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The second time, these kids wore camouflage, had streaks of black face paint and displayed big smiles along with a number of ducks they had shot.
They were the participants in the fourth Muddy Bayou YoungGunz Youth Hunt. This is a project spearheaded by waterfowl enthusiast Cody Alberson of McCrory. It focuses on boys and girls ages 8 through 15 who don’t otherwise have chances to go duck hunting.
On the hunt, each of the young people is with an adult volunteer. But before the hunt comes a Christmas-like receiving of gifts. The kids are each outfitted from head to toe in clothing and gear, mostly from Drake Waterfowl, a company that is one of several sponsors of the YoungGunz Youth Hunt.
The youngsters assembled at the Woodruff County Fairgrounds in Patterson, between Augusta and McCrory. The participated in the use of duck calls, and they did some shooting. For some, it is a first time experience in using a shotgun. One lucky kid went home with a new shotgun, acquired as winner of a random drawing.
For the two days of hunting, the results were mixed for the 23 young people just as it often is dor any Arkansas duck hunt. Some had ducks come in within shooting range. Some did not. Some kids missed shots at ducks. Some hit and downed ducks. That black face paint they wore had a purpose It lessened the duck-scaring sight of upturned faces near the decoys.
Dakota Phillips of Wynne is just 9 years old, and he smiled as he held up a greenhead, a male mallard. “I was the only one (in his group) to get a duck this morning.”
Daniel Gaddy of McCrory was one of the adult mentors of the young hunters, and he related a bit of a different reason for his group coming up shorthanded. “We had ducks in front of us, but then two bald eagles showed up, and that was the end of the ducks in our place.”
Three girls were among the 23 young people participating, and all three held their own in the calling, the shooting and the general kid-like interchanges of the two-day event.
Madison Reeves lives at McCrory, close to many of the adult volunteers, so duck hunt talk was not new to her. Hanna Carroll of Jonesboro and Katie Nelson of Colt both had experience at deer hunting, and both with success in that activity, before coming to the youth duck hunt.
Austin Reeves of McCrory downed a duck and said he fired two shots. Most of the ducks taken by the young people were mallards, with a few teal added to the bags. The hunting was in the bottoms near the Cache River and Bayou deView – some traditional good Arkansas duck hunting areas.
At the end of the hunt, the kids and the volunteers gathered in a fairgrounds building and dove into hot vegetable beef soup, grilled cheese sandwiches and fruit punch or water.
The adult volunteers come from various areas. , Many are rice and soybean farmers in the east-central Arkansas area. Gaddy said, “When we get finished with the crops, it is time for hunting – deer hunting and duck hunting.”
Cody Alberson, the driving force behind this endeavor, smiled. He saw the smiles around him. He felt another success. And he wished for more.
“More funding will let us get more kids into this,” Alberson said.
The young participants are chosen from nominations by duck hunters, organizations or just anyone who knows of a boy or girl with an interest in duck hunting and lacking the means to carry out that interest.
Alberson can be reached by telephone at (870) 351-0833 or online at www.muddybayouyounggunz.org.
Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas’ best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by email at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:e0fd0aa1-8db8-42b0-ad88-e810ae629672> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.couriernews.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Volunteers+introduce+23++youngsters+to+duck+hunting%20&id=21683375 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974963 | 856 | 1.679688 | 2 |
“A UNIQUE programme is being arranged for a meeting which is to take place at the London Aerodrome, Hendon, on Thursday, Sept. 26th. There will be the usual exhibition flights from 3 o’clock - weather permitting - of course; and at 7.30 p.m will commence the first illuminated flying fête.
Each of the aeroplanes taking part will carry a powerful searchlight, in addition to side and rear lights, and they will also be outlined with hundreds of tiny electric lights supplied from portable accumulators carried in the body of the machine. On the roofs of the hangars there will be
powerful naval searchlights to guide the airmen flying in the darkness above, and the pylons which mark out the one and a-half miles’ speed course will also be brilliantly illuminated. | <urn:uuid:6c3bccff-0f16-4f15-91b9-cf9f5582b813> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://xplanes.tumblr.com/post/22598767085/a-unique-programme-is-being-arranged-for-a | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93077 | 174 | 1.609375 | 2 |
In 1999, he was ranked number 96 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. He was the only player on the list to have spent a majority of his career with the Jets. He is known for brashly telling the media that he guaranteed that his team would upset Don Shula's NFL Baltimore Colts in the third NFL-AFL Championship Game in 1969. The Jets did exactly that.
Early life and family
Namath's Hungarian born grandfather, known as A.J. to his family and friends, came to Ellis Island and worked in the coal and steel industries of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. Joe referred to his own ethnicity as "Bohunk" While growing up, Joe was close to both of his parents, who were divorced. Following his parents' split, Joe lived with his mother, Rose. He was born and raised in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, twenty miles away from Pittsburgh, one of the many steel towns in Beaver County. He was a standout in basketball and baseball. In an age where dunks were still uncommon in high school, Namath regularly dunked in games. However football prevailed, even though, upon graduation, he received offers from six Major League Baseball teams, including the Yankees, Mets, Indians, Reds, Pirates, and Phillies. Namath has told interviewers that he wanted to sign with the Pirates and play baseball like his idol, Roberto Clemente, but elected to play football because his mother wanted him to get a college education. Namath had many offers from Division I college football programs, including Penn State, Ohio State, Alabama, and Notre Dame, but initially decided upon the University of Maryland. He was rejected from Maryland because his college-board scores were just below the school's requirements; he scored in the low 730's, while Maryland required 750. After ample recruiting by University of Alabama's head football coach, Bear Bryant, Namath accepted a full scholarship to Alabama. Bryant states his decision to recruit Namath was "the best coaching decision I ever made."
College football career
At Alabama, Namath played under the legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant from 1962 through 1964. A year after being suspended for the final two games of the season, he led the Crimson Tide to a National Championship in 1964. Alabama went 29-4 with Namath at quarterback. Bryant would one day call Namath "the greatest athlete I ever coached." While many speculated on what was anticipated to be a stormy relationship between a freedom-loving player and an iron-fisted coach, Namath returned Bryant's praise, often referring to him as "not only the smartest coach I ever knew, but the man who taught me the meaning of integrity." When Namath was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985, he broke down during his induction speech upon mentioning Bryant, who passed away two years earlier from a heart attack.
Pro football career
As A Jet
Despite suffering a serious knee injury in his senior year at Alabama, Namath was drafted by both the National Football League and the upstart American Football League. The two competing leagues held their respective drafts on the same day -- November 28, 1964. The NFL's St. Louis Cardinals selected Namath 12th overall in their draft, while the Jets selected him with the AFL's first overall pick. He elected to sign with the Jets, who were under the direction of Hall of Fame owner Sonny Werblin, for a salary of more than $400,000 (a pro football record at the time). Namath was the American Football League Rookie of the year in 1965 and became the first professional quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards in a season (1967), a feat which remained a record for the 14-game seasons that were played during that time. He was a four-time American Football League All-Star, although he was plagued with knee injuries through much of his career. These injuries, which caused his knees to swell up with fluid and require periodic draining, plagued Namath for the rest of his career. On some occasions, Namath had to have his knee drained at halftime so that he could finish a game. Later in life, long after he left football, he had to have knee replacement surgery on both legs. In the 1968 AFL title game, Namath threw three touchdown passes to lead New York to a 27-23 win over the defending American Football League Champion Oakland Raiders. His performance in the 1968 season earned him the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year. Namath was an AFL All-Star four times, in 1965, 1967, 1968, and 1969. He was a AFC-NFC Pro Bowler in 1972. Besides having the Hall of Fame distinction, he is a member of the Jets' all-time team and the American Football League All-Time Team.Green Bay Packers, and the Colts were even more favored by media figures and handicappers than the Packers had been.
Three days before the game, Namath responded to a heckler with the now-famous line: "We'll win the game. I guarantee you." His words eventually made headlines across the country (except for the Miami Herald it made the papers after the game!), but were dismissed as mere bravado by most observers. In the game, however, Namath backed up his boast and showed that his success against tough American Football League competition had more than prepared him to take on the NFL. The Colts' vaunted defense was unable to contain the Jets' running or passing game, while their ineffective offense gave up four interceptions to the Jets. Namath was the game's MVP, completing eight passes to George Sauer alone, for 133 yards. Namath acquired legendary status for American Football League fans as the symbol of their league's legitimacy.
Not long after this, Namath grew a Fu Manchu moustache, which contrasted him even more with his clean-shaven peers. In probably the most touted act in the history of shaving, Namath shaved his mustache off in a television commercial for Remington electric razors for a fee of $10,000.
The head of ABC's televised sports, Roone Arledge, made sure that Monday Night Football's inaugural game would feature Namath and the New York Jets in a game against the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland Municipal Stadium. A record crowd of 85,703 and a huge television audience watched the Jets set a team record for penalties and lose on a late Namath interception. After not missing a single game because of injury in his first five years in the league, Namath played in just 28 of a 58 possible games because of various injuries between 1970 and 1973 as the Jets struggled with records of 4-10, 6-8, 7-7, and 4-10. His most memorable moment in those four seasons came on September 24, 1972 in Baltimore, when he and boyhood idol Johnny Unitas combined for 872 passing yards. Namath bombed the Colts for 496 yards and six touchdowns in a 44-34 victory, New York's first victory over Baltimore since Super Bowl III. In that same game, Unitas threw for 376 yards and three touchdowns. This game is considered by many NFL experts to be the finest display of passing in a single game in league history. When he played, Namath always managed to improve the Jets level of play. In a 1974 game against city rival New York Giants, Namath scored a game-tying touchdown on a five-yard bootleg, and then hit Emerson Boozer with a touchdown pass in overtime to lift the Jets to a 26-20 victory (the first regular season game in NFL history to be decided in overtime), launching New York on a six-game winning streak to end the 1974 season at 7-7. The Jets were poised to make another play-off run under Namath's leadership, and "Gang Green" seemed likely to win during the 1975 pre-season, but collapsed after the short NFL strike of September as 1975 and 1976 became a series blow-outs punctuated by punishing sacks of Joe Namath. The Jets were lucky to finish 3-11 both years.
Career regular season stats
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Post season stats
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After the Jets
In the twilight of his career, Namath was waived by the Jets to facilitate his move to the Los Angeles Rams when a trade couldn't be worked out. He was signed by the Rams on May 12, 1977. Namath hoped to revitalize his flagging career, but by this point his effectiveness as a quarterback was greatly reduced by his knee injuries, a bad hamstring and the general ravages of a long period of time playing professional football, as well as his "hard and fast" lifestyle. After a 2-1 start, Namath took a beating on a cold, windy and rainy Monday night game in a one point loss at the Chicago Bears and was through for the regular season. He did not play again, but redemption and a Hollywood ending was there for the taking. After a disastrous three quarters of turnovers and only trailing by seven points in the opening round of the play-offs, Head coach Chuck Knox seemed ready to pull Pat Haden and insert Namath. Rams assistant coach Kay Stephenson said Joe looked great warming-up in the third quarter and advised Knox to put him in. The television audience was on the edge of their seat's as it appeared Namath would replace Pat Haden and save the Ram's season. But Knox hesitated. Haden's problems continued and the Rams lost to the Vikings by a score of 14-7 in a sea of mud at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Namath retired from the Rams after a single season. Joe Namath is in the Hall of Fame despite being just a 50% career passer and throwing 50 more interceptions than touchdowns. Namath's bravado prior to Super Bowl III and reputation for having the quickest release of any quarterback in any era was responsible for his entrance into the Hall. Only Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins has been compared to Namath for his rocket release time.
After the NFL
Movie and television career
Namath went on to a minor career as an actor in several movies and starred in a brief 1978 television series, The Waverly Wonders. He guest-starred on everything from The Brady Bunch to The Flip Wilson Show and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In to The Dean Martin Show and The Simpsons to The A-Team and "The John Larroquette Show." He was guest host on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson several times, as well as hosting his own show, the 1969 cult classic The Joe Namath Show (co-hosted by Dick Schaap) with its eclectic guest pairings and open-bar attitude. He was also used as a color commentater on broadcasts of NFL games for a while, including the 1985 season of Monday Night Football, but never seemed to be particularly comfortable in this role and slightly over-critical of then current players.
Some would argue that the term 'Super Bowl' came about as he aptly made the AFL's case on the field that day. Shortly afterwards, his fame assured, Namath created new controversy by starring in a succession of commercial advertisements as something of a playboy 'sex symbol', including an outrageous commercial for pantyhose (with Namath wearing them) that for the time, in the 'plain vanilla' TV-culture then, were viewed by many as borderline tasteful. This spawned a new era of television advertising with athlete sex-symbols that continues today. In December, 2003, Namath gained new notoriety, apparently after partaking of too much celebratory champagne during the Jets' announcement of their all-time team. During live ESPN coverage of Jets' game, Namath was asked about Chad Pennington and his thoughts on the struggles of that year's squad. Namath expressed confidence in Pennington, and then stated to the interviewer, Suzy Kolber, "I want to kiss you. I couldn't care less about the team strugg-a-ling." He has since apologized. Later, he publicly admitted to an alcohol problem, and entered into an outpatient alcoholism treatment program on January 12, 2004, the 35th anniversary of Super Bowl III. Namath was also featured on the "Master list of Nixon political opponents." This was particularly ironic since Namath claims to have voted for Nixon in both 1968 and 1972.
Namath has a new book out published by Rugged Land Books, which is currently on the New York Times extended Bestseller List (#23) and was recently interviewed for the November 19, 2006 edition of 60 Minutes on CBS network. He was back at his old alma mater, Alabama, studying for the degree that he did not complete in 2006. His youngest daughter just gave birth. He currently lives in the ritzy village Tequesta, Florida.
Icon and adverts
Namath's nickname was "Broadway Joe"; he is sometimes called "Joe Willie Namath", a characterization popularized by Howard Cosell. He originated the fad of wearing a full-length fur coat on the sidelines, a habit which was adopted by many players after him. He also appeared in television advertisements both during and after his playing career, most notably for shaving cream (in which he was shaved by then an unknown Farrah Fawcett) and pantyhose; they contributed to his becoming something of a pop-culture icon. He has appeared in advertising as recently as 2003. He reportedly lived a somewhat hedonistic lifestyle and many anecdotal reports exist of women propositioning him for dates whenever he was seen in public places. Namath also opened several bars using his nickname Broadway Joe's in both New York City and in Tuscaloosa, Alabama (location of the University of Alabama). These continue today with moderate success. Namath spent many years appearing as a booster for golf tournaments and other good causes, for years for youth camps including football camps and lately for arthritis. He has served as a March of Dimes volunteer for over 40 years. Most recently he was the March of Dimes' WalkAmerica Honorary Chair from 1998-2007. He also holds a celebrity golf outing annually on Long Island to benefit the March of Dimes. Namath had many notable lines during the NFL Films presentation of NFL 75 Seasons. Recounting his 1969 Super Bowl performance, he said "It was such a feeling of elation, joy, tickling explosions inside, the teammates we did it, we were #1". "The same three words keep coming back: 'We did it. WE DID IT.'" Namath's infectious and genuine joy at recounting this made it natural for NFL Films to feature this quote in advertisements for its historic series, somewhat ironic, since Super Bowl III was a resounding American Football League victory, and an ignominious defeat for the arrogant NFL. Talking about the Raiders he said, "You were always playing a tough football team, and some of the guys cheated. Some of the guys kicked and bit and hit ya in the back, some of that kind of stuff, hit ya in the back of the head, and it's on film". | <urn:uuid:ac10ab44-bfe7-4f34-b36f-5912ee72edb1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jetnation.com/jetswiki/index.php/Namath,_Joe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980805 | 3,157 | 1.617188 | 2 |
A contentious campaign to bump up the bandwidth bills of spammers by flooding their sites with data has been dropped.
The website with the screensaver now only contains a logo
Lycos Europe's Make Love, Not Spam campaign began in late November but its tactics proved controversial.
Lycos has shut down the campaign saying it had been started to stimulate debate about anti-spam measures and had now achieved this aim.
The anti-spammer screensaver came under fire for encouraging vigilante activity and skirting the edge of the law.
Through the Make Love, Not Spam website, users could download a screensaver that would endlessly request data from the net sites mentioned in many junk mail messages.
More than 100,000 people are thought to have downloaded the screensaver that Lycos Europe offered.
The company wanted to keep the spam sites running at near total capacity to make it much less financially attractive to spammers to operate the sites.
But the campaign was controversial from the moment it kicked off and many net veterans criticised it for using spamming-type tactics against the senders of junk mail.
Some net service firms began blocking access to the Lycos Europe site in protest at the action.
Monitoring firm Netcraft found that the anti-spam campaign was proving a little too successful.
According to response-time figures gathered by Netcraft, some of the sites that the screensaver targeted were being knocked offline by the constant data requests.
In a statement from Lycos Europe announcing the scrapping of the scheme, the company denied that this was its fault.
"There is nothing to suggest that Make Love, Not Spam has brought down any of the sites that it has targeted," it said.
"At the time that Netcraft measured the sites it claims may have been brought down, they were not in fact part of the Make Love, Not Spam attack cycle," it added.
The statement issued by Lycos also said that the centralised database it used ensured that traffic to the target sites left them with 5% spare capacity.
"The idea was simply to slow spammers' sites and this was achieved by the campaign," the company said.
Many security organisations said users should not participate in the Lycos Europe campaign.
The closure comes only days after the campaign was suspended following the outbreak of criticism. | <urn:uuid:bffed4ff-f131-4a75-afb9-343d4679928b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4073547.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979316 | 479 | 1.679688 | 2 |
I know cheating is wrong, but I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten a good definition of what it actually is. Is it kissing someone else? Sleeping with someone else? Is it still considered cheating if you don’t do either of those things? I recently met a woman I’ve always been attracted to for lunch. I’ve fantasized about sleeping with her, but I’ve been dating someone for almost a year, so I’ve never done anything about it. I felt guilty after I had lunch with her, so I didn’t tell my girlfriend. Is what I did cheating? Can you tell me what types of behavior do constitute cheating, in your opinions?—JW, Nashville, Tennessee
The Gay Man’s Perspective: Darren Maddox
According to Ask.com, cheating in a relationship is when one of the partners is dating on the side and is not being honest with his or her significant other so that he or she can see other people secretly. Given that clarity, you’re not technically cheating on your girlfriend, because you’re not “dating” anyone—you only had lunch. As long as there wasn’t any afternoon delight thrown in for dessert, you shouldn’t feel guilty. However, you did see someone secretly, so the possibility of future cheating is there.
But you do bring up an interesting question here. I had someone tell me once that her boyfriend had emotionally cheated on her. While we can monitor our actions, I’m not sure how we can monitor (or avoid) our emotions. It’s only when we act on emotions that cheating becomes an issue, in my opinion. For example, you may see someone walking down the street whom you think is hot—and you may even be brave enough to tell your partner. But that is not cheating. On the other hand, you may see someone walking down the street whom you think is hot, be brave enough to approach her, and then bang her all afternoon in a cheap hotel. Clearly cheating. Let’s be honest here: You know when you’ve screwed up. If you’ve done something that you know would hurt your partner if she found out about it, chances are, you’ve cheated.
The Gay Woman’s Perspective: Jody Fischer
You sound like a savvy person. I like that you get that everyone holds his own line as to what constitutes cheating. Because I believe there’s not one all-purpose definition of cheating that will work for every person and every couple.
I once had a girlfriend who accused me of cheating because I was thinking about an ex. Seriously. I didn’t want to see her, or even call her; it was more of a walking-down-memory-lane experience for me. Her point was that thinking about it is putting that intention out into the universe, and that’s just as bad as acting on it.
I guess in my mind, there are two things you need to consider. One is your own comfort level. If you feel guilty about a thought, fantasy, or encounter, that’s your gut’s way of telling you that you’re not on the right side of the line.
Then there’s your girlfriend’s point of view and her feelings to consider. If you guys have been together for a year, I’m guessing you know her views on cheating. I’m not saying you have to conform to her rules, but you do have to consider them.
It’s time to talk with her and, together, work out a shared understanding on this. Don’t stew over this alone. If you value the relationship, start the conversation.
The Straight Man’s Perspective: Chris Kennedy
Cheating (verb): A physical action with another when you’re in an exclusive relationship with someone else.
Physical action (verb): An intimate act. Sexual or non-sexual (kissing).
No, you did not cheat. Having lunch with someone of the opposite sex is not cheating. Fantasizing about cheating is not cheating.
That said, you are on a slippery slope, my friend. What are your intentions here? If you’re interested in this other woman but want to continue your relationship with your girlfriend, then let that be the last time you “do lunch” with this woman. If you’re no longer happy with your girlfriend and no longer want to be in the relationship, then break it off with her before you see this other woman again.
Think long and hard about this, because you’re all in your head right now. What does this other woman want from you? You have a lot at stake here.
Only you can define where you want to go from here. No one else’s definitions—not mine, not the other 4-Wayers’, not even Merriam-Webster’s—matter.
The Straight Woman’s Perspective: Rebecca Brown
Sometimes people bring delicious confections to my office, things like homemade cakes, cookies, and breads. It’s kind of a bitch, JW, since I’ve started a new diet with pretty much every sunrise of every day of my life. So it’s always a challenge for me not to go into the company kitchen and have my way with some saucy cream puff or devilish red-velvet cupcake. Because when I do go to the kitchen, I always end up cutting off a small, “harmless” piece of something and sampling it, or eyeballing an “uneven” edge of a cake that badly needs my help with evening it out. I’ve found that the best strategy for not partaking is to just avoid the kitchen altogether. Otherwise, I’ll end up with seventy-eight bites of buttercream-frosted cupcakes and at least five extra pounds. Very bad.
Which brings me to asking you the obvious: why tempt fate by eating lunch with a woman you’ve fantasized about sleeping with? Is it cheating? No. Is it stupid? Yes. Think about how you’d feel if you found out your girlfriend was off lunching it up with some guy she secretly wanted to bang, but passed it off as a harmless lunch. Probably not so good.
I think cheating is all about the physical—and, yes, that includes kissing. But I also think it takes a lot of little mental steps to work yourself up to the physical act of cheating, so you have to be mindful of those—a lunch with someone you fantasize about here, a borderline-flirtatious text there. Pretty soon, you’re vibrating on some cheap bed at a local motel.
Rather than write to a bunch of advice columnists about what constitutes cheating (which smacks of looking for someone to give you approval to do it, by the way), why not sit down and have a chat with your girlfriend about your relationship when you have those questions? It’s normal to find other people attractive, especially once you’ve been with the same person for a long time. But there’s a fine line between appreciating someone attractive versus devoting a huge chunk of your brain space to fantasizing about that person. That’s a sign that something isn’t right in your relationship, if you ask me. Talk to your girlfriend—otherwise, your next lunch might lead to dessert at a Super 8 motel.
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The 4-Way is published monthly. If you have a question for our 4-Way panel, please send it to them in care of the editor at [email protected]. To make sure you never miss a 4-Way column again, just click on the author’s name at the top of the story, then select “Be notified when writer publishes” at the top of the page. We’ll send you an email as soon as a new column is published. | <urn:uuid:251bdf52-5acf-43a3-ab6e-7e1b61f63dba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.divinecaroline.com/love-sex/staying-away-temptation-island-4-way | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954592 | 1,741 | 1.648438 | 2 |
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Carlotta Actis Barone’s Spring-Summer 2013 collection is based on the opera “ The Magic Flute”, composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The main principle of the opera is the eternal fight between good and bad forces, where eventually the good wins. The Queen of the Night, that is interpreted by Mozart as the symbol of the evil becomes in Carlotta’s garments the Queen of the Day. Sarastro, symbolising the sun, shines through the bright colours of the whole collection, from bright oranges, to neon greens and intense purples. The prints designs, inspired by the costumes of Papageno and Papagena, are an elaboration of feathers patterns that becomes a fluid marble drawing on the fabric as well as the luxurious feathers that enrich few items. Light cottons and silks take inspiration from the oriental location of the opera and emphasise the beauty of life when things end up being good after all. Garments’ buttons, beautifully hand crafted specifically for this collection, represent two people embracing. They are symbol of protection and love, which is one of the main principles of the freemasons, the secret affiliation that Mozart belonged to and that is the basis of the opera. The ribbed-shape of the garments comes from the cages carried in the opera by Papageno and Papagena. In this collection they are intended as “liberating cages”, where the wearer brakes through them and finds freedom in the mutual help and care for each other. The cage shapes can be seen in structured hips, big rigid skirts as well as structured jacket tails and pointed structured shoulders. They also take inspiration from the underskirts so typical of women fashion of the 1700’s. This collection is a celebration of happiness, protection, sisterhood and love.
About the Designer
Carlotta is based in London, United Kingdom. She studied at Saint Martins College of Art and Design and graduated in 2009. Her collections are produced in Italy.
Carlotta Actis Barone collections are the expression of her artistic and socially orientated background.
Carlotta was born and raised in Italy, daughter of a visual artist and a published author.
She grew up in a very creative environment, where she was stimulated and encouraged to cultivate her creative interests in literature and the arts.
After moving to London and graduating with honours from Central Saint Martins she then gained experience working for names such as Stella McCartney, Balmain and BCBG Max Azria among others; building her knowledge and working towards establishing her own brand, which she launched at London Fashion Week in September 2010.
Carlotta's style is very unique, with a strong signature, which relates extremely modern matters whilst also drawing on influences from the past. Her garments are tasteful and bold, conveying statements and messages through intricate shapes, slogans and symbols.
As She says herself, Carlotta likes to give to her clothes a voice of their own, so the wearer is not only a representation of femininity but also the carrier of a message.
Carlotta Actis Barone luxury brand is now preparing for its 6th season and will be showing at London Fashion Week in September this year.
The brand covers two lines: evening & occasion wear (including bespoke red carpet items) and her diffusion range, which offers more accessible pieces at a lower price range.
Carlotta’s distinguished style has received much praise from press and consumers, with collections featured in Vogue UK and Italy, Glamour UK and Italy, British Airways Magazine, Dash and Kult Magazine, among other high profile International press.
Carlotta's distinguished style has received much praise from press and consumers, with collections featured in Vogue UK and Italy, Glamour UK and Italy, British Airways Magazine, Dash and Kult Magazine, among other high profile International press and last but not least I-D (The Just Kids Issue NO.320 - August 2012)
Carlotta Actis Barone is currently stocked in several prestigious Italian boutiques, including Alan Journo, situated in the glamorous via della Spiga in Milan, Epoca in Siena and Vale de Lux Store in Castiglione della Pescaia. | <urn:uuid:b3eb3b04-fad7-402e-9e5b-39228f5ae86e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.notjustalabel.com/carlotta_actis_barone | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953735 | 892 | 1.726563 | 2 |
'Critical but stable' world nods at more risk
LONDON (Reuters) - Like a patient in a critical but stable condition, the world economy may be in for years of low, spluttering growth and yet a lack of volatility may be acting as a green light for investors.
The paralysing effect of economic uncertainty on investment, business and household planning has been stark over the past five years of credit crisis and the deep and synchronised global recession of 2008/2009 is seared into many minds.
Extraordinary monetary and fiscal policy stimuli around the globe look set to continue for the foreseeable future. Yet investors' fear of "tail risks" - or low probability but outsize shocks - still abounds.
Almost three quarters of the 300 U.S. and European pension funds, asset managers, insurance funds and private banks surveyed by the Economist Intelligence Unit for State Street Global Advisors this summer said a significant tail risk event was either likely or highly likely in the next 12 months.
Euro zone break up and global recession topped the list of potential triggers, unsurprisingly.
But does this innate fear match up to reality? Does uncertainty always lead to higher volatility?
JPMorgan's global strategist Jan Loeys pointed out this week that after spiking higher in 2008/2009, global economic volatility has actually collapsed again to its lowest levels since the 1970s - and this is significant for investors' willingness to take on risk.
Global growth over the past three years is the weakest of any post-war recovery, he said, but 42 years of data shows rolling 8-quarter volatility in world gross domestic product is back down at record lows and matches the trough of the "Great Moderation" of 2004-2005.
That drop in underlying GDP volatility goes some way to explaining a drop in the volatility of corporate earnings and earnings expectations and, in turn, the somewhat puzzling drop in implied volatility gauges on U.S. and European equity markets in the face of widespread investor tension.
At about 16 percent, Wall St's VIX - the "Fear Index" - is almost half what it was last December at just a whisker above levels last seen before the crunch of 2007.
Given that most investment models use volatility as a proxy for future risk, these signals are urging many investors to snaffle away the higher yields in riskier markets.
The paying down of excessive pre-crisis debts, or deleveraging, is subduing not only global economic and earnings growth but also market volatility, JPMorgan's Loeys said.
"This can coexist with the uncertainty about the future. The uncertainty keeps risk premia high and this is where your opportunity is," he added, favouring higher-yielding assets such as corporate bonds and the junk bond sector in particular.
VOLATILITY AND RISK
There are other explanations for the counter-intuitive drop in market volatility this year, such as the fall in trading volumes due to the swamping effect of central bank policy and investors' reluctance to transact on days where there is no macro driving factor.
Other analysts simply view extreme lows in volatility as a reason to brace for a correction in the underlying market trend.
But if the sheer scale of policy intervention is at least partly responsible for sapping market volatility as well as preventing big lurches in GDP, then this is not going away soon.
Tail risks will always exist of course, it's just that by definition the most threatening ones are unforeseen and the ones already indentified probably less disruptive as a result.
As Kleinwort Benson chief investment officer Mouhammed Choukeir commented in the EIU/State Street survey: "Europe is the current eye of the storm, but it is not really a tail risk now as it is known. The United States or Japan defaulting would be, and Japan has a huge burden of debt."
A bigger problem is that years of low global growth into giant headwinds of demographic change, resource scarcity and climate change throw up more intangibles than even a mega sovereign default. At least you can model the latter.
High youth unemployment in the Western world, rising dependency ratios in aging populations and dashed aspirations of nascent middle classes in the developing world all throw up social and political risks that are almost impossible to measure.
Activist government policy can smother short-term volatility to good effect for a period but perhaps cautious investors are more mindful of these seismic risks longer term.
(Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
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- Digg this | <urn:uuid:0ba41174-542d-46e9-bfce-2adb808ab019> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/10/03/uk-investment-growth-idUKLNE89200520121003?feedType=RSS&feedName=everything&virtualBrandChannel=11708 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937489 | 928 | 1.773438 | 2 |
As of June 28, 2012 a total of 5,684 cases were closed under a special Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program announced in August 2011. The stated goal of the program is to reduce the massive backlog of pending matters in the Immigration Courts by identifying those that could be dismissed or put on hold through the exercise of prosecutorial discretion (PD). The number of PD closures was up from 4,585 cases closed as of the end of May; however, it still amounted to only 1.9 percent of the 298,173 cases that had been pending before the Immigration Courts as of the end of last September.
The monthly pace of closures is shown in Figure 1 and Table 1. The upward trend in the rate of closures is evident. PD closures rose steadily between December 2011 and March 2012, dipped slightly in April and rose again in May when the rate of monthly PD closures reached 1,138. The June total of 1,103 was very close to this peak volume. While overall PD closures to date have been much lower than what the Administration originally had led the immigration community to expect, the cumulative count keeps rising and there is yet no sign of any real drop off in day-to-day closures.
PD closures generally have involved cases that have been waiting longer than other types of closures. On average, it took 803 days between the date charges had been filed in Immigration Court and when the PD closure finally took place. This is in contrast to 385 days on average that Immigration Court closures have been taking this fiscal year. PD closures even take longer than the average time for Immigration Judges to grant relief — cases that typically take longer than any other type. During FY 2012, for example, relief was granted on average in 773 days.
These and other results are based upon analyses of very recent case-by-case records obtained from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. EOIR, a part of the Department of Justice, administers the nation's special administrative court system charged with deciding whether noncitizens can be deported or are legally entitled to remain in this country.
Representation and the Nature of Removal Charges
Immigration Court records also indicate that only 294 of the 5,684 closures, or 5 percent, were for individuals who were not represented. In the remaining 95 percent the individual had an attorney.
As might be expected, immigration violators dominate PD closures compared with other types of court closures. In only 72 cases (less than 2 percent) had ICE charged that the individual had been engaged in criminal activity as the basis for seeking a removal order. There were no PD closures of anyone who had been charged with terrorism or being a national security risk. This compares with 8.3 percent of the pending backlog as of September 2011 in which ICE sought removal action on the basis of individuals charged with criminal activities, or actions adverse to national security, or aiding terrorism.
For 64 percent of PD closures, the most serious violation charged as the basis for ICE seeking a removal order was entry without inspection. In an additional 34 percent some other immigration violation was charged.
Some nationality groups appear to be offered and agreeing to PD closures more often than other nationalities. Table 2 compares the twenty nationalities with the largest numbers of PD closures to date with their backlog of pending Immigration Court cases as of September 2011.
The largest number of PD closures for any country was 3,060 for Mexico, representing 2.9 percent of the backlog for this country, a closure rate higher than the national average of 1.9 percent. South Korea had the highest PD closure rate of 3.9 percent, followed by Cameroon with 3.6 percent.
Two countries stood out for especially low numbers offered and agreeing to PD closures. China was at the bottom with 0.2 percent, or only 63 out of its backlog of 26,579. India was next lowest with 0.8 percent, or only 57 out of its backlog of 7,432 cases pending before the Immigration Courts.
Locations Where PD Closures Are Occurring
The Los Angeles Immigration Court continues to lead the country with the largest number of closures under this program — 707, up from 534 at the end of May. The Denver Immigration Court was again second with 546, up from 401 at the end of May. In third place was the San Francisco Immigration Court, now 487 as compared with 387 in May.
TRAC's Immigration Court Closures Tool provides a detailed look at the cases for each court and hearing location. The tool also provides prosecutorial discretion closures by type, as well as compared with each court's pending caseload.
TRAC's exact count of cases closed through ICE's prosecutorial discretion initiative was determined by using special codes in the court data that TRAC received. These codes tagged those closures made under the new program as of June 28. Note: In the latest court records that TRAC received, the closure status of some cases originally recorded closed as 'terminations' were updated to 'administrative closures.' | <urn:uuid:75467988-5d11-4263-ad7c-9c5414689606> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/287/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975813 | 1,044 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Looking to the future – the changing demographics of North Carolina
The Center for American Progress has been taking a closer look at the demographic shifts in North Carolina. A generation gap is forming and there has been a steady growth of communities of color. As CAP notes in its article on demographic changes and immigration politics, Latino consumers and entrepreneurs are assisting the expansion of the state’s economy and immigrants are more and more an essential part North Carolina’s workforce and the economy. Take a look at this cool infographic. | <urn:uuid:f0cbb591-a0ae-4dec-8d35-f66108c2d04e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2012/05/10/looking-to-the-future-the-changing-demographics-of-north-carolina/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931647 | 103 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Meeting Societal Needs Through Public Service
December 22, 2011
By Stephanie Thara
Throughout the years, CSU students have been an integral part in community engagement activities, such as building safer neighborhoods, preserving languages and cultures, providing healthcare information, improving life for the disabled and preparing residents to be ready for natural disasters.
Everything from San José State’s SHINE where students help older immigrants become U.S. citizens to Cal State Long Beach’s El Monte Community Building Initiative that provides leadership training to emerging community leaders, the CSU takes pride in creating unique programs that benefit others.
In addition to students’ efforts, CSU faculty have used their skills to provide resources to communities including:
San Francisco State University recreation, parks and tourism faculty partnered with the Lake County Family Resource Center to provide a much-needed intervention program for domestic abuse survivors.
In collaboration with several occupational aid associations, a member of the business faculty at CSU Dominguez Hills developed mock job interviews for service-learning students planning careers in human resources and to help prepare high school students for the real-world experience.
California State University, Stanislaus nursing faculty partnered with Cal WORKS, the county welfare agency, on a pilot welfare-to-wellness-to-work program that provided health-related classes and activities to welfare recipients.
A CSU Bakersfield geology faculty member brought together local K-12 educators to train them on sampling ground water with the goal of increasing awareness about area water resources and conditions.
Sacramento State engineering faculty collaborated with community partners to solve real-world transportation issues that resulted in a parking utilization study, a proposed street redesign and an annual transportation survey. | <urn:uuid:3ec9b260-4d24-4531-8ee9-6f94a5a3fba9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.calstate.edu/pa/News/2011/Story/Leader/PublicService.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935439 | 349 | 1.726563 | 2 |
He began by speaking about the greatest day in his life. It was not the day he was elected to congress or any of the major things he has been able to do as congressman, but the day he gave his life to the Lord.
He followed up by stating his opposition to government funded abortions in the healthcare bill. This as well as his call to defund Planned Parenthood were the most popular moments in the speech.
The focus of the speech however was freedom. "We must be willing to fight for freedom, free markets, and traditional values." "Freedoms is an inspiration to the world." "We must stand boldly on the world stage for freedom." This was where Pence discussed the need to stand with Iran. Pence also stated, "We must defend entrepenurialistic capitalism against the onslaught of the American left."
While the focus of the speech was on the importance of freedom in every aspect of this nation, there was also a very moving portion of the speech. Congressman Pence discussed how after he returned to his district after the first Bush bailout passed. After he spoke to the boyscouts in his district, a man walked up to him who had just lost his job, and thanked him for voting against the bailout. The man told Congressman Pence, "I can get another job but I can't get another country." This followed by a reminder that, "Times like these are good times to remember what your knees are for," was a very moving portion of the speech.
Congressman Pence is a freedom loving fighter who is unafraid to stand for his personal faith.
Afterwards a number of media members talked with him. In response to questions about the strawpoll Congressman Pence said, "I have no plans to run for president. I'm focussed on taking back the congress in 2010." So far he is atleast denying he is running for president. | <urn:uuid:35a5cfc2-e743-4da7-8775-3dd2bdce7439> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vasocialconservative.blogspot.com/2009/09/mike-pence-standing-boldly-for-freedom.html?showComment=1253326823113 | 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 | 0.991978 | 383 | 1.515625 | 2 |
What does CORE offer?
1. CORE is concerned that local churches take responsibility for this area of ministry rather than abdicating the role to other bodies or individuals, and therefore works to empower local leaders and their congregations to undertake this important pastoral care
I don’t get what the protest was trying to achieve? Let the church get on with it, you know you’re gay just because, whats the point these days? Would have been better if the 50 protesters agreed to go through the process and prove it a sham than all this bumbling.
Obviously a lot of people are obviously very accepting of there sexuality but some aren’t and this kind of thing can really damage those people. And these gay cure things have been proven not to work over and over and over again but they never listen.
You don’t really think this quack “therapy” comes free do you Kris?
CORE works with local churches to assist in equipping fellowships for ministering to those who have issues of homosexuality, either in their own experience, or in that of families and friends associated with their fellowships. The goal is to work with local fellowship leaders, in collaboration with a range of similar ministries, to assist in the pastoral care of such individuals.
2. Specialist training and resource development is time- consuming and can be expensive. A co-ordinated effort is a viable approach to increasing skilled capacity for more than a few. CORE works with a range of providers to encourage the most full understanding and response to this pastoral need
3. Few churches can offer moderated, e-learning opportunities and reliable, professionally presented and vetted resources to support those struggling. CORE provides ‘blended’ learning opportunities, making use of face-to-face teaching in conjunction with online resources
4. Expressing informed disapproval of homosexual practice in particular can be misunderstood. Working together as local churches and specialist ministry providers, will improve our communication skills with those who disagree with our views. CORE seeks to balance informed scriptural and scientific understanding of the fact of homosexuality.
What a load of NARTH inspired crackpots!
Its up to you how you use this ;)
“I don’t force anybody or cure anybody – a client naturally spontaneously grows into his authentic heterosexual self.”
Lifelong bullying, belittling, abuse and religious brainwashing can certainly do a lot of things spontaneously. What next? Will interracial couples spontaneously grow into their authentic anti-miscegenation selves?
MISQUOTATION ALERT: THIS POST CONTAINS SARCASM.
I’m mostly straight but have serious issues with it and would very much prefer to be 100% gay will Narth or Core assist me to achieve my aim and find happiness as a content gay person?
It follows that if people can be helped to increase their hetrosexual potential as CORE suggest then people can also be helped to increase their homosexual potential which is what I desperately seek to do, will you help me CORE? If not why not?
Unwanted , pesky, heterosexual attractions…please make me gay, I’ll pay and pay for reparative therapy to be gay.
Can’t bear the thought of another day waking up with the shame of unwanted embarrassing straight attractions. I have tried living in the straight lifestyle and have been left wanting.
I know I have huge homosexual potential if only I could find the therapists who could make me feel whole but my church won’t hear of it, they just stick their fingers in their ears.
Good one, Pavlos..
So the church allows people to use its premises without verifying what they believe in etc – sounds unlikely to me – and if the case then the church rightly deserves criticism
Exactly, Stu. I have belonged to a gay-affirming social group in the past which was kicked out of a community centre double-quick when people on the (not officially religious) management committee found out ‘what we represented’. It also reminds me of a story I read a few years ago of how an Evangelical vicar threw a yoga group out of his Church hall when it emerged that the teacher actually linked yoga to Hindu beliefs.
This church is insulting our intelligence.
So who’s for establishing a straight reparative therapy practice?
A network of clinics where people who have troubling issues with unwanted heterosexual attractions can come and be encouraged to maximise their homosexual potential.
A client grows into his authentic self? Is he for real?
Typical friggin American interference in our affairs. These frauds should be on the undesirable list and barred from entering the UK. Since when have religious cults been experts on psychoanalysis? That proves how dangerous this nonsense is. The day these con artists prove you can turn a straight man gay, then maybe, just maybe they’ll lend some credence to curing and praying away the gay. Until then, they remain charlatans. This so called “cure therapy” has long been debunked by the American Psychiatric Association and deemed dangerous.
Another homophobic christian story. Good for the protestors. How spineless and pathetic that the church can’t admit they supported a homophobic event.
I certainly agree this is a homophobic story and that the church involved are either being spineless, exceptionally naive or both
i just wanted to add something . people think people are gay for a reason . well think about this are girls straight because they had a fantastic father and an awful mother and are boys straight because they had a wonderful mother and abused by their father…no they arnt they are straight because that is their feeling towards another human being , not all human being of their own sex just that one in particular. so to say there is a reason for being gay is idiotic and insane that people need to think theres always explanations for everything.. well not everything..why do some christians think theres a explanation for everything.. what is the meaning of life. oh yeah thats right you dont know the meaning for that what a shame…
This just shows how mad some gay myths are…
Boys are attracted to girls and vica versa because that’s how the human race procreates! Seeing that procreation is the essential goal of our lives and ensures the survival of the species, then it is imperative that men and women fall in love and have sex. It is what most if not nearly all human beings do, and just as our bodies compliment each other, so do our emotions and sexualities. Men are designed / evolved to fit into women and both sexes really compliment each other.
It is not mad for those who find themselves attracted to the same sex to rationally conclude that something must have happened to cause them to be attracted to the wrong sex. Why would you want to stop men and women who know that their bodies are heterosexual to bring their sexuality into line? Maybe the truth hurts… But the truth is that men and women are made for each other and it’s quite odd to think otherwise.
Buddy I can assure you, men can fit pretty well inside one another too
“…it is imperative that men and women fall in love and have sex.”
Yes, and they do. But a minority fall in love and have sex with people of the same sex. Nothing wrong with that.
“…both sexes really compliment each other.”
Yes, when they are heterosexual, as most people are. Not when they are homosexual.
“…something must have happened to cause them to be attracted to the wrong sex.”
When you’re homosexual, someone of your own sex is the RIGHT sex, not the wrong one.
“…men and women who know that their bodies are heterosexual…”
Our bodies are either male or female (although there are a small minority of indeterminates). There is no such thing as a heterosexual body. It is PEOPLE that are heterosexual, homosexual or bi-sexual, not their bodies. So if you are homosexual, two bodies of the same sex work really well together.
Procreation may be the essential goal of your life – it ain’t mine, sunshine
Even heterosexual sex is not solely about procreation – its a sign of love, of passion, of enjoyment …. perhaps you aren’t aware of this
Sex is more than 15 seconds fumble in the missionary position
Strangely enough when you examine nature – other mammals the male species who are homosexual or bisexual have the same anatomy as the heterosexual animals. So you presumption of anatomy being for one purpose is clearly false.
The truth is not that all men were meant to be with women and vice versa and that thinking any other way is odd – the truth is failing to understand human emotions and interactions and that some people are created gay is fact. Its not wrong. Its not right. Its just the way of the world.
“Maybe the truth hurts…”
LOL, after that idiotic rant, the only truth here is you need to get a better understanding of sexuality and evolution, my friend.
Always the stupid ones, we get in here…. never the clever bigots.
Michelangelo would you like some liver with that chopped logic of yours?
There is a difference between sex and gender. Its a genetic test. The other is performative.
Your argument propels hetero norm myths.
These “gay cure” people are criminals who do more harm than good, God made gays, the same as he made the straights who were put here on earth to love one another. Stop this madness called gay cure, it has been know to kill people. How man more gays does God have to make before you know God loves gays?
The last audible breaths from a dying institution, desperate for any attention that it can get. Rest in pieces Jesus, Mohammed and Abraham.
Are you kidding me, I am a gay person , i dont tell me wether i am gay or hetersexual , my general make up inside my self tell me what it does like and do not like just like you eat real food off of a plate, its no need in pretending and lying about food that you hate and that makes you seek every time you see it or eat it. Its simply not what you like , and that a gender trait, you stupid asses, all of the creeps are sycopaths and have enough to deal with in the incest rapes and wiffe beaters in the hetersexual commuities of their that what they had better find a cure for, not the gay community who happens to get the honary humanitarian , humanity award every year for their families and communities for the most civilized people in the nation and the most safest families in the nation its a no brdainer nor a no contest, these hetersexual have to be arrested for harrassment of the lgbt famiilies a;nd stay fthe hell out of our faces we are sick and tired of their wicked selves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7Ht05pZ6vI – sorry I know I’ve already posted a Bo Burnham song on these threads before but it fits to this story quite well
It’s curious that people of faith often believe that certain events occur because their God so wills it, but cannot comprehend the possibility that therefore some people are gay or lesbian because their God so wills it.
There ought to be regulation of psychological practices that aim to amend the way people behave – where is the professional regulation? And this bunch of crazies should be barred from practice
I think there is only a voluntary form of regulation on practitioners as Patrick Strudwick discovered, there is actually no legal means to stop these quack! quack! quack’s!
Protestors should really just stand outside the next quack “reparative therapy” conference and quack as loudly as they can.
A nice quote from Susan B. Anthony:
“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”
It’s quite scary how blind to reality they are. Anyone who says that the bible is infallible is probably impossible to argue with, because it means that they have already discarded science as lies before they even start.
We should try to make gay cure practices illegal in the UK. Spain did it not long ago, didn’t they?
I agree with you Paul. America is a very young society still in the teething stage of growing into a fully open and accepting society. Their society is backward in many areas and gay rights is one of them. This does men to say that all Americans are the same – far from it. There about 2,600 pro gay churches in USA but there are also nut cases like CORE that can do basically what they want and this normally a lot of damage. Gays all over the world must be advised to boycott these sick organisations and seek help elsewhere (if needed) from legitimate gay organisations that are equiped for this sort of thing. In other words if you have a problem being gay then go to a gay organisation that will help you feel comfortable with yourself and your sexuality.
What part of damaging other human beings do these people not get?
Why don’t they understand the clients are vunerable because of what people and religion says against us?
I can’t believe that still in 2011 we still have this kind of action while still on the same page call themselves civilized.
Jayson Graves, David Pickup and the Exodus Connection:
Interesting to note that this “no longer gay” man hasn’t a word to say about women, they don’t appear to exist in his world and he has everything to say about other males, sounds like a gay person but a really fcuked-up gay person which is what I’m sure David Pickup is.
Tell you what,try ‘curing’ me,& when you fail can I claim thousands in compo’ for failure to ‘come up with the goods’?!
No, they make you sign a contract covering themselves before taking your money.
I suspect my lawyer can’t check the contract first?
‘Gay curing’ is to homophobia what ‘holocaust denial’ is to anti-semitism!
Homophobia and anti-semitism are both Biblically justified prejudices. But I guess 6 million jews going up in smoke in the holocaust means that this is one Scriptural prejudice that’s no longer PC for the Christo-Fascist crowd. Therefore they need another group of people to hate. And this is where homosexuals come in so handy for them. All you need to do is swap Matthew 27:25 for bits of Leviticus and voila! you can go on hating with God-given approval.
‘Gay curing’ is all part of the homophobic agenda. It implies that being gay is either a sinful choice or an illness. Either way it means gay people should not be entitled to any rights at all as far as they are concerned.
What utter BULLSH*T !!!!!!
…would you care to elaborate. Exactly what is utter b/s??
I hope they can keep that reparative infection out of the UK
The thing to do is to come down hard on the churches who make money from it A one or two hour picket isn’t near enough :every service they hold for the next month should be picketed noisily, inside and out. Make them think twice before allowing these bigots on to their premises. If the GLB community in East London can get an agreement from mosques not to have homophobic speakers then surely the CoI can go one better. community | <urn:uuid:90f77b5d-3928-49a2-8c10-4cab0b613188> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/06/14/protest-held-at-northern-ireland-gay-cure-conference/comments/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959105 | 3,307 | 1.578125 | 2 |
The buzz over the past few years about export markets has been all about the BRIC countries—Brazil, Russia, India and China. But each of these represents a very different market, and the costs and benefits of entering these markets are not equal.
For a variety of reasons, both political and economic, opportunities in Russia have never truly materialized. India, due to issues such as entrenched government bureaucracy, slow decision-making and extreme price sensitivity, still presents serious challenges. And China, aside from not really being a new market, is a massive one that can be daunting for small and medium-sized Canadian companies.
Brazil, on the other hand, offers significant opportunities for Canadian companies right now. In fact, Canadian companies looking to enter the Brazilian market may have a leg up on competition from other countries because of similarities between our two economies. Both Canada and Brazil are resource-rich and have strong commodities markets. Both also are exporting nations and share the same main trading partners—namely, the U.S. and China. But Canadian trade with Brazil is not nearly as significant as it could or should be.
Brazil offers opportunities across various sectors. And many of these match Canadian industry strengths, such as information and communications technology, infrastructure, aerospace, environmental technologies, mining, and oil and gas equipment and services. Current growth in Brazil is making it difficult for domestic manufacturers and service providers to keep up with demand in these sectors.
Brazil also offers various incentives to foreign investors. These take the form of tax breaks for companies, as well as grants and other federal programs designed to support development in the less developed areas of the country, particularly the northeast and Amazon regions.
While there certainly are plenty of opportunities in Brazil, you have to do your homework—as with any foreign market. Be prepared to invest time, money and effort. The Brazilian business culture is built on relationships, so companies looking to trade with Brazil need to make building personal relationships a top priority. Also, be aware that there are certain industries that are restricted, and permission from the government must be obtained for foreign firms to operate certain types of businesses, such as transportation companies, mining companies, and oil and gas refineries.
It's never simple entering new markets. But by taking some time to explore market opportunities and potential partnerships, Canadian companies can find strong synergies in Brazil.
Joy Nott is president of I.E.Canada, the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters, and has more than 20 years of experience in customs compliance. Prior to joining I.E.Canada, she was a vice-president and managing consultant for JPMorgan Global Trade Management Services.
More columns by Joy Nott | <urn:uuid:4f61ff9b-d855-4e8b-9849-240dd7dbefde> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.profitguide.com/manage-grow/international-trade/why-brazil-is-the-most-promising-bric-market-40586 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966366 | 545 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Paint failure on hundreds of tunnel light fixtures in Boston’s infamous Big Dig project is apparently causing the fixtures to corrode—and one 110-pound fixture, so far, to fall out, officials say.
Part of the ceiling of the Big Dig collapsed in
2006, killing a 38-year-old motorist.
An 8-foot-long fixture crashed into the travel lanes of the $20 billion tunnel on Feb. 8, luckily missing morning commuters. Highway crews cleaned up the casing, which a passing motorist had reported as debris on the road.
After the accident, Massachusetts’ Department of Transportation launched an inspection of the tunnel’s 23,000 light fixtures. However, the agency did not inform the public or the governor of the accident or the inspection.
350 Corroded Fixtures
MA DOT’s inspection, now 95% complete, has found nearly 350 light fixtures with some degree of corrosion, State Transportation Secretary Jeffrey B. Mullan told reporters at a briefing last week. Most of the damage occurred at the tunnel entrances, he said.
"We learned that this is a relatively isolated incident, but it's something that we're taking very seriously,' Mullan said.
He added, however: "There is no question in my mind that the tunnels are robust and safe for the traveling public. We've done an individual inspection of each of the lighting fixtures that is over the travelway, and we know that they are secured adequately and that the tunnel is safe."
Mullan blamed the problem on corroded aluminum support casings that hold the fluorescent lights by clips. The corrosion was caused in part by harsh weather and road salt, Mullan told reporters.
Mullan said that 3,000 clips, out of some 230,000, were shifted to non-corroded areas as part of a temporary fix and one fixture was removed, the Boston Herald reported. The cost and design of a permanent fix have not yet been determined.
Meanwhile, MassDOT has identified paint problems as the cause of the corrosion.
In a letter Wednesday to NuArt Lighting of Fullerton, CA, which supplied the lighting for the Big Dig, MassDOT reported “two serious problems with your tunnel lighting fixture wireway.”
The letter, signed by Helmut R. Ernst, P.E., District 6 Highway Director, said: “Paint is not adhering to the wireway and is flaking off. The loss of paint is allowing the bare aluminum to be exposed to environmental elements within the tunnels, causing excessive corrosion and premature failure of the wireways.”
In addition, Ernst said, the “extruded longitudinal lip that captures the stainless steel light fixture mounting clip is corroding under the stainless steel clips. In many instances, it is obvious this corrosion is due to paint failure under the clip, allowing a galvanic reaction to occur between the stainless steel clip and the aluminum wireway.
“Numerous failures appear to be associated with the stainless steel light fixture mounting clip cutting through the paint and coming in contact with the aluminum wireway.”
State officials say the lights cost tens of millions of dollars, although an exact figure was not immediately available.
Mullan said he had not told Gov. Deval Patrick or motorists about the corrosion problem or light collapse for five weeks because he wanted to gather more information first.
Mullan told the governor about the problem only last Tuesday (March 15), and Patrick told Mullan to notify the public, which he did the next day, the governor’s office said.
Wherever that finger-pointing leads, lawmakers want answers.
Rep. James Miceli of Tewksbury, of the legislature’s transportation committee, is calling for public hearings. Miceli said he wanted to know, among other things, how inspectors missed corrosion on the light fixtures.
Miceli told the Boston Herald that he drives through the tunnel “with trepidation, I really do And I’m not one of those guys who’s running scared.”
He added: “Knowing what I know, and I don’t want to cause a panic, I, when I can, avoid the tunnel.”
Fatal Ceiling Collapse
The lighting accident occurred five years after a three-ton concrete ceiling tile in the tunnel fell and fatally crushed a 38-year-old passenger in a car. That accident, which occurred five years after the tunnel opened, was traced to "use of an epoxy anchor adhesive with poor creep resistance" that could not sustain long-term loads.
The fatal accident was followed by a “stem-to-stem” visual inspection of the Big Dig tunnels. Mullan said that inspection showed no problem with the light fixtures.
The companies that oversaw the Big Dig, Bechtel and Parsons Brinckerhoff, ultimately paid the state $400 million to settle claims of shoddy workmanship, including a 2004 episode in which a breach in the wall sent water gushing into a tunnel, the Boston Globe reported.
It was later revealed that the tunnel was riddled with leaks in its roof, the Globe said. The Turnpike Authority, which managed the Big Dig until 2009, acknowledged in 2007 that hundreds of leaks remained and that plugged leaks were regularly reopening. | <urn:uuid:a91ace7e-c6cb-43ae-8b5a-f0be8616ba80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.paintsquare.com/news/?fuseaction=view&id=5282 | 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 | 0.957826 | 1,108 | 1.625 | 2 |
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – A group of New Mexicans is protesting changes by Presbyterian Health Plan that now deny them a drug they say was effective in fighting their rare disease.
She said Presbyterian Health Plan used to cover her more than $15,000 Rituxan treatment, but in January Presbyterian limited its Rituxan coverage to 18 diseases.
Maxwell’s disorder is no longer covered.
She and others affected by the change spent Monday protesting outside the Presbyterian Healthcare Services building on Buena Vista Drive SE.
She said the drug has kept her alive and that without it her hair falls out and her skin falls off. More than 100 people can no longer get the drug since Presbyterian changed the criteria, she added.
“These were people that got their lives back,” Maxwell said. “I was on it almost a year with no problems and no side effects, and I got my life back.”
Presbyterian Health Plan spokesperson Todd Sandman said they limited the coverage because national research showed the drug was only effective for certain diseases.
Since Rituxan has strong side effects Presbyterian must limit who gets the drug, he said.
“When the evidence is there, and when the physician is prescribing the drug, Presbyterian Health Plan covers it,” Sandman said. “Unfortunately where it is not proven to work, we think the safety benefits outweigh the coverage decision.”
Sandman said even though 134 patients are no longer covered, there are still more than 200 patients that receive Rituxan under Presbyterian Health Plan.
Patients denied Rituxan coverage can appeal that decision to Presbyterian. If that does not work they can take their appeal to state insurance regulators. | <urn:uuid:90818c32-e81b-4c45-9789-5eaec83ba794> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pemphigus.org/es/patients-protest-losing-drug-coverage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973593 | 362 | 1.5625 | 2 |
App Reviewed on: iPad 2
iPad Integration Rating:
User Interface Rating:
Re-use / Replay Value Rating:
While the name John Kascht may not be household, his caricatures should look familiar. From Rolling Stone to The New Yorker, The New York Times, LIFE, and TV Guide all the way to the Smithsonian National Portrait gallery, his portfolio of celebrity spoofings and political parodying is sure to contain at least one recognizable, if not iconic, image.
Above and Beyond: John Kascht, is an interactive audio book for iPad that showcases some of his best work, and includes all sorts of biographical material as well.
A working beekeeper, this unassuming man has drawn some of the most memorable images of some of the world’s most important personas. The app highlights the difference between the artist and his subjects who are all larger-than-life.
At the core of the app are 19 caricatures of including likenesses of the Beatles, George Bush, Eminem – even a Bill Gates spoof that went viral.
A stunning HD reproduction of the caricature is shown on its own crisp white “page.” And with each come some options. A tap on the speech bubble toggles audio clips that explain everything from what Kascht thinks about his subject, to reflections on his technique and even tips for aspiring artists.
There is also a pencil icon which shows at least one, often several, preparatory sketches, some of which are more compelling than the finished product and all of which give insight into Kascht’s process. Each page has a heart to tap in order to share favorites on Twitter and Facebook. Some pages come with additional text as well.
The interface isn’t intuitive – it’s invisible. And while it may not sound like there is a lot here, there is, in fact, a wealth of wit and wisdom along with some simply amazing portraits. The app is littered with little visual and interactive goodies, making the experience wholly engaging.
There are some cool extras included as well. Users can take a virtual tour of Kascht’s portraits that hang in the National Portrait Gallery or or check out his 1955 Ford F-100 that is still in use on his working farm.
There are, as mentioned, several pages of biographical information, including a video introduction, full panoramic view of his workspace, a peek at his beehives, and a look at what makes him tick. It’s all mixed with plenty of unpretentious good humor.
The app can be taken in in one sitting, but the GUI is so beautiful and the caricatures so captivating, it’s the sort of interactive coffee table book users will want to return to and show off.
Tagged with: Above and Beyond: John Kascht, audio book, caricature, interactive book, joe zeff design, John Kascht, portraits | <urn:uuid:ff3f8ca1-acd4-438a-8987-a741ac0bb8c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.148apps.com/reviews/john-kascht-review/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935234 | 605 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Stephanie Froehlich is a pioneer in Classical Conversations in North Dakota.
Classical Conversations is an international home-centered education program focusing on classical education and reclaiming the lost tools of learning.
After Froehlich and her husband, Col. Eric Froehlich, commander of the 5th Maintenance Group at Minot Air Force Base, moved to the base from the Washington, D.C., area in July 2011, she started Classical Conversations here, although its start was delayed for a time by the Souris River flood and its aftermath.
Eloise Ogden/MDN • Stephanie Froehlich, center, director of the local Classical Conversations campus, helps her son, Ethan, 6, right, with an art project in the program’s Fine Arts class Thursday. The 24-week winter program for home schoolers and the first Classical Conversations program in North Dakota, meets at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Minot.
Froehlich is the director of the local Classical Conversations campus the only one in North Dakota as well as in South Dakota and Montana. She's also the program's service manager for N.D.
For 24 weeks, each week the winter program meets at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Minot where home-schooled students and tutors/parents come together for a day of learning and to be with their Classical Conversations campus "family."
The students are divided into several groups. Elementary includes 4- and 5-year-olds - the abcedarians; 6- and 7-year-olds - the apprentices; 8- and 9-year-olds - the journeymen; and 10- 11-year-olds - the masters. The middle school or seventh- and eighth-graders are in the Challenge program. The Minot program does not have senior high at this time but other Classical Conversations campuses have that level.
The Minot Classical Conversations community will hold an open house next month for home-schooling families interested in the program.
The open house will be Feb. 21 from 9 a.m. to noon in St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Minot. To register, call Stephanie Froehlich, director of Classical Conversations, at 703-987-0683 or email her at [email protected].
"Eight students per class is the cap," Froehlich said.
Classical Conversations was founded in 1997 by Leigh Bortins, of Pinehurst, N.C., who worked in the aerospace field for many years before she became an educator. Bortins developed the curriculum.
"We do not vary from the curriculum or the way that she set up the program," Froehlich said. She said it has been found that varying from the program has resulted in its failing.
A board in the 4- and 5-year-olds' classroom at St. Mark's listed that age group's curriculum including history, geography, English, Latin, math and science.
She said a full campus for Classical Conversations is 64 students. "In our case, ours is not full. We have a total of 38 students and we're not full yet. We have room to grow," she said.
A tuition-based program, Froehlich said all fees stay local.
Froehlich has been involved in Classical Conversations proper for three years and home schooling for nine years. All of the Froehlich children from Hayden, 13, Meredith, 11, to Ethan, 6, are home schooled. Amelia, 3, also was at the Classical Conversations program Thursday with her mother and siblings.
A former labor and delivery nurse, Froehlich was a Classical Conversations tutor before she became a director/service manager. She worked with the program in northern Virginia before coming to Minot AFB.
She was hired last year as the service manager for the state of North Dakota. "My job as Classical Conversations service manager is to oversee new areas that want to start a campus," she said. She will interview the potential directors and then guide the directors in getting started with their own campus.
"Each of these campuses are sole proprietorships," Froehlich said. She is the owner of the Minot Classical Conversations campus.
"All my guidance comes from the corporate Classical Conversations but all of these campuses are remotely run," she said.
When the Froehlichs moved here, she said there was no Classical Conversations program in the state. "I wanted to make sure we both cover the whole state as well as get something started right here in Minot," she said.
"We are pioneers and I like to tell all my students that pioneers usually don't have it easy they have to work really hard to get the word out about the program but also their material is very hard," she said.
She continued, "We like to talk a lot about being pioneers, like I gave each one a North Dakota ornament with a horse and wagon on it - the pioneers. These ornaments say the pioneering spirit and that's kind of what our motto is for this new campus - that we are pioneers."
"We are very proud to be the first one in North Dakota. I love North Dakota, I love the people up here and I really do think this program is valuable and worthy to keep going in this area," Froehlich said.
"This program is about what we can do when we are a group - when we come together. When the group comes together we can really encourage and support each other," she said.
She said the program revolves around the group and the natural outpouring of meeting together each week.
"It's a blessing nationwide for many, many people who, especially here where you are somewhat isolated as a home-schooler. So every week you get together with another group of people who are like-minded who are homeschooling, and their children. You can bounce ideas off of them, and you can encourage and support each other, and it becomes a very powerful group for you that you can be a part of," Froehlich said.
Froehlich will be hiring a coordinator for the program who can carry it out after the Froehlichs leave Minot AFB.
"The goal is to keep the program going," she said.
"I know this program will continue because the people that are in the campus now, most of them are not leaving so it's not going to fall apart when I leave. My goal is to raise up and equip and empower these other families to feel that they can do it just as well as I can do it," she said.
For more about Classical Conversations, visit the website at (www.classicalconversations.com).
(Prairie Profile is a weekly feature profiling interesting people in our region. We welcome suggestions from our readers. Call Regional Editor Eloise Ogden at 857-1944 or Managing Editor Kent Olson at 857-1939. Either can be reached at 1-800-735-3229. You also can send e-mail suggestions to [email protected].) | <urn:uuid:6fc4df95-56d7-4857-abb4-1262a1d7a9aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/572572/Stephanie-Froehlich--A-pioneer-i---.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969636 | 1,492 | 1.5 | 2 |
Photos entered as evidence on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012 in Peer Khairi second-degree murder trial of his wife Randjida Khairi.
Credits: PHOTO SUPPLIED
Her Afghan father stands accused of murdering her mother for daring to allow her kids to adopt Canadian values, but their eldest daughter insists this wasn't an honour killing at all.
Now religious and wearing a hijab, Giti Khairi, 29, took the stand as a Crown witness against her father Peer, and then in stunning fashion, proceeded to negate much of what the prosecutors had told the jury to expect in their opening statement. Instead of following their roadmap of the case, she was suddenly taking them on a far different course.
No, she calmly told the court, her 65-year-old father wasn't the angry, domineering patriarch who lashed out at his wife because he was losing respect and control of his assimilating family.
Rather than her dad being the dictator who made all the decisions when they emigrated from Afghanistan to India and then to Canada in 2003, she said it was actually her slain mother Randjida who called the shots here before she "passed away" four years ago.
True, her parents argued a lot -- and they no longer slept together -- but it wasn't, as the Crown told the jury, because her father raged that her mom was allowing their six children to stray from his rigid, old-world ways.
Instead, she said, it was far more ordinary and mundane: they argued about money because both were on disability and they couldn't manage the household expenses.
As for her impending nuptials being a source of mounting tension in her home, she claims her traditional father was at peace with her decision not to have an arranged marriage. "I talked to him and everything was OK," she assured Crown attorney Amanda Camara.
After losing one parent, it seems she no longer wants to say anything that will cost her another.
Her dad has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the brutal stabbing death of his wife on March 18, 2008. Khairi doesn't deny inflicting the horrific wounds -- Randjida was almost decapitated -- but he insists he didn't have the necessary intent to commit murder.
Unlike the prosecution's tale of an immigrant family torn apart by clashing values, the daughter described six kids -- ranging in age at the time from 18 to 31 -- living peacefully with their parents in a three-bedroom apartment on the West Mall. She was close to her mom. "We were more like friends," she told the court. "I used to share about my workplace, I used to share about my fiance, about my in-laws. I used to share everything with her."
And what about her father? "I used to share with him, too. I think it was the same relationship with both of them."
She reluctantly admitted that her dad didn't initially approve of her plans to marry for love. "He was a little bit concerned. Usually in our culture we get married to our cousins. He wanted me to get married to my cousin because if it's a cousin, he's trusted more."
Her dad, she said, eventually approved of the engagement.
But what about their fights over her weekend stays at her fiance's home? The Crown had told the jury that her living arrangements were "a source of stress and conflict for her father."
"He was a little bit concerned in the beginning," she admitted. "He said, 'I want to make sure he will not use you and leave you on the side of the road'."
She told the jury that, once again, her dad came around.
And no, he never tried to coerce her into being a more observant Muslim -- it was a decision she made herself after her marriage. "I never wore hijab," she told the court. "My parents never forced us to follow the religion. My parents never forced us to wear hijab. After I got married I started praying and God worked in my heart."
The Crown then asked if she discussed these religious issues with her dad.
Until that point, the man's daughter had been so eerily cool. And then without warning, she buried her face in her hands and began to sob.
The trial was abruptly halted and is set to resume Friday morning.
Read Mandel Wednesday through Saturday. | <urn:uuid:7a5f814c-0174-42a1-b4ea-ff2b8e42e4ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2012/10/20121011-202906.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992193 | 902 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Nifty Fifty - Bring a Top Scientist to Middle and High School Students
The 3rd USA Science & Engineering Festival is tripling the Nifty Fifty Program from the inaugural year, to include more than 150 noted professionals who will fan out across the Washington, DC area in the 2013/2014 school year to speak about their work and careers at various middle schools and high schools. The Nifty Fifty will feature individuals who have made a major impact on the field of science and engineering either through research or through other fields such as law, business, government and public service.
The Nifty Fifty (times 3) will be an important, high-profile group in the Festival’s mission to bring young students into personal contact with renowned professionals and to build momentum and excitement in the months leading up to the Festival’s Expo in April 2014.
We are now asking Festival Partners to nominate at least one of their scientists or engineers to be considered for this elite cadre of professionals. We are looking for nominees from all areas of science and engineering who are dynamic, recognized in their field, and passionate about what they do – and who have the proven experience and desire to communicate that passion to young students in engaging, interactive ways.
The Festival seeks a broad representation of speakers, particularly with a diversity of science and engineering professions, ethnicity and gender.
The nominee’s ability to engage a young audience is critical, especially because these talks are not only intended for youngsters who may be interested in science and engineering careers, but also for kids who may not be as enthusiastic. The challenge for the Nifty Fifty speaker is to engage everyone.
Selected scientists and engineers will be scheduled to make at least one, four-hour commitment for a presentation during the 2013/2014 school year at a selected middle or high school in the Washington, DC, northern Virginia or Maryland areas.
In considering which scientists or engineers to nominate as Nifty Fifty presenters, Festival Partners are advised that nominees should:
- be engaging, dynamic, high energy and passionate speakers.
- preferably live in, or be within driving distance of, Washington, DC, northern Virginia or Maryland.
- be able to wow your audience by including ample visuals (such as videos and other multimedia technology, cool demos, research samples, and handouts) in their talks, and other means (such as humor and personal vignettes) to engage students. It is important that speakers be able to customize their talks to young audiences and not use typical materials or language they might employ for talks directed to colleagues.
- be able to submit to the Nifty Fifty selection committee video or audio samples of “kid friendly” presentations they have conducted in the past in classrooms or in other science education settings.
- be able to communicate (or preferably meet) with the assigned classroom teacher at the school at least 45 days before the scheduled presentation to discuss the level of student understanding of the speaking topic, coordinate the contents of the talk, audiovisual needs, logistics and other matters. In an absolute ideal scenario, the speaker may also invite the teacher to tour their place of work to showcase the current state of research and engineering.
Other criteria to keep in mind:
Speakers’ talks should center on three key areas – the science and/or engineering they are passionate about, their career path (including how they became interested in what they do, who or what influenced them as young students, and stumbling blocks or challenges they encountered along the way) and what opportunities they see for young people in their field. Nifty Fifty talks should be no more than 35 minutes, with an additional 15 minutes for Q&A. Speakers should also be able to stay at least 2 hours before or after their talk to have lunch or a coffee at the school with a subset of interested teachers/students.
Coordinators of the Festival will be on hand at talks to facilitate presentations, news media coverage and to videotape all sessions for consideration for the Festival website and future promotion of Festival activities.
USA Science & Engineering Festival Partners should submit their nominations for Nifty Fifty by April 30th, 2013. Festival organizers will then select the top 150 speakers for the Nifty Fifty (times 3) program.
Click here to see the current list of Nifty Fifty (times 3) speakers.
Fill out the form below to nominate a Nifty Fifty speaker. | <urn:uuid:fe4130ff-4fdd-4ad2-b072-8135a4e2097d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usasciencefestival.org/schoolprograms/niftyfifty/nominateniftyfifty.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949612 | 894 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Saturday, April 28, 2007 by Dave Winer.
You don't need to use Curl to get stuff from Twitter, you can use a web browser for some simple API calls to see what they return. Try clicking on this URL to see my most recent 20 status messages.
The docs could be much clearer about this, imho.
Another little-known fact, the RSS feeds that provide code updates for all the various components of the OPML Editor now have comments, that explain what changed in each update. I never release a part without explaining it (knock wood, praise Murphy, don't sue me if I don't). Here's an example, the feed for opml.root.
Should have done this a long time ago. I'm going to push some Twitter-related updates today, they should show up in that feed. This means you might want to also subscribe to these feeds in your aggregator or feed reader, because they now include human-readable bits. Unless you're a programmer the notes will likely not make much sense, but that's one way learn programming, almost by osmosis. | <urn:uuid:da06442f-4491-4598-aa9d-316795b1907e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scripting.com/stories/2007/04/28/littleknownFacts.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943653 | 230 | 1.59375 | 2 |
I was given the Security Purchase Contract Note for an Equity Linked Note. The contract note is very difficult to read, even for an expert like me. The Note was issued by bank X and distributed by bank Y to a Chinese educated elderly person (who does not understand English).
After reading the contract note, I was able to analyse the terms as follows:
a) The note is linked to two shares, A and B
b) Interest is payable at an annual rate of 12% for each day that both shares stay above the trigger price (which is 85% of the reference price). If any share fall below the trigger price, interest is not payable for that day
c) At the end of each observation period (about two months), if both shares are above the trigger price, the Note is redeemed at par, plus accrued interest.
d) On the maturity date (18 months), if any share falls below 70% of the reference price, the investor is given the shares and has to bear the capital loss (of more than 30%).
e) The Notes are principal protected at maturity (provided the Knock-in event has not occurred). There is no mention of the party providing the guarantee, but a statement as follows: "the notebolder is exposed to the credit risk of the issuer or the third party guarantor".
I find this product to be unsatisfactory in the following respects:
1) The "interest payment" is not really "interest". It is actually a risk premium given for providing the insurance against a 30% drop in any of the shares in the basket.
2) It is impossible for the investor to know if the risk premium is fair, given the unknown extent of the risk?
3) The contract is designed by bank X, which stands to gain from the margin between the true cost of the risk and the so called "interest" payable to the noteholder. This can be to the disadvantage of the retail investor, and can in an extreme case, be considered as "cheating" the investor.
There are laws against creating gambling contracts, without approval of the authority. Does this type of equity linked note fall within the definition of a gambling contract? This law was written to prevent the public from being cheated.
Outcome: The issuing bank X went bankrupt. The investor lost the entire principal, amounting to several hundred thousand dollars. The distributing bank Y was negligent in exposing the investor to a large risk - without proper diversification.
If you are in a similar situation, with a similar product, you can write to me at [email protected].
- ► 2013 (302)
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04/05 - 04/12
- Survey: eFiling of income tax
- Equity Linked Notes - are the terms fair?
- Build MRT internechange stations closer together
- Bus stops as landmarks
- Fear and consequence of retrenchment
- AFP:Hong Kong watchdog slams brokerage in minibond...
- Thought for the day: Exploitation by the Elite
- Banks get guidelines on treating customers fairly
- Fat fees for speaking engagements
- Honesty and rationalisation
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- ► 2005 (159) | <urn:uuid:426c99d0-ae1d-4349-a3b2-f2ec90bec4a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/2009/04/equity-linked-notes-are-terms-fair.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933251 | 716 | 1.617188 | 2 |
National Heritage Week Poster Competition
The Heritage Council is inviting 4th, 5th and 6th year students to design a poster for National Heritage Week that will help illustrate the values of the week and, encompass either the breadth of heritage (which include museums, marine environment, wildlife, landscapes, music and folklore, historic buildings and archaeology), or to take a specific aspect of heritage you feel best illustrates the overall aimof getting people involved in understanding their heritage and the role it plays in our lives. The competition can be approached as a class art project or alternatively students are free to enter it on an individual basis.
The winning poster will be developed by a professional design agency and used in the National Heritage Week 2010 communications campaign which involves national and regional print, TV, online and radio campaigns. In addition if the winning poster is submitted as a class entry a donation of €500 will be made available to the school to be spent on a class excursion or for classroom equipment. If the winning poster is submitted by an individual they will win a €300 gift voucher.
See below for full competition details. Full competition details are also posted on the National HeritageWeek website www.heritageweek.ie | <urn:uuid:3c75008f-8503-4ac5-89d4-20a137bb3bbe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heritagecouncil.ie/education/news/archive/view-article/article/national-heritage-week-poster-competition/?L=0%2Fgrants%2Farchitecture-research-grant..&tx_ttnews%5BpS%5D=1336366343&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=385&cHash=a1396b9be82fddda9e448e4f43d02505 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951999 | 244 | 1.789063 | 2 |
A couple of people have asked me about my Turning Around Failing Projects speeches. Here is a small excerpt from my book Project Management That Works (a best seller published by AMACOM in 2008)
The statistics are staggering. The propensity for project failure is enormous. The general accepted failure rates range from as low as 59% to an unbelievable 94% of projects failing to meet their goals. When studying project failure, the survey questions try to determine if the project met the desired scope, timeframe, or met all of the requirements that the project set out to complete. However, these all take on new meanings when you consider something Rob Thomsett says in his book Radical Project Management:
"Projects fail because of context, not because of content"
If this statement is correct, then a large part, if not the entire 59% to 94%, of projects failed because of the improper setting of expectations. They may have delivered the contents of the project but failed to deliver on the expectations of time and cost. This drastically changes the landscape of the meaning of project failure. Now, pair Rob's definition with PMI's belief that a poor project schedule or inadequate budget is the direct result of poor project management, and project failure rests on project manager's shoulders.
It is usually assumed that a project is being run in the first place by a trained project manager. However, most of the time, someone is managing a project along with their other duties.
How to Spot a Project that Is on Its Way Down
The first task in turning around a failing project is to learn how to recognize when a project is failing. In many cases, you need to start with the first step of the classic twelve step process with the first step being identifying that there is a problem. Although there are many reasons that projects may fail, there are some key indicators that projects are on the way down:
1) Poor project planning or no plan at all. It has been said that a failure to plan is a plan for failure. If you do not prepare for problems, they will surely derail you and your project.
2) Disagreement on project requirements. A lack of good documentation of requirements or receiving different answers from different team members about the goals of the project muddies the waters and makes it difficult for a project to succeed, since no one is really clear on what success means in this instance.
3) Lack of team involvement. Sponsors, stakeholders, or team members are not involved in team activities or are not responding to inquiries about the project. When people are not involved in the project it has no real life.
4) Lack of a clearly defined end. Have you ever had a project last a year and every time you ask how much longer will the project last, the answer is just another two to three weeks? Failing to set a clear end point means a project will never end and if it never ends, it can never truly succeed.
5) Unrealistic Demands. If I said I needed you to rebuild theEiffelTower from the ground up for $30 in three weeks with five seven-year-old children as laborers, you would laugh. As ridiculous as this may sound, real demands as ridiculous as this have been set for projects. A project with demands that can never be met is sure to fail.
6) Failure to stop or plan again. Anytime a new project manager is assigned to a project, one of the first things that they want to do is to stop the project and assess where they are in the plan or re-plan in lieu of having a written plan. A team that responds by saying they are almost finished or they are too busy to plan is a clear sign of a project on the way down. Every team needs to be able to stop and rethink the project's plan.
These are all general theories and a search of the Internet will bring up many sites that have early warning signs, causes for failure, or theories as to why projects fail. The funny thing is that project managers seem to make the same mistakes over and over. The whole point of a project management process and profession is to continually improve. However, the reasons for project failure still continue to remain the same. Unfortunately, unless the way the projects are being planned or how the expectations are being set changes, the results of the project are unlikely to change.
Someone Isn't Being Heard
One common reason for project failure is that communication has fallen apart and someone is not being heard. Consider the following example.
A project manager was assigned to a support project that had no project management structure. The project was consistently not meeting the customer's expectations and senior management wanted a plan to improve customer satisfaction. The project manager started to investigate the root causes of the satisfaction issues. She met with the team as a whole and then individually. As she met with the team members, the issues were becoming quite clear. The causes of the customer satisfaction issues had already been identified by the team and they attempted to put action plans in place to rectify the problems. The project manager investigated the options that the team had put together and saw that they were quite viable. She compiled the information into a presentation and scheduled a meeting with her senior management. She outlined the options and asked for a decision from senior management as to which option they agreed with. They chose an option and she implemented the plan. There was an immediate improvement in the timeliness of customer service which in turn led to an improvement in customer satisfaction. As the improvements continued for the next couple of weeks, senior management brought the project manager in to thank her for a job well done. They asked how she came up with the options she presented. "I didn't," she replied. "The team developed the options. All I did was examine them for viability and present them to you." The senior management team was in disbelief. They wondered why the team hadn't presented the options to them before this. The project manager replied, "They may have not understood the best way to present the information to you or how to approach you with their ideas. But it was their ideas all along."
There are many reasons why the team may not have been able to communicate their options to the management in this example. Teams can develop behaviors based on small insignificant events. At one point, a senior manager could have said "no" too abruptly and demoralized a team member. That team member then begins to have the attitude that senior management doesn't care or will not listen to them. A few episodes of that and groupthink can set in.
According to www.dictionary.com, groupthink is defined as:
The act or practice of reasoning or decision-making by a group, especially when characterized by uncritical acceptance or conformity to prevailing points of view.
decision making by a group (especially in a manner that discourages creativity or individual responsibility).
For a very serious example, groupthink was the cause of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. This is no small statement. Groupthink was the ultimate cause of one of the worst space tragedies in our time. When the analysis of the disaster was complete, it was determined that the O-rings of the rocket booster were the cause of the explosion. An engineer at the company that manufactured the O-rings had warned senior management that when the weather drops below a certain temperature, the integrity of the O-rings is compromised. The engineer asked for more time from senior management to be certain. The panel that was formed to uncover the reasons for the Challenger disaster found some startling information. Originally, the company that made the O-rings recommended that the Challenger should cancel the launch until the temperature rose above 53 degrees, which was not expected to occur for several days. NASA has already cancelled the launch a few times and was under enormous political and societal pressure. They applied pressure to the engineering company. Fearing the loss of future revenue and backlash from causing another delay, the engineering company began to question it's own data and began to rationalize their decision. The engineering company asked for five minutes to discuss the situation. During the five minutes that the company was isolated enormous pressure was put on the engineer about his data and analysis. The question for the company became whether to choose safety and possible loss of revenue or risk and future revenue. Inevitably, the pressure to conform outweighed the right decision. When the engineering company called NASA back, they recommended that the Challenger should launch. The official findings of the panel stated that the technical malfunction was the O-rings, the cause the disaster was groupthink.
When anyone in management stops listening to their team members, disaster can strike at any time. When a project is failing, first look to the communication. Over 90% of a project manager's job is to communicate. Whether it is documentation, meetings, one-on-one conversation, or phone calls, all are forms of communications. When you refer to the list of key indicators, communication is central part of all of the items. When communications stop, people stop being heard. When team members are not being heard, project failure is sure to follow.
So what do you recommend to open communication? How do we prevent these kinds of failures? | <urn:uuid:30d628a0-217c-4131-8ef1-fb945fddc37b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pmthatworks.com/2012_04_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973647 | 1,873 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Take Stock in Children
October 15, 2009
I started mentoring Sierra Robinson in 2004 when she was in 7th grade. I bring lunch and we visit on a weekly basis. I have watched her grow and become a responsible adult. She shares her experiences at school and home and sometimes, I am able to help her with decisions. This is a great program for both the student and the mentor. The Take Stock adminsitration provides support and information. They helped Sierra find an individual in her chosen field that she could shadow. This experience helped Sierra make a definite decision on her future career path. I would recommend this program to anyone.
If this organization had 10 million bucks, it could...
help more low income students achieve the dream of a college education. This is a positive, rewarding way for someone to be involved in helping break the cycle of poverty.
How frequently have you been involved with the organization?
About every week
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
Volunteer & I met with the student I mentored on a weekly basis. | <urn:uuid:c8c3868a-75c7-4427-af90-eb1bd5c246a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://greatnonprofits.org/users/profile/16345 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972674 | 218 | 1.664063 | 2 |
A $16.6-million national research network to tackle the technological challenges related to the growing complexity of automotive software systems will be led by McMaster researchers and located at McMaster Innovation Park. Network partners include Industry Canada, General Motors of Canada, IBM Canada, Malina Software Corp of Ottawa, Centre de Recherche Informatique de Montréal, and six other Canadian universities.
The Network on Engineering Complex Software Intensive Systems for Automotive Systems (NECSIS) was announced today by Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, and Suzanne Fortier, president, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), at an event held at McMaster Innovation Park in Hamilton.
Also participating in the announcement were Kevin Williams, president and managing director of GM Canada; Bruce Ross, president, IBM Canada; Patrick Deane, president and vice-chancellor, McMaster University; and David Wilkinson, dean, Faculty of Engineering, McMaster University.
Automotive Partnership Canada, of which NSERC is the lead agency, is providing $10.5 million in funding to the network over five years. Industry and academic partners are contributing $6.1 million.
"Taking a leadership role in this new software engineering network expands McMaster's contributions to yet another growing area of automotive research, adding to our expertise in hybrid powertrains, material lightweighting, and advanced manufacturing," said Patrick Deane, president and vice-chancellor, McMaster University.
NECSIS is led by principal investigator Tom Maibaum, Canada Research Chair in the Foundations of Software Engineering at McMaster University, along with co-principal investigator Joanne Atlee, associate professor at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. Other universities in the network include McGill University, Queen's University, University of British Columbia, University of Toronto, and University of Victoria, as well as Centre de Recherche Informatique de Montréal.
"As a leading supporter of collaborative research in Canada, we have helped build a strong automotive innovation network," said Kevin Williams, president and managing director of GM of Canada. "NECSIS is a key initiative as we re-think the automobile and develop innovative approaches to develop tomorrow's technologies."
The network will be based in the new McMaster Automotive Resource Centre (MARC) being developed at McMaster Innovation Park. It is the same facility that will house research initiatives related to new hybrid powertrain and lightweight materials. MARC is being developed as an innovation ecosystem, promoting daily interactions among industry, university and government on market-oriented and industry-driven research.
"In an era where billions of devices are being interconnected to enable intelligent decisions, the time is right to create and to innovate development processes using real-time navigational capabilities that will help build a smarter car," said Bruce Ross, president, IBM Canada. "Together with our partners, IBM is proud to leverage our Canadian research capabilities to invest and to collaborate in this innovation effort as we collectively advance intelligent transportation in Canada."
NECSIS will focus on the advancement of an emerging methodology called model driven engineering (MDE). MDE reduces the complexity of developing software by focusing on models and their relationships, reflected in the designs, code and documents that developers work with, enabling them to test and verify models even before the code exists.
"Computer systems in vehicles are managing more and more operations and increasing in complexity,' said Maibaum. "That adds up to tens of millions of lines of software code that must work flawlessly and seamlessly together, and achieving this is becoming increasingly challenging using current approaches to software development."
Functions managed by computer systems in today's vehicles include braking, stability, safety and fuel systems; systems to reduce emissions; and systems to protect, entertain and communicate with the driver. Hybrid and all-electric vehicles involve even more complex software based systems.
"Canada has long led the world in the highly advanced field of model driven engineering," said Bran Selic, president and founder of Malina Software Corp. "With decades long expertise in this field, we are extremely pleased and proud to have the opportunity to contribute to this important initiative." | <urn:uuid:26d19a25-c89b-44b5-a6a0-1bbd462270da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ecnmag.com/news/2010/10/national-smarter-car-research-network-established-mcmaster-university | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937368 | 848 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Author Darty's Book
Look Homeward, Angel
Seventeen-year-old Angelique Boudreau couldn't be happier, for she is soon to marry nineteen-year-old Joseph Landry, the man she loves. But it's October of 1755, and life for Angelique, Joseph, and the other Acadians in their town of Grand Pre, Nova Scotia is about to change forever. One terrible day, the Acadian men of Grand Pre are deported by the British, and Angelique fears she will never see her father and her beloved Joseph again. Because her mothe...
My Beloved Waits
It's May 1865, and the Civil War is finally over, but for Grace Cunningham, the hardship has not ended. Her older brother died in battle, and she and her mother haven't had word from her father in so long that Grace assumes he has died as well. Just nineteen years old, Grace must keep their Alabama farm running so that the bank does not take it away and sell it to Yankee carpetbaggers, for her mother is not strong enough emotionally. One day, a Northerne...
View these reviews in summary mode
Peggy Darty Message Board 1/27/2011 8:39:13 PM
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Darty has written! | <urn:uuid:104f9385-6dda-44d1-8022-6ecc75b0ace1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allreaders.com/Topics/Topic_13885.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96545 | 274 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Convinced? Here's how to make room for your passions in your life.
Reawaken your inner kid.
Don't even know what pastime would make you happy? For inspiration, think about times in your childhood when you felt pure freedom and playfulness, says Brown (finger painting? riding your bike?), and find ways to experience those feelings today. It might not be the same activity; for example, if as a kid you loved bike riding because it let you explore wherever your whims took you, then joining an ultracompetitive cycling club may not be the way to get back that feeling. Perhaps try hiking or skiing or even painting, if that gives you the same sense of possibility.
Treat your bliss as a requirement.
You have to eat. You have to sleep. Think of hobbies that feed your soul as being equally important to your physical and mental well-being. Melissa Ford uses precious free time when her kids are in preschool or sleeping to maintain Lost and Found
, a daily blog that serves as a clearinghouse for more than 2,000 infertility bloggers looking for support and connection. "I know I could use that time to read or relax, but I draw such happiness from the project that it's worth it," says Ford, 35, an author in Washington, DC.
So how do you actually make the time for a hobby? You've often heard the advice to ink in "time for you" and treat it as inviolable, just as you would your kids' medical appointments or a work meeting. But here's a twist: When you make your schedule for the week, try planning your fun time first,
says Jill Dearman, writing coach and author of Bang the Keys: Four Steps to a Lifelong Writing Practice
. It's the old "put your oxygen mask on before assisting others" rule. That's how Cristine Hellerstein, 36, a high school science teacher in Atlanta, makes time for Irish step dancing a passion of hers for more than a decade. By agreement with her husband, Thursday nights are her dance-class nights, and unless she or one of her children is sick, she never misses it.
Let go of perfection.
If you're trying something new, it's easy to fall into the trap of wanting to master the activity or feeling dumb if you're not great at it. But self-criticism sucks the joy out of anything, Dearman says. "Think about it: If your child or a loved one were trying something new, you'd never say, 'What's wrong with you? Why do you screw everything up?'" she says. Mandel adds, "No one is born a good dancer or driver. Don't worry about what people will think!"
Colleen Cole embraced this "So what?" attitude when she and two friends started taking Zumba classes at a local fitness center. "We aren't the best dancers, but we have a ball, even when we go in the wrong direction or can't get a dance step quite right," says Cole, 46, a social media consultant in Brampton, Ontario. "We'll be at the mall and a Zumba song will come on, and our butts start wiggling!"
Make room literally.
A dedicated physical space for your hobby, even if it's just a corner of the kitchen counter, can help you make mental space for it too. When Tracy Fanslow moved into her current home, her boyfriend converted a small coat closet into a scrapbooking area, complete with built-in storage and a small counter where Fanslow can work on her projects. "I can make whatever mess I want, then just close the door and poof! The mess is gone and out of reach of little hands," says Fanslow, 39, a mother of four in Mesa, AZ.
Be open to spontaneous joy.
It's normal to have trouble finding time for your hobbies during these busy child-raising, career-building middle years, Brown notes. Accept that spending hours and hours on your hobbies might be hard now, and look for ways to experience that same delight in just minutes here and there each day. Caroline Adams Miller, 47, a life coach in Bethesda, MD, recently picked up jazz piano after not playing since she was a kid. "I keep my music set up on the piano," she says. "I might not always be able to put in an hour of practice, but I can fit in a few minutes of scales or trills or jazz improv whenever I walk by, and it gives me so much joy. | <urn:uuid:142624da-7c56-4530-b0bf-057c07a37dd6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redbookmag.com/health-wellness/advice/benefits-of-a-hobby-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968781 | 941 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Glenn Beck's '9-12' logo based on communist and socialist designs
Ever since Glenn Beck took to the Fox television airwaves recently to offer a bizarre reading of the art commissioned 70 years ago for New York's Rockefeller Center, I've been puzzled by the graphic design element of his 9-12 Project. The logo (pictured) for his affiliated groups' rally in Washington, D.C., this weekend derives from century-old communist, socialist and other left-wing designs.
Those were the motifs he railed against in his Rockefeller rant.
For the logo, three raised and clenched red fists are superimposed over the U.S. Capitol. Obviously the bloody fist represents the tea-baggers' themes of unity and resistance.
But do Beck; the corporate-sponsored astro-turf group, FreedomWorks, headed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas); the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights; the private-property group, the National Assn. of Rural Landowners; and the rest of the march sponsors know the symbol's origins?
Unity and resistance are what the fist represented in 1917, when it was first employed by the Industrial Workers of the World, a union organization founded by socialists. And in the 1940s, when it stood for various nations' communist party organizations.
That's also what it meant when it was revived in the 1960s, appearing as a symbol for the SDS, as well as anti-war and feminist movements. It was the basis for the black-power salute given by John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. And today, it's the symbol for the Progressive Labor Party (pictured), a political outfit whose website says it "fights to smash capitalism."
Turnout for the 9-12 Project's Saturday march on Washington was a bust; 30,000 protesters signed up in advance (MSNBC reporter David Shuster tweeted that D.C. park police called that figure "generous"). But even if three times that many actually showed up, the number would fall far short of the hundreds of thousands (and even millions) claimed to be planning to attend. Even in that reduced crowd, however, surely someone recognized how odd the right-wing gathering's left-wing logo was.
Maybe Beck will explain. Sort of.
-- Christopher Knight
Credits: 912dc.org; Progressive Labor Party | <urn:uuid:2ff28233-8186-4ed1-be51-8d3d1f2a0655> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/09/glenn-becks-912-logo-based-on-on-communist-and-socialist-designs/comments/page/10/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966744 | 495 | 1.5625 | 2 |
People of Transcendence
The U.S. peace movement is fragmented. Just ask Cindy Sheehan. And who could argue? Such fragmentation is no surprise in the most capitalist of societies in history. It is a system that grows by separating people, first from their land, and then from themselves and others.
Yes, the fault lines of the American peace movement are many. There are class, gender and race contradictions. Were Americans of yesterday free of them? To ask the question is not to answer it. We know the past, certainly not so for the present and future.
To take one contradiction in 2007, blacks, who are 12 percent of the population and the most anti-war group of Americans, are all but absent in the peace movement. How can that be?
Meanwhile, African Americans are overly present in what can be termed the nation's penal colony, comprising half of the U.S. population on lockdown. Anti-war groups, local and national, weaken themselves to the extent they turn away from the people, kids, teens and adults, who are victims of this striking feature of U.S. inequality.
Let me be clear. Reaching out to those not formally involved in the anti-war movements across the country is, in my view, a necessary step. Such inclusion is the only sane strategy for the necessary solidarity to change foreign and domestic policies, to win more freedom for people here and overseas.
Meanwhile, income and wealth that the American laboring majority produces goes to fewer and fewer individuals. Accordingly, the U.S. political system more and more serves that well-heeled minority, who as a class are pro-war for reasons of control. If nothing else, military conflict weakens working people of an imperial nation, while destroying lives and property in the attacked and occupied countries, with Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine three cases in point.
Currently, Cindy Sheehan and the rest of the American proletariat, those with and without paid work, confront an upper class with its hands on an economic surplus of mind-boggling immensity. The sums of capital involved with respect to private equity firms, for instance, simply stagger the mind of ordinary working people in the U.S., who are seeing their health care and pensions slip away. Such material insecurity gives the lie to the political rhetoric of national security.
The CEO class that is looting American workers and their families is also, through control of the Democratic and Republican parties, steering the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. Any movements to transcend the present rout stateside and abroad will rise as it flows from (wo)men, together, resisting the government and private-sector policies affecting their living and working conditions, including foreign military operations, directly and by Israeli proxy, without end.
Forming such national movements across the U.S. is going to take a long time. The good news is that the process is underway. Of course the end result can't be seen. But that does not negate the advance.
Seth Sandronsky lives and writes in Sacramento | <urn:uuid:08dae9a2-fb28-4862-8fc1-7e44db50a575> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zcommunications.org/people-of-transcendence-by-seth-sandronsky | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949936 | 626 | 1.789063 | 2 |
In this week's MacGyver Challenge, we asked you to hack something cool with empty bottles or cans. We received some great entries, but the winning hack shows us a simple but effective way to open those tight plastic soda bottles.
Check out the description of the winning entry below and read about some of our other favorite entries.
Winner: Open Stubborn Soda Bottles With a Ketchup Top
Reader scorp1us shows us a simple but effective way to open plastic soda bottles, the lids of which can get especially tight if they've already been opened and reclosed and the pressure has built up. Scorp1us discovered that the lid from a Heinz ketchup bottle fits perfectly over the cap of a regular plastic soda bottle, giving you and extra big lid to twist and more gripping power.
We got a lot of great entries and we'd be remiss if we didn't share some of our favorites. Here are some of the entries that really impressed us.
Create a Beautiful Tray From Empty Beer Bottles
Reader HeartofGlass created a really interesting shallow bowl from five Corona bottles by flattening and fusing the bottles together under high heat. This process, known as slumping, requires a kiln, but if you have access to one, you can create some really cool things. To get you started, here are instructions for creating a glass bottle cheese tray that give you a pretty good overview of the slumping process.
Replace a Chemex Vase With an Empty Wine Bottle
Reader balders2 loves his Chemex coffee maker, but didn't like that the included vase was so fragile and expensive to replace. He created a stand out of an used wine bottle filled with water (for weight) by repurposing a plastic funnel. He cut the bottom off the funnel, screwed it into the cork in the wine bottle, and then attached top part of the funnel to the contraption. He added a metal insert that was easy to remove and clean and now has a cheap and durable system for making Chemex coffee. | <urn:uuid:578d2fb3-11a3-4be1-9787-7998ed8a08f2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lifehacker.com/5965272/macgyver-challenge-winner-open-stubborn-soda-bottles-with-a-ketchup-top?tag=bottle | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952846 | 418 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The SNP has launched a special manifesto aimed at carers which they say shows their commitment to helping Scotland's "unsung heroes".
With just days to go to the local authority elections, the party unveiled a "mini manifesto" making a number of pledges aimed at improving the lives of those who look after others.
The document includes a promise that all SNP councils will appoint a special carers champion.
In addition, the party is promising to work to ensure young carers get more support from their schools and are given easier access to the education maintenance allowance - which provides financial assistance to 16 to 19-year-olds at school or college.
Derek Mackay, the SNP's local government campaign director, said: "Carers are the unsung heroes of our society who selflessly give up their time to help others.
"We recognise the invaluable and often exhausting work carers contribute to Scotland's communities, which is why SNP councils will work tirelessly to ensure they get the help and support they need."
He added: "Looking after someone is not an easy task - particularly if you are a young carer.
"SNP councils will work with the Scottish Government to ensure young carers are better served by their schools and be given easier access to the education maintenance allowance."
Mr Mackay pledged: "SNP councils will work together to improve the quality of carers' lives - when we work together across the public sector we can deliver more."
More About Local elections 2012
- Scotland’s councillors get back to work as the dust settles on elections
- New coalition in Edinburgh sets out promises for next five years
- SNP fury as Labour and Tories strike coalition deal to run Stirling Council
- Voters go to the polls a week late to elect final three councillors
- Councils in Lothians strike deals after days of negotiations
- Councils across Scotland starting to take shape after days of negotiations
- Negotiations across the Lothians in the wake of local government elections | <urn:uuid:6903e0f7-463b-471d-aeaa-ad08fc693e4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.stv.tv/scotland/305275-nationalists-pledge-extra-support-for-scotlands-young-carers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950205 | 409 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Background: I'm a data scientist at a startup in Austin, and I come from grad school (Physics). I use Python day-to-day for data analysis, but use R a bit. I also use C#/.NET and Java (just about daily), I used C++ heavily in grad school.
I think the main problem with using Python for numerics (over R) is the size of the user community. Since the language has been around for ever, lots of people have done things that you're likely to want to do. This means that, when faced with a hard problem, you can just download the package and get to work. And R "just works": you give it a dataset, and it knows what summary statistics are useful. You give it some results, and it knows what plots you want. All the common plots you'd want to make are there, even some pretty esoteric ones that you'll have to look up on Wikipedia. As nice as scipy/numpy/pandas/statsmodels/etc. are for Python, they're not at the level of the R standard library.
The main advantage of Python over R is that it's a real programming language in the C family. It scales easily, so it's conceivable that anything you have in your sandbox can be used in production. Python has Object Orientation baked in, as opposed to R where it feels like kind of an afterthought (because it is). There's other stuff that Python does nicely too: threading and parallel processing are pretty easy, and I'm not sure if that's the case in R. And learning Python gives you a powerful scripting tool, too. There are also really good (free) IDEs for Python, much better ones if you're willing to pay (less than $100), and I'm not sure this is the case for R--the only R IDE I know of is R Studio, which is pretty good, but isn't as good as PyDev + Eclipse, in my experience.
I'll add this as a bit of a kicker: since you're still in school, you should think about jobs. You'll find more job postings for highly skilled Python devs than you will for highly skilled R devs. In Austin, jobs for Django devs are kind of falling out of the sky. If you know R really well, there are a few places where you'll be able to capitalize that skill (Revolution Analytics, for example), but lots of shops seem to use Python. Even in the field of data analysis/data science, more people seem to be turning to Python.
And don't underestimate that you may work with/for people who only know (say) Java. Those people will be able to read your Python code pretty easily. This won't necessarily be the case if you do all of your work in R. (This comes from experience.)
Finally, this may sound superficial, but I think the Python documentation and naming conventions (which are religiously adhered to, it turns out) is a lot nicer than the utilitarian R doc. This will be hotly debated, I'm sure, but the emphasis in Python is readability. That means that arguments to Python functions have names that you can read, and that mean something. In R, argument names are often truncated---I've found this less true in Python. This may sound pedantic, but it drives me nuts to write things like 'xlab' when you could just as easily name an argument 'x_label' (just one example)---this has a huge effect when you're trying to learn a new module/package API. Reading R doc is like reading Linux man pages---if that's what floats your boat, then more power to you. When I have a question about how something works in R, I avoid the R documentation, whereas I START with the Python doc when I'm confused about Python.
All of that being said, I'd suggest the following (which is also my typical workflow): since you know Python, use that as your first tool. When you find Python lacking, learn enough R to do what you want, and then either:
- Write scripts in R and run them from Python using the subprocess module, or
- Install the RPy module.
Use Python for what Python is good at and fill in the gaps with one of the above. This is my normal workflow---I usually use R for plotting things, and Python for the heavy lifting.
So to sum up: because of Python's emphasis on readability (search gooogle for "Pythonic"), the availability of good, free IDEs, the fact that it's in the C family of languages, the greater possibility that you'll be able to capitalize the skillset, and the all-around better documentation-style of the language, I'd suggest making Python your go-to, and relying on R only when necessary. | <urn:uuid:6cd4ec14-4952-431f-9b0b-02a71ca35e17> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/181342/r-vs-python-for-data-analysis | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962397 | 1,006 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The BUAV is calling for an end to discussions that could result in the slaughter of thousands of monkeys by Noveprim, one of the main primate dealers on Mauritius and a company which is 47% owned by Covance UK, an animal testing facility in the UK. The mass slaughter was revealed following a tip-off received by the BUAV and reported in the Sunday Express and Le Defi in Mauritius.
The BUAV was informed that the slaughter, which would take place monthly until 2012, was due to a company downsize.
BUAV’s Chief Executive, Michelle Thew stated:
"The BUAV is appalled to learn that this monkey slaughter is being considered. It is totally unacceptable that monkeys, who have been exploited for years, are now simply discarded because they are of no further use to the company. We call on Prime Minister of Mauritius, Dr Navinchandra Ramgoolam, to stop this senseless slaughter and instead allow these monkeys to be released into the wild so that they can live out the rest of their lives freely. We also urge the people of Mauritius to speak out against this terrible cruelty."
Mauritius is the world’s second largest exporter of long-tailed macaques for the research industry, exporting up to 10,000 animals each year. In September 2010, the BUAV released the findings of its investigation into the monkey trade on Mauritius which contained shocking evidence of the cruelty and suffering involved in the trapping and breeding of wild monkeys for the international research industry, in particular for the UK, USA and Europe. In 2009 Noveprim reportedly supplied 60% of the total number of primates imported by the European Union.
Write to His Excellency Mr Abhimanu Kundasamy:
Mauritius High Commission, 32-33 Elvaston Place, London, SW7 5NW | <urn:uuid:75ed88b3-5f96-44ad-ad5f-84c231d374e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.buav.org/article/825/buav-says-no-to-monkey-slaughter-on-mauritius | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958421 | 383 | 1.6875 | 2 |
DPS math achievement worst in the nation
Detroit Public Schools is the nation’s lowest performing urban district in mathematics, according to figures released today (PDF) by the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP). According to NAEP, even if the district improved at a record rate, it would still take at least four years to catch up with the next lowest district.
The Detroit Free Press report outlines how truly abysmal DPS' performance was:
The hour-long NAEP test is scored in two ways. In the first, average results are scored on a scale of 1 to 500. In the second set of scoring criteria, test-takers are ranked from “below basic” to “advanced.” About 69 % of the fourth-grade students scored “below basic.” In eighth grade, 77% were below basic.
Appalingly, not one DPS 4th or 8th grader scored at the advanced level.
Free Press columnist Rochelle Reilly listened to the terrible news with some members of Detroit Parent Network:
Wilbert Riser couldn’t stop shaking his head.
Veattris Edwards let out a gasp as if she’d just gotten news that someone had died.
Joe Baker bowed his head, took off his glasses, cleaned them, then sat in silence.
And Terance Collier groaned in disbelief. Over and over, he said, “Wow," and “Oh my God.”
The four parents, members of the Detroit Parent Network, a local organization that uses workshops and seminars to improve parental involvement in children’s education, watched from a Free Press conference room the news that Detroit Public Schools students’ math scores were lower than any other comparable city in the nation on a 2009 assessment.
But DPN parents aren't giving in:
But when the presentation ended, something interesting happened. He began to clap, loudly.
“I was saddened by the results, but I was happy at the same time to understand that we know the problem now,” said Collier, 48, father of three sons, a 16-year-old at Renaissance High, and a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old, who are students at Ludington Magnet Middle School. “The problem has been unmasked so we can really get down to the issues at hand.”
Collier said the solution lies with parents.
“It’s all about parenting. The teachers can’t be the parents. The police can’t be the parents … All children should know their real name when they go to school, know their father’s and mother’s name, know their telephone number, know their colors, shapes and how to count to 10. Then you make them prepared for the educational progress.”
DPN executive director Sharlonda Buckman released this statement in reaction to the NAEP figures:
These figures illustrate the code red crisis our city’s schools are facing and point to the urgent need for Detroit’s leaders to work together with parents to find ways to give our kids the education they deserve. Proposal S, which will bring badly needed Federal funds to the city’s schools, is a good start, but leaders in City Hall, Lansing and Washington must create more initiatives like this to boost resources for our children’s education and our city’s future.
Detroit parents are committed to holding DPS as well as government leaders at Local, State, and Federal levels accountable for our kids’ education. DPN is doing its part to keep track of how the Mayor and other city leaders respond to the education crisis through its Listen Up Mayor campaign, which cites Better Schools as a top parent priority. In many community meetings DPN has held about improving city schools, parents have not only expressed to us a willingness, but have in fact demanded to play a role in saving the city’s education system.
In addition to holding our leaders accountable, Detroit parents are committed to doing our part at home to give our kids the support they need to succeed. We need to make sure that our kids get to school and that they do their homework and study. We must also communicate regularly with teachers to ensure our children’s success in the classroom.
This crisis is too big for anyone to stay on the sidelines. Detroit parents must provide strong leadership at home and DPS, City Hall, Lansing, and Washington must enact radical, transformative changes to meet our children’s education needs.
Better Schools is a top priority in the Listen Up Mayor Campaign's Agenda for Detroit Kids. Mayor Bing said the figures are a 'wake up call' - he's right. Parents and government leaders at every level parents need to wake up and work together to create an environment in which our children can succeed.
(image from nolandgrab.org) | <urn:uuid:c29d7220-d6d2-4adc-8543-b934d6d547d5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.detroitparentnetwork.org/listen/updates/dps-math-achievement-worst-nation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964445 | 1,017 | 1.53125 | 2 |
If you've ever sought advice about resume writing, you know the rule: A resume should never exceed two pages. Overburdened screeners should see just enough at first glance to be impressed. Hit the high points, set the hook and save the details for the face-to-face interview.
Yet rules are sometimes made to be broken. At times, resumes should exceed two pages and include comprehensive information that persuades employers, instead of just piques their interest.
This is especially true for senior executives or those who have made frequent employment shifts. Such candidates have too many employers and accomplishments to cram into just two pages. The resulting resume becomes so dense that Sam (or Suzy) Screener immediately tosses it.
Similarly, job seekers whose profiles contain many diverse elements and skills may find it difficult to summarize their gifts without omitting compelling sales points. So for multifaceted people in their 40s or 50s who have broad employment experience, the best approach may be (play an ominous organ chord here)... the long resume.
For Courteous Reading
Don't use a lengthy resume when you know it will land in a stack of responses that must be screened quickly. But if your resume is going to receive careful and courteous reading, a lengthier version may be a wise choice, especially in the following situations:
If you have survived an initial screening and are a final candidate.
If you're a big dog in your field or you have unique skill sets and experience.
If the details of your accomplishments distinguish you from competing candidates.
If those interviewing you at this point in the selection process need a full understanding of your background.
If the available position requires diverse functions and responsibilities, and you must demonstrate your competence in these arenas.
Long Means Just Long Enough
A long resume should be just long enough to get the job done. It must be comprehensive without being dauntingly verbose. Sixteen pages of single-spaced verbiage will exhaust any reader's patience. For a senior executive or professional, three or even four pages may be acceptable, particularly if white space is used generously to encourage easy reading and retention.
The techniques that follow for writing a long resume can prevent your self-marketing tool from looking like an Encyclopedia Britannica entry.
1. Use a reverse-chronological format.
In my view, this is the only way for sophisticated senior-level candidates to present their credentials. Reverse-chronological resumes answer readers' natural questions in a logical way:
What's the product you're selling? (This is answered by the "Profile" or "Summary of Qualifications" section of your resume.)
Who has trusted you before? (Answered by your list of past employers.)
How long did they trust you? (Answered by the duration of your jobs.)
What's the biggest thing they trusted you with? (Your past job titles.)
What were the nature and scope of your responsibilities? (General position descriptions.)
Did you DO anything with those responsibilities? (Selected accomplishments addressing each assigned functional responsibility.)
Who trusted you before that? How long did they trust you? (Other employment, in reverse order.)
Where did you go to school? (Your educational summary section.)
Anything else I should know about you? (Affiliations, certifications, professional activities, relevant community/volunteer activity, books, articles, patents, etc.)
2. Distinguish responsibilities from accomplishments.
Resume writers frequently confuse responsibilities and accomplishments, blending them into a common stew. The two are different:
Responsibilities describe the nature and scope of your duties and the stakes, risks and outcomes of the position.
Accomplishments, which should always be described in the past tense, are examples of what you have done. They are proof of your performance.
The higher you rise in an organization, the fewer responsibilities you need to provide. You'll never see this on a resume: "Job Title: President and CEO. Responsibilities: Ran the place, with accountability for everything." And as you advance up the ladder, you gain more of those space-consuming accomplishments.
3. Create a special section for accomplishments.
One way to organize a long resume is to create a special section for key accomplishments, which would be inserted immediately after your "Profile" or "Career Summary" sections and called "Selected Career Accomplishments."
Under this heading, include an accomplishment to match each major functional strength in your product profile. Six are sufficient, since that's about all the average reader can absorb. You also need room on the first page to cite your most recent employer and your job title, tenure and responsibilities there. This way, readers can see you're sticking to the reverse-chronological format and not trying to hide a gap in your job history.
4. Add an addendum.
Instead of inserting an Accomplishments section in the main body of your resume, consider featuring them in an addendum. Your resume would simply list your employers in reverse-chronological order in the "Employment History" section, without citing accomplishments. The second document, entitled "Selected Accomplishments" or "Relevant Career Achievements," would include those achievements.
By following this approach, you can say more about what you've accomplished, without slowing readers who want to first know your history. Make this document no more than two pages and organize it with headings keyed to your experience or functional expertise.
By labeling the ancillary document "Addendum," you're saying, "Here's additional information that expands on my basic pitch points, but you don't have to read it to get a feel for the product." Addenda also are appropriate for listing patents, articles, presentations, awards, professional activities, board memberships and relevant interests.
5. Create a separate document.
A third option is for the accomplishments document to be independent of your resume (it would provide your contact information at the top): "Yes, Ramona, I brought a resume which summarizes my basic career path. Also, if it would be of interest, I have listed some relevant career accomplishments in greater detail on a separate document. Would you be interested in seeing that too?"
You can provide the separate accomplishments document without your main resume if, for example, a recipient knows your career history but wants more information about your experience in a particular area.
A Judgment Call
By all means, use a short, concise resume if it's most effective. But if you're at a career stage where you have much to sell or many factors shape your marketability, use a format that delivers all the goods. | <urn:uuid:8b4c7544-516d-4fc6-8036-2e379e723a50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jobsinegypt.com/Job/resume_3.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950551 | 1,374 | 1.648438 | 2 |
8. May 2012 04:57
There are a number of reasons why a company may not want to take a term loan. They may want to pledge personal collateral, find it difficult to obtain this more traditional form of financing, they may simply not want to accept the terms that are available, or they may simply prefer these non-traditional financing options as a way to meet their financing needs. Whatever your situation, if you're looking outside the term loan box, you should look at these potential solutions.
Accounts Receivable Financing
A/R financing is a flexible line of credit solution available to most businesses. This type of financing leverages the money you are due to receive from invoices you have sent to your customers. A/R financing helps bridge the gap between your cost of sales and when you get paid for your goods or services.
Asset Based Lending
This line of credit is secured by an asset that your business currently holds. Asset based lending is a line of credit, meaning that you can use as much or as little of your potential credit as you select up to the value of the collateral pledged. You can change it monthly, weekly, or even daily depending on your needs.
In this type of financing, a third party factor actually purchases your unpaid invoices. You receive a portion of the value upfront, with the rest of it being delivered, less an administrative fee, when your client makes good on the debt. Factoring may be traditional, where the factor fully purchases the invoice and assumes both the credit risk and responsibility for collection of the receivable. Or on a recourse basis where the receivable is sold back to the seller after a certain period of time elapses. Unlike other types of financing there are less restrictive covenants inherent in factoring transactions.
25. April 2012 06:35
Accounts receivable financing is one option for businesses whose working capital needs exceed what can be obtained through traditional term loans from conventional banks. Whether your enterprise is new, your funding demands unusual, or you're simply having trouble getting credit in a tight economy, accounts receivable financing can be a good choice. But what kind best suits your business? There are two main options: traditional A/R financing or discount financing.
Traditional, Non-Recourse Accounts Receivable Financing
Traditional A/R financing begins with your potential financier checking your customer's credit. This should happen before you invoice to determine approval. Once your client is approved, the financier (known in this case as the factor) will purchase the invoice from you. In this case, the factor actually assumes complete responsibility for the invoice because they now own it. That includes ensuring payment even if your customer is unable to pay.
Discount, Recourse Factoring
Discount factoring is similar to traditional accounts receivable financing. It too involves borrowing against unpaid invoices, but in this situation the factor does not actually purchase the accounts or assume liability for them. Advantages of this system include lower fees and in some cases faster turnaround and greater availability of funds.
Both of these options allow for flexibility and funding that might not otherwise be available. Both also involve your factor working directly with your client, a proven system that shortens the time between invoice and receipt of payment.
To learn more about accounts receivable financing, contact one of Crestmark's experts. We can help you understand the details and differences between discount/recourse and traditional/non-recourse factoring and select the right option for your business.
18. April 2012 12:22
Invoice factoring allows businesses to collect cash from invoices faster. In some cases, companies may even be able to recover funds from a transaction even if the buyer becomes unable to pay. The premise behind invoice factoring is that accounts receivable can actually be sold. The company that purchases your accounts receivable is known as a factor, hence the term invoice factoring.
There are two types of invoice factoring, The first, non-recourse, involves the complete sale of the invoices. In this situation, the company assumes all responsibilities related to the invoice. You receive cash immediately in exchange for this sale. One of the advantages of this option is that the factor may actually take on the risk of non-payment, meaning that you receive cash even if your client can never meet the bill.
Recourse factoring is the other type of invoice factoring. Also known as discount factoring, it provides much of the same financing options as non-recourse, typically at less of a cost. Both types of factoring require an exchange of information and discussion before approval. You will need to provide information about your top customers to the factor and provide a figure for how much funding you need from each.
One of the biggest benefits that applies to both non-recourse and recourse factoring is that they are flexible. You can finance as much or as little of your accounts receivable as permitted based on client credit and as needed for your business in its current state. This inherent adjustability is rare in term loans and more rigid financial instruments.
Crestmark is proud to provide invoice factoring for a variety of industries. If you would like to learn more about how this non-traditional financing technique can help you make payroll, fund an expansion, or just keep your business running smoothly day to day, our staff will be happy to talk with you.
30. March 2012 10:20
Our West Palm Beach office is on the move Friday March 30 to larger office space to accomodate their growth, and to become more closely located to the South Florida business community. They have added to staff, and have increased their product offerings which include ledgered asset-based lending, revolving lines of credit managed with borrowing base certificates, and most recently equipment term loans ... and the recourse and non-recourse factoring they have provided for numerous years.
Those of us in Michigan are looking forward to visiting visiting them in their new offices... it's raining cats (and dogs!) here today!
28. March 2012 04:15
Even the healthiest of businesses can sometimes experience lean times. When your business is seasonal or just starting, the need for short-term working capital can be even greater. Often banks will require at least three years of operating performance before giving a loan to a startup company or if they do they require the pledge of the personal assets of the principals. In the case of seasonal busineses, the caps placed by banks don’t allow these business to grow inventory as needed to meet demand. In many of these situations, traditional loan-based financing can fall short. It just doesn't offer the flexibility required, and may not be available as quickly, or in the volume you require. However, loans aren't the only option, and in many cases they aren't even the best option. There are many other ways to get working capital.
Asset-based lending is a strong option for working capital in invoice-based businesses. The idea is simple: you provide an invoice at the time services are rendered, but you may not receive payment on the invoice until a later point. You turn over the full amount of the invoice in exchange for money now, providing an effective bridge for current expenses. There are many uses for this kind of financing, ranging from taking advantage of current opportunities to buy in bulk to using the funds to make payroll. Seasonal businesses often employ asset-based loans against inventory to build up inventory to meet seasonal demand.
Factoring has similarities to asset based lending, and can be an equally promising source of working capital. In factoring, a third party (known as a "factor") purchases the accounts receivable (or invoice) from the approved company that issued them. Essentially, you sell your unpaid invoices and receive a large percentage of the cash from that invoice immediately; shortly thereafter you will receive the remaining amount (less any managerial fees that were agreed upon in your contract). One of the most important elements of some forms of factoring is that the factor assumes responsibility for the potential of unpaid invoices, and often provides additional services such as credit and collection. This allows the client to focus on what they do best — selling.
Both asset-based lending and factoring can be good solutions for working capital. Crestmark business development officers can help you understand the nuances that separate them and determine what is best for your business. Feel free to contact us for more information. | <urn:uuid:99dc7407-f05f-4547-9ae1-f655f0dffb89> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crestmark.com/blog/category/Traditional-Factoring.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965553 | 1,733 | 1.617188 | 2 |
NORTHAMPTON — Residents should brace themselves to pay more money in the coming years for disposing their trash, flushing their toilets and filling their tea kettles with water.
Members of a joint City Council/Board of Public Works committee came away from a meeting Monday with that sobering realization after discussing such topics as the cost of stickers to use the city’s transfer stations and the need to replace Northampton’s water, sewer and stormwater lines.
Currently, vehicle stickers for the two transfer stations cost most residents $25 a year. Those ages 62 and older pay $5, courtesy of a senior discount. The Board of Public Works is looking at dropping the senior discount in favor of a needs-based system that takes into account household size, income and eligibility for other assistance programs. City Councilor Paul D. Spector, who sits on the joint committee, calls it the “Warren Buffett” system.
“Warren Buffett doesn’t need a discount on his sticker,” Spector said, noting that some seniors may have the means to pay the full price.
Although it is considering the new system, the Board of Public Works does not plan to raise the price for stickers from $25 for next year. However, a price hike could be just down the road as the city prepares to close its Glendale Road landfill early next year. Income from the landfill, which is also used by other municipalities, subsidizes the cost of trash disposal for local households. That revenue will vanish when the facility closes. In 2009, 64 percent of the voters approved a special ballot question not to expand the landfill for future use.
“It has to pay for itself,” said Board of Public Works member M.J. Adams of the transfer station. “We can’t subsidize it with the landfill closed.”
The replacement of the city’s water, sewer and stormwater lines projects to be even more expensive. According to Department of Public Works director Edward S. Huntley, federal funding to improve and replace infrastructure has dried up in recent years. Meanwhile, parts of the city’s systems are more than a century old.
“City-, state- and country-wide, we’re in a huge infrastructure dilemma,” Huntley said. “We’ve been coasting for years and years and years.”
Huntley noted that new state and federal mandates about the quality of treated sewage, the integrity of dams and other infrastructure-related issues will make the situation even more costly. The Department of Public Works annually sets aside about $800,000 a year to replace water and sewer lines, but that amount is not nearly enough to keep up with the problem, Huntley said.
A report on the state of Northampton’s stormwater system is due to be delivered to the Department of Public Works next week, giving the city a better picture of what needs to be replaced, and how fast. Meanwhile, the Board of Public Works hopes to meet with the entire City Council to map out the situation and begin formulating a plan to pay for improvements. Spector said the public will be included in the discussions as they progress.
“We need to have a city-wide dialogue about this,” he said. | <urn:uuid:26aeff86-c1de-4ab8-a8bb-ce5605b4bf11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/05/infrastructure_waste_disposal.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95692 | 684 | 1.757813 | 2 |
May 19, 2011
Prospects Will Break Your Heart
U Got the Look: Fielders, Part I
It’s not easy to evaluate defensive tools, especially at the amateur ranks or the lower levels of professional baseball. Good defense is a product of sound fundamentals established through instruction [read: proper instruction], raw physical ability, and refinement through repetition. It takes time to put the total defensive package together, assuming a competent package is even possible. This is what I want to do: I want to look at each position, break down the specific physical attributes that are necessary to excel at each position, and look at the process of projecting those attributes. In part two (you knew that was coming), I want focus on catchers and game-calling, something that I think is one of the most misunderstood and undervalued aspects of the game.
First Base: First base is, first and foremost, an offensive position. The modern game suggests if the bat is above average, the value provided by the glove is gravy. While I agree with the offensive weight attached to the position, I’m of the belief that good defense at first base is more than just gravy, and trust me, I love gravy.
A good first baseman, especially one that possesses a plus glove, has value beyond fielding his position. Having spent time talking to infielders, I can attest to an intangible component to good defense. When split-second decisions and subsequent actions affect the outcome of games, confidence in your first baseman plays a larger role than you might realize. Infielders want to know that their receiver at first will finish off the play if necessary. They want the confidence of knowing that if the game is on the line, a throw in the general vicinity of the base represents a potential out and not a potential error. It’s minor, but not insignificant.
You don’t need speed or a plus arm to excel at first base, but you do need good hand-eye coordination, some reaction ability, and an instinctive connection to the glove that lives on your hand. It sounds corny, but when your ability to catch a ball is directly tied to the proper execution of a play, you can’t have stone hands. The best first basemen inspire confidence, and even though that doesn’t carry the same weight as the offensive output associated with the position, the defensive requirements should extend beyond being a body with a foot on the base. The position should be more than just a designated hitter in the field.
Second Base: When I scout a second baseman, the first question I ask is whether he can play shortstop. The most skilled athletes start up the middle (catcher/shortstop/centerfield) and move elsewhere when their skills diminish or get exposed by the level of competition. If a low-level talent is already playing second base, the burden of success has already shifted to the bat, and that’s a heavy burden.
Defensively speaking, you want to see first-step quickness and a good glove, but the arm doesn’t have to be a plus. Negotiating the double-play turn at second requires good footwork, body control, and coordination, so the body needs to be athletic and project to remain that way through development. It’s a fundamental position that requires more athleticism than a corner spot, but it doesn’t require the range, the actions, or the arm of a shortstop, so if the bat plays, the glove stays.
Shortstop: We once again find ourselves in an age where shortstops are cultivated for their defensive chops rather than their middle-of-the-order potential. The leather wizards of the ‘70s and ‘80s have returned, and with the Latin American academies pumping out slick-fielding shortstops at an accelerated pace, the future of the position looks to be grounded with the glove. This pleases me. I dislike offensive baseball when it comes at the expense of quality defense, especially at a premium position like shortstop. Who doesn’t like watching wizards at work?
Shortstops require the deepest physical skill set on the diamond; without soft hands, strong arms, and range, shortstops are second basemen, right? The first thing I look for when evaluating defense is the feet, and trust me, I don’t have a foot fetish. This directly ties into defense at shortstop, but overall, the quality of the footwork (first step, coordination, balance, etc.) can tell you more about the future of the player than the glove or the arm. You want to see a certain grace in the steps, free from a lumbering, prodding approach to movement. Not that every position player needs to channel their inner Isadora Duncan on the diamond, but you have to show some fluidity in your movements. Footwork as it pertains to fundamentals can be sculpted, but athleticism can’t be taught. If the feet are heavy and clumsy in the present, projecting elegance in the future is an exercise in futility.
A shortstop has to have range, and there are multiple factors at play when evaluating this component. Obviously, a quick first step is required, and we touched on the feet, but the instincts of a shortstop are like the Force is to a Jedi. This isn’t the type of instruction you can find in Tom Emanski’s video series. It can’t be taught. It can be harnessed, but like athleticism, you either have the Force or you don’t. Instinctual players appear to have the ability to slow the game down, to find themselves in locations on the diamond where the ball happens to be. At times, it’s nothing more than pure athletic ability and luck. But the most gifted defensive players appear to have more luck than others, and the reason is their natural connection to the position and the game itself. It’s hard to explain, but you know it when you see it. Wizards, I tell you. Wizards. (Note to self: When you struggle to articulate your thoughts on an aspect of the game, shift the attention to wizards. Brilliant.)
Along with the range and the instincts, a shortstop needs to have a strong, accurate arm, capable of making all the throws from their wide pocket of the field. Sound throwing mechanics (which play into accuracy) and a quick release are important aspects of the overall evaluation of the arm. Glove-first shortstops that don’t have the arm strength to excel at the position or the bat to survive elsewhere often die a slow death in the minors.
Speaking of the glove, shortstops need to be slick. You want to see fluid actions at the position, with the ability to control the body and the leather. You want to see how the glove functions when presented with balls from varying angles, meaning you want to see how the backhand looks, whether the glove can stick to the dirt on balls that force the fielder to the left, on balls that don’t force any movement, etc. Like all good fielders, the glove needs to form a relationship with the hand that goes beyond the basic corporeal bond. Metaphysical Velcro.
Shortstops need to have soft hands, meaning the ball needs to disappear into the warm bosom of love named Rawlings without stiff, contrived movements. It needs to be graceful. If you haven’t noticed, I like things to be fluid and natural. You can usually tell right away if a fielder has any finesse to his game. Finesse is good.
When evaluating a young shortstop, you want to see the quickness and speed that will allow for range, a strong, accurate arm, a fundamentally sound approach to fielding, the footwork necessary to establish those fundamentals, the athleticism and coordination to negotiate the demands of the position, and most importantly, you want to see instincts for the game. Without these components, you don’t have a shortstop. Embodying a few of these characteristics might allow a player to “handle” the position, but without the complete package, they are merely actors playing a temporary role. Being a shortstop means something. Shortstops are the wizards of the infield.
Third base: This is a middle-of-the-order offensive position, but one that requires a specific skill set on defense to execute. You need to possess the same qualities as a good shortstop: a strong, accurate arm, good footwork, good glove, and instincts. But whereas shortstops require coast-to-coast range, a third baseman requires split-second reactions to survive at a position that is on the front line of the infield.
When evaluating a young third baseman, you want to make sure the body/feet will survive the physical maturation process; you don’t have to be fast to play the position, but you can’t stand in cement. As I mentioned, if you are playing third, your bat is going to determine your ceiling. This makes evaluating the position easier than evaluating a shortstop, but it also throws an offense-first/defense-second blanket on the position, which bothers me. Hot-corner defense can be the most exciting to watch on the diamond. Third basemen are tasked with handling lasers off the bat, charging in to field bunts or slow rollers (which often require the coordination and balance of a gymnast to pull off), cutting off balls to their left, and snagging balls that are touching the chalk to their right. It’s a challenging position to play, and an incredibly difficult position to play well. I understand the offensive requirements involved, but good defense at third is worth the price of admission.
Outfield: You can’t judge outfielders equally, so let’s just start with the money position, center field, and then branch out to the corners. The first question I ask when evaluating an outfielder is: Can this guy play center? Center fielders are the shortstops of the outfield, with a desired skill set that teams covet and often pay insane prices to acquire. It all starts up the middle, so if you can provide above-average defense, you can ride your glove to the highest levels.
Center fielders must possess speed (straight-line speed and quickness) and athleticism, which, in theory, should allow for defensive range. The ability to read the ball off the bat and take a proper angle or route is also extremely important. Some players have enough recovery speed to, well, recover from poor routes and angles, but athleticism can’t always save the day. Center fielders aren’t required to have plus arms, although if given a choice, you always want to see a strong arm on a position player. It’s down on the queue in center, and I understand why speed and glove are kings of the position, but a strong, accurate arm can take a good outfielder and make him a great weapon.
The glove is very important, as the nature of the position is to track down balls and secure them in the mitt. Like other middle-of-the-diamond players, you want to see instincts for the position, whether you define that as a quick first step, a relationship with the coverage area, a natural gift to make plays, or all of the above. It’s important to focus on the body, especially when evaluating a young player, because the position is very physically demanding, and most athletes (even above-average athletes) lack the overall ability to handle the demands of center.
The corner spots often suffer at the expense of their offensive affiliations, and on a defensive level, are known more for what they can’t do. Just to be honest, I look at both corner outfield spots as guys who aren’t qualified to play in center. Yes. I judge them. That’s not to say good defense in a corner isn’t a tasty condiment. Good defense should be appreciated and applauded wherever it happens to occur. But I look down on corner guys. I just want them to have the skills to play center field.
Me: “Why can’t you play center field? You’d be a better prospect if you played center field.”
When evaluating the corner guys (sounds like an article on David Simon), you want to see enough athleticism to handle the lateral movements required by the position. It doesn’t need to be above average to play, but slow feet and poor body control aren’t positive attributes at any position, and when your job requires that you run around catching balls, it sort of helps to be able to move a bit.
The strongest arms tend to end up in right field, as do the outfield “athletes” with the biggest question marks surrounding their athleticism. Left fielders need quality gloves, but can get away with the weakest arms. However, I’ll say it again: Strong arms are weapons in the field and are often undervalued in the game. The ability to understand your field of play (foul territory, the wall, etc.) plays an important role for all outfielders, but this is especially true for the men of the corners, as the caroms can be unpredictable.
Scouting defensive tools is often made more complicated by the flow of game action (or lack thereof), as the ball has to find the player for the player to be involved; you can go entire games without getting a true measure of defensive ability. If at all possible, I watch infield/outfield instruction to get a focused look at the fundamentals involved. It takes time to evaluate a position player, so unless you are lucky and get to witness a buffet of defensive situations that allow for a thorough investigation of the tools, it’s a process that will require multiple viewings, and even then, you might not see enough to know enough. It takes time. | <urn:uuid:800b72c7-806f-4604-8aa9-38fa51d9eef5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=13963 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9458 | 2,894 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Action now on guns
The New York Times said the following in an editorial:
The next few weeks represent a once-in-a-generation opportunity to harden the nation’s gun laws and reduce the threat of rapid-fire violence in America. A month after the slaughter of 20 children and seven adults in Newtown, Conn., Vice President Joe Biden’s commission is about to present a series of recommendations for new laws, and it is vital that his panel gets it right and that Congress immediately takes action on its report.
Federal laws on guns have been kept so lax, for so long, that the Biden panel could suggest scores of ways to improve public safety. But there are a few policies that clearly have to be in any serious legislative package, the first two of which were endorsed Monday by President Barack Obama: requiring criminal and mental-health background checks on every gun buyer, including sales from individuals; a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines; a strong statute prohibiting gun trafficking; and an end to the hobbling of the federal agency that enforces gun laws.
The need for background checks on every gun buyer has never been greater, now that the Internet has made it easy for private individuals to buy and sell guns without screening. The reason that both the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and Mayors Against Illegal Guns have made universal background checks their top priority is that 40 percent of gun sales now take place privately, including most guns that are later used in crimes.
Requiring background checks at gun shows, parking-lot sales and websites would reduce the cash-and-carry anonymity of millions of gun transactions, putting buyers on notice that their sale is being recorded and can be traced. It is largely supported by legitimate gun dealers, who already have to conduct the checks and have long grumbled about competition from those who do not. And it would have no effect on law-abiding buyers who want a hunting rifle or a handgun to keep at home.
Such a law should be supplemented by a presidential order requiring federal and state agencies to contribute to the background check system with criminal and mental health information. Federal prosecutors, who have a dismal record of pursuing charges against those who lie on a gun application, need to enforce the system vigorously.
The assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 should be renewed and tightened, with a special emphasis on prohibiting magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. The millions who already own such weapons — unnecessary for hunting or protection — should be required to register them and submit to a background check to reduce the mass killing that produced this agonized debate.
A new law is needed to crack down on the trafficking of guns that an individual has reason to know will be used in a crime, increasing penalties and making it easier to track corrupt gun dealers. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives needs to have a permanent director, more financing and expanded authority to inspect dealers, and an end to restrictions that keep it from tracking all gun sales and retaining background-check data.
Some lawmakers are already talking about focusing on the background checks and bowing to the gun lobby’s opposition to an assault weapons ban. That shouldn’t stop the administration and its allies from demanding that all these provisions be passed immediately. With the deaths of Newtown’s children still so fresh, the public will be repulsed by lawmakers who stand aside and do nothing. | <urn:uuid:e86c9867-b62d-45cf-9ced-e6f90fa30297> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rutlandherald.com/article/20130116/OPINION04/701169937/1039 | 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 | 0.957078 | 694 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Friday May 24, 2013
Sri Lanka: Disturbing QuestionsPrakash Nanda Special to Salem-News.com
Does the pressure from Tamil Nadu really help in the resolution of the knotty ethnic issue in Sri Lanka?
(NEW DELHI, India) - Some years ago, I was in Sri Lankan capital Colombo. On learning that my home state happens to be Odisha despite my Delhi-upbringing, all of a sudden, the general manager of the hotel where I was staying at upgraded my booking to an executive-suite and extended me further facilities. It was a pleasant surprise to learn that many Sri Lankans consider themselves to be the descendants of King Vijay, who had gone from Odisha to found the kingdom of modern Sri Lanka. In fact, most of the Buddhists in Sri Lanka (and the Sinhalese), who constitute the country’s majority, have their origins in Odisha, Bihar and Bengal.
I underscore my experience in Colombo to make the point that majority Sinhalese are as proud of their Indian ancestry as the Sri Lankan Tamils are. What they resent is that when the question of Sri Lanka is discussed in India, only the Tamil –factor is taken into account. It is a fact that India’s policy towards Sri Lanka has been disproportionately influenced by the Tamil Nadu factor. Both the DMK and AIADMK often compete with each other in pressuring the central government in Delhi to take a policy that promotes the interests of the Sri Lankan Tamils but often resented by the Sinhalese as biased and “interference” in their internal affairs.
Does the pressure from Tamil Nadu really help in the resolution of the knotty ethnic issue in Sri Lanka? Does it help the Sri Lankan Tamils and redress their legitimate grievances? I would love to be recommended to read a comprehensive and dispassionate study that deals with these two questions. But I have another question. Are the parties in Tamil Nadu genuinely concerned about the plights of the Sri Lankan Tamils? I hope they do not shed crocodile tears, the same way our “secularists” bit their chests over “the poverty of and injustice to” Indian Muslims. The Hindu, Tamil Nadu’s greatest national daily, commented editorially the other day, “As for the ‘feelings’ of the political parties in Tamil Nadu, it should be clear by now that for them, the Sri Lankan Tamil issue is an opportunity for cynical one-upmanship, and nothing more. There was no clearer evidence of this than at the time of the UPA victory in 2009, which coincided with the last stand of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). After creating a furore over the war in Sri Lanka during the elections, the DMK’s only concern after the results was how many and which cabinet positions the party would get in the new government”.
But then, such is the state of affairs of the Manmohan Singh government these days that it has virtually succumbed to the pressure from Tamil Nadu and decided to support, at the ongoing 19th Session of the UN Human Rights Council at Geneva on the issue of reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka, the U.S.-sponsored resolution that urges Sri Lanka to address rights violations alleged against its army in the final phase of the war against the LTTE in 2009. On March 19, Prime Minister Singh virtually vetoed his own foreign minister S M Krishna who on March 14 had assured the Parliament that India would consider all dimensions of the issue before taking a final decision on the voting-issue. The Prime Minister said that India was ‘inclined’ to vote for the US sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka (this happened on March 22). And what is most surprising is that the Prime Minister said this even without knowing what exactly was the content of the US resolution, because, as Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told the press on March 21, “ At this point in time, we do not have the final text of the resolution”
In my humble opinion, external affairs minister Krishna had given a balanced statement to the Parliament on March 14. Let me quote extensively from that statement: “ The end of the long period of armed conflict in Sri Lanka in May 2009, left around 3,00,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living in camps in Northern Sri Lanka and general devastation of infrastructure in the affected areas. Since the end of conflict in Sri Lanka, the focus of Government of India has been on the welfare and well being of the Tamils citizens of Sri Lanka. Their resettlement and rehabilitation have been of the highest and most immediate priority for the Government. The Prime Minister, in June 2009 immediately after the conflict announced a grant of Rs. 500 crores for relief, rehabilitation and resettlement work in Sri Lanka....
“I would like to underline that it is mainly as a result of our constructive engagement with the Government of Sri Lanka and our considerable assistance programme that a modicum of normalcy is beginning to return to the Tamil areas in Sri Lanka. There has also been progress given the withdrawal of emergency regulations by the Government of Sri Lanka and the conduct of elections to local bodies in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka…..
“Several Hon’ble Members of the House have raised the issue of alleged human rights violations during the protracted conflict in Sri Lanka and on the US-initiated draft resolution on ‘Promoting Reconciliation and Accountability in Sri Lanka’ at the ongoing 19th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Concerns have been expressed by various quarters on allegations of human rights violations, including as shown in the Channel 4 documentaries… We understand that the Government of Sri Lanka has initiated a series of measures, including appointment of a Cabinet Sub-committee to monitor implementation of the proposals in the National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP) and reactivating the National Police Commission, in line with the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report. Separately, the Sri Lankan defence authorities are reported to have appointed a Court of Inquiry to look into allegations of human rights violations as required by the LLRC report....
“The Government of India has, nonetheless, emphasised to the Government of Sri Lanka the importance of a genuine process of reconciliation to address the grievances of the Tamil community. In this connection, we have called for implementation of the recommendations in the Report of the LLRC that has been tabled before the Sri Lankan Parliament. These include various constructive measures for healing the wounds of the conflict and fostering a process of lasting peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. We have been assured by the Government of Sri Lanka, including during my visit to Sri Lanka in January this year, of its commitment towards pursuit of a political process, through a broader dialogue with all parties, including the Tamil National Alliance, leading to the full implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, so as to achieve meaningful devolution of powers and genuine national reconciliation. We hope that the Government of Sri Lanka recognising the critical importance of this issue acts decisively and with vision in this regard. We will remain engaged with them through this process and in the spirit of partnership encourage them to take forward the dialogue with the elected representatives of the Sri Lankan Tamils. Hon’ble Members may be aware that the Sri Lankan authorities had said they would be happy to receive an all party delegation of Members of both Houses of our Parliament. We are working to undertake such a visit at the earliest…...
“Several Members have raised the issue of a draft resolution initiated by USA at the ongoing 19th Session of the UN Human Rights Council at Geneva on the issue of reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka. I would like to highlight here that on such sensitive issues we will need to consider the implications of our actions carefully. Any assertions on our part may have implications on our historically friendly relations with a neighbouring country. We would also need to examine whether our actions will actually assist in the process of reconciliation in Sri Lanka, and enhance the current dialogue between the Government of Sri Lanka and Tamil parties, including the Tamil National Alliance”.
Against this background, has the Prime Minister taken into account the implications of his decision on Sri Lanka? As it is, his government is trying badly to repair the damage caused by its folly in Maldives, where the Islamic fundamentalists, thanks to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, have made viral inroads. Are we prepared to commit another blunder in Sri Lanka? What will happen now, as China, which has been systematically wooing Sri Lanka for providing strategic facilities, has, predictably, voted against the American resolution? Besides, what moral authority has the United States on matters of human rights when it closes its eyes on their systematic violations in its allied countries, ranging from China to Saudi Arabia? Finally, how is it that India is going to change its traditional position of not supporting any country-specific resolutions at the UN Human Rights Council at Geneva? Has India forgotten its own experience when at the same venue Pakistan was trying to embarrass us over Kashmir? Are we not, thus, creating a precedent by supporting the US in this case relating to Sri Lanka for our enemies to intervene in our affairs?
These are all disturbing questions, affecting vitally our national security.
Special thanks to Uday India
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|Contact: [email protected] | Copyright © 2013 Salem-News.com | news tips & press releases: [email protected].| | <urn:uuid:75ddf2aa-722f-4550-9249-f3aa6b5c69ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://salem-news.com/articles/june092012/lanka-questions-pn.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959686 | 1,993 | 1.726563 | 2 |
The Colonel's Bequest
Welcome to THE COLONEL'S BEQUEST! This game requires a bit of an
introduction, as it is somewhat different than other Sierra games. You will
probably have to play it twice (at least) to be able to complete it fully.
THE COLONEL'S BEQUEST operates in a "real-time" mode. The game is divided
into eight Acts, each lasting one hour (not real time!). There are things
you must do in each Act, yet it is possible to finish the game without
completing all you need to do. Some tasks can be performed in more than one
Act; others can be performed only in one of the Acts. There is not that
much that you can control: You cannot prevent most of the deaths; the
bodies don't even hang around too long. You can, however, gather as much
information as possible for clues to who did it!
There is no score kept during the game. When you finish, you will see a
meter showing the extent of your sleuthing skills. You'll also be shown (if
you wish) a list of hints regarding the items you missed. There are
actually not that many puzzles in this game. Rather, you must interact with
the characters you encounter. A full description of each is available if
you LOOK AT him or her. You must question each about the other, sometimes
telling them information to try to prompt a response, and occasionally
showing them items in the hope of making them comment. This is a very
important part of the game.
One last note: For some strange reason, time passes much more quickly in
the house than it does outside. Bear that in mind!
ACT I (7:00 - 8:00)
Look around your room. Open the chute under the three pictures. I wonder
where that goes? Go through the door at the back of your room. Ethel,
Lillian's mother, is sitting there. Question her about everyone else in the
house. Notice that she has a handkerchief.
Go back through your room, into the hallway, and up into the bathroom.
Watch Lillian put on her perfume. (For a taste of Sierra humor, try using
the toilet when Lillian leaves!) Look in the wastebasket. It's empty now;
better try that one again later.
Back in your room, Lillian and Ethel are talking about Gertie, but as you
enter the room, they stop. How are you going to catch what is being said?
Look at the picture on the wall. Why would the eyes have a vacant stare? Go
back out of your room and push the armoire to reveal a secret room. Go in
and look through the two holes in the wall. Every room where conversation
takes place can be spied on in this way.
Go across the hall to Henri's room. Ooops! Looks like you caught Fifi and
the Colonel! Now to spy on them. Go back out to the hall, push the other
armoir, and look through those two holes. Caught in the act!
Back through Henri's room into the Doctor's room at the back. Look at the
bag on the bed. Look at the Colonel's cigar. Now to see what's going on
downstairs. Careful not to lean on the banister: It'll fall and you'll drop
to your death! Also, the closet on the top of the stairs is sometimes
empty; other times, it appears to be bottomless, and sucks you to your
Downstairs, push the clock and mirror on either wall to spy on the rooms
there. Spy on Rudy and Gloria in the Billiards room to find out about her
affair with Clarence, and then on Clarence and Gertie in the Parlor.
Clarence smokes, too, so look at his cigar. Watch Gloria threaten the
Go into the Parlor and talk to Polly the parrot. Polly wants a cracker.
Well, see if you can oblige. (Actually, there is a treat for every animal
in this game). Back upstairs, look at Gloria asleep in her bed.
ACT II (8:00 - 9:00)
Go into Gertie's room. The window is open! Look through it. Something is on
the ground! Quickly run downstairs; pick up the handkerchief from the floor
on the way. Yep. Gertie has fallen out of her window to her death. Or...was
Go into the Study and examine the weapons collection. Go into the kitchen
and get the soupbone from the refrigerator. Go outside and toss the bone to
the dog. When he comes out of his kennel, search it. You'll find a necklace
Now, down into the basement through the two doors (you must stand in just
the right place to open them). This is Jeeves's room, and he's in bed. Get
the crackers that are lying on the table. Examine the walls.
Back upstairs, give one cracker to Polly the parrot. You have seven
crackers; feed one to Polly in each of the remaining acts, and she'll
reward you with a repetition of some of the conversations she overheard.
Spy on Clarence and Wilbur talking outside. Follow them into the dining
room and then go into the secret room to catch what is being said. Watch
Lillian and Celie the cook talking. Watch Wilbur sitting all alone in the
ACT III (9:00 - 10:00)
Go to the library. Looks like there's been a struggle here! Pick up the
cane from the floor. Look at the magazine lying on the table. Go upstairs
to the Doctor's room. Notice that his bag is missing. Push open the armoir
and find a cane inside.
Go outside to the Chapel. You'll find the Doctor's body on the floor.
Search his body. Get the matchbook and the monocle (UGH!) -- it'll make a
good magnifying glass. Examine whatever you find with the monocle; you can
start with the poker. Yep, blood stains! You'll notice a loose floorboard.
It's a pity you have nothing to pry it open with!
On your way back to the house, stop off at the playhouse. Knock at the door,
and Lillian will let you in. She sure is acting strangely! Back upstairs,
spy on Gloria listening to her music, and then on Henri. Surprise, surprise,
he can walk without his cane! When he's not around, go into his room and
get the brass key from inside the cannon on the fireplace. Use it to unlock
the elevator and rise up to the attic. (It is the only way to enter the
attic until Act VIII).
Search the attic, open the trunk, and read the newspapers. Watch Rudy and
Fifi fight. See Clarence asleep in his room, and Gloria alone in the
Billiards room. Feed Polly, and then go outside.
Go all the way to the top right of the grounds to Celie's house. Knock, and
when she appears, give her the necklace. She is very thankful and invites
you in. She'll even mention that she dabbles in voodoo! Ask her for the
carrot lying on the table. Go to the stable and feed the carrot to Blaze
the horse. You can now safely get the lantern.
ACT IV (10:00 - 11:00)
Catch Lillian in the weapons cabinet. Now, why would she be interested in
guns? Find the cigar butt in the secret room...hmmm, who smoked a cigar? In
the Billiards room, examine the mud on the floor. There are pink feathers
there, too. Who wears pink feathers? Gloria! Uh oh!
Go to the gazebo and find Gloria's dead body there, strangled with her own
feather boa! While outside, you'll bump into Ethel (drunk), and see Rudy
and Clarence fight. Catch Jeeves and Fifi in the kitchen. Now, what are
those two up to? Feed another cracker to Polly, and examine the decanter
that is on the bar.
ACT V (11:00 - 12:00)
Go to the bottom left of the grounds. You'll find a rolling pin and a
footprint in the mud. Examine both with the monocle. Oh, no! Looks like
another murder has taken place.
Proceed to the carriage house, and find Ethel's body. Get the crowbar from
in the carriage, and the oil can from the table.
In the house, watch Fifi get dressed (sorry, this isn't LARRY!) and apply
her perfume. Jeeves is also getting dressed up in his basement (I wonder
why!?). Spy on Henri talking to Lillian in his bedroom. Notice the smell of
perfume in the secret room (who wore perfume?). Notice Rudy eating alone in
the dining room. While you're there, examine the chute. Watch Clarence
drink alone in the parlor. Yes, and give Polly a cracker.
ACT VI (12:00 - 1:00)
Search the wastebasket in the bathroom. Look at the bottle, and read the
small print with your monocle. Poison! Go upstairs to Fifi's room, and find
Fifi and Jeeves dead on the floor! Use the monocle to examine their cups
and the decanter. Notice the fingerprints.
On your way downstairs, spy on your room. Notice Lillian write something
and hide it in her suitcase when you enter the room. Clarence is busy
writing something, too. Give Polly a cracker, and go outside to the back.
Watch Rudy and the dog. Go to Celie's house and knock on her door. Hmmm,
she sure is scared! Back to the house.
Look at the armor downstairs, next to the front door. Oil the visor and
open it. (Careful not to use all your oil; you'll need some of it later).
Read the note inside, and get the handle.
ACT VII (1:00 - 2:00)
Feed Polly a cracker, then go upstairs to Clarence's room and read what he
has written. There's blood on the floor. More foul play! Go into the
bathroom at examine Clarence's body lying in the bathtub.
Go into your room and read Lillian's diary. Oh, no! Looks like you have
found the murderer! You suddenly recall Lillian at the weapons cabinet.
Make a quick check to see what is missing. Now to find Lillian.
She is back at her Playhouse, talking to her dolls again. There is a board
on the wall. It seems to say, "four gone, two to go"!
Go to the Chapel and pray with Celie. Lift the loose floorboard with the
crowbar. Look at the Bible that is hidden inside. Next door to the Chapel
is the bell tower. Oil the bell, and then pull the rope to ring it. What,
you can't reach it? Use the cane! Be careful, though: Stand on the side; if
you stand underneath the bell, it'll fall and kill you. Examine the bell
and get the crank from inside.
Go into the hedge garden. With the handle, turn on the fountain. There is a
hole in the base that it fits into. Now, push the statue to reveal a secret
stairway. Light the lantern with your matches, and go down.
Yuk! Look at those dead bodies. They must have been dumped down the chutes
in the kitchen and your bedroom. Go into the next secret passageway, and
pry open the vault with the crowbar. Unbar the door to get out. Upstairs,
you'll catch Rudy searching Lillian's room.
ACT VIII (2:00 - 3:00)
Give Polly her last cracker, then go out front. There's a note on the front
door. Read it. Oh, dear, you'd better run to the Hedge Garden.
Hmmm, what's going on? Lillian is lying dead on the floor! Get the gun and
the bullet, and place the bullet into the gun. Something is very wrong; go
back to the house.
There is a noise upstairs. Go up to the attic (the door will be open now).
Rudy and the Colonel are fighting. Quick! You have to save the Colonel.
Shoot Rudy (where did you learn to shoot that well?)...and let the game
You can now get a list of hints on whatever you might have missed (well,
not if you used this walkthru, you won't!).
THE COLONEL'S BEQUEST is published and distributed by Sierra On-Line, Inc. | <urn:uuid:ff98dd5d-9068-4e86-8d35-5c0a938a5dce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cheatbook.de/wfiles/coloneb.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947628 | 2,781 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The tallest woman on Earth, Yao Defen, died because she didn't stop growing. The cause turned out to be a cancer in her pituitary gland
There are stages in the growth of all people. The first is physical growth to the early teens. During that period there is much learning of facts and a mental growth through what are called "concrete" stages of learnings. After that, the physical growth should stop, and be followed by a mental growth - that which psychologist Jan Piaget calls the "formal" thinking stage. As in Physical growth, there is a need for challenges and exercises in mental growth to achieve this formal level of thinking*. Without these challenges and experiences, even whole cultures will not "grow" to the formal stage, although their cultures may operate very well because the people are easily manipulated by privileged leaders who can think formally.
The same with of cities. Growth to maturity is good, but accepting unlimited population/area growth is ignorance or it is caused by the cancer of greed.
It is the rich and powerful Gordon Geckos of this world whose paid media pervade the media with the self-serving mantra that unlimited population growth of cities is good. That is because unlimited growth is what is making them rich and powerful of course. However, there are a few quiet intelligencia who are saying that it's time for the Governments of the country to get on top of the Geckos. Australia is far from a mature country. In Australia, Geckos reign supreme, due to the unthinking acquiescence of Parliament who are kept irrelevant by the unthinking acquiescence of a docile public.
On the other hand, there are countries and cities that reject physical growth, who are light year ahead of Australia because they have attained the stage of smart growth - Japan, South Korea, Singapore the Scandinavian countries and many more. They recognise the folly of growing population, instead they grow intellectually smarter.
Here in Australia we create special pedestals for "think tanks" but the government ignores them in favour of groups of compliant and overrated people who can rationalise the reasons for implementing developers' schemes. They are not think-tanks, they are merely another purchasable commodity.
To have a growth of population in a mainly desert country like Australia with no significant water supplies - rivers, is muddle-headed hara-kiri. We are well past the physical limits of our renewable resources. We now need a growth of wisdom and maturity and the kind of planning that goes with wisdom and maturity. The planning structures we have now are premised on a growth of population. Instead we need different structures to enable good planners to implement mature planning. Plopping surplus humans into tickey-tackey boxes on "surplus" green fields or brown fields or purple fields or pink fields is an insult to mature thinking and to the competent planners we have in Australia.
When we run out of energy.
Our Western way of living is dependent on using far more energy than is our share. But everybody demands the same quality of living which they reasonably equate with the amount of energy we use. It is the available energy that we have now that provides for the energy-dependent foods we squander. By 2060, fifty more years, this abundant energy will have been used up. The consequences of this is that we will be dependent on the food we grow ourselves within walking distance of where our one-room house is. Perhaps you might believe the people who constantly tell us that by then we will have found some new energy source. But consider this: in 1950 the wisest scientists predicted that fusion energy would cater for all future energy needs, and so squillions of dollars have been spent in the past 60 years trying to get it to work, without success. We are no nearer to achieving it than we were 60 years ago. That is probably because of the physical problems of containing and using the pressures and heat of fusion energy. Remember, it was less than a kilogram of hydrogen that produced the largest ever explosion.
A sad metaphor is the case of Yao Defen whose over-growth killed her. The cancer in Australia's case is developers who either can’t or won’t think formally. Why should they? Wealth and power is there for the taking, politicians and lawyers are easily bought, so the Gordon Geckos "logically" ask why not make a killing - literally. And it will surely kill or enslave us. If we continue along this path, the Geckos may soon be living in luxury in countries like ours that they own absolutely.
* Actually Piaget described two levels of formal thinking. | <urn:uuid:b2863413-4c1d-4bab-9458-8d5de8ef2368> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://members.optusnet.com.au/rbsmith3/Growth.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957144 | 952 | 1.75 | 2 |
At the pediatrician’s office the other day I saw the following sign:
Children spell love… T-I-M-E. – Dr. Anthony P. Witham
At first glance, this is a lovely, meaningful quote that makes us want to snuggle up with our children for hours on end. But when the snugglefest is over we have to ask ourselves a serious question. Why can’t our children spell?
One challenge of being with children is that they have a skewed perception of the passing of time. Try having a 3 minute conversation on the phone; they will inform you that you have been talking ‘for the longest time’! Then pick them up from a friend’s house after 3 hours and hear them moan that that was ‘the shortest playdate ever’! If you run out of milk one day you ‘NEVER have milk!’ But try serving chicken two nights in a row and suddenly you ‘ALWAYS have chicken…’ To recap, our children can neither spell nor tell time. They will be living in our basements forever.
Sometimes it feels like my kids and I are traveling in opposite directions of the space/time continuum. Although I am in full control of their schedules, we never seem to have time at the same time. For instance, at dinner in between refilling cups of apple juice (see? We never have milk!) I ask each of my children to tell me something special about their day. Some of my children comply, they tell us what they learned, what they played in gym, which kid ate paste, etc. But one of my sons deems this an unfit time for sharing. He waits until the following morning when we are all thoroughly late for school, one sock on, toothbrush dangling from his mouth, he turns to me and says, ‘want to know a really crazy thing that happened yesterday?’
We recently experienced a death in our family and I was cognizant of making appropriate times to talk to my children about dying. My three year old spent this prescribed time spinning in circles until he fell down (a thrilling activity, I will give him that). But at 3AM I found him crawling into my bed asking me ‘why do we die’?
I think the car is a great opportunity to talk since I cannot be distracted by dirty dishes or online Tetris. But as luck would have it my guys prefer music to talking while driving. You know what does make them chatty though? When I close the bathroom door. That’s when they park themselves outside in the hall and wonder aloud- ‘why do bad things happen to good people’?
The problem is that my children and I spell love differently. They think it’s t-i-m-e, while I spell it t-i-m-e-a-l-o-n-e. You want to express your heartfelt devotion and appreciation? How about less middle of the night snuggling? And if it’s my birthday and I really deserve something special, let me go to the bathroom sans the chaperone!
One might think that our divergent spellings make it impossible for us to feel love at the same time.
But I have stumbled upon the equalizer.
The other night at bedtime one clown was particularly squirmy, so I started to scratch his back. He suddenly lay perfectly still on the bed and began breathing deeply. I continued scratching and he snuggled up close and sweet. I scratched a bit more and I am sure that I heard him purr. And so was born our new nightly routine. After books and tooth brushing and enough drinks of water to make the desert bloom, we settle in for a good scratching. No talking at all, no squirming, no rushing back to Tetris (judge me and I will flip you on your side and shove you into a tight space!). And when I am rewarded with a purr I become certain that Dr. Witham was a smart man. If only I could get him to teach my children how to spell. | <urn:uuid:97ddcc6a-228d-4cf1-ba54-63b24806f6cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stow.patch.com/blog_posts/t-i-m-e?logout=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972444 | 856 | 1.789063 | 2 |
This excerpt taken from the MRVL 10-K filed Apr 13, 2006.
Internal Control Integrated Framework issued by the COSO. The Companys management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. Our responsibility is to express opinions on managements assessment and on the effectiveness of the Companys internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We conducted our audit of internal control over financial reporting in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. An audit of internal control over financial reporting includes obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, evaluating managements assessment, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control, and performing such other procedures as we consider necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinions.
A companys internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A companys internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (i) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the
assets of the company; (ii) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (iii) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the companys assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. | <urn:uuid:5073bcb9-49e1-4907-b043-0e8bfb5dc829> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Marvell_Technology_Group_(MRVL)/Internal_Control_Integrated_Framework | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936204 | 438 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Not just regular hives, large hives, as in entire hand or foot or eye. The first time this happened to me in college I thought I'd broken my foot. It swelled so fast it didn't even itch and was very painful to stand on due to all of the edema.
I've gotten them two or three times in periods of high stress. The most recent time, they were relatively small (egg-size or smaller), but just about all over my body, and they flared up bad whenever I was exposed to heat -- so, nice long hot showers, exercise...all my stress-reducers. They suck.
No hives, but my sister and I both break out in enormous red blotches when we're nervous, though since we are now crones of 50+ it isn't as bad. Her 2 boys ages 21 and 23 suffer from same. Actual hives must be awful-are yours environmentally or emotionally related?
Environmental. Allergies, chiefly to cats, dust mites, and mold. Usually I can keep the allergies under control with antihistamines every day and I try to keep the feline allergens to non-trigger levels. I have a cover on the couch that I wash every day and the bedroom is a cat-free zone.
Doesn't happen as often as it used to but when the hives occur it's not fun. In addition to the hives I often feel sick too. Achy and hypersensitive.
Suzier I have heard of people getting hives from both heat and cold. You have my sympathy.
Last couple of steriod treatments, 7 days of decreasing amounts, have left me with hives. Fortunately not horrible, benadryl and time resolved. DR said we will have to extend the taper period, so more days taking the steriods.
Other time for hives was before a serious, to me, ankle surgery.
I hope you are able to resolve yours quickly. We keep benadryl on hand for any allergic reaction.
"Never do anything that you have to explain twice to the paramedics."
Courtesy my cousin Tim
I was talking to DH last night and he thinks my large hives are allergic angioedema, which is basically a scary-sounding name for giant hives. The difference is that angioedema involves the deep dermis, subcutaneous layer and submucosa while hives just affect the upper dermis.
Hives have been associated with a number of infections and autoimmune disorders.
"Urticaria has been reported to be associated with a number of infections; however, these associations are not strong and may be spurious. Infectious agents reported to cause urticaria include hepatitis B virus (HBV), Streptococcus and Mycoplasma species, Helicobacter pylori,[5, 6] Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and herpes simplex virus (HSV)."
In the case of angioedema the syndrome is called idiopathic angioedema.
"Based on responses to medication, some [idiopathic] cases are thought to be mediated by mast cell activation, albeit IgE-independent.
Common triggers include heat, cold, emotional stress, and exercise. Nonspecific mast cell activation and degranulation are suspected causes.
Thyroid autoantibodies are found in 14-28% of patients with chronic urticaria/angioedema, and IgG autoantibodies to either the high affinity receptor for IgE (FceRI) or to IgE are found in 30-50% of patients with chronic urticaria/angioedema.[18, 20] In affected individuals, autoantibody (IgG) has been found to crosslink FceRI on mast cells, resulting in mast cell activation and release of histamine, cytokines, and other proinflammatory mediators. Immunomodulatory drugs may be beneficial for this type of angioedema.
The link between infection and angioedema is vague at best. Helicobacter pylori infection has been found to be associated with HAE exacerbation. Treatment of H pylori infection has led to clinical improvement of chronic urticaria and angioedema. Systemic viral, bacterial, or parasitic infection may stimulate the immune system and cause improper activation or inflammatory changes."
I also have the idiopathic sort -- sometimes if I catch a bug I'll get hives and that seems to cut the course of the virus short.
And pseudoallergic: "Pseudoallergic angioedema is not IgE-mediated. However, its clinical course and presentation is very similar to allergic angioedema. Typical examples are angioedema induced by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and intravenous contrast material; aspirin is the most common culprit." | <urn:uuid:45356e12-0ede-49f0-aa92-7233faf2da2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?383737-Who-else-gets-hives&p=6752487 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941543 | 1,021 | 1.5 | 2 |
Sorry, I'll be the spoil sport here. I have owned my own companies for over 30 years and have experimented with all kinds of bonus programs to try to motivate people more. My experience with profit share in a small company was dismal at best. Its like burning your money. If your company is consistently profitable, then, basically, you are just sharing the wealth. A nice thing to do but it is not a motivator. For example, lets take a company that has 100 employees and makes 1 million a year in profit. If their profit share formula is to share 20% of profit, then $200,000 goes to the 100 employees or $2,000 each. Now, say Jack in the warehouse feels motivated to help the company because of his positive perception of the wonderful profit share plan, so he figures out some inventory control system that works great and saves the company an extra $20,000 for the year. So now, profits for the year are 1,020,000. Take 20% of that for distribution and you now get 204,000 for distribution. Jack ends up getting an additional $40 for his year long great effort. Whoopee! Sooner or later, every employee does the math and comes to the same conclusion. They have no real power to affect the size of their own bonus. Motivation drops to zero.
Another problem with profit share in any size company is that Management can foul it all up with one decision. Let's build the Edsel! How about we double the charges at NetFlix? Any bright idea that goes astray can wipe out all the good little things that individual employees might do. Additionally, they usually have to wait a full year to get the bonus and in this instant-gratification society that is far too long to keep them motivated day to day.
I found that if I truly wanted to motivate workers, that I needed to design specific programs for each class of worker. The very short version of this is to identify what it is that that worker does which most contributes to the bottom line, do your math and figure out what they are contributing now and then how much more it would be if they did, say 20% better or more. Design a frequently paid bonus (monthly works best) that pays them about 30% of the extra savings or earnings over and above what they were doing anyway and turn them loose. People are very motivated when you can drill down to the specific act they are performing daily and know they can increase their paycheck for doing better NOW.
It is not as complicated as I made it sound. I have done it for years with every employee in the company ... not just sales and management, everyone, even entry level and all hourly personnel. | <urn:uuid:5489e6ec-b0b3-433f-96d3-0c180a993ded> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/21172/profit-sharing-plan-that-really-works-for-small-business | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97268 | 556 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Newspaper lobbyists bracing for fight in House
There's an axiom in politics: Don't pick a fight with somebody who buys ink by the barrel. But the House will consider a bill Wednesday that would allow cities and counties to move legal ads from newspapers to the Internet, potentially wiping out a major source of revenue for financially-ailing papers.
The bill (HB 1511) by Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne (left), places the Brevard County lawmaker on a collision course with his hometown Gannett-owned newspaper, Florida Today, which is represented by veteran lobbyist Guy Spearman (right). Wednesday's hearing is scheduled for 8 a.m. at the Government Affairs Policy Committee, headed by Rep. Rob Schenck, R-Spring Hill.
Media firms, operating under the name "Keep the Public Noticed," are circulating fliers noting that 62 percent of elderly adults don't use the Internet, as well as 36 percent of Hispanics and 30 percent of African-Americans (according to a 2009 Pew study).
Similar legislation has been filed in recent years without success. The Senate version (SB 376) is sponsored by Sen. Charlie Dean, R-Inverness, and has not been scheduled for a hearing. If, for some reason, the bill could make it out of the Legislature, might it be vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist? Ya think? | <urn:uuid:a231ef50-d069-4bdc-b381-46aaaa13c8e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/newspaper-lobbyists-bracing-fight-house/2032970 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960532 | 285 | 1.5 | 2 |
Those who own homes on state land, in privately-owned forest, and on other rangeland where the state has primary financial responsibility for wildfire prevention and suppression, will be charged an annual “Fire Prevention Fee” of $150 as the result of a law signed on July 7, 2011.
The state Board of Equalization started sending out bills August 13th. The process is expected to take about four months because bills are mailed in alphabetical order, based on what county the resident lives in. The fees must be paid by homeowners within 30 days of the date on the bill to avoid a monetary penalty and interest.
However, some say it's another tax, and a lawsuit is in the works against it.
You can enter your address to see if you have to pay the new fee on this website: www.firepreventionfee.org
Assemblymember Shannon Grove/(R) Bakersfield, says you can sign up to fight the fee at www.firetaxprotest.org and join the class-action lawsuit. | <urn:uuid:12e581ed-4b5a-4a78-8e37-0662a815bebb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kget.com/content/hot_link/story/Fire-Prevention-Fee/0shgCWEW8kGaKaGpIVTthA.cspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965271 | 213 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Apple has climbed 11 per cent in March on positive iPad sales forecasts and increased consumer spending. Still, some investors shun Apple because they expect the shares to drop or consider the stock expensive.
Here are five inhibitions that could be hurting your returns.
1. Aversion to groupthink: The technology bubble of the late '90s and the credit bubble of 2006 have stoked skepticism among investors. They avoid popular stocks because they've been burned by fast-growing names in the past.
Apple repels many investors who question why shareholders are so emotionally attached to the company and its products. As long as you're buying shares based on investment fundamentals, not emotion, Apple is probably a safe bet.
2. Newton's Third Law: Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion states that "to any action there is an equal and opposite reaction." The Third Law is rarely discussed in finance, but it affects how we purchase stocks. Prices move in two directions. When a stock rises like Apple's has, it seems like a descent looms. The popularity of the Fibonacci sequence, a series of ascent and retracement patterns in technical analysis, has exacerbated this fear of natural corrections.
3. The value proposition: The success of Warren Buffett has made value investing the preferred strategy of many investors. However, many analyze valuation metrics, such as price-to-earnings and price-to-book ratios, without comparing them to peer or market averages. When evaluating a stock, investors much as consider factors such as geographic, economic and industry prospects as well as expected individual growth rates. If you're waiting to "pick your spot" on Apple, you'll have missed out on serious growth.
4. Contrarian myopia: There is a sizable group of short-sighted investors who think they have superior insight. These investors aren't in the market to make money, but to prove their atypical talent. Such contrarians consider themselves to be "ahead of the curve" and scorn popular investment ideas for being banal or simplistic without fully considering their merits. This group fails to recognize that a contrarian predisposition often prevents one from owning lucrative stocks.
5. Premature cognitive closure: A person on a chosen course is likely to stay on that course, regardless of new information. These people are naturally inclined to cling to preexisting opinions. This will prevent them from purchasing Apple shares, except under certain circumstances. If the stock falls or the company declines in popularity, you could see a new wave of investors buying into Apple. In this case, inhibitions provide a stock-price cushion.
Thinking of investing in Apple?
Now, here are four fundamental reasons to buy Apple shares.
Apple trades at a price-to-projected-earnings ratio of 17, a price-to-book ratio of 5.9 and a price-to-sales ratio of 4.5, representing 9.6%, 12% and 76% premiums to industry averages. The stock is also expensive based on cash flow per share. But its PEG ratio, a measure of value based on expected growth, of 0.8 is on par with the industry average and suggests the shares are trading at bargain prices relative to the company's prospects. A PEG ratio that's less than 1 suggests the shares are cheap. Apple is arguably expensive, but certain factors justify a premium.
The company has growth prospects that aren't accounted for in some analysts' forecasts, but are visible in its balance sheet. The company has $40-billion in cash and liquid securities, and no long-term debt. It has enough cash to finance a massive acquisition, or a series of medium-sized deals, and still retain its liquid tilt. It's difficult to account for the growth potential of this cash.
2. Growth rates
During the past three years, Apple has increased revenue 31 per cent annually, on average, and boosted net income 57 per cent a year. Its stock has returned 34 per cent annually since 2007, outperforming U.S. indices and technology peers. The union of software and hardware, a strategy that pushed the company to the brink in the '90s, has been adopted by consumers who eagerly wait for Apple's next product. An army of early-adopting fans buoys initial reception.
Apple's iPad, due for release in April, has suffered criticism from technophiles. Still, a dual-distribution channel, through Apple stores and Best Buy locations, suggests that Wall Street sales estimates could be increased. The ability to sell at two venues also ensures broad geographic distribution and more consumer buzz during the launch. Morgan Stanley recently bumped its 2010 iPad unit sales estimate from 5 million to a range of 8 million to 10 million.
3. Analyst opinions
Analysts are overwhelmingly bullish on Apple, with 39, or 91 per cent, advising clients to buy shares and four recommending they hold the stock.
Tech-focused Cross Research expects the stock to advance 33 per cent to $310, the loftiest price target. Credit Suisse and Citigroup rate Apple "buy" and predict the stock to hit $300, a potential 29 per cent gain. Researchers at Barclays, UBS and Bank of America also rate Apple "buy", but are less optimistic about near-term growth potential.
: Per Lindberg's 'sell' rating has been a costly one for investors, but he says a bubble may be brewing
In a research note last week, Barclays stressed the importance of growth in Asia for the iPhone, citing demand in Japan and China as positive catalysts. Though iPod sales are experiencing seasonal weakness in the U.S., strong order trends in Asia for Macs, iPod Touch devices and iPhones are likely to offset domestic tapering.
A major component of Barclays' investment thesis is an iPhone upgrade cycle this summer. The company estimates that Apple will sell 5 million iPads this year, with constrained supply in the first quarter.
4. Fundamental superiority
TheStreet's quantitative equity model, which rates stocks based on investment fundamentals and historical performance, gives Apple a growth score of 10.1, making it the fourth-best company out of more than 5,000 we cover.
Apple has also earned a financial strength score of 9.9 out of 10, leading all stocks we follow. Its performance score of 9.1 and volatility score of 3.8 are also better than those of peers. The stock ranks in the top 3 per cent for overall score, our gauge of expected risk-adjusted performance. TheStreet's stock model rates Apple "buy" and projects a share price of $303.06.
Companies & investments Mentioned In This Article (1)
BBY-N 26.29 0.64 | <urn:uuid:528c84c9-cbd8-4e4b-b33e-49e07086c998> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/apple-why-you-should-buy-the-hype/article1516969/?service=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95339 | 1,372 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Hay help is available
We've heard a lot lately about the challenges facing Michigan horse owners, rescuers, shelters and sanctuaries because of the hay shortage caused by last winter's drought. But the good news is that help is available: The Michigan Horse Welfare Coalition, a 501-c3 non-profit organization dedicated to helping equines and their owners in need, has a hay bank to provide assistance for those facing tough economic times.
Since our founding in January of 2010, the Michigan Horse Welfare Coalition has helped more than 300 horses in our state with feed, care and rescue. Many of those horses were right here in Northern Michigan. It's easy to get help; just visit www.MichiganHorseWelfare.org/hay-bank to read about our eligibility guidelines and to apply for assistance.
Remember that it is against the law to starve, neglect or abandon your horses, and there is no excuse to do that when assistance is available. Please spread the word about our hay bank to help ensure that Michigan's horses are well cared for over the coming winter. Find out more about our work at www.MichiganHorseWelfare.org.
Fence provided security
I am disappointed with the recent removal of the fencing around the Traverse City Civic Center.
Those with young children and dogs should be concerned. I am particularly concerned for the dozens of special needs children who attend nearby Oak Park Elementary.
To these students, the Civic Center is not simply a walking path or playground. It is a learning environment. The students learn to stay together and respect others in public. Learning appropriate behavior is part of their everyday training.
Even with staff members present at all times, these children are prone to break away. The fence provided another layer of safety.
My son is one of those students.
Although the master plan does show that some fencing is staying, but lower, that is not enough. Fencing is needed around the entire facility like it was before the recent removal.
Shame on me for not attending the public brainstorming sessions that were held; however, it is difficult to attend something that I was not aware of.
It seems to me that the need for the fence was a given.
I am all for eye appeal and making the area more inviting. However, safety should not be sacrificed. | <urn:uuid:4d8a26f5-7a8f-4d05-af07-44680590671c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://record-eagle.com/letters/x121541768/Letters-to-the-Editor-11-06-2012/print | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964206 | 475 | 1.78125 | 2 |
By Larry Dreiling It was the mid-1980s. U.S. agriculture had fallen on its hardest times since the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.
Farmers were going bankrupt, banks in small towns were folding, and some of the great names in agricultural machin-ery were either departing the scene or merging to survive.
It was the time of International Harvester finding new owners—a conglomerate that had bought a rival—and spinning off its truck division to become Case IH. Meanwhile, Allis-Chalmers was joining with Gleaner to form the base of what we now know as AGCO. | <urn:uuid:97a25e68-177a-4e9c-b180-67a2d3f2d60a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hpj.com/journal/search/index_testissue2.cfm?wk=29&year=2011 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991438 | 129 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Beedie research shows freefall of Italy’s national brand linked to exploits of outgoing PM Silvio BerlusconiNov 09, 2011
In the wake of the announcement from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that he will be stepping down from his post, recent Beedie School of Business research points to his exploits as having a major impact on the image and reputation of his country.
As national brands go, it has historically been hard to beat that of Italy’s. The country is renowned for its rich cultural life, one that attracts tourists, investors and migrants from around the world every year. However, the recent research shows that this coveted national brand may be in decline because of the actions of its most prominent politician – a lesson that other countries should take heed of.
The study from Beedie PhD marketing student Kirk Plangger shows how a country’s brand — which government marketers pour millions of dollars into annually — can be negatively impacted by the actions of its national politicians.
The study was published in the August issue of Journal of Public Affairs.
Plangger examined the freefall of Italy’s national brand in the past five years in the context of the exploits of longstanding Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the political cartoons that have skewered him in the wake of a number of political scandals that have beset his time in office.
According to the study, “a national-branding strategy is grounded in the vision of political leaders, especially the head of government or state. As the Italian case has shown, the political and even social actions of government leaders can have significant effects on the perceived national brand equity.”
Plangger authored the study with Alessandro Bigi (Lulea University of Technology, Sweden), Michelle Bonera (Universita degli studi di Brescia, Italy) and Colin Campbell (Monash University, Australia). He notes that the cartoons examined were a reflection of a much-broader response to his troubles in political office. “They are evidence of international sentiment against him,” said Plangger.
“There has been so much negative press around him, so we wanted to look at what this might be doing to Italy’s brand,” said Plangger. “We felt that his impact on Italy’s national brand was significant.”
The researchers note that Italy had the world’s top-rated brand in 2005, as ranked by the annual Country Brand Index that is published by FutureBrand. The nation has since dropped out of the Top 10 countries, to number 12.
“Political leaders attract more media attention than business, export brands, or tourism, because of the immediate implications of what they say or do,” notes the study. “Therefore, political leaders expose their countries to global audiences and promote travel or investment in their respective nation.” | <urn:uuid:dbac7c9d-097c-4f6c-afb5-a47d3ee215b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://beedie.sfu.ca/blog/2011/11/beedie-research-shows-freefall-of-italy%E2%80%99s-national-brand-linked-to-exploits-of-outgoing-pm-silvio-berlusconi/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966584 | 605 | 1.65625 | 2 |
5 Stats Your Next Client Must Hear
Energy auditors and retrofitters know that it’s hard to sell the benefits of energy efficiency to homeowners. But the truth is that energy efficient upgrades save homeowners money, help sell homes quicker, and yield a higher profit when on the real estate market.
Because it’s not always easy to explain industry ratings and scores to homeowners, auditors need to be armed with statistics to help convey their message. I’ve compiled six statistics that show the importance of energy efficient renovations and how I’ve seen them work in the field. Feel free to use them the next time you visit a client.
A note: All certified homes referred to below are defined as those carrying Energy Star or LEED for Homes designations, or Earth Advantage home certifications.
1. Existing homes with certificates from third-party companies for sustainability and energy efficiency sold for 30% more than similar houses without certificates, according to a study by the Earth Advantage Institute.
One of our customers tracked their utility usage before and after their improvements and used the numbers as a selling point for their home. They did so by providing interested buyers with a printed copy of a Residential Energy Report that outlines our audit findings.
2. Certified homes spend 18 days less time on the market than non-certified homes, according to a study by the Earth Advantage Institute.
We have worked with homebuilders to consult for new construction homes to get them certified as Energy Star Rated. This helps homeowners by shortening the period of stress that occurs while a house is on the market.
3. 90% of people believe that energy efficiency is important when buying or selling a home, according to a study by the National Association of Home Builders.
While appraisers are not driving demand yet, we feel the local utility rebate programs in Columbia, Missouri for energy efficiency improvements are helping. In the mix of housing stock, we’re finding a wide range of homes that have a need for some efficiency improvements.
4. From the same study, 72% of people say that energy efficient features would sway their decision to purchase a home.
The down economy is causing people to stay in their homes longer than they did a decade ago. Since most people can’t afford to move into a nicer home, we’ve found they are looking for ways to invest money into their current home. Many energy efficiency improvements have a payback of 5 years or less and provide greater comfort to the residents.
5. 61% say that they would be willing to pay $5,000 up front in order to save on utility costs later.
We have noticed that anyone who has had improvements made to their old home are almost guaranteed to have an audit performed on their new home once they move. Energy efficient homes speak very loudly to people that have seen and felt the difference it can make.
Scott Schnelle is an energy auditor with EnergyLink, a company that helps mid-Missouri homes achieve peak performance through energy efficiency installations.
Enter your comments in the box below:
(Please note that all blog entries and comments are subject to review prior to posting.) | <urn:uuid:1bffe49b-3cbe-4d49-b2b5-1724569ea75e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.homeenergy.org/show/blog/nav/microhydro/id/244 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960526 | 646 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Remember the old saw about a crisis and an opportunity being the same thing?
Some state lawmakers see the nearly $9 billion state budget deficit as an opportunity to fundamentally change Washington state’s tax structure, which they see as regressive and too susceptible to economic downturns. There’s serious discussion about imposing an income tax to raise money to support education and health care, areas that face drastic cuts as lawmakers prepare the next two-year state spending plan. Washington is one of only seven states that does not tax personal income.
“The cold, hard, ugly reality of the budget has really, really sunk in,” said Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle. “Not only among the Legislature, but among the community. That’s had a really important structural shift in people’s thinking…the public is understanding the magnitude of these (proposed) cuts.”
In education alone, the size of the cuts are huge. Gov. Chris Gregoire’s budget office showed the state Senate cutting about $877 million from K-12 in its budget. The Senate would also cut about $500 million in funding to Washington’s colleges and universities.
The big numbers have people’s attention. Last week Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, introduced a plan to levy a 1 percent income tax on people making more than $500,000 a year, single heads of a household making more than $750,000 and married couples making more than $1 million.
But an income tax is a tough sell. Gregoire said she wouldn’t support it and an income tax bill would have to be approved by two-thirds of the Legislature and then OK’d by the state’s voters.
Many Olympia observers expect lawmakers to present voters with a package of tax increases to help pay for education and health care. Voters might be asked to increase the sales tax, for example, or charge smokers and drinkers more when they buy cigarettes and booze. Increasingly, however, leading Democratic lawmakers say simply adding on to the state’s existing tax burden is just plain dumb.
“Generally I am supportive of placing a tax package on the ballot to ‘buy back’ some of the cuts, especially for education, health and social/human services,” Kohl-Welles said in an e-mail. “However, I’m not enthusiastic about increasing the state sales tax as it is a regressive tax and is getting very high already in some counties, such as King. I don’t belive targeted ‘sin’ taxes would be sufficeint, though, which is one reason why I introduced SB6147.”
To pay for government services Washington relies on three major taxes – a retail sales tax, a business and occupation tax and property taxes. The bulk of the money the state uses to pay for services comes from the sales tax (54 percent of general fund state sources in the 2004 fiscal year).
But critics complain that sales taxes hit poorest people the hardest and are unreliable because people don’t buy as much stuff when the economy is bad.
“There is a real appreciation of the structural problem of a consumption based tax structure,” Carlye said. “We are just intoxicated by consumption. That’s not a good thing.”
Talk of changing the state’s tax system is nothing new. In 2002 Bill Gates Sr. presented a report to the Legislature that pushed for overhauling the way government collects money here. It went nowhere. The report said that Washington’s tax system isn’t fair. The poorest households pay 15.7 percent of income for total excise and property taxes, according to the study, while the richest households pay 4.4 percent of income for the same taxes.
“Sales tax is the main cause of regressivity,” the report said.
In 2009, in the middle of a severe recession, there are some in the majority Democratic caucus in Olympia who say it would be shortsighted not to at least entertain the notion of changing the way the tax business is run here.
“With a Democratic Legislature and a Democratic governor, it’s not about somebody taking a symbolic stand,” Carlyle said. “It’s much more important to step up to the larger structural question in a way that can be heard. Not about income or property or sales taxes as much as presenting something to voters that can really connect them to the care values that will fund services – and that’s education.”
Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, admits it’s easy for him to push for changing the state’s tax system because his liberal constituency favors it. But he says the income tax discussion is worth having.
“I think it’s a conversation that has been going on and will continue to go on,” he says.
The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn at the end of the month. | <urn:uuid:c2fb2f78-eaa3-40f1-aed2-57f8504f6aa3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2009/04/page/24/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960919 | 1,050 | 1.835938 | 2 |
So Putin had discussed the EuroAsian union by 2015 which will include: Russia, Belarussia,is a proposed economic and political union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and other Eurasian countries, in particular the post-Soviet states.
Could this be a come back from the USSR? Are they trying to isolate themself from the western markets and american dollar currency?
Would love to hear your thoughts!!!
Hajimemashite, Philipdzh! Welcome to the forum. I moved your topic to Red Square because it wasn't a current event.
This has been brought up here before and no it's not. It's simply Russia trying to re-orient itself as an imperialist power. Having indebted "allies" is key to setting up any prolonged imperial system. Plus you have to remember that the people who own Russia hated the USSR and would fight very hard against its reconstitution.
لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا الله مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ الله - يا عمال العالم اتحدوا
Sure it is Russia is trying to re-orient itself back as an imperialist power just as it was when it was the soviet union. Hate to say it but the soviet union was far bigger of an imperialist power then say america. the cccp steam rolled over every nation it could get it's hands on.
Where are you getting this from?
Source please,for the USSR being imperialist?
Life, sure dude it takes 2 secs to do search on Soviet empire or soviet Imperialism. If you don't wanna call it Imperialism and call it something else thats fine but the results are the same. You can't call America an Imperialist without calling bs on not saying the same of the cccp.
What is imperialism,according to you then?
the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation especially by direct territorial acquisitions or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas;
According to this Albania is the biggest imperialist in the Balkans.Also pretty much all (definitely all Western ones) nations fall into this category,except maybe Haiti,Panama or Mongolia.
The USSR did not go on bombing other countries which wouldn't want to let them suck of the resources (see Libya etc).
Imperialism (is) the highest stage of capitalism. (Lenin).
Read that work text if you want to know more.
Oh really so the winter war never happened, the invasion of afghanistan never happened, Prague Spring never happened, Hungarian Revolution of 1956 never happened. Sorry but the soviet union was just as imperialist as everybody else welcome to the real world.
So it's a question of how many "invasions" the USSR did that defines how imperialist it supposedly was? Hell,you even said that it was more imperialist than America.
In that case compare it with the number of invasions (and the death-toll on civilians) the US pulled off in the last 80 years and come back.
I also hope that you know that it takes 2 "secs" to "do search" on articles that say that Hitler was a socialist, the a UFO crashed in Roswell, or that Barack Obama and the Democrat Party are secret Communists. Don't just believe anything you read on the internet; use logic and reasoning.
There was no "Invasion of Afghanistan". The legitimate government asked the USSR for help containing reactionary bandits that intended to plunge Afghanistan into a new dark age.
Those fascist reactionaries got exactly what they deserved.
This is the real and Marxist definition of Imperialism:
Its not just an issue of invasion but yes pointing to invasions does help my case and seeing how you didn't counter them I assume you agree. I said bigger and yes size wise it was also how many countries has the us hand boots on the ground in and then leave or not fully take over. Now lets see how many the soviet union leave.
I did and i stand by what was stated until you prove other wise.
Oh ok so the government that took power by a coup was fearful of a coup so they invited the soviet union in to over take the nation oh ok. And america was invited to Vietnam and korea and Iraq and every country has a reason other then evil Imperialism to use.
Oh ok so it was ok cause they had different views. So Imperialism is ok when they have different views then you.
Didn't hear any thing about the winter war guess they had different views to right.
Oh so anyone else does it it's evil imperialism the soviet union does it its gory to the people.
What are you talking about? America has numerous bases around the world.
And the Soviet army left all WarPac countries in 1989,having previously "invaded" none,except for interventions in Hungary and Cze (the latter done with assistance of several countries).
Some imperialism lol.
The USSR asked for a small strip of worthless land around Lenin,in exchange offering Finland vast territories in Karelia.
Also Finland staged numerous provocations and so on.
If the USSR had been imperialist,then it would have pushed further than Viipuri after it defeated the Finns,which it didn't.It satisfied with what it asked for in the first place+some minor additions.
That wasn't an imperialist war in any way.
What did you state? Also learn to use caps.
ROK and S.Vietnam were imperialist puppets.
It can be contended that the Soviet Union conquered the Baltic States and established satellite governments in central Europe, but your statement that Soviet Union was more imperialist than the US is one of incredible ignorance in the face of modern world history. The United States has had a far more pervasive hold on nations throughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia, both in terms of economic blackmail and in boots on the ground. You can point to Prague Spring and the Hungarian uprising, but I could equally point to the US invasions of El Salvador, Granada, and the Dominican Republic, not to mention the scores of coups orchestrated the CIA, whether it was Iran, Iraq (in the 60s, in this case), Guatemala, Ghana, Chile, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Burkina Faso, Honduras, etc. And believe me, even when US "boots on the ground" left, those countries acted at the behest of Washington and American business interests, not as independent sovereign nations as you would seem to believe. It is no accident that many countries around the world who won their independence from colonialism gravitated toward the Soviet Union for economic assistance and protection of their sovereignty, even in their nominal state of "non-alignment".
As for boots on the ground, the Soviet army, outside the national borders, was limited to a presence in the Eastern Bloc and in Afghanistan after 1979; the US spread their hard power everywhere.
Mainstream history may be written by the winners, which explains your comment about "googling soviet imperialism", but it is far better for you to educate yourself on the true nature of imperialism, and you will then understand who is by far the bigger perpetrator (in the past and at present).
"History is a set of lies agreed upon."
Sure america does have basses around the world and I fell like we should close them down such a waste of money that could be used to improve the way of life for us and others. But I wonder how much money the Soviet Union pissed away on toys like America. Ok so the CCCP never invaded germany or poland. We also agreed it's not just boats on the grounds just think if others tried to break away the same would have happened to them. The Soviet Union had its claws into the countries holding down there freedoms. Which side of the wall fell again.
Ok now we got a break threw here. so some imperialism did happen good were making some head way.
And north korea and north vietnam were puppet states for the Soviet Union. Well not so much N vietnam uncle HU CHI wasn't a bad guy with my understanding of the issue. America just wanted to stop the spread of the soviet union aka Imperialism. Yet they were ok with french but the good guys won out in the end.
Oh but you clearly stated that hungry was fascists so it was ok.
Il say the same to you as I have said before It was bigger size wise learn to read. I never said more You already agreed in your fist line that the Soviet Union did in fact conquer others. End of debate the Soviet Union was in fact Imperialist maybe not more then others maybe less then some but they were in fact the same problem you stand to fight and really we all should. They are in the same bed with everyone else they just labeled the box another way. Sorry but the soviet Union was a bully on the playground to maybe not the biggest but does that really matter a bully is a bully.
An empire needs to make money off of the areas it dominates to the extent that it increases its power and takes up more territory. The USSR was a terrible empire by this measurement as it routinely gave things away to liberation movements without expecting much in return. When you look at Cuba and N. Korea the USSR gave them much fairer terms of trade than other developing nations of the global south which shows how well they were doing before the fall. Important to mention here, and as it has been elsewhere on the forum, many in Eastern bloc lived better materially speaking than Russians, usually in a conventional empire, ie the American empire, most of the people in its key sphere of influence do not live better than they do, Latin America. Or France and French Africa. The other thing is apart from the military interventions you listed, there were numerous disagreements and rifts between socialist leaders in the Cold War.
Even reading Wikipedia you will find people who were supporters of Soviet policy during their life, additional citations have been added to demonstrate how they 'came around' and realized the inherent evil in what they were supporting, and as mentioned in the posts above we do live in an era where discussing Cold War history is highly politicized, and often conforms to victor's history interpretations. It will be a while yet before we start seeing more thorough evaluations come out, I think the trend is starting but like I said, will be a long time yet before this changes perception in general public. In reaction I have noticed an insistence of the bourgeois media to bring up the 'crimes of communism' at every interval, after all, people were getting too nostalgic lol. Essentially people were coming to an understanding not tainted by this angels-and-demons dichotomy and realizing there was both good and bad from socialist experience, and that the american dream is not so golden after all. I am familiar with the mountains of evidence of Soviet Imperialism, but still reluctant to call it an empire in the conventional sense.
We need to look at the groth imperative and how it differed in the Soviet Union. Studying planning, many post-modern theorists have associated the grid networks as themselves demonstrative of imperialism, and yet we do have this modernist character in cities in East and West. Yet still, I look at the 'post-modern' architecture wonders and I'm unsure what the ostensibly emancipatory value of such decadent works are. Post-modernism and its whole recasting of imperialism as being equal to both participants in Cold War is certainly part because in the retelling of history we lack a version of the story from all sides. There is the American government line, and that of the American people, but very scant sourcing of Soviet people or soviet researchers. What emerges mostly is dissident views, and occasionally contemporary researchers from former Eastern bloc, but they are vastly in the minority compared to the British and American 'experts.' Its no different than how African Studies departments were formed largely of whites in the beginning, and they taught the same way, the Anglo-Saxon view on that history. Sovietology emerged much the same way and mainly operated as some sort of condemnatory narrative on Soviet experience. These are the people in the academic setting which produced anti-Soviet propaganda and departments funded by CIA and other US corporations. Universities, being under pressures from various actors, alumni, government and private funding are of course subservient to other interests. In order to publish a book which contrasts with the generally accepted status quo of democratic engagement in the liberal democratic order one has to go to much greater lengths, and it can be near impossible to accomplish which I think in itself is an effective deterrent in removing a lot of alternative views. Publishers, especially those at the university level, control the way history is presented from the Cold War. In sum, there are many factors at play which influence the information we are presented with.
I think right now we are seeing what the MR describe as Monopoly Capitalism. Applying this to the internet we see monopolies of facebook on social networking, youtube on videos, google on searching and most importantly, wiki on credible, neutral information. The problem is we need to assess the vested interests these organizations have in controlling information. Google and Wikipedia are not neutral, at all. Reading the discussion pages on many Wikipedia articles pertaining to socialism should reveal a strong bias to underrepresent the socialist point of view, and many of the sources are questionable. The amount of articles referenced by CIA, Library of congress, Economist, BBC is astounding and I would assert comprise the majority of articles on the website. I think its great when the rare socialist goes in and adds something to the article, but this is not always the case, and as such I really don't think Wikipedia does any great service to promoting some clarity on the events in the Cold War. You know what they say, "'There is no truth in the news, and no news in the truth....'
"The present is a time of struggle; the future is ours."
Yes I would say so quite well. The flag alliance is a crimson banner with Russian script. They could be starting something and I would be happy if they were. : )
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American military advisers who helped train the Georgian army spoke wistfully of the poor performance of their students. US personnel said Georgians had a good spirit but were completely unprepared to fight in a modern battle. Captain Jeff Barta, a trainer, commented about his former students, “if this was a U.S. brigade, ;it would not have gone into combat.” The Americans arrived August 7 to find there was no more training and the soldiers were sitting around singing folk songs as an Orthodox priest chanted and waved incense. According to Barta, a high percent of the Georgians were from rural areas and illiterate lacking skills in assuming initiative and were simply unprepared for combat against a modern army.
The Americans trained Georgians to use the M-4 rifle but when they went into combat, they preferred the older Russian AK-47 and they appeared incapable of firing single shots, instead letting off burst of wild shots from automatic weapons. Communications were so inept the men had to resort to use of their cell phones which allowed the Russians to tune into their conversations.
The entire operation was a mess and the person responsible is the president of Georgia. His first mistake was misinterpreting the words of George Bush. | <urn:uuid:45314ad3-737e-4a47-a052-df6d37d045af> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theimpudentobserver.com/world-news/georgian-army-gang-that-couldnt-shoot-straight/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.990416 | 248 | 1.796875 | 2 |
How does a musician who considered teaching his “life’s work” become a leading fundraiser, helping make history with the first Super Bowl in North Texas and giving rise to a performing arts mecca?
Bill Lively says he got “sidetracked.”
Lively (’70 M.M.Ed.), a trumpet player who earned his master’s in music education at UNT, first taught band for the Dallas Independent School District, then taught music and led the band at Southern Methodist University. He moved into university administration, eventually heading SMU’s fundraising and public affairs operations.
The career move was a good fit. Lively considers himself a strategist rather than a fundraiser, and what he knows about strategizing comes from his musical background and education.
“I think about a symphony and a march in terms of all the pieces and how they start and finish. I approach my work the same way,” Lively says.
Drawn by the reputation of UNT’s music programs, Lively says he left the university a better teacher and leader. He learned to think of things — whether music or history — in a broader context.
Lively relied on this perspective to motivate students and now uses it to inspire donors. As president and CEO of the Super Bowl XLV Host Committee, he is leading a group that has attracted the highest number of million-dollar sponsorships in Super Bowl history. See more on the concert series that included the UNT Symphony Orchestra.
Lively says the Super Bowl is bringing together North Texas communities in powerful new ways.
“This is much more than a football game. This has been a unifying agent,” he says.
Lively knows how mobilizing a community can transform the cultural landscape. He led the campaign to build the world-class AT&T Performing Arts Center, garnering more than $334 million in pledges, including the most million-dollar gifts to build a cultural facility in American history.
Lively’s leadership made all the difference, according to Howard Hallam, president of Ben E. Keith, who was a founding arts center board member and recently stepped down as chair.
A research firm told the campaign leaders they would raise $150 million at best. With Lively at the helm, the campaign reached the $250 million mark in only three years and kept going.
Lively is a great combination of workaholic, executive and visionary, according to Hallam.
“He said many times that the city would only get to build a performing arts center once in four generations and this was our time,” Hallam says. “He really made the project seem significant.”
The ingredients of a successful campaign are a good cause, great volunteers and a compelling message, Lively says.
“When you get other people thinking about noble projects — whether academic or cultural or the Super Bowl — and you do something at the highest level, you can galvanize people,” he says. | <urn:uuid:2cbfaf86-bc47-41d2-8701-8ee94c1bc958> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://northtexan.unt.edu/content/bill-lively | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969156 | 630 | 1.59375 | 2 |
- ISRAEL21c - http://israel21c.org -
A new treatment for chronic wounds
Posted By Ilana Teitelbaum On October 25, 2009 @ 12:00 am In | No Comments
Israel could become a leader in the $3 billion chronic wound industry with a new device that heals wounds faster and more cheaply than alternatives.
Millions of Americans, particularly the elderly and diabetics, are afflicted with chronic wounds, which are complicated to treat and can lead to lengthy hospital stays. With life expectancy and the numbers of those suffering from diabetes and obesity increasing worldwide, the global chronic wound industry currently totals around $3 billion.
Israeli company EnzySurge hopes to change the way chronic wounds are treated, with its DermaStream product line. The device is relatively low-cost, has the appearance of a bandage and is disposable, unlike the unwieldy equipment in use today.
Its small size and simplicity make it convenient for use in outpatient facilities or at home, reducing the need for costly hospital stays. It also helps wounds heal faster, saves time for physicians and nurses, and cuts costs. The technology is currently undergoing regulatory procedures and will reach the market next year.
Based on the company’s patented Continuous Streaming Therapy technology (CST), the new DermaStream device meets a variety of important needs: It applies negative pressure to a wound, while at the same time providing a continuous stream of healing solutions to the wound bed. DermaStream also drains the wound of exudates – bacteria and other fluids that are released and can hinder the healing process.
Simplify treatment, reduce costs
“DermaStream provides the combined effect of streaming, negative pressure, and the active ingredient in a solution that is determined according to the wound type and stage, for a comprehensive approach to treatment,” Amir Shiner, CEO of EnzySurge, tells ISRAEL21c. “The idea is to simplify the means of treatment while simultaneously providing an effective solution for patients that is low-cost, easy to use, and can be used in homecare.”
A supplemental technology developed by EnzySurge is SilverStream solution, which topically infuses the wound with a very low concentration of silver ions. This solution is a powerful enemy of bacteria and can enhance the effects of DermaStream. Like DermaStream, it will be available next year.
Given recent US government attempts to reform national healthcare and reduce standard treatment costs, EnzySurge’s products are coming to market at just the right time, says Shiner.
“Most of these chronically ill patients are 65 and older and are covered by Medicare or Medicaid. There’s a lot of receptiveness now to alternative treatments that are lower-cost and intended for outpatient settings, to be used by the patients themselves,” he says.
Getting rid of dead tissue in the wound
The latest technology in development at EnzySurge is an enzymatic Debridement solution, which in conjunction with the DermaStream device removes necrotic (dead) tissue from the wound.
A clinical trial on the new system performed on 48 venous ulcer patients in Israel demonstrated good results. The debridement solution is expected to begin its regulatory approval process in 2010.
EnzySurge’s technology is based on research by Prof. Amihay Freeman of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Biotechnology. He founded the company, which is headquartered in central Israel in Rosh Ha’ayin, with an additional office in Richmond, Virginia, in 2001.
The company is collaborating with the Virginia Biotech Commercialization Center (a wholly owned subsidiary of Virginia Life Sciences Investments) on business development, reimbursement, marketing and sales. EnzySurge currently employs 10 people and has raised $8 million from private investors in Israel.
Article printed from ISRAEL21c: http://israel21c.org
URL to article: http://israel21c.org/health/a-new-treatment-for-chronic-wounds/
Copyright © 2012 Israel. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:9d95fe1c-80d2-4da5-be4c-f5d68ee87112> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://israel21c.org/health/a-new-treatment-for-chronic-wounds/print/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937542 | 859 | 1.648438 | 2 |
I've collected a list of placenames and would like to see them all on a map. I know I can do a Google Maps search for them one by one. But I'm wondering if there is a web app out that that can do ...
Is there a search engine based on Google Search that clusters search results by subject, and shows them e.g. as circles on a 2D graph, so: results with similar subjects have a smaller distance ...
I'm learning Japanese, but struggling with hiragana / katakana (not to mention kanji). I have acquired the last 2 foreign languages mostly via auditorily learning (english, and german) -since they ... | <urn:uuid:39163a3c-7ec8-4e85-978e-3179c3ffa191> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/visualization+webapp-rec | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937088 | 143 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Buses End Crash-A-Rama The Way Most Should Have Expected
Soccer Goalie Scores Unlikely Goal From His Own Net
After making a save, Rayo Vallecano keeper David Cobeno kicked the ball out of his zone, where it would bounce in front of an out of position opposing keeper, and into the net. The goal was something to celebrate, but apparently he was his teams only offensive threat of the night in their Spanish B League match against Elche.
Once being labeled the star of the match, the light on Cobeno quickly dimmed as his team was defeated by a score of 2-1. How can a team allow such a lucky goal go to waste? I guess sometimes not even all the luck in the world is enough. On Sunday, that was the case for Rayo Vallecano.
Hat Tip Video – [Dirty Tackle] | <urn:uuid:9cd6c84a-51fe-454f-b2b5-2cab56c8130d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.totalprosports.com/2009/05/26/soccer-goalie-scores-unlikely-goal-from-his-own-net/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981666 | 182 | 1.75 | 2 |
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
TUSKON: Turkish-Chilean trade may reach $1 bln in 3 years
28 June 2011
The president of one of Turkey’s leading business associations has said Turkish-Chilean trade volume has the potential to more than double and reach $1 billion in the next three years.
Speaking at “Chile-Turkey Free Trade Agreement: Opportunities for Bilateral Economic and Commercial Relations,” a seminar organized in İstanbul on Tuesday, Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) President Rızanur Meral underlined what he called a “substantial but little used” economic cooperation potential between one of the Muslim world’s most populous nations and this key Latin America country.
A free trade agreement (FTA) between Turkey and Chile was signed in 2009 and came into force on March 1 this year. It became the latest in a number of FTAs Turkey has with 14 countries, including with members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), a free trade organization of four non-EU member states located in Europe. Chile, on the other hand, has FTAs with 58 nations around the world.
Turkey is the world’s 16th largest economy and is set to overtake some nations currently ranking in higher positions on the list in the mid-term, based on the pace of growth that its gross domestic product (GDP) has shown in the past decade. Between 2003 and 2010, Turkey’s economy grew by over 5 percent and in 2010 it was the third fastest growing country worldwide after China and Argentina, with a notable growth rate of 8.9 percent. This year economic growth is not expected to remain below 5 percent despite a set of measures the government and the Central Bank of Turkey as well as the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) took to slow it down. Chile, likewise, has also shown strong economic growth performance in the past decade. With its population of 17 million and a GDP of some $258 billion last year, it has become increasingly more important and visible among Latin American nations. In 2010, bilateral trade between Turkey and Chile was recorded at almost $400 million, more than three quarters of it being Chilean exports to Turkey. “That Turkish-Chilean trade and cooperation between the two countries’ businesses was so little relative to the potential between them, we think, is because the two countries have very little knowledge of each other. If we can bring trusted businessmen together and work carefully on building our commercial relations from now on, we believe that our bilateral trade will become more than twice last year’s figure. At TUSKON we believe in this potential and that Turkish and Chilean businessmen can successfully cooperate in so many areas,” Meral said. He added that there is particularly substantial potential that Turkish entrepreneurs can take advantage of in Chile in areas such as agriculture, the agricultural industry, textiles, ready-to-wear clothing, construction, fisheries and tourism.
At Tuesday’s seminar, Chilean Vice Minister of Agriculture Alvora Cruzat also addressed participating businesspeople and bureaucrats from both countries. He said Turkey will serve an important role for Chile’s economic presence in the Middle East and elsewhere. “Turkey is now a gateway through which we can make an overture particularly in the Middle Eastern and Asian food sectors. He said his government is aiming to make Chile one of the top 10 exporters of food worldwide in the mid-term.
Also speaking at Tuesday’s gathering was Chilean Ambassador to Turkey Luis Palma Castillo. He emphasized that Turkish-Chilean relations take their roots from early years of the Republic of Turkey. Chile was the first South American nation to recognize Turkey’s independence in the early 1920s. | <urn:uuid:8f879534-e016-4232-bc9f-b641b30a3a90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bilaterals.org/spip.php?article19773 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972278 | 786 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Charleston, SC (PRWEB) February 28, 2013
Every second matters when a patient is rushed to a hospital during a medical emergency, especially in cases of a heart attack or stroke. Now patients transported to the Charleston peninsula via helicopter will receive medical intervention 15 to 20 minutes faster by landing on Charleston’s first hospital rooftop helipad at Roper St. Francis Healthcare’s Roper Hospital.
The Roper Hospital Helipad, erected on top of the hospital’s South Tower will allow patients to get life saving treatment within minutes of arrival via airlift. Before the Helipad, patients had to take the additional steps of being moved from a helicopter landing pad on a downtown parking garage to an ambulance, through traffic, to Roper Hospital and into the emergency room or Heart and Vascular Center.
Many of the airlifted patients will include those who live near coastal and more rural areas of the Lowcountry. For example, an air ambulance flight from McClellanville to the new Roper Hospital Helipad will take 15-17 minutes as opposed to almost an hour by conventional ambulance.
“We love where we live, but our friends and neighbors in McClellanville are very happy to know they now have a rapid route to interventional emergency treatments at Roper Hospital thanks to the new helipad,” said Rutledge Leland, Mayor of McClellanville.
The travel times from Kiawah and areas of John’s Islands will only be seven minutes to the new Roper tower helipad whereas transport time via roadway from there takes approximately 50 minutes.
“It is comforting for people on the barrier islands to know that there is now a faster way to get intensive emergency care for the most demanding medical situations,” said Jimmy Bailey, COO, Kiawah Island Community Association. “Those living, working or vacationing on Kiawah Island believe the new Roper Hospital Helipad presents a greatly improved scenario for emergency services on the Charleston peninsula.”
The time from event to treatment saved by the Roper Hospital Helipad will be especially helpful for conditions that worsen second by second, such as an ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarctions, or STEMI. A STEMI is a very serious type of heart attack during which one of the heart’s major arteries is blocked. Every second counts as the longer the artery is blocked, the more massive the heart attack.
Now, once an air ambulance lands on the Roper Hospital Helipad it takes approximately three minutes to unload the patient and get them into the heart catheterization laboratory so that the artery can be unblocked, rather than the 20 minutes it took to deliver the patient from the old landing spot.
“The RSFH rooftop helipad will improve our patient delivery and significantly reduce travel time for our patients going to Roper Hospital,” said Don Lundy, B.S., NREMT-P, EMS Director, Charleston County EMS.
Life Saving Donations
The Roper Hospital Helipad initiative began in 2011 as Roper St. Francis recognized a need to address this shortfall in access to emergency care in downtown Charleston. The Roper St. Francis Foundation implemented a campaign to raise the $1.8 million needed to build the structure. Through donations the vision became.
“We visited people all over the Lowcountry to tell them about our plans to construct a helipad on Roper Hospital. The first response was one of relief; the second was often the question, ‘how can I help?’” said Patrick Kelly, MD, Roper Emergency Physicians.
Life Sustaining Access
Besides offering quicker care during emergencies, the 44 x 44 foot Roper Hospital Helipad will provide better supply access and evacuation options during natural disasters, such as hurricanes and floods. The sea -level city often faces transportation issues during heavy rains or storm surges.
The helipad on Roper Hospital will aid in care, transport and connection with other Roper St. Francis Healthcare hospitals as well as other state medical facilities if the entire peninsula was under mandatory evacuation. The U.S. Coast Guard will also use the helipad as an emergency landing site when needed.
The Roper Hospital Helipad is now available for patient delivery.
What materials did it take for NBM Construction to build the Roper Hospital Helipad?
About Roper St. Francis Healthcare
Roper St. Francis Healthcare is the Lowcountry’s only private, not-for-profit healthcare provider. The 657-bed system comprises more than 90 facilities and services in seven counties. Member hospitals include Roper Hospital, Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital and Roper St. Francis Mount Pleasant Hospital, each of which is accredited by The Joint Commission. Our active medical staff is made up of more than 800 board certified physicians. The group includes Roper St. Francis Physician Partners, an expansive network of more than 200 physicians who offer primary care and 20 subspecialties. Roper St. Francis Healthcare is routinely recognized for excellence in patient care by national organizations and agencies such as BlueCross BlueShield, the Commission on Cancer, National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers, Thomson Reuters, U.S. News & World Report, Consumer Reports and more. With more than 5,200 employees, RSFH is Charleston’s largest private employer, and the system consistently scores in the superior category for patient and physician satisfaction. http://www.rsfh.com | <urn:uuid:945fd981-3242-4d3d-b162-624feff70431> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/2/prweb10485166.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93329 | 1,151 | 1.71875 | 2 |
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks to members of the media at Seward Park High School, which is doubling as an evacuation center, in preparation for Hurricane Sandy on October 28, 2012 in New York City (Getty Images)
(NBC) -- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed President Barack Obama on Thursday, invoking Hurricane Sandy and the president's work to address climate change.
As New York reels from the fallout of this week's hurricane, which caused 37 deaths in the city, Bloomberg said Obama was better-suited than Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to curb carbon emissions.
"The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City and much of the Northeast - in lost lives, lost homes and lost business - brought the stakes of Tuesday's presidential election into sharp relief," Bloomberg wrote. "Our climate is changing. And while the increase in extreme weather we have experienced in New York City and around the world may or may not be the result of it, the risk that it might be - given this week's devastation - should compel all elected leaders to take immediate action."
The three-term mayor and billionaire further lauded Obama for taking "major steps to reduce our carbon consumption." In turn, Bloomberg said that on the issue of climate change, Romney had "reversed course, abandoning the very cap-and-trade program he once supported."
A former Republican who has since declared himself independent, Bloomberg did not make an endorsement for president in 2008. He cited other issues, including Obama's health care reform law, approach to abortion rights and support for same-sex marriage, in reaching his conclusion.
"I'm honored to have Mayor Bloomberg's endorsement. I deeply respect him for his leadership in business, philanthropy and government, and appreciate the extraordinary job he's doing right now, leading New York City through these difficult days," Obama said in a statement.
The endorsement comes, though, amid one of the worst storms to batter the New York area in recent history, Obama's response to which has drawn him plaudits from a bipartisan array of figures, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R).
Obama also added: "While we may not agree on every issue, Mayor Bloomberg and I agree on the most important issues of our time - that the key to a strong economy is investing in the skills and education of our people, that immigration reform is essential to an open and dynamic democracy, and that climate change is a threat to our children's future, and we owe it to them to do something about it." | <urn:uuid:5877cbf0-ed8b-4d9f-9286-c23b2e3e7570> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.11alive.com/news/article/262646/40/Bloomberg-endorses-Obama-for-second-term | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966741 | 514 | 1.835938 | 2 |
State Dept. vows change at Benghazi hearing
4 State Dept. officials have been disciplined after Tuesday's report
Top State Department officials are vowing to improve security at U.S. diplomatic posts around the world, some before the end of the year.
Those promises were repeated Thursday in Washington in a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the first of two sessions in which Deputy Secretaries of State William Burns and Thomas Nides testified about the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
"We've learned some very hard, and painful lessons in Benghazi, and we are already acting on them," Nides told senators. "We have to do better."
The two testified the State Department deployed five teams to assess security at 19 U.S. diplomatic posts in 13 countries. They said the department partnered with the Pentagon to send 35 additional Marine detachments -- about 225 Marines -- to medium- and high-threat posts with the hope the additional Marines would be deterrents against any attack attempts.
Also, the department wants to hire more than 150 diplomatic security personnel -- an increase of 5% over current staffing -- and provide them with equipment and training.
The hearings follow a scathing independent report released Tuesday that blamed "systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies" for inadequate security amid the attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.
This week's report and hearings mark a significant chapter in the winding saga surrounding the events of September 11, 2012. That night, the consulate became engulfed in flames. Cameras captured images of a huge crowd of people in the streets -- some waving Libyan flags -- around the consulate, before gunmen descended on the compound.
The assault was ultimately determined to be a terrorist attack.
Stevens, a lifelong diplomat admired by many of different political parties, had previously written diplomatic correspondence warning that al Qaeda-linked militants were growing in strength in an enclave not far from the city.
Burns' and Nides' appearance on Capitol Hill marks the first time officials of their level have spoken about the attack.
Both are top advisers to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is not able to testify because she is ill. Clinton ordered the review in the aftermath of the attack. Such reports are mandated by Congress when Americans working on behalf of the U.S. government are killed overseas.
The 39-page unclassified version of the report concludes that the leadership failures resulted in a security plan "that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place."
Nides told senators he's leading a task force to implement 29 recommendations in the review board report. Some of the recommendations will be implemented before the end of the year.
"We accept every one of them," Nides said.
"The undersecretary of political affairs, the undersecretary for management, the director general of the Foreign Service and the deputy legal adviser will work with me to drive this forward," Nides said.
The task force has already met to translate the report's recommendations into 60 specific action items, he told senators. "We've assigned every single one to the responsible bureau for immediate implementation, and several will be completed by the end of this calendar year," he said.
He promised to work with Congress to make sure those recommendations become reality.
Four State Department officials were disciplined after the release of the report. One resigned, and three others have been placed on administrative leave, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
On Thursday, Nides also asked that Congress provide the department with more money to pay for ramped-up security.
Sen. John Kerry, widely considered the leading candidate to succeed Clinton, seemed to agree that the department should get more funds.
He said in the hearing that spending on U.S. missions overseas must increase, and the system that requests and delivers that money must be streamlined.
In the past year, $650 billion was spent on military budgets, while the budgets for international affairs were less than one-tenth of the Defense Department's, the Massachusetts senator said.
Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, said he was "dismayed" that the hearing was centered on additional money for the State Department in the absence of a review of how the agency spends the money it already has.
"We have no idea whether the State Department is using its money wisely or not," he said.
Yet he said the department knew about the threats posed in the days before the attack, based on incoming cables, and should have requested funds to support the situation in Benghazi.
Nides testified that the State Department has already requested additional funds for its 2013 budget.
When asked whether Clinton had heard of the security concerns prior to the Benghazi attack, Burns said the conversations with Clinton and senior level officials were mainly focused on the overall general security picture in Libya, but there was a general awareness of the deteriorating security situation in the eastern part of the country.
Clinton is recovering from a stomach virus and concussion but is expected to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee next month to discuss the Benghazi attack, according to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, the outgoing chairwoman of the panel.
Burns testified about other actions he and officials are taking to tighten relations with countries like Libya that are still shaky after recent revolutions that toppled dictators.
Burns said he'd just gotten back from Tunisia, where a suspect in the Benghazi attack is being detained.
"I believe we're making some progress there," the deputy secretary offered.
There was a short portion of the Senate hearing that touched on the controversy surrounding comments by Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, describing the Benghazi attack in the days following the incident.
Rice said on Sunday news programs in the days following the attack that it was the result of a protest against an online anti-Islam film.
She's been heavily criticized for those statements, to the point that she withdrew her name for consideration as the next secretary of state to avoid what she called a "lengthy, disruptive, and costly" confirmation process. Critics said Rice's comments were out of line with the true intelligence about the incident, and were an attempt by the administration to avoid tying it to terrorism.
Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe asked Burns about Rice's statements.
"What happened in Benghazi was clearly a terrorist attack," Burns replied. "I am convinced my colleagues in the administration and intelligence community operated in good faith."
Copyright 2012 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:7e25e677-61c1-4b53-9f9a-5004280296f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wptz.com/news/national/State-Dept-vows-change-at-Benghazi-hearing/-/8869978/17843940/-/view/print/-/bdchsoz/-/index.html | 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 | 0.970235 | 1,353 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is a non-profit corporation (classified as 501 in the United States) to support Apache software projects, including the Apache HTTP Server. The ASF was formed from the Apache Group and incorporated in Delaware, USA, in June 1999,
Big Brother is a reality television show in which a group of people live together in a large house, isolated from the outside world but continuously watched by television cameras. Each series lasts for around three months, and there are usually fewer than 15 participants. The housemates try to win a cash prize by avoiding periodic evictions from the house.
Cardiology (from Greek καρδίᾱ, kardiā, "heart"; and -λογία, ') is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the heart. The field includes diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease and electrophysiology. Physicians specializing in this field of medicine are called cardiologists.
The politics of Costa Rica take place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, with a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the president and his cabinet, and the President of Costa Rica is both the head of state and head of government. Legislative power is vested in the Legislative Assembly. The president and 57 Legislative Assembly deputies are elected for 4-year terms. The Judiciary operates independent of the executive and the legislature.
Dance Dance Revolution, abbreviated DDR, and previously known as Dancing Stage in Europe and Australasia, is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, Dance Dance Revolution is the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance genre in video games. Players stand on a "dance platform" or stage and hit colored arrows laid out in a cross with their feet to musical and visual cues.
Exile means to be away from one's home (i.e. city, state or country), while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened by prison or death upon return. It can be a form of punishment. It is common to distinguish between internal exile, i.e. , forced resettlement within the country of residence, and external exile, deportation outside the country of residence. Exile can also be a self-imposed departure from one's homeland.
A hammer is a tool meant to deliver an impact to an object. The most common uses are for driving nails, fitting parts, forging metal and breaking up objects. Hammers are often designed for a specific purpose, and vary widely in their shape and structure. The usual features are a handle and a head, with most of the weight in the head. The basic design is hand-operated, but there are also many mechanically operated models for heavier uses.
In electronics, an integrated circuit (also known as IC, microcircuit, microchip, silicon chip, or chip) is a miniaturized electronic circuit (consisting mainly of semiconductor devices, as well as passive components) that has been manufactured in the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material. Integrated circuits are used in almost all electronic equipment in use today and have revolutionized the world of electronics.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus, known also as Julianus, Julian, Julian the Apostate or Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor (Caesar, November 355 to February 360; Augustus, February 360 to June 363), last of the Constantinian dynasty. Julian was a man of "unusually complex character": he was "the military commander, the theosophist, the social reformer, and the man of letters".
The Chaco War (1932–1935) was fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the northern part of the Gran Chaco region (the Chaco Boreal) of South America, which was incorrectly thought to be rich in oil. It was the bloodiest military conflict fought in the Americas during the 20th century.
Bessica Medlar Raiche (April 1875 – 11 April 1932) was a dentist, businesswoman, and physician, notable for being the first woman in the United States accredited with flying solo in an airplane. Her accomplishment (although dimmed by the existence of another flight by a US female earlier in the month) is impressive because she had received no flight instruction or experience prior to her flight.
Juan Carlos Da Costa was a writer, politician, activist and leader of the OPM clandestine movement, created in the mid 1970s, against General Alfredo Stroessner's dictatorship. He died fighting the police, on April 3, 1976. | <urn:uuid:9f896164-4552-449e-9650-24c8d6283759> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://likeorhate.com/thing/5550/Finance?tab=trackback&timeDepth=daily | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968635 | 971 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Does Facebook Hate Money?
I don’t often write posts that relate to “current events,” but this one was interesting enough and I think has a pretty valuable lesson when it comes to making money online. As reported in this article by TechCrunch earlier this month, Facebook will be closing its virtual gift shop on August 1st. I was never one to purchase these virtual gifts (I guess that makes me virtually cheap?), but this gift shop had to have earned Facebook millions of dollars in “passive” income.
Facebook’s explanation for the decision to close this gift shop was odd at best, stating that they wanted to “focus more on improving and enhancing products and features that people use every day.” The crazy thing is, people had no problem spending $1 on an icon to place on someone else’s profile. They are pointless from my perspective, but I have no doubt that if money was being spent on them, they were providing some people (probably millions of people) with value.
Why would Facebook kill this cash cow? Do they simply hate money, or is there something we can learn from this? Clearly, this wasn’t standing in the way of their developmental efforts, despite what they said.
We know Facebook is smart.
Even the smartest companies aren’t immune to making boneheaded decisions, but we can assume the world’s most popular website (I’m not sure how the standings are now, but they edged out Google for “most traffic” back in March) does things for good reasons. Facebook essentially took a very profitable cash cow that probably required little to no effort to maintain and killed it off. Let’s look at some of the potential reasons:
1) They felt like it cheapens the “Facebook experience.” Charging money for virtual products sounds like something that gaming pros do (with popular online games such as Everquest and World of Warcraft), so maybe they don’t want to be associated with that activity.
2) Similar to #1, they felt it clutters Facebook profiles. I wouldn’t agree with this, mainly because there are so many other things on Facebook now that clutter profiles.
3) It doesn’t fit with Facebook’s strategy. I think this a key point, and I’ll go more into detail on this below.
Regardless of what the reason may be, it clearly has nothing to do with money. If it were based on only financial decisions, we wouldn’t be reading anything about it, because they would’ve left it in place.
What can we learn from this?
The key takeaway here (in my opinion) is that, with whatever you’re building – be it a muse or a giant business, it’s important that you don’t sacrifice your long-term objectives and goals for short-term satisfaction or financial gain.
Facebook set out to create the most popular social networking site on the internet, and succeeded probably beyond its creators’ wildest dreams. Facebook’s mantra (or perhaps a version of its mission statement) is:
Giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.
Becoming a platform for selling virtual gifts might not align with this mission, despite it being a moneymaker.
This advice is nothing new, but it’s great to see a real life example of one of the most successful online businesses in our lifetime, throwing away a multi-million dollar idea for the sake of its long-term strategy. Does Facebook hate money? I don’t think so.
I’m interested in what you think, so please share your comments. | <urn:uuid:161d31a9-4205-48b0-b133-8bc69f3e6569> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.my4hrworkweek.com/does-facebook-hate-money/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961715 | 776 | 1.523438 | 2 |
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan's picturesque Swat Valley, and residents say the insurgents now control most of the mountainous region far from the lawless tribal areas where jihadists thrive.are beheading and burning their way through
The deteriorating situation in the former tourist haven comes despite an army offensive that began in 2007 and an attempted peace deal. It is especially worrisome to Pakistani officials because the valley lies outside the areas where al-Qaida and Taliban militants have traditionally operated and where the military is staging a separate offensive.
"You can't imagine how bad it is," said Muzaffar ul-Mulk, a federal lawmaker whose home in Swat was attacked by bomb-toting assailants in mid-December, weeks after he left. "It's worse day by day."
The terrorist attacks in Mumbai, potentially giving insurgents more space to maneuver along the Afghan frontier.activity in northwest Pakistan also comes as the country shifts forces east to the Indian border because of tensions over last month's
Militants began preying on Swat's lush mountain ranges about two years ago, and it is now too dangerous for foreign and Pakistani journalists to visit. Interviews with residents, lawmakers and officials who have fled the region paint a dire picture.
A suicide blast killed 40 people Sunday at a polling station in Buner, an area bordering Swat that had been relatively peaceful. The attack underscored fears that even so-called "settled" regions presumptively under government control are increasingly unsafe.
The 3,500-square-mile Swat Valley lies less than 100 miles from the capital, Islamabad.
A senior government official said he feared there could be a spillover effect if the government lost control of Swat and allowed the insurgency to infect other areas. Like nearly everyone interviewed, the official requested anonymity for fear of reprisal by militants.
Officials estimate that up to a third of Swat's 1.5 million people have left the area. Salah-ud-Din, who oversees relief efforts in Swat for the International Committee of the Red Cross, estimated that 80 percent of the valley is now under Taliban control.
Swat's militants are led by, a cleric who rose to prominence through radio broadcasts demanding the imposition of a harsh brand of Islamic law. His appeal tapped into widespread frustration with the area's inefficient judicial system.
Most of the insurgents are easy to spot with long hair, beards, rifles, camouflage vests and running shoes. They number at most 2,000, according to people who were interviewed.
In some places, just a handful of insurgents can control a village. They rule by fear: beheading government sympathizers, blowing up bridges and demanding women wear all-encompassing burqas.
They have also set up a parallel administration with courts, taxes, patrols and checkpoints, according to lawmakers and officials. And they are suspected of burning scores of girls' schools.
In mid-December, Taliban fighters killed a young member of a Sufi-influenced Muslim group who had tried to raise a militia against them. The militants later dug up Pir Samiullah's corpse and hung it for two days in a village square — partly to prove to his followers that he was not a superhuman saint, a security official said on condition of anonymity.
A lawmaker and the senior Swat government official said business and landowners had been told to give two-thirds of their income to the militants. Some local media reported last week that the militants have pronounced a ban on female education effective in mid-January.
Several people interviewed said the regional government made a mistake in May when it struck a peace deal with the militants. The agreement fell apart within two months but let the insurgents regroup.
The Swat insurgency also includes Afghan and other fighters from outside the valley, security officials said.
Any movement of Pakistani troops from the Swat Valley and tribal areas to the Indian border will concern the United States and other Western countries, which want Pakistan to focus on the al-Qaida threat near Afghanistan.
On Friday, Pakistani intelligence officials said thousands of troops were being shifted toward the border with India, which blames Pakistani militants for terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month that killed 164 people. But there has been no sign yet of a major buildup near India.
"The terrorists' aim in Mumbai was precisely this — to get the Pakistani army to withdraw from the western border and mount operations on the east," said Ahmed Rashid, a journalist and author who has written extensively about militancy in the region.
"The terrorists are not going to be sitting still. They are not going to be adhering to any sort of cease-fire while the army takes on the Indian threat. They are going to occupy the vacuum the army will create."
Residents and officials from the Swat Valley were critical of the army offensive there, saying troops appeared to be confined to their posts and often killed civilians when firing artillery at suspected militant targets.
The military has deployed some 100,000 troops through the northwest.
A government official familiar with security issues estimated that some 10,000 paramilitary and army troops had killed 300 to 400 militants in Swat since 2007, while about 130 troops were killed. Authorities have not released details of civilian casualties, and it was unclear if they were even being tallied.
The official, who insisted on anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity, disputed assertions that militants had overrun the valley, but said a spotty supply line was hampering operations. He said the army had to man some Swat police stations because the police force there had been decimated by desertions and militant killings.
A Swat militant boasted that "we are doing our activities wherever we want, and the army is confined to their living places."
"They cannot move independently like us," said the man, who was reached over the phone and gave his name as Muzaffarul Haq. He claimed the Swat militants had no al-Qaida or foreign connections, but that they supported all groups that shared the goal of imposing Islamic law.
"With the grace of Allah, there is no dearth of funds, weapons or rations," he said. "Our women are providing cooked food for those who are struggling in Allah's path. Our children are getting prepared for jihad."
Associated Press writers Zarar Khan in Islamabad and Riaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:c993a4be-f3da-4888-9eee-609f59f4821e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://this-is-war.blogspot.com/2008/12/taliban-burning-and-beheading-its-way.html | 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 | 0.972087 | 1,305 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Legislation to slash rates relief for empty business properties should be abandoned before it does lasting damage, according to the Tories.
The proposals, which ministers claim will help bring vacant premises back into use, are "fundamentally flawed" and would cost businesses millions, Conservative Margaret Mitchell told the Scottish Government.
Companies can get a 50% discount on rates for their empty units. The Scottish Government wants to reduce this to 10%. Business lobby group CBI Scotland said the change is a "tax on distress" because firms face "the prospect of having to pay increased charges for buildings that are not earning them any money".
Ms Mitchell claimed the proposed reduction in non-domestic rates relief - part of the Local Government Finance (Unoccupied Properties etc.) (Scotland) Bill - would "cost businesses millions of pounds each year and affect thousands of properties".
The Tory MSP said: "This is a fundamentally flawed Bill because it is on a false premise, namely that commercial property is empty through choice. The underlying reason for empty commercial properties is the lack of demand in the current economic climate.
"By increasing the potential liabilities for those considering taking on unoccupied properties, the SNP is effectively smothering any prospect of attracting speculative development." She added: "This is the wrong Bill at the wrong time and should be abandoned before any lasting damage is done."
Labour's Sarah Boyack said: "It's clear there is support for the ambition of bringing empty properties back into use but there are deep worries that some of the elements in this Bill will make matters worse."
Liberal Democrat housing spokesman Jim Hume said: "We don't agree that taxing businesses more is going to do anything to help regenerate our town centres. Far from providing an incentive to bring empty properties back into use, the Bill will hammer businesses already struggling to survive. The Scottish Government wants to hammer businesses with high taxes when it should be helping them to recover and grow."
Local Government Minister Derek Mackay said the SNP administration would make some minor changes to the legislation. He said the rates relief reduction will create "modest but necessary savings" of £18 million a year from 2013-14.
He said: "The package of rates relief will remain the most generous in the United Kingdom. I commit to further engagement, hope Parliament considers our amendments at stage two and, in essence, supports these key measures to bring the empty properties that blight our communities, domestic and non-domestic, back into use." | <urn:uuid:de777a78-7812-407b-8c24-bf672887ffbd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ayrshirepost.net/ayrshire-news/scottish-news/2012/09/06/tories-want-rates-relief-maintained-102545-31782945/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941445 | 501 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Table of Contents
- POPULAR REMEDIES
- Blood Pressure
- Canker Sores
- Cholesterol, Constipation, Allergies
- Flax Seed Tips
- General Feedback
- Hot Flashes
- Multiple Remedies
- Oil Pulling
- Side Effects
Flax seed (or flaxseed) and flax seed oil (linseed oil) enjoy an important place in the natural remedies community as a much-trusted remedy and daily dietary supplement that can offer a variety of health benefits.
The flax plant is widely dispersed, and its seeds have been used as a food source and medicinally throughout history. Now we begin to better appreciate its dietary value as an excellent source of both fiber and omega 3 fatty acids, such as are found in coldwater fish. Flax seeds also provide lignans, which are antioxidants and pseudoestrogens.
Natural Remedies: Adding flax seeds or flaxseed oil to your regular diet or as an occasional remedy is said to resolve constipation, relieve PMS symptoms, improve skin tone, and reduce the risks of diabetes, stroke, cancers, and cardiovascular disease.
Our readers offer information and opinions on Earth Clinic, not as a substitute for professional medical prevention, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult with your physician, pharmacist, or health care provider before taking any home remedies or supplements or following any treatment suggested by anyone on this site. Only your health care provider, personal physician, or pharmacist can provide you with advice on what is safe and effective for your unique needs or diagnose your particular medical history.
[YEA] Rebecca from Allen, MI: "I have been taking blood pressure medication for over one year. I heard, from two different sources, about using ground flaxseed & thought I would give it try in order to "wean" myself from prescription drugs. I have been amazed at the results. I take a total of 4 tablespoons a day - usually 2 in the morning & 2 at night. I usually just mix it in water but sometimes I put it in my food (oatmeal works well & so does soup). I have been using it for 6 weeks and have decreased my meds from 20 mg a day to 5 mg a day!! My blood pressure has been more stable and MUCH, MUCH lower than when I took the full dose of my daily medication. It really does work. My goal was to be off prescription medication by January 2006 but I think I will make well before then!!!"
[QUESTION] 03/23/2009: Lori from Orlando, FL: "Flax seed use with Prostate Cancer:
This question is for Ted-
My father has prostate cancer, he had the HIFU treatment last year. His PSA was just done and has jumped from 1.4 to 10.7 in just 3 months. In November 2008, I encouraged him to start taking ground flax seed meal daily. I have recently read conflicting articles on the use of flax seed meal with prostate problems (estrogen). I'm thinking maybe the flax seed is responsible for the recent elevated PSA? I'm hoping you could shed some light on that. He also currently takes Vit C, D3, E, fish oil, selenium. He is drinking ACV and alkaline water (bought an alkalizer). I need to harp on him for his sweet tooth, so I'm sure there is a candida issue."Replies
10/28/2012: Merrin From Mundaring from Perth, Western Australia replies: "I use Ground flaxseed and cottage cheese or yoghurt = B17 (Laetrile) and Calcium which is necessary to transport B17 to cells.
From my notes on You Tube video "Robert O. Young, The pH Miracle". That bitter taste when you chew apple or grape seeds is a form of cyanide which is harmful in large quantities but healthful in small quantities."
[YEA] 03/09/2008: Ruth from Ionia, Michigan: "my name is ruth, I used flax seed to cure my tumors. I would grind them in my coffee grinder. Then I would use about 2tsp a day and sprinkle them over my salad. I found it easier to eat them that way. I also would make flaxseed bread I would use about a 1/2 cup in my loaf of bread . It is very important to grind the flaxseed up to get the benfit of the seeds. Other wise the seeds will just pass right threw you. I did this for about a year and when I went back and had my ultra sound they were gone. I also had a tumor in my breast. I was benine but that also disappeared as well . I never tryed the BSM because I never heard about it working on tumors until now. I end up have a historectomy because my uterus fell. but I still take it so I don't get any tumors in my breast"
[YEA] 06/30/2008: Mary from New York, NY: "Many thanks to Jennifer from Northern Idaho. I tried the flax seed oil capsules and my canker sores have not appeared since. I had taken lysine capsules for two years when one day the canker sores reappeared. The flaxseed capsules have worked beautifully. Highly recommended."
[YEA] 01/28/2008: Jennifer from Northern, Idaho: "I was having chronic canker sores, usually 3 at a time. I tried everything I'd ever heard of with little success. I started taking Omega 3 in the form of flax seed oil for general health reasons. Within a week or so my sores were gone and I haven't had one since. I alternate between flax oil capsules (6 a day), ground flax seeds (2 tablespoons) and eating about 1/4 cup of walnuts."
[YEA] 09/29/2009: Janet G. from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: "after one bad year of chelitis i found something totally at random which was very effective. i noticed that once i introduced flax oil daily to my diet the problem quickly vanished. i took a total of 6 capsules daily at 3 intervals the capsules were 1000 mg. each. i have never had the condition again. so 2 capsules 3 times daily... inexpensive and it worked."
[YEA] 10/18/2005: Bridgette : "Freshly ground Flax Seed. Buy the Flax Seeds whole and organic. Grind them just before using... a few tablespoons per day on your food, salads, etc or just grind and eat them alone. Never substitute with pre-ground or the oil... they are not as effective at lowering cholesterol. Extra vitamin C helps too."
Cholesterol, Constipation, Allergies
[YEA] 06/27/2012: Mow from Tulsa, Ok: "I had constipation, tried to include fiber in diet from fruits and veggies but guess what, it was difficult that way. Then I came to about ground flax seed, decided to give it a try, took three teaspoon of it every night for three nights, did not help, increased the dose to three table spoon, from fourth day I have been going regularly without any effort. Drink a lot of water though. It builds immune system, because of that or adding honey to it, which I tried to drink everyday but could never make it a routine, my allergy is gone. Oh one more thing, my cholesterol is down to normal, for which I have been having medicine for a long time. Fiber in your diet actually helps reduce cholesterol. Take it, you will thank me and flax seed."Replies
06/28/2012: Timh from Louisville, Ky, Usa replies: "Mow, I've been using the humble milled flax seed for several yrs w/ very good results. Perhaps i'm wrong, but it's not as much the "fiber" content of FS but it's gentle yet strong purging action on the colon. I find FS much more gentle compared to Senna or Cascara Segrada; and for this reason one can use it on a daily basis for colon health. I use approx 1/2 spoon 3x day. Another bonus is the good omega 3 fatty acids of flax."
06/28/2012: Lisa from Thousand Oaks, Ca, Usa replies: "Hi Mow, Glad to hear that you really benefitted from flax seed. Could I also suggest you check out chia seed? It's a power- packed little seed that was used by the Aztecs and Mayans as an endurance food to help increase energy while hunting. I have fallen in love with it. I drink it every morning in a pure fruit probiotic drink also reaping the benefits of probiotics. They're super nutritious w/ 22% protein and containing both Omega 3 and 6 fats. They can help you lose weight since they're very liquid absorbant so they make you feel full. They also help detoxify you and cleanse your colon! They're also easier to digest than flaxseed.
These are only some of the benefits of chia seed, so hopefully you'll check them out. Take care, Lisa"
06/29/2012: Mmsg from Somewhere, Europe replies: "Lisa, I use chia seeds too, and have read that they get digested even if they are not chewed! Flax and sesame seeds don't and should be milled before eating or chewed very well."
06/29/2012: Lisa from Thousand Oaks, Ca, Usa replies: "Hi Mmsg, Glad to hear you've discovered the benefits of chia as well. I love its versatility. The other nice thing about chia is it has a stable shelf life as opposed to flax seed. I've turned a couple of vegan girls onto it and they like to make chia pudding. Haven't tried making that myself but it sounds yummy! One recipe I found was chia seeds in almond milk with stevia to make a tapioca- type pudding. I think I really must try that one! Here's to health and joy, Lisa"
[YEA] 03/10/2010: Suzanne from Abbotsford, Bc: "When travelling, my daughter had problems with constipation, as many do. I had a lot of ground flaxseed along, so she ate a dessert bowlful for her cereal that morning, and voila! Problem solved. It IS important to drink lots of water with it, though."
[YEA] 08/30/2009: Christine from Doncaster, Yorkshire: "I have suffered constipation for years, not anymore. I take flax seeds every night so does my friend since I recommended them to her, about 3tbls swollowed down with plenty of water."
[YEA] 10/01/2007: Shannon from Glen Burnie, Maryland: "I was bulimic for ten years. I severly messed up my stomach and colon. I was taking mass amounts of laxatives and have been severly constipated. My solution is drinking 8-10 cups of water (works better than any prescribed laxative) and I eat flaxseed meal on my yogurt. I also have eliminated fats because it's the hardest thing to digest and i get violent muscle spasms after I eat it. I also eat no flour and sugar because I have a food addiction. I also have to excercise because it stimulates the colon and helps to relieve constipation. My only problem now is my chronic fatigue. I still am so weak some days- even after 2 1/2 years of not binging and purging and I don't know why I still so weak."
[YEA] Deirdre from LA: "Flax seed oil capsules soon after waking with a glass of water works wonders. You may have to experiment with the brand to find the best one for your body."
[YEA] 01/03/2009: London from Sandusky, Ohio : "Based on reviews, and the fact my daughter has a condition called Lymphatic Malformation, and my Mom has some health problems, I decided to give "Barleans" Flaxseed oil a try. I bought a whole 32oz, and was worried I would not be able to use it all. First of all, I believe in oils. Some of the most healing things on this Earth are oils, and fats, such as Castor, Olive, and coconut oil. I had heard it tasted a little strong, but it was actually the mildest tasting oil I have used so far. Even more mild tasting than olive oil. Coconut oil is very hard for me to eat, and ofcourse castor oil is gross,. So...I used flaxseed oil in a banana milkshake with soy protean powder, AND WAS AMAZED! I could not taste it AT ALL, and if anything, it imparted a nice pleasant flavor to it.
Immediately My Mother and I felt something wonderful. I did hear something about using flaxseed oil to treat Depression, and I have to say guys, it's real.
She said her mind felt very clear, and she just felt a lot better, and I had a distinct feeling of increased energy. Even my eyesight seemed clearer, my mind felt clearer, it was amazing. I felt strangely happy. I felt so good, I felt a charge. I felt like the blood was pumping in my veins, and I set out to clean the whole house! I also played with my daughter, and I'm usually feeling so tired and sort of depressed at the end of the day, I usually don't have the energy. Some of the oil got on my hands, and it left a really nice pleasant scent to it. This oil is great!!.. and I see what all the fuss is about. You cannot taste it at all in shakes, it's awesome. It's the most powerful oil I've used so far. I feel a distinct difference when taking it. It's like the depression is gone."
[YEA] 01/26/2009: Lilian from Atlanta, Georgia: "At the beginning of the year (2009) my husband and I went on the famous cabbage diet (more as a cleansing mechanism than for weight loss). My husband was diagnosed with diabetes II 3 years ago. His starting fasting glucose was 260. We kept his sugar at the 130 range fasting over the past 3 years with medication. Well, a week after the diet his sugar had gone to 110 -fasting. Now 3 weeks later it has gone to 89-105 fasting. We thought the diet changes (we have been more careful about what we put in our mouth) made the difference. However we just realized that at the beginning of the year he also changed from fish oil cabs to Flax oil (2 in the morning, 2 at night). We believe the mix of cleansing our bodies of toxins and the use of flax has contributed to his low sugar levels. He continues to take his Metformin, but we hope to discontinue (or lower dose; from 2 a day to just 1) in the next month or so. P.S: because of his diabetes, while on the diet, he had a low sugar (1g) bowl of cereal in the morning and 1 at night if he felt hungry."
[YEA] 04/13/2009: Rob from Northeast, USA: "Help for Graves Disease Eye Trouble
I have had Graves disease for a couple of years. I have not had a lot of trouble with eye protrusion, but I have suffered several severe struggles with dry, crusty, scratchy, painful eyes. The first round was helped by antithyroid meds. But for the last bout I was no longer on meds. I found that flaxseed oil was very helpful. I have been taking it for a few months now, 1 tablespoon with breakfast, another with supper (on some food). There seems to be a fairly predictable correlation between when my flaxseed oil habit gets interrupted and the return of eye symptoms (which reminds me to get back to the oil)." | <urn:uuid:d64e1053-0273-4471-b739-b9c8e7f1cb1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://earthclinic.com/Remedies/flax-seed.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977442 | 3,367 | 1.585938 | 2 |
DPI holds promise as content protector
(Read Part One of this story here.)
Although deep packet inspection (DPI) technology has become controversial as a means for service providers to offer tiered services or base the way they treat Internet traffic on the nature of the application, continued developments in this arena are a strong indication that DPI is likely to become more important to network operators in the coming years.
One reason is that the proliferation of video on the Internet in many different forms has spawned two distinct trends, both of which lead to a need for knowing more about what type of packets are traversing the Internet.
First, the fact that there is more diverse traffic and much more commercial video traffic on the Internet is rapidly driving the need for higher quality Internet video. Watching jerky YouTube videos is one thing; viewing episodic TV on the computer is another. Second, there are growing concerns about video piracy and the ability to ship illegal content, now in digital format, rapidly around the Internet.
There is general agreement that the latest generation of DPI systems offers service providers a means to ensure application-level quality of service. In its recent report, the Yankee Group demonstrated how DPI can be used to introduce tiered subscription models that would both increase their revenue and enable them to offer users a better video or gaming experience.
“The focus will be on the services that have the most demand,” said Azi Ronen, executive vice president of corporate development at Allot Communications, which makes DPI technology. “In Asia, that is gaming. In the U.S., it is TV-related services. This is not only about IPTV as the classical replacement for cable. There are also lots of other sources and sides and services that provide you with video – Joost and others – that are trying to compete with the other TV services on a different method, on a different technology and a different business model.”
As those service proliferate, Ronen reasons, consumers and content providers will be looking for ways to guarantee the quality of their video. “You may find a coalition between the network provider and one of those providers of content like Joost,” he said. “The network provider may say, ‘We will offer Joost as an IPTV-like solution to our customers, and to do that, we will use DPI equipment that will identify Joost and prioritize that traffic so people will get it at a higher quality over our network. Someone has to pay something here for this priority to take place – the infrastructure is expensive, so if you wish to have a higher quality of service than the network’s native service, someone will pay.”
Ronen believes consumers will be willing to pay, if it means their gaming service or their video service is of a guaranteed quality. He and others believe that the current controversy in the U.S. around the notion of tiered services is likely to dissipate as more advanced services are delivered over the Internet.
There is less controversy thus far but also no complete agreement about how DPI can be used to prevent content piracy, although many see the potential for combining the technology with digital watermarking, which imprints content with an invisible signal that identifies the last legal user of the content. AT&T uses DPI as one layer of its IPTV security solution today, but the company doesn’t want to publicly discuss details of that.
As for digital watermarking, Paul Whitehead, executive director of Advanced Access Technology at AT&T, says the company is interested but believes “there is substantial work that needs to be done in a lot of industry forums. This is not something we’ve currently implemented and not that close.”
The technology could be used in this fashion, though it isn’t being done today.
“If you mark your content, which is easy to do, then with DPI you have the capability to look at every packet, figure out what stream that packet is part of, from thousands of streams, then use DPI to look for those watermark signatures and compare them to what the subscriber is watching,” said Mike Coward, chief technology officer at Continuous Computing. “We can do this today, but it is a fairly compute-intensive task.”
Over time, he said, all content is likely to be watermarked, and DPI can be used to protect against casual piracy, but there may be better market-based approaches to handling the problem.
“If you can get all the content you want when you want it for a price you are willing to pay, some of the motivations for piracy really decline,” he said.
There is also technology required beyond DPI in order to do real content protection, said Kurt Dobbins, CEO and founder of Ellacoya, an early player in the DPI space. “Technology-wise, it is possible to interface with payment systems or back office systems or, in the case of IMS, policy-charging and enforcement functions,” he said. “If they have DPI to authorize whether to allow a session to start and enforce that, it is possible. But there is a lot of technology involved beyond DPI.”
Ellacoya customers today are using its DPI systems to do QoS for video on demand delivery over IP, he added. “We could also protect that service to make sure only subscribers in the VoD service plan have access to that, and then we can also count usage.”
Tom Donnelly, executive vice president of marketing and sales for Sandvine, which does IPTV security, agrees that DPI “is part of the answer to pirated content.”
“One part of it is identification of certain conditions and different digital rights management tools like watermarking, which marks something as legitimate versus traffic which may not bear the mark,” he said. “DPI is very good at identifying conditions or applications which have evasive characteristics. It uses quite complex analysis to make an accurate identification of what is happening. It can be married to DRM techniques to trigger action regarding a specific payload. But by and large, it is more orchestrated to classes of traffic – voice, video and gaming, for instance, have different requirements and different relative value to the end user.”
There is also the law enforcement angle to be considered. Although DPI and digital watermarking can be used to identify the last legal user of content that has been pirated, the next step is for someone – likely the content owner – to work with law enforcement to crack down on the specific pirates. There is no standardized mechanism for doing that today, and the IPTV Interoperability Forum, which is part of ATIS, has not yet gotten to that topic, according to its chair, Dan O’Callahan of Verizon.
Because DPI can look for unusual behavior in the network, Coward said, it is the right place at which to detect certain problems, such as spoofing, where a hacker pretends to be a subscriber or pretends to be a content server and forces content onto a set-top box.
“DPI can detect that because it doesn’t expect packets to be going from one subscriber to another, so it will pick up that traffic,” he said. “What if I program my set-top box to send a million channel changes a second – that’s the simplest kind of attack. All of a sudden, no other subscribers can change channels.”
DPI can pick up that unusual behavior, tear apart the packets and see if it conforms to expected packet types. “If not, it can throw that traffic away or raise an alarm,” he said.
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Avoid these tactics — and find out where the biggest raises come from. From Robin Ryan, author of What to Do With the Rest of Your Life: America’s Top Career Coach Shows You How to Find or Create the Job You’ll LOVE
- I need the money. Your finances are your problem — not your employer’s. Never ask because you bought a car or house, are divorcing, or are having a baby. These reasons hold no bottom-line value to an employer.
- But she got a raise! Most bosses are infuriated by this argument. Perhaps the other employee has done a better job than you. Discussing others’ salaries is unwise, often against corporate rules, and may have serious repercussions. Again, this reason doesn’t say how or what you’ve done to merit your increase.
- Threatening to quit. More than one boss has said, “Fine. Go.” Many top executives and managers think they are irreplaceable. Everyone can be replaced, so being this bold may result in losing your job, not improving it.
- Refusing to work overtime or do new projects. Most employers feel that this tactic demonstrates you are not a team player. You may get a small victory but quickly lose the war.
- Whiny never works. This little-kid approach annoys managers and puts you in a childish light. Pouting, complaining, moping, or brooding won’t change the results — only positive actions will.
- Blackmailing them with another job offer. Some people bluff or use a job offer they don’t really plan to take as a bargaining chip to get their organization to give them a raise. It’s a very risky minefield that often ends with your resignation instead of a raise.
Where the Biggest Raises Come From
The absolute best way to maximize your raise is to quit your job and move to a new employer. With a “promotional raise” you get a move up — a promotion — and a significant salary increase together. My clients are living proof that this happens, and many have had their income go up 20, 30, 40, even 50%. I have seen a few clients actually double their salaries, so it is possible to make a huge move. Compare that to in-house raises that typically run from 3 to 7%. Even if you’re not seeking a promotion, to a new employer you are attractive talent, and if you negotiate well, you’ll find it pays off.
Wayne, a client, was a fifty-six-year-old mechanical engineer who was afraid to ask for a raise. He feared downsizing repercussions due to his age and the company’s current status. Through the grapevine he heard of a good job, applied, and was offered the position. Wayne negotiated a 16% raise (to $90,000) plus better stock options.
You may find your best opportunity to get rich is to move elsewhere.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robin Ryan is the author What to Do With the Rest of Your Life: America’s Top Career Coach Shows You How to Find or Create the Job You’ll LOVE (Copyright © 2002 by Robin Ryan) and other bestselling books, including 60 Seconds and You’re Hired! She has appeared on more than seven hundred television and radio programs including The Oprah Winfrey Show, and has been featured in Money, Newsweek, Cosmopolitan, McCall’s, and Fortune, as well as USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Chicago Tribune. She has a career consulting practice in Seattle and has helped more than five thousand clients land better jobs.
MORE ARTICLES BY THE AUTHOR
- 9 Questions for Determining if Running Your Own Business Is the Perfect Job for You
- 9 Secrets to Successful Salary Negotiations
- 12 Career Killers to Avoid
- Read Chapter 1 of What to Do With the Rest of Your Life: America’s Top Career Coach Shows You How to Find or Create the Job You’ll LOVE
- Browse more books about careers | <urn:uuid:57254535-68fd-46d0-9964-8365e4ab489c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tipsoncareerandmoney.com/career-advice/how-not-to-ask-for-a-raise-6-common-pitfalls | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949551 | 862 | 1.648438 | 2 |
E.L. Haynes Public Charter School is receiving an award on Wednesday for its efforts to prevent bullying and otherwise maintain a safe school environment.
The top-performing charter school was selected from among the District's public charters to receive the Student Support Center's first-ever Safe Schools Award because of its "consistent efforts to better the lives of students," said Student Support Center Executive Director Carolyn Gardner. The award will be presented at a reception Wednesday night.
Among other factors, the honor is likely the result of E.L. Haynes' commitment to student health, such as efforts "cultivating students' skills in conflict resolution and relationship building," said Beth Hood, the school's director of student services.
Bullying has been a major problem in District schools. In a survey last school year of every middle school in D.C. Public Schools, at least 60 percent of students said they had been "made fun of for the way they look or talk," The Washington Examiner has previously reported.
Last April, Mayor Vincent Gray also announced an "Anti-Bullying Action Plan," which included a city-wide taskforce to combat bullying. | <urn:uuid:5f47e40e-f092-473f-9eff-1fa3933de1cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://washingtonexaminer.com/charter-school-awarded-for-being-safe-school/article/2524188 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979494 | 234 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Cook also educated listeners - and producers...
Massena has had a curfew ordinance since 1969. But the village hasn’t enforced it since 1993 when some of its provisions were challenged. Over the years, the police have worked with legal experts to make the curfew more constitutionally sound. At the Massena Village Board meeting last Tuesday, Police Chief Timothy Currier made his case for enforcing the curfew once again: “We went back and did a review of the juvenile incidents that we’ve had, particularly at nighttime, over the last five years”, he said, “and we’re finding that we’re averaging about 200 criminal contacts during the nighttime hours, a year”
Those are sometimes for car theft, or burglary, but most are offenses like vandalism in parks, or setting off fire works, or loitering. The curfew would be enforced on children up to the age of 16, and keep them at home from 10 at night until five in the morning.
On a first violation, a child might simply be brought to the station and sent home with a certified letter to the parents. But penalties can be as severe as monetary fines on the parents, and community service or two weeks in prison for the youths. | <urn:uuid:6caa9ea8-565a-469b-9cb5-66beb5390645> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/20357/20120823/village-of-massena-may-bring-back-curfew | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970693 | 255 | 1.726563 | 2 |
How to recover from the Transaction Log (t-log) filling up!!!
This is the most frequently asked question in the forums or blogged. Hence, I thought let me write something on this so that this would be helpful to the DBA while they face this issue.
What is Transaction Log (T-Log)?
Why T-Log is full?
Why my T-Log got filled up so fast?
How do I get rid of T-Log filling up so quickly?
What’s the issue all about?
The problem here lies in the statement itself, that’s T-Log is getting filled up or is full!!!!
To get better understanding of the problem statement let me give you some insight into T-Log and significance of it.
As the name says, it logs all the transactions that are executed in SQL Server, be it fully logged or minimal logged (based on the recovery model you’ve chosen). This is what the simplest definition I can give you.
What does T-Log do and why it is so critical?
As I said, it logs all the transactions that are executed in SQL Server. Now you would be thinking that why it is needed!! Let me explain you: when ever and what ever the transaction happened, you always wanted to ensure that the data you entered are in consistent state and whenever you want to see them they are available to you, the utmost requirement.
What role T-Log plays here is, while recording all these transactions it ensures that they are committed so as it will be available and will remain consistent. In the time of failure or non-availability of the database server or severe damaged at the physical failure of server; backup of the T-Log along with the full database backup (off course it is required) would really helps you to recover your database to the point-in-time (I’ll explain you this in my next article). When ever you restart your SQL Server, observer your SQL Server logs carefully you can see some thing like below:
SQL Server is recovering individual transactions, and all incomplete transactions to the database.
This message means, that T-Log writing of all the commited transactions and roll forward all the uncommited transactions.
What else T-Log can do?
T-Log is help full to recover database point-in-time in case of failure, it is also useful to setup High Availability for Server(I’ll explain more in my upcoming articles). That means you can setup Log Shipping and database mirroring with the help of T-Logs.
Now as we know what T-Log is and what is significance of it, let’s come back to the main topic,
The cause which leads to T-Log to fill up, I am penning down some points I’ve recollected, they are:
1. Transactions are not committed
2. Transaction is not open but is active for long time
3. While creating / modifying Index
4. Bulk Operations
5. Auto Growth option of database files
6. Group by and Order by clause will fill up tempdb
7. Un-replicated transactions in T-Logs
8. T-Log backups are not taken for long
How to get rid off this messages (Solutions):
1. Ensure that application is written appropriately, and each transaction is wrapped between begin and commit transaction. This will not only helps to keep your data in consistent form but helps you to reduce the blockings.
2. This are the transactions that are not open but active for long time, means while user is sending some input to the database server his/her system got hung, rebooted or shutdown and network doesn’t send this information appropriately to the database thus, SQL Server understands this transaction is open but not active. This kind of sessions can be killed provided you’ve examine what this process is doing exactly by using DBCC Inputbuffer (SPID), be cautious while killing any process as it would take 4 times longer. * To know more on how Kill command works click here… especially when it rollback transaction
3. This is the most important point; creating or recreating an index would occupy much of the space as it is fully logged operation. When you run DBCC DBREINDEX it will drop existing index and recreate index (will recreate every index of your table if you won’t give name of index) . I would advise that you care fully examine output of DBCC SHOWCONTIG or sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats and based on that fact you can go ahead and defrag your index. Recreate your index only when required.
4. Although, bulk operations are minimally logged but it occupies the space certainly, in case your SQL Server is in full recovery mode (which is highly recommended for point-in-time recovery and for production environment) it will fully logged Bulk Operations.
5. Auto Growth option could be really a horrible if it is not configured properly and your database size is considerably large, lets say few hundred gigs or greater. If you’ve set Auto Growth option set on and they are in percentage and not in fixed size you would observe more spics in disk I/O and decrease in performance, read complete article here.
6. As we all know Group by or Order by will resort data and ordering result set, this will increase the space occupied, try to avoid this operation unless it is necessary. This way you would save up your space and increase in performance.
7. When you have transactional replication configured in your environment the transaction which are marked for replication but not replicated actually are lying in your T-Log and then distribution database which will certainly occupy reasonable amount of space. For any possible reason, see if something is wrong with your Transactional replication and rectify it.
8. This is the best way to keep your T-Log in shape, the more frequent i.e. 15 minutes. Backup Log will empty the T-Log file and thus reducing the size of log file.
Summery: Transaction Log, as name says records every transaction that is executed. When database is in full recovery model or frequent bulk operations happening it is most likely that your T-Log get filled quickly.
The above explanations and probable solution I’ve given came from my 10+ years of IT Industry experience while working on projects and my participations in various SQL Server forums. I do hope that this quick points will help you and save your time. | <urn:uuid:f69ec84e-b00d-496c-b40e-a278c94f44da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sql-server-citation.com/2009/08/how-to-get-rid-off-from-transaction-log.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932958 | 1,350 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Someone managed to penetrate the company's systems and steal the contact information of many its users as well as a password file, the company revealed in a message posted on the site.
However, those passwords were encrypted, the message says, so it would be extremely difficult for hackers to gain access to them. Even if they tried, they would have to attempt to decipher the passwords one by one. Nevertheless, as a precaution, Blizzard is urging users to change their passwords immediately — and that also goes for any accounts that use the same password.
The hackers got access to the email addresses of users of Blizzard's Battle.net online gaming service, which is integrated into games such as World of Warcraft, Diablo III and others. So far it doesn't appear the hackers got access to any credit-card information, real names or billing addresses, Blizzard President Mike Morhaime wrote.
While the hack compromised email addresses of global Battle.net users, it was limited to players outside of China. For anyone who had information stored on the company's North American servers (which actually includes players from several regions worldwide), the hackers also gained access to personal security questions, although Morhaime says that wouldn't be enough to gain access to an account.
However, account holders may get hit with phishing attacks because of the breach. As Morhaime writes, users should never send passwords or login information via email. Blizzard will also be prompting players to change their passwords and security questions in the coming days.
There's also a chance the hackers were making a grab for the virtual items players can buy and sell in Blizzard's various games for cash, InformationWeek reports. Blizzard opened a Battle.net auction house earlier this year where players can make real money by selling those items, but third-party auction houses have been around for years. However, the hackers would need to gain access to the accounts for this to be practical, and, again, that's unlikely — at least with what we know about the breach so far.
Blizzard says it doesn't know exactly when its system was breached or for how long, but it's investigating in partnership with law-enforcement and security firms.
Do you play World of Warcraft or other Battle.net games? Share your reaction to the breach in the comments. | <urn:uuid:dec773d6-2f88-4494-b09b-2b9e5f3379e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mashable.com/2012/08/10/blizzard-hack/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974859 | 463 | 1.601563 | 2 |
And then, as my own reflected image emerges dimly from the "ooze," a question dawns on me: Is Stinnett making a Darwinian statement with her photographic installation? To view "Squirrel," along with six other photographic images of animal forms a rabbit, deer, lion, owl, weasel and raccoon is to be jarred into a visually poetic confrontation with biomorphic evolution as we understand it or imagine it.
This is a remarkable feat because Stinnett's photographic subject matter and technical approach are deceptively simple. But her craftsmanship is so perfect, her design sense so elegant and her aesthetic focus so pure that a visit to the installation, "Of Matter and Breath," is a sublime experience.
Now a catch: Stinnett didn't actually aim her camera at any animals to make these pictures. She uses simple and smooth taxidermist armatures as her points of departure. In most of the photographs she merely shoots the untreated off-white forms. In "Raccoon," however, the surface has been treated with overlays of warm amber paint or stain to heighten the sense of violence in the open-mouthed creature. In "Lion," the armature has been painted in marbled black and purple tones.
And not all of the images read necessarily as animals. "Lion," for instance, is slightly erotic as well as art-historical. The form suggests animal buttocks or testicles. It is no stretch that it might also pay homage to "Venus of Willendorf," the celebrated prehistoric object found in Austria that every first-year art history student would attest is a fertility talisman.
Stinnett also references indirectly the history of photography. In the mid-19th century, many people believed that the role of the camera was to replace sketching or drawing, to serve as the artist's notebook, to be a way of recording scientific data. That sense of recording phenomena of the natural world is suggested here.
But finally, Stinnett is a modernist. She has taken the familiar if taxidermist armatures can be called the familiar and ratcheted the images to heroic proportions. She provides viewers just enough information to grab their interest, but not too much: Meanings must evolve from the mind of the beholder. But oh, what information threatening, playful, beautiful, ugly, elegant, common, wondrous just like life itself. S"Of Matter and Breath: Photographic Installation by Georgianne Stinnett" runs through April 1 at the Flippo Gallery, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland.
Letters to the editor may be sent to: [email protected] | <urn:uuid:cb1cd3c4-6e9a-49f6-b4f8-98fb1521266c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/natural-history/Content?oid=1366524 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960512 | 551 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Yuki Matsueda, a Japanese artist who specializes in three dimensional glass art has produced an amazing gallery titled “Escape,” which depicts various typically two dimensional forms attempting to escape into three dimensions, but blocked by glass.
Articles Tagged: signs
Occupy Wall Street is a growing movement of protests against a variety of issues, but most namely corporate greed and the link between the US government and the US banking sector. After the financial collapse in 2008, the US economy was dramatically weakened, unemployment rose, foreclosures occurred, and the major investment banks of Wall Street [...]
Signs—they’re designed to inform their viewers, readers and passers-by of the dangers that lurk within, laws that shouldn’t be broken, and to be informative in general. However, some signs are not as well-thought out as others and have the capability to confuse more than anything else. | <urn:uuid:b78c8f27-5da0-42da-b588-22badb309881> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wildammo.com/tag/signs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969667 | 188 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Recently, The New York Times featured Kansas Citys economic border war. The Times blasted development incentives that entice firms back and forth across the state line.
By CINDY FREWEN WUELLNER
Special to The Star
In December, SelectQuote won $5 million from Kansas to move a few blocks from its Missouri home. Kansas also awarded AMC $36 million last year, same story. Days later, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback cut $104 million from the state education budget.
In retaliation, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon lured Applebees from Lenexa to Ward Parkway with a $13 million subsidy. Shortly thereafter, Missouri officials cut the early childhood education program.
These mega-incentive giveaway programs have direct consequences. Lawmakers offer short-term gains for a few on the backs of long-term investments for many.
Even area civic leaders lobbied for a cease-fire in a joint letter to the two governors.
Many families live in the region because they think their children will get a superior education. According to the Brookings Institute, an educated population is tied to better jobs and higher salaries.
So gutting the education budget hurts Kansas City, the region and ultimately the entire nation. Im proposing the one alternative that will bring us together, put our fate back in our own hands and give us a unified voice: One Kansas City, the 51st state.
One Kansas City could carve its own future. University of Missouri-Kansas City could become the University of Kansas City, where our best and brightest get a boost toward excellent careers.
KU Medical Center and Childrens Mercy Hospital could join forces as a health care powerhouse for children and a national research hub for cancer. Such a union of health care organizations could prepare our city for an aging population.
We could resolve stormwater issues together and create cleaner air. Collaborating to achieve common goals, our transportation would not be the ninth worst peak-hour commute and our neighborhoods 33rd on walkability.
Moreover, we could stop the Border War madness. In 1950, Kansas City was the 17th largest metropolitan area in the country. Now we are 27th.
In fact, many lists fail to even include Kansas City because they split the population by the state line. In a future of global megacities, we need to capture all our assets collectively to remain relevant.
We are the hub of a vibrant region, in terms of agriculture and transportation. We boast a model of walkability and mixed uses with the Plaza.
We enjoy one of the most vibrant arts communities outside of New York. But we compete in parts, instead of as a whole. And that only hurts us.
These two states are not unifying us. They are pulling us apart. They dont consider the whole city.
Instead the governors use Kansas City as a war zone, a boxing match, a competition. They only care about their half.
And half of Kansas City is not a major league city. We would not have professional sports, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Plaza, a robust network of community colleges, KU Medical Center, Sprint Arena, the Liberty Memorial, or the Kansas City Zoo.
Imagine a future for Kansas City as a visionary city-state, a place seen as a national and global leader. In the 1951 painting The Spirit of Kansas City, Norman Rockwell envisioned Kansas City as a vibrant metropolis of livestock, crops, planes and blueprints.
In the 21st century, we can build jobs from manufacturing, agriculture, art, education, livability, entrepreneurism and the fastest digital infrastructure in the world. Lets pool our resources, and become One Kansas City, in hearts, minds, and actions, if not in fact as the 51st state.
Cindy Frewen Wuellner is an architect and urban futurist. To reach her, send email to [email protected] or write to Midwest Voices, c/o Editorial Page, The Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64108. | <urn:uuid:182726e5-1171-452c-8310-a35bf0694038> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kansascity.com/2013/01/18/4019274/cindy-frewen-wuellner-kc-should.html | 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 | 0.935194 | 832 | 1.820313 | 2 |
They are squeegeeing out the smiles at hospitals nationwide.
From Tampa to Pittsburgh, Chicago to Memphis, comic superheroes are being spotted all over the country -- and they are fighting grime.
On windows, that is.
In their off-hours, Spider-Man, Captain America, and Batman, to name a few, are washing windows at children's hospitals. Their mission? To bring happiness to the youngest of patients.
"We donned the Spider-Man costumes and we rappelled down the side of the buildings," said Harold Connolly, president of Highrise Window Cleaning of Clearwater, Fla. "We knocked on the glass, waved hello – there were a lot of big smiles."
Connolly organized two superhero window-washing sessions at hospitals in Florida so far this year, and he isn't alone. Images of wide-eyed children in awe of their favorite superheroes washing windows have gone viral online, prompting hospitals and window washing companies nationwide to hop on board.
"Some of these poor kids, they don't get a lot of opportunities for anything fun there," Connolly says. "It cheered them up at least for the moment anyway."
Last week in Chicago, Captain America, Batman, and Spider-Man's mission for the day was surprising children into forgetting that they are in hospital beds at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.
Nolan Erickson, 6, has been spending a lot of time in the hospital with his 14-month-old brother Matthew.
Matthew was born with brain cancer and has undergone six surgeries and five rounds of chemotherapy; the family hasn't left his side.
"We have been in the hospital for 11 months out of the 14 that Matthew has been alive," mother Sue Erickson says. "Nolan has spent his last two birthdays here. Smiles come few and far between."
But on one day – for Nolan, Matthew and their 2-year-old sister Sophia, there was a break from all the sadness.
The three superheroes, window washers from Corporate Cleaning Services, were fighting grime as they rappelled down from the 23rd floor. The heroes circled all around the building, waving, giving a thumbs up and creating soap designs as they went.
"The superheroes' lines were hanging right in front of our window," Erickson says. "The kids just sat there waiting for 45 minutes to see which one it was. It was Spider-Man. When you see your kids excited and smiling – as a parent it was more than I could ever ask for."
Hundreds of kids, staff and families were mesmerized by the superheroes swinging around the building for hours.
"I have been here a lot of years but I have never seen anything like it — nothing can brighten a day like a superhero," says Kathleen Keenan, hospital spokesperson. "These three men truly became real-life superheroes when they were on that building and their ropes became their webs. It was magical."
Keenan added: "It was like each kid had their own superhero for a moment, it was like there was no glass between them."
The superhuman trend is spreading all over the country:
- Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., has had two visits, one in October from the American National Skyline's superheroes and one in December from elves, says spokesperson Sara Burnett.
- The youngsters at Ministry St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Marshfield, Wis., got a big surprise in December when Spider-Man, Batman, and Captain America left the place smiling and squeaky clean, says Geoffrey Huys, hospital spokesperson.
- In St. Petersburg, Fla., at least 40 or 50 inpatient children at All Children's Hospital caught a glimpse of Spiderman last month, says hospital spokesperson Roy Adams.
"We try all the time here to make it as fun as possible," Adams says. "We are trying to make kids forget that they are in the hospital and are going through these tough medical issues. We have celebrities come in, but this was a different kind of VIP visit because, well, they were coming down the side of the building."
Last July, Michelle Matuizek, office manager of Allegheny Window Cleaning, Inc., saw pictures of window washers in London dressed as Spiderman.
"I looked around and – at that point - no one had done it in the states," Matuizek says. "I thought why don't we do a character theme for our Children's hospital around Halloween."
So on October 22, the patients at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC had visit from Spider-Man, Batman, Captain American and Superman.
"The kids went wild. They were all over the windows, smiling and screaming – it was just magical," Matuizek says. "The nurses, the kids, the families it was a wonderful experience for everyone. We are going to do it again next October."
Both Allegheny Window Cleaning, Inc and Highrise Window Cleaning have plans to do more superhuman fly-bys in the future, and Connolly hopes the trend catches on.
"The kids—that the important thing," Connolly says. "We are hoping it spreads throughout the country and beyond. Other hospitals see this and then ask your window company if they will do it – I bet you they will. Who doesn't like making children happy?" | <urn:uuid:18eb411b-12ac-4c2d-b59e-4e2495d87024> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/22/superhero-window-washer-children-hospital-spiderman/1938799/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981317 | 1,116 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The Royal British Legion provides financial, social and emotional support to millions who have served and are currently serving in the Armed Forces, and their dependants. Currently, nearly 10.5 million people are eligible for our support and we receive thousands of calls for help every year.
The Legion was founded in 1921 as a voice for the ex-Service community and over 450,000 members continue to ensure that this voice does not go unheard.
Although the needs of ex-Service people have changed over the years, we are still there to safeguard their welfare, interests and memory. British service people are in action around the world every day of the year. They know that if they need our support - now or in the future - the Legion is always on active duty for them.
Other RBL Links and Branches | <urn:uuid:17712972-cd28-4064-811f-a4ee880b0447> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rblr.co.uk/content/index.php?page=legionlinks.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976542 | 163 | 1.648438 | 2 |
IMPOSITION OF RESTRICTIVE PRACTICES ON GUN DEALER
COBIS has been eliminated through defunding. The bleeding of millions of dollars on this wastefull great sounding program has stopped.
The proposed legislation would impose extensive new requirements on dealers for the storage, display and sale of firearms. In addition, the state police would be given the power to issue additional requirements without legislative approval. New business practices would be mandated for insurance, staffing, training and record keeping. While the proposals are expansive in scope, there is little justification for their implementation. New York’s handgun licensing laws virtually eliminate “straw man” purchases of handguns, usually the primary concern when addressing diversion. Many of the “new” mandates are redundant with existing State and Federal law or long established industry practices. Nothing in this proposal addresses the illegal underground market, the primary source of crime guns..
This proposal duplicates existing Federal procedural and record keeping requirements and imposes restrictions with no demonstrable potential for preventing harm or injury that would justify a legitimate State interest. Accordingly, it should not be enacted.
This proposal adds a new Article (Article 40) to the General Business Law (GBL) nominally directed at preventing the sale or other diversion of firearms, rifles, and shotguns from licensed dealers to criminals. It is the contention of the sponsors that poor business practices or intentional evasion of the law by “rogue dealers” or the employees of otherwise responsible dealers are the cause of large numbers of these diversions.
S. 900 contains definitions for the purpose of the Article. These include an overly broad definition of a “gun show”, which appears to have no purpose in this Article. Perhaps this is intended as a precursor for other legislation directed at restricting or eliminating gun shows.
S. 901 is directed at developing measures to prevent sales and transfers to criminals. As the transfer of handguns is already tightly restricted by the licensing system, this is presumably directed at the transfer of rifles and shotguns through straw purchases. As sales of this type have been the target of both public and dealer directed programs developed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, and Explosives (ATFE) and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) since 2000, this seems redundant. A straw purchase is already a felony under the Gun Control Act of 19681. This proposal adds nothing of substance to existing efforts.
Breaking News and Events:
Who are your elected officials?
The Shooter’s Committee on Political Education was founded in 1965 by a group of firearms owners in western New York. SCOPE is a civil rights organization focused on the protection and preservation of the right of firearms ownership as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
It does not align itself with any political party nor does it endorse any candidates for elective office. Our function is to counter assaults on the right of firearms ownership. This entails providing legislators and executives with timely and accurate information to support sound decisions.
SCOPE’s purpose is to maintain the right of individuals to own and use firearms for lawful purposes. Inform members about antigun/gun owner legislation.
Stop antigun/gun owner legislation in New York State. Educate the public on the positive aspects of firearm ownership, and their Second Amendment rights.
SCOPE is a New York State Not For Profit Volunteer Organization dedicated to the preservation of the Second Amendment Rights for New York Citizens.
SCOPE will oppose, with all its resources, any proposal that is not based on sound technical grounds or that infringes on the rights of firearms owners for the purpose of promoting a political philosophy, advancing a social theory, or as an emotional response and is not based on clear Constitutional grounds. | <urn:uuid:2efc5f85-b5b7-489a-93ae-d4b38e2ff66a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scopeny.org/legislation-dealers.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 | 0.945759 | 761 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Toyota is recalling 1,629 Toyota Tundra vehicles from the 2007-11 model years because the tire pressure monitoring system on the pickup trucks may not be properly calibrated, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
This recall is similar to an earlier recall in March that affected 22,000 Tundra and Tacoma pickups.
According to Toyota, vehicles included under the recall notice left their factories with TPMS sensors properly calibrated to their original wheels and tires but at Southeast Toyota Distributors regional distribution centers (prior to dealer delivery) the TPMS sensors were transferred to different Toyota-approved light-truck (LT) tires with different load ratings. The TPMS sensors were not recalibrated to the new ratings.
The recall is expected to begin next month. Dealers will recalibrate the tire pressure monitoring system for free. Owners can call Southeast Toyota at 800-301-6859 or NHTSA’s vehicle safety hotline at 888-327-4236. | <urn:uuid:b81c2919-3df3-443d-9816-e85356cfbea6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2011/05/toyota-recalling-1629-tundras.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937676 | 202 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Popped round to a friend’s house, and mid-conversation found myself trying to do Arnold Schwarzenegger’s accent – “if it bleeds, we can kill it” from Predator. Sadly, I came out Mexican.
It was in the context of individuals (bullies, specifically) or institutions (say, local authorities, to pick an example entirely at random) who will not admit mistakes, who will make excuses if forced to admit, and who will never ever learn a damn thing. They seem to believe admission of error is an admission of weakness, an invitation to people to kill them.
This is, of course, extremely wrong. And if they could just admit they screw up, and even volunteer it occasionally two things would happen, pretty much instantaneously
a) people would stop being uncomfortable, suspicious and on edge around them and be even more helpful than they already are
b) they’d free up a whole lot of their own psychic energy to get on with the tasks at hand.
And here is an extraordinary video… | <urn:uuid:d400c36f-5dde-4cd7-b127-f198a926fe5f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dwighttowers.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/if-it-bleeds-we-can-kill-it/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963475 | 220 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Mon October 15, 2012
Glenn Beck's Blue Jeans: Made in Kentucky
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck is putting the brand in firebrand.
Beck has launched his own brand of blue jeans. The 1791 Supply & Co. is a response to companies like Levi's, which make many of their lines overseas (though US-made pants are available). Beck has been critical of Levi's, and last year, he notably announced that he would no longer wear Levi's due to manufacturing practices and the “go forth” advertising campaign, which Beck said “glorified revolution.”
The company touts that 1791 jeans are “spun at Cone Denim Mills in Greensboro, North Carolina and cut and sewn at a Kentucky factory that opened during the 1920s.”
I called the 1791 company to find out just where in Kentucky the pants are put together. They declined to say, but a source tells us it's the Elk Brand Manufacturing facility in Cadiz. Elk Brand began in 1924. I called to ask if they've staffed up to handle the new contract, but the staff there referred me to the head office in Nashville, and my request for comment has not been returned. (Jeans makers are listed in this directory of Kentucky business).
The 1791 name is a reference to the ratification of the Bill of Rights, and the company has been around selling t-shirts and other apparel since last year. The first patent related to blue jeans was filed some 80 years after 1791, and the branding around the pants taps into the increasingly-hip Americana of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The 1791 Tumblr page reblogs pictures of people in fashionable new-retro work clothes (one post says “Women in chore coats! We love that”).
The branding seems similar to Levi's, and the pants are apparently similar to original or classic pairs of Levi's, made of the modern, dark selvedge-style denim that jeans lovers are seeking out these days.
A few blogs are having fun with the fact that Glenn Beck is selling hip jeans. But what may be more surprising is that the 1791 site is largely free of political messages, and at $130, the jeans undersell American-made Levi's by about $50. The company may be coming from a political person and political place, but it seems strictly business.
And politics aside, Kentucky is no stranger to producing products at the edge of fashion or technology. In 2008, Noah Adams profiled a Henderson company that doesn't build jeans, but breaks them in, giving them the stylish stone wash look. And earlier this year, the press flocked to Harrodsburg when it was discovered that a plant there was manufacturing Gorilla Glass, which is used in the iPhone. | <urn:uuid:9077592e-6f43-4b28-ae73-31e1542b438c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wfpl.org/post/glenn-becks-blue-jeans-made-kentucky-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969583 | 579 | 1.578125 | 2 |
September is Library Card Sign Up Month!
Yes, that is correct. September is Library Card Sign Up Month and we hope you can help us spread the word to get new visitors to apply! Or perhaps your card is expired or needs to be updated. What better time is there than September to do just these things?!
Not sure what you can do with a library card? Check out our top 10 reasons:
- Kids 18 and under get free general admission to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston on Saturdays and Sundays with any public library card!
- Folks with good standing library accounts may qualify for a Texshare card to access other participating Texas library systems including university collections!
- Need a book we don't own? Try requesting it through Interlibrary Loan. Some restrictions apply but this service is free.
- Get free computer use at the library equipped with internet access and Microsoft Office Suite applications.
- Check out a laptop to use inside the library for two hours and access our WiFi.
- Check out goodies including books, audiobooks, magazines, movies and music!
- Use your card to access databases for research and homework from the comfort of your own home!
- Download from our digital media catalog and enjoy the latest ebooks and more on your MP3 players, e-readers or other portable devices!
- Access your library account online. Request books and have them delivered to the branch of your choice. Renew items or pay fines online without having to come into the library.
- Library Cards are FREE! You can reap all the benefits of having a library card for free; just be sure to keep on top of your due dates and take good care of library materials.
There are many other reasons why you should own a library card and we'd love to hear them! What do you use your library card for?
Also, a big thanks to Maud Marks Library staff & patrons for taking photos during last year's Library Card Sign Up Month! | <urn:uuid:5b13c8d4-d567-408d-97c1-19118fc8dc2c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hcpl.net/content/september-library-card-sign-month-0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940518 | 403 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Several months ago I visited three members of The Absolute Sound team—Harry Pearson (founder and chairman of the Editorial Board), Jonathan Valin (associate editor), and Atul Kanagat (advisor to the “Cutting Edge” section) and had the opportunity to audition their superb reference audio systems. Many things stuck with me about those rich listening experiences, and one was the vivid memory of how excellent the respective system amplifiers were. At the time, Pearson’s system was powered by an ASR Emitter II amp, Valin’s by a pair of MBL 9011 monoblocks, and Kanagat’s by a pair of VTL Siegfried monoblocks. Then and now, I felt those three were among the finest amplifiers on the planet, but my enthusiasm was tempered by the sobering realization that each cost more than the car I drive; I could no more buy one of those amps than I could a fleet of Lear jets. Sighing, I made the rational choice to accept some cost-driven tradeoffs in my reference electronics, a decision that served me well right up until a pair of downright amazing and affordably priced giant-killer amplifiers came along and changed everything. Enter the NuForce Reference 9 monoblocks. Within a few hours of installing them in my system, I felt certain new benchmarks in affordable excellence had arrived.
NuForce’s Reference 9s are small, attractively (but not extravagantly) finished, 160 watt, Class D monoblocks priced from $1250 to $1305 each. The Reference 9s are equipped with switch selectable balanced and single-ended inputs (though users should run cabling to one input or the other, but not both at the same time). When I used the “Class D” descriptor some of you probably thought, “Oh, so the NuForces are digital amps,” but in fact they’re not. NuForce VP Casey Ng stresses that the Reference 9s are “analog switching amplifiers,” and the distinction involves more than mere semantics. In practice, the NuForces differ from many other Class D amplifiers in three important respects: First, they offer very wide bandwidth (20-50kHz); second, they can drive low impedance loads (350 watts @ 2 ohms); and third, they are based on proprietary circuit topologies developed by NuForce—not on any of the popular off-the-shelf Class D amp modules such as those offered by Tripath, Bang & Olufsen/ICEPower or Philips/Hypex UCD. Interestingly, the NuForce amps were designed by the company’s chief technology officer—an engineer named Tranh Nguyen, whose design accomplishments include development of the power system for the Tomahawk missile and who holds several patents relevant to Class D amplification. But enough technical background; let’s get to the heart of the matter. How do these amps sound?
Frankly, the NuForce Reference 9s do so many things right that I hardly know where to start, but let’s begin with the two qualities that grip most listeners first: resolution and transparency. The Ref 9s offer a truly extraordinary level of see-through transparency, and as an audiophile friend so aptly put it, “Their transparency is real, not a fake artifact caused by brightness.” That brings me to a second revelation: These little amplifiers not only deliver gobs of musically relevant detail, but do so without imposing the fingernails-on-a-chalkboard torture of excess brightness. In this respect, the Reference 9s combine some of the whole-cloth sonic integrity of the mighty MBL 9011s as well as a good bit of the focusgoes- on-forever clarity of the ASR Emitter II. How does this play out in musical terms? Well, for me it means falling in love with the timbres of individual instruments and voices all over again. As I write this, for example, I’m listening to the Quartetto Italiano perform the Dvorzak “American” String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96 [Philips, LP] savoring the way the NuForces reveal the profoundly complex voices of each individual instrument, as well as the interplay of those voices as they meld to form a greater whole (and isn’t that the real magic of great string quartets?). Similarly, on good live recordings, such as Eva Cassidy’s Live at Blues Alley [Blix Street Records], the NuForce’s bring my system alive with the sort of crackling, electric intensity you typically experience only in live music venues—an intensity heightened by the amplifier’s ability to capture, simultaneously, the delicacy of Cassidy’s voice, the scorching heat of electric guitar solos, and the giant-hearted punch of the electric bass. The word picture I’m hoping to paint, here, is one of an amplifier that essentially never sounds congested, regardless of the complexity of the material being played (a quality the the ASR exhibits to an even greater degree).
Next, as a bassist, I feel compelled to point out that the NuForces deliver the best doggone bass-pitch definition and control I’ve ever heard from any amplifier. Part of what’s going on is that the NuForces offer a damping factor greater than 4000 (no, that’s not a typo), so that when the Ref 9s tell woofers what to do, the drivers have little choice but to shut up and follow orders—precisely. The sonic results can be eyepopping in several ways. First, the Ref 9s seem to give some speakers (e.g., my Magnepans) about an extra half octave of bass extension they never had before. Second, the amps draw out layer upon layer of bass textures and detail you may never have heard before. A few nights back I put on master acoustic bassist Dave Holland’s Emerald Tears [ECM, LP] and listened in shocked amazement as the NuForces revealed one new subtlety after another (the intricacy of Holland’s solo work is just unbelievable!). The only word of caution I would offer is that the NuForces handle low frequencies with the utmost control, and therefore will not artificially “warm up” either recordings or loudspeakers that lack bass. But put these amps together with recordings and associated gear that can do bass well and it’s “fasten your seatbelts” time. | <urn:uuid:8f67ce00-b5df-414b-8ab6-89322e4183b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.avguide.com/review/nuforce-reference-9-monoblock-power-amplifier | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943367 | 1,384 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Culture of Life
Canadian Student Lobbied for Por-Life at U.N. Meetings
BY Mike Mastromatteo
August 30-September 5, 1998 Issue | Posted 8/30/98 at 2:00 PM
There's ‘little awareness’ of right-to-life message, 26-year-old reports
TORONTO—A Canadian student is back in Toronto after nearly six weeks of lobbying for the pro-life, pro-family position at two United Nations conferences in Europe.
Charmaine Graves, 26, an international relations student at the University of Toronto, traveled to Rome in July to represent the International Right to Life federation and Canada's Campaign Life Coalition at meetings to establish an International Criminal Court (ICC). It was a heady time for Graves, given some of the controversies surrounding the creation of this new international court.
After a brief return to Toronto, Graves flew to Lisbon, Portugal in mid-August to attend the First World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth. The conference was called to find ways of allowing young people to take on greater decision making “at all levels and spheres of society.”
In Rome and Lisbon, Graves and her pro-life colleagues lobbied national delegations to ensure that the right to life voice was not lost in the diplomatic shuffle.
Pro-life, pro-family organizations have made it a priority to send lobbyists to international conferences to counter what many see as the United Nations' increasing support for radical feminist objectives. The Holy See has also made numerous interventions at past UN gatherings to defend the dignity of the human person and the traditional family.
Often, however, pro-life and pro-family voices are swamped by other voices calling for new definitions of marriage, family, and gender roles. The Women's Caucus for Gender Justice attended the Rome meeting and has been a major player at previous UN conferences.
Graves had little idea she would be working on the international stage when she was hired in May as a summer student with Campaign Life Coalition, Canada's leading pro-life organization. However, the Cape Breton, Nova Scotia native quickly found the international experience eye-opening.
“We didn't enjoy total success at the conferences, but I found it exciting to bring the right to life viewpoint to international delegates,” Graves told the Register. “So many of them seemed open to our message. It was surprising how little awareness there is about the right to life message among these people.”
At the Rome conference, pro-life lobbyists were leery of a proposal to include the term “enforced pregnancy” in the list of crimes that could be tried by the International Criminal Court. Many saw the use of the term enforced pregnancy — even if it was the result of rape — as an attempt to undermine any federal legislation limiting abortion on demand.
Just prior to the Rome conference, for example, the Vatican expressed concern over the use of the enforced pregnancy language on the international war crimes list. Other Church groups, including the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, voiced similar concerns. In a recent letter to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Montreal's Archbishop Jean-Claude Turcotte, president of the Canadian bishops'conference, called for “forcible impregnation” to replace the term enforced pregnancy.
“The distinction between enforced pregnancy and forcible impregnation is a vital one which may have been overlooked in the legitimate and understandable haste to make this aggravated form of rape subject to clear and effective sanctions,” Archbishop Turcotte said. “We are very concerned that if the term enforced pregnancy is retained, pregnancy itself could be considered a crime, or abortions compelled to avoid prosecution, and that the perpetrators could escape without accountability.”
This was also the view of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, a New York-based organization that monitors United Nations activity.
In a report published on the Institute's Web site, director Austin Ruse said concerns about the United Nations' International Criminal Court overriding national sovereignty are not unfounded, especially when it comes to right to life issues. Ruse is one of many North American pro-lifers who believe the United Nations has shifted away from its humanitarian founding principles to embrace a contraception mentality.
“The concern of the pro-life, pro-family world has always been that this [UN] tribunal could be used for purely ideological and destructive ends,” Ruse said. “With the proposed International Criminal Court statutes, there exists language that could make pro-life advocates war criminals simply by working on behalf of the unborn child.”
Although delegates to the Rome conference changed the term enforced pregnancy to a more narrowly defined “forced pregnancy,” pro-lifers are wary that the ICC could be the first step in a concerted effort to outlaw any restrictions on abortion.
Despite some lingering concerns, Graves was inspired by the overall experience in Rome. She said she did not feel overwhelmed as a young person among so many experienced diplomats and world travelers.
“In many ways it was inspiring to share our information with the delegates. I was eager to note if they are aware of some of the anti-family elements of the United Nations'agenda,” she said.
Graves recalled being positively received by most groups at the two conferences, particularly delegates from Africa and Third World countries. Unfortunately, she added, the Canadian delegation, along with those from western European countries, were unreceptive to pro-life overtures.
“We more or less avoided them with our efforts,” Graves said, “because we knew they would be unfavorable to the right to life position.”
In Lisbon, Graves was preoccupied with efforts to have a pro-family attitude enshrined in an international declaration of the rights of young people. She was gratified to see the inclusion of the family and marriage “as the basic units of society” added to the official Lisbon Declaration.
Nonetheless, the declaration also contains a number of problem areas for pro-life supporters, particularly its support for youth access to “reproductive health care” and family planning methods of their choice. By UN definition, reproductive health care and family planning refer to access to abortion and contraception.
Furthermore, the Lisbon Declaration contains no references to parental responsibility in children's access to reproductive health information. Graves said this could mean parents having no control over the kinds of family planning information available to their children.
Graves believes her experiences in both Rome and Lisbon have given her a deeper commitment to uphold right-to-life values on a larger scale. She echoed the view of many Canadian pro-life activists that United Nations' initiatives must be closely monitored for their tendency to downplay or ignore long-held humanitarian ideals.
As Jim Hughes, president of Campaign Life Coalition, advised Graves prior to her departure overseas, “We can't underestimate the very serious danger to life and family inherent in these UN initiatives … as they attempt to bypass elected legislatures and local customs to impose a radical social doctrine on all the nations of the world.”
Mike Mastromatteo writes from Toronto, Canada.------- EXCERPT: ProLife ProFile
Copyright © 2013 EWTN News, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:5317bb9b-636d-425b-8442-abbd57cc59b2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ncregister.com/site/print_article/11422/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954119 | 1,499 | 1.773438 | 2 |
The golfing advice continues with our series, “Tips from a Golf Pro.” In the latest installment, Jae Suh, certified golf instructor with the Leadbetter Golf Academy at PGA National Resort & Spa, gives some practical advice on preparing and playing through the heat and humidity of a South Florida summer.
♦ ♦ ♦
Golf is hard enough under ideal situations, but when stifling heat and humidity start to enter the picture, you really have to prepare for the round ahead. Preparation for a hot day of golf starts at home. I make sure I wear light-colored clothing as much as possible in breathable synthetic material. Cotton shirts absorb too much moisture and become extremely heavy as the day goes on. Wide-brimmed hats and sunscreen are a must to avoid overexposure from the sun. One of the most important things I do when I get to the golf course is to make sure I drink enough fluids. Dehydration can happen quickly when it’s 90 degrees-plus with high humidity. Drinking 16 ounces of water every other hole should be a good benchmark.
Typical summer weather patterns include rain at some point during the day. This usually keeps the golf course wet, which means the average 6,800-yard layout can be playing much longer. If you find yourself with longer clubs into the greens, don’t be surprised. And expect very little roll this time of year.
One thing you can do to combat the extra length of the course is to include hybrids in your bag. These clubs range from various lofts to lengths to cover most of your needs. The key benefit is the added height and carry that hybrids give, which is essential in wet conditions.
Also, if you typically hit your driver low and rely on roll to get your distance, consider a higher lofted driver or the 3 wood as a substitute off the tee. You’ll find that the added loft helps to increase carry distance. And keep in mind that under extreme humidity, the ball will travel less. Water vapor will provide enough resistance so you may need to club up.
- If you have a golf question you would like answered by Jae Suh, email the online editor.
A native of Seoul, South Korea, Jae inherited his love for golf from his father, an avid golfer. After a successful junior career and a hiatus from the game during college, Suh returned to golf, trying his luck as a professional golfer. While playing the grueling mini-tour circuit, essentially the PGA Tours’ minor-league, Suh rediscovered the importance of proper golf instruction.
Suh’s experience on the mini-tour circuit and his meticulous attention to swing mechanics have made him a highly sought-after instructor.
400 Avenue of the Champions
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418
at PGA National Resort & Spa | <urn:uuid:fed89eca-947d-4977-91f5-cc8750fff561> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.palmbeachillustrated.com/TipsfromaGolfProSuh | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953443 | 594 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Skip to comments.North Dakota Considers Eliminating Property Tax
Posted on 06/12/2012 12:08:38 AM PDT by quesney
BISMARCK, N.D. Since Californians shrank their property taxes more than three decades ago by passing Proposition 13, people around the nation have echoed their dismay over such levies, putting forth plans to even them, simplify them, cap them, slash them. In an election here on Tuesday, residents of North Dakota will consider a measure that reaches far beyond any of that one that abolishes the property tax entirely.
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Jim Wilson/The New York Times A group of Edgeley residents, including Nicole Gibson, who held a Vote No on Measure 2 sign, gathered after the debate. I would like to be able to know that my home, no matter what happens to my income or my life, is not going to be taken away from me because I cant pay a tax, said Susan Beehler, one in a group of North Dakotans who have pressed for an amendment to the states Constitution to end the property tax. They argue that the tax is unpredictable, inconsistent, counter to the concept of property ownership and needless in a state that, thanks in part to wildly successful oil drilling, finds itself in the rare circumstance of carrying budget reserves.
When, Ms. Beehler asked, did we come to believe that government should get rich and we should get poor?
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Starve the beast for now, but what will their fiscal health be if oil revenues falter?
There is power in the simplicity of this question:
I would like to be able to know that my home, no matter what happens to my income or my life, is not going to be taken away from me because I cant pay a tax.
I can guess that mill rates and property values are both going up in the boom. I can also guess that mill rates will not go down while property values do go down after the boom.
I see the many RINOs that have infected ND are opposing the abolition.
I have a good friend who owns his home outright. It's a small mother/daughter split-level type in a CRAPPY neighborhood - Hempstead, NY.
Though it's paid off, he still gets to pay nearly $1,500 per month in property tax because the lefty govenmental theives in the Nassau County Hempstead irresponsibly piss his money away.
The home has been in his family for around 40 years.
Also, my daughter will never, EVER set even one single toe in a public school. Hence, why should I have pay for her education, then pay again for some stranger's kids to go to a school where they're likely not to learn very much - except how to hate everything I stand for?
Well, let's say ND goes the way of Wisconsin and rids itself of compulsory government union membership, which BTW:
“The state has a low rate of private-sector union
membership at 4.3 percent, and a public-sector unionization
rate of 17.4 percent.”
I think they would do very well in the long term. There aren't many who move to North Dakota that don't have something to offer, except maybe the 3 biggest cities.
If not burdened with a high maintenance citizenry, investment and development should continue, just not at a helter skelter pace, which would be good.
My experience is that once government gets a surplus someone always will find a way to spend it. The reason so few Americans are wealthy isn’t because it is hard to earn enough to be wealth, but because it is so very, very easy to spend too much.
If the state continues in this direction, decreasing government, thereby decreasing income tax needed, and dedicating surplus to infrastructure conducive to business investment, and eventually getting rid of income taxes, they could have a long stable future.
As a resident of a state with probably the highest property taxes in the nation (NJ), I’ll tell you some reasons not to eliminate property taxes. Here in NJ, they pay for your municipal employees; in other states all of the money is put in a common pot at the state or county level. In those models, your taxes are re-distributed beyond your municipality, and your vote is much more diluted. The reason Newark, Camden, and Paterson NJ all laid off so many employees is BECAUSE we have property taxes; their residents hadn’t been paying for their services for decades, with “state aid” (our money) picking up the tab. When that aid dried up, they couldn’t loot from those areas where people get out of bed each morning and go to work (hence the layoffs).
In the end, what many people pay from property taxes will simply be paid from another source anyway (state income tax, for example); property owners lose a lot of control when that happens. Nothing is free.
I understand the frustration with the school part of the tax bill; I find that frustrating as well (it is the main reason many Catholic schools in NJ are either closed or winding down). Those taxes are higher than mine, but I know some people in nearby areas in NJ prefer higher taxes and the segregation it brings (along class lines, as opposed to race) than to simply having the taxes re-distributed at the state level and moving low-income housing into their neighborhood.
Very interesting post. I live in a town in CT. We are having a vote on the town budget today. Ironically we had reassessed our home property values for the first time in 5 years. Required by state law every 5 years. Not surprisingly most people’s lost about 1/8 of their property value. I lost 1/6 of my value. However since moving here 4 years ago, the property taxes has increased about 15 percent in a recession. Of course, each budget vote, there will be signs all over town saying “Vote (Yes) for edcuation”. Why should we vote yes each time, should we give the town a blank check? Now that the reassessment comes back, they of course want to increase the mill rate to ensure that the budget is not endangered. Its pretty frustrating. I guess this is typical townlike shanigans. The surrounding towns did similiar things.
Had that happen in Ohio when the property values hit the skids in the past few years. When I got a reevaluation and the value was lowered they raised the multiplier to make up of the county’s lost revenues.
While you have it you save it and operate in a prudent manner, plan for the future.
OK, my experience with politicians and money is the exact opposite... like giving whiskey and car keys to teen boys. YMMV
That works for individuals, but with OPM it doesn’t quite work so well.
That makes absolutely no sense. A pox on property taxes.
I will go against the grain here and say this is a bad idea. It gives the state dull control over local government revenues. Government is best closest to the people. Theyd be better iff eliminating the sales tax or some other revenue to the state coffers.
Property tax = the perpetual mortgage. There is no private property ownership.
Remember: "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress". And distress to Widows is not a good idea before God.
$1,500 per month? In Hempstead? Are you sure? My escrow, which includes property tax and insurance isn’t much more than that for the entire year.
OK, let me frame it differently: here in NJ, we pay for our local services (including cops, teachers, firemen, public works, etc.) from our local property taxes. In other states, these are paid from a more centralized pool of money (which is raised from state income taxes or some other means); in the end, the residents of the state are still paying their cops, teachers, etc. - it is just a question of “how”. In NJ nobody wants their taxes to be used to pay for the services on the “permanently dependent reservations” (Newark, Camden, etc.); they want to pay for their own little corner of the world instead (where their vote is one of fifteen thousand, instead of one in three million).
People who live in areas where local services are not paid by local taxes end up subsidizing their urban toilets to a larger extent, since the wealth is re-distributed from a higher level. You are going to get the bill anyway; when you move away from local taxes you get someone else’s bill as well.
Don’t you have tax abatement programs for situations like the widow?
In VA, our local governments set and collect the tax and the state has absolutely nothing to do with it. I didnt realize it was done any other way. I agree with you. Eliminating the tax gives the state full control over local government revenues.
TONS of women like that in New England; where people pay confiscatory levels of property tax 'for the children'...my wife's grandmother lost her home for that very reason.
“Government is best closest to the people.”
You are absolutely right; they prevent taxpayers from paying someone else’s bills.
For people nostalgic about the Founding Fathers, I don’t know if many FReepers are aware that voting was originally limited to people paying property taxes. There was a reason for that: they had a stake in the future of an area that wasn’t shared by all of the residents. Once that requirement was removed, you had people casting votes to see what they could get from other people’s money (the modern Democratic Party).
Exactly. Quit paying your property taxes and you will see who REALLY owns 'your' property in short order...
Could we get some clarification here? Are they talking about school taxes here, or just general property axes. In most areas, school taxes are the preponderance of what is generally termed “Real Estate” or property taxes..( when I left the NY suburbs in 2007, school taxes were 72% of my total property tax bill. School districts are separate entities, often with DIFFERENT geographical boundaries than the underlying municipalities..they propose their own budgets and assessment rates.
“Eliminating the tax gives the state full control over local government revenues.”
Just as importantly, it gives the state control of the expenditures. Affirmative action would be taken to a whole new level as rural and suburban revenues are dumped into urban toilets to buy votes. This was happening here in NJ with “state aid” until the state ran out of money; since we have local property taxes, our money couldn’t be used to save the jobs of the urban teachers and cops (who were never funded by the populations they served anyway).
“Why should we vote yes each time, should we give the town a blank check?”
Governor Christie fixed that in NJ with a property tax cap; when teachers get 4% raises, and taxes can only increase 2%, untenured teachers and cops lose their jobs. This isn’t just theory, it already happened (and is why Obama is talking about re-hiring teachers and cops).
tax abatement programs in Nassau County => $1500 is reduced to $1495.95. My home is just north of Hempstead and my tax bill is substantially more than $1500 a month.
Who is supposed to pay to maintain the road in front of the widows’ homes? Who is to pay for the ambulance when she falls and can’t get up? The fact of the matter is that people have to pay for these things.
Here in NJ your property taxes are frozen when you reach 65; it is an attempt to acknowledge that people have their incomes adjusted when they retire. It isn’t a working solution because freezing someone’s taxes at $7,500 isn’t much help.
This will define the political lines: a TRUE democrat never saw a tax that they wouldn’t like to raise and a TRUE republican never saw a tax that they liked.
Yesterday, Rush was reading an article that said North Dakota has a surplus of $4 billion and climbing, I think the roads could be covered in that.
Yesterday, Rush was reading an article that said North Dakota has a surplus of $4 billion and climbing, I think the roads could be covered in that.
My thought also. They will change this if oil keeps dropping.
I’m sorry, I’m still not buying what you’re selling.
What about unoccupied or undeveloped properties? Why should any tax be paid at all for those? Why should every property owner pay for public schools?
The property tax is a load of crap, and should be abolished. Replace all that crap with service fees, charged only to the users. Problem solved!
Clarification here? If you want clarification of ND property tax, maybe this would answer your question. I own a shade under 50 acres with a home, out buildings and other improvements. My total tax was $550 for 2011. It was spent as follows: County - 42%, Township - 17%, School - 37%, Fire - 2%, Water - 1%, State - 1%.
Next year it is to go up about 50%.
I called the county to find out why such a large increase. They said it was because our property was undervalued.
However, the media is constantly saying the oil boom is coming to our neck of the woods, and our infrastructure is lacking, they want it up to speed before it gets here. I see this as a valid reason for wanting more money. The county needs it for the roads, the schools need to expand.
The oil trucks flat outright ruin roads, and the influx of new folks over crowd the schools.
Because of this, I favor having the excess oil revenue make up the difference. They now have producers less than 10 miles from our home, and one staked off less than 3 miles, and a proposed well less than a mile. The quality of oil coming out of the ground is very close to diesel fuel, so the refinery being built in the state to make mostly diesel.
So I see the need to upgrade our community, but the oil should pay for it.
That's SO UNFAIR. The state is obviously in the 1% category. There should be a federal tax imposed on states that are in the black.
Then, to be FAIR, the federal tax levied against North Dakota for being rich should be re-distributed to bankrupt states like Illinois which are broke because of George Bush and being unlucky in life's lottery.
No more rich states, please. If any should become rich, the feds should seize its surplus money and spread it around to the failed states in the 99%. It's only FAIR to do so.
Time to move...
I had a friend once that was having a mortgage burning party when he finally paid off his debt.
I asked him why he was so happy. His response was “now I finally own my house.”
I told him that the house belonged to his local government, not him. I told him that there were two owners of the house. One was the government and the other was the mortgage company. Now, the mortgage company was out of the picture.
He was puzzled and I went on to explain that the REAL owner of his property was the government and further went on to find out who the real owner was, simply don’t pay your property tax and you will soon see who really owns the property.
Property owners will never own their property. We lease it from the government and pay it a fee each year for the privilege of living there.
The worst thing about this is that responsible people buy a home as part of their planning for when they get older and their income decreases but they could plan on having a paid off house to live in for the rest of their days.
Well, THAT AIN’T HAPPENING! The house they bought 30-40 years ago for $25,000 is now appraised at $175,000 to 350,000 (depending on where you live) and the taxes alone are more than the original mortgage payment.
And now, the worst part of property taxes.......normally 75% is school taxes!
Then, since you seem to enjoy and approve of property taxes, proceed with enjoying them.
One of the beaties of this nation that is composed of 50 separate nations, is that we can try different things, within a framework of basic freedomes.
I for one, applaud ND for attempting to eliminate property taxes. They are indeed a pox. A property tax steals ownership. When one owns something, it cannot be taken. Yet, a property tax does just that.
Enjoy non-ownership of your home.
Bingo. Property tax is pure slavery.
“The home has been in his family for around 40 years. Also, my daughter will never, EVER set even one single toe in a public school. Hence, why should I have pay for her education, then pay again for some stranger’s kids to go to a school where they’re likely not to learn very much - except how to hate everything I stand for? “
Another good question. Something has gone terribly wrong in the Untied States.
I’d add Walker in Wisconsin, but the problem isn’t the politicians, but the people. Indiana and Ohio and Wisconsin and so on didn’t get in trouble over a single election cycle. It takes a philosophical underpinning to preserve liberty.
Kids don’t and haven’t learned about individual rights, other than sexual deviancy, in a half century plus of government schooling. We let them be educated and entertained by liberals and fools. How do you reverse that?
Yes, you need some government and government needs some revenue. We will be taxed at some level. I don’t like property taxes and I think sales taxes are better, but they’re naturally regressive and follow the business cycle.
Ideally you need to elect small government conservatives forever. That’s the only way to keep taxes low. Low taxes are a function of low spending. That’s it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works. | <urn:uuid:50bec802-0a97-4761-979f-0e70fed4ff01> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2894302/posts | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973055 | 3,961 | 1.554688 | 2 |
By Jason Menard
Free speech comes with a cost – personal responsibility. The repeal of a California law banning the sale and rental of violent games to minors puts the responsibility for parenting right where it should lie – with the parents.
Unfortunately for many kids that’s not exactly a comforting thought.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law by a 7-2 vote. The Court said the law, which also would impose strict labelling requirements, was unconstitutional, as video games should have the same free-speech protection as books, movies, and plays.
It’s a victory for free speech and a victory for personal responsibility. Unfortunately, my experience has been that monitoring their children’s media-consumption habits isn’t something that all parents take seriously enough.
We may be Draconian in our house – our teenager thinks so, at least. But we believe in limits. We decide what media is consumed in our house, which movies are watched, and what games are played. There have always been certain musicians and songs that were off limits. There are movies and games that mom and dad can play, that our 16-year-old can’t. And if he defies those rules, there are consequences.
Censorship? Not at all. We’re not banning this content for life; it’s just that we didn’t feel it was appropriate for a five-year-old boy to be listening to Eminem, or a 13-year-old boy to be playing Grand Theft Auto. And we, as adults, consume this media ourselves. I’ve played and enjoyed games like GTA, God of War, and the like – but I wouldn’t allow either of my kids to do the same at this point in their development. I don’t believe that any media is inherently bad, but that doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all from the minute they can pick up a remote.
Nor do I believe that TV, movies, and video games turn normal kids into degenerates and killers. If you’re sick enough to choose to rape, assault, or murder someone, then there’s already something wrong with you. A game is no more of a catalyst than watching CNN. It’s an easy — and wrong — answer to a complex question.
It’s not easy for parents like us. We’ve met too many kids who have been raised in environments contrary to the one we’re trying to establish. One of his friends, at five, was listening to Eminem. His parents, for whom English was a daily challenge, didn’t understand the lyrics and saw no issue with the music. Friends who were younger than him were playing games that were in no way appropriate for their age. We disagreed with those parents and held fast to our rules. But how do you explain to a five-year-old that he can’t do what his friends are doing?
In the end, it’s not about explanation. His friends can watch horror films like Saw? Good for them. Not in our house. We take the time to monitor what our kids watch, do on-line, and play. We explain our decisions, listen to arguments, and – in the end – make a final decision. Too many parents don’t believe they have the final authority. That may be true – if you give it away.
At 16, the restrictions have loosened, but not as far as he’d like. Certain games are still off limits. Mature means just that – and we’ve determined that he’s not ready. Can we stop everything? No, of course not. And kids will find a way to circumvent their parents’ wishes.
However, it’s not up to us to throw up our hands and give in. Drinking, drugs, violent media? Save for locking him up, we can’t prevent his exposure to these things. But we can make damn sure he knows where we stand.
In the end, he’s made – and likely will continue to make – bad choices. Those choices come with consequences. Whether or not we’re supported by other parents, the school system, or other authority figures is of no concern to us. Parenting isn’t about consensus; it’s about doing what’s best for your child.
Our nine-year-old daughter still self-regulates. She’s well aware of what we consider inappropriate and actively refuses to watch things that cross those lines. We’re under no false belief that will continue. Eventually, she’ll want to test the boundaries. But nowhere does it say that parents have to take the path of least resistance.
We’re not the ultimate parenting authority in general, but we are when it comes to our kids. Just because kids can buy sex-and-violence-filled games in California doesn’t mean that they should. However, that decision is not one for the courts. That ultimate responsibility lies with the parents.
Hopefully more of them will take that responsibility seriously. After all, raising kids is no game. | <urn:uuid:e35353f3-a6ef-4241-ba2e-9e0e3a4927fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jaymenard.com/2011/06/27/california-gaming-law-puts-rules-squarely-in-parents%E2%80%99-hands/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969153 | 1,092 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Archives: Larry King shooting
A 911 dispatcher answers calls from E.O. Green School on the morning of February 12.
Hundreds mourned Larry King at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Port Hueneme.
Watch now »
Video: Rainbow Alliance vigil »
Video: Shooting aftermath »
Video: School shooting »
More: Shooting at E.O. Green »
Last week's shooting of a 15-year-old student at an Oxnard middle school was the first of its kind in Ventura County, but campus violence has become all too common across the United States, experts say.
The Feb. 12 slaying of Larry King at E.O. Green School, allegedly by a 14-year-old classmate with a handgun, came amid a particularly bloody month on U.S. campuses. At least six school shootings occurred from Feb. 4 to Feb. 14.
The string of shootings has numbed many, leaving them less shocked than they once might have been, said Robert Siciliano, a national school safety and security expert in Boston. "It's become status quo," he said.
Siciliano said a sense of complacency has set in among many people. "There's often a feeling that this is something that can't happen to you and me or our children."
An attractive target
On Feb. 4, a 10th-grader shot a classmate in the leg in Memphis, Tenn., during an argument over rap lyrics in an algebra class, authorities said. Three days later, a teacher's husband charged into her fifth-grade classroom in southern Ohio and stabbed and shot her as students watched.
A 23-year-old student at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge then shot two women in a classroom before turning the gun on herself and committing suicide. On Feb. 11, a day before King was shot, another Memphis high school student was shot twice by a classmate during physical education class, police said.
Then on Thursday, a former student at Northern Illinois University shot and killed five students and wounded 16 others in a lecture hall before killing himself.
Oxnard police and prosecutors are not commenting on a possible motive in the King slaying, although some students said the victim was gay and had been involved in an ongoing dispute with the suspect, Brandon McInerney, who has been charged with murder and a hate crime.
In some cases, school shooters feel disconnected from society, and campuses are an attractive target because they're perceived as sanctuaries for learning, Siciliano said.
"They're angry and looking for a sensationalistic way in which to vent their hostility," he said. "There's a lot of shock value for those who choose to commit these violent acts at a school."
Helping troubled students
Vincent Wincelowicz, a retired FBI official who is now a board member of the Denver-based Foundation for the Prevention of School Violence, said it's impossible to make schools totally safe.
"If someone is determined to get a gun on campus to shoot others, they will find a way," Wincelowicz said. Schools need to focus on finding and helping troubled students before they turn to violence, he said.
He said school shootings tend to occur more often in rural communities than in big cities. Urban schools are tuned in to the potential for violence and are better prepared to deal with it, he said.
"The key thing to remember is to always be prepared for the potential of violence and to stress intervention as much as possible," Wincelowicz said.
Kristin Guttormsen is a senior at Washington State University and a member of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a national organization that advocates allowing university students and others to carry licensed concealed weapons on campus.
Guttormsen said the group formed after the Virginia Tech massacre in April, in which a student shot and killed 32 people and himself. She wonders if fewer people would have died if students had been armed.
"We feel that if someone has the legal right to carry a concealed weapon off campus, there's no justification for barring them from doing so on campus," Guttormsen said.
Wincelowicz, however, thinks that's a bad idea. "Arming everyone escalates rather than de-escalates," he said. | <urn:uuid:132bf2a8-a8b9-4c7d-8bf2-a9925ae2443a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vcstar.com/news/2008/feb/19/campus-violence-too-common-in-us-experts-say/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978018 | 880 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Sunday, December 10, 2000
Steamboat Springs When parents take their children to the library and find out little Johnny or Susie has racked up $15 in overdue fines on their library card, it can be a stressful experience for everyone involved.
In December, the youth services librarian at Bud Werner Memorial Library, Currie Meyer, wants to make that situation a little better for everyone involved. Throughout this month, anyone younger than 18 can donate nonperishable food items to the library to pay their fines. The donations will be passed on to the Lift-Up Food Bank.
Meyer came up with the idea while reading an article in a professional journal about a similar program at another library.
"I thought it was a great idea, so I started it at our library," she said.
Meyer said the Food for Fines program is a good opportunity to hit two birds with one stone.
"It's a nice way to give back to the community and relieve the stress of overdue fines," she said.
Probably half of the children who have library cards have fines for overdue material, Meyer estimated. Those people can trade one can of food for a dollar off a fine.
"I want to be flexible with it," Meyer said. "If someone brings in a huge jar of peanut butter, that's worth a lot more than a little can of peas."
Canned food, dry food, baby formula or any other food item that will not go bad is welcomed to pay for children's library fines.
The food drive started on Dec. 1, and Meyer said so far, so good about the amount of food collected.
"I've already gotten two boxes full," she said. "It's an experiment and I'm pretty happy with it so far."
The drive goes on until Dec. 31. After that, children will have to come up with cold, hard cash to pay for their fines. | <urn:uuid:b1d81829-eed3-4a22-8a9b-c99f633b9447> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2000/dec/10/kids_can_trade/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967243 | 395 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Business Week: Open Season On Big Oil: An angry public wants quick relief from high prices. Here's why none is in sight: “Even promising projects are becoming harder to pull off -- a reality underlined this summer when Royal Dutch/Shell estimated that its Sakhalin II gas project in Russia would wind up costing $20 billion, double earlier forecasts.”: Monday 19 Sept 2005
John Browne, the chief executive of BP PLC (BP), the largest producer of oil and gas in the U.S., is already spending $14.5 billion this year on exploration and production and other capital projects, and he would like to do even more. "Could we expand our investment upstream?" he says in an interview in his office overlooking London's St. James's Square. "The answer is we have plenty of opportunities to do that. But we can't find the rigs, the service contracting, all the things we need to get it done."
For instance, Browne wants to rapidly expand BP's Rocky Mountain gas project in Wamsutter, Wyo. But BP can't find enough drilling rigs for hire, so it's having new ones built. That, however, will take about a year. Browne and other top oil executives are in an awkward position: They're feeling beleaguered even as they head toward record profits this year -- some $118 billion for the 10 of the largest companies, according to A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. (AGE ). Even while the companies' costs are soaring as they scramble to secure more oil and gas, politicians from Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) to French Finance Minister Thierry Breton are taking aim at them in response to consumers' growing fury over skyrocketing prices at the pump. France's Breton threatened a windfall-profit tax if oil companies don't immediately cut prices of refined products whenever the price of crude goes down. In Washington, pols -- mostly Democrats no longer in power -- are proposing excess-profit taxes and higher subsidies for renewable fuels. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi also wants to give the Federal Trade Commission authority to prosecute oil companies for price gouging. "The fact that oil companies are enjoying record profits when consumers are paying record high prices does not sit well with people," says Tyson Slocum, research director of the pro-consumer group Public Citizen.
What can Big Oil do to defuse the anger? The best possible course of action is to pump more oil, refine more gasoline, and bring prices down to levels that won't spook investors and markets. But the best solution is not the likeliest: There's no way the oil majors can flood the markets, for the simple reason that it takes years to find the oil, build the refineries, and construct the pipelines that will turn a shortage into a surplus. The spending is now surging. But no quick relief is in sight, as new players like China drive up demand and a dearth of refineries globally sends gasoline prices skyrocketing.
How did this happen? A mix of missteps -- and a series of events beyond even the control of the oil giants. In some respects the oil companies have made their own bed. In the late 1990s, as prices sank to a low of close to $10 per barrel, they played to Wall Street, slashing veteran exploration and production staffers and gobbling each other up through acquisitions, often instead of drilling for new oil.
All this has led to a lean industry that has delivered strong financial results, but roller-coaster pricing for consumers. It is the penny-pinching of the past that has led to a shrunken drilling and refinery sector. Skilled workers are no longer around to make the steel that goes into building new rigs, man them, and more.
"The industry has not been an attractive place for people to work," says Browne. With demand surging, this dearth of equipment and talent has led to a doubling of day rates for drilling rigs in the past 18 months -- to $200,000 for sizable offshore rigs and as much as $400,000 for jumbos. Managing the industry for quarterly results has been less than ideal for an oil-thirsty world.
Meanwhile, the majors failed to anticipate the surge in global demand that has overtaken the industry. For much of the recent past, demand grew only 1.5% a year -- until 2004, when it jumped almost 4%. Even early last year demand forecasts from energy watchers were pessimistic. With predictions way off, the industry didn't prepare for the explosion in consumption. "The reason why these problems are hitting us now is that we have exhausted the spare capacity that kept us going for 20 years," says Jeffrey R. Currie, a Goldman, Sachs & Co. (GS ) analyst in London. "We need to tap new capital for greenfield projects in more hostile political and geological environments."
Executives need to make multibillion investment decisions without knowing whether oil prices are going to keep rising or plunge to the $20 range that prevailed through the 1990s and inched up gradually until 2004. Now companies are slowly increasing their pricing assumptions. Browne says BP figures prices will remain around $40 per barrel for the next five years. But the industry's leaders, who rose up the ranks in the relatively lean times of the '90s, are still being conservative -- some think obstinately so. No oil executive will cut a deal for five years out assuming that today's spot price of $65 will prevail.
A SAUDI GLUT?
Despite the risks, oil companies have boosted exploration substantially. Norwalk (Conn.)-based consultants John S. Herold Inc. report that 200 oil companies have roughly doubled exploration spending to a combined $180 billion for this year. "They're certainly spending a lot more. Whether or not they are spending enough, that's up for some debate," says research director Nicholas Cacchione.
But while they explore more for oil, the oil is harder to find. Companies are being forced to replace their depleted sources of oil and gas in the West with new supplies in politically and geologically more challenging areas, from Russia to the deep water off West Africa. "The companies are making more money, but they have more risks," says J. Robinson West, chairman of Washington-based consultants PFC Energy.
Adding to the tension, the rate at which reserves are replaced is falling, and the production of four of the top five companies -- ExxonMobil (XOM ), Total (TOT ), Chevron (CVX ), and Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD ) -- declined in the first half of 2005 vs. a year earlier, according to PFC Energy. The major oil companies have lost clout to host governments such as Saudi Arabia and Iran and their national oil companies, which now control 78% of global reserves.
Another uncertainty is the size of reserves in Persian Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia. While much has been made about the prospect of the Saudis running out of oil, Currie says the more nightmarish scenario for the oil industry is that the Saudis, who have hired some 70 international drilling rigs for a 2.5 million barrel-per-day expansion -- a boost the size of a key producer like Kuwait -- will turn out to have plenty of crude, eventually driving prices down.
Even promising projects are becoming harder to pull off -- a reality underlined this summer when Royal Dutch/Shell estimated that its Sakhalin II gas project in Russia would wind up costing $20 billion, double earlier forecasts. "The projects are in a variety of political environments," says Peter J. Robertson, vice-chairman of Chevron. "And they are technically more complex."
As a result, companies aren't getting as big a return on the money they do spend. The cost of finding new reserves has soared from $4.94 a barrel in 2000 to $8.61 today as prices for everything from rigs to steel pipe have jumped. For each dollar of price above $25 a barrel, Russia now takes 89 cents in taxes, up from 68 cents per dollar per barrel in 2003. Companies say these levies deter costly, risky investments.
BIG PLANS IN TEXAS
For similar reasons, oil companies are also leery of investing in refining. No new refineries have been built in the U.S. since 1976, because of a combination of regulatory hurdles and local opposition. And the majors still see refining as a poor business, although profits on refining are now very lucrative at $20 per barrel, vs. under $5 per barrel as recently as the fourth quarter of 2004. That's why Arizona Clean Fuels, a startup that is looking to build a new $3 billion refinery in remote Yuma, Ariz., still hasn't lined up financing after 10 years of making plans and seeking permits. "The fundamental problem has always been economics," says CEO Glenn McGinnis.
That may be starting to change. Motiva Enterprises LLC, a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell Group and Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company, is considering long-term capacity additions at its three Gulf Coast refineries, according to spokesperson Stan Mays. This development could be huge, says Edward Murphy, group director for refining and marketing at the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group. "I think we're past the point of asking 'What do we need to do to see more expansion?' The incentives are there right now."
That's encouraging. But such projects take years to come to fruition -- one reason the current tight situation in the markets is likely to be with us for some time, and why frustration and anger with Big Oil will be a constant theme in politics around the world.
Click here to return to ShellNews.net HOME PAGE | <urn:uuid:87955971-c19b-4983-9f3f-c5a11a40549b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://shell2004.com/week38/business_weekweek38openseaon19sept05.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963494 | 2,004 | 1.75 | 2 |
I first heard about the crater from a good friend who worked for a South African bank. Based in London, he makes frequent business trips to Johannesburg and every time he goes he always plans a mini-safari to tag on to the end of the trip. Many years ago he told us about this crater that was on his next must-see list. That conversation stuck with me so when I researched for this trip I made it a point to include it in our itinerary.
Unlike Tarangire, Ngorongoro is a conservation area, not a National Park, because the indigenous Maasai people still live and herd inside and around the crater. There is no lodging inside the crater, but the lodge we are headed to, Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, sits on the rim of the crater, with a sweeping view of the crater floor.
After a quick lunch at the luxuriously decorated dining room dedicated to our camp of nine lodges, we set off on an afternoon game drive. Our guide explained to us that because of the unique nature of the crater, the animal population inside is a little different from the surrounding areas. There are many zebras, wildebeests, Thomson gazelles and warthogs, but noticeably missing is the giraffe population. The reason for this is there are very few tall trees for the giraffes to feed on. Another difference I noticed in the animal behavior is the animals in the crater are so used to safari vehicles that they don’t run away when a car approaches them, therefore I was able to take some really close-up shots of zebras and wildebeests.
There is one road into the crater and one way out, and it is a bumpy 40-minute ride before we reached the crater floor. A flock of Grey Crowned cranes took flight right in front of our car and it was the perfect welcome into the crater.
It is the dry season so the lake inside the crater shrunk considerably in size and although there are flamingos in the crater we were only able to see a smear of pink on the horizon.
On this drive we also saw two male lions and a female lion napping in broad daylight. Because there are no trees save for a small forested area in the crater, lions and hyenas alike sleep in the open, which took a little getting used to. You’d think they’d try to find somewhere less exposed or at least a shaded area, but I guess when you’re at the top of the food chain, you really couldn’t care less.
After the lion sighting it was time to turn around. The gate at the top closes at 6:30pm so everyone has to be out by then. Back at the lodge our butler had run a hot bath for us and a special table strewn with rose petals awaited us at dinner.
The next morning we set off early at 6:30am, after a wakeup call of coffee and biscuits. The sky was still dark and there was a light mist hanging over everything, but early birds get to see the animals so I convinced hubby that we simply MUST have an early start!
We ran into the same lone male elephant on our way into the crater that we saw the day before. Due to the rich minerals in the soil of the crater, elephants in N.C. have much longer tusks. We left the elephant to forage in peace and took a look inside the little forest in the crater, but aside from some sleepy tree hyraxes and some monkeys, nothing much was going on so we quickly came out in hopes of seeing some bigger games.
Pretty soon we saw a pair of lions guarding their kill of a baby zebra and a brave little jackal attempting to steal some of it. Our guide with the eagle eyes then spotted a black rhino so far away that even in the binocular we could only make out the outline of its horns. Black rhinos were poached to almost extinction and we were considered lucky to even get a glimpse of one through the binocular.
On the way to the lake where we were to have a picnic breakfast, we saw some hippos frolicking near the water in the distance. It’s fun to see such huge animals behave like little kids. There were also quite a number of hippos in the lake, but they refused to emerge from the water despite my coaxing from the distance. I had to be content with photos of what looked like a bunch of river stones with a lone bird standing on top.
The lake was very green and pretty, so different from the barren look of the rest of the crater. While we were eating, we attracted a Black Kite hawk, who tried a few times to dive and steal food from us. When it was hovering in the air surveying our spread of food, it really did look like a kite.
After breakfast we saw more action. There was a pair of ostriches mating; a herd of baboons eating grass seeds and grooming each other right next to the main road; a hyena sleeping within 1 meter of the road; a female cheetah contemplating whether or not to hunt in front of an audience of least 15 safari vehicles and two lurking hyenas; two little Pumbas who almost walked straight into a pair of sleeping lions; and the biggest herd of lions in the crater hanging around surveying the scenery.
While at the crater, we marveled at how it must be the best life to be a lion in the crater: walking buffets of zebras, wildebeests and gazelles and no natural enemy to speak of, not even humans who will hunt them. What more can a lion ask for? A month or so after we came back, I caught a program on National Geographic which followed the exact herd of lion we saw, 23 in all at the time of filming. As it turned out, life of a lion is tough, even in the crater. For such a large herd, they need to make a substantial kill almost daily to feed everyone, which is tough even with the abundant preys. Another even bigger problem is that due to extensive inbreeding (few outside male lions enter the crater, and due to the large size of the crater males, seldom win a fight to take control of a pride) there were many genetic diseases that were passed down from generation to generation. In the film, the best hunter of the pride, a young lioness and her cubs all succumb to a mysterious disease. In the end, too weak to defend herself, the lioness was killed by a pack of hyenas. The film was made a few years before our visit to the crater, so it’s good to know that the pride survived, but it’s sad to be reminded just how ruthless Mother Nature can also be.
After the fruitful early morning game drive, we decided to skip the afternoon game drive and take it easy. We ended up exploring the Crater Lodge on foot. After dark we had to ring for escorts to walk us everywhere, but it’s safe to be unaccompanied during daylight hours. On that day there were three zebras that came into the lodge to graze and investigate. They were so at ease that I thought they were the lodge’s pet zebras, but the staff told us all kinds of animals visit the lodge, sometimes elephants, sometimes lions. Sure enough, that night after dinner, we were told by our butler the zebras had attracted a couple of lions to the lodge. We could see their green eyes flashing in the bushes.
The lodge is divided into three parts: North lodge, South lodge and tree lodge. Each lodge has its own dining room and lounge, which serves about nine individual huts. Each hut has a butler, who is in charge of everything from wakeup calls, room service, serving dinner and anything else you can think of. The “huts” are very spacious inside with clawed foot bathtub, his and hers showers and a little room for the toilet. I cannot tell you how excited I was to have piping hot water and strong water pressure, so I could finally wash and rinse my hair out thoroughly. Everything about these huts made me feel like I had stepped into a fairy tale, and if the doors and windows were round, I would’ve believed I was a hobbit.
Anyway, that’s off topic. I can’t remember whether we were in north or south camp, but we decided to walk to tree camp. On the way there, our path was blocked by one of the zebras. It seemed completely unafraid of us that I was able to get close enough to almost touch it.
The tree lodge was very different from the other two lodges, where there were crystal chandeliers everywhere. The lounge of the tree lodge had a giant tree growing in the middle, so it was truly a tree house, albeit a gigantic one. There’s even a giant swing seat/sofa in the middle of the tree house. It was thoroughly enchanting.
The two nights we spent at the crater lodge were truly magical. I was constantly amazed at every turn, from the huge vase of roses in the bathroom to the sweet fresh raspberries at our picnic breakfast by the lake (we were in the middle of nowhere and there are roses and raspberries?), to the thermos full of ice our guide pulled out of nowhere when hubby wondered out loud it’d be nice to have ice in his drinks. All the staff were very friendly and eager to help, although I did feel that our butler was not the best trained staff there was. His intentions were all good but often times he missed the mark. In a charming place like the crater lodge it was easily forgiven and forgotten, but if the lodge wants to establish itself as a top-notch resort, more staff training is needed.
The next morning we left N.C. in another misty and rainy day, but we were happy to learn that no zebras became lion food that night. Fully rested with freshly washed hair we were ready to rough it out in the Serengeti. | <urn:uuid:1af51085-70d1-4c39-8c1c-b1f6a40e48cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wibbybunny.blogspot.jp/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980185 | 2,126 | 1.78125 | 2 |
real = “Success” : Every one has his or her own definition about success. But for me the latest definition of success is “Dinner at Koyla”.
real = “Takeover”: On 24th June 2008, it was our first client visit from Oracle Corp, the world's third- biggest software maker after taking over BEA Systems Inc for $8.5 billion in cash. VP Mr Christhop was sharing reasons of why Oracle decided to take over BEA. He spoke a lot about business in terms of market share and profit %. One think which every one knew and which he never spoke openly was – this take over will help Oracle challenge IBM for the market lead. I realized that for any business it’s always numbers which matter a lot for eg profit %, assets and liability, penalty and scores. I was taught in my school that quality work cannot be measured but is always appreciate. Is this applicable to this corporate world where people talk mathematically language.
real = “Happiness”: We had a celebration week from 23rd June to
Each Day was a special dressing day, like:
23rd June: Seasonal Day!!!! (Dress for the season!!!) People were dressed up well and the funniest part was some on was in his raincoat the entire day J
24th June: Traditional Day – as usual always everywhere rocking
25th June: Filmy Day – I got to meet Lagan’s Amir khan, Mr
26th June: Funky Day – Miss-Match day were people had a chance to exhibit there fashion designing skills.
One thing that just crossed my mind while I was participating in this celebration, “why are we living and working hard’
The answer is = “For money so that we get happiness”. But can money buy Happiness?
I realized in this week’s celebration that its not money but small acts like passing a smile, helping someone and complimenting others can get happiness around us.
Real = “Power”: In the first week of July I have got exposed to powerful things – Python and Yoga.
And the biggest think that has touched me and has started changing my life I believe is Yoga. Its a method to purify you body, sole and mind. You start realizing and feeling your each part of your body closely.
Real = “God”: On 5th July I along with my family had been to Shridi Saibab. We left home at and reached
I used to always wonder when I was a kid that why don’t we visit Church or Mosque. As I grew up I got an answer to this question, which was very strange. We are preached that God is one, then why do we categories it in terms of religion. But I realized when I was standing in the queue and interacting with few people that we have Shri Sai babs’s devotees of all religions, castes and creed coming to pay homage to Shri Sai Baba.
The queue was very long, in the mid of our queue I saw a old lady – of my grandma’s age looking out for some one and was hardly able to walk due to her leg pain। When I crossed her, she told me that she is looking out for her daughter who she has lost in the crowd. Her eyes said I need your help. As I was talking to her I too lost my parents. I could not see them around. I gave her my support and finally reached the idol. I did get a chance to worship as every one was pushing each other and I was keener about that lady’s legs – that no one hurts her. I finally got my parents and the lady blessed me. Mom questioned me “did you get chance to worship God” and I said yes.I realized that god is in every one’s sole. I did not worship the idol, but I worshiped god which blessed me when I offered a helping had to the old lady. | <urn:uuid:dc3e391b-89dd-4b32-a72e-a27ff99372ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bhavyavoice.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988376 | 844 | 1.570313 | 2 |
What Is The Fastest Street Legal Sports Car?
Since the inception of the automobile era, there have been millions of automotive enthusiasts who have tried to make their cars go faster. Speed has been an obsession of the human race from the times of just horses, then chariots and now, the automobile. While determining the fastest street legal sports car in the world is difficult as there is no sanctioning body to govern these tests, the Guinness Book of World Records has intervened to try and settle this argument. They have established a two pass system that is recorded and analyzed to determine the car's top speed. In recent times, due to the advances in automotive engineering and the understanding of aerodynamics, there have been several production sports cars to lay claim to the title of the fastest street legal sports car.
As one of the first sports cars to breach the 200 mile per hour barrier, in 1993, the Jaguar XJ220 reached a top speed of 213 miles per hour, thus becoming the first verified fastest production car in the world. While the Jaguar's reign as the fastest street legal car was short-lived, it has become an icon in the super car collector world. The Jaguar was displaced by the McLaren F1 in 1994. The McLaren F1 reached a top speed of 231 miles per hour. Since 1994, there have been numerous claims to the title of fastest street legal car, however, it wasn't until 2005, when the Koenigsegg CCR officially toppled the great McLaren. The Guinness Book of World Records recorded a top speed of 250.7 miles per hour for the CCR. To be the first production automobile, although very few were made, to top the 250 mile per hour barrier, was a tremendous success.
The success of the Koenigsegg was short-lived as well, as the Bugatti Veyron came on the market. At 253.81 miles per hour, this all wheel drive super car had the distinction as being the fastest street legal sports car for a couple of years. While still considered by many to be the penultimate of automotive technology, the Veyron has been overtaken at the top spot. In 2007, the SSC Ultimate Aero became the world's fastest street legal sports car with a verified top speed of 256.14 miles per hour. Barely enough to overcome the high standard set by the Veyron, the SSC has done just that. This record still stands to this day, however, modern technology will again prevail and another super car will be manufactured to not only top that 256 mile per hour speed, but to make the drivers and enthusiasts skip a few heartbeats in the process. As we await that automobile, we have an answer to the question of what is the fastest street legal sports car, and it is the SSC Ultimate Aero. | <urn:uuid:337bc628-6cdc-419e-b085-9896ff549ee8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mademan.com/mm/what-fastest-street-legal-sports-car.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965146 | 570 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Manuscript Group 89
The records of the Latah County Mental Health Association were donated to the University of Idaho Library by the organization in May 1975. They were processed by Judith Nielsen in August 1985.
The Latah County Mental Health Association was organized in 1958 and the articles of incorporation were filed in July 1959. Its primary purpose was to provide the public with information regarding mental health and to act as a coordinating agency for organizations and individuals requesting services in the field of mental health. Included in topics discussed at meetings were special education, problems of the elderly, and drug and alcohol abuse. Money for the organization was obtained through membership dues and additional funding was provided from the United Way.
Among the projects sponsored by the group were Meals on Wheels and the Nightline telephone crisis service. It also published a directory of community services. By the 1970's members appeared to lose interest and other, newer, organizations performed the same function. On May 1, 1975 a final meeting was held and the board voted for dissolution. The assets, just over $1200, were distributed to the Recycling Center, the Mental Health Center, and Volunteers in Moscow; the final motion of the meeting was to donate the LCMHA records to the University of Idaho Library.
The records of the Latah County Mental Health Association span the years 1958 to 1975, with the bulk of the papers covering the years 1965 to 1975.
The papers include correspondence, financial records and newspaper clippings relating to the association and its many projects. There is information about crisis centers in Spokane and Seattle as well as material from the Idaho Mental Health Association.
The material in this manuscript group was separated into three series during processing as there was no order to the records when they were received. Any original folder headings were retained.
The first series contains the business records of the association and includes the by-laws, correspondence and notices of public meetings, minutes of board meetings, newspaper clippings, and financial statements. There is a separate folder for Nightline which contains the manual, by-laws, and newspaper clippings, and one labeled Dissolution which contains minutes of the final meeting, correspondence, and a tax form. The treasurers' records include a cash book which details all financial transactions of the association, correspondence with the United Fund, and several financial statements.
The second series contains brochures and information on other mental health organizations. The material from the Spokane and Seattle crisis centers was sent to the Latah County Mental Health Association in response to requests for assistance in setting up a local clinic. The Idaho Mental Health Association material includes circular letters and minutes from meetings.
The final series includes letters from Senator Church, Representative McClure and a legislative report on mental health centers.
Box Folder Description Items
1 1 By-laws, 1958-1963 2 2 Correspondence & Other Papers, 1964-1973 15 3 Minutes of Meetings, 1966-1975 16 4 Membership Cards and Lists, 1970-1973 14 5 Crisis Clinic and Nightline, 1970-1971 25 6 Newspaper Clippings, 1965-1972 115 7 Bank Statements, 1970-1975 57 8 Treasurers' Records, 1970-1975 33 9 Non-Profit Organization License, 1973-1976 6 10 Community Social Service Directory, 1968-1975 3 11 Dissolution, 1975 26
12 In Moscow, 1970-1975 7 13 Latah-Nez Perce County Mental Health Center, 1964-1970 4 14 Seattle Crisis Clinic, n.d. 3 15 Spokane Crisis Clinic, 1970 12 16 Idaho Mental Health Association, 1966-1971 40 17 National Association for Mental Health, 1969-1970 5
18 Correspondence and Reports, 1968-1970 6 | <urn:uuid:8dfef010-8741-473f-96e0-3990bd443e8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Manuscripts/mg089.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950512 | 743 | 1.757813 | 2 |
To provide a heat transfer pipe for a flow-down liquid film type evaporator that has a high evaporation performance of the liquid film of a refrigerant and has improved evaporation heat transfer performance.
A heat transfer pipe 1 is provided with a rib 5 that is formed in a projection shape on the inner surface of the pipe and is extended spirally with an appropriate interval, a recessed part 2 that is formed on the outer surface of the pipe and is extended spirally with an appropriate interval, and a plurality of independent projections 6 that are formed on the outer surface of the pipe and are arranged spirally. With the projections 6, the upper surface is recessed so that a part 7 that matches the rib 5 on the inner surface of the pipe is lower than a part 8 that matches the region between ribs. Also, the recessed part 2 on the outer surface of the pipe and the rib 5 on the inner surface of the pipe are formed at mutually matching positions. The projections 6 are in a quadrangular pyramid shape with a height ranging from 0.20 to 0.40 mm and an area ratio A between upper and lower surfaces is 0.25≤A≤0.40. Also, a pitch P of a recessed part 8 on the upper surface of the projections 6 is 5.75≤P≤6.75 mm when viewed from a pipe axis orthogonal section and an angle θ formed by the pipe axis direction of the rib 5 is 40°θ≤44°.
SANYO ELECTRIC CO LTD | <urn:uuid:498b25c8-47de-410a-b308-d48310f04d4e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sumobrain.com/patents/jp/Heat-transfer-pipe-flow-down/JP11257888.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937661 | 321 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Lindbergh Foundation to Lead “Aviation Green Alliance”
New Program Highlights Aviation Industry’s Environmental Progress
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (February 3, 2011) — During its presentation at the Wichita Aero Club luncheon, the Lindbergh Foundation today announced the Aviation GreenTM Alliance (“AGA”); a new program that brings stakeholders together to address aviation’s environmental challenges.
According to Lindbergh Foundation Chairman Larry Williams, “The Aviation Green Alliance has been formed to support aviation-related companies and individuals committed to proactively addressing matters regarding aviation and the environment. With a stated mission that includes ‘Encouraging solutions, acknowledging progress and communicating ideas,’ the Aviation Green Alliance will create multiple platforms for members to share strategies, findings, progress, and ideas related to addressing aviation’s environmental challenges.” Williams added, “It’s important for the world to know that manufacturers, operators, service companies, and individuals in aviation are quite actively involved in making measurable, scalable and valuable environmental progress.”
Foundation Directors John and Martha King noted that, “There’s no question as to the value that aviation brings to our quality of life. In recent years, we have been very pleased to see so many aviation companies working diligently albeit quietly to address aviation’s impact on the environment. In creating the Aviation GreenTM Alliance, the Lindbergh Foundation offers this coalition of concerned companies and individuals, a central and public place for exchanging information and discoveries that benefit all aviation-environmental work.”
The Aviation GreenTM Alliance offers:
1. Up-to-date aviation-environmental news and information
2. Grant funding for the discovery and development of new and promising technologies
3. Recommended Practices for achieving measurable aviation-related conservation and sustainability initiatives
4. Educational programs and outreach showcasing industry progress and successes in addressing aviation’s environmental footprint, and
5. Recognition of member successes.
Reeve Lindbergh, Honorary Chairman of the Lindbergh Foundation and noted author, stated that the Aviation Green Alliance is a step in the right direction for the Foundation formed and named in her parents’ honor. “My mother wrote that ‘power over life must be balanced by reverence for life.’ My father once said that if he had to choose, he would rather have birds than airplanes. I think that both my father and my mother would be pleased with this innovative technology and all that it promises for birds and airplanes alike--and for all of us!”
Leading the concept work and development of Aviation Green Alliance for the Lindbergh Foundation Board, Director David Treinis explained that the Foundation is accepting both general membership and “Founder’s Level” participation. Details of the Alliance, membership, benefits, and other details are available at www.aviationgreen.com
# # #
About The Lindbergh Foundation
The Lindbergh Foundation <http://www.lindberghfoundation.org> is a public 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, based in Anoka, Minnesota, which focuses on technological breakthroughs to address significant aviation-environmental issues. The Lindbergh Foundation also values individual initiative and accomplishments. Its programs are devoted to supporting, honoring, and educating individuals, through three major programs: the annual Lindbergh Award, presented to individuals for significant contributions toward balancing nature and scientific innovation in their work; the Lindbergh Grants program, which provides grants in amounts up to $10,580 (the cost of building the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927) for research or education projects that will make important contributions to the technology/environment balance; and a variety of educational events and publications centered on the balance theme. | <urn:uuid:a2aa8222-e5dc-4faf-a6ad-ab2c355c2e1f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lindberghfoundation.org/docs/index.php/press-kit/459-news-release-lindbergh-foundation-to-lead-aviation-green-alliance?fontstyle=f-smaller | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930436 | 784 | 1.734375 | 2 |
How to Change a Flat Tire
By Margaret Hartmann
How to Change a Flat Tire
Photo Credit: Naomi Bassitt/iStock
Lets say youre on the road, unabashedly singing along to a Madonna song on the radio, when you suddenly realize youve got a flat tire. Do you get teary eyed and call AAA/your boyfriend/your cousin who took auto shop in high school? No. This is the time to prove your real life womanly abilities and theres no crying in automotive repair.
The first thing to do if you have a flat is pull of the road to a safe place. Note: safe place. It seems obvious, but hundreds of people are killed every year while trying to do curbside car repairs. Driving an extra 100 feet isnt going to hurt the car as much as getting hit by a truck, so get far away from traffic and try to find stable ground.
Put the car in park, set the parking brake, and turn on your hazard lights. Wedge logs or bricks behind the three good tires just to make sure the car wont roll. In the trunk you should have a spare tire, a jack, and a tire iron. Make sure you have these in your car today. If you can remember to toss your gym bag in the passenger seat every morning, you can take the time to throw some tools in your trunk.
First, remove the hubcap and loosen the lug nuts, but dont remove them completely. Turn the nuts counterclockwise (you wont look as cool if you have to say righty tighty, lefty loosey.) You may need to put your weight on the wrench (sorry, skinny girls, this is one time carrying a few extra pounds pays off).
Place the jack under the metal frame of the car, next to the wheel you are going to replace. Important: this is not the edge of the car, but the sturdy metal part underneath. Despite the shiny metallic finish, many cars actually have a plastic exterior that can crack like an Easter egg. If youre not sure where to put the jack on your car, it will say in the owners manual. You should read it now, so youre not trying to make sense of it at 3 a.m. on the side of the highway.
Raise the car up a few inches higher than the tire so there is room to fit the spare on. Next, completely unscrew the lug nuts and remove the flat tire. Place the old tire under the car, so if the jack fails, the car will land on the tire, not you. Remember to keep track of the lug nuts, since this will be when one rolls off into the street or falls in the mud.
Put on the new tire and replace the lug nuts, using a cross pattern so youre not tightening adjacent screws. Lower the jack and put the bad tire in your trunk. Your mechanic may be able to repair the tire, and if not he will know how to properly dispose it.
Youre sure to get major macho points for replacing your own flat tire, but dont blow it by continuing to drive on the spare. Just cough up the $100 for a new tire. Spare tires are not meant to be driven for long distances, and most are not rated for more than 50 mph. After you change your flat, make your next stop an auto shop. | <urn:uuid:1cedba9d-1b0f-4bb9-8e32-ca8dd548b27b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/change-flat-tire | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954481 | 695 | 1.835938 | 2 |
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