics which are published by the Australian Communications Authority,
which is their government body equivalent to the U.S. FCC
administering Amateur Radio. Anyone having comments, questions or
corrections is invited to submit them.
The author of this site would like to post Amateur Radio licensing
statistics for other countries. Any help in doing this would be | <urn:uuid:36bcf8a3-9359-470e-9aa3-68ad3001dae3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://speroni.com/Australia/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959831 | 84 | 1.5 | 2 |
%@ Language=VBScript %>
The Long Walk Home
By Carter O’Brien
As I walked home from school after soccer practice, I soaked in the sounds that the city’s streets provide right before rush hour. I hadn’t been on those streets all summer, so for a few weeks after school started the experience was all brand new again. I wasn’t fascinated by the visual aspects of summer changing into fall, the trees changing color, the days getting darker faster. I didn’t think twice about that anymore, but the sounds of the city were still a mad rush to my senses and both confused and delighted me with their complexities–-the crunching of leaves scattered about on the sidewalks, far-off sounds of cars accelerating and also screeching to a stop, the unusual buzz generated by the outdated and often flickering streetlights, and over everything, the rumbling of the Ravenswood ‘L’ a half-block away, running parallel with the street.
I remembered the first time my mother had let me walk home from school. She had fussed endlessly the night before–-constantly reminding me to never accept a ride from a stranger, insisting I stick to well-lit streets and call her the minute I walked in the door. The world had never seemed so overwhelming. Every tree, every building, every grown-up looked so important, like permanent fixtures in a world I was just floating through. It was the train that really captured my fancy, though. I had deviated from my pre-approved route down Sheffield Avenue and had instead walked under the train tracks, in awe of the mighty machinery that operated above me where light filtered through the rails. It was unbelievably loud and it immediately commanded attention, which I was most happy to provide. I wanted to ride the train so badly I could barely stand it.
That was when I was in 5th grade. Now a 7th grader, I felt much older and more confident of myself in the city, but the train never lost its hallowed spot in my memory. The first time I snuck on the train by squeezing my tiny frame around the turnstile I knew that a door had opened for me–-I was now able to go anywhere, to do anything I wanted.
Of course, I really didn’t know of anywhere to go except for the area around my school and the way home, but that wasn’t important. The freedom was what mattered. The a solid punch in the arm reminded me I wasn’t alone.
“Carter, wake up! I’ve asked you ten thousand times how much money you’ve got.”
It was my best buddy Bobby, warming up for another punch as I snapped back to my immediate reality. I managed to block it as I whirled a kick into his midsection.
“Jerk,” I said, “I told you already, I have a bus token and that’s it.”
He studied my face intently as I prepared for another strike. The only problem with having a friend who was really into karate was the fact that at any time you might get smacked upside the head, or find yourself looking into the heel of a shoe a split second before a rush of pain. We both loved it of course; along with just about every other boy we knew, our utter fascination with violence and death was incredible. The art of war seemed to be the link to manhood, the force that shaped the world.
“Well, with your token I’ve got enough change for you to get a transfer, so after you pay and get the transfer I’ll wait by the exit for you to give it to me.”
This was fine by me. After all, the real beauty of being young was that most adults were completely oblivious to you. We spent the rest of the walk to the train station at Fullerton beating each other up, not seriously, but enough to get hot looks of disapproval from the adults we passed.
“Hey, Carter, guess what I’m going to do this weekend?”
“How would I know? What?”
“My brother just turned 17 and he’s going to take me to the Asian World of Martial Arts on Clark Street. I’m going to use some birthday money to get a three-piece take-down blowgun and some Chinese stars and stuff.”
“Wow. That is so cool.” I was beside myself with admiration and jealousy. “What are you going to shoot first?”
“I don’t know, but the ad said that the darts would go through 2 inches of solid wood, and you’ve seen kung-fu movies, man–-you can do anything with Chinese stars.”
My opportunistic mind raced furiously.
“Hey, would you get me something too?”
“Sure man, just get me the money by Friday.”
This was a major development. I needed money, and I needed it fast. I could usually find at least a dollar in change around the house and I could raid my piggy bank, but before I could hatch a really clever money-making scheme we were at the train station.
“All right Bobby, I’ll get you a transfer, just don’t get me busted, all right?”
“Ahh, stop being a sissy and just do it.”
So I did. I went through the line, paid my fare and then slipped the transfer to Bobby through the grated wall. Almost immediately I was greeted with yet another playful punch from behind.
“Man, that was easy,” Bobby said, “You know, we could probably be awesome professional thieves. Look how simple that was. How hard could it be to pick someone’s pocket or break into a house?”
I didn’t really need to answer, because we both knew deep down that the chance of either of us having the cajones to do anything like that was pretty slim. Still, it was fun to imagine. A life of crime did seem pretty cool. As we ran up the stairs to the platform I started daydreaming again about how cool I was going to be in the neighborhood when I pulled out my Chinese stars. That was the kind of thing me and my friends dreamed about, this was my ticket to the big time, yes sir. I looked up at Bobby and he just kept bouncing up the stairs. It seemed he never stopped moving; he always seemed to know what he was doing, and it was always something cooler than anything I was thinking of myself.
We finally got up to the platform, completely short of breath. As always, Bobby was two steps ahead. Although I hated the fact that he was faster than I was, that always gave me something to try to beat, but now I just needed a breath. While I panted like a dog, Bobby leaned way out over the tracks to see if a train was coming. There were only a few people on the platform because most people at this time of day were already on the train coming home from the Loop. Bobby walked back over to where I was still catching my breath and pointed out a man on the other side of the platform.
“Carter, look at that guy. He looks really nervous or something. I bet he just robbed a store or something and can’t wait to get on that train and get out of here.”
I looked at the guy; he did seem really nervous. He was pacing in circles around one of the benches and kept looking down at the tracks. I didn’t think he had actually robbed a store or anything, but he did look like was in a hurry to get somewhere. Before I could pay too much attention to him, I was distracted by the rumble of an approaching train. The train was going south and we were waiting for a northbound one, and as the platform started to shake all the people on our side looked with hostile bitterness at the people on the other side.
“Man, how come it’s always the wrong train that comes first?” I moaned, but Bobby wasn’t paying any attention to me, he was totally focused on the nervous guy waiting on the other platform. I started to say something else, but it never even came out. For some reason I can’t explain, I also became mesmerized by the nervous guy and I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. There was a glaring, tangible intensity surrounding him that I had never experienced before, and both Bobby and I stared in silence. Then, in the blink of an eye, he jumped, right at the last possible second, right in front of the train.
Time stopped. The other people on the platform all seemed to stop talking at once. Even the roar of the train stopping and the accompanying screeching brakes, which normally drowned out everything, seemed to fade away and disappear. All I remember is hearing a short cry, followed by a loud thump. Although I was looking right at him, all I can remember are the sounds. Then there was chaos. The passengers, probably wondering what the sound was, all pushed to get off the train and clustered excitedly around where I guessed most of the body was. I was completely in shock, and I turned to Bobby, but he was as at a loss for words as I was.
That was the last spoken word between us until the next day, at school. I don’t even know which of us said it, and it didn’t really matter because it was what we were both thinking.
Neither of us took the train home that day. We went our separate ways at the station; I decided to walk home and Bobby stayed under the station to wait for a bus. As I walked home, the sounds of the street once again loomed large, but this time I was overwhelmed by them. It was darker now, and the cars sounded horrifying as they drove by. I held my breath with each passing one, with the echo of the body slamming into the screeching train slowly fading away.
I went out of my way to avoid walking next to the train tracks, walking a few extra blocks instead. I felt better as I heard the sound of the train fade in the distance. By the time I went to sleep that night the whole event seemed like it had happened years ago. As I waited to fall asleep, I wondered what had made that guy do it. Why had he decided to jump in front of a train that day, that time, and at that station? Although I was unsettled and scared by the whole incident, I eventually drifted off to sleep.
The next day, before school, I saw Bobby in the playground. As I walked over to him, I looked carefully at his face, searching for a telltale sign that the experience had been real, and that I wasn’t the only one who had been massively disturbed by it. The look on his face seemed to say, “Yeah, there’s something we need to talk about.”
He walked up to me and before I could say a word delivered a swift punch to my shoulder and said, “So, how many of those Chinese stars do you want? I need the money by tomorrow.”
Copyright©2001 by Carter O'Brien.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. | <urn:uuid:72294d1d-2ba6-4931-bfce-f8542cd7140c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.keepgoing.org/issue4/long_walk.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987088 | 2,454 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Organizers of an online Mideast peace movement say they are launching the Internet's first university for Israelis and Arabs across the Middle East
Former Israeli peace negotiator Uri Savir, founder of the "Yala Young Leaders" movement, says the group's "Online Academy" will offer students courses in government, social networks, communications and skill development.
Savir said on Thursday that the new academy, set to go live in September, "can revolutionize relations between young people of the Middle East."
The Yala Young Leaders group has attracted nearly 85,000 members on Facebook since it was launched a year ago. Savir says more than a quarter are young Egyptians. | <urn:uuid:3846a142-e36a-4aa9-9611-4d6723d08ce3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://townhall.com/news/world/2012/05/24/israeli_peace_movement_to_launch_online_university | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951949 | 136 | 1.648438 | 2 |
COLLEGE PARK, MD. — With Budget Hero’s relaunch, some University of Maryland students were among the first to play the online game’s new Election Edition in hopes of putting federal spending on a more sustainable path, even if it meant serious personal sacrifices.
Budget Hero is an up-to-date simulation of budget choices currently facing Congress. Desireé Luckey said the students she played it with this week wanted to select the option to make college more affordable by increasing funding for community college and Pell grants for needy students — a policy change that would cost $58 billion in additional federal spending over 10 years.
But Luckey, who is taking out loans herself to pay for a dual-degree program in law and public policy, said her group ultimately decided against that spending.
After students played the game, School of Public Policy Dean Donald Kettl asked what messages they would send to Congress. “Think about your place in history, not just the November election,” one student replied. “Disagreement should be the beginning of the conversation, not the end of it,” another said.
The students’ tough decisions on which federal programs and taxes to keep or cut managed to delay the projected budget bust in 2033 by anywhere from three to seven years.
The University of Maryland’s independent student newspaper, The Diamondback, reported more on students’ choices:
“The groups proposed raising the retirement age, which Kettl said would cut the benefits of those very students when they reach retirement age.
“‘That, I think, is a pretty powerful message,’ Kettl said. ‘Every group stood up and said, “You can cut my benefits in the future in exchange for the ability to be able put the country back into a sound fiscal situation.”’ …
“’As it stands now, it’s our generation that’s going to be stuck with all the debt and all the fiscal woes of the country,’ said Zach Cohen, a senior government and politics major. ‘While politicians have paid relatively good lip service about fixing the debt and bringing Social Security and Medicaid to sustainable levels, we haven’t really seen that in action.” …
“‘I think we need to have a frank discussion with the American people about what will happen if this budget goes bust,’ said J Charles Mintzmyer, a master’s student in public policy. ‘Maybe in 2035 we won’t have a military; maybe in 2035 we won’t have social security.’”
Washington Post op-ed columnist Dana Milbank wrote this week that Budget Hero will “leave you squawking mad about the ruinous consequences of politicians’ failure to reach a debt agreement.” He went on:
“The game, which the Wilson Center’s Jane Harman recommends to children as young as 8, shows — in a way that no CBO or OMB report can — just how childish lawmakers are being. Its beeps and clicks, cartoon altimeters and ‘budget bust’ clock illustrate the futility of trying to solve the problem without tax increases, or without major cuts to Medicare. It also shows how quickly the options are diminishing; in the 2008 edition, players had no trouble extending the bust clock to 2050.” | <urn:uuid:79fc7e61-a51f-4d6b-b5a1-09aea36fce9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.publicinsightnetwork.org/2012/09/21/college-budget-heroes-you-can-cut-my-benefits-to-help-country/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958138 | 713 | 1.84375 | 2 |
When I was in 5th grade, kids were just learning to type in extra curricular classes at school….on black screens and green text. In fact, computers were still pretty rare in homes, but my family was lucky to have one. And don’t hate, but we totally had AOL and Prodigy.
Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen San Diego were about the only games out. And darn it all if influenza didn’t kill you 2 miles from your destination, am I right?
Things sure have come a long way since then.
Kids now have iPods and iPads and iPhones and Facebook and email and an unlimited supply of apps to dig themselves into. In my home alone, we have an HP, iMac, iPad1, iPad2, iPod, and 2 iPhones. I wont even get into the Xbox, blu-ray, etc. etc.
It can be seriously overwhelming when you think about it. I don’t want to limit my daughter from the technology of her time, but I still need to monitor her for age appropriate intake and find positive ways to be a part of what she is doing while she is exploring all the online options. Lucky for our family, Charlotte is one of those kids that prefers to play with you instead of without you. We are a total family of co-play.
Especially with a baby at home that takes up so much of our time, we have to make sure that Charlotte is getting one on one time with each parent in a capacity that she feels taken care of and has fun as well. Today, for example, we went off to the water park and took turns taking her on slides. Although during the week I often teach her to cook and we work on crafts and her daddy spends an hour outside every evening running the dog or playing soccer, there is also a lot of indoor time as well. We live in the south and aside from the hot and humid weather, we are also dealing with summer storms. We have to find things to do and do together.
So back to technology. Our family craves safe and fun ways for Charlotte to explore online when there are so many options to get into trouble elsewhere. Recently she has been enjoying Webkinz. Chances are you already know what they are, but if not, here is a little help:
What is Webkinz World?
- The original kids’ online world, Webkinz World introduced the concept of web-enabled toys. Webkinz pets are stuffed animals that combine the timeless fun of plush with the interactivity of the Internet. Members adopt pets, go on quests, decorate rooms, play games & quizzes and create rooms and ‘chat’ within a controlled environment.
- Webkinz is FREE to play
What is a Webkinz Pet?
- Webkinz pets are lovable plush pets that each come with a unique Secret Code that lets you enter Webkinz World and play with a virtual version of your pet.
- (editors note:) Webkinz Pets do not require you to actually clean out a littler box or use a pooper scooper in the back yard…this is why this mom enjoys this version better
- Webkinz World is NOW totally free to play! Your purchase of the animal only allows a different avatar.
How to get Started with Webkinz
- You can play on Facebook (intended for adults/teens)
- You can play on the website (more for kids)
- If you get a free-to-play account, you can send adopt a kitty or puppy.
But I don’t have a Webkinz Pet and I really want my child to play!
- You are in luck. I have a great giveaway for you to be the coolest parent on the planet and WIN one right here on MomDot!!
(wait for rafflecopter to load!) | <urn:uuid:af502c45-9c18-49f6-91b4-58c0462b9f3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.momdot.com/tag/giveaway/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96413 | 815 | 1.523438 | 2 |
More people are living alone than ever, as a statistic we met recently with great happiness noted. But -- prepare yourself -- living alone might be making you weird. In The New York Times' today, Steven Kurutz sort of went and ruined that joy with his look at the strange things people do when they live alone.
How weird does it get? A few examples from Kurutz's piece and our own personal experience:
- Staying up all night.
- Washing vegetables in the shower.
- Examining your pores nightly in a mirror.
- Coming home late at night and attempting to cook things.
- Wearing strange ensembles.
- Never closing the bathroom door.
- Talking to your cat.
- Never eating actual proper meals. Small bag of Doritos for dinner, mayhaps?
- Being weird.
In the parlance of Sex and the City, this was "Secret Single Behavior." But, is it actually a problem? Take the case of Amy Kennedy, a 28-year-old schoolteacher who lives alone in a two-bedroom apartment. Kurutz writes:
The effects are noticeable, she said: “I’ve been living alone for six years, and I’ve gotten quirkier and quirkier.”
Among her domestic oddities: running in place during TV commercials; speaking conversational French to herself while making breakfast (she listens to a language CD); singing Journey songs in the shower; and removing only the clothes she needs from her dryer, thus turning it into a makeshift dresser.
“The entire apartment is your room,” Ms. Kennedy said, by way of explanation. “If I leave a bra on the kitchen table, I don’t think much about it.”
Wait, actually, none of that sounds weird. In fact, the only truly weird thing Ms. Kennedy does is forget her skirt, which isn't really single behavior as much as it is forgetful. But what about Kate Bolick, author of The Atlantic's "All the Single Ladies" piece? How weird is she?
Ms. Bolick even has a home-alone outfit. “I have this pair of white flax bloomers that go down to my knee. They’re like pantaloons. They’re so weird,” she said. “If someone comes over, I change out of them.”
Again, actually not that strange. Surely, there are people who live with people who wear awful things, eat peanut butter from the jar in the middle of the night, or sing in the shower. If anything, living alone is a blessed time in which we can figure out how many of those things we want to do, and cement our doing of them into some sort of perpetuity, albeit with balance. Does this make us any weirder than any other human? Probably not. But it's still fun to talk about. And, if you think people who live with people don't do anything weird, well, take the case of Chad Griffith, who's never lived alone but, when his fiancé goes out of town, does things like this:
“I’ve been known to drink Champagne in the shower at 8 a.m.,” Mr. Griffith said. “I’ll play Madden NFL Football for 10 hours straight, eat a French bread pizza for every meal of the day.”
Sounds like Griffith should maybe have a talk with his fiancé. That can't be healthy.
Whenever we talk about single people living alone, a question comes up, perhaps from those living unhappily with others: What if those weird singletons become so set in their bizarre behaviors that they can never live with someone, you know, properly? But the more germane question might be, with all that freedom to eat and dress and bathe and sleep (or not sleep) without judgment: Why would they want to? Until, inevitably, some of them do. But we doubt they'll change all of their "quirky" habits then, nor should they really have to. People are weird. Living with someone else isn't going to change that.
Full disclosure: this blogger wrote this post alone in her apartment, clad in odd pants, with her legs propped on her desk.
Image via Shutterstock by AISPIX by Image Source. | <urn:uuid:0744f965-4903-461f-b954-b00b9efcc174> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/02/living-alone-making-you-weird/49072/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96654 | 919 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Wheels in motion towards a bike friendly campus
In a futuristic bike haven, cyclists would ride to their destination on clouds where a plethora of valet attendants would be waiting to take one’s bike, so they could go off to class and be assured that it will be there when they get back.
Unfortunately, nobody knows what the future will hold, so for now students ride to school and search for a place to lock up their bikes.
This begs to ask; do we need more safe places to lock up our bikes? Yes, we need more bike racks and the current ones need to be upgraded.
Personally, I depend on my bicycle and see firsthand how many people actually ride their bikes to school and it’s a lot of students.
The go-to spots on the Santa Monica College main campus are by the HSS building and the career services center, while the other eight, smaller locations around the campus are almost always filled to the brim.
At one spot, bikes were even stacked on top of one another. A couple of bikes weren’t latched to anything, with only their back wheel locked up so nobody could ride off with the bike.
If one were in a hurry and couldn’t find a place to park at their usual location, a simple solution to some would be to lock up their bike to a railing because it would be most accessible.
But beware, if you’re bike isn’t locked up at a bike rack, it can be impounded by the police, where you have to pay a $10 to $15 fee to get it back.
As of now, the police have yet to enforce the fee.
SMC student Daniel Aron didn’t know about the impound rule and mentioned that he is sometimes forced to park at a location far from his class.
It is understandable that if bikes are illegally parked, it can be a safety hazard.
SMC should be more stern with notices of the impound rules, informing students of this policy, so they can avoid any unnecessary costs.
Currently, there are no notices on any of the bike racks on campus.
In total, the bike racks can accommodate approximately 600 bikes.
Keep in mind that last fall we had over 31,000 students enrolled at SMC. According to the SMC website, roughly 82.5 percent of students are on the main campus.
When you do the math, if 600 students ride to school, that wouldn’t even be three percent of the student body.
On a campus that is pushing for alternative transportation, one would think they would be able to a lot for more than three percent of students to bike to school.
According to Jeffrey Peterson, director of campus operations at SMC, the school’s District Planning and Advisory Council, have taken into account the school’s increase in bike traffic and have requested up to eight more bike racks on campus.
Peterson adds that the estimated costs for the new racks are currently being considered. If this proposal goes through, they should also add the locations to the campus maps to keep students aware.
In the most recent Associated Students board meeting, the topic was brought up and it was mentioned that the AS wanted adequate facilities to support a bike-friendly campus.
The AS even decided to form a committee regarding safe routes to bike to campus and other related topics, like the bike lock dilemma. The lack of better bike locks on campus is another part of the issue.
Some allow you to lock up the frame and front wheel, which is a lot more secure than the wheel only bike locks. These are hard to properly place your bike in and are easy targets for theft.
So far this semester, the campus police have indicated that there have been only three bike thefts, but sometimes it isn’t always the whole bike that is taken, but parts of it.
Student Kyle Miyamoto doesn’t lock his bike up anymore because the handlebars were stolen. Instead he takes his bike to class with him, a practice that could get his bike impounded.
Having a bike valet isn’t such a far-fetched idea.
According to the City of Santa Monica website, “FREE bike valets are available at the Main Street Farmers Market and numerous city events.”
There is even a bike center opening right here in Santa Monica at 4th and Broadway, where they will offer indoor parking and other bike related services to paying members.
Let’s be honest, a free bike valet or biking center might be out of the question for SMC, but what if the AS charged a small fee, maybe $5 a semester and provided funding of their own?
This could be similar to the parking permits students buy each semester, except this would be one way to support alternative transportation for SMC students and the school’s emphasis on environmental sustainability. | <urn:uuid:8d98398c-4907-47c2-af1e-a6a37d0f6601> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecorsaironline.com/opinion/2011/09/27/bike-racks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973772 | 1,012 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Mobile devices, and particularly smartphones, are building a silent revolution, happening at the edges of the mainstream. While many are playing Angry Birds or checking in at Foursquare, entrepeneurs have been discussing and engineering a new set of of technologies and hardware that will deeply transform commerce and culture.
The first few weeks of 2011 are rather elusive of how the talk around mobile payments will get louder. From the lively discussion at Peter Paul Koch’s blog to the recent announcement of Google allowing operator billing for their Android platform, things will get really, really interesting.
If you need further examples how deeply this affects our lives, just think about a world where you’ll travel without your credit cards, as they’ve been replaced by secure SIM cards and upcoming NFC (Near Field Communication) technologies.
E-commerce was at first a personal activity, where each user was a self-determining agent regarding products and services. With wishlists, customer reviews and ratings, recommendation or referrals it evolved into what is now usually called Social Commerce.
The past few months have brought some new patterns, that further confirmed the importance of the social graph for e-tailers as confirmed by recent studies by comScore and Performics/ROI Research , with consumers connecting with brand channels (40%), recommending products and services (32%) and finding out about new deals on social networks (37%).
Another study by Sage Pay, revealed that while on average 7% of visitors to an online store make a purchase, when directed from social media network, the percentage of visitors who will go to the transaction section goes up to 71%. Social proof is even more important for e-commerce, as Simon Black, managing director at Sage Pay, says: “The modern shopper often looks for reassurance from a positive review, a special offer to make it more affordable, inexpensive delivery options and a quick, easy and secure way to pay.”
Adding the social dimension to e-commerce websites was once difficult, but with the release of social plugins by Facebook (Like buttons, Recommendations, Activity Feed) e-tailers have now instant access to a network of more than 400 million people, used with succes by global brands like Levis or TripAdvisor. It has also expanded the reach to social services and platforms such as LivingSocial, SocialAmp or Fluid Fan Shop . And youre not limited to Facebook: with Cheap Tweet, the best deals right are delivered to your Twitter timeline, with the site picking the best ones ranked by users votes and re-tweets. Altough this latest service risks becoming obsolete with the announcement by Twitter of @earlybird.
Entertainment, by definition, is one of the more promising areas where to apply this new social dimension of shopping. Take for instance the Facebook app Tickets Together created by Disney that lets users buy tickets fo Toy Story 3, not only for themselves, but also inviting their friends.
Not only does this app makes it easy to choose where to watch the movie (local listing) but it lets you engage with the ones youd probably will watch the movie with, and invite them right on Facebook, by integrating with ticket-buying services like Fandango.com.
Exciting as it is, these are only tools and technologies. Whats really interesting are the new behaviors brought by the social web and connected consumers.
Making purchases together is one of the biggest web trends in 2010. Its easy to understand why: when users reach for their friends to get a deal (usually a minimum number of buyers is required), a viral loop is created. New models of authentication to social networks (Facebook Connect, Friend Connect, OAuth) have only made it easier and faster. From limited time offers, to price anchoring (show how much it would cost on a normal purchase), its one of the most effective ways to generate word-of-mouth.
These deals are available on social web services like Groupon, This Next, Tippr, LivingSocial, TownHog, Homerun , Milo or even as integrated applications such as Special Deal group-buy app by preferred Facebook partner Wildfire.
Groupon is the biggest player, with a simple proposal: advertise a special business offer, only valid if a certain amount of users purchase it immediately.
Launched in November 2008, it has sold over 7 million online coupons in 70 cities and is now expanding worldwide (UK, DE, ES, PT). Paying attention to small details is their main strenght: from putting a phone number on every coupon to 2 way ratings (customers rating merchants and vice-versa) it created an engaged community. Even unsubscribing from their newsletter is funny.
From June 2009 to January 2010, the number of monthly visitors went from 26,000 to over 2.1 million, increasingly engaged with an average of 2.5 visits per month for each user. And whats really amazing is that these visits are not coming from the usual sources. Last January, Facebook represented 44% of all referrals, Twitter 8% and search only around 3%.
Growth happens not only in visits but also as a platform, helping third-party developers and affiliate members get the word out about its daily specials. Groupons API has become available both as Division API (about cities) and Deals API (about daily deals for specific locations), further explored by integrating with Groupons geolocation service.
Another example on how groups and communities will become increasingly important in shopping is Woot.
The basic idea behind Woot is to offer only one discounted product each day, a “One Day, One Deal” policy until the stock is sold out, with no announcement of whats the next offering. Innovative events and product specials like Woot-Off, “Bag Of Crap” or “2-for-Tuesday” coupled with bold marketing have built one vibrant community where its members actually have fun shopping.
Woot shows their different business culture, on their Amazons acquisition wicked celebration rap
Recently acquired by Amazon, much of the coverage focused on how Amazon captured the opportunity of real-time shopping, but the real value might be on the social side, venturing into new business models where communities represent a bigger role than the usual 20th century e-commerce.
Recently speaking at TEDx Sydney, Rachel explains that “collaborative brands make it easy for communities to act on behalf of their brands”, where we are no longer defined as consumers by our personal possessions, but also by what we are part of, what we share and the groups we belong to.
New trends like swaptrading (such as Swaptree.com, sort of online dating service for all of your unwanted media), reveals new models of commerce, where trust mechanics and collaborative behaviors are principal. This groundswell of collaborative consumption is further accelerated by the rise of mobile communication.
Rachel Botsman defines 4 big drivers of the shift to collaborative consumption:
A renewed belief in the importance of community
A torrent of peer-to-peer social networks and real time technologies
Pressing unresolved environmental concerns
A global recession that has fundamentally shocked consumer behaviors
People are starting to share resources without sacrificing their lifestyles or personal freedom, supported by 3 clear systems:
Redistribution markets (stretch the lifecycle of a a product, reducing waist)
Collaborative lifestyles (sharing of resources like money, skills and time) – coworking, couchsurfing or even landshare (http://www.landshare.net/) will become mainstream
Product Service Systems, where one pays for the benefit of a product without needing to own the product outright. Examples include rental services like Netflix or Zipcar .
After the financial crisis, consumers are adopting these new behaviors that will impact e-commerce for the years to come. Group buying and collaborative consumption are the latest of these trends that brands will need to pay attention to and embrace the value of social capital and not only the monetary side of commerce.
If you know of more examples or want to discuss how communities are impacting e-commerce, please drop a note in the comments.
Last week Steve Jobs put one more nail in Adobe’s Flash coffin, further confirmed with Microsoft’s support to H.264 codec for HTML video on Internet Explorer 9. What i find amusing was the fact i left serious Flash development almost 3 years ago, becoming increasingly interested in open standarts, not only XHTML or HTML5, but also on the interoperability between systems, almost as important as openess.
Trying to figure out trends is on of the key assets for a creative technologist like me. Dealing with social media before it became popular, playing with Flash when it was still version 3, getting curious about OAuth in 2007, or betting that Facebook would become huge in Portugal, i wonder if this isn’t only a confirmation bias.
So, what are the tea leaves that i’ve been reading lately?
DIY@home The main theme at Shift10, this trend has been building up since the maker manifesto. What will happen when movements like Fabrication become accessible to the regular Joe?
Portable profiles Taking our digital identity TVs or cars, plugging our Facebook profile to our train seat, downloading a ticket using RFID authentication, adjusting enviromental data through sensors, it all feels to much like science fiction. Or maybe not.
Democratized video publishing What happened with blogging will happen again with video. We just need cheaper cameras and easier video linear editors.
Ad people be afraid. We’re seeing it already with the like button on Facebook, and it’s not far fetched to expand the notion to all online advertising. Because clicks don’t matter neither your Cannes Award. It’s the consumer, stupid.
Maybe i’m dead wrong in a few years, but prescience delivers great new challenges.
Not Fab from fabulous, but rather Fab from making and using fabbers, machines that can make almost anything, by printing three dimensional objects.
From commercial to the more open-source hardware and software solutions at Fab@home, these machines will enable people to download and print objects, experimenting with shared projects and try out new materials. Fabber owners improve these models and share physical objects with other fabbers, with the same enthusiasm as the pioneers of open source movement.
The wave of innovation brought by Web 2.0 technologies, with a sustainable co-creation by thousands of users, is now expanding to the physical world. The signs are there: from hacker (in the creative sense) communities like Make, Instructables or the more neo-Craftsy website Etsy.com, people are getting more comfortable with the idea of building something with their own hands. It’s about feeling empowered, the hands-on experience of building something, appealing not only to our darwinian survival skills but also have a bit of science fiction premonition (remember Luke Skywalker building C3PO as a young kid?). Yes, because even young kids are starting to love the tinkering, as shown on the TED Talk below, by Gever Tulley:
If all this seems futuristic to you, just try to imagine how IKEA will look in a decade: instead of boxed items, dozens of 3d printers are available at the cashier. You just take the blueprints and super fast hardware will print that out. Or even better: for smaller items, you just download the schematic at IKEA Fab Store and print them at home.
Yes, it seems far fetched. But so did Augmented Reality a decade ago. I just hope the media won’t hype Fab as much as they did with AR. Universal manufacturing is something that could change society in unexpected ways, the same way Internet did, by redefining industries and democratizing innovation. It comes nonetheless with a new set of dilemmas, such as the degree of experimentation or control of outputs.
As for companies, they’d better start thinking how their old models of patents stand up to this new paradigm, with a product’s life cycle being dramatically redefined. And, who knows, maybe even involve the consumers in true User Generated Products. | <urn:uuid:169c16a8-7c11-4540-8768-78589229e292> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.asourceofinspiration.com/category/network/thetrendwatch/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944994 | 2,521 | 1.617188 | 2 |
In the videos posted online, headstones marking the final resting place of the famous Desert Rats in the Benghazi War Cemetery were torn down and crucifixes attacked with hammers.
More than 1,000 soldiers from the 7th Armoured Division were buried there after serving in the battle for control of Libya and Egypt between 1941 and 1943.
The men in the footage, seen by the Mail on Sunday, are heard saying: "They are dogs, they are dogs."
Among the graves defiled by the extremists was the gravestone commemorating the Reverend Geoffrey Bond, who was the chaplain to the forces until his death in 1941 at the age of 30.
His nephew, David Bell, told the newspaper the cemetery attack was "greatly upsetting, a disaster."
Describing the reverend, he said: "I was only a baby when he died but my mother absolutely adored him.
"She spoke of his special aura, a way he had of making everyone feel better about themselves."
Others buried at the cemetery include Geoffrey Keyes, who was the youngest lieutenant colonel in the British Army when he was killed aged 24 during a raid on the suspected headquarters of Rommel.
Former diplomat Edward Chaplin, who heads the War Graves Commission, said: "Clearly it’s a terrible thing to have happened. It’s shocking that attacks of this nature should be carried out against a cemetery. We take very seriously the preservation of these memorials to those who have given their lives in wars."
Speaking on the Sky News Murnaghan programme, Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne said the Libyan government has been "extremely apologetic" about the desecration.
But he said the attacks were not aimed particularly at Britain or Christians, and did not represent a Libyan response to last year's military action when British aircraft took part in a campaign which toppled Colonel Gadaffi from his role as dictator in the North African country.
Mr Browne told the programme: "There is an appalling story and people will be shocked by the photos. My grandfather's generation were truly heroic in that part of Africa in the Second World War and I think people will be shocked by what they see.
"It is worth saying the Libyan authorities themselves are shocked too. We have had direct dealings with them. They have been extremely apologetic and made a very strong commitment they will get to the bottom of this happening. They will try and do everything they can to resolve it.
"My understanding it is not just British graves or just Christian graves that have been desecrated, there is wider desecration taking place. The Libyan authorities are keen to work with us on this.
"I would not want people to think this is somehow an ingratitude by the government of Libya. That's not the case." | <urn:uuid:4a4d4710-7de8-416e-8a2a-ffc43f428e1f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/9121706/Libyan-rebels-desecrate-graves-of-British-war-heroes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984343 | 571 | 1.632813 | 2 |
The National Union of Students launched their Access Challenge at the NUS disabled Students Conference in March 2011. The campaign aims to promote the access available at Student Unions and to encourage them to become more accessible.
The Access Challenge is a partnership between the NUS, Attitude is Everything, Disabled Go and Changing Places, where Attitude is Everything offered our skills and expertise in order to help Student Unions across the UK to improve their accessibility for Deaf and disabled students.
The NUS wanted to use our Charter of Best Practice as a guide for venues and encourage those participating in the Access Challenge to sign up. Attitude is Everything staff spoke at the launch of the Access Challenge and there have been a wave of publicity and articles promoting the project and its aims.
Attitude is Everything offer the following services to Student Unions:
- Assistance in becoming a Charter Venue
- Undertaking an Access Overview and providing feedback
- Assistance with implementing change
- Producing an Action Plan
- Providing Disability Equality Training
- Organising Mystery Shopping by Deaf and disabled students
So far Warwick University, Heriot-Watt University and the Manchester Academy have all signed up to the Charter of Best Practice at Bronze level. We are also currently working with Goldsmiths, Birmingham Guild of Students, Cardiff, Portsmouth, Southampton and UCL Universities with a view top bringing them onto the Charter.
We have worked with over 20 Student Unions so far to assist them to become more accessible and plan to work with many more over the remaining 2 years of the project, supported by the incoming Disabled Students Officer, Hannah Paterson.
“I would really encourage every union in the country to get involved. NUS will award a prize to the union who has made the ‘best effort’ in improving access – I’m really excited to find out how far we can take this campaign and how much difference it will make to students’ lives across the country.”
Rupy Kaur, NUS Disabled Student Officer
"We are delighted to be working with Attitude is Everything to improve the accessibility of our venue and the events we run. We've been very impressed with the advice and support they've given us and the expert knowledge they have regarding the latest technical equipment. We're a fairly small SU and they've tailored the actions we need to take to be specific to our union and venue"
James Haywood, President, Goldsmiths Student Union
“University of Manchester Students’ Union and the Manchester Academy are excited to announce that they have recently signed up to the NUS Access Challenge and Attitude is Everything’s Charter of Best Practice. The scheme will see that UMSU meets all the requirements of the Charter at Silver Level in order to become as accessible as it can be. Staff and students at UMSU are looking forward to engaging with the project and starting to make a positive difference for our disabled customers.”
Martin Laws, Commercial Director at University of Manchester Students' Union
“The Access Challenge has really made us think about how accessible our Union is. With guidance from Attitude is Everything, Heriot-Watt University Student Union has implemented new measures to make our entertainments programme more accessible. The changes we have made have been as simple as ensuring we offer a 2 for 1 ticket or moving the handle on our disabled toilet to installing a new viewing platform in our nightclub. The support we have received from Attitude is Everything has been fantastic and with their input we hope to continue to develop as a fully accessible Union for our students.”
Gail Edwards, CEO, Heriot-Watt University Student Union
The staff at the SU are always fantastic about going out of their way to accommodate people and ensure that they have a good experience in our buildings and at our events. However there is always more we can do and there are currently gaps in provision which the Charter of Best Practice has been very useful in highlighting. I am really excited about improving our accessibility in ways that may profoundly affect students’ comfort and safety in the union, and also about creating a culture shift that acknowledges the social model of disability and the incredibly wide definition of ‘accessibility’.
Izzy John, Welfare Officer, University of Warwick Student Union | <urn:uuid:ff8ce87e-dba6-47a9-9c46-56f31b55c2fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.attitudeiseverything.org.uk/resources/case-studies/national-union-of-students/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958223 | 876 | 1.53125 | 2 |
For CT College, a New "Heart"
Its exterior formed of glass and copper, the main gem of the Chapel of the Holy Spirit is found inside, thanks to mosaics created by the same Jesuit priest behind John Paul II's redesign of the Redemptoris Mater chapel, the Vatican space used for semi-private papal events, including the Roman Curia's annual Lenten retreat.
In advance of this afternoon's Opening Mass, no less than the Times wanted a first look:
Astonishingly, the nearly 2,000 square feet of mosaic were installed in 12 days by Father [Marko Ivan] Rupnik and 15 co-workers, including Eastern Orthodox Christians and Eastern- and Latin-rite Catholics. They began each day with a liturgy, worked until lunch (the contract specified that wine be served) and then until a late dinner. They had the finished faces of two dozen biblical figures shipped in from Rome, but assembled over 200,000 pieces by hand.PHOTO: Christopher Capoziello/The New York Times
“It was a remarkable, spiritual two weeks,” recalls David Coppola, the university’s assistant vice president.
Brad Prestbo, the architect who has overseen the project for the Sasaki Associates firm in Boston, said the masons and tile setters on the job “were in awe of the craftsmanship.”
Where the chapel’s art is overtly dramatic, its architecture is subtle. The design emerged from reflection on the Second Vatican Council’s themes of the church as the pilgrim people of God and as engaged in dialogue with the contemporary world. The roof and one wall use different tones of copper to suggest the folds and fabric of a nomadic tent, a note repeated in the main chapel’s ceiling. And the clear glass of the large, inviting narthex, or entry space, opens the chapel to the rest of the campus.
The exterior walls have finely detailed panels that faintly echo the stacks in the library across the central quadrangle. These walls are inscribed with the Corporal Works of Mercy (feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and so on) that the church draws from Chapter 25 of Matthew’s Gospel....
But why a new $17 million chapel in the first place, and not just a chapel but one elaborately conceived in specific theological terms and prominently located in the center of the campus?
That is something you normally find on the nation’s oldest, now often completely secular, campuses. But does it make sense when students typically avow that they are striving to be spiritual but certainly not religious?
This week, Dr. Coppola noted aspects of the chapel in keeping with this spiritual seeking: its motifs of pilgrimage and dialogue as well as the interreligious meditation garden. “Definitely a Catholic chapel, but also a place for people all along the pilgrimage,” he said. Students, he felt confident, would remember it long after graduation as “a place of spirituality, doubt, belief, learning.”
Anthony J. Cernera, the president of Sacred Heart — a layman and a theologian — did not disagree, but said the chapel was a challenge to the “spiritual but not religious” catchphrase.
“It would be a terrible mistake to fall into the trap of accepting that dichotomy,” he said. “The best way to be spiritual in the Catholic tradition is to celebrate the Eucharist and to use all the signs of the faith.” | <urn:uuid:38edf781-4a8d-4b6b-a8a6-93cf46790aa0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2009/09/for-ct-college-new-heart.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9574 | 742 | 1.601563 | 2 |
- AT&T is the big boy on the block. It's their bat. It's their ball. Unfortunately for this big boy, the US government stepped in made the rules. That's why today there's competition within the telecommunications industry. If you feel good about your phone carrier owning the cable in the ground, read no more. AT&T is for you.
- Customer service of a behemoth is...not ideal?
- Bills are a nightmare to read. | <urn:uuid:083df172-79eb-4e9e-ad1a-6f429665d955> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ttmcommunications.com/at-t/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964589 | 97 | 1.5 | 2 |
|How do you have safer sex with a HepC partner?
Jan 30, 2003
My boyfriend and I have hiv.He also has HepC. What measures should I take to protect myself while performing oral sex with him(during reaming, fellatio)?
| Response from Mr. Kull
Hepatitis C virus is present in the blood of infected people, so the risk for transmission to you when performing oral sex is very low. It is unlikely that one would get infected with hepatitis C virus through any form of sexual contact.
Since you are at increased risk for exposure and infection, you can also use a barrier when performing oral sex on a partner to reduce your anxiety. Condoms or dental dams offer excellent protection when performing any kind of oral sex. The idea is to limit the amount of fluids that come into contact with your mouth.
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Experts appearing on this page are independent and are solely responsible for editing and fact-checking their material. Neither TheBody.com nor any advertiser is the publisher or speaker of posted visitors' questions or the experts' material. | <urn:uuid:0222e87e-6110-44bb-a5c7-44d6a90ae68c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/SafeSex/Q144360.html | 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 | 0.936032 | 297 | 1.507813 | 2 |
CBO: Obamacare Will Kill 800,000 Jobs Over Decade
(CNSNews.com) – On the same day that House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was chiding House Republicans over job creation, the director of the Congressional Budget Office was testifying in the House Budget Committee that the health-care law President Barack Obama signed last year will kill about 800,000 American jobs over the next decade.
CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf was responding to a question from Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) regarding an August report from the CBO.
“We do estimate, as you said, that the household employment will be about 160 million by the end of the decade and half a percent of that is 800,000,” said Elmendorf. “That means that if the reduction in the labor used was workers working the average number of hours in the economy and earning the average wage, then there would be a reduction of 800,000 workers.”
“In fact, as we mentioned in our analysis last summer, the [health care] legislation also creates some incentives that might affect the number of hours people work,” he said. “It might affect the propensity to work of higher and lower income people.”
But the analysis shows that “it is the equivalent of withdrawing 800,000” workers from the workforce, said the CBO director.
According to the CBO, some of that decarease in American jobs would come as a result of employers cutting hiring while others would come from those who quit their jobs once they could rely on the new entitlement to pay their health care costs.
Ironically, Elmendorf's testimony came on the same day that Pelosi, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) and other congressional Democrats held a news conference to say that House Republicans are not doing enough to stimulate job growth
“The American people are crying out and sending a clear message to Washington: Our number one priority is creating jobs--creating jobs now. Democrats agree. We will will continue to measure every effort as it comes before the Congerss as to whether it creates jobs, whether it strengthens the middle class and whether it reduces the deficit,” Pelosi said at a Capitol Hill news conference. “Americans are demanding that we put jobs first, that we act to invest in our future and help our economy grow.”
Elmendorf’s testimony, meanwhile, contradicted a prediction Pelosi made last February when she said that passing Obamacare would create a large number of jobs shortly after its passage.
"It's about jobs,” she said. “In its life, it [the health bill] will create 4 million jobs--400,000 jobs almost immediately,” she said at last years White House health-care summit
In an interview with CNSNews.com, Blair Latoff, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce--an organization that is calling for the repeal of Obamacare--said that the law would hurt employment levels within the United States if implementation continues.
“We’ve stated repeatedly that this bill will hurt job creation,” Latoff said. “There’s $500 billion in new taxes. There’s the employer mandate which would require businesses with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance. There’s not an employer out there who doesn’t want to provide insurance for their employees but if you look at the fines that are associated with not giving them insurance or how much insurance they are now required to provide since this new law is passed, it’s impossible for them to cover those expenses so they are going to have to shut their doors.”
House Republicans voted to repeal the legislation in January, but the repeal effort has died in the Senate. Republicans are now looking at ways to defund the legislation.
A district court judge in Florida recently ruled that the law was unconstitutional and declared the entire law to be “void.” However, the administration is yet to desist in its implementation of the bill’s various mandates. | <urn:uuid:21d7f6af-e095-4673-8390-ef08f44155da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cnsnews.com/news/article/cbo-obamacare-will-kill-800000-jobs-over-decade | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969107 | 847 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Lisa Hickey explains why we talk about the very difficult subjects here at The Good Men Project. And why we’re not going to stop.
Trigger warning for difficult, adult topics such as sexual violence and violence.
I wasn’t going to talk about my part in all this. You know, the pieces of me that are just stories now: sexual abuse, alcoholism at age 14. College life filled with non-consensual sex. I’ve told a small part of all this already. If you haven’t read it, you can, here. Or here.
But I will tell you what came next. A lifetime of not talking to people.
I talked enough to get by, sure. It’s really hard to survive in this world without ever speaking. I could talk at work as long as it was only on the project at hand. “Focused” was what they called me. No one realized I was scared to death to say a word because I was afraid something really, really, really bad would happen to me.
Is that what happens when you are told, repeatedly, “don’t say a single word or I’ll kill you?”
It took me 40 years before I was able to say the word “rape” out loud.
One thing is clear. An incident like Penn State doesn’t happen because people talk too much. I haven’t heard of a single undercover sex scandal where large groups of people were all talking about it before it became known. The underreporting of rapes isn’t because people are walking up to authorities with confidence and are telling them all they know.
Those things happen, and stay hidden, because people are afraid to talk.
So how do we actually change behavior? Is it better to allow people to talk about things as openly as possible? Or is it better to try to control and limit the conversation?
If you look at the way Alcoholics Anonymous does it – they get people in a room to tell stories. You hear from people at every stage of addiction. People who have been sober for years. The drunk on the street who is still drinking but knows something has got to change. The person who doesn’t yet understand that it is the drinking that is the cause of their life going downhill, but is still blaming their bad luck, the bullying of others, the economy, the weather, anything but themselves and the alcohol, as the cause of their demise. The person who is in AA grudgingly, perhaps because of a court-ordered mandate. All are given a platform. All are allowed to talk. All in the room are allowed anonymity when they leave. All are allowed to say “hey, I’m an alcoholic.” Alcoholism, as you know, is bad. They are allowed to say they are bad. AA gives them a place to figure out – with people who let them talk – just how bad their behavior is and how they can change.
Scientific American quotes a study done by Rudolf H. Moos of the Department of Veterans Affairs and Stanford University. In a 16-year study of problem drinkers who attended at least 27 weeks of AA meetings during the first year, 67 percent were abstinent at the 16-year follow-up.
This correlates from my own experience — I know that I, myself, did a 180-degree turnaround from addictive drinking behavior. I also know, personally, dozens of people who were helped by AA who beforehand were engaging in risky behavior, illegal behaviors, and behaviors that would most certainly harm themselves and others if left unchecked. Through the power of hearing and telling stories about addiction from every side, people doing very bad things were able to change.
Let’s look at smoking. I worked on a campaign for many years to help stop smoking in the State of Massachusetts. We had a clear goal – get the rates of smoking in the state to decline. Around that time, 815,000 people were smoking in Massachusetts. A lot of people to try to change. I worked in advertising and mass media, on the creative messaging side of things.
The group we were working with, the Mass. Dept. of Public Health, did tons of studies over the years to find out which messages were most effective in actually creating change. What they found was very insightful to me – that the most effective strategy was to alternate messages – some positive and then some negative. It wasn’t all STOP NOW, and it wasn’t all “Look how great it is if you stop”. It was a coordinated effort that talked about both the good and the bad. That looked at smoking from the *smokers* point of view, as well as others. The people who harmed, the people who were harmed. One of the commercials I did was with a guy named Rick Stoddard, whose wife had just died. He had put in her obituary that she had died, at age 46, of lung cancer from cigarette smoking. It was something you didn’t see often – talking about the cause of death as a personal choice that could have been prevented.
So we, at the ad agency, called up Rick Stoddard and asked if he would like to be in a TV commercial. “No. Absolutely not. My wife just died.” He hung up the phone. But he called us back a day later and said, “I’ve reconsidered. This needs to be talked about. No one else has talked about it.” In one of the commercials, he talked about how, as his wife was dying, she asked him to light her cigarettes for her. The lighter she used had a smiley face, he said. A smiley face.
One commercial we shot with him eventually aired during the Super Bowl. We were one of the “most liked” commercials by USA Today the next day. Imagine – among Superbowl ads filled with tortilla chips, beer and scantily-clad women, a heartfelt story of a husband who lost his wife through smoking was one of the most liked. The commercial was him telling his story straight to the camera. We had gotten a conversation that most people didn’t even want to talk about into the mainstream.
In another commercial, done by others working on the same goal, we talked to the original Marlboro Men. The ones who, by that time, were dying of lung cancer. One agreed to sing through his tracheotomy hole. Had he done something destructive by helping sell all those cigarettes? Had he hurt people by becoming an American Icon for cigarette smokers? No doubt. No doubt. He certainly thought so. Did that stop him from talking about the harm cigarettes caused? Not even through a trach hole.
Rates of smoking in the state declined by 9% over the time I was involved – Massachusetts was the state with the second biggest decline out of the 50 states.
We didn’t talk less about smoking. We talked more. We allowed people who were harming themselves and others to tell their stories.
Drunk driving is a behavior that seems like it would be easy to change because of the potentially horrific consequences — you drive drunk, you might go out and kill someone, including yourself. On the other hand, it’s a stubborn behavior because people have the best of intentions – “I’m not going to drive drunk, I’m only going to have 2 or 3 drinks, I can handle it.” There’s active denial, especially among people who abuse alcohol, the idea that “this time it’s going to be different.”
One of the most successful ways that has cut down on drunk driving is to say to people, “Don’t wait until you get to the point where you’ve had two or three drinks. Hand over your keys before you go out drinking, so you don’t get into that place where your judgment has already been impaired and you run the risk of driving drunk even though you didn’t intend to.”
In order to be effective at changing actions, the person has to admit to themselves, “I am a person who might be capable of doing something bad even if my intentions are good.” In order to be effective, that person who might do something bad has to actually talk to someone else and say – “I will be drinking. If I drink, I might do something bad, like get behind the wheel of a car. Please don’t let me do that.”
The solution is not to keep potential drunk drivers from talking.
When I talked to someone about an early draft of this, he pointed out that the above examples were all around “substances”. Was there a case, before The Good Men Project, where I thought I could uncover truths by talking to people engaging in bad behavior – not with their judgment clouded by substances, but by something else? I remembered an idea I had for a series of TV commercials. The idea was to interview the mass murderers, the ones who killed others but not themselves, and get them to be advocates for gun control. Please note, this was an idea only. If these TV commercials had been filmed, which they were not, the killer would have to say what he truly thought, in his own words. The campaign was not produced, however, I’ll note that David Berkowitz was interviewed in August, 2012, saying we should “Take the glory out of guns”. The image below was updated to include some of his own words.
Please note: In light of the Sandy Hook massacre, there was once again a very hard decision as to whether to show this. My heart goes out to all the families, friends and loved ones. And to the millions of people triggered by the violence. But as we keep talking, perhaps we can collectively figure out a way to change. The time is now.
What would happen if we said to the addicts in my first example, “Don’t ever talk about your addiction”? What if we said to smokers, “Don’t talk about the fact that you smoke?” What if we said to people who were drunk drivers, “Don’t ever talk about the fact that you might drive drunk?” What if we said to shooter, “Don’t tell us why you did it?”
And what if we also said, “Don’t ever talk about the fact that you might be a rapist?”
To set the record straight, we, at The Good Men Project, aren’t apologists for rape. Ever. We don’t condone, endorse, or support it in any way. We’d like nothing better than to eradicate it from this planet. But we firmly believe that in order to do so, we need to talk about it. Honestly. Openly. Sometimes painfully. We have to understand why it happens and have the conversation with people who might not think about it in the same way we do. We believe that sometimes – not all the time, but certainly on occasion – people can actually be good before they do one stupid thing. That while consent is clear, not everyone knows how to give and take and express consent with 100% certainty, no matter how much we would like that to be true. We’d like to change that. But we’d like to change that with a wider audience – including people who don’t usually talk about rape.
I looked at what happened after we ran two very controversial posts about rape, (here, and here). I looked at the comments. I looked the reactions of our community. I listened to what people said. Did any good come out of it? Here is what I heard:
Some people said, “that was me 10 years ago.”
Some said, “wow, I didn’t realize some of the things I have been doing might be construed as rape.”
Others said, “that could be my son. I’ll need to talk to him more about these issues.”
Some said, “I need to talk to my daughter. Without shame. Without telling her to change her behavior. Just to talk.”
More than one person had the insight, “OH. Consent is not just something a girl gives a guy. It needs to be mutual consent. And consent every step of the way. Not just intercourse. I get it now.”
Some had the following ‘aha’, “OH. If a women is aggressively flirting, she MIGHT want to have sex. But even if that is what it means, it could mean some distant point, far into the future. It doesn’t have to mean tonight. And she might not want it ever. That needs to be respected. I’m glad I was able to articulate that. I’m glad we could talk about it here.”
It’s important to note that we are mindful of ALL the criticisms we are getting. That we read them, discuss them, and take action. We value suggestions even from our harshest critics. We want to get this right.
Let’s get back to silence for a minute. What is the worst that can happen if people talk about rape too much? If people are open and honest about their fears? If people look at their activities when they drink, and wonder about how that might affect their judgment? If people talk together about consent, so they understand it’s mutual consent, not just something girls give out to guys? What would happen? What would the world look like?
Now what would happen if people didn’t talk about rape enough? If people were afraid to talk about it for fear they’d be shut down? If they didn’t talk about their behavior despite realizing it might be wrong? What if rape became something that people didn’t ever talk about? What if people were afraid to even say the word? What would the world look like then? | <urn:uuid:fbdf1625-843d-4dfc-8f4c-56f139c84ec5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://goodmenproject.com/ethics-values/silence/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986748 | 2,957 | 1.59375 | 2 |
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