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WASHINGTON -- Few presidents in modern times have been as interested in gun control as Richard Nixon, of all people.
He proposed ridding the market of Saturday night specials, contemplated banning handguns altogether and refused to pander to gun owners by feigning interest in their weapons.
Several previously unreported Oval Office recordings and White House memos from the Nixon years show a conservative president who at times appeared willing to take on the National Rifle Association, a powerful gun lobby then as now, even as his aides worried about the political ramifications.
"I don't know why any individual should have a right to have a revolver in his house," Nixon said in a taped conversation with aides. "The kids usually kill themselves with it and so forth." He asked why "can't we go after handguns, period?"
Nixon went on: "I know the rifle association will be against it, the gun makers will be against it." But "people should not have handguns."
Nixon made his remarks in the Oval Office on May 16, 1972, the day after a would-be assassin shot and paralyzed segregationist presidential candidate George Wallace. As president, Nixon never publicly called for a ban on all handguns. Instead, he urged Congress to pass more modest legislation banning Saturday night specials, which were cheaply made, easily concealed and often used by criminals.
Not all of the president's men appeared to share his passion on the issue. The recordings and memos show that Nixon administration officials saw gun control as a political loser.
Nixon, a Republican, did say publicly that if Congress passed a ban on Saturday night specials, he would sign it. But in a sign of how potent the NRA was even 40 years ago, this narrow piece of legislation never made it to his desk.
Today, President Barack Obama faces similar hurdles in trying to ban assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines. Gun control advocates say no one needs such powerful weapons to kill an intruder or take down an animal. In Nixon's time, the argument of such advocates was that Saturday night specials were too poorly made to be relied on for self-defense or hunting.
"Let me ask you," Nixon said to Attorney General John Mitchell in June 1971, "there is only one thing you are checking on, that's the manufacture of those $20 guns? We should probably stop that." Saturday night specials sold for $10 to $30 at the time.
"No hunters are going to use $20 guns," Nixon said.
"No, but the gun lobby's against any incursion into the elimination of firearms," Mitchell said.
Nixon's private comments were not always supportive of gun control, particularly measures that would go beyond handguns.
But most of his comments on the tapes were in favor of stronger gun control. | <urn:uuid:ba49a9d6-b318-44dd-93bb-5ef28e5a1193> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goerie.com/article/20130310/NEWS07/303109927/AP-Enterprise:-Nixon-wished-for-total-handgun-ban | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9812 | 563 | 1.765625 | 2 |
In Tunisia, more democracy but still much poverty
Tunisians rally on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in front of the Tunisian Interior Ministry on April 10, 2012 in Tunis. More than a year after the revolt that toppled Tunisia’s ruler, Zine al Abidine Ben Ali, discontent is rising because of poverty and unemployment.
Kai Ryssdal: In Tunisia this week, there've been some of the most serious street protests since the revolution there more than a year ago. With revolution and political freedom, though, does not necessarily come economic advantage.
Reese Erlich reports.
Reese Erlich: Dozens of Tunisians protest outside the town hall in Sidi Bouzid. Fifteen months ago, a street vendor burned himself to death here in defiance of the dictatorship of Zine al Abidine Ben Ali. The uprising that followed was the first act in what became known as the "Arab Spring."
One of the demonstrators I met, Alawi Tahrir, says political change hasn't brought better living standards or more jobs.
Alawi Tahrir: Nothing is being changed, sir. We're just struggling in the same situation. I have master's degree in English language and I'm still unemployed five years.
Tunisia's National Institute of Statistics puts the unemployment rate at around 19 percent. And those with university degrees are particularly hard hit.
The governing Islamist Party -- Ennahda -- says it needs more time to turn things round. Spokesman Said Ferjani:
Said Ferjani: We have to restructure an economy that has failed the people for more than half a century.
Ferjani says the government's only been in power for a couple of months and constant opposition from ultra-conservative Islamists as well as leftist unions is slowing progress.
Ferjani: We cannot do it in 100 days. We need more time and we need some kind of stability. Some of the people, they are trying to stir trouble in order to not let the government succeed.
Ferjani says the government is encouraging foreign investment to generate jobs. It's accepted aid from the U.S. to cut its budget deficit. But Tunisians are growing impatient with what many here see as excuses.
Unemployed protestor Alawi Tahrir says the old dictator may be gone, but the country is still being run the same old way.
Alawi Tahrir: The problem is with the system. The same system of Ben Ali is still running in the veins in this government. We want new blood. We want a new system.
At least now, Tunisians have a shot at getting that. Parliamentary and presidential elections are scheduled in one year's time.
But for many here, suffering chronic poverty and unemployment, a year may be too long to wait.
In Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, I'm Reese Erlich for Marketplace. | <urn:uuid:1ceccab6-8f42-4afa-acce-d5f976d37fa0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/tunisia-more-democracy-still-much-poverty | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952771 | 595 | 1.773438 | 2 |
A Costly Conversion
After a student meeting in Los Angeles a few years ago, I was approached by a student from the University of Southern California who was from the Middle East.
The young man had come to a meeting where I was speaking on "the uniqueness of Jesus." He said, "I was tremendously moved by what you said about Jesus tonight. My father is a religious leader in Pakistan. In my country when a person becomes a Christian he is often killed."
The student related how a medical doctor and his wife had given him a New Testament when he arrived in America. He had been reading it, and decided that Jesus was the one for whom he had looked all his life.
"I found no realities in my religion," he said. "I need Christ in my life, but I know if I receive Him, I must write my father and tell him what I have done. And he will disown me. My father is a very wealthy, influential man," he said. "If I receive Christ, he will cut off my allowance, and I will have no source of income. I will lose my student visa, and I will have to return to Pakistan in disgrace."
And he added very soberly, "I will probably be killed, quite likely by my own family."
I didn't press him, but waited prayerfully as he sat quietly, his head bowed. Finally after about 30 minutes, largely of silence, he said, "I am ready."
I wept when I heard those words. We knelt and prayed, and this brilliant young student received Christ into his life.
Immediately, He began to experience unusual persecution. He wrote his father, who did disown him. All of his personal belongings were stolen. I later learned that he had gone for many days without food. Then he lost his student visa and was forced to return to his country. I have had no contact with him since. I believe he was martyred for his faith
Before he left, I asked him, "Are you sorry you received Christ?"
I shall never forget the expression on his face as he replied, "No, I am not sorry."
When I think of that experience I realize how fortunate I am. For the most part Christians in the free world are applauded when we receive Christ. But this young man made his decision knowing the cost.
Yours for fulfilling the Great Commission each year until our Lord returns,
The late Dr. Bill Bright was Founder and President/Chairman Emeritus of Campus Crusade for Christ, an organization which began as a campus ministry in 1951 and now has more than 27,000 full-time staff and up to 500,000 trained volunteer staff in 196 countries in areas representing 99.6 percent of the world's population. In the past 50 years, Campus Crusade for Christ has seen approximately 6 billion exposures to the gospel worldwide. The film, "JESUS," which Bright conceived and funded through Campus Crusade for Christ, is the most widely translated and viewed film of any type ever produced. Since its use began in 1980, the film has been translated into 839 languages and viewed or listened to by over 5.7 billion people in 228 countries. Dr. Bright was also the author of more than fifty books. Visit campuscrusade.com for more details
Copyright (c) 2003, Bill Bright. All rights reserved. However, readers may copy and distribute this message as desired, without restrictions in number, as long as the content is not altered. Forwarding this e-mail to friends is encouraged. For many evangelistic and spiritual growth materials, visit the Campus Crusade for Christ Web site at ccci.org. See campuscrusade.com for Bill Bright's own materials. | <urn:uuid:c2514745-f7d1-47a0-9083-30049cad0fab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/insights-from-bill-bright/a-costly-conversion-feb-7.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.99034 | 767 | 1.6875 | 2 |
- Category: Military
- Published on Saturday, 23 February 2013 07:27
- Written by Press Release
Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—February 22, 2013. The Army released suicide data today for the month of January 2013. During January, among active-duty soldiers, there were 19 potential suicides: two have been confirmed as suicides and 17 remain under investigation. For December 2012, the Army reported seven potential suicides among active-duty soldiers; however, subsequent to the report, another case was added bringing December’s total to eight: five have been confirmed as suicides and three are under investigation.
During January, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were 14 potential suicides (six Army National Guard and eight Army Reserve): One has been confirmed and 13 are still under investigation. For December 2012, among that same group, the Army reported 15 potential suicides; since the release of that report, one case has been added for a total of 16 (11 Army National Guard and five Army Reserve): nine have been confirmed and seven cases remain under investigation.
Soldiers and families in need of crisis assistance can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Trained consultants are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and can be contacted by dialing 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or by visiting their website at http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
Army leaders can access current health promotion guidance in newly revised Army Regulation 600-63 (Health Promotion) at: http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r600_63.pdf and Army Pamphlet 600-24 (Health Promotion, Risk Reduction and Suicide Prevention) at http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/p600_24.pdf.
The Army's comprehensive list of Suicide Prevention Program information is located at http://www.preventsuicide.army.mil.
Suicide prevention training resources for Army families can be accessed at http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/training_sub.asp?sub_cat=20 (requires Army Knowledge Online access to download materials).
Information about Military OneSource is located at http://www.militaryonesource.com or by dialing the toll-free number 1-800-342-9647 for those residing in the continental United States. Overseas personnel should refer to the Military OneSource website for dialing instructions for their specific location.
Information about the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program is located at http://www.army.mil/csf/.
The Defense Center for Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) Outreach Center can be contacted at 1-866-966-1020, via electronic mail at [email protected] and at http://www.dcoe.health.mil. | <urn:uuid:7522cf8b-7247-4f32-b114-cb51b30571b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/latest-national/military-casualties/40676-army-releases-january-2013-suicide-information.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94171 | 619 | 1.632813 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — They've sent out letters and flyers and have Tweeted and pleaded, but Pentagon officials are still struggling to give away a huge cache of money to troops and veterans.
The Defense Department said Tuesday that as of last week it had spent only $300 million of $534 million approved by Congress as special pay for service members forced after Sept. 11, 2001, to serve beyond their enlistment terms — a controversial practice called "stop-loss."
The money was approved in 2009 and troops were supposed to claim it by October. But Congress has just extended the deadline for a fourth time — to March 18.
Extensive efforts by the Pentagon, White House, Congress and the Veterans Affairs Department to get people to file claims for the money have included letters to the last known mailing addresses of all 145,000 believed eligible and a public service announcement taped by President Barack Obama and broadcast last year.
Officials also have posted messages to Facebook pages of the Pentagon and individual services, spread the word through 130 veteran and military service organizations, typed reminders on the bottom of military and retiree pay stubs, and placed television, radio, newspapers and blog stories and announcements in areas of the country with sizeable troop populations, said Eileen Lainez, a Defense Department spokeswoman.
The payment is $500 for each month or partial month the soldier, sailor, airmen or Marine was forced to stay on active duty and is on top of the regular pay received at the time. Eligible to receive it are troops, veterans and their beneficiaries.
Branded a backdoor draft by critics, the "stop-loss" policy was unpopular and forced troops to unexpectedly put educations, family plans or civilian jobs on hold. Use of the practice from 2001 to 2009 spawned the 2008 movie "Stop-Loss," in which a decorated Iraq vet goes AWOL rather than return to the front lines.
Though the Pentagon has been advertising if for nearly a year and a half, some troops still may not be aware of the offer and others may be procrastinating in submitting claims. Even though military contracts allow for the possibility of "stop-loss," officials also think that suspicion toward the government may be preventing some from claiming their money.
"I know there's been some confusion and skepticism out there," Obama said in his two-and-half minute broadcast message. "Some veterans think this is some sort of gimmick or scam or that it's a way for the government to call you back to service.
"Nothing could be further from the truth," he said. "You worked hard; you earned this money."
"This pay is a novel concept to many," Lainez said, since troops "were not expecting to be paid extra money for services already rendered."
Payments have been averaging $3,800 and have been made to 81,000 people so far, Lainez said.
The Air Force's Eric Sharman, of Alexandria, Va., was happy to get his payment just as he and his wife were expecting a baby.
And one service member who got $6,000 wrote on the Pentagon's Facebook wall: "Nice surprise!"
Defense Department www.defense.gov/stoploss
© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | <urn:uuid:d3eb8ecc-5c63-48a3-9a20-6aa523cf058e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/PentagonExtraPay/2011/03/08/id/388788 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980012 | 679 | 1.765625 | 2 |
For parents of high school juniors, few things are more nerve-wracking than seeing your child’s SAT score. You finally get to see whether all your years of begging and pleading have worked.
Well, here’s something to consider. The Associated Press is reporting that the average scores have been falling little by little for the last five years. (Click here for full story.)
Nationally, the average reading score for the Class of 2009 was 501, math was 515 and the relatively new writing score was 483.
Pennsylvania’s averages were a bit lower, coming in at 493 for reading, 501 for math and 483 for reading.
There are many reasons for the steady drop. Among them: There are more students and a more diverse of students taking the test.
Or maybe kids are just getting sick of being tested to death and this test is the final straw.
Whenever these numbers come out, we have to ask ourselves: Why have we let this one test bring so much grief in our lives? Why do we feel judged by our children’s scores?
We all know friends, family members and co-workers who bombed their SATs, but went on to great success. Is it time to say no to prep tests and just let the scores fall where they fall.
What are your thoughts on this. Will your child take the SAT this year. How did you do on the test? Let us know.
Join the conversation. Share a few words describing a parenting experience by leaving a question or leave a blog comment and we'll work it into our discussion. Lehigh Valley Parenting is the community's place to come together to tackle these adventures and misadventures. | <urn:uuid:ec5bc949-fc11-46ab-8d48-b92e123bd825> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.mcall.com/parents/2009/08/are-we-defined-by-our-sat-scores.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972833 | 355 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The hospital lobby is out in force urging states to expand their Medicaid programs. Their faulty claims are spurring Republicans governors to embrace the giant expansion of the broken, costly Medicaid program. This week, Governor Kasich of Ohio and Governor Snyder of Michigan became the fifth and sixth Republican governors to announce their desires to further embrace consolidated federal health care through the expansion. But why would hospitals who are focused on delivering high-quality health care to their patients embrace such a bad idea? The answer: Protecting their bottom-line.
The controversy revolves around a complicated provision of federal health care law known as disproportionate share (DSH). The federal government requires hospitals to treat all emergent health care conditions regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. Congress realized this mandate imposed costs on hospitals and decided to reimburse hospitals that treat a large share of uncompensated care cases. These hospitals tend to be in very rural or very urban areas of the country where more individuals are uninsured.
These DSH payments are sent to hospitals through the normal Medicaid payment process; the hospitals receive a higher reimbursement than their counterparts. In 2012, Medicaid DSH payments totaled $11.3 billion.
Under the President’s health care law, Medicaid would be expanded to include all individuals under 138% of the federal poverty level, dramatically reducing the incidence of uncompensated care. So, the hospitals didn’t object during the health care law’s debate when Congress included DSH cuts that totaled $14 billion from 2014 to 2020.
After the Supreme Court’s June 2012 ruling, the situation changed because the Court held that states could not be forced to expand Medicaid—the expansion will be voluntary.
Hospitals are scrambling. Without the Medicaid expansion and with cuts to DSH payments, hospitals will have less money to treat the uncompensated care cases—or so they say. In most states, DSH payments represent less than 3% of all Medicaid expenditures.
Now hospital groups are lobbying states hard to convince them to expand Medicaid while ignoring study after study that shows how Medicaid fails to deliver on its promises. Health care outcomes for Medicaid patients lag other types of insurance and more than 30% of doctors refuse to accept new Medicaid patients—ironically, putting even more strain on emergency rooms. Medicaid is also extremely expensive for states and the federal government to run and manage costing taxpayers hundreds of billions every year.
The hospitals are trying to lobby their way out of the bad deal they cut. In Arizona, they lobbied Governor Brewer to abuse the provider tax system to fund the Medicaid expansion. The hospitals agreed to be taxed 6% in exchange for access to billions of state and federal funding—a scheme akin to a veritable gold mine.
Too bad, the rest of us lose. The hospitals and their lobbyists untangled their bad deal by driving up costs for other patients and taxpayers. Sadly, Governor Brewer and the state are complicit in the farce. Brewer echoes the hospitals’ talking points by claiming that this deal will save state taxpayers million every year even though spending will go up dramatically.
Hospital groups in Georgia, Oklahoma and South Carolina are pursuing similar strategies trying to copy the “success” of their Arizonan counterparts.
These backroom deals are exactly why the American public distains the President’s health care law. Instead of giving in to insiders like the President did, governors and legislators should reject the crony calls from hospital groups trying to scheme taxpayers to pad their bottom lines. | <urn:uuid:6c23f13e-cdf4-451c-8fa6-443bdfb6d110> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://americanhealthcarefreedom.com/category/michigan/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948159 | 709 | 1.71875 | 2 |
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SHENANDOAH, IA (2011-10-17)
The Shenandoah schools are hosting a staet official this afternoon to explain the governor's new education plan.
Linda Fandel is the special assistant to the governor and will be outlining the focus of his new educational blueprint. Schools will be concentrating on issues like creating better teachers and principals, setting high expectations, and innovation in Iowa's classrooms. Shenandoah superintendent Jeff Hiser says the parents and teachers are also invited to attend.
© Copyright, KXCV | <urn:uuid:71f7f396-87f3-4e2d-be01-fd75ebfc4451> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kxcv.org/news/regional_stories/October/2011/iowa-education-plan.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936462 | 125 | 1.539063 | 2 |
A special forum sponsored by the Ashe County Elder Abuse Prevention Team was held on Tuesday at Ashe Services for the Aging to raise awareness of financial exploitation of the elderly.
The 2012 Financial Exploitation Forum told several stories about how elders have been exploited and how to prevent these crimes. Several speakers gave presentations during the forum, including Ashe County Commissioner William Sands, who spoke on behalf of the sheriffs office.
“A few years ago, an FBI agent stated that people in the mountains of Western North Carolina were hit hardest by out of country scams. Our people are very trusting,” said Sands.
Sands also said “once money leaves the United States, any recovery is nearly impossible.”
After the meeting, Sands said there are several different ways for elders to lose money in scams.
“Investment/ponzi scams have taken life savings from a number of Ashe County citizens. One person was charged with taking over $250,000 and most were Ashe County victims,” said Sands.
In this case, the suspect did not come to superior court and was also charged with failure to appear in court. The police continued to search for him.
According to Sands, several residents have invested and lost money in ponzi scams originating outside of Ashe County. Black Diamond was operated from Ashe, but no investors were found in our county. Keith Simmons was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison after being convicted of financial crimes. Victims loss $40 million, said Sands
Sands also said lottery scams continue to be a problem. People are told they have won large amounts of money, sometimes in the millions.
At the same time, they receive counterfeit checks, ranging from a thousand to several thousand dollars. The victim is told to cash the check, wire the larger portion to pay taxes and handling and keep the smaller amount, said Sands.
The check bounces and the victim is responsible to the bank. The winner’s check never comes, said Sands.
“We see fewer people taken in by this scam than in the past. People have become more aware, and our local banks keep a close watch for these checks,” said Sands.
Within the past few months, people have been notified they are winners, but rather than wire large amounts of money for taxes, the request is to send only $20 which is used to verify the winner’s eligibility. Of course, the winner check never comes, only many unwanted scam letters, said Sands.
“People need to remember,” said Sands, “you should never have to pay for anything you have won.”
According to Sands, elders should be very careful when purchasing items through the Internet, such as ebay, Auto Trader and Craig’s List. “Most ads are legit, but some people never receive their purchase,” said Sands.
Identity theft was also mentioned and is a big concern, said Sands.
“Protect bank account and credit card information. Check or have someone check your monthly statements as soon as possible,” said Sands.
Concerns about home safety were also mentioned during Tuesday’s meeting. Don’t let people into your home without knowing them or verifying who they work for.
Sands also said elders should be aware when paying for home repairs before work completed.
David Kirkland, from the N.C. Attorney Generals Office, agreed with Sands and told a story about an unidentified elderly couple from Wake County that was exploited.
When the husband’s health began to weaken, he chose to stay home rather than move to a nursing home. To do this, the couple’s residence needed to be renovated into a more “elderly-friendly” dwelling.
The elderly couple contracted a repairman to fix the house. They spent $130,000 for renovations and received horrible repairs that made their home worse than before.
How did this happen? The wife was blind and had been since she was young. With her husband in bad health, the woman was unable to check the “repairman’s” progress due to her disability and ended up with a floor that wasn’t level, bad electrical work, and no kitchen for a year.
Fortunately for the couple, the Wake community heard about this case, pulled together, and rebuilt the elderly couple’s home.
According to the speakers at the meeting, exploitation of the elderly has been occurring more frequently, and greater awareness can help prevent these crimes. | <urn:uuid:af43d370-37f9-4696-bb64-269335531b9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jeffersonpost.com/pages/home/push?per_page=3&x_page=241&class=next_page&rel=next | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983052 | 935 | 1.53125 | 2 |
I have the original file 50 fps
how do I properly make slow motion with 25 fps
what i tryed:
create 720p 50 fps project
import source 720p 50 fps to project
render to 720p 50 fps (i can't change to 25)
and had double frame (the same pair frames)
it like that 25, but it's 50! | <urn:uuid:660f0dfd-9984-4731-93c7-d76ef7613153> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kdenlive.org/forum/50-slow-25 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936223 | 77 | 1.71875 | 2 |
People often say to me that I can be incredibly picky about spelling. After four years of studying Journalism and Communications, I think spelling and style is something that has quickly become a second nature to me and something that provided me with many years of torture, but I also believe that the grammatical correctness of any website can go a long way to promoting the professionalism of a business and their consideration for clients.
If you want to look adept, then making sure that your website is written correctly, even down to the most minor details, can have a big influence on the way that clients and other businesses can see you, and for people who are pedantic about the way that text appears, it can make or break your chances of snatching a new client.
Reliance upon the computer…
… has grown out of a complete laziness of many employees. Although computers are able to help us in the workplace, they should never be used as a replacement for human ingenuity and in some situations you can easily be caught out for spelling and grammar errors that the computer doesn’t pick up.
After spending a great period of time in Australia I can often find myself reverting to the “American” spelling of certain words, rather than the UK (English) version and my laptop often does the same! For UK websites this is not appropriate and can often turn people away, so it’s crucial to make sure that your spelling and grammar is appropriate to the region that you are writing for.
… is realistically a thing of the past, and let’s face it, no business has the time to employ a proof reader. That responsibility now falls to the writer who must oversee every aspect of the content from start to finish. For most writers, proof reading is just a part of the content creation process, but it is one element that is very important.
If you are struggling to proof read a document then pass it to the person next to you. A fresh pair of eyes can work absolute wonders for your writing and can easily pick up errors that you may have glossed over if you have read them too many times.
Take care with your writing; people do notice even small mistakes
Although may people do tend to skim when they read over websites, spelling mistakes can stick out like a sore thumb. If you want to give a professional approach for your business then making sure that your writing is grammatically correct can help to promote this style. | <urn:uuid:7116b3ec-aa36-47b3-858e-6eafc7326f50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.evolutiaseo.co.uk/blog/spelling-punctuation-grammar%E2%80%A6-yes-it-really-can-impact-your-website/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964059 | 498 | 1.828125 | 2 |
NATO Strike Can’t Lead to Breach With Enemy-Ally Pakistan: View
When NATO aircraft killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in a strike near the Afghan border on Nov. 25, U.S. press reports called it a case of “friendly fire.” That seems the wrong term. It has been some years since the U.S. and Pakistan could be accurately described as friends.
The U.S. and Pakistan have a handful of common goals but far more that conflict. The U.S. wants to fight all forces opposed to Afghanistan’s government; Pakistan nurtures remnants of the Haqqani Network and the Afghanistan Taliban as a way of maintaining influence in that country. The U.S. wants to be equally friendly with Pakistan and its archenemy, India; Pakistan considers that a betrayal.
Still, it would be unwise for the U.S. to allow Pakistan to become an enemy.
Pakistan responded to its soldiers’ deaths by closing, at least temporarily, the land routes through which a third of supplies reach NATO forces in Afghanistan, and ordered the U.S. out of the airbase at Shamsi, from which Americans have launched drone attacks. Pakistan also plans to boycott Afghanistan peace talks in Germany on Dec. 5; the U.S. hoped Pakistan would be a helpful participant.
Why must the U.S. maintain strong ties with such a difficult partner? The success of the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, scheduled to end in 2014, will depend partly on whether Pakistan plays a constructive role in its neighbor’s future. While Pakistani authorities essentially sanction anti-Indian terrorists and provide support for some elements of the Afghanistan Taliban and the Haqqani Network, they also cooperate with the U.S. against al-Qaeda.
Eyeing the Arsenal
Most importantly, relations give the U.S. a window on Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal --a grave threat to U.S. national security. Some have suggested that the U.S. government abandon Pakistan -- cut off its $3 billion in annual aid, place it on the state-sponsors-of-terrorism list and throw in its lot fully with India. This would be unwise: An isolated Pakistan would be more likely to go to war with India, more vulnerable to disintegration into a nuclear-armed jihadist state and less able to keep its weapons technology secure from terrorists.
To keep the relationship functioning, U.S. officials first need to address Pakistan’s objections to the attack by North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces. The U.S. and NATO were correct to order an investigation and invite the Pakistani government to participate. U.S. officials said the probe will determine how to prevent a recurrence. But, to a great extent, it’s already clear how to do that.
The U.S. and its NATO allies repeatedly have breached Pakistan’s borders. In some cases, as with the operation to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, the cause was inarguably justified. Yet in this case NATO aircraft crossed the border apparently in response to mortar and rocket fire from what they thought were Taliban elements. Was it worth the risk of violating Pakistan’s airspace and hitting Pakistani troops? It might have been if this were all-out war with the objective of eliminating the Taliban.
But it’s not. NATO’s goal is to militarily weaken the Taliban in preparation for a national-reconciliation deal in which they and perhaps other insurgent groups will participate. When the last NATO combat troops leave Afghanistan in 2014, the Taliban will still be around. It makes little sense to try to stamp out every fighter at the risk of alienating the one party -- Pakistan -- that can deliver the Taliban to peace talks and influence their future behavior.
This logic should be carried over to drone attacks as well: The value of the target needs to be weighed against the possibility of civilian casualties and the certain outrage that the strike would generate among the Pakistani public.
Repairing the Relationship
If the investigation shows that NATO forces were at fault, the U.S. and NATO commands should apologize at a high level and see that the Pakistani soldiers’ families receive compensation, as was done after Central Intelligence Agency contractor Raymond Davis shot and killed two Pakistanis in Lahore in January. Beyond that, NATO will need to recalibrate its overall responses, bearing in mind the limited goal of softening the Taliban and the value of respecting Pakistan’s frontier.
Normally, such matters are handled without such a fuss. Canadian and U.K. soldiers have been killed by NATO airpower in Afghanistan without scandal. But those were cases of true friendly fire.
To contact the Bloomberg View editorial board: [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:1815f5c3-a9a7-42b8-a938-c60f1d4b9d1e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2011-11-30/nato-strike-can-t-lead-to-breach-with-enemy-ally-pakistan-view.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955187 | 985 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Syracuse University is expanding its presence in the Middle East as a way to open the world to its students and for wealthy donors to open their wallets.
SU is opening a business and recruiting office in Dubai, helping to develop courses for the first women's university in Saudi Arabia, and is planning to offer courses to private high school students in Dubai.
Dubai is a booming emirate on the Persian Gulf that boasts the world's tallest building.
The partnerships will strengthen the way students are taught in the Middle East and give SU students and faculty a chance to learn about a critical area of the world, said SU Provost Eric Spina.
"The Middle East is an incredibly important and dynamic region, " said Spina, the school's top academic leader. "We can be a better university if we have the opportunity for (students and faculty) to understand the world and do a better job as citizens."
The college, which has several alumni in the Saudi royal family and in other parts of the Middle East, is also hoping to recruit students and raise money, said Jim O'Connor, who heads the college's Middle East fundraising efforts.
SU has no immediate plans to set up a campus in the Middle East, SU officials said.
The 500-square-foot SU office in Dubai, donated by SU alumnus Abdallah Yabroudi, will officially open in June. Yabroudi, chairman of a Dubai construction company, also gave $5 million to SU in 2008 for an internship program that sends six civil engineering students to Dubai each summer.
In Saudia Arabia, SU faculty members will help devise classes and curriculum for the Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University, which will have 26,000 students when a new campus is completed in the capital city of Riyadh. Spina said faculty from the Saudi university and SU will help revise and create curriculum. A similar agreement is in the works for another university in Saudi Arabia, O'Connor said.
SU also plans to expand its Project Advance, which allows students in more than 180 high schools to take SU classes in their own schools for college credit, to Dubai. SU will offer up to six courses initially in private high schools there, said Jerry Edmonds, the director of the program.
SU appears to be the first university to offer college-credit classes in high schools overseas, said Adam Lowe, executive secretary of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships. Those courses could serve as a feeder for students in the Middle East who want to attend U.S. universities, Lowe said. | <urn:uuid:b96dee5c-b102-4307-a55f-62d0fe1a7502> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/syracuse_university_adds_progr.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965721 | 530 | 1.679688 | 2 |
“Good God! Zenith!”
“Yes, Zenith!” shrieked the woman; “Zenith, the beautiful, once! Zenith, the hag, the crone, the madwoman, now! Look at me well, Sir Jasper Kingsland—for the ruin is your own handiwork!”
He stood like a man paralyzed—speechless, stunned—his face the livid hue of death.
The wretched woman stood before him with streaming hair, blazing eyes, and uplifted arm, a very incarnate fury.
“Look at me well!” she fiercely shrieked, tossing her locks of old off her fiery face. “Am I like the Zenith of twenty years ago—young and beautiful, and bright enough even for the fastidious Englishman to love? Look at me now—ugly and old, wrinkled and wretched, deserted and despised—and tell me if I have not greater reason to hate you than ever woman had to hate man?”
She tossed her arms aloft with a madwoman’s shriek—crying out her words in a long, wild scream.
“I hate you—I hate you! Villain! dastard! perjured wretch! I hate you, and I curse you, here in the church you call holy! I curse you with a ruined woman’s curse, and hot and scathing may it burn on your head and on the heads of your children’s children!”
The last horrible words aroused the listeners from their petrified trance. The Reverend Cyrus Green lifted up his voice in a tone of command:
“This woman is mad! She is a furious lunatic! Dawson! Humphreys! come here and secure her!”
“The child! the child!” she cried, with a screech of demoniac delight; “the spawn of the viper is within my grasp!”
One plunge forward and the infant heir was in her arms, held high aloft. One second later, and its blood and brains would have bespattered the stone floor, but Mr. Carlyon sprung forward and wrenched it from her grasp.
The two men summoned by the clergyman closed upon her and held her fast; her frantic shrieks rang to the roof. Then suddenly, all ceased, and, foaming and livid, she fell between them in a fit.
A dead pause of blank consternation; the faces around a sight to see; horror and wonder in every countenance—most of all in the countenance of Sir Jasper Kingsland.
The clergyman was the first to speak.
“The woman is stark mad,” he said. “We must see about this. Such violent lunatics must not be allowed to go at large. Here, Humphreys, do you and Dawson lift her up and carry her to my house. It is the nearest, and she can be properly attended to there.”
“You know her, Sir Jasper, do you not?” asked Lady Helen, with quick womanly intuition.
“Know her?” Sir Jasper replied, “know Zenith? Great Heaven! I thought she was dead.”
The Reverend Cyrus Green and Lady Helen exchanged glances. Mr. Carlyon looked in sharp surprise at the speaker. | <urn:uuid:12d26020-fdf1-4247-bd6a-8ebc91498103> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bookrags.com/ebooks/15317/18.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947729 | 714 | 1.710938 | 2 |
The Mac was loaded up with over one million files that needed to be copied to an external disk. One million? I decided to do a little Mac housekeeping and brought in a digital cleaning agent to do the deed.
A Clean Car Runs Better
My father once taught me that a clean car would run better. At the time I didn’t understand, but it was his way of getting me to clean the care (while he took care of maintenance).
Today’s Macs get cleaned differently than an automobile. We won’t hose off or scrub down a Mac.
But a Mac is full of hundreds of thousands of files, and getting rid of those you don’t need can improve performance, save disk space, and enhance your personal privacy.
One of the half dozen utilities on my Mac is MacCleanse, kind of a hat trick of tools to keep the Mac working properly.
The official feature list is dozens and dozens of cleaning actions long, but lumped into three areas. Deleting unneeded files to reclaim disk space. Safely and securely removing files you won’t need or miss. And, cleansing the Mac of files which ensure that your personal information is deleted and not visible to prying eyes.
Open MacCleanse and here’s what you see.
The overview is a good place to start as it displays areas on your Mac that could use a digital scrubbing.
MacCleanse’s sidebar displays additional cleaning options, including caches, downloads, iMessage (and other messaging apps which leave a trail of conversations), logs, and much more.
There’s an option to uninstall applications on your Mac, remove unnecessary language files (these take up a lot of space), and secure erase files you won’t want to be found by anyone else.
On Macs with plenty of applications, it’s possible that MacCleanse can save hundreds of megabytes of storage. It kills and deletes browser cookies and history, empties log files, and gives you options to remove files from third party applications.
My Mac’s file count had churned upwards to over 1.1-million files. After running MacCleanse, removing some unused apps, cleaning out logs and caches, and reducing the number of language files, I’d saved almost two gigabytes of storage and the backup file count when down to just over 900,000.
Does the Mac run better after cleaning? At least as much as my father’s car ran better after I washed it. | <urn:uuid:2c594068-b2a1-4e47-8e84-ff66de1bf925> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mac360.com/2012/11/how-to-clean-your-mac-save-disk-space-remove-files-and-maintain-your-privacy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936559 | 529 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Wouldn’t you believe it, it’s already springtime! The spring months, however, bring an increase in outdoor activities and a greater chance of kids damaging their precious mouths and pearly whites. If you play sports, it’s important that you take some special precautions, such as wearing a mouth guard. A protective mouth guard is advised for playing spring sports such as baseball, soccer, lacrosse and others. Be sure, however, to avoid mouth guards that custom form to your teeth as these will resist any tooth movements we are trying to achieve during your orthodontic treatment.
In case of any accident involving the face, check your mouth and the appliances immediately. If teeth are loosened or the appliances damaged, please schedule an appointment with our team.
Only by using a mouth guard and other forms of facial protection can kids with and without braces avoid serious sports injuries. Please give us a call if you have any questions about mouth guards! | <urn:uuid:a7fa30e9-f89a-4330-9a8f-12b110a590dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.orchinorthodontics.com/blog/category/uncategorized/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959911 | 198 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Since the early 1900s Life Saving Clubs have been an integral part of Australia's coastal and inland waterways, with volunteers providing education and training in lifesaving activities, as well as providing the iconic "SWIM BETWEEN THE RED AND YELLOW FLAGS" patrolled areas. Life Saving Clubs harness the support of local communities, and use a network of support services such as helicopters, jet rescue boats, off shore rescue boats and rescue water crafts to ensure the safety of the nation's waterway users.
Life Saving Victoria has a vast network of Life Saving Clubs extending from Mildura in the north, to Mallacoota in the east and Portland in the west. Approximately 26,000 volunteer club members ensure that all visitors to the state's patrolled coastal and inland waterways are provided with a safe and enjoyable aquatic experience.
Port Phillip Bay has over 25 clubs with another 30 clubs spanning the coastline of Victoria. All clubs offer various lifesaving activities to suit all ages and abilities for local residents or holiday visitors.
A number of clubs, as part of the state's emergency services support organisation, also offer out of hours search and rescue services. For further information please use the expanded links to the left. | <urn:uuid:daa837d5-3c5e-48b0-9b55-e0c18d25afe3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lifesavingvictoria.com.au/www/html/367-overview.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943225 | 245 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Master Class: Living Longer, Stronger And Happier
- Little, Brown & Company
- Publication Date:
- 24 January 2013
- Family and Health
Showing 1-1 out of 1 reviews.
In Master Class: Living Longer, Stronger, and Happier, author Peter Spiers offers the latest findings in aging and longevity while evaluating the benefit of activities we might do to improve our chances at longer life. Through interviews with "masters," individuals who excel at a particular activity, Spiers makes a case for the how and why teach can engage our bodies and minds. Using a point scale, these activities are rated for physical aspects as well as mental ones, such as thought and creativity.. Social aspect is a big part of the program; especially for elderly who may have lost a spouse and no longer have kids around. Because of the importance of social interaction, activities such as dancing get very high marks, while more solitary pursuits might rate lower. The goal isn't to eliminate solitary pursuits, some, like reading, are important for mental acuity. But crafting an overall activity plan.While developing good physical, mental and social habits are important for any age, Master Class is clearly aimed at retired people who are in generally good health and wish to stay that way. Perhaps in another 20 years, this would prove more value to me; but for now it affirms that I'm taking appropriate measures now that will hopefully pay off in the form of a healthier, happier, longer life.
Reviews provided by Librarything.
No reviews here. | <urn:uuid:776ca011-802b-45e4-ac54-414700d3ab48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hive.co.uk/book/master-class-living-longer-stronger-and-happier/13244584/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947901 | 318 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Joshua Schichtel of Phoenix, Arizona, was found guilty of renting out access to 72,000 PCs he had breached using computer viruses, BBC News reports.
Schichtel used botnets, a network of compromised computers used to send out junk mail messages, to gain control of the PCs, and his clients used the machines to distribute their own malicious files.
After completing his sentence, the offender will be subject to a three-year supervised release program, during which his computer and internet access will be restricted.
> LulzSec hacker arrested in US, claims FBI
Schichtel was sentenced under the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, after admitting to one count of selling access to 72,000 machines that formed part of his botnet.
He was previously accused of carrying out botnet attacks on numerous websites, along with four other men, but the case was dropped when the US authorities failed to file an indictment within a court-set deadline. | <urn:uuid:18012b73-dee8-43e9-9a9b-bf3d2e506525> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/news/a404536/hacker-jailed-for-selling-access-to-hijacked-pcs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971015 | 194 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The Future of Public Pension Plans
saves the taxpayers a lot of money over a long period of time.
We need to factor that into the cost to taxpayers, the efficacy,
and the ability of the pension fund to earn money—because
most of the pension benefits that are paid to employees over
time are actually paid by the fund’s earnings. Those of us who
advocate the more conventional approach feel that the pension
fund’s ability to lower taxpayer cost should be baked into the
methodology when coming up with a liability to be used for
financial reporting purposes.
I believe there’s value to the market value number. People who are trained economists don’t believe any other number makes sense. And by providing the
number, a lot of the complaints that the
information is hidden are overcome.
NORTH: I believe there’s value to the market value number.
People who are trained economists don’t believe any other
number makes sense. And by providing the number, a lot of the
complaints that the information is hidden are overcome. Does
it require a lot of careful explanation? Yes. Does it require doing
some other disclosures of other actuarial numbers so that things
can be put in context? Yes.
I make it a point in the New York City Retirement System’s
comprehensive annual financial reports to disclose multiple
measures of funded status along with commentary on exactly
what the numbers mean. If you ask an actuary what’s the value
of a stream of payments and you tell him the fund it supports is
invested 70 percent in equities, he’ll give you a number. But if
you said, “Oops, I made a mistake; we actually have all the money in bonds,” the value of the stream of payments—as reported
by the actuary—changes. For economists that just doesn’t work.
On a risk-adjusted basis, the value of the stream of payments
is what it is. For budgeting models like the ones actuaries use,
recognizing assets as part of the process is perfectly reasonable.
But the underlying financial values are demonstrated by the
market value of liabilities.
RIZZO: In the private sector, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) requires that a corporation’s DB pension
liability be measured in a manner that’s similar to a market value. It’s a settlement value of the liability. In the private sector,
it’s all about a corporation’s market price of their share, so the
market matters. And because corporations tend to merge and
go bankrupt and terminate their plans, that makes a lot of sense
for the Financial Accounting Standards Board.
The FASB and the GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards Board) have a common parent—the Financial Accounting
Foundation. FASB sets GAAP (generally accepted accounting
principles) standards for the corporate world, and GASB sets
the GAAP standards for the government world. The rules that
GASB established for GAAP financial reporting have been in
need of improvement, and it has undertaken a deliberative and
thorough project to change the accounting standards for government financial reporting on pensions. One of the things it
is looking at is this matter of comparability and consistency.
Under new proposed standards there will be a single measurement method.
Currently, governments are allowed to use any number of
methods for reporting in their financial statements, and there’s
been a tie between the funding methods and the financial reporting methods. GASB has divorced them in its proposal. In
many instances, governments will have two sets of numbers—
liabilities and costs for funding purposes and liabilities and
expenses for financial reporting. This will apply to pensions
but also to retiree medical.
GASB has dictated one cost method—what’s called the en-try-age-normal cost method—but it also preserved this notion
that the cost to taxpayers is what we’re measuring and disclosing. In this way, it rejected the market value of liability as not
being useful or relevant for financial reporting purposes for
KEN T: The concern with the disclosure of the market value of
liability is how that information is used. It is a measurement
based on a risk-free cash flow to participants, which is one of
the reasons why it’s valuable to measure. But we don’t live in
a risk-free world. We pool risks regularly, and in a DB system
system we’re pooling investment risk and we’re pooling longevity risk. To identify and focus on this risk-free measurement
could mislead the public to say, “That is what the funding target
RIZZO: When I was an actuarial student just out of college, one
of my co-workers came to me as a prank and said, “I’ve got this
list of employees for ABC client, and what we need is for you to
calculate the average Social Security number.” After he left the
room, I got to thinking, “That is a totally irrelevant number.”
That’s almost the way I feel about the market value of li-
ability. Someone might say, “Well, you have that calculation
in your computer. Why can’t you give it to me? Are you hid-
ing it?” But, almost like the average Social Security number,
there is a very narrow relevance to the market value of liability | <urn:uuid:5fc15524-dbda-4d61-82dd-0042c7b20050> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.contingenciesonline.com/contingenciesonline/20110910/?pg=25 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933688 | 1,194 | 1.765625 | 2 |
In this two
part article on Datamation, Bruce Byfield looks at the history and the
current state of the Linux desktop. From the second page: “In studying this transformation of the Linux desktop, you can easily see possible turning points. What would have happened if the KDE 4.0 release had been delayed until it had more features? If Ubuntu had been more patient about its changes getting into GNOME? If GNOME 3 had been less radical, or user complaints addressed? If some or all of these events had occurred, then maybe GNOME and KDE would have remained as dominant as ever.
However, I doubt it. More likely, other incidents would have caused a similar fragmentation sooner or later, no matter how anyone acted.“ | <urn:uuid:9fe3e1b5-03e1-4993-9d4a-482db63dfd47> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linux-support.com/cms/fragmentation-on-the-linux-desktop-is-it-normal-datamation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983125 | 150 | 1.625 | 2 |
1 - His reception into the Church would be preceded by a profession of faith. It says the following:
"I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God."Since he had to profess the statement above, I believe he should be given the benefit of the doubt that he means what he has professed (and therefore had a change of heart and mind) - including belief in those issues where he has opposed Church teaching (e.g., abortion, fetal stem cell research, homosexual "marriage", etc)
2 - This is actually a good time to say "judge not". Read my article on the proper usage and application of the above phrase.
3 - I still believe that he should recant his former positions, assuming he has changed his mind. Since he publicly professed opposition to the Church before becoming Catholic, he should publicly stand with the Church now that he is Catholic.
4 - Pray for him. Whether or not he has changed his mind, being a faithful Catholic in today's culture is not easy.
Some articles on the story: | <urn:uuid:3ac3497f-24bf-4809-b101-c2aeaccc0b11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marysaggies.blogspot.com/2007/12/tony-blair-becomes-catholic.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 | 0.978952 | 229 | 1.796875 | 2 |
"Memory Into Flesh: A Tribute to the Performance & Activism of Anida Yoeu Ali"
A multimedia conversation on stage with the artist recounting her raw energy, powerful vision and unbending conviction that refuses to acquiesce to what bell hooks so blatantly terms "the white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy" from spoken word to graphic design to political activism to writing to Butoh dance to performance art to motherhood.
Saturday, April 10th
Gene Siskel Film Center
Once upon a biased time, the intolerant world Anida Yoeu Ali lived in revolved around performance poetry. Or poetry performed by a young but powerful Asian American female voice. Of brash words, rightly so, that when spoken cajole, accuse, incite or inspire, revere, love, to say the least or rather the most really about a plethora of social and political woes. And there she was, a portrait of a Cambodian Muslim refugee as a spoken word artist if you will fighting a verbal war against the racist neoconservative times when paradoxically rap rhythms abounded and hip-hop attitudes held sway. Even her audience back then knew Anida under a collective identity, another surname.
Fast forward to now. And the many untold stories told by words that move and shape a body of work, literally her body from another time, displaced by not one, but often many tongues spoken in defense of an undying faith in community poetically remain.
Anida Yoeu Ali as performance artist and activist remembers. Carrying an onerous weight from which she cries out, her oppressed voice still flings words in outrage. To affect change, to right wrongs, to make the world itself an equitable and magnanimous place to live for all is what she believes as Khmer Rouge survivor who becomes a Woman Warrior.
This, of course, is her natural calling. To use so many words, that is. But deep down, she knew or rather came to realize how text whether spoken or written becomes fragile. It is after all internalized, a hermetic record that resides on paper as line, something two-dimensional or within time as sound faded.
So why does she then sacrifice these words? True to her artistic instincts, Anida sought another direction from or through action to reinvent another language of her physical self that gave body to text as static and moving image beyond calligraphic or ideographic form. She understood the contextual nature of how wielding words on stage related to time-based movement in terms of performance and sculpture as methodology.
Now Anida Yoeu Ali continues to speak not only in volume, but mass and space as well as time. For her, the three-dimensionality of her body gives her text another structure, a living surface that follows many varied and generalized functions, all of which reference specific issues concerning gender, sexuality and identity that also broadly reflect the politics of representation. Which then also allows her the conceptual framework to incorporate a larger history that connects who she is to specific memories associated with self and place healing her mind, body and soul. In a way her work transcends into a deeper body politic investigating surface (flesh), space (figure) and time (memory) as exterior and interior material in addition to performative object in response to the past, present and future that shapes her political and spiritual being.
In other words, Anida Yoeu Ali is willing to change the world beginning with herself. Such courage is always to be admired, applauded and cherished. Because to remember is not to forget.
~Larry Lee, March 22, 2010
STATEMENT: As an artist and a Cambodian Muslim transnational, I am professionally and personally drawn to themes of recuperation and reclamation. My work synthesizes poetry, movement, video, and site-specific installations into hybrid explorations, often mapping new political and spiritual landscapes. Recalling that the oral tradition saved and preserved Cambodian art, I am inspired as an artist to seek those routes of memory. Memories surface through the body. Memories do not follow linear chronology. Artists have a power to bring out memories, stories, and moments that official history does not always account for. Artists also have a way of disrupting meta-narratives. I perform stories in an attempt to remember my ancestry, my memories, and my relationship to the spirit world. Accordingly, batik sarongs, Muslim prayer garments, my father’s PTSD panic attacks, my daughter’s pterodactyl-like noises, recollections and tales of “Home”, the displaced body, Butoh, my parents’ old photos from Cambodia, turmoil, and joy are all elements of my art. Although my work has increasingly shifted towards movement, dance, and installation, I have never abandoned writing. Narratives continue to operate, alongside text and writing, as source materials for new works. Performing narratives is an act of social storytelling that contributes to collective healing. Performance and storytelling have become ways of bridging the interior and exterior space of self. This theme of externalizing my interior space is the thread that connects my early writings and performances with my current body of work. Currently, I perform in site-specific locations, often energetically “charged” spaces that utilize yards and yards of textile/fiber. For me, this material acts as an extension of skin, as a way for the surface of my body to extend into public spaces, and as a metaphoric device for stories to spread across an expanse. Rooted in autobiographical experiences my work chronicles my life, my family’s experiences, and my dreams. My work, in all its forms, acknowledges the solidarity of shared historical and diasporic struggles. As an art-maker, I am committed to artistic rigor and a dedicated catalyst for dialogue and change.
BIOGRAPHY: Performance artist, writer and global agitator, Anida Yoeu Ali is a first generation Muslim Khmer woman born in Cambodia and raised in Chicago. Her interdisciplinary performances use Butoh to examine the poetic potential of the body and collective healing. Her performance work transforms loss into conversations about reconciliation. Since 1998, Anida has toured over 300 colleges and venues with the spoken word ensemble, I Was Born With Two Tongues, and the multimedia collective Mango Tribe. The Tongues' pioneering live performances and critically-acclaimed debut CD, "Broken Speak", ignited a new generation of Asian American voices. She is also a founding member of Young Asians With Power!, Asian American Artists Collective-Chicago, the National APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit, and MONSOON fine arts journal. Her artistic work has been the recipient of grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, National Endowment of the Arts and Illinois Arts Council. From Copenhagen to Ho Chi Minh City, Anida lectures, exhibits and performs internationally. For more insights, please visit www.atomicshogun.com. | <urn:uuid:6a28855c-a2fd-4a2f-9a1f-2c5c04498f21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.faaim.org/literary/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947554 | 1,429 | 1.6875 | 2 |
You may die, but vinyl will live forever.
Thomas Edison once thought that the only use for vinyl recordings would be to record a person’s last will and testament. He figured no one would want to hear “recorded” music since it pails in comparison to hearing it performed live. Man was he wrong.
As it turns out. English company “And Vinyly is giving this “dead” form of media yet another purpose. For a mere price of £3,000 you can have your own remains pressed into vinyl after your death with a recording of your choice!
The company gives you the option to turn your ashes into either your favorite tracks, a recording of your own voice to be cherished by your family for years to come, or your last will and testament. And if you just want the really nitty gritty you can opt to press your ashes with no sound—just that “pop and crackle.”
If you’re worried about album art, it seems they have that covered as well—if you’re willing to spend the extra cash.
This has got to be one of the more creative ways to house your remains after your death. I personally would much rather be on a turntable than in the ground…though if someone were to hand me a vinyl pressing of my grandfather I would be more than a little creeped out. | <urn:uuid:f2f82065-7c1c-4f44-ad5c-dfcae7d6f4b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/82099/have-yourself-pressed-into-vinyl-when-you-die/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978021 | 289 | 1.617188 | 2 |
China is coming clean about its filthy toilets, first hosting a world toilet summit and now about to hold its first ever toilet exhibition which will lift the lid on new technology.
The World Toilet Expo will run from May 8 to 10 in Shanghai, China's most fashionable city, with some experts going potty about a dial-a-loo phone line people can call to find the nearest public toilet, the Shanghai Daily said Wednesday.
"It's expected to solve the long-lasting problem that tourists, cab drivers and people unfamiliar with the city cannot find a toilet when they need one," Han Yurong, a Shanghai Public Sanitation Bureau official, was quoted by state media as saying.
Shanghai officials said the city planned to revamp 500 of its 3,900 public toilets this year, build new ones and reserve two thirds for women.
Beijing, eager to freshen up its primitive privies before it hosts the 2008 summer Olympics, recently added high-tech, self-cleaning toilets near tourist sites like the Forbidden City and Summer Palace and promised to keep them stocked with toilet paper.
Most of China's public lavatories are squat-style pits with no running water, toilet paper or hand-washing facilities. Source | <urn:uuid:7bb8602d-a935-4c46-911f-fcffa2bef623> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.undergroundnews.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/12307.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955709 | 252 | 1.773438 | 2 |
1981: Ronald Reagan’s inauguration marks a new escalation in the United States’ Cold War with the USSR. Months later, François Mitterrand is elected president of France with the support of the French Communist Party. The predicted tension between these two men, however, is immediately defused when Mitterrand gives Reagan the Farewell dossier, a file he would later call "one of the greatest spy cases of the 20th century".
Vladimir Ippolitovich Vetrov, a promising technical student, joins the KGB to work as a spy. Following a couple of murky incidents, however, Vetrov is removed from the field and placed at a desk as an analyst. Soon, burdened by a troubled marriage and frustrated at a failing career, Vetrov turns to alcohol. Desperate and in need of redemption, in 1980 he offers his services to the DST, the French counterintelligence service. Thus Agent Farewell is born. Soon he is sneaking files and photographing sensitive documents, keeping the West informed of the USSR’s plans - right in the heart of KGB headquarters.
The most complete account of these dramatic events ever recorded, Kostin and Raynaud’s thorough investigation is a fascinating tour de force. Probing further into Vetrov’s psychological profile than ever before, they provide groundbreaking insight into the man whose life helped hasten the end of the Cold War.
©2009 Editions Robert Laffont, S.A., Paris; translation copyright 2011, Amazon Content Services LLC (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Say something about yourself!
All espionage geeks will love this and foreign policy wonks will have to acknowledge the indispensable role played by the espionage services. For every intelligence fiasco there is a 'Farewell" and we should all be grateful for the latter and forgive the former.
The lesson that I thought was most interesting is that this only succeeded because the French handlers DIDN'T use spy craft, which the KGB would certainly have noticed. Really good book but extremely detailed and, thus, long. But if you're interested in the craft (or lack thereof) and the psychology of treason this is the book for you.
The fact that history often hinges on the acts of unknown individuals unrelated to the "leaders" strutting their stuff on history's stage is an irony that is inescapable. This true story is the proof. Great listen.
I started reading the book and enjoyed it so much that I thought buying the audio version would be a good idea so I could listen in the car. Wrong! The narrator has a monotone voice and almost sounds like a robot. I tried listening to it for about a week but the narrator was so unbearable that I just went back to reading.
Report Inappropriate Content | <urn:uuid:20688bb3-67d1-4b4b-8cf5-523ec311a656> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=cat_8?asin=B00AM17RYE | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95433 | 573 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Saint Bernard Dogs
Saint Bernards are sweet, friendly dogs that possess an age-old wisdom and a steady disposition. They are powerful, to be sure, but also have a mellow gentleness that makes them superb playmates for children. Saint Bernards are especially fun to play with in the tall grass or snow.
Saint Bernard Pictures
- 110 - 180 pounds
- 25 - 27 inches
Ideal Human Companions
- Active, sporty types
- Experienced dog handlers
Saint Bernards on Dogster
1,946 dogs | see profile pages
- Great with kids
What They Are Like to Live With
Don’t let the mellow exterior fool you: These dogs are fiercely loyal and protective of their families. And, when they’re young, they can be a little bit stubborn. Eager to please and easy to train, Saint Bernards can be socialized from a young age to manage their large size and bold personalities.
When living with a Saint Bernard, be prepared for their size. You may need to adjust the furniture or give them a wide berth when they pass by. And be warned: They tend to drool and snore.
Things You Should Know
Saint Bernards are sensitive to heat, so they might not be the best dogs for those living in, let’s say, Miami. They need a mild climate and room to breathe: Saint Bernards will be okay living in an apartment, but they will need lots of walks and playtime in the park to offset the space limitations.
A healthy Saint Bernard can live as long as 10 years. Common health issues include heart problems, hip and shoulder problems and ectropion, which is when the eyelids fold outward. Daily brushing is recommended, as this dog tends to shed.
Saint Bernard History
Named after Saint Bernard de Menthon—the patron saint of skiers and mountaineers—Saint Bernards were developed in 100 A.D. by Swiss monks who ran a rescue center in the Alps. Though their lineage is not exactly known, they could have derived from combinations of Tibetan Mastiffs, Newfoundlands and another large breeds. Over the centuries, the Swiss monks discovered that the dogs had an excellent sense of smell and direction, making them a big help finding and rescuing stranded travelers in the mountains.
The Look of a Saint Bernard
Saint Bernards are powerful, tall and muscular dogs. They have square, well-proportioned heads with wrinkled foreheads, short muzzles, jowls, black noses and ears that hang close to the face. Their dark, deeply set eyes have a kind and wise expression. They have thick necks, broad shoulders, deep chests and strong legs. Their feet are nice and large—perfect for tracking through the snow. Saint Bernards have long, heavy tails. Their dense, short coats—either short- or longhaired—are usually white with red, mahogany, brindle, tan or black markings.
Talk About Saint Bernards
Living with them is a LOT of work
They are the most lovalble dogs I have ever had. They are loyal and love kids, as well as getting along with other animals.
That said, living with them is a lot of work. They slobber. They shed. They need brushing regularly. You have to keep their ears clean. They need their faces wiped. They need a lot of fresh water, and they eat a lot. Because of their size, vet bills are not cheap.
There is nothing cuter than a St. Bernard puppy, but before you get one, read up on them so they don't end up in a pound or shelter.
~Frank M., owner of a Saint Bernard | <urn:uuid:839e8387-3774-4e39-9e6e-7c9495713537> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dogster.com/dog-breeds/Saint_Bernard | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951238 | 772 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Soul Journey Pages
I thought I'd get a head start and do the exercises in Tam's class right away. Here in the cover of my book. I so loved the quote she used for her tag that I used the same one. I wrote Just Be on the cover to stand for just be who you are, an original. I sanded the photo first, which is a technique that I have done before. Then I learned something new. If you paint the photo with water you can scratch right into it. I made swirls and then words. I think I will do that again it was fun. I had a tag already painted with watercolors but it was al ittle pale, I added portfolio oil pasted to the edges and a little water to blend it. I wrote the quote on it, added some stamping and more dots.
Then we worked on the next pages which were to celebrate something in our lives. I chose on this page to celebrate following my dream of opening my own network. I took a picture of my banner and added papers and stamping.
On the other side of the page I am celebrating friends. These friends came to my bonfires this summer and were instrumental in helping my heal from my surgery. They are the best. This page also honors all the communities of women I belong to. All these pages were fun and easy to do. I sure love it when I can use all sorts of different materials together. | <urn:uuid:91d4ed02-6058-407f-9eca-8c1d374b50a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thequeenofcreativity.blogspot.com/2010/11/soul-journey-pages.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984171 | 303 | 1.578125 | 2 |
On New Jersey 101.5, Gov. Chris Christie announced that all of New Jersey’s red-light cameras have been certified.
The go-ahead to fire up those red light cameras once again means that towns will likely resume ticketing red-light violations recorded by the devices which are found throughout the state. Managing Editor Mike Schneider caught up with Cathleen Lewis, Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations for AAA New Jersey to find out happens now with the controversial program.
The re-certification process was sparked by public complaints and court action alleging that the cameras were being used for profit and that some communities had shortened the duration of yellow lights to try and catch some motorists unaware. Lewis says she and AAA were heartened to see the state make the effort to undergo a re-certification process to ensure that cameras were being used properly.
“We’re encouraged by that and we’re going to continue to make sure that all of these cameras are used for safety purposes and not to line pockets of government.”
Lewis hopes the state continues to review the red-light program periodically as it is required to do under the law.
“The law when it was passed required that certification every six months, so we hope that’s what’s going to occur.”
According to Lewis, when the red-light program was being created, AAA jumped on board only as a last resort.
“AAA continued to advocate that this be done only after every other possible safety measure was exhausted to make these intersections safe and that’s what we’re going to use as the best practice when we talk to towns about when they should put in a red-light camera.”
There were 21 towns under review during the re-certification process. The state’s red light cameras are currently in a five-year pilot program. Lewis says that the state Department of Transportation has no plans to approve any more cameras until the pilot period is over. Even as early as next year, Lewis says there will be enough to glean from the program how New Jersey and other states have used and administered the system. Lewis adds that AAA won’t be relying on just the data generated from the program.
“It should be noted that AAA does a survey every other year and we ask motorists about these red light cameras and a majority of motorists continue to believe that they’re a good idea for traffic safety reasons. We continue to see a little bit more skepticism about the money piece but people do still think that in certain areas, it’s an important safety measure.”
Lewis says AAA has already detected a noticeable decrease in the number of certain accidents where red-light cameras are instilled.
“There’s been a decrease in a lot of the t-boning accidents which are those really horrible accidents where the cars run into each other coming [from] two different directions. So some of those dangerous accidents have decreased but we’re still seeing more accidents, perhaps rear-end collisions. So we’re going to have to take a look at all of that data before we decide if this really has improved traffic safety overall and whether or not towns have been really stringent in making sure that they’ve picked intersections, that this is really the only way to curb that traffic safety problem.” | <urn:uuid:026c50f7-1b7c-4015-afd1-c1bdc6aa0a64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.njtvonline.org/njtoday/video/after-a-pause-state-greenlights-red-light-cameras/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972082 | 695 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Suicide of a Superpower
Will democracy survive the debt and dependence it fosters?
By Patrick J. Buchanan | October 3, 2011
This generation of Americans has been witness to one of the most stunning declines of a great power in the history of the world.
In 2000, the United States ran a surplus. In 2009, it ran a deficit of $1.4 trillion—10 percent of the economy. The 2010 deficit was almost equal, and the 2011 deficit is projected even higher. The national debt is surging to 100 percent of GDP, portending an eventual run on the dollar, a default, or Weimar inflation. The greatest creditor nation in history is now the world’s greatest debtor.
In the first decade of what was to be the Second American Century, a net of zero new jobs were created. Average households were earning less in real dollars at the end of the decade than at the beginning. The net worth of the American family, in stocks, bonds, savings, home values, receded 4 percent.
Fifty-thousand plants and factories shut down. As a source of jobs, manufacturing fell below healthcare and education in 2001, below retail sales in 2002, below local government in 2006, below leisure and hospitality, i.e., restaurants and bars, in 2008—all for the first time.
In April 2010, three of every four Americans, 74 percent, said the country is weaker than a decade ago, and 57 percent said life in America will be worse for the next generation than it is today.
Who did this to us? We did it to ourselves.
We abandoned economic nationalism for globalism. We cast aside fiscal prudence for partisan bidding for voting blocs. We ballooned our welfare state to rival the socialist states of Europe. And we launched a crusade for democracy that has us tied down in two decade-long south Asian wars.
In 2009, Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, told Congress the cause of the grave financial crisis was trade-related imbalances. Pressed by Sen. Chris Dodd, Volcker added, “Go back to the imbalances in the economy. The United States has been consuming more than it has been producing for many years.”
For decades, Japan’s trade surplus with the United States was the largest on earth. In the 21st century, China’s trade surplus with the United States began to dwarf Japan’s. In 2008, China exported five times the dollar volume of goods to America as she imported, and her trade surplus with America set a world record between any two nations—$266 billion. In August 2010, China’s trade surplus with the United States set a new all-time monthly record, $28 billion.
Nor was it all in toys and textiles. In critical items that the Commerce Department defines as advanced technology products (ATP), the U.S. trade deficit with China in 2010 hit a record $95 billion. China today has the trade profile of an industrial and technological power while the manifest of U.S. exports to China, aircraft excepted, reads like the exports of the Jamestown Colony to the mother country.
What was the impact of this tsunami of imports on employment? During the first decade of the 21st century, U.S. semiconductors and electronic-component producers lost 42 percent of their jobs; communications-equipment producers lost 48 percent of their jobs; textile and apparel producers lost, respectively, 63 percent and 61 percent of their jobs.
At every election, politicians decry America’s deepening dependence on foreign oil. But the U.S. trade deficit in manufactures, $440 billion in 2008, was $89 billion larger than the U.S. deficit in crude oil. Why is a dependence on the oil of Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf a greater concern than a dependence on a rival power for computers and vital components of our high-tech industries and weapons systems?
As Auggie Tantillo, Executive Director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Committee, argues:
Running a trade deficit for natural resources that the United States lacks is something that cannot be helped, but running a massive trade deficit in man-made products that America easily could produce itself is a choice—a poor choice that is bankrupting the country and responsible for the loss of millions of jobs.
The consequences of these trade “imbalances”: De-industrialization of America. A growing dependence on China for the necessities of our national life and the loans to pay for them. A loss of millions of the best jobs Americans ever had. A median wage and family income that have been stagnant for a decade. A steep decline in the global purchasing power of the dollar. A loss of national dynamism. A debt bomb that went off in our face in September 2008.
“It’s time to stop worrying about the deficit—and start panicking about the debt,” the Washington Post editorial began, “The fiscal situation was serious before the recession. It is now dire”:
In the space of a single fiscal year, 2009, the debt soared from 41 percent of the gross domestic product to 53 percent. This sum, which does not include what the government has borrowed from its own trust funds, is on track to rise to a crushing 85 percent of the economy by 2018.
Focusing on the “public debt”—that held by citizens, corporations, pension funds, and foreign governments—understates the true national debt, which is $14 trillion. But even that does not reflect the “structural deficit” the nation faces from legislated commitments to Social Security, Medicare, and government and military pensions.
According to David Walker, former head of the Government Accountability Office, these unfunded liabilities total $60 trillion, with Medicare accounting for $38 trillion. With the first wave of Baby Boomers reaching eligibility for full Social Security benefits in 2011, and the entire generation moving onto the rolls by 2029, an Everest of debt will begin to rise out of the sea and be visible to the world.
What are the risks of the exploding U.S. public debt?
Chinese, Japanese, and Gulf governments and sovereign wealth funds will suspect, as some already do, that they are holding U.S. paper on which America will one day default or cheapen by inflation. As their fears rise, our creditors will stop buying and start selling U.S. debt, or demand a higher rate of interest commensurate with their rising risk. The Fed will have to raise rates to attract borrowers, tumbling the economy into recession.
Once the vicious cycle begins, warns Walker, interest on the U.S. debt will become the largest item in the federal budget.
Is the new Congress aware of the peril? For the departed Congress was surely not. The lead story in the Post that same morning in December 2009 that the alarmed editorial on the national debt ran began thus: “The Senate cleared for President Obama’s signature on Sunday a $447 billion omnibus spending bill that contains thousands of earmarks and double-digit increases for several Cabinet agencies.” Total cost of the Senate bill—“$1.1 trillion, including average spending increases of 10 percent for dozens of federal agencies.”
Democrats claimed the gusher of money was needed to make up for the neglect of the Bush years. But the Bush years had been the fattest years for federal spending since the Great Society, and Bush had added his trillion-dollar wars and trillion-dollar tax cuts. By the end of his presidency, even conservatives were calling Bush our first Great Society Republican.
Continue to read:
The American Conservative » Suicide of a Superpower | <urn:uuid:8b8a6aed-dd8c-47e0-bf50-fad0ad70fb34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clubconspiracy.com/forum/showpost.php?p=76819&postcount=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947111 | 1,606 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Penn lowers sexual violence proof standard
The decision was based on recommendations from the government’s Office of Civil Rights
April 10, 2012, 12:11 am·
Less evidence will now be required for the Office of Student Conduct to find accused students responsible for sexual harassment or assault.
After receiving a set of guidelines known as a “Dear Colleague” letter from the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in April 2011, the OSC has made several revisions to its sexual misconduct policy in Penn’s Student Code of Conduct.
The changes were announced in today’s edition of the Penn Almanac.
Previously, in order to find a student responsible for sexual harassment or assault, the OSC applied a standard of “clear and convincing evidence” — meaning that it must be highly probable that an alleged incident occurred.
Based on the OCR’s guidelines, however, the OSC will now employ a lower standard known as “preponderance of the evidence” — which requires proof that the accused student was more likely than not responsible for an alleged incident.
“In every forum where civil rights issues are decided, the standard of proof is a preponderance of the evidence,” OSC Director Susan Herron said. “The charter changes just bring the civil rights case within a school disciplinary system into the same framework as all other cases.”
She added that because Penn is an educational system rather than a court of law, it has more flexibility in its disciplinary processes.
According to Herron, the guidance in the Dear Colleague letter reflects the OCR’s concerns about the increasing incidence of sexual assault on college campuses.
“Students have a right to attend school in an environment free of harassment,” she said.
In addition, the Code of Conduct will now require sexual violence investigations to be completed within 60 days — the length of time that the OSC believes investigations can “reasonably” take. Since there is “a lot at stake” in sexual harassment cases, “we want to make sure we get it right,” Herron said.
Political Science professor Rogers Smith explained that it is common to find a lesser standard of proof used in civil procedures or at academic institutions as opposed to the criminal justice system, where “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” is typically required.
The new standard — which Smith said is akin to being 51 percent sure of the accused person’s responsibility — will “change the outcomes” of cases at Penn, he added.
“It will mean that judgments that a person is guilty of sexual harassment will be easier to achieve,” he explained.
According to Smith, the preponderance of evidence standard is common in other areas of law, such as medical procedures that involve removing a patient from life support. Under this standard, courts permit testimony from parents or spouses who say what the patient would have wanted.
Herron emphasized that despite the change in policy, the rights of the accused student will still be protected.
“We’d never bring forth a case that hasn’t met the threshold of required evidence,” she said.
She added that students always have a right to challenge the OSC’s findings by going to a hearing in front of a panel of three students and two faculty members, as well as appealing the panel’s decision to a disciplinary appellate officer.
Organizations aimed at preventing sexual violence, such as Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention and the Penn Women’s Center, said they are pleased with the change in the OSC charter.
“It’s important that we have a policy in place that suggests to the campus community that we believe what survivors say,” ASAP Chair and College senior Joseph Lawless said.
Penn Women’s Center Director Felicity Paxton agreed.
“This lower standard of evidence better supports victim’s rights,” she said. “[It] will hopefully encourage more victims of sexual violence to pursue disciplinary action following an act of assault or harassment.” | <urn:uuid:6593c3ea-09fb-4546-867d-d21b4846b53d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thedp.com/index.php/article/2012/04/office_of_student_conduct_lowers_sexual_violence_proof_standard | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954483 | 860 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Tyler Cowen passes this along
Another contrast is between people who type in "is it wrong to" vs. people who type in "is it unethical to." If you type in "is it wrong to" the first suggestion is "is it wrong to sleep with your cousin." Number two is (yes, I tested it in Google): "Is it wrong to sleep with your step dad after your mom dies." If you type in "is it unethical to," the first suggestion is "is it ethical to sell customer information."
You might think this says something about what the American people find ethical or unethical. But it says a lot more about what we find funny.
It seems that all of the references to this phrase eventually point back to a single question posed to a “dear Abby” type web personality.
Last spring my Mom was killed in a car accident. I came home from college at the end of the semester to help my Step-Dad pack up her things and we spent a lot of time talking about my Mom. One night we decided to open a bottle of her favorite wine to toast her memory, and before I knew it my Step-Dad and I were making love on the living room floor. I always had a crush on him and was jealous that he married my Mom. He says he loves me and wants to spend the rest of his life with me. I feel like this is the way things were supposed to be but I’m afraid to tell our friends and family.
Eve, what would you do?
Mistress in Mourning
The original post is lost gone but it seems that it was copied so many times that it now dominates the “is it wrong responses “
This goes to show that while richly diverse subcultures can come to life on the web (fat tails) a single instance can also grow in popularity to such an extent that it dominates millions of queries (fat spikes).
And yes this is post and to a much larger extent, Tyler’s will generate more queries on “Is it wrong to sleep . . .” By next week, perhaps it will be number one. | <urn:uuid:ad7708b9-0521-4af0-87ee-8b484cbd5fb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://modeledbehavior.com/2009/11/12/the-fat-spike-is-it-wrong-to-sleep-with-your-stepdad/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976605 | 444 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Businesses in Taunton have been instrumental in helping to start a Foodbank in Taunton so that food parcels will be provided to those who are in need.
The Foodbank in Taunton is one of more than 200 in the UK that aim to provide Nutritionally balanced emergency food parcels for local people in crisis. These food parcels will be provided to those who are in need, on the receipt of a voucher which has been issued by a front line agency.
Pam Walker, Project Manager for Taunton Foodbank said “We have continued to see a need for the Foodbank in Taunton as people continue to be made redundant, see a sudden change in their circumstances or receive unexpected bills from the winter period. Often this results in people having no money available to buy food for themselves or their families. People in need will be given a numbered and signed voucher from a professional that they are likely to come into contact with such as a health worker, social worker, staff working in education or someone else who knows there is a need”.
However the Foodbank could not have started without the help and support of local businesses that have offered shelving, storage facilities, grants and time so that their staff can take an active part in this initiative.
Pam added “We have been supported by a local business and it has been amazing to see the generosity of people and businesses at a time of financial challenges. However these donors understand that there is a desperate need for the Foodbank”.
“There is evidence that in times of financial difficulty, like those we are currently facing, there is a rise in theft of food from shops and supermarkets or people just go hungry for several days. The Foodbank gives food for three days, which helps people to get back on track and gives time for a longer term solution to be found. However it is important to stress that this is not a service for the homeless as there is already provision for this”.
Andy Sharman, Scheme Co-ordinator for Somerset West Businesses Against Crime had the initial idea to start the Foodbank because he saw a rise in thefts from shops. Andy has been working with |members of Taunton Christians Together to get the Foodbank off the ground as part of the “Back on TRACK” programme.
Andy said “We are pleased that one of our members, ASDA, has given Foodbank their support. We hope their involvement will lead to other businesses showing their support by allowing collections at their premises or encouraging their staff to get involved by volunteering for Foodbank. This vital service is a great initiative and we are one step closer to being able to support vulnerable people in our community”.
The Foodbank was able to collect half a tone of food during a day’s collection at Asda supermarket on 26 May but needs another two tones before it can open its doors. The distribution centre for the Foodbank will be at the United Reformed Church, Paul Street, Taunton for two hours a day once or twice a week depending on the amount of food collected and number of volunteers available.
Andy added “The Foodbank is a win-win situation. Businesses and local community working in partnership to provide support to individuals and families so they can meet their basic needs for a few days. In other areas this has helped to change the course of people’s lives as it helps vulnerable people at a time of need”.
The Foodbank needs more volunteers, additional shelving and grants or donations to support its work as well as other food stores to participate. As the Foodbank is run by volunteers virtually all of the money received goes straight to those in need.
The Foodbank is a franchise of the Trussell Trust, which runs Foodbanks throughout the country.
If you would like to be a volunteer or support Taunton Foodbank, please contact Pam Walker, the Foodbank Manager on 07761 624 216 or e-mail [email protected] | <urn:uuid:b971cc0d-8c2f-46b3-98f6-752d687f9d50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://taunton.foodbank.org.uk/news-events | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974756 | 831 | 1.6875 | 2 |
This exceptional coastal home is the result of the vision of Hollywood film director Rob Cohen and his wife beneath the sacred volcano Mount Agung in Candidasa, Bali. Dominating the Pantai Jasi coast, and set amid a coconut plantation right at the water’s edge, the 6,265 square foot six bedroom, six bathroom villa is modeled on the royal residences of the Minang people of Sumatra, and built entirely from recycled timber. Designer Linda Garland revived the traditional Sumatran Minangkabau architecture. The main pavilion’s exterior facade is fashioned after an aristocratic adobe, stepping up at the ends.
The big house has been constructed of reclaimed ironwood utility poles. The open air living area is outfitted with 10-foot bamboo sofas designed by Linda, who decorated the space with the Cohens’ collection of Bali Aga statues and Balinese masks. From the master bedroom pavilion, spectacular views of both a man-made lake and the ocean can be enjoyed. Both the interiors and exterior of the building’s walls are comprised of plaited black bamboo and thatch roofs made from locally derived cogon grass. Throughout the complex, buildings were pegged together—not a single nail was used.
The ultimate getaway-from-it-all residence for a buyer who’s a beachcomber at heart, listed for an undisclosed price from here.
A second guesthouse features elaborately carved doors from salvaged scraps from an old Batak house on neighboring Sumatra.
A traditional rice storage house called a lumbung was adapted as one of two guesthouses.
Photos: Tim Street-Porter
This beautiful vacation refuge was spotted on Nuevo Estilo and is located near Artà, a small town with history, charm and beautiful beaches in a perimeter of only five kilometers, on the Spanish Balearic island of Majorca. The owners commissioned architecture studio Zirón Architects to implement traditional old Majorcan construction to build the home. The owner’s objective was to create a haven of retreat and rest from their intense working life. The home was designed with amplitude of spaces and the use of natural materials to create a cozy living environment.
It’s quiet and open interior transported the ancient essence to a modern vision of space, in tune with the nature that surrounds. In contrast to a ‘Centennial’ appearance, the interiors are open and airy, reflecting modernity and comfort. The interiors feature stone, recovered Catalan beams, windows, doors and floors made with old treated wood and continuous polished concrete flooring. The walls were painted in shades of sand to create warmth and reflect the light in the rooms that are always in connection with the garden. The decoration is simple and austere, exuding quietude and combines braided fiber, wooden furniture and tapestries of white cotton in a culmination of naturalness and relaxation.
Two boxes of reinforced concrete, rest fixed connected on the mountainside of the Brazilian coast. The Paraty House is located between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, on one of the islands near Paraty City, where the residence cantilevers 8-meters outward from the mountainside. The 9,041 square foot (840 square meters) house finds balance in the topography of the land where the living space is open to the untouched nature. Designed by architect Marcio Kogan, the residence rests in seclusion where the inhabitants have to arrive by boat. After stepping on the sand the residents make their way inside via a metallic bridge positioned over a crystal-lined reflecting pool. The bridge leads to stairs connecting to the lower volume. This level features huge glass windows that allow for views of the sea, hosting the living room, kitchen and service area, the upper level lodges the bedrooms. In the front part of the house, retractile panels of eucalyptus sticks protect the bedrooms from the sun. The spaces that face the mountain have small internal patios with zenital lighting and the use of exposed reinforced concrete grants a striking texture to the walls. The entire top of the house is covered with terraces, observatories for the inhabitants and gardens for sculptures, medicinal plants and edible herbs.
Visit the website of architect Marcio Kogan here.
Photos: Nelson Kon
The newly renovated Villa DKD is a hidden treasure tucked away in the desirable tropical enclave of Pointe Milou, in St. Barth’s, spotted on Luxury Retreats. The stunning luxury retreat offers ocean views from three sides of the house, a sweeping wooden deck surrounding a 13-meter pool that seems to run into the sea, and privacy so that the only outside noises evident are breezes through the palm trees.
The vacation villa is designed to open to the outside, taking full advantage of ocean views from all parts. With one area of the house flowing naturally into the other, the layout in a compact space creates many opportunities for comfortable living, aided by touches such as designer furnishings and interior and exterior colors custom-created.
Guests can choose between two separate dining areas. And they can relax for cocktails at sunset in the wooden gazebo below the pool. The living room features a plush sofa, chaise and chairs in white duck fabric. A tiny office runs off the living room. With an 11foot ceiling, rattan couch and chairs, the sunroom has an “outdoor feel” that is a wonderful place to eat at a long wood table.
The house continues up the hillside to the kitchen/dining area and more dramatic views. Next to the kitchen island, in its own space, a white polyethylene table makes another cozy place to dine. The shade porch extends right out from here, its canvas awning and big outdoor bed invites guests to pick up a book or get lost in the view.
The two air-conditioned bedrooms, with en-suite bathrooms, are equal master suites, with custom-designed, king-size beds and closet units, and crisp white linens. Sliding doors open to decks overlooking the sea. The bathrooms boast twin sinks and showers, and 100% cotton robes exclusively designed for Villa DKD.
A week at Villa DKD costs from between $5,900 to $14,700/week from here.
On the beautiful island of Lidingö, Sweden lays this fabulous property with uncompromising beauty designed by architect Thomas Sandell. Discovered on ESNY, this two storey home offers a splendid terrace and gorgeous views over the water. The three-bedroom home offers a very well though-out and executed design plan with open interior spaces and large glass partitions that maximizes light and sea views. The 1,550 square foot (144 square meters) residence is modern and environmentally conscious, with sophisticated technical solutions to reduce maintenance and operating costs.
The lower level features dark tile floors, generous hallway space and plenty of storage featuring built-in wardrobes with sliding doors and mirrored glass. A fabulous newly renovated kitchen is spacious enough for entertaining large groups. The kitchen is designed with white washed cabinets and stainless steel appliances with a separate breakfast nook. The kitchen opens up to the magnificent main living area which is dominated by high ceilings and a large window wall, terrace, as well as the beautiful fireplace. The spacious terrace offers southerly light with inviting views over the Boat Harbor and Gulf. There is also a dining room which could be converted into a fourth bedroom.
The upper level features a staircase in solid oak with recessed lighting upstairs which meets a clever design of longitudinal built-in storage cabinets. There are two beautiful bedrooms and a master bedroom which has glass views down towards the main living area and against the port. There is a combined bathroom and laundry space with bright mosaics on the floors and walls. The spacious bathroom features a bathtub and twin pedestal sinks, separate water closet as well as plenty of natural light through the window.
The Summer House Skåtøy, designed by studio Filter Arkiteketer, consists of a lovely summer cottage located on an island, South coast of Norway. The request of the client was for the architects to create a retreat that opens up towards the archipelago, while maintaining private outdoor areas. Here is a description of the project from the architects, “the starting point was an existing cottage from around 1940, damaged by dry rot. The new project is built on the footprint of this old cottage. The topography of the site is reflected in the section as two volumes; one volume containing a “sleeping cabin” (a sleeping area) cutting into another elongated volume containing the living and dining areas. These volumes create private outdoor space on the upper level connected to private outdoor space on the lower level. The Client wanted a maintenance free summer house. This resulted in a building clad in untreated timber, dry stone walls and sedum on the roof.”
Visit the website of studio Filter Arkiteketer here.
Sea View Villa is a three-storey home nestled on a gentle hillside on the west coast of Phuket, overlooking the pristine Andaman Sea, this stunning property is located within a five star private resort and enjoys breathtaking sea views and sunsets. Comprised of 8,546 square feet (794 square meters), the stylish yet comfortable interior design effortlessly blends traditional Thai elements with modern facilities to provide a completely relaxing living experience. The spacious five bedrooms are accompanied by equally luxurious en suite bathrooms, while the dining and living areas open onto the pool terrace, seamlessly merging interior and exterior living. Additional features include the private infinity pool (in addition to a 400 square meters communal pool), twin salas, barbecue and fully equipped bar area, spa room, gentleman’s sport bar and double maid’s quarters for staff.
This stunning property is listed at $9,079,000 from here.
Spectacular views over the Caribbean and breathtaking sunsets can be enjoyed from the terraces and balconies of Villa Kas Dorrie on the island of Bonaire, The Netherlands. This majestic oceanfront villa features a modern kitchen, open air living room with panoramic views of the sea and four bedrooms and four bathrooms and two half baths, one on each floor. The home has been designed by the famous Dutch designer Piet Boon. The natural materials used throughout this house give it a robust and open character. The tropical courtyard garden and magnificent high ‘open’ ceilings make this home very unique. There is also a swimming pool and wooden deck with lounge beds and lounge chairs, two gazebos on the sea and an open air kitchen with fridge, dishwasher, BBQ and grill. Discover a natural haven of luxurious tranquility and stylish relaxation that this perfect getaway has to offer.
This extraordinary vacation rental can be all yours for $12,000 per week from here.
The Bonaire House has been designed by Silberstein Architecture and is located on the Caribbean island of Bonaire, The Netherlands. The home has three bedrooms, each, with their own private bathroom, one bedroom with its own private bathroom accessible from the exterior of the house, a study/TV room also with its own full bath to allow for future conversion into bedroom, living room, dining- room, kitchen , one car garage, a pool, spa and dock for boats and jet skis. One-third of acre of the site lies at end of a cul-de-sac and is sandwiched between two double story residences. The depth of the property runs northeast to southwest, perfectly aligned with the local trade winds. The outline of the house and location of rooms are influenced by: the close proximity of adjacent homes, predominant wind direction, and water views.
The interior of this home is chalk full of beautiful delights. An infinity pool on a glorious, attractive patio-like area is a beautiful piece of modern, serene and luxurious architecture, fit for any client. The furnishings of this patio-area also fit in perfectly with its surroundings, especially in terms of the pristine white colors. Inside, the house is a spacious, beautiful, contemporary and lavish home. White and black are used mainly in terms of the materials, but this is juxtaposed with the bright colors such as green and orange used for the furnishings, which are as comfortable as they are strikingly attractive. Even the staircase area is a beautiful piece of thoughtful, well-executed architecture. Surrounded in a blue tint, the sleek wooden material used throughout the house is also used for the brilliant staircase. Via
Visit the website of Silberstein Architecture here.
Photos: Robin Hill Photography
Villa Fabrica has been converted from an old winery into two totally separate and private villas, the Canava and the main villa, which can be rented either separately or together. Located just underneath the historical Venetian Castle of Pyrgos, the restoration project took years of meticulous research and understanding of traditional Santorini architecture, designed by Greek architect Yannis Kaklamanis. With its minimal loft-style design, large spaces and use of old style polished cement and eco-friendly materials; the result is a spectacular retreat, ideal for a special occasion or reunion of family or group of friends. The beautiful white-washed village of Pyrgos is one of the prettiest places on the island, built around the remains of the Castle, in a charming mixture of winding lanes and churches with distinctive blue domes.
The Canava sleeps 4 – 6 people, while the main villa consists of three apartments, each with its own entrance leading from the communal central courtyard. The floors have been created by a local craftsman, who mixed colors and cement to create the beautiful matte finish surfaces throughout, while high ceilings allow for much natural light. The rooms open to generous outdoor spaces, including two impressive pool terraces, a main pool and sunset terrace pool, and outdoor dining terraces.
This beautiful vacation home can be rented from USD $ 893 – $ 3516 per night from here. | <urn:uuid:dd6445ec-fd1e-4167-89cf-c89fc45dcf35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.onekindesign.com/tag/island-living/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938943 | 2,897 | 1.5 | 2 |
Your vote on this answer has already been received
1. Common Sense is such a sense whch is very uncommon , in general. 2. So people having common sense shall retain & increase it if that sense is sharpened progressively in daily life !!
3. People hving no common sense shd be eager to procure it by daily follies & shall become a person of hvng Common sense.!!
4. Commonsense withers, if it is not cultured & used And if a person is approaching older age !! | <urn:uuid:13f64811-7f67-4855-924e-a43023e97817> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://qna.rediff.com/questions-and-answers/can-common-sense-ever-die/24843612/answers/24862806 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94768 | 108 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Trade and Transfers
Telephone: +44 (0)1633 455708
Frequency of release: Monthly
Geographical coverage: UK
Geographical breakdown: UK and GB
The UK’s deficit on seasonally adjusted trade in goods and services was £2.7 billion in March compared with the deficit of £2.9 billion in February.
The deficit on seasonally adjusted trade in goods was £8.6 billion in March, unchanged compared with February.
The surplus on seasonally adjusted trade in services was estimated at £5.8 billion in March compared with the surplus of £5.6 billion in February.
Excluding oil and erratic items, the seasonally adjusted volume of exports was 6.0 per cent higher, and the volume of imports was 2.4 per cent higher in March compared with February.
Export prices of goods, non seasonally adjusted, rose by 1.7 per cent and import prices of goods rose by 1.2 per cent compared with February.
Latest monthly statistics on Trade in goods classified according to Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) as well as monthly estimates for total trade in services.
These National Statistics are produced to high professional standards and released according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority. | <urn:uuid:3aba8cee-7400-4ad1-b43b-8ffa994de6cc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/ons/rel/uktrade/uk-trade/march-2012/index.html?translation-component=&translation-component=&calling-id=77-6175-4&calling-id=77-6175-4&currLang=English&currLang=English&format=contrast | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969563 | 262 | 1.507813 | 2 |
An Antiquarian and Rare Miscellany from Forest Books
Miscellany Four from Forest Books.
By Michael Stillman
UK bookseller Forest Books has issued a new catalogue headed Miscellany Four. Naturally, a catalogue so titled does not have a specific focus. What we can say is that these are books that qualify for the label "antiquarian," they were mostly published in England, and many are very rare, often being the only known copy. Here is a look at the over 200 items presented in this latest catalogue.
Here is one of those very rare books: The Compleat Servant Maid's Guide; or, the Lady's Delight in Cookery. This is a 1796 printing without a stated location. A single copy of a different edition is all that is otherwise known. It includes 60 short recipes, and perhaps this helps explain the rarity. Among the recipes are calf's head hash, swine's head, calves feet jelly, and other delicacies. Maybe it's rare because no one wanted a book of recipes like this in the first place? Item 40 £1,250 (or roughly $1,714 in U.S. Dollars).
Here is another ridiculous one-of-a-kind item, only this time it is the subject of the book, rather than the book itself: Delineations of Fonthill and its Abbey, by John Rutter, published in 1823. Fonthill was the massive gothic estate of William Beckford, an eccentric heir to a fortune who became a writer, Member of Parliament, major book collector, and wastrel of his father's fortune. Beckford commissioned the most fashionable architect of his day, James Wyatt, to design the palace. Wyatt was evidently careless in the design or overseeing of construction, as Fonthill was not built for the ages. The most prominent feature was a 225-foot tower, which had to be built three times after collapsing twice. Money seemed no object to Beckford who continued to build his massive estate, surrounded by a six-mile wall. However, financial reverses at his inherited Jamaica sugar plantation forced Beckford to sell Fonthill and his library in 1823. It was just as well, as the tower collapsed for a third time two years later, and the rest of Fonthill quickly deteriorated. Within 20 years, it had to be demolished. Item 158. £975 (US $1,338).
Item 135 is an item whose behind the scenes intrigue is undoubtedly more interesting than that within its pages: Ianthe, or the Flower of Caernarvon, a Novel, in Two Volumes. Dedicated by Permission to His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. By Emily Clark, Grand-Daughter of the late Colonel Frederick, Son of Theodore, King of Corsica, published in 1798. Her grandfather was the "late" Colonel Frederick because he had shot himself in the head the previous year, unable to find a better way of escaping his debts. However, he was evidently a fraud anyway. Theodore had served briefly as King of Corsica, a German adventurer who helped temporarily free that island from Italian domination. He, like Frederick, ended up in debt in England. Still, it is dubious that Frederick was the son of this King. Nevertheless, Mrs. Clark used the epithet honestly, as she, like everyone else at the time, was fooled by Frederick's claims.
An Antiquarian and Rare Miscellany from Forest Books
The only known surviving copy of The Bell-Man's Treasury.
It seems that Mrs. Clark's use of her supposed royal line was helpful in getting her books noticed, though they were never great sellers. Ianthe, her first novel, may have been her best, a decent though unspectacular effort. A contemporary review in the British Critic notes, "the pieces of poetry interspersed are far from contemptible." Not a ringing endorsement, but it could have been worse (such as calling it "contemptible"). As for the dedication to the Prince of Wales, Mrs. Clark carried on an affair with the Prince's brother, the Duke of York. Likewise, carrying on an affair with the Duke was nothing special, as lots of women did. This one ended in a messy public scene, as the Duke, like her books, did not provide Mrs. Clark with the expected income. She continued to publish books of limited interest for another two decades, though we do not know what eventually became of Mrs. Clark. £2,225 (US $3,058).
Item 14 is a copy of The Cow Doctor, by T. Beamont, published circa 1825 (later editions give his name as Beaumont). The author was not a medically trained cow, but rather some sort of a veterinarian who treated cows for almost 40 years. This is an otherwise unrecorded edition published in York of a book that went through at least four editions, all of which are now quite rare. £295 ($405).
Item 16 is the only known copy of The Bell-Man's Treasury. This is a 1707 collection of poems and humor related to the bell-man. The bell-man was something of a night watchman in 18th century England. He walked the streets of his town and if he spotted a fire or other danger, he would ring his bell to warn the people. Since bell-men were known to give out copies of verses to the people they served, in hopes of receiving a gratuity beyond their meager salaries, perhaps this was intended to serve as a source for such words, these individuals not likely to be accomplished writers. Forest notes that they have only been able to find one bibliographic reference to this work, from 1871, and that was for this same copy. £3,995 (US $5,491).
Forest Books may be reached at +44 1949-842360 or [email protected]. Their website is www.forestbooks.co.uk. | <urn:uuid:0a8af1ef-a234-4949-8b1f-9b5cfa76c736> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanaexchange.com/AE/AEMonthly/AEMonthlyArticleDetail.aspx?ReviewID=808&Type=Reviews&Month=4&Year=2009 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983591 | 1,240 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Sandy Hook Shootings: Who Are We Supposed to Be Mad At?
As the details pour out, it feels like déjà vu: The young, angry white man, the innocent children, the terror, the powerlessness and frenzy the parents feel, the mental block and deep, deep sadness of all the rest of us trying to process unimaginable horror. And then, the desperate pleas from average citizens to stop making this such a terribly easy crime to commit.
A few randomly plucked comments from this New York Times initial report on the massacre give you an idea of the general feeling:
Suspend the constitution, conduct door-to-door searches of EVERY private residence in the United States and confiscate ALL guns – YES, rifles too! And then melt them ALL down.
We need to restrict movies, TV, and video games that glorify violence.
Do any of you honestly believe that there could have been anything done by this sleepy, little Connecticut town to prevent something like this from ever happening? Connecticut is already among the top five states with the most strict gun control laws, among the lowest for gun crime, and yet something like this still happened. The fact is that the man was a killer and if someone ever crosses a threshold to kill on a scale as this man had, then they would find a way to do it.
First the horror, then the compassion for the victims, the families. Then the rage against a people for whom having and using guns is a national pastime. How many senseless killings will it takes for the nation to awaken and revolt against the barbaric NRA type neanderthals running amok in the streets of America.
Every incidence of a shooting in a public place makes me more and more frustrated that we can’t have a serious political discussion about guns.
I feel such sadness for the children and their families, yet this is overridden by my anger at the NRA.
It’s really sad that it’s easier for a crazy person to buy a gun than it is to get proper mental healthcare.
What is the tipping point? When will Americans love their children more than they love their guns? How much more? How many more?
Everyone is right to one degree or another. But the answers to those questions, are, of course by now, 31 school shootings later, quite familiar: We are not supposed to talk about policies, but people, pundits and politicians remind us. We are not supposed to blame access to guns, but rather, the unstable individuals who purchase them for harm. We are not supposed to be mad at Hollywood, but rather, the people who cannot tell the difference between real life and the glamorized fantasy portrayed on screen. And we are not supposed to blame those angry, unstable young men, but rather, a mental healthcare system that failed them.
The problem is, none of that gets us any closer to an action to take, a plan to implement. Doing nothing is no longer an option, a frustration now part and parcel of the coverage of these events.
If we simply accept this kind of violence as the new normal, then what? Schools are more than just a vulnerable population of innocents — they are, for some people, symbols of their earliest exposure to the cruelty of fellow humans, badges for their failures, some of their first experiences with alienation, marginalization and the judgment of others.
For the mentally unstable, that symbol has proven to be a particularly irresistible outlet for revenge fantasies. Isn’t it time we regarded schools as the same vulnerable target as airplanes? Why are they not among our nation’s top-guarded entities? Because we simply cannot accept that they are no longer innocent places?
If we will not implement gun control, and will not make mental health a universal, destigmatized resource, then the least we can do is protect the most obvious targets of the mentally unstable people who commit these crimes. Because otherwise, our only choice is to become as jaded to this terrorism as we have to every other “unsolvable” issue in this country, i.e., issue at which we have reached another political, partisan impasse: homelessness, poverty, immigration, sexism, racism. Remember? There was a time all those things floored us too, when all those things seemed like unspeakable horrors. And their continued presence in our every day lives is the price we pay for our complacency.
- For Sandy Hook’s sake: learning from the tragedy of Newtown | Michael Williams (guardian.co.uk)
- How Will NRA Explain Away Gun Shooting At Elementary School In Newtown, Connecticut? (dekerivers.wordpress.com)
- In the Shadow of Sandy Hook, a Pro-Gun Organization Keeps Silent (nation.time.com)
- NRA Under Twitter, Facebook Attack After Newtown Shootings (huffingtonpost.com)
- In the Shadow of Sandy Hook, a Powerful Pro-Gun Organization Keeps Silent (nation.time.com)
- Regarding Sandy Hook… (therealkenjones.wordpress.com)
- Is a Crisis in White Masculinity Leading to Horrific Gun Crimes Like the Sandy Hook Shootings? (alternet.org)
- Mike Huckabee Blames Sandy Hook Shooting On Absence of God in Schools (atlantablackstar.com)
- School killer’s mom made irresponsible, and fatal, mistake (star-telegram.com) | <urn:uuid:30374915-982a-4924-a9aa-5759fe225583> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theageofblasphemy.wordpress.com/category/survivalism/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939768 | 1,129 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Paolo Gabriele, the former butler to Pope Benedict XVI who was convicted Saturday of leaking the pontiff’s personal papers, has been sentenced to year and half in prison–but he’s unlikely to serve any time. Minutes after prosecutors declared Gabriele guilty of aggravated theft, Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson, told journalists assembled for the trial that a pardon by the Pope was a “likely hypothesis.” He added, “I can say this without fear of being contradicted.”
It was a trial in which the pontiff was at the same time the victim, the person in whose name the crime had been committed, the authority under which the proceedings were being held—the judgment was delivered “in the name of His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, gloriously reigning” — and the ultimate arbiter of whether the sentence will be carried out.
With Gabriele having confessed, the outcome of the case was never really in doubt; expectations of a conviction followed by a papal pardon were widespread even before the trial began. Dressed in a light suit, the former butler showed little emotion during the last day of the week-long proceedings. “Nobody knows what he’s feeling inside, but externally he was impassive,” said one of the eight journalists who were admitted to courtroom on behalf of the assembled press corps, on the condition that they remain anonymous in their personal accounts. At the end of the trial, the president of the court asked the former butler whether he felt innocent or guilty. Gabriele responded, “The thing that I feel strongly inside me is the conviction of having acted out of exclusive—I’d say visceral—love for the church of Christ and its visible head [the Pope]. … I don’t feel like a thief.”
In his closing arguments, the Vatican prosecutor Nicola Picardi urged that Gabriele be sentenced to three years in prison and banned for life from employment in any office where he could commit a similar crime. In her response, Gabriele’s attorney Cristiana Arru sought to cast doubt on the rigor of Vatican investigators. The butler, she argued, had only photocopied documents—he hadn’t removed them from the control of their rightful owners—and thus could not be guilty of theft. But the real mitigating factor, she argued, was that Gabriele had been acting in good faith. “You could see that his motivation was to do something positive for the church, not damage it” she said. “He thought that the holy father wasn’t sufficiently informed.” She closed by requesting that the charges be reduced to misappropriation or that failing that, that Gabriele be given the minimum sentence. “What he did is condemnable,” she added.” But he was compelled by the evil that he saw.”
Speaking to journalists after the trial, Lombardi twice stressed that despite statements by Gabriele before his arrest that “at least 20 people” were involved in the scandal, Picardi had found no evidence that the butler had acted in concord with others. “The important thing is that there was no proof of accomplices,” said Lombardi. Only one other person is currently facing charges in relation to the case, a computer specialist employed by the Vatican named Claudio Sciarpelletti, who stands accused of harboring documents and giving them to the butler. Lombardi said he expected his trial would take place in November.
The judges deliberated for two hours before returning with the sentence: three years in prison, reduced to one and half. Among the mitigating factors cited was Gabriele’s clean record, his years of previous service and his motivation for acting, which “though erroneous,” contributed to the reduction in his sentence. Gabriele was also ordered to pay the court costs.
Gabriele is to remain in house arrest during the three days in which his lawyer can appeal the ruling. In closed circuit footage piped into the room in the Vatican where journalists were watching the sentencing, Gabriele could be seen being led from the courtroom. As he passed in front of the camera, there was a moment when he seemed to turn towards the public and smile. | <urn:uuid:0994a30e-506f-4402-86b9-d6520ec7aa25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://world.time.com/2012/10/06/the-vatican-sentences-the-popes-butler-is-a-pardon-on-the-way/?xid=rss-topstories | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984975 | 901 | 1.585938 | 2 |
"Think we’ll be able to see it from here?"
Working three miles from Washington-Dulles Airport meant that my coworkers and I had a pretty good chance of seeing Discovery, especially from the top floors of our building, and potential viewing locations were a frequent topic of discussion in the days leading up to its arrival.
Not wanting to take a chance, I decided to head to the Udvar-Hazy Center, the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum annex near the airport to watch Discovery arrive. The parking lot was opened at 8 AM, and by the time I arrived an hour later, almost all two thousand spaces were filled. The crowds had spread out in search of viewing spots, and I decided to head for the berm that flanked the museum.
The crowds gathered in downtown D.C. were treated to a show as the pair soared over the Mall, swooping past the Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the White House for three loops before heading back to land at Dulles.
On Thursday, Discovery will be officially transferred to the Smithsonian, and Ars will be on hand for the transfer ceremony.
Listing image by Photograph by Elle Cayabyab Gitlin | <urn:uuid:0ddc53b2-3509-48cb-aca7-e009272f433c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/04/welcome-discovery/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967249 | 246 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Hualien County is located at the east of the Central Mountains . Narrowly shaped, Hualien County has an area of 4,628.5714 km 2 and a population of approximately 350,000 people. The administrative district comprises one city, two townships and ten villages.
The “Hualien County Tax Revenue Office” (henceforth the “Office”) was established in March 1946 in Hualien County . Subsequently in January the following year, Fonglin and Yuli branches were set up responsible for handling national, provincial and county taxation affairs. The Fonglin branch ceased operation in October 1951. Commencing from 1992, the levying of national taxes including the income tax, security transactions tax, commodity tax, estate and gift tax was taken over by the National Tax Administration of Northern Taiwan, Ministry of Finance. On January 15, 2000, the Office came under the management of the Hualien County Government pursuant to regulations governing the local systems. The total number of employees amounted to 130 people, responsible for handling the levying of local taxes (land value tax, agricultural land tax, land value increment tax, construction benefit fee , house tax, vehicle license tax, amusement tax stamp tax and deed tax). Taxation affairs are extremely complex. Not only shall the levying of tax be in compliance with regulations, it must also be fair. In relation to the tax levying procedures, we regard taxpayers' rights and welfares as our most important consideration and the quality of services to taxpayers as the top priority. We continually review, improve and streamline our processes with the aim of giving taxpayers sound education on the various tax levies instead of imposing penalties on infringements. With our enthusiasm and friendly services, we hope to establish a sound relationship with our citizens in order to successfully promote our various tax affairs.
|The Head Office is responsible for the following areas:
Hualien City, Shoufeng Village, Jian Village, Fonglin Township, Hsincheng Village, Kuangfu Village, Shiulin Village, Wanrong Village and Fongbin Village.
The Yuli Branch is responsible for:
Rueisuei Village , Yuli Township , Jhuosi Village and Fuli Village | <urn:uuid:312181aa-0361-409d-964d-2ac2cce8ca64> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hltb.gov.tw/core/eng/inpage.php?pageId=593&fPrint=Y | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936284 | 461 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Some of the larger businesses that were impacted by the recent Japanese earthquake were able to overcome the disaster and recover remarkably quickly.
How did some companies recover so fast? By being both prepared and working with resources outside of their companies, such as vendors and building the redundancy into the manufacturing and supply chain processes.
In a recent article written by Michael Koploy titled The Post-Tsunami Supply Chain All-Stars | Who Recovered the Fastest and How? he details how some of these companies overcame the worst earthquake in Japanese history.
Check out his article to glean more insight in what these companies did differently and learn what you should be doing at your business. | <urn:uuid:60739d76-9020-4d41-a50c-c4b55aa9596a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://disasterpreparednessblog.com/disaster-preparedness-blog/tag/japan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986588 | 135 | 1.640625 | 2 |
View Full Version : deer ticks
I was able to hunt in Canada and in upstate New York this year. I had a great hunt in Canada taking a large ten pointer(my best deer.) I was not as lucky in NY, but several of my friends got deer. In Canada, 80 miles north of Toronto, there is no sign or talk of deer ticks. When we hunted NY we had do a tick check everyday. I was lucky and didn't find any on me, but several others had ticks on them daily and every deer harvested was loaded with them. We layed a large plastic under the deer when we hung them up. The next morning there were alot of ticks that fell off as the deer became cold. I know several people in NY that are on medication for Lyme tick. Has anyone else experenced this problem this year? Is this just on the East coast or across the country?
We have 'em down here in Georgia. I'm lucky though, they don't like me. I have never had one stay on me. they have climbed on me and jumped off, but wont bite. Not that I am complaining...
If you hunt or frequent the outdoors in areas of Lyme disease, you may want to see how much the vaccination costs. Check the local Public Health Office. Still need to use bug repellent, close off entry ways on clothing and protect others from ticks from your kill.
my son-inlaw's neighbor is a pharmacist and he said that the shots for lyme tick arn't as effective as people think. How much time in the woods do you need to spend to warrent getting a shot for ticks. I have one friend,retired, who spends most of the year hunting and fishing across the country that got the shot. He says it seems to work for him, atleast no lyme tick yet
Well, the individual must answer the question is the vaccine a benefit for them and what is the risk. It was suggested as an option. As far as effectiveness, I would try to get some more opinions. Maybe from an Infectious Disease Specialist. If I can find anything else I'll post it to you.
vBulletin® v3.8.7, Copyright ©2000-2013, vBulletin Solutions, Inc. | <urn:uuid:2026dc3d-ddce-455e-b1da-cbbb85a04db1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://glocktalk.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-207486.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985047 | 474 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Back in 1982, John Flansburgh, John Linnell, and a drum machine formed They Might Be Giants. Over the last 29 years TMBG have released 15 studio albums, won 2 Grammy Awards, and have become one of the most nerd-loved bands ever. In addition to projects like Dial-A-Song, TMBG were one of the first bands to create their own online music store, and have been making podcasts on a semi-monthly basis since 2005. The band has agreed to answer all your questions about the naming conventions of Turkish cities, building spiritual bird houses, and the music business. As usual, ask as many questions as you'd like, but please keep it to one question per post.
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A few weeks back, we posted a story here that described Koomey's Law, which (in the spirit of Moore's Law) identifies a long-standing trend in computer technology. While Moore's prediction centers on the transistor density of microprocessors, Jonathan Koomey focuses instead on computing efficiency — in a nutshell, computing power per watt, rather than only per square nanometer. In particular, he asserts that the energy efficiency of computing doubles every 1.5 years. (He points out that calling this a "law" isn't his idea, or his doing — but it's sure a catchy turn of phrase.) Koomey has agreed to respond to your questions about his research and conclusions in the world of computing efficiency. Please observe the Slashdot interview guidelines: ask as many questions as you want, but please keep them to one per comment.
Attorney Jennifer Granick has defended many high profile hackers, including researcher Christopher Soghoian, creator of a fake boarding pass generator (2006); Michael Lynn versus Cisco/ISS (2005); Jerome Heckenkamp; and Luke Smith and Nelson Pavlosky in Online Policy Group v. Diebold Election Systems (now Premier Election Solutions), a copyright misuse case related to electronic voting. Granick also won an exemption from the U.S. Copyright Office in 2006 allowing phone unlocking despite the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which set the stage for renewal of the exemption and for the jailbreaking exemption in 2009. At Stanford, Granick worked with Lawrence Lessig on constitutional copyright cases and taught six years worth of law students about computers, technology and civil liberties. While Civil Liberties Director at the EFF, Granick started the Coders' Rights Project and participated in litigation against ATT and the federal government for violation of surveillance regulations. Now an attorney at ZwillGen PLLC, Granick assists individuals and companies creating new products and services. And now, she's graciously agreed to answer your questions. Please, as usual, ask as many questions as you'd like, but confine each question to a separate post.
Last week you asked the Director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Eben Upton, about developing an ultra-low-cost computer and running a charitable organization. Below you'll find his answers. Thanks go out to a busy Eben for responding so quickly.
Last week, you asked Kevin Mitnick questions about his past, his thoughts on ethics and disclosure, and his computer set-up. He's graciously responded; read on for his answers. (No dice on the computer set-up, though.) Thanks, Kevin.
When Eben Upton isn't working as an ASIC architect for Broadcom, he is the Director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The foundation is a UK registered charity which exists to promote the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level. Raspberry Pi plans to develop, manufacture and distribute an ultra-low-cost computer, for use in teaching computer programming to children. Their first product is about the size of a credit card, and is designed to plug into a TV or be combined with a touch screen for a low cost tablet. The expected price is $25 for a baseline Model A device, and $35 for a Model B device with integrated 2-port USB Hub, 10/100 Ethernet controller and 128MB of additional RAM. Eben has agreed to answer your questions about what it takes to make an ultra-low-cost computer, running an educational charity, or anything else. The usual Slashdot interview guidelines apply: ask as many questions as you want, but please keep them to one per comment.
Kevin Kelly ("Senior Maverick for Wired Magazine," among many other things) is back with answers to a selection of the questions posed to him by Slashdot readers. Read on below for his take on travel, the Long Now Foundation (including the 10,000-year clock — clocks! — that is among the foundation's projects), the future of fusion, and what to do about inevitable widespread suckage.
The hacker with perhaps the most famous first name around, Kevin Mitnick, has gone from computer hacking of the sort that gets one on the FBI's Most Wanted list (and into years of solitary confinement) to respected security consultant and author, helping people minimize the sort of security holes he once exploited for fun. His new book is called Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker; it's his first since the expiration of an agreement that he could not profit from books written about his criminal activity. Kevin's agreed to answer your questions; we'll pass the best ones on to him, and print his answers when they're ready. Note: Kevin also answered Slashdot questions most of a decade ago; that's a good place to start. Please observe the Slashdot interview guidelines: ask as many questions as you want, but please keep them to one per comment.
Kevin Kelly has for decades been involved in some of the most interesting projects I know about, and in his roles as founding editor (and now editor at large) of Wired Magazine and editor of The Whole Earth Catalog has helped spread the word about many others. Kelly is probably as close to a Rennaisance man as it's possible to be in the 21st century, having more-than-passing interest and knowledge in a range of topics from genetic sequencing and other ways that we can use measurement in pursuit of improved health to how technology is used and reused in real life. Among other projects, he's also the founder of CoolTools, which I consider to be (unsurprisingly) the closest current equivalent to the old Whole Earth Catalogs. (Disclaimer: I've had a few reviews published there, too.) (He's also one of the founders of The WELL, now part of Salon.) Kelly is also Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Long Now Foundation, the group which for years has been designing a clock to ring on 10,000 years in the future. Below, ask questions of Kelly, bearing in mind please the Slashdot interview guidelines: ask as many questions as you want, but please keep them to one per comment. He'll get back soon with his answers.
Last week, you asked questions (many rather pointed!) of Amir Taaki, co-founder of Bitcoin Consultancy, which develops Bitcoin related services, exchanges and Bitcoin itself. (They also own Britcoin.co.uk.) Says Taaki: "When creating video games I spent much time imagining tools to make artists lives easier, and how we could keep funding developers to write free software. One contribution of mine to the community was a site where developers could get funded for developing features and I'd love nothing more than to pay people to write free software." With regard to Bitcoin, similarly, "We need fulltime developers thinking about the problems and solutions needed to keep this system running. We aim to get all the creative thinkers from the community and provide a mechanism for enabling their work." Below find his answers to the questions readers raised.
"Bitcoin," says the project's website, "is a peer-to-peer currency. Peer-to-peer means that no central authority issues new money or tracks transactions." Wikipedia offers a readable explanation of the underlying technology. In (very) short, Bitcoin uses a distributed database and public key encryption to allow users to reassign ownership of units of Bitcoin currency (BTC), and does so in a way that can keep the user's identity private. Bitcoin isn't yet accepted the way credit cards are, but it's more than theoretical. You can buy (some) things with Bitcoin, and trade the currency itself. Now, you can ask question about Bitcoin of Amir Taaki, a developer of client interfaces and stock trading software for Bitcoin, and owner and operator of trading exchange Britcoin.co.uk. Amir requests that questions focus not "so much on the mining (too many people get focused on that when it's a minor aspect of Bitcoin) nor simple technical questions (people can go find that info themselves on Wikipedia/the forums/sourcecode)," but rather on the harder-to-answer questions. Reading some of the related stories listed below may give you ideas on what those are. Standard Slashdot Interview rules apply: ask as many questions as you want, but please keep them to one per comment. Amir will get back with his answers.
Last week you asked some questions of musician and programmer Jonathan Coulton. He's answered your inquiries about the music industry, video games, and being an ex-code monkey. Read below to see what he had to say.
Even though he created the definitive guide to enjoying yourself outside, Jonathan Coulton is best known for the programmer anthem Code Monkey, his Thing a Week project, and writing the theme song to Portal. In 2005 Coulton left his programming job to pursue his music career, and has since become a successful one man music label. Jonathan has agreed to answer your questions about robots, life, and internet stardom. Normal Slashdot interview rules apply.
As World of Warcraft prepares for the launch of its third expansion, Cataclysm, on December 7th, the design team is busily trying to finish all the new high level content, the destruction and rebuilding of Azeroth, and major changes to many of the game's systems and classes. At Blizzcon we spoke with Greg Street (a.k.a. Ghostcrawler), Lead Systems Designer for WoW, about Blizzard's goals for this expansion, the problems they're trying to solve, reasoning for the creation of a few new features, and why they aren't willing to simply throw more people at complicated projects. Read on for our discussion about World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
The StarCraft 2 team spent most of Blizzcon talking about the map editor and custom games. We spoke with Alan Dabiri, a Lead Software Engineer for Wings of Liberty who worked on the user interface and helped out on the game's integration with Battle.net. He provided some more details about plans for making the map editor more approachable, the coming updates for Battle.net (including chat channels), and a bit about the development of Heart of the Swarm, the Zerg-themed expansion being worked on now. Read on for our conversation about StarCraft 2. | <urn:uuid:addf45b1-5d38-4f01-be8b-7206cc3009ec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://interviews.slashdot.org/index2.pl?section=&color=green&index=1&view=stories&duration=-1&startdate=20111001 | 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 | 0.964549 | 2,257 | 1.71875 | 2 |
HOUSTON (AP) - The cost of demolishing the vacant Astrodome and building a parking lot in its place would be about $29 million.
That's according to a study commissioned by the Houston Texans and the city's Livestock Show and Rodeo. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and the county's commissioners received copies of the study on Monday.
The Astrodome sits unused and decaying next to Reliant Stadium. The study recommended simply imploding the stadium at a cost of $7.3 million; the rest of the cost includes surveys and engineering expenses.
The study says the entire project could be completed within 2½ years.
KRIV-TV first reported the details of the study, performed by construction firms The Linbeck Group and Walter P. Moore. | <urn:uuid:143a9e41-1fb0-4369-9528-33f20f689c22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kbtx.com/sports/headlines/New-study-outlines-cost-of-demolishing-Astrodome-199075691.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953988 | 162 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Getting Nissan quality right from the start: Nissan's chief product planner talks about infusing quality into the product before it's made, the importance of a consistent "feel" and the limits of platform sharing."In the product planning Product Planning is the ongoing process of identifying and articulating market requirements that define a product’s feature set. See also
n. 1. Same as Lorry, or Lorrie. Dominique Dom·i·nique also Dom·i·nick
One of a breed of American domestic fowl having gray, barred plumage, yellow legs, and a rose-colored comb.
Noun 1. , vice president, Product Planning, Nissan Noun 1. Nissan - the seventh month of the civil year; the first month of the ecclesiastic year (in March and April)
Hebrew calendar, Jewish calendar - (Judaism) the calendar used by the Jews; dates from 3761 BC (the assumed date of the Creation of the North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . The PQ portion of the equation rests squarely square·ly
1. Mathematics At right angles: sawed the beam squarely.
2. In a square shape.
3. in Dominique's group, and has evolved over the past five years such that a fairly rigorous set of goals are created for each vehicle that Nissan brings to market. "Every vehicle has a quality target," he says, "but we can't just dump it on the engineers and manufacturing guys and hope it happens. We have to work with them from the start of the process to make sure we hit our goals."
Dominique admits to not being a PQ expert, but to employing a large team of them. Together these engineers, product planners, and designers take the targets set for 22 separate attributes and begin their evaluations at the clay model stage. "They can give an assessment of how the finished vehicle will look, especially in terms of fit and finish, at this stage," he says. "They may tell you that the design will not work as presented, or they will critique the switch placement, and these elements will be refined as the program progresses." Much of this work is conducted at the digital review stage, and involves a full review of the chosen materials and processes. "Once the design is set," says Dominique, "we look at how to transition to executing to that perceived quality goal, and that means working very closely with the engineers."
Dominique readily admits that Nissan was heavily criticized for the interior quality of the vehicles introduced between 2001 and 2003, and rightly so. This pushed the PQ group to expand the virtual phase of the program for the simple reason that adding supports or making material changes at this stage costs nothing. "It's it's
1. Contraction of it is.
2. Contraction of it has. See Usage Note at its.
it's it is or it has
it's be ~have still not a fully refined process," he admits, "but it has allowed us to make a big step forward in quality in our latest vehicles, and what we've learned from the process thus far will be integrated into our next generation of vehicles."
The targets the PQ group aims for are corporate in nature, and demand that he first gets a sign-off from his North American North American
named after North America.
North American blastomycosis
see North American blastomycosis.
North American cattle tick
see boophilusannulatus. bosses before taking these results to Japan for global approval. "There can be variations because of the different expectations you find in different regions," he says, "but it's unacceptable to miss the target. That gives us a lot of momentum to invest the money to reach the goal rather than save 50 cents. We have to hit that number." On one recent program, the program director didn't want to spend the money necessary to coat the part of the exhaust system Noun 1. exhaust system - system consisting of the parts of an engine through which burned gases or steam are discharged
automobile engine - the engine that propels an automobile visible from directly behind the car. "It detracted from the appearance of the car, so--with executive approval--we added a dollar to coat that piece so it looked better," he says.
This isn't to say that the look of the exhaust system is one of the 22 PQ items the team studies. It is, in fact, one of hundreds of data points that make up the 22 targets. "It's possible," says Dominique, "to have 15 points under one of those main headings, and to have one of those points under that heading not be met yet still reach the aggregate necessary to move forward." That's because the data points are under continuous review and the weighting changes based on in which segment and category the vehicle competes. "There are certain expectations customers in each segment have, and we break those main attributes down and weight them based on these expectations," says Dominique. This means that vehicles in different segments are judged by different standards, Nissan and Infiniti vehicles are measured differently than their competitors based on customer expectations for the brand, and--in the future--the gap between the Nissan and Infiniti brands will be wider. "The tactile tactile /tac·tile/ (tak´til) pertaining to touch.
1. Perceptible to the sense of touch; tangible.
2. Used for feeling.
3. response of Infiniti switches will be different than for our Nissan products," says Dominique, "and how these same switches react compared to a Mercedes will be different as well. It will be what a customer expects of the Infiniti brand."
Part of this change is being driven by Nissan's global launch of the Infiniti brand. "No matter where you drive a BMW BMW
in full Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
German automaker. Founded as an aircraft engine manufacturer in 1916, the company assumed the name Bayerische Motoren Werke and became known for its high-speed motorcycles in the 1920s. , it feels pretty much the same. We want the same for Infiniti and Nissan as well," says Dominique. That doesn't mean there won't be Europe-specific, Japan-specific, or North America-specific Infiniti and Nissan models. It does mean, however, that a customer from any of those regions would be able to tell instantly that the car he was driving belonged in the Nissan or Infiniti stable. That will be easier in the future, he says, because there will be less sharing between the two brands. For example, the Infiniti QX56 and Nissan Armada The Nissan Armada (formerly called the Pathfinder Armada) is Nissan's full-size sport utility vehicle. It shares its body-on-frame F-Alpha platform with the Nissan Titan pickup truck, Nissan Xterra SUV, Nissan Frontier pickup truck, and Nissan Pathfinder SUV. share a platform today, "in the next generation they won't." Yet Dominique sees a future with myriad Myriad is a classical Greek name for the number 104 = 10 000. In modern English the word refers to an unspecified large quantity.
The term myriad is a progression in the commonly used system of describing numbers using tens and hundreds. vehicles off a common platform selling 50,000 to 100,000 vehicles per year--or less. "The number of vehicles in this volume range is skyrocketing," he says, "but it doesn't increase the amount of research my team must do." In part that's because the vehicle is separate from the platform at the concept stage. "I don't care
"Don't Care" is a 1994 (see 1994 in music) single by American death metal band Obituary. what the platform is," he says firmly. "It's Engineering's job to find a design solution for me."
At times, there isn't a simple solution and a new platform must be considered. "We don't want to invest $500-million on a new platform for one vehicle," he imparts. "It's not cost-effective cost-effective,
n the minimal expenditure of dollars, time, and other elements necessary to achieve the health care result deemed necessary and appropriate. , and it doesn't make sense." However, that may change rapidly if the vehicles loaded into the five-year product cycle and changing global requirements can benefit. "When we need to go unique, I go up through the product planning process and the executive committee either approves the investment or they don't based on the return on investment." And the process begins again.
Christopher A. Sawyer
by Christopher A. Sawyer | <urn:uuid:c782b229-21db-487c-83ab-48c533f2472e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Getting+Nissan+quality+right+from+the+start%3A+Nissan's+chief+product...-a0161400531 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949564 | 1,831 | 1.757813 | 2 |
The Stray Possum Lodge
Cape Barrier Road, Tryphena, 991, New Zealand
More about Great Barrier Island
Inside the bathhouse
View from the start of the path to the Kauri Dams
The bathhouse and outside shower/bath
Bathhouse and outdoor shower
Travel Tips for Great Barrier Island
A Kereru in the bush outside my window
The close picture was taken from the guest room window at the GBI house I was visiting. Mike took the picture of the pigeons in a tree while hiking (tramping) in nature on Great Barrier Island. These rare and indangered wood pigeons are called Kererus.The following web site has some better quality pictures of the Kereru and more information: http://www.tiritirimatangi.org.nz/Fauna/PigeonNZ.htm]
Friendly info for free!
The local tourist information office is only open during the summer months, generally from around Christmas and staying open for approximately 3 months or so, depending largely on how busy the season is. You can get information on accommodation, where to rent a car, walks, wildlife and more. And you can buy a Great Barrier Island tee shirt too! Lots of great info, and friendly and helpful service. Just up the road from the wharf at Port Fitzroy, between the library and the general store.
Kayaking and snorkelling
The kayaking people in Tryphena are really friendly and fun. You can go out on your own or (as I did) go out in a double with the guide. I went with Jane, a cheery, chatty Canadian who is running the place and I really enjoyed it. I also hired a wetsuit and snorkel for a couple of days from them.
Also on the other side of the island if you go past Claris and keep on until you cross a small bridge there are kayaks for hire there too. You can go up the river towards the wetlands or down river and come out on Kaitoke beach. Nice way to pass an hour or so. You can hire it all on the Barrier.
Go dive. Go snorkel.
The waters around the island are clean and clear and worth exploring. You will find crayfish hiding in the rocks, kina (a spiny sea urchin and Maori delicacy) and scallops - yum! Bring scuba and snorkel gear (unfortunately I don't think there is anywhere on the island that you can hire this sort of thing, so it is best to bring your own). There is a dive information station at Port Fitzroy, right by the wharf where you can hire dive tanks or get your own filled.
Hike to the Top of the Hill
After a long hike (tramp) Mike and Dave made it to the top of a hill and took these pictures to share the amazing views overlooking the coast and lush green bush clad hills of Great Barrier Island.
Dave is pictured standing on Needle Rock, between Medlands Beach (in the back ground) and Tryphena town in the south of the Great Barrier Island. About 1000 ft ASL. And Mike is also pictured standing on Needle rock, but at a different angle, with Tryphena harbor in the background and the Cape Colville peninsular in the back ground. | <urn:uuid:26d31ff4-b0f9-4d10-bb1d-9743a14b1376> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.virtualtourist.com/hotels/Australia_and_Oceania/New_Zealand/North_Island/Auckland_Region/Great_Barrier_Island-1883560/Hotels_and_Accommodations-Great_Barrier_Island-The_Stray_Possum_Lodge-BR-1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943852 | 703 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Surah / Chapter
Surat Ţāhā (Ta-Ha) - سورة طه
Sahih International[Saying], 'Cast him into the chest and cast it into the river, and the river will throw it onto the bank; there will take him an enemy to Me and an enemy to him.' And I bestowed upon you love from Me that you would be brought up under My eye.
Sahih International[And We favored you] when your sister went and said, 'Shall I direct you to someone who will be responsible for him?' So We restored you to your mother that she might be content and not grieve. And you killed someone, but We saved you from retaliation and tried you with a [severe] trial. And you remained [some] years among the people of Madyan. Then you came [here] at the decreed time, O Moses. | <urn:uuid:7218163b-57d3-49a2-b736-5cd9f592993b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://quran.com/20/35-41 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953772 | 188 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Inside a Santeria Feast Day
|A suburban Dallas Santeria feast ceremony|
The case was ultimately heard by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and decided in Merced's favor. But all is not quiet again in the sleepy neighborhood: The city still has the option to appeal to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Merced has resumed his religion's practices.
As an online extra, we're including photographs in this slide show, shot inside Merced's home on the day after 40 animals were sacrificed to the Santeria gods. The animals have been cooked and prepared, and it's a day of celebration and feast. | <urn:uuid:943541a4-58ec-4425-b660-7e57eed2c3ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2009/10/inside_a_santeria_feast_day_in.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97068 | 128 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The Louisiana Board of Regents approved the LSU Energy Law Center in August.
Chancellor Jack M. Weiss discussed the plans in a recent interview with NOLA.com and The Times-Picayune.
He said the need for the program became apparent as he had conversations with alumni.
“It occurred to me that the importance of energy in Louisiana, job offers for students and issues in the state, that the program would be beneficial at LSU,” Weiss said.
The center plans to offer courses in geology, petroleum engineering, nuclear sciences, coastal sciences, environment science and chemical engineering. However, Weiss said, oil and gas will remain at the core of the program.
John Laborde, an LSU alumnus and retired CEO of Tidewater Inc., has agreed to donate $2 million to the energy law center. The money will be used to establish a distinguished chair in Laborde’s name that will allow the center to attract leading figures in the industry to occupy the chair; and to creating a challenge fund to attract more donors.
“I’m very hopeful that the donation will help the law center at LSU, to keep growing and improving academically,” he said.
Weiss said the program is aiming for an official launch two or three academic years from now.
Robert Sloan will serve as the initial director of the energy law center. Sloan, who has 40 years of legal experience across the world, will bring a wide-range of professional and international perspective to the directorship of the center. Sloan has recently served as the executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of Entergy Corporation in New Orleans. | <urn:uuid:119b8e86-3c71-47b2-838e-49155ac059c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stmarynow.com/pages/full_story/push?article-LSU+to+offer+specialized+study+in+energy+law+%20&id=20836574&instance=news_special_coverage_right_column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958721 | 339 | 1.578125 | 2 |
A 12-story office tower under construction near San Diego's Montgomery Field is causing jitters among pilots and alarm in city, state and federal agencies because it extends into a landing path that private planes use in bad weather.
For six months, the Federal Aviation Administration has been warning that the building is a hazard that will have a “substantial adverse effect on the safe (operation)” of the city-owned airport in Kearny Mesa.
HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune
Some pilots say Sunroad Enterprises' 12-story office tower under construction, seen in the lower left corner of this aerial photo, presents a hazard during bad-weather landings at Kearny Mesa's Montgomery Field, which is visible at the top of the photo.
The FAA is powerless to stop construction because the building is a block outside the official airport boundary.
The California Department of Transportation is so concerned about the building that it is considering getting a court order to halt its construction.
The state agency sent the developer, Sunroad Enterprises, a warning in late September: “If an aircraft accident occurs at the site of the (building) because of this violation, you are assuming all liability for the accident.”
Ten days ago, the city's Department of Land Use and Economic Development – which approved the building plans in 1997 – ordered that work on the top two stories be halted until safety issues could be worked out with the FAA and the state. The San Diego City Attorney's Office said the city had no choice, because the FAA warning described the building as a hazard to air traffic.
Sunroad's vice president for development, Tom Story, says he is confident that once the talks are over, the $45 million building, which already is framed, will remain at its current height.
Barbara Lichman, an attorney for the San Diego-based company, said that if there were problems with the building, the city should have identified and raised them before it granted the permits.
“I want to make it clear we didn't pull the wool over anybody's eyes,” Lichman said. “We met every land-use standard of the city's permitting process.”
Background: The Federal Aviation Administration has declared a 12-story building under construction near Montgomery Field a hazard to airplanes landing at the Kearny Mesa airport in bad weather. That flight path takes planes within 400 feet of the building, and is used for about 10 percent of all landings.
What's happening: The city has ordered work on the upper two floors halted while the safety issues raised by the FAA are addressed.
The project: The developer, Sunroad Enterprises, is well into the planning stages for two more buildings in the complex that will be even taller when completed.
The 180-foot-tall building exceeds the FAA height limit for the area near the airport by 20 feet. Two adjacent buildings are planned that will be even taller: one at 200 feet, the other at 220 feet.
The Sunroad project won't interfere with the most common landing path used by the hundreds of small planes that touch down at the airport every day.
When pilots use the flight plan that the FAA requires for low clouds or windy weather, they fly within 400 feet of the first building – so close that some pilots say they'll be able to see office workers through the building's windows.
“You drop out of the clouds and it's in your face,” said Jon Real, who flies in and out of Montgomery Field two or three times a week for his freight-delivery business.
Real likens the Sunroad building to dropping a 5,000-pound boulder in the middle of a freeway and then putting up warning signs.
“Sooner or later, there's going to be an accident,” he said.
The controversy over the Sunroad buildings highlights jurisdictional problems involving land use around airports at a time when real estate is becoming scarce and vastly more valuable.
HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune
Rick Beach of Point Loma prepared to land his Cirrus SR22 on runway 10 at Montgomery Field, an approach that takes pilots within 400 feet of the 12-story tower as they come in for bad-weather landings. Two additional buildings planned for the Sunroad complex would be even taller.
“This is an issue so many airports and communities are wrestling with – the competing priorities of the airports and the land around them,” said Angela Shafer-Payne, vice president for strategic planning for the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority. “It's a tough balancing act.”
Because the building falls just outside the Airport Authority's jurisdiction, the agency is powerless to intervene. Shafer-Payne said the Airport Authority would have opposed the building if it had been consulted by the city.
The bad-weather approach accounts for about 10 percent of the landings at Montgomery Field. Last year, there were 245,086 takeoffs and landings of light planes, small corporate jets and helicopters at the airport, which is open around the clock.
Pilot Rick Beach said that even without the Sunroad building, the circling approach can be challenging, because so much happens so fast.
The decision to use the bad-weather approach is usually made when a plane is about five minutes from the airport; by then it is over El Cajon on the prescribed east-to-west approach.
In the final minute before landing, the pilot drops the plane out of the clouds a few hundred feet above the ground, spots the runway visually and then begins the final sweeping turn.
In that minute, Beach said, the pilot must talk to the airport control tower, hold the plane steady, remain oriented to the runway, look out for other planes and mentally go though a checklist of landing procedures.
“Now throw on top all of that a building that you have to miss and you can understand the hazard it presents,” Beach said.
While officials ponder the building's future, the lower floors are being completed. Construction workers scurry about, pushing carts of supplies and lugging armloads of material. The high-pitched whine of pneumatic tools mixes with the clanking of hammers on metal.
HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune
San Diego's Department of Land Use and Economic Development has ordered a halt to work on the top two stories of Sunroad Enterprises' 12-story office tower until safety issues are resolved. The FAA says the $45 million building is a hazard to air traffic.
The building is on pace to be finished by summer.
The office towers are part of a $1 billion project on the site of the former General Dynamics rocket-building facility at state Route 163 and Clairemont Mesa Boulevard.
The 232-acre development was approved in 1997 after a nearly six-year planning process that included public hearings, an environmental report, traffic studies and economic impact assessments.
Yet through it all, the issue of tall buildings going up one mile northwest of one of the county's busiest airports was never considered, said Kelly Broughton, deputy director of the city's Development Services Department. Broughton said that because the building was outside the airport's jurisdiction, the city wasn't required to consider what effect the structure would have on air traffic.
Despite the FAA's concerns, Broughton said he didn't see the building as a big safety hazard.
“Just because there is a tall building near an airport doesn't make it a safety issue,” he said.
In September, the state Department of Transportation stepped into the controversy. In a letter to Sunroad, the agency said California statutes require developers to obtain permits from the agency before erecting any structure that exceeds FAA obstruction standards – and Sunroad hasn't done that.
“Until you receive a permit from the Department, it is unlawful for you to proceed with construction,” the letter read.
Sunroad's lawyer has said the state doesn't have jurisdiction in the matter. Transportation officials are negotiating with the developer, but Caltrans spokesman Edward Cartagena said the agency would turn to the courts to stop construction if the developer refused to make changes.
Sunroad has been doing business in San Diego County since 1977. In addition to developing commercial, resort, residential and retail projects in California, Colorado and Mexico, it owns several local car dealerships, the Maderas golf course in Poway and a 609-slip marina in San Diego Harbor. After the 2003 wildfires, the company helped the city buy a fire-rescue helicopter, which is based at Montgomery Field.
'Not a reality'
The FAA requires that builders notify it at least 30 days before breaking ground for any structure that extends into the airspace around an airport.
Sunroad's notification to the FAA didn't arrive until April, after construction was under way. When the FAA expressed its concern, Sunroad agreed to reduce the building's height to the acceptable 160 feet. In June, the FAA withdrew its objections.
In August, Sunroad submitted another plan to the FAA, saying the building would, in fact, be 180 feet tall and that the framing was already up.
Tom Story, the Sunroad executive, believes his company will not be forced to alter its plans for the building, because it met all the city's planning and zoning requirements.
“It's not a reality to take two stories off,” he said.
Story said the complex's second building, which is in the pre-construction phase, would go up as planned, too. Making changes now would mean starting all over with new plans, and Story said that was an expense Sunroad wasn't willing to bear.
Story did promise the city's Airports Advisory Committee to consider making the complex's third tower wider and lower.
David Hasemyer: (619) 542-4583; [email protected] | <urn:uuid:12ae520b-4b0e-4ea9-9b19-fe43f3d7572a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061105/news_1n5tootall.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959756 | 2,055 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Thought for the Morning
"Take up your cross and follow me."
Jesus, in Matthew 16:24
There is an old song that speaks of the efforts we foolish mortals sometimes make to hide with a show of religious activity our refusal to do God's will. The song speaks of meeting a bleeding Jesus on the road of life, and of watching him carrying his heavy cross toward Calvary. It speaks of making a vain show of love by offering to carry Jesus' cross for him, and then . . . well, hear the words themselves:
"Oh, let me bear your cross, dear Lord, I cried.
And, lo! a cross for me appeared,
the one, forgotten, I had cast aside
the one so long that I had feared."
Making a show of service to God, offering service to God as we run from the cross that God appoints for us is but to play the hypocrite and hide our rebellion and pride. There is but one cross that any of us can carry rightly: the one God has given to us.
We can certainly never carry Jesus' cross. His cross was to suffer and died to make "a new and living way" for us to worship God, the way of "spirit and in truth". If we worship in a way other than the way Jesus purchased with his blood, if we worship in a way that he did not die for, it is only that we are trying to carry his cross for him, to make another way, and it is sin. God has a cross for each of us, but none of our crosses will be to suffer and die to bring about a new way to serve God. That cross belonged only to the Son of God, and by his sacrifice, he made available the new way of worshiping God: "in spirit and in truth". And part of everyone's cross is to forsake our own ideas of service to God and to worship as He has commanded through Christ. | <urn:uuid:1ec4bdfe-af2f-4c9b-bc9a-b6921e92b4f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goingtojesus.com/site/php/thoughts.php?tname=tfm12-16 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975962 | 404 | 1.648438 | 2 |
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Twain’s Haunted House in Hartford
Some of Twain’s happiest….and his most heartbreaking…years were spent in the home he built in 1874 in Hartford, Connecticut where he lived for 17 years with his wife and three daughters.
Susy, rumored to be Sam Clemens’s favorite child, died tragically in the home of spinal meningitis when she was 24 years old in 1896. Since opening as a museum in the 1960s, an apparition fitting Susy’s description is often reported in the Mark Twain House. The entity is wearing a long white period dress, and appears to be in her mid-20s.
Many of the tour guides, and often visitors, report hearing and seeing paranormal activity in Sam Clemens’s old home including the sounds of young children giggling, whispering, footsteps, shadows, loud banging, cold spots, objects moving, billiards being played in Twain’s billiard room/study, and stomping feet.
Tour guides have seen children going upstairs, although there were no children in the home at the time. One guide was holding a picture of Susy, when she looked up and saw an apparition of Susy running out of the drawing room door.
A guide and his entire tour heard a tremendous boom, but no one outside of the library heard the sound.
A woman on a tour at the home felt three tugs on her shirt, and heard children’s laughter, although there were no children around her at the time.
In the second floor nursery, the woman in a white period dress is often seen standing in the window from outside. The curtains on the window are often glimpsed to open and close. A photograph taken by a tourist shows the image of a woman and a child in the window. This same apparition often appears in Susy’s room, and walking down the hallway past Mark Twain’s bedroom.
When SyFy Channel’s Ghost Hunters visited Mark Twain’s home in 2009, they heard banging sounds, felt vibrations on the steps upon which they were sitting, saw a shadow, heard footsteps, heard a sound like a “bass drum” that echoed throughout the entire house, and heard the sound of a billiard ball being dropped on the floor coming from the billiard room. They also picked up high electromagnetic field readings.
A group of paranormal investigators called Givens Paranormal Investigations visited the home/museum in March of 2010, and picked up some interesting EVPs including “not your place,” and “enter” when they first walked into the basement. They also picked up a tapping noise.
In April of 2010, Lorraine Warren visited Mark Twain’s Home and saw the image of Susy lying on the bed. The image tried to grip Lorraine’s hand. Lorraine felt that the entity was desperately lonely and in need of solace and comfort.
Twain sold the home in Hartford in 1903. Returning to the house was unbearable after the death of Susy. For a time, starting in 1917, the house was a boarding school for boys. The house served as a coal warehouse in 1922; then became an apartment building until 1929, when it was saved by the Friends of Hartford organization.
The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut is open daily throughout the year.
SyFy Channel’s Ghost Hunters Season 5/Episode 23 Mark Twain’s House in Hartford, CT
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Website copyright © 2013 Minerva WebWorks LLC. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:e4c6289b-51a2-4859-90b0-3cb5c767ac96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art30898.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947258 | 846 | 1.632813 | 2 |
12 October 2012
“I hope it will excite the locals,” Damien Hirst tells the North Devon Gazette, “although I know everybody won’t love it, but I hope it will bring more tourists to the area and increase business for the local people.”
He talking about Verity,his 20 metre high statue of a naked pregnant woman, bearing aloft a trumphant sword, which he has loaned to North Devon Council for a period of 20 years.
“I wanted to take this existing sculpture and change it to make it stand for something important – for truth, “says Hirst.
I have my doubts about whether Verity will survive her entire loan period. She is, as Jonathan Jones has remarked, disturbingly like the statues commonly seen in totalitarian states. Jones hates Verity and thinks she marks ‘a dark age for British art.’ He draws a distinction between Verity and Hirst’s earlier work, his high estimation of which justfies this:
“When histories of modern Britain come to be written by later generations, it will be Hirst whose art shapes the image of these times.’
I dimly recall the Pre-Raphaelites felt the same way about Rossetti, just before everybody was struck dumb by Cezanne, Degas etc. Also Jones’s description of Hirst at his best includes the thought that he was driven by ‘a real obsession with mortality.’ If I ever meet a human being who isn’t driven by such an obsession, I will urge him or her to seek professional help. There is an unhelpful critical tradition in which truisms detected in a work – we are all going to die, peace is better than war and so on – are elevated to world-transforming aesthetic programmes. This is sometimes true when artists are at their worst – Philip Larkin, a very fine poet indeed, is merely dull when he whines about dying – but never true of great art.
Jones’s estimation of Hirst – an early good period, a late bad one – parallels my own estimation of Andy Warhol, a great artist between 1962 and 1968, the year he was shot, and an increasingly poor one thereafter. After 1968, Warhol was, for the most part, just playing the market. Hirst – and here’s the big, the critical, difference – has never done anything else.
Also Jones’s description of Hirst at his best includes the thought that he was driven by ‘a real obsession with mortality.’ If I ever meet a human being who isn’t driven by such an obsession, I will urge them to seek professional help.
This is not, in itself, a criticism. Hirst has always been frank about the market as the source of his inspiration. This has difficulties – as Anish Papoor noted in my interview – but at least you know what you are getting. It has been acceptable to an art world that is all too eager to take its cue from one work of Duchamp’s – the urinal he called Fountain (see my Gompertz review). In fact, this is the least of his major works and Duchamp himself intended it as a very good joke about the way the market values art. Duchamp’s most important work -The Large Glass – is a much more mysterious piece and too awkward for easy classification.
Verity, however, takes all these difficulties to a new plane. Hirst’s market psychology is impeccable – to criticise the fact that she is ugly will be to invite the charge that you find naked, pregnant women ugly. Furthermore, to say she is ugly is likely to have you consigned to those poor fools who did not ‘get Cezanne’ or the old buffer watercolourists who think Warhol represented the end of western civilisation. Well, okay, I’ll take all that on the chin. She looks bloody ugly – I have only seen photographs, I confess - and that, I suspect, is the point.
She is not ugly because she is naked and pregnant – these are two giant red herrings placed there by Hirst – she is ugly because she is a god-awful sculpture, roughly of the standard of the things found in gift shops (again that may be the point). North Devon have been sold a dud but that’s not a problem because they were repeatedly told they were being sold a dud, Hirst’s entire career testifies to the fact.
Hirst’s market psychology is impeccable – to criticise the fact that she is ugly will be to invite the charge that you find naked, pregnant women ugly.
Perhaps he now thinks, as he told the North Devon Gazette, that she stands for truth. Obviously, in one sense, she does; she stands for the truth of the marketplace – in this case, the market defined by the philistinism of local councils. But I suspect he is using ‘truth’ to mean something more. Perhaps she stands for the triumphant glory of pregnancy or something. I don’t know and it doesn’t matter because whatever Hirst does is tainted by his now profoundly unfashionable fidelity to the market. Who wants to fetishise the market after what the bankers did to it? Jones’s and Kapoor’s comments nail this point above all others.
Jones is also right to note that this is an odd moment for the visual arts in Britain. Verity and the Gompertz book both unintentionally proclaim a high level of fatigue with and a startling degree of provincialism in the anglocencric art historical story of the last twenty years or so. Something needs to happen, most helpfully a liberation from the deterministic, historicist narrative peddled in the art schools where ideas abandoned in almost every other discpline are still taken as gospel. British art is in danger of becoming not just provincial but also desperately unfashionable and, if that does not send a chill down Hoxton way, I can’t imagine what will. | <urn:uuid:424182b9-87bb-48bd-829c-ecd36792d9f7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bryanappleyard.com/hirsts-verity/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97018 | 1,280 | 1.601563 | 2 |
WikiLeaks has been recognised in Australia for its "outstanding contribution to journalism", with founder Julian Assange lashing out at "cowardly" Prime Minister Julia Gillard in an acceptance speech.
The anti-secrecy website was lauded at the annual Walkley Awards, where winners are chosen by an independent panel of journalists and photographers, for its courageous reporting of secret US cables.
"WikiLeaks applied new technology to penetrate the inner workings of government to reveal an avalanche of inconvenient truths in a global publishing coup," the Walkley trustees said in bestowing the award Sunday evening.
"Its revelations, from the way the war on terror was being waged, to diplomatic bastardry, high-level horse-trading and the interference in the domestic affairs of nations, have had an undeniable impact."
The whistleblowing website has published thousands of cables in which US diplomats give their often candid views on world leaders, to Washington's acute embarrassment.
Assange, an Australian citizen who has previously blasted Canberra for not doing enough to protect him in the fallout from the leaks, was scathing of the government in accepting the accolade in a pre-recorded video message.
"The Gillard government has shown its true colours in relation to how it's handled US pressure on WikiLeaks," he said in footage shown on SBS television which broadcast the awards.
"Australian journalists are courageous, the Australian population is supportive, but Julia Gillard is a cowardly Australian prime minister.
"As Australians we shall not despair, as long as we can speak out, as long as we can publish, and as long as the Internet remains free, we will continue to fight back, armed with the truth," he added.
Assange has spent much of the last year under virtual house arrest in Britain since he was detained in December 2010 over claims of rape and sexual assault made by two women in Sweden.
He has strongly denied the allegations against him, claiming they are politically motivated and linked to the activities of WikiLeaks.
The former computer hacker is currently appealing a decision against his extradition to Sweden to face the charges. | <urn:uuid:bb4c3bfe-ca7c-45ab-9cbc-9681fb29f083> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.baomoi.com/Info/WikiLeaks-wins-Australian-journalism-award/2/208004.epi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977871 | 423 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The Butterfly Madonna (with child) ~ Balboa, California ~ 1974
The notes from Italy keep coming. This time is was from Gianpaolo Paglia, a winemaker in the Maremma. He’s in the trenches, working the vines, punching down the caps and dealing with all the changes in Italian society in the 21st century.
Some of his thoughts:
“I can tell you that there is something wrong here.
“People here are afraid of this new world and this new age.
“...They don't (know) what to expect next. They are not used to it, they have never been faced with the outside world, with this new world where economies that once were considered third world countries are now running at a speed that we don't understand. Our schools, our politicians, our people are not prepared to (do) that, hence the feeling of dis-ease.
“The only thing we really need is to reset the country. Have a new start with a new and more realistic vision of the world. We have to grow up and abandon our nest, which is falling down the tree anyway.”
His complete comments here.
Those remarks could have come from someone in the US today as well. The only difference is that our country is younger and more confident in our youthful idea that we are right. Does that make sense? Talk to a young person in their 20’s and they have it all figured out. Or so they believe. And it is like that with this young society. But, there is a key to getting us all through it, in the confluence of the old world with the new world.
This dovetails with something I was talking about to a group of restaurant operators. Italy gave many of their people to America, albeit not so voluntarily. They came to America looking for opportunities. They were entrepreneurial in their nature. America was (and still is) a laboratory for immigrants looking to remake themselves, like Gianpaolo says, to reset their lives. And along with that they made a life here in these lands. But somewhere along the way, many of us turned back to the old country to see where our grandparents came from. And we saw beauty and possibility. It was easier to see it from a distance.
In any event, it is probably a pipe dream, thinking that we could start something up in Italy faster than we could in the US. I have already abandoned the idea of living part-time in Italy in the future. In fact, my preference will be to find a rural area somewhere like in the hill country of Texas. Why? Because I know it will be less of a hassle to get things done. Bit I have veered off course. Back onto the Autostrada.
There is a great deal of cynicism in Italy among people in their 50’s and beyond, people who control the economy and the cultural strings that keep the kites in the air. A large part of it is economic power, but that is conservative in nature and it muffles the entrepreneurial spirit so prevalent in the bones of Italians, specially the young ones. Politicians also keep that under cover because they want their power and the money that goes with it. Comfort, ease, control.
What we owe to Italy, here in America, is repayment for sending some of their best and their brightest out into the world, never to return home. Italy, unlike places like France, shared much of their talent with the world. Italy went global before it was an idea. And now they see countries like South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore catching up, fast. It is important to let Italy know that we understand the sacrifice the country made in the 19th and 20th centuries, with the Italian diaspora into the new worlds.
So what can we do?
We have to be patient with things like the exchange rate, which has changed 15% since July. Gasoline - in Italy is $8.00 a gallon. Salaries - $30,000 is considered a good wage. Housing – 1,500 square feet for 3-4 people is a goal. This is really a pittance compared to our super-sized expectations here in the US. Our grasp exceeds our needs. But Italy looks to America and says, “We want some of that.”
Cernilli, The Reluctant Midwife?
Yet, we will still buy the wines and the clothes and the cheeses and prosciutto and the cars. Quality will always have a market but the market might recess a little in 2008. Today an importer told me one of his top-selling Pinot Grigios was going up $15 a case. That translates to almost an additional $2.50 per bottle on the retail shelf (online a little less, but there is delivery costs). He also told me that one of his best-selling Ripasso style wines was going up $20.00. Again, that is close to $3.00 more on the retail shelf. Maybe $1.80 if you are Vaynerchuk & Co. selling it, but again there are delivery costs and the hassle of buying a wine under $25.00 and waiting for it to get to your home.
The market will sort most of this out. Today I am tasting more than 30 Malbec, Carmenere, Bonarda and Cab/Merlot blends from South America. A wine writer is looking for good-tasting reds that will be considered values. That used to be the home turf of wines like Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Valpolicella Ripasso, Primitivo and Nero D’Avola. No longer. The Italians who moved to Argentina and Chile are creating wines to compete with their uncles' wines back home. Interesting and challenging times.
My point? A rambling one at that, it seems. But if someone would ask me how we could get through this next 18 months, how an Italian wine producer could contribute to making this less painful, here's what I would say:
Please stay in the fields with us, you with the vines, us with the newly born wine drinkers. Let’s tighten up our habits of affluence. Maybe not a new car this next year. Maybe not spending so much time and money on leisure. Spend a little more time not on vacation, perhaps? Pursue what Gianpaolo calls a “more realistic vision of the world.” Get your global goggles on, folks, and gather your tools.
Let’s get busy and deliver this baby. | <urn:uuid:2e2dce69-e039-464b-a8f3-1ac2235006e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://acevola.blogspot.com/2007/12/american-deliverance.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97398 | 1,369 | 1.570313 | 2 |
While this prosecution of a doctor is among the latest governmental efforts to slow the national epidemic of misuse and death by prescription drugs, especially painkillers, another tactic is examining the suppliers to doctors and pharmacies.
Drugmakers usually sell to wholesalers, who then resell products to other distributors, drugstore chains, mail-order companies, independent pharmacies, hospitals and some doctors. Some drugs prone to abuse are classified as controlled substances, requiring those along the supply chain to register with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The three biggest wholesale companies are McKesson, headquartered in San Francisco; Cardinal Health, of Dublin, Ohio, and Amerisource Bergen, based in Valley Forge.
After a federal judge in Washington ruled early in 2012 that wholesalers had an obligation to "self-police," Cardinal Health settled with the DEA over allegations that it did not adequately monitor prescription painkiller shipments from its Lakeland, Fla., distribution center to certain pharmacies. Cardinal lost its license to sell controlled substances from that facility for two years and its 28 other facilities are under greater scrutiny.
AmerisourceBergen said in an August filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was subpoenaed by the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey and the DEA for documents related to "specific customers' purchases of controlled substances," and its program for controlling and monitoring such sales.
The three biggest wholesalers control an estimated 90 percent of the market, but a DEA spokesman said the agency issued licenses to about 874 distributors, including 53 in Pennsylvania and 37 in New Jersey.
Undercover agents made videotaped drug buys from Minicozzi as part of the investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Police Department, FBI and DEA. But investigators also obtained records from two small, local distributors that shipped drugs to Minicozzi.
Wesley Pharmacal Company Inc., of Warminster, Bucks County, was paid $211,544 between January 2005 and June 2010 to supply Minicozzi with Xanax and Vicodin, according to court records. C.O. Truxton, Inc., of Bellmawr, Camden County, got $85,646 for supplying Xanax.
Neither of the family-run and privately held companies was accused of any crime in this case. Both have licenses with the DEA and their respective states.
"He had a legitimate license with the state and he had his DEA number," Mary Claire Rossi, daughter of Wesley Pharmacal's late founder, Cliff Crawford, said of Minicozzi. "We dotted the I's and crossed the T's."
Minicozzi's lawyer, Jeff Miller, said that his 79-year-old client shows signs of dementia and that the wholesalers are guilty of profiting from the unusually high volumes Minicozzi ordered.
"They had a legal, ethical and moral responsibility to notify the appropriate authorities in Pennsylvania or the DEA," Miller said, adding it doesn't excuse Minicozzi's actions.
Bunk, said Truxton owner Paul Devine.
"We reported that man a couple times," Devine said, meaning to the DEA. He said his company stopped selling to Minicozzi in 2007. "We run a reputable company, and we can't control what people do with any of the drugs. If we have a record of what we sold and who we sold it to, that is the extent of our responsibility."
Contact David Sell at dsell@ phillynews.com or 215-854-4506. Read his blog at www.philly.com/phillypharma and on Twitter @phillypharma. | <urn:uuid:35d755a3-2710-4eb1-a5ee-dcf78f755434> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.philly.com/2013-01-29/business/36637996_1_cardinal-health-dea-drug-enforcement-administration | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967393 | 744 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Dr. Jodie N. Mader
Office Location: Administration Building
Dr. Mader is a native of Fort Thomas, Kentucky. She received a B.A. in History in 1998 from Thomas More College, earned her MA in 2001 from the University of Cincinnati (UC), and PhD in History from the University of Kentucky (UK) in 2008. Dr. Mader was appointed Assistant Professor of History at Thomas More in 2009 after short stints as an instructor at UC and UK. Dr. Mader teaches World Civilizations I and II and upper-level courses in Women and Gender in Modern Europe, American Women, and Modern Britain. Her orientation in the class room is to make history real, fun, and interesting to students, whether they are history majors or not. Her areas of specialization include Modern Europe (both the nineteenth and twentieth century), world history, women's history and Modern British history. In British history, she is particularly interested in the growth and development of its empire in the late nineteenth century. Dr. Mader's scholarship and research interests include presenting conference papers on topics that focus on European and British history. Her current research is an examination of the Boer War/South African War, 1899-1902, with special attention on the anti-war movement, the role of women, legal rhetoric, and issues of race. Dr. Mader enjoys playing softball, reading, and spending time with her family.
B.A., Thomas More College, Crestview Hills, Kentucky (1998)
M.A., University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio (2001)
Ph.D., University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY (2008)
Jodie N. Mader first came to Thomas More College in 2006. | <urn:uuid:83cc7f6b-5d3b-4b42-8072-d296bf8aa076> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.thomasmore.edu/about/faculty.cfm?id=550 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931162 | 355 | 1.726563 | 2 |
I'm in favor of walking.
Personally, I don't think our bodies are meant to run long distances. To me it seems more like we are designed to walk long distances and run/sprint for short distances to avoid danger.
Running is hard on the body, it puts a lot of stress on the joints. As we get older that starts to take a greater toll. I may be a bit biased having already had some joint problems, but I feel that running isn't an ideal exercise. Although, it is possible that with future advances in regenerate medicine, we will be able to regrow cartilage and that will become a non-issue.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C. S. Lewis | <urn:uuid:c6f2bf97-f9f9-4602-99ce-40787eeefd1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?p=93717 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971047 | 228 | 1.6875 | 2 |
A Chihuahua state police commander was attacked as she carried her 5-year-old daughter to school two weeks ago. Both died of multiple gunshot wounds.
In February, assassins went hunting for a Ciudad Juarez man, but the intended target wasn’t home, so they killed his three daughters instead, ages 12, 14 and 15
In March, a young woman was bound and gagged, shot and left in a car in Acapulco. Her 4-year-old daughter lay slumped beside her, killed with a single bullet to her chest. She was the fifth child killed in drug violence in the resort city in one bloody week.Awful, but not surprising.
What was surprising, to me anyway, was the DEA chief's reaction in the story:
“It may seem contradictory, but the unfortunate level of violence is a sign of success in the fight against drugs,” said Michele Leonhart, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration. The cartels “are like caged animals, attacking one another,” she added. (emphasis added)Tens of thousands of drug war murders in the last four years alone is "success" in a Charlie Sheen sort of way: epic denial of cocaine-fueled violence and humiliating failure, egged-on and financed by self-important sadists who watch from afar.
DEA: Duh, winning.
As for the rhetoric, the cartels aren't caged animals--they are businessmen (and women) who are afforded no property rights. They are rich--Forbes list rich--because drug prohibition makes easily grown plants expensive. Yes, it takes a cold, sociopathic brutality to commit such heinous acts, but history is replete with people of all walks of life committing acts of unspeakable butchery. The animal comparison is unfair to the Mexican people because it depicts them as something different from us--something beneath us--so the horror of their daily lives can be so crassly characterized by the American government as "success."
It makes one wonder who the real "animals" are.
bellum medicamenti delenda est. | <urn:uuid:2f04114e-cb8f-49a4-a588-214de4500274> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blanksslate.blogspot.com/2011/04/dea-charlie-sheen-and-caged-animals.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970992 | 442 | 1.78125 | 2 |
An 'evil patch' lurking in murderers' brains?
Self confessed mass murderer and right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik sits in the witness box being interrogated by the prosecution during his trialat the central court in Oslo on April 18, 2012. (ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images)
The Daily Mail, a U.K. tabloid, had a report this week that days later is still being roundly ridiculed online and, presumably, off.
It starts like this:
This "dark mass" apparently showed up on x-rays of all people with histories of criminal violence.
Dr. Roth says that sometimes people become criminals because of other physiological brain problems.
"But this is definitely the region of the brain where evil is formed and where it lurks," he adds.
Today, Guardian science bloggers helpfully point out that the story is "so ridiculous that explaining it required inventing a new part of the brain – the 'central lobe.'" (The four lobes of the brain are the frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal.)
On FoxNews.com, Dr. Steven Galetta of the NYU Medical School had this yesterday:
"It’s probably a lot more complex than that...Certain areas are likely important for certain behaviors, certain attitudes. But it’s probably not as simple as X marks the spot for a particular behavior.”
Others were more succint:
"Epic nonsense," tweeted the Center for Applied Genomics, a research center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The story can be read in its entirety here:Kate Allen is the Toronto Star’s global science and technology reporter. Follow her on Twitter @katecallen | <urn:uuid:9f2bf8fc-c461-4f0e-bcae-8fa3b204e083> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thestar.blogs.com/worlddaily/2013/02/an-evil-patch-lurking-in-murderers-brains.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940611 | 358 | 1.570313 | 2 |
President Obama tweeted recently: “My last piece of advice is this simple…Persevere. Because nothing worthwhile is easy.”
This tweet by the President was probably said due to all the talk about same-sex marriage, but it’s a powerful statement that can mean many different things to everyone. It’s also a statement that can offer a vision for how one can approach life at and outside of work.
This statement hit home for me this week on many levels and it made me realize that perseverance is a choice we all make (or don’t make) to get through our hourly/daily challenges. Whether it’s as “trivial” as running that last mechanical up to 21, knowing that it’s 30 minutes late (it’s 5:30 p.m.), and you may have to have a tough conversation with the team about how there are more edits and we’ll all have to stay until 6-7 p.m. to get this out the door to the client. Or it could be as big as having to persevere through a life-altering event like a terrible illness, death, divorce, losing a job, etc…
As we go through our daily routines of work and life, I challenge you to keep the big picture of life in mind and persevere. Know what’s truly important in your life and don’t sweat the “small” stuff. What ever you are dealing with right now, is what you may feel is the most important thing you need to persevere through, but also keep your mind focused on what’s truly important to you. That will help keep everything in perspective.
Remember that perseverance is a choice. How are you going to persevere (or not) today? It’s all up to you. | <urn:uuid:12abc457-555f-47b1-8ac9-68ba8839001a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hackergroup.com/insights/blog/2012/07/Persevere-Are-you-going-to-today/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968138 | 386 | 1.796875 | 2 |
A new phase began today. Things are quieting down most pilgrims have returned home.
Bodhinatha added a new feature to his Sun One upadesha: he read a story from the Guru Chronicles that related to his talk on the three spiritual goals of life: Self-Realization, Moksha and Vishvagrasa.
Siddhanathaswami is our morning pujari for this phase.
Bodhinatha's Latest Upadesha: "Detachment from Experiences; Importance of Daily Vigil" (May 5, 2013)
All experiences are good experiences, necessary to get us here. Awareness of aspects of ourselves that are constantly changing is a liberating perception, breaking our chains to mundane areas, detaching from instinctive and intellectual to go into superconscious. The greatest challenge facing youth today is the lack of relating to the devotional side of Hinduism. Daily practice, daily vigil, moves us forward spiritually. Commentary on Merging with Siva, The Master Course, Lesson 21. Listen Now Click here for all recent talks | <urn:uuid:2e98f114-7af0-4003-b007-24801ca17125> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.himalayanacademy.com/blog/taka/2011/11/04/sun-one-homa-parampara-stories/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932888 | 219 | 1.671875 | 2 |
"It's putting work into our hands."
A building information modeling (BIM) department can move a sheet metal contractor from the little leagues to the big leagues, giving them the ability to bet on projects previously thought impossible. The Benchmark software, a three-dimensional brand offered through training and certification with the International Training Institute (ITI), the education arm of the unionized sheet metal and air conditioning industry, brings accuracy, efficiency and cost savings to contractors. A one-person department can bring in previously-unattainable cash flow, keeping doors open and sheet metal workers on the job.
Three-dimensional BIM allows detailers to design systems like HVAC duct and examine the design from multiple angles. Because of the three-dimensional aspect, detailers can see problems as they arise on the screen instead of on the jobsite once the duct is fabricated and ready for installation.
Hovland’s Inc., in Eau Claire, WI, opened its first BIM department this year. Although it’s a one-person show, the addition allowed the company to bid on the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Education Building.
Jared Bechard, the company’s lone detailer, completed training and certification with the ITI last year on the Benchmark three-dimensional BIM software. Other than sending him to training and some general computer software upgrades, the money Hovland’s Inc. invested in its new department was minimal, said Tony Welke, fourth-generation owner of Hovland’s Inc. Once trained and certified, workers take the software with them for free.
“We recognize it as a tool for the future,” Welke says. “It was apparent more and more projects were going to go that way.” “It’s actually putting work into our hands,” Bechard adds. “This isn’t just sheet metal. We can do fabrication work. We can do fittings.”
The 14-month University of Wisconsin project is one of Hovland’s Inc.’s largest yet, with four floors and 200,000 pounds of duct. Having Benchmark in the company’s corner takes a lot of stress off job foremen. With the software’s Fitting Input Tool (FIT), quick hand-drawn sketches of fittings are things of the past.
“It makes it so much easier to form what we’re doing. You’re taking the guesswork out of it –rather than ordering it and saying, ‘I hope it fits,’” Bechard says. “It’s saving a lot of headaches. The job is big enough so the foreman can’t run it and order all the material. It makes it so much more streamline. Benchmark makes it so easy.”
In the 90 years since Welke’s great-grandfather opened Hovland’s Inc., the company has withstood the Great Depression, World War II and the recent recession. It did this by thinking forward and being proactive.
“Obviously, we’ve adapted. You pick and choose the technology and stay with it,” Welke says. “Ninety years ago, if you told someone about this, they would’ve thought you were from outer space.”
More than 15,000 apprentices are registered at training facilities in the United States and Canada. ITI is jointly sponsored by Sheet Metal Worker's International Association (SMWIA) and the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors' National Association (SMACNA). ITI supports apprenticeship and advanced career training for union workers in the sheet metal industry throughout the United States and Canada.
Located in Alexandria, Va., ITI produces a standardized sheet metal curriculum supported by a wide variety of training materials free of charge to sheet metal apprentices and journeymen.
For more information about ITI, visit www.sheetmetal-iti.org or call 703/739-7200. | <urn:uuid:c60148b8-cda0-400d-9f17-b64fde551926> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://contractingbusiness.com/news/Building-information-modeling-ITI-1210 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936607 | 852 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Bicycle traders laud President
Bicycle Traders' Association lauded President Mahinda Rajapaksa for
his leadership in winning the war, in a press release.
The release said: "At the outset, we would like to thank President
Mahinda Rajapaksa for his strong and guiding leadership which has
resulted in an end to three decades of war in our motherland," "The
Bicycle Traders' Association consists of members who are involved in the
import and distribution of brand new push bicycles in Sri Lanka. It was
formed to provide assistance, unity and direction for its members.
The bicycle is the common man's mode of transport and it is the most
popular method of transportation in the North and East of Sri Lanka.
Furthermore, cycling is environmentally friendly as well as providing
enormous health benefits to the rider.
"There are several hundred cycle workshops spread throughout the
country who are engage in assembling complete bicycles from imported
spare parts, which are procured through importers in Pettah, who are
employing thousands of people in direct and indirect employment. | <urn:uuid:e01b20f7-2f6f-4168-8c31-3c6070e8ce46> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2009/06/28/fin33.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963411 | 229 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Can't say as I've seen it done that way but I would say that it is for material takeoff. Notice the dimension in the corners covers 2 or 3 rafters together. Also the Hips are called out as 2x10 and then the length in a similar way.
Normally on something like that you would see similar numbers where the rafters meet @ the hip, this plan doesn't work that way as it looks like it is a dual pitch roof. (one pitch front to back, another left to right)
They jump up in dimension b/c they are using dimensional lumber. The slightest amount over a 2' increment will push it to the next increment. | <urn:uuid:4d2e44da-e3cd-4820-993d-c564fc236244> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=23477.0;prev_next=next | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975448 | 137 | 1.625 | 2 |
ECOtality sees strong interest from private sector for EV chargers
By Lee van der Voo
Sustainable Business Oregon contributing writer
ECOtality officials say as the EV Project draws to a close, the private sector is picking up the pace of electric vehicle charging station installation.
ECOtality Inc. is seeing private sales of its Blink brand EV chargers pick up among retailers and corporate campuses through the EV Project. It’s a trend its leaders now say — and data suggests — may be setting the stage for a rapid uptake of electric vehicles as prices drop.
The private-sector sales are a recent outgrowth of heavy investment — both public and private — in the EV Project, a $230 million effort to install 14,000 chargers in 21 metropolitan areas in the United States, including Portland and the I-5 corridor.
The project, funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and other public and private funders interested in its findings, was intended to offer free residential chargers to Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volt drivers in exchange for information about their charging habits. The project also put public charging infrastructure on the ground.
According to Colin Read, vice president of corporate development at San Francisco-based ECOtality, the program’s 45 million miles of data collection makes it “by far the largest repository on EV charging behavior in the world.”
And that behavior appears to be changing, a trend that indicates rapid uptake of EVs could lay ahead.
In a recently released third-quarter report, the latest data from the EV Project seems to debunk what was once considered one of the biggest obstacle to EV uptake: range anxiety.
“Once you purchase an EV, users are quickly becoming much more comfortable with what their driving range is,” said Read, who said data shows that drivers of EVs are driving farther distances and plugging in more often outside the home than anticipated.
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below. | <urn:uuid:50646159-473e-4fb9-ad57-3dd517893a04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sustainablebusinessoregon.com/articles/2012/11/ecotality-sees-strong-interest-from.html?iana=ind_green | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948441 | 450 | 1.625 | 2 |
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James K. Galbraith teaches at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin. He is a Senior Scholar of the Levy Economics Institute and the Chair of the Board of Economists for Peace and Security. The son of a renowned economist, the late John Kenneth Galbraith, he writes occasional commentary for many publications, including Mother Jones, The Texas Observer, The American Prospect, and The Nation. He directs the University of Texas Inequality Project, an informal research group based at the LBJ School, and is President this year of the Association for Evolutionary Economics.
PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay. And welcome back to our series of interviews with James K. Galbraith about his new book, Inequality and Instability. Thanks for joining us again, James.JAMES K. GALBRAITH, LBJ SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, UT AUSTIN: Nice to be back.JAY: And just to remind everybody, James teaches at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, where he teaches economics. So, James, let's move on. And again I'll remind everybody, you want to watch the earlier parts of this interview if you haven't watched yet, and then you'll get up to here, 'cause we're kind of going at this chronologically. There are countries with less inequality, and they seem to have less instability. Where is that? And what's the evidence?GALBRAITH: It's, I think, very well known that in Northern Europe in particular, very strong social institutions, very strong unions, have yielded over many decades societies that were substantially more egalitarian than was true in Southern Europe, than was true in the United States or, for that matter, in the rest of the world. There has been a prevailing doctrine, a dogma in Europe, which holds that Europe, which has suffered from relatively high unemployment since the early 1970s compared to the United States, was suffering that unemployment because it was holding on to strongly egalitarian policies, strongly social democratic or even socialist economic institutions.And we looked at that problem from a couple of different perspectives. One was to look at the relationship between unemployment and inequality inside the European countries. And what we found is that in fact there's just no basis for the claim that I just described. It is simply a fantasy drawn from textbook reasoning that is in contradiction with the facts on the ground. And the fact on the ground is that countries which are more unequal in Europe have higher unemployment, much higher unemployment than the more egalitarian countries.And you have to ask, is there a sound reason, a sound economic reason why that's the case? And the answer is: yes, there are some very sound reasons. If you look at the philosophical foundation of what's called the Scandinavian model, you find that compression of wages was part of a fairly well understood strategy to improve the productivity, to advance the technological status of the industries of those countries, and to attractâultimately, to attract higher-technology, more productive, higher-paying industries while excluding those which couldn't compete except on the foundation of lower wages. And when you do that over time, your living standards rise, and your capacity to provide service employment to your population improves, your overall unemployment rate goes down. And that's, I think, part of a very clear, let's say, pattern of association between lower inequality and lower unemployment, contrary to the dogma that I just described.And then the question was: well, what about the comparison between Europe as a whole and the United States? The Europeans have been lectured for decades by their orthodox economists that what they need is a more flexible labor market like the United States and then they will have lower unemployment. And what we found, in contrast, is that this overlooks the fact that Europe has been integrating and has been coming together as a single continental economy. And when you do that, when you take what had been isolated labor market situations and bring them into direct interaction with each other, you have to measure the inequality on the new basis, on the new foundation. And nobody had done that. And what we found was that in fact when you do that, European inequality, taking into account the differences that exist between, let's say, Germany and Poland or between Norway and Portugal, is actually larger in wages than it is in the United States. And that was a very interesting, striking finding, which then basically said that the data between the United States and Europe further support the argument, the basic argument that I would make, the basic argument that we would come to, which is that the more egalitarian system measured at the right level will tend to have lower unemployment.JAY: Periods of rising inequality, we said earlier in the interview, first of all have a lot to do with the stock market, because people at the top tier, so much of their revenue comes from stock options and various forms of Wall Street trading. And when that's at a peak, the inequality raises. That also means they have a lot more money. What does that mean to American politics?GALBRAITH: Well, of course, there is a direct effect. When you have concentration of wealth, you also have concentration of power. And that recognition goes back to one of my favorite economists, Adam Smith, who wrote a very short sentence in The Wealth of Nations that wealth is power, "as Mr. Hobbes says" (you know, there's a lot of that "as Mr. Hobbes says"). So that's, I think, a clear implication.One of the things we did in the book as well was to look at the relationship between inequality and voting behavior at the level of American states, which are, of course, very important. That's a very important level to examine, because it's the states who through the electoral college decide the outcome of our presidential elections. And we looked at the relationship between economic inequality and turnout and between economic inequality and outcomes. And one of the things we found was that there is an apparent relationship between inequality and turnout, that states which have higher levels of economic inequality also have lower turnout in presidential elections. And that suggests to usâand since I live in the South, this is not an unfamiliar storyâthat where inequality is greater, there is a tendency to make it harder for poor people to vote. And I think that's a well-established pattern in American politics.The relationship between inequality and presidential election outcomes is a little bit more subtle. But one of the things that we found isâwe did some work that helps to explain why it is that while rich people tend to vote Republican, richer states tended to vote Democratic, which is an interesting paradox in the political literature to which we made some contribution.JAY: I was looking at a graph of the powerâsize of finance as a percentage of American GDP. And if you look at the graph I was looking at from early 20th century, like, 1900 on, you've got, like, this straight line up to about 1932, 1933, where finance keeps growing and becomes a much more significant part of the economy, and then you have thisâyou know, the crash and itâand you sort of comes down a bit, and then, World War II, drops, I suppose because there's so much government spending during the war. But at the time of that peak is when you start getting legislation. You have Roosevelt, you have, you know, legislation to mitigate the power of finance and speculation. And we don't reach again, based on the graph I saw, that same percentage of finance as the size of the GDP till 1980âit gets back to where it was in 1932, except that line keeps going from 1980âif anything, at an even sharper incline. And there's noâand instead of legislation to mitigate it, by the '90s it's actually the opposite. You getâyou undo the legislation from the '30s. What's your take on why? Why aren't we seeingâ. I mean, let me back up, because in the '30s you have voices saying, you know, if you're going to save capitalism, you have to put some breakers on this. And the voices that are saying that now seem completely marginalized.GALBRAITH: Well, we were very fortunate historically in 1933 to elect a president who was independent of the banks and prepared to act decisively in a banking crisis. And what Roosevelt did was to close the banks, audit them, and only allow those to be reopened which were sound. And that act restored confidence in the banking system as a whole. And then there were deposit insurance and the Securities and Exchange Commission and otherâand Glass-Steagall, all of which moved toward a more tightly regulated and much sounder banking system that played a much smaller role in determining the fate of the country for the next 40 years.This time we didn't get that. We got an administration, the Obama administration, which on banking pursued a policy that was essentially the same as the late Bush administration and used essentially the same people. The Treasury secretary was promoted from being president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and the chairman of the Federal Reserve board was reappointed. And whether those are good people or not good people, what that means when you do that is that you lose the liberty to make a fundamental change of policy, because people are not going to reverse themselves simply because they're serving a new president. And that, I think, is aâit's just a huge difference between the Hoover-Roosevelt transition in 1933 and the Bush-Obama transition in 2009.JAY: And is this a reflection that finance is just qualitatively more powerful than it was and that the voices from other sectors of the economy simply don't have any power anymore, finance is so much in control of things?GALBRAITH: I think what has to be faced is the fact that finance is dominant in the Democratic Party. That fact has to be faced.JAY: And the Republicans would be any different?GALBRAITH: Finance has always been a powerful part of Republican coalitions, but the dominance of finance over, for example, trade unions, over, for example, industrial interests, over agriculture in the Democratic Party is a development of the last 30 or 40 years.JAY: It's an interesting thing, the way you phrase the last part, 'cause I had a conversation with a trade unionist a few months ago. You know. You know, I asked him, why don't you contend for control of the Democratic Party? Why do you wind up just being like cheerleaders for whoever's running? And the answer wasâ. And I also said, why don't you contend with Wall Street for control of the Democratic Party? And the answer was: well, they've got the cash to fight the Republicans in the elections. So they actually kind of acknowledge their alliance with Wall Street in order to fight, you know, what they think is the bigger enemy.GALBRAITH: Yes, of course.JAY: Okay. In the next segment of our interview, we're going to talk about so what should people be demanding, what public policy conclusions come from this work based on James' book Inequality and Instability. So please join us for the next part of our interview with James K. Galbraith on The Real News Network.
DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
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In a recent Politico column, Jon Cowan and Jim Kessler, respectively the president and senior vice-president of The Third Way, criticize “progressives” for opposing deals which cut Social Security benefits.
They advise the Strengthen Social Security Coalition to “wise up and buck up the president so Social Security reform gets done in the coming weeks.” But their advice belies the expressed wishes of the American people. As poll after poll indicates, Americans across all age groups and ideologies overwhelmingly favor eliminating Social Security’s projected shortfall through increased revenues rather than through reductions in Social Security’s already modest benefits — just $13,000 a year on average.
Cowan and Kessler state the obvious, that “math knows no ideology,” but they fail to acknowledge that they do. Undisclosed is Cowan’s long history of flaming the fans of “intergenerational warfare” and calling for the radical dismantling of Social Security. For instance, in a 1995 Los Angeles Times op ed, he proclaimed, “The time has come to reinvent Social Security based on a “cut and privatize” approach that will be fair to all age groups.” Although no longer as threatening as when Newsweek quoted him in 1995 about his plans to “burn social-security cards in New Hampshire” to make a big splash in the presidential campaign, Cowan is hardly an objective voice when it comes to Social Security.
Here are the facts, stripped of political spin and cleaned of biased factoids used to support their radical changes and benefit cuts. Here, too, are the reasons why the coalition of 300 national and state organizations they criticize strongly oppose the cuts they advocate.
First, Social Security works. Despite their claim that Social Security is “in deep financial trouble,” the data produced by the most unbiased sources lead to the opposite conclusion. According to the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration, Social Security can meet all its obligations for the next quarter century, after which it can pay out 77 percent of scheduled benefits. This is if Congress makes NO changes to Social Security for the next 75 years! The projected shortfall is the rough equivalent of the revenue that will be lost to the federal treasury if the Bush tax cuts are continued for the top 2% of American taxpayers.
There are numerous ways to eliminate this shortfall, but it is impossible to have a serious discussion of the options until Third Way and other similar actors agree that Social Security is structurally sound, is not in crisis, and does not need fundamental change. Means testing Social Security, as Cowan and Kessler casually suggest, would fundamentally change Social Security from an insurance program to a welfare program. It would not reduce the projected shortfall in any meaningful way, unless the means test was set such that benefits were cut for households with incomes as low as $50,000. This kind of major change, with complicated distributional impacts and implications for the long-range stability of the program, is not a change that should be hammered out behind closed doors under the threat of a default by the United States on obligations to which it has pledged its full faith and credit. Neither should changes be imposed to cut COLA adjustments or place young and middle-aged Americans at risk by raising their retirement age, or otherwise reducing the benefits they are earning for themselves and their families.
Social Security affects virtually every American. It is the most important source of life insurance and disability insurance, as well as retirement income for the vast majority of the American people. It is neither cause nor solution to the federal deficit. Social Security has no borrowing authority. It does not and cannot contribute to the federal deficit. In the unlikely event that the program’s revenues ever fall short of what is needed to meet its obligations, then, by law, benefits would be cut. Today, the Social Security Trust Funds hold $2.7 trillion dollars in treasury notes and bonds, essentially the very same federal obligations held by Wall Street banks, China, Savings Bond holders and others. Cutting its benefits does not change the amount of federal debt subject to statutory limit by a single penny.
In Social Security’s 76 year history, it has always been dealt with independent of the general budget, through the normal legislative process. Rather than enact major changes in haste and, we believe, repent at leisure after the damage has been done, we urge policymakers to focus on Social Security after the debt limit has been raised, in its own legislative vehicle, through the normal legislative process with full hearings and open debate. Let’s go with the old-fashioned way, rather than some new, untested third way.
Nancy Altman, author of The Battle for Social Security, and Eric Kingson, Professor of Social Work at Syracuse University, and co-chair the Strengthen Social Security Campaign (www.strengthensocialsecurity.org). The authors served as staff for the 1982 National Commission on Social Security Reform (a.k.a. “The Greenspan Commission”). | <urn:uuid:ea621541-d5ee-4111-bfea-87ebd47ed0aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://my.firedoglake.com/altmankingson/2011/07/12/third-ways-cowan-and-kessler-call-for-the-radical-dismantling-of-social-security/ | 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 | 0.95799 | 1,028 | 1.5 | 2 |
Flesh-eating-disease victim recovering
Three months ago, Aimee Copeland's father asked the world to pray.
Soon after Aimee, a 24-year-old West Georgia University graduate student, suffered a deep wound to her left calf in a May 1 ziplining incident, was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis — also known as "flesh-eating bacteria."
Her father, Andy Copeland began a blog to "ask people for prayers." He also created a Facebook page called "Believe and pray for a miracle to happen to Aimee Copeland."
Today, three months after her incident, many of those prayers have been answered. Although Aimee lost her left leg, right foot and both hands to the disease, she was released from the Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Ga., on July 2, and her father said this week she is making speedy progress in rehab.
"We prayed incessantly throughout the entire ordeal," he said. "More and more people have jumped in to pray for Aimee. When you get a message from a person from Greece saying they're praying for her, it makes you aware that the world is not as big of a place as it seems."
At first, Aimee's injury seemed fairly routine. She received 22 staples in her calf and was released, Andy Copeland wrote in his blog. But days later, major organs shut down.
"We didn't know if she was going to make it," he said.
Tracking Copeland's recovery
May 1 — Aimee Copeland suffers a zipline accident near Carrolton, Ga.
May 2-3 — Multiple visits to hospitals and doctors
May 4 — Necrotizing fasciitis takes over her left leg, which has to be amputated below the hip. Aimee is transferred to the Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Ga.
May 8 — Doctor says Aimee’s chances of survival are “slim to none;” as she experiences a shutdown of five major organs
May 11 — Aimee regains enough consciousness to mouth “Where am I?”
May 17 — Amputation of her right foot and most of both hands; Aimee mouths “Let’s do this.”
May 20 — Aimee breathes on her own.
May 27 — Aimee speaks for the first time
July 2 — Aimee leaves hospital and goes to an in-patient rehabilitation clinic.
Source: Andy Copeland Blog at www.aimeecopeland.com
Jacqueline Roemmele, executive director of the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation, called Aimee "very lucky and brave," as one in four victims do not survive. She said there are about 2,000 to 10,000 cases every year.
The Copeland family — including Andy's wife Donna and their daughter Paige — face what Andy Copeland called "alarming" medical bills in excess of $200,000 so far.
The Aimee Copeland Fund has been created to help. Augusta residents organized a "Run for Aimee" 5K in June and raised more than $17,000. Ryan Bowers, a contestant on this season's Bachelorette, appeared at the run and met Aimee.
"She's having an impact on so many people, and she really helped me deal with what I was going through after the show," said Bowers, who owns a sports training academy in Evans, Ga., and is donating $1 for every $5 wristband sold.
Sunnyside Café, a restaurant where Aimee worked, held a benefit concert and has raised more than $5,000.
The city of Snellville, where the family resides, pulled in $19,000 during a fundraiser in June. Builder Pulte Homes is donating a nearly 2,000 square foot addition to the Copelands' home to accommodate Aimee's needs.
Andy Copeland said Aimee plans to complete her master's thesis and graduate by May. He said a significant part of the experience has been seeing how many have come together to support Aimee.
"I want her to know what the world thinks about Aimee Copeland," Andy said. "It's not what happened to Aimee, but it's what happened to the world."
To contribute, go to aimeecopeland.com/donations. | <urn:uuid:98961c5b-027b-4047-bede-7619bafe94c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-07-31/flesh-eating-disease-copeland/56625534/1?csp=34news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979116 | 941 | 1.539063 | 2 |
I am tired of getting emails and notifications with links to the "What if Steve Jobs were born in Naples" story.
It's not that I am offended by criticism towards Italy or whatever. It is the cult of personality which I can't stand. Success belongs everywhere, it just takes different forms according to the local culture and conditions. Determination is an universal factor for success, and it would have helped Steve Jobs in Naples, Zürich or Beijing as well - perhaps on doing something else with his talent. Or he would have simply moved to a place where his dream made sense.
On the other hand, I can't help wondering what if other people were born in the Silicon Valley.
Eduardo De Filippo would have earned a wage by teaching public speaking skills.
Pino Daniele would occasionally perform songs by The Eagles or Simon and Garfunkel at some large corporate party, occasionally and timidly interspersed with some funny creation of his own - barely tolerated by the celebrating crowd.
Anna Maria Ortese would have edited speeches and textual contents in powerpoint slides.
Antonio De Curtis (Totò) would have gained some success, as a YouTube sensation, for a couple of weeks. Actually, this could not have happened in his time, meaning that he'd probably either had migrated to Broadway or, driven by despair, would have become a homeless drunkard. | <urn:uuid:451e142a-f610-467a-a8fc-78755e9d1a8b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fabioturel.nova100.ilsole24ore.com/2011/10/tot%C3%B2-in-the-silicon-valley.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988082 | 288 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Computerized Health Records Breed Digital Discontent For Some Doctors
December 4, 2012
Two years and $8.4 billion into the government's effort to get doctors to take their practices digital, some unintended consequences are starting to emerge.
One is a lot of unhappy doctors. In a big survey by Medscape, an online site for doctors, 38 percent of the doctors polled said they were unhappy with their electronic medical records system.
Dr. Mary Wilkerson is one of them. Her small family practice in Denver made the leap to computerized records five years ago, with some pretty high expectations.
"We were told by sales people that we would make more money because we'd be more efficient, and you'd be able to see more patients," says Wilkerson. "We'd be able to bill faster, get the money in the bank at the push of a button. And none of that panned out."
Instead, Wilkerson's practice found that electronic records actually slowed things down. The doctors had to cut back on the number of patients they saw.
"Within six months of our purchase, one of the partners just did not like it at all, did not like dealing with the computer, and actually left the practice, and we'd hoped she'd contribute to the loan that we'd taken out" to pay for the electronic system, says Wilkerson.
Wilkerson's problems with the system stand in contrast to the experience of other doctors who have embraced electronic records and patients who have good reviews of them too.
Marina Blake of Denver is one of those patients. Blake sees a few doctors regularly, and she likes that the specialists she sees can all call up the same health record that her primary care doctor uses. She can also call up her own record anytime.
"It does add definitely a layer of customer service to my experience that is really awesome," says Blake, who gets her care from Kaiser Permanente. "For me it's part of being an educated consumer. If I have more information, then I can ask better questions."
The federal government wants every patient to see the same benefits from electronic records Blake does. It's offering doctors and hospitals up to $63,000 per physician to go digital.
But Wilkerson's practice didn't get much government money, because payments to go digital are tied to seeing a lot of Medicare patients, which Wilkerson and her partners didn't. They took out a loan because it's common for physicians to pay $10,000 or more each for digital records systems. So losing income from not being able to see as many patients was hard on Wilkerson's practice. The expense and the hassle led her and her partners to sell their practice.
Dr. Jeff Cain, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, supports the switch to digital but acknowledges that this "transitional time" has been difficult for many doctors.
He says electronic records improve care, and notes that Medicare will start cutting payments to doctors who haven't gone digital starting in 2015. But he's somewhat critical of the government's strategy of incentives and penalties.
"The challenge for the family doctor with the carrot-and-stick approach Medicare's using is, the carrot's kind of hard to get to," says Cain.
But some doctors are discovering at least one unintended consequence that's positive for them: Electronic records flag every possible opportunity to send a bill.
Doctors say digital systems are opening their eyes to how much they've been doing and not getting paid for. Medicare sees that differently and is now looking into whether physicians with computerized records systems might be charging too much.
Doctors say it should be no surprise that systems designed to catch things like medication errors are also catching missed opportunities to get paid.
That unanticipated argument over billing is playing out as federal payments for the conversion begin to fade. They're being offered until 2021, but the amount available gets smaller every year.
Listen to this story | <urn:uuid:d7cd4218-7a00-4431-b054-84ccbe2e41f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wvpe.org/index.php?id=166505102&type=story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97348 | 811 | 1.8125 | 2 |
New Delhi, Jan. 9: Diplomats and generals of India and Pakistan were in touch today after Tuesday’s killing of two soldiers and traded charges but New Delhi and Islamabad said they did not want ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir to escalate.
Reports from Indian Army sources in the north indicated there was restiveness over the brutal killings of Lance Naiks Sudhakar Singh and Hem Raj of the 13 Rajputana Rifles battalion.
The bodies of the soldiers were flown to their villages in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh this afternoon.
India lodged a strong protest with Islamabad and said Pakistani troops had subjected the bodies of the Indian soldiers to “barbaric and inhuman mutilation”. India also warned that the “unacceptable” incident may have an adverse impact on bilateral ties.
Foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai summoned Pakistan’s high commissioner to India, Salman Bashir, and “lodged a strong protest on the actions of the Pakistan army on January 8”. He conveyed India’s “deepest concerns” over Tuesday’s attack.
Official sources denied external affairs minister Salman Khurshid had spoken to his Pakistan counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar or that foreign secretary Mathai had spoken to his Pakistan counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani.
Privately, there was an acknowledgement in the military that Tuesday’s killings were not one of a kind on the Line of Control. The Indian Army counts 117 ceasefire violations in 2012 (93 on the LoC and 24 across the International Border), 61 in 2011 (50 and 11) and 57 in 2010 (43 and 14). There have been three in nine days this year. The ceasefire was agreed in November 2003.
Khar and Bashir denied their troops had entered Indian territory and killed the soldiers. The two and the Pakistani military also alleged that one of their soldiers, Lance Naik Aslam, was brutalised by Indian troops on January 6 near the Haji Pir Pass, an allegation bluntly denied by India.
Defence minister A.K. Antony continued to call Tuesday’s act provocative.
“That it has happened is a reality. There is clear evidence to it. It is a highly provocative act on the part of the Pakistan army. The way they treated an Indian soldier’s dead body is inhuman. We are in the process of taking it up with the Pakistan government, at the army level and now at the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO),” he said in Calcutta. “Government of India in co-ordination with all stakeholders is closely monitoring all the developments,” he said.
Indian DGMO Lt General Vinod Bhatia and his Pakistan counterpart Lt General Ashfaq Nadeem Ahmed spoke over the telephone hotline shortly after 10 this morning.
“The DGMO lodged a strong protest giving details. It was conveyed that this action was by regular troops (of the Pakistan army) in which two of our soldiers were martyred. A strong protest was also lodged against the mutilation of the body of one of our soldiers. This is a grave violation of the rules of engagement of any civilised, professional army,” an Indian Army spokesperson said.
The army chief cancelled his visit to the NCC Republic Day camp tomorrow, an annual event where he would have been asked questions by the media.
In fresh details of Tuesday’s firefight, an army source said the encounter took place between the Indian fence meant to check infiltration and the Line of Control in Mendhar. The distance between the LoC and the fence is about 2km.
Pakistani troops in the black dungarees of the Special Services Group and possibly of the 29 Baluch regiment surrounded the seven-member Indian patrol about 600 metres inside Indian territory. The two lance naiks who were killed were the scouts for the “area domination patrol” that was moving between two posts in the Mendhar sector in thick fog.
Mendhar is probably the most volatile sector along the LoC. Most Pakistani posts opposite the sector are higher than India’s, giving the Pakistani soldiers a better view of Indian military movements.
A source who visited Poonch and Mendhar recently said there was also unease in the Pakistani military about bunkers and defences that the Indian army was building or reinforcing in its own territory. On at least one occasion recently, Pakistani troops had rigged up loudspeakers and warned Indian troops to stop such work.
Pakistan’s strategic Haji Pir Pass, that connects Uri and Poonch on the Indian side, was captured by the Indian army in the 1965 war but was returned after the Tashkent agreement.
Foreign secretary Mathai reminded high commissioner Bashir that “the experts of both countries had met in New Delhi on December 27, 2012, to discuss conventional CBMs (confidence building measures), wherein maintaining the sanctity of the LOC, one of the most important CBMs between the two countries, was emphasised”, an MEA statement said. | <urn:uuid:3d0ae16d-1180-4652-b1e7-a0a96fd50d03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130110/jsp/nation/story_16423573.jsp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975931 | 1,048 | 1.523438 | 2 |
So many organizations and businesses are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year — Mountain Valley Hospice and Palliative Care and Greater Mount Airy Habitat for Humanity are just two.
Another organization which serves a great purpose in our community is having a milestone birthday in 2013, with 20 years of service. Surry Medical Ministries.
Last week at the Pilot Mountain Civic Club meeting, Mount Airy resident and ministries volunteer Millie Beal updated the club members on what the organization does and how it has been serving the community for 20 years.
She explained that in 2012, the clinic had 2,749 patient encounters, in which a patient was seen by a doctor or nurse.
That is an amazing number when you realize that the clinic is open just one day a week for about six hours — each Tuesday from 3 to 9 p.m. And it’s dental clinic operates just one day each month.
What is even more amazing is, with the exception of the one part-time registered nurse who serves as coordinator of the clinic, all of the people who work the clinic are volunteers. Let me repeat that, all of the people — the doctors, nurses, pharmacists, pharmacy techs, and others like lay people who help check in patients — are volunteers.
Those medical personnel work their regular full-time jobs and then in the afternoons and nights each Tuesday they offer their services free of charge to make the clinic a success and to make sure the people who wouldn’t otherwise get non-emergency basic medical attention can be seen.
Beal explained that the clinic, which was just the fourth of its kind and the most rural in North Carolina to join the North Carolina Association of Free Clinics in 1993, serves those who are uninsured and the working poor. Now, there are 70 clinics that are members of the NCAFC.
The cost to operate the clinic? More than $100,000 a year, of which the good majority is used to pay for medications — 7,578 prescriptions were filled by clinic pharmacists last year, many which were maintenance medications for conditions like high blood pressure.
Northern Hospital of Surry County does the diagnostics and labs at the clinic for free, Beal said, which keeps operating costs down. But she said that service by the hospital also helps keep those patients from crowding the emergency room.
When asked by a club member where the funding comes from for the expenses at the clinic, Beal said it comes from private donations, citizens and businesses, United Fund of Surry, and clubs and groups like the civic club, which includes the clinic in its annual donations to area nonprofits.
Of the benefits of the clinic, Beal said, “It is just good old-fashioned medicine without all the red tape (paperwork). I think that’s why everyone enjoys coming to work so much.”
Wendy Byerly Wood is the associate editor of The Mount Airy News. She can be reached at [email protected] or 719-1923. | <urn:uuid:b1ac6d7a-5762-4bc1-aa09-8fc970a98b04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mtairynews.com/view/full_story/21695912/article-20-years-of-free-medical-care-%E2%80%94-Surry-Medical-Ministries | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968705 | 635 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Hawaiian School Nurse needed to answer questionRegister Today!
This is a discussion on Hawaiian School Nurse needed to answer question in School Nursing, part of Nursing Specialties ... I am a NYC school nurse and i was having a question. i was looking at the medicaid rates and it...by noreenl May 9, '11I am a NYC school nurse and i was having a question. i was looking at the medicaid rates and it says that you can be responsible for up to 8 special needs kids at a rae of 13 an hr for each. is this true? what kind of limitations are there?
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(CNN) -- Robin Gibb, one of three brothers who made up the group the Bee Gees behind "Saturday Night Fever" and other now-iconic sounds from the 1970s, died on Sunday, according to a statement on his website.
He was 62.
Gibb "passed away today following his long battle with cancer and intestinal surgery," said the statement, which was attributed to his family. He died in England at 10:47 a.m. (5:47 a.m. ET), according to a post on his official Twitter feed.
News of his death set off a torrent of reaction in social media. Musician Bryan Adams, for instance, lamented "another great singer dying too young" on Twitter, while fellow British band Duran Duran and current pop sensation Bruno Mars were among many who posted their condolences.
"The Bee Gees were/are the gold standard when it comes to pop/r&b melody, harmony and vocal arrangement. Massive loss," wrote prolific pop songwriter Claude Kelly on his Twitter feed.
Queen's Brian May lauded Gibb and his "amazing voice, so distinctive and expressive" in a statement on his website.
"For me, the music of the Bee Gees really has peaks as high as any mountain ever climbed by a Pop/Rock group," May said. "The Bee Gees will never be forgotten."
Diagnosed with colon and liver cancer, Gibb had been in a coma as he battled pneumonia earlier this spring, representative Doug Wright said.
Doctors believe that Gibb had a secondary tumor, Wright said April 14, confirming a news account in the UK newspaper The Sun. Gibb had emergency surgery in 2010 for a blocked bowel and then had more surgery for a twisted bowel, Wright confirmed.
The only surviving member of the three Bee Gees is brother Barry, 65.
Robin's twin brother, Maurice, died in 2003 from a twisted bowel. And younger brother Andy Gibb -- who was not part of the group -- died at 30 from a heart infection.
"First Donna Summer passes and now another 70s icon, Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees passes," actress Marlee Matlin tweeted Sunday.
Robin Gibb was born in 1949 on Isle of Man off the British coast, and the Gibb boys grew up in Manchester. The family later moved to Redcliffe, Australia, where their group performed on television as the B.G.'s -- a moniker they later altered to the Bee Gees. Their father, Hughie, was a drummer and big-band leader.
The family returned to England in the 1960s, and they began to emerge on an international scale. Through the end of that decade and into the next, they crafted melodies that utilized their unique voices to gain acclaim thanks to songs like "To Love Somebody," "Lonely Days" and "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart."
By the mid-1970s, they transitioned to develop more dance-oriented hits such as "Jive Talkin' " and "Nights on Broadway."
Yet for all these earlier successes, the Bee Gees skyrocketed to new heights with the 1977 release of "Saturday Night Fever," a movie starring John Travolta that was built around the group's falsetto voices and disco-friendly songs.
In the latter part of the 1970s, the Bee Gees "dominated dance floors and airwaves. With their matching white suits, soaring high harmonies and polished, radio-friendly records, they remain one of the essential touchstones to that ultra-commercial era," the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame says on its website.
"Saturday Night Fever" and the group's 1979 album "Spirits Having Flown" yielded six No. 1 hits, "making the Bee Gees the only group in pop history to write, produce and record that many consecutive chart-topping singles," according to the Hall of Fame.
While often more in the background, Robin Gibb was the lead singer on several of the Bee Gees' top tunes including "I Started a Joke" and "I've Gotta Get a Message to You." He also recorded several solo albums during his career.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, the Bee Gees sold more than 200 million albums, and their soundtrack album to "Saturday Night Fever" was the top-selling album until Michael Jackson's "Thriller" claimed that distinction in the 1980s.
In a 2008 interview with Music Week, Robin Gibb shared one of his all-important rules for songwriting: "always keep a tape running," in order to capture a moment of brilliance and inspiration.
"You never know in a three-hour writing session when you are going to come up with something and then if you'll remember it completely," he said. "All the ideas, everything, will be on tape and then you can always refer back at any time.
"Melodies will be born for the first time during writing and unless you have it on tape you haven't got any way of remembering them. That is a cardinal rule."
He also spoke of how he found it "good to have deadlines and pressure."
"We certainly had a deadline with 'Fever' to write all those songs. I think, in one week, we wrote 'How Deep Is Your Love,' 'Night Fever,' 'Stayin' Alive,' 'If I Can't Have You' and the rest. Having a deadline sharpens you up, it gets you out of bed and it stops you going to bed, too," Gibb said.
Gibb is survived by his wife, Dwina; his daughter, Melissa, and sons Spencer and Robin-John. | <urn:uuid:3f7d5300-b97a-4dfb-82bd-c019eb167ca9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://us.cnn.com/2012/05/20/showbiz/robin-gibb-dies/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981432 | 1,187 | 1.78125 | 2 |
PRLog (Press Release)
- Nov. 26, 2012 -
The credit cards and various categories of mobile phones particularly android, I phone and blackberry are innovative products that have attained fame and name in a short span of time.These devices have various attractive features.These products have become part and parcel in current times. Significantly credit cards have facilitated man in various ways. It has removed tensions regarding long procedures.The earlier methods of money getting were slow full of boredom. But this novel product has revolutionized the world and brings a lot of comfort and easiness in the life of man.In the quick scan of history technological advancement in the arena of latest mobile items also surprised man as well.Take credit cards on iphone is also stunning activity. As separately both mobiles and credit cards are worthwhile and entertained man in various ways. So what will be the situation of those who are availing these innovative products collectively at the same place and time? I phone which is line of smart phones and is a product of world renowned company Apple. Here, the Merchant Solutions and other companies are offering to Take credit cards on iphone.
These companies are renowned and of good will. Now there is no need of swapping cards on different places. Because through one’s own I phone it can be used easily. Likewise, instead of I phone there are other mobile models which contain this facility. As,Take credit cards on blackberry,
it is also a pleasure and comfort seeking activity for blackberry set holders.Blackberry is a handheld device that is primarily designed for email communication, although it does have other functions. It`s features are email browsing, GPS etc. Other than that the amazing facility to Take credit cards on blackberry (http://www.themerchantsolutions.com/automotive.html)
is also worthwhile for this set users.
This luxurious mobile along with credit card facility is supportive and convenient for modern generation. Last but not the least,Take credit cards on android (http://www.themerchantsolutions.com/chargebacks.html)
is also not less interesting and entertaining. Let’s have a look, android is a Linux based operating system designed primarily for touch screen mobile devices etc. The creation of this product introduced touch screen system that was attractive and full of amusement for current generation. In this way, the inclusion of the facility of credit cards in it by services rendering companies is stunning one. Now everything is at foot step of the android users. They can use credit card facilities over their own set. Presently they have no need to get worried about the use of card at different places. There is also no need to swap the card because they can easily manage it over their phone set. Thus as a whole, the use of credit cards over phones provides low rates, no contract, no cancellation fee, one free scanner per account etc. In a brief, there are a lot of advantages of these novel products that has revolutionized the current business activities. These inventions also brought comfort and pleasure at a broader level for whole mankind in current times as well for coming generations. | <urn:uuid:c3d8ea40-61cc-46f2-8407-75a2a3abfb98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prlog.org/12030191-why-should-customer-go-take-credit-cards-on-iphone.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962635 | 639 | 1.5 | 2 |
New Orleans is a town that is known for its rambunctious festivities and what the city has to offer for Halloween is no different. Combining New Orleans’ rich history of haunts and voodoo with the holiday seems to come easy for spooky entrepreneurs and there are tons of things to do for a creepy October.
All Hallows’ Eve, the night when the veil between the supernatural and physical worlds is most transparent and spirits roam the night, gaining their vengeance before moving on. Hence why we dress in costume, so that those spirits can’t recognize us and we can survive to celebrate All Saints’ Day (much like we celebrate Mardi Gras so that we can survive Lent). In a city widely known for its haunted history, we celebrate our spirits in ways that other cities strive to match. While almost everywhere else in the United States Halloween is a night of trick-or-treating for the kiddos, but here we do things differently. | <urn:uuid:e78f0bdb-d985-4cc3-a28f-2228ba2bf96d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.justluxe.com/travel/guides/New-Orleans-Halloween-Celebrations__1834582.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946901 | 200 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Cambria's pursuit of desalination has a 20 year history – for latest info and updates please see History Page.
This site is organized by a citizens group of Cambrians and other residents of the Central Coast concerned about fiscal responsibility, water, development and environmental issues in Cambria, topics that are not be being adequately addressed by current media, San Luis Obispo County nor the Cambria Community Services District.
Cambria enjoys a spectacular natural coastal environment that attracts thousands of visitors from all over the world to our region, a bounty that adds important tourist dollars to the economy. In addition to the eco-wonders of Moonstone Beach (named one of the top 10 beaches in the West by Sunset Magazine) and the Santa Rosa Creek Natural Preserve, Cambria also acts as a gateway to Big Sur and Hearst Castle and offers visitors and residents alike many locally-owned restaurants, art galleries and high-quality retail stores that specialize in unique items.
Safeguarding our “natural capital” is good not only for the environment, but also good for ratepayers and businesses. Yet regard for the environment has become a bone of contention in the discussion around a possible desalination plant in Cambria. Although various water supply alternatives remain viable as described in Cambria’s Water Plan, no other water alternatives have been deemed as acceptable by the Community Services District in the past decade.
Environmental protections must be firmly in place before further development occurs on our coast. Being careful does not make one a naysayer, it makes one a steward of the land. By promoting protection of the natural environment, understanding our watersheds and being water-wise in the urban areas, we can all be on our way to a sustainable water future. A future that is good not only for Cambria (described by Forbe's as one of America's Prettiest Towns), but for the entire Central Coast.
Please use this site to inform yourself of the details.It's not glamorous and not even a little fun, but it is very important to anyone who cares about the Central Coast.
Our intention is to make it easier for everyone who loves Cambria and the Central Coast to work together to solve our problems in thoughtful and creative new ways by employing smart technologies and solutions that will ensure we live in harmony with nature and our precious natural resources, while preserving the quality of life and village environment of Cambria.
Thank you for your interest and for all you do to make Cambria great,
The concerned citizens of Cambria Water Watch.org | <urn:uuid:b1c65b9c-d876-4337-a8e9-d04c10a4fd6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cambriawaterwatch.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932603 | 523 | 1.796875 | 2 |
“The Blackwing” Movie: An Interview with Filmmakers Ricardo and Victoria
79 years ago today, the first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, New Jersey. While drive-ins are a rare sight today, the movie industry is still thriving and indie film studios are popping up all over the world. Before we go any further, if you haven’t already watched the trailer for The Blackwing, stop what you’re doing and check it out. Done? OK, now that you’ve been blown away by the trailer for a movie about a pencil, we can get down to business.
The Blackwing is a film by Outside In Studios about a boy who is obsessed with stationery products and, more specifically, pencils. One day, he finds a Blackwing in a field by his house and discovers that the pencil possesses the ability to bring whatever he draws to life. What precedes and follows is a story that touches on topics as varied as power, bullying and storytelling in general. Intrigued? I know I was.
Last week, I had the opportunity to speak with Ricardo and Victoria, the filmmakers responsible for this project, and gain some insight into the film and the creative process behind it.
Interview with “The Blackwing” Filmmakers Ricardo and Victoria
How did this project come about?
Well, our last year at McMaster University was approaching and we would have to do our Multimedia Senior Thesis Project. Usually, you wait until halfway through the year to start a project after faculty counselling, but we knew we wanted to make something that would go beyond a student project. We wanted to make something that could stand on its own and have a life beyond being a final student film. So we started conceptualizing the film last summer and gave ourselves (and our screenwriter) one rule – which was to not limit ourselves in any way. Usually, we found ourselves and other student filmmakers write stories based on what they think is possible, what they can get access to, what resources are easily available to them. We decided to work “backwards” and come up with the best possible story first, and worry about getting it on camera later.
How long did it take you to complete the project?
We first thought of the original concept in July last year. And we reached a final cut early May. So, it’s been a crazy ten months.
What inspired the story?
The story arose out of a desire to create a compelling, yet complex character – one who is defined by an obsession. So, we arrived at the idea of a young adolescent who is obsessed with stationery, particularly, pencils. And we wanted to explore what would happen if he found the ultimate piece of stationery – a pencil that could manipulate life itself. At first, Milo was just going to write the stories, but our writer suggested that drawing would fit the story better, and we agreed – it’s much entertaining and visually appealing to see the drawings and have them come to life.
Why did you choose the Blackwing pencil?
We had already completed a few drafts of the script and were already entering pre-production. When we were searching for props for Milo’s room, we were looking for items that were ultra-artistic and out of the ordinary, that really spoke about the character and how deep his obsession was. It wasn’t until we stumbled upon pencils.com and saw the Blackwing on the homepage that we realized the importance between the artist and their tool. The Blackwing was everything we didn’t know we were missing. We were first attracted to its appearance – it was simple but had this demure quality, it was the perfect balance between power and subtlety. We gathered from its description on the website that it had a rich history, and when we looked into it – all the famous and iconic artists and writers who used it, how it was discontinued – we knew we had to use The Blackwing. As we approached the final draft of the script, we wrote The Blackwing into it, gave it a title (which it previously did not have), and ordered ourselves a pack.
How many Blackwings were used in the making of this film?
We made it a point to have all the drawings done using the Blackwing, and our artist (Ricardo) can definitley attest to its performance. There were also three body doubles used on set and one sacrificial lamb. But somehow, we went through all but one during the course of production.
I LOVED the graphite toned room. Can you discuss the use of color in the film?
Early in pre-production we outlined a colour palette that would fit within the overall mood and season of film – it included dark and light blues, whites, greys, varying shades of brown, and a deep red. When building our sets, props, and wardrobe, we made sure everything fell within the colours of this palette. The main goal of the colour scheme was to emphasize the cold dullness of winter, which Milo has come to associate with Canada – this is intact Milo’s character spilling onto his surroundings. We wanted the audience to feel everything Milo feels, which isn’t all too thrilled with his relocation to Breton heights. Red was used to add a punch out of the dreariness, but keeping with our dark theme, it works to foreshadow the effects of the pencil on the story and its characters (Prudence’s headband, Morrison’s vest).
Milo is an artist, but he’s also a storyteller. How are these two mediums connected and how do you think these two mediums come together in the process of filmmaking?
Well, in our case, we’ve always been attracted to the visual side of things. On top of directing, we split cinematography and art direction between ourselves, and that’s because we love making beautiful imagery. But we also understand, that visuals are nothing without a good, enthralling story. This was our first project in which we worked with a screenwriter to really nail down a story with interesting characters and a good arch for Milo, and we really pushed ourselves to really think about how cinematography and art direction complimented the story and added meaning to its progression. We actually just did a blog post on how we use our lenses, and how they affect the story and impact the audience. Technically, we could use any lens in a given scene and it would’ve looked great, but we went deeper and thought about what we were trying to say through our lens choice. For example, when Milo first finds the Blackwing in the grass, we used a wide angle lens literally an inch away from the pencil because the distortion made the pencil look larger and powerful in the foreground. We think filmmaking IS art and storytelling combined – both are essential and work with the other to create the final piece.
There seems to be some commentary on storytelling in general in the film. Milo finds that he can’t change a story once it has been written and that if he does not end a story properly, it will carry over to the next story. Am I on track with this?
We would agree, although it wasn’t intentional. We attribute this to the magic of the pencil and the “rules” by which its magic works. If “The End” isn’t written, there is no ending set in stone for that story, and its narrative can continue on to the next.
I also LOVED the use of the swipe edit in the opening montage. I thought it was a creative yet subtle way to convey the effect of drawing and erasing with a pencil. Can you discuss this and some of the other editing and/or cinematographic elements of the film?
The opening credit sequence is actually the first thing we storyboarded and conceptualized thoroughly. We had a minute to convey what Milo is about and give the audience a brief insight into his character and a glimpse at his obsession. We though the idea of him isolated in his own world where only himself, the tool, and his drawing are present (despite of all the kids and havoc of the party itself) would be the perfect way to do this. So in each step of the sequence we have each element represented by three different screens – on one, a close-up of Milo (his eyes in deep concentration, etc), the tool or drawing being completed, and some sort of hint at the party (off-focus streamers, stereo, etc). The only sound you hear are those of the pencil drawing, and the eraser, again to signify Milo’s trance-like state and his inability to conform to his surroundings, and the way each screen enters and exits the frame also speaks to the art of drawing – gliding in as smoothly as the lines he draws and the sounds of the pencil. We could write forever about the choices we made in editing the film, but we’ll tackle just one more sequence – those of Milo writing the Prudence story. Once again, we found ourselves with the task of really introducing Milo’s room and finally establishing his obsession. We decided to intercut the drawing of the Prudy Princeton story against establishing shots of the set we had built – Milo’s extensive collection of pencils, papers, stock, and odd stationery items. It all has a very even pace, but even the editing speaks about the process of writing – the smooth slides representing blurts of creativity, the still frames represent the hiccups along the way, the sharpening represents a recollecting of thoughts. And at the same time, it has yet another level of meaning. Two characters are being introduced in this sequence – Milo and the Blackwing. By intercutting shots of Milo’s obsession (his room) with those of him using The Blackwing, we introduce Milo as is, and the tool that will install a definite change in his character by the end of the story.
The characters in the films seem to fall into archetypal categories (spoiled princess, evil troll, negligent parent, etc.). Was this done purely to aid in the storytelling process, or was there something more to it?
The reason for this is twofold. For one, Milo, although being our lead, only has a mere 16 lines in the entire 30 minutes. So, characters like Morrison, and Prudence really guide the audience through the story and Milo as well. It takes an evil troll or a spoiled princess, or even an arrogant parent to lead a conversation where they’re speaking 90% of the time. When we held casting auditions, we were lucky to find David Knoll who fit the role of Milo perfectly, as he was able to express a wide range of emotions through his eyes. That would become essential to bringing the character to life.
Milo refers to the Blackwing as “the black widow of pencils” and the story he tells with it are all very dark. Is this a commentary on the pencil itself or on Milo’s character? On that note, can you discuss Milo’s character a bit? His silence, his borderline sociopathic tendencies, etc.
Definitely Milo’s character. As we mentioned, The Blackwing was one of the last pieces in the puzzle. So by the time it came into the story, the entire film had already been laid out and scripted. Milo’s character goes through a definitive change in the story, from a passive maladjusted seeing things done onto him, to one who actively expresses his anger by altering the world around him. We don’t really get a glimpse of Milo before The Blackwing, but we have hints as to how he once was before moving to Breton Heights, and we can assume he is/was goodhearted. Even when the Blackwing begins to confuse the narratives in the Prudence and Morrison sotry, we find Milo trying to correct his wrongs. What we have is a kid caught up in something that is bigger than himself, unable to identify the right choices, and making all the wrong ones when his anger gets the best of him. By the end of the film, we see Milo truly does regret the events that have happened, but we also see something else. Milo attempts, one last time, to reach out and make an effort to socialize with the other kids in Breton Heights, and instead ends up taking a beating. This is where we think Milo loses all hope, and really puts the blame on the city and its residents, and decides to draw that final picture of the town. Alternatively, the pencil could really be used for anything, and we briefly showed that when he drew the door knob and his mom opens the door – we feel it’s kind of a gift and a curse – it can make real what you wish, but it adapts to the desires of the owner, conscious or subconscious, and imprints that will into the realization of the wish.
The Blackwing has a number of interesting traits in this film. Obviously, it brings drawings to life, but it also has regenerative powers and lacks the ability to erase. What does a never-ending pencil that can’t erase its mistake mean?
When first conceptualizing the story working with our scriptwriter, Todd S Gallows, one of the first things we had to do was lay out the rules of the pencil. In our original talks, we mentioned the idea of the pencil bringing what it draws to life but with a negative impact for its user. This quickly developed into what you see in the film. It’s not really a negative impact, and the rules aren’t ever laid out, but in our heads, it goes: you can draw anything with the pencil and it will take effect; in order to really end a storyline, it must finish with “The End”; if a story is not ended, it carries on to the next one. That’s part of the narrative, Milo discovering the rules of the pencil and not being able to control its power once it begins combining his stories into one. Then, the idea also goes back to our theme of choices, and their definitive consequences. One thing you learn when you’re growing up is all choices have consequences and you can’t really take actions back. Milo’s learning this in the most extreme of circumstances. Again, it all goes back to us deciding what the rules and characteristics of the pencil’s power would be, and we thought if you could just undo what you’ve drawn, it doesn’t really speak for real life, and there’s no lessons to be learned in that.
We tend to think of the pencil as a tool for creation but, in this case, Milo uses it as a tool for destruction. Can you elaborate on this idea?
This goes back to a previous answer. Milo is at first innocently exercising his creative power. Ticked off at Prudence and what happened at the birthday party, he decides to draw a story that, in and of itself, is actually quite innocent. There’s much worse things than wishing someone to smell extremely bad. But when you take the literal meaning of each drawing and the intentions of his words – “Prudy Princeton was never seen by anybody ever again”, you can see how things begin to get out of control quickly. We wanted the Blackwing to serve as Milo’s voice in the film – he never expresses himself, and when he does, it’s when he is in his room, creating these stories. But somewhere along the line, the stories he creates become destructive, and he is aware of it. It’s not really about differentiating between creation and destruction. For Milo, both ideas become synonymous.
Where can people see this film?
We’ve recently begun the process of submitting to festivals. Right now we have our trailer on our website, and we’ll begin posting where and when it will be screening once we start hearing back from festivals in the coming months. We expect it will have a run into the summer of 2013. All details can be found on outsideinstudio.com/theblackwingmovie , its IMDb, or its Facebook page (all links on the website).
What do you think Studio 602ers? Would you watch a movie about a pencil? Sound off in the comments section below! | <urn:uuid:eeac4949-d855-4a09-b664-927252772e30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pencils.com/blog/the-blackwing-movie-an-interview-with-filmmakers-ricardo-and-victoria/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974747 | 3,422 | 1.664063 | 2 |
By Katharine Houreld
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's army protested to India on Wednesday over the killing of one of its soldiers in Kashmir, the fifth fatality this year in heightened hostilities that have raised concern about violations of the truce between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Indian troops shot the soldier at a position called Kundi during firing from the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Himalayan territory, the Pakistani army said in a statement.
Two Pakistani and two Indian soldiers were killed this month in the worst outbreak of violence in Kashmir since India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire nearly a decade ago. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them over the region that both countries claim.
Following public and media anger at the alleged decapitation of one Indian soldier, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said there could be "no business as usual" with Pakistan, and the army chief said his commanders should retaliate for provocation.
Despite the heated rhetoric, government spokesmen on both sides have insisted the deaths will not derail talks meant to improve relations, and experts say an escalation is unlikely.
The Pakistani military said in a subsequent statement that both sides had spoken over a hotline on Wednesday and Islamabad lodged a strong protest over a "ceasefire violation", but both sides agreed on the need to reduce tension.
Pakistan's government is fighting for survival over corruption charges and its response has been less fiery than that of India to the frictions on the border.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said on Wednesday, during a visit to New York, that she was open to talks with her Indian counterpart in a bid to quell tensions.
"These recent incidents have been extremely unfortunate," she told the Council on Foreign Relations. "We would be open to a discussion, a dialogue at the levels of the foreign minister, to be able to resolve this ... and to recommit ourselves to respect for the ceasefire."
The Pakistani army director of military operations had said he would call his Indian counterpart on Wednesday to complain about the latest killing. India's army spokesman confirmed the call took place on a hotline set up to help defuse tension, but did not give details of the conversation.
India did not confirm the killing, but said if a soldier died it could have been from Indian gunfire in response to shots from Pakistan.
"If any Pakistani soldier has been killed, it may have been in retaliatory firing. Our soldiers do not cross the LoC," army chief General Bikram Singh told reporters. The latest skirmish followed a warning by Singh on Tuesday that he expected his commanders to respond aggressively to "provocation and fire".
Singh spoke during a visit to the family of Lance Naik Hemraj, a soldier the Indian army says was decapitated by Pakistani soldiers last week. The reported mutilation triggered public and media outrage in India and unusually strong language from the government and army.
SENIOR CITIZENS TURNED BACK
A new visa program that was hailed as a sign of thawing relations before the latest fighting seemed to be affected by the tension. Pakistani senior citizens were turned away at a border post the first day the program was to come into effect.
A senior Indian home ministry official said the visa program had been "put on hold owing to technical issues".
In a sign of the emotion the attacks have evoked in India, nine Pakistani hockey players who were signed up to play in a private league were sent home following protests.
Indian-Pakistani relations had improved after nose-diving in 2008 when gunmen killed 166 people in Mumbai in a three-day rampage that India blamed on a Pakistani militant group.
India blames the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group for that attack and says it enjoys official protection in Pakistan. Pakistan denies supporting the group. Indian officials have accused the LeT of stirring up the recent trouble on the border, a claim denied by its founder, Hafez Saeed.
"Resort to the use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy is short-sighted," India's ambassador to the United Nations, H.S. Puri, told the U.N. Security Council, which is currently headed by Pakistan.
"Those who play with the sword shall also perish by it."
Firing and small skirmishes are common along the internationally recognized 740-km (460-mile) Line of Control despite the ceasefire that was agreed in 2003.
The Indian army this week released photographs of landmines it said were laid by Pakistan and discovered in Indian territory. The army said there had been an increase in the number of mines found in recent months.
(Additional reporting by Satarupa Bhattacharjya, Annie Banerji and Frank Jack Daniel in New Delhi, Ashok Pahalwan in Jammu and Michelle Nichols in New York; Editing by John Chalmers, Mark Heinrich and Stacey Joyce) | <urn:uuid:fb2ebcf6-d3a4-48cc-9dad-5cce9416b7d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wsau.com/news/articles/2013/jan/16/pakistan-protests-to-india-over-kashmir-killing/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973921 | 1,021 | 1.59375 | 2 |
JERUSALEM — Menachem Begin, who in unbending obedience to his own rigid principles led Israel to its first formal peace with an Arab state and who later presided over a war in Lebanon that was Israel's longest and most divisive, died early today after a heart attack.
In a statement broadcast on Israel Radio, the government said Begin, 78, had been on a respirator in the intensive care unit of Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital since suffering the heart attack on Tuesday. His condition took a turn for the worse Friday after a pacemaker was installed.
For the Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday March 10, 1992 Home Edition Part A Page 3 Column 6 Metro Desk 2 inches; 38 words Type of Material: Correction
Menachem Begin--In an obituary Monday on former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, an editing error omitted a reference to Begin's reelection in 1981 and left the impression that Israel's air strike on an Iraqi nuclear reactor occurred in the 1970s. It was in 1981.
An often-defeated outsider who became a consistent political winner, Begin dominated his country for just over six years, from his election in 1977 to his resignation in 1983, and spread his influence throughout the turbulent Middle East.
He agreed to evacuate the Jewish towns established in the Sinai Peninsula to seal the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, but he encouraged Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank of the Jordan River and in the Gaza Strip in order to preempt any future government from making a similar land-for-peace swap.
Begin, who liked to think of himself as a fighter, combined the exquisite manners of a 19th-Century European courtier with a sharp tongue that made him a formidable debater. And through his career, his beliefs rarely changed.
Sometimes the results were contradictory; almost always they were controversial.
Before the creation of the modern Israeli state, Begin led the underground Irgun Zvai Leumi, an organization that used terror tactics in an effort to drive the British out of Palestine. Later, as prime minister of independent Israel, he waged an unrelenting war against the Palestine Liberation Organization, which he derided as a band of terrorists.
For the first 29 years of Israel's statehood, Begin was a political loser, leading his unyieldingly hawkish Likud Party to defeat after defeat. Yet, he was elected prime minister in 1977 and was reelected four years later. Public opinion polls taken during his second term showed that he was by far the most popular politician in the nation.
Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat shared the Nobel Peace Prize for their agreement to end the state of war between Israel and its biggest Arab neighbor. But the peace process did not spread in Begin's time to encompass any other Arab nation.
In June, 1982, he ordered his forces to invade Lebanon and crush the PLO. The resulting war was the longest Israel had fought since winning its independence. It chilled the Jerusalem-Cairo relationship, strained Israel's relations with the United States and opened deep divisions within Israeli society.
Begin's career was dominated by various aspects of Arab-Israeli relations, but with the exception of Sadat and a few other Egyptian leaders, he seldom had any personal contact with Arabs. Fluent in several languages, he never learned Arabic, one of Israel's two official languages.
Sol Linowitz, a former U.S. negotiator in the Middle East, called Begin "a man of many moods and many layers--and peeling away one layer reveals 20 others."
"He is often Talmudic in his disputations and revels in arguments and detailed semantics," Linowitz said. "He also seems very eager to have public approval and is deeply disturbed when he is attacked.
"Behind Begin's very formal and stiff exterior was a sentimental man. Once during a conversation, he suddenly started talking about his mother, speaking tenderly and softly about her influence and saying that it is from her that he got his patience."
Begin's leadership left Israel far stronger than he found it. The peace treaty with Egypt removed the largest and strongest of the Arab states from the confrontation line with Israel. Jerusalem's military advantage over its Arab foes was unquestioned.
However, when Begin attempted to use his military might to eliminate the threat of PLO guerrilla attack from bases in Lebanon, he led the country into a quagmire. After its initial military successes, the Israeli army became bogged down as an army of occupation in about a third of Lebanon, exposing its troops to attack by Lebanese and Palestinian guerrillas.
Anti-war demonstrators maintained an around-the-clock vigil outside Begin's residence, keeping a running tally of Israeli casualties on a six-foot-high poster. Some associates blamed this demonstration, with its constant reminder of the deaths of Israeli troops, for sapping the prime minister's morale, breaking his health and ultimately forcing him to resign.
Throughout his life, Begin amassed a long list of bitter foes. With an awesome single-mindedness, he opposed the Russians, the Germans, the British, almost all factions of Arabs and the Israeli Labor Party.
Born Aug. 16, 1913, into one of the leading Jewish families of Brest-Litovsk (then in Poland, now in newly independent Belarus), Begin grew up as a modern urban youth. He received a law degree from Warsaw University in 1935. | <urn:uuid:59aaada7-f222-480c-a9f0-cc7636dfe3d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.latimes.com/1992-03-09/news/mn-2542_1_menachem-begin | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97852 | 1,106 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Parents of Scholarship Recipients Asked to Donate Awards to Others
Penn State University's Schreyer Honors College offers admitted students $3,500 per year merit scholarships, a common practice among state colleges that want to entice the best students to attend. Students at Penn State and their parents are doing something unique with these scholarship awards, though: they're giving them to other Schreyer students.
Parents of scholarship recipients who did not apply for need-based financial aid receive a letter asking them to consider making a donation in the amount of the scholarship their children received. The letter, penned by the parents of other Schreyer students, emphasizes the amount of unmet financial need some of their children's classmates face and asks them to consider whether they need the extra $3,500 in order to pay their tuition bill. If not, they are asked to give the money to students for whom the extra money could make the difference between attending college at Penn State and staying home.
The university stresses that students are not being asked to give up their academic scholarships in this campaign. Rather, they ask that parents who can spare the extra money because their child received a scholarship would consider donating to help other deserving students who last year had more than $1 million in unmet financial need.
Honors colleges, even at large state universities, tend to be relatively close-knit communities of top-performing students who are engaged in their studies and their campus communities. It's not surprising, then, that parents of Schreyer Honors College students hit upon an idea to help their children's struggling classmates last year when the economy first began to sink into recession. The campaign was initiated by parents and supported by the university, which sends the letters on the parents' behalf.
Last year's appeal raised around $228,000, with over $120,000 of that going directly to 34 students who needed help paying for school. The remaining $100,000 went towards establishing an endowed trust to ensure that this effort continues helping students in the future. So far this year, the campaign has raised $13,000 from 11 donors.
Posted Under : College and the Economy
, College News
, Financial Aid
Tags: academic scholarships
, College and the Economy
, college news
, college scholarships
, Financial Aid
, Pennsylvania scholarships | <urn:uuid:208e1a7f-59b8-4b19-8c78-19f78578c777> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://scholarships.com/Blog/college-news/parents-of-scholarship-recipients-asked-to-donate-awards-to-others/1226/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972647 | 473 | 1.5625 | 2 |
3 Bucknell finalists in international illusions contest
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Three visual illusions developed at Bucknell are finalists for the Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest, an international competition hosted by the Neural Correlate Society.
Art Shapiro, associate professor of psychology, and junior Emily Knight collaborated on two of the finalist illusions. Shapiro, who won first place in 2005, collaborated with Kai Hamburger from the University of Giessen, Germany, on a third finalist illusion.
“Having one finalist is an accomplishment. Having three is a surprise,” Shapiro said.
The top 10 will be presented on May 12 at an event that coincides with the 2007 Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting in Sarasota, Fla. Attending visual scientists will vote on the best illusion based on five criteria including, most importantly, the significance of the illusion for our understanding of the visual system.
Knight first of neuroscience majors
Knight, who is a presidential fellow and part of the first class of neuroscience majors at Bucknell, will present one of the entries to a large audience, who will vote for the winner.
“These particular illusions are both scientifically interesting and spectacular in appearance. They’re entertaining and at the same time help us to understand visual perception,” Knight said.
“Swimmers, Eels and Other Gradient-Gradient Illusions” is a striking demonstration of how shapes with gradients can appear to move – even “swim” – when interacting with background grating.
“Where Has All the Motion Gone?” is also extremely intriguing from a scientific standpoint. It shows how a blur can add motion to an illusion.
“The effect is important because blur does not physically add information to the image. The brain should be reporting motion for both blurred and non-blurred versions of the illusion. Why it reports motion only for the blurred version of the image is a mystery,” Shapiro said.
Hamburger made the trip from Germany to work with Shapiro at Bucknell, where they collaborated on “‘Weaves’ and the Hermann Grid.” Involving a series of intertwined bars that create illusory dots at various locations, it was partially the result of extensive discussions that took place over coffee at Zelda's Cafe in Lewisburg.
"Last year, I got the opportunity from my graduate program to go to a foreign lab for a couple of weeks," said Hamburger. "I wanted to go to Professor Shapiro's lab, since I was fascinated by his work and still am."
The contest’s international panel of judges, which selected the 10 finalists, includes representatives from Italy, Japan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Pretty, but also pretty important
According to Shapiro, visual illusions are more than just “pretty things on the web.” They help researchers to understand how the brain allows humans to see motion and color, among other uses.
A sampling of illusions, both fun and functional, can be seen at Shapiro’s website.
Posted May 3, 2007
Next story >> | <urn:uuid:c2ffc2f9-9831-4db1-84e4-b87827eff58a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bucknell.edu/x34288.xml | 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 | 0.937559 | 646 | 1.664063 | 2 |
The ISI and CIA are talking in Washington. These talks, by all signs and tokens, are not so much talks for reconciliation, as for laying down a new regime of relations between the two. Since both spearhead the policies of their governments in the neighbourhood of Pakistan, the Pasha-Panetta talks will shape the Pak-US relations in the days to come. The commentators are talking in terms of a break in the relationship by referring to Pakistan’s desire for a reformulation mainly centred on Pakistan’s decision to curtail American interests in Pakistan, especially in the activity of the CIA.
The Pakistani public is on board. The media, after the Raymond Davis episode, has shaped the Pakistani opinion, which in turn has compelled the PPP government to align itself more closely with the GHQ, with President Zardari telling a British newspaper in an interview that the US-led war in Afghanistan is “seriously undermining efforts to restore Pakistan’s democratic institutions and economic prosperity”. That widens the scope of the ‘objections’ Pakistan has expressed to American policy in the region. It means that Washington’s ‘Afghan policy’ is not in sync with Pakistan’s own national objectives.
A lot of harsh things regarding American policy have been said in public in Pakistan, trumping the official line in their intensity. One argument which has always been seen as ‘official thinking’ is that the Americans are not in the region to confront al Qaeda and ensure peace in Afghanistan, but to destroy Pakistan’s nuclear capability by somehow disabling its nuclear arsenal. If this were true, then from the Pakistani point of view, the Americans should not be in Pakistan at all but the two should be arrayed against each other as enemies. If you listen to the TV anchors in Pakistan, many of them see America as an enemy of Pakistan and portray the so-called ‘bad’ Taliban killing innocent Pakistanis through suicide-bombers as being on the payroll of the CIA.
On the American side, think-tanks and politicians are increasingly pointing to the ‘dubious intent’ of the rulers in Pakistan. A recent report by the US Congress said that Pakistan had no effective policy against terrorism and did not seem to care much about the growth of the power of al Qaeda and its ancillaries often called ‘jihadi organisations’. Needless to say there is a marginal opinion too in Pakistan which marvels at the real intent of the state of Pakistan as it fights a fluctuating battle against terrorists in the Tribal Areas that seems to be going nowhere. There is also a gap between these marginal observers and the official opinion about the drones operated by the CIA.
If one were to take the pulse in Pakistan, anti-Americanism is at its most intense among the public. But there is also the consensual lament about the radicalisation and extremism of Pakistani society. No matter how hard one tries, one cannot link this extremism and intolerance to the Americans — although some religious parties do. There is also no coherent opinion about the Taliban and al Qaeda comparable to the clarity expressed in hatred of America. The state is seen by all as too weak to stand up to the terrorists and criminals preying on the common man and crippling Pakistan’s economy through ‘protection money’ and disruption of business.
Pakistan’s economy is in dire straits and the only country willing to assist Pakistan substantially is the US. From the above facts, it seems Pakistan wants to force a change in America’s policy towards Pakistan. The current talks between the CIA and ISI have come in the wake of a period of non-communication between the two agencies. Pakistan’s Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has ‘the nation behind him’, but he must know precisely whether the US ‘needs Pakistan more than Pakistan needs the US’.
We all know that terrorism is coming out of North Waziristan. General Kayani will have to do something about it if he wants the drone attacks stopped. And he will have to take another look at the ‘jihadi’ organisations who owe allegiance to al Qaeda and not to Pakistan and with whom it is unclear whether the Deep State has fully severed its ties.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 13th, 2011.
More in EditorialSpirited away | <urn:uuid:547b7f1a-c3c8-4cda-8219-79545ee1a60e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tribune.com.pk/story/148217/pakistan-us-and-their-intelligence-agencies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964667 | 901 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Henry Marshall Tory Chairs
In Aberdeen, Scotland, Dr Mark Nuttall had been in the habit of watching TV at midnight to check the temperature in Edmonton, Alberta. Nuttall doesn't mind cold weather, which isn't surprising considering his life's work has focused on the culture of indigenous people and the environment in the North; in particular, he has focused on the sustainable utilization of living marine resources in the Arctic and North Atlantic. A social anthropologist, Nuttall is the editor of the Encyclopedia on the Arctic and one of the lead authors of a report on Arctic Council.
Named for Henry Marshall Tory, the first President of the University (1908–29), Henry Marshall Tory Chairs at the University of Alberta were created to foster excellence in teaching and research at the University. This program is committed to the support of individuals influencing the University and the community as a whole within an interdisciplinary field.
The Chairs are expected, through their teaching, research and service, to have an impact on the University and the community. The appointments are intended for "outstanding individuals who by their presence will enhance the reputation of the University and who can provide leadership and experience for the strengthening of teaching and research in specific disciplines." Research and teaching in interdisciplinary fields are encouraged.
Any full-time member of the academic teaching staff at the University of Alberta may be appointed as a Tory Chair.
Appointments of up to four Tory Chairs are funded by the Endowment Fund for the Future.
The University's Henry Marshall Tory Teaching Chairs are listed below. | <urn:uuid:947a5d5d-dae3-4fe7-987c-e91df7c40e6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wayback.archive-it.org/2217/20101214180400/http:/www.ualbertacentennial.ca/achievements/teaching/tory.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96075 | 317 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Women's Studies/SCI book group for "At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance" by Danielle McGuire
Friday Feb 22
5:15 PM - 6:15 PM
The book is from 2011 and, in it, "We see how and why Rosa Parks, instead of becoming a leader of the movement she helped to start, was turned into a symbol of virtuous black womanhood, sainted and celebrated for her quiet dignity, prim demeanor, and middle-class propriety‹her radicalism all but erased. And we see as well how thousands of black women whose courage and fortitude helped to transform America were reduced to the footnotes of history."
The book group will meet at Brewin Around coffee shop | <urn:uuid:b9a27efd-0d4d-4958-9e03-6e72614b5687> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.radford.edu/content/qep/home/events.html/women_s_studies_sci_/1C3D1886-2A12-4C2F-8FAD-9C30F1D8438D | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969896 | 155 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Court’s Ruling for Hebron Jews Mends Barak’s Violations of their Rights, Honoring Israel’s Moral Obligation
Latest update: September 18th, 2012
Late Thursday afternoon, at my Beit Hadassah home, here, in Hebron, I received a text message – in Hebrew, four words: “Zachinu b’tik Beit HaShalom” which, in simple English means, we won. We won the court case for Beit HaShalom.
We knew that a decision was imminent. Final arguments had been presented. It was a question of time until the judge ruled.
We knew that, according to the facts presented, our chances were good. But in Israeli courts, facts aren’t necessarily a deciding factor. You never know.
I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it. An Israeli court ruled in our favor. Tears came to my eyes, and muttering something, but not really speaking, I held up the phone so my wife could read the notice. Then I recited the age-old blessing said upon happy events: Shechechianu – Blessed is He that allowed me to be present for this joyous event.
Beit HaShalom was purchased for an extravagant amount of money by Morris Abraham and his family. We moved in on March 19, 2007. We remained there until Ehud Barak, then, too, the minister of defense, ordered the police and IDF to throw us out, on December 4, 2008.
The Arab who sold the building, Mr. Rajabi, claimed that we had stolen his property. We had a film of him counting the money paid for the building. He argued that he’d changed his mind and returned the money. In court, when asked to provide proof that he’d returned the money, he admitted that he had no receipt or document of any kind. “We Arabs do everything based on trust,” he said.
Anywhere else in the world, such a case would never have reached court. But in Israel, the rightful owners were expelled, the building was sealed and guarded, and the court case commenced.
Four years in court, tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees, more hours than can be counted invested. Knowing that justice isn’t necessarily a key factor in such cases.
Yesterday we won. The court ruled that the government has up to 30 days to return the building to us.
Pictures flashed through my mind: rain and snow blowing through window-openings, when Barak refused to allow real windows to be installed. One of my daughters lived there with babies. Her floor was a big puddle. Our comrade, the late Eyal Noked z”l, working tirelessly, day and night, to make the apartments minimally livable. Knesset members, ministers, petitions, whatever, in an attempt to convince Barak to change his mind. To no avail.
What must happen next? Following the recent expulsion from another legally purchased building in Hebron, Beit HaMachpela, it is well known that, according to present Israeli law, the defense minister must sign permits allowing Jews to purchase property in Judea and Samaria. Without this, he can have Jews expelled from such homes.
This is easily resolvable, of course, to follow the learned conclusions of the Levi Commission, which, contrary to the U.S. intelligence opinions, ruled that civilians living in Judea and Samaria, and in places like Hebron, do not, in any way, violate international law, the Geneva Convention or the Hague accords. The commission determined that such rules, demanding expressed permission from government officials to purchase property in Judea and Samaria, are totally superfluous.
But responsibility does not rest with Barak, but rather with the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, and the Knesset – the present legal framework under which Israel is governed.
If I bought a home in London and was told that a Jew purchasing a home on “that side of the city” would cause a violent reaction, how would that be viewed? Probably as anti-Semitism and racism. Why, then, can’t a Jew buy property in Hebron, just as people purchase homes all over the world?
Recently, a paper was claimed to have been presented to U.S. President Barack Obama, called: “Preparing For A Post Israel Middle East.” Written by the U.S. Intelligence cream of the crop, the paper concludes that the American national interest in fundamentally at odds with that of Zionist Israel.
As we reported, that while this report garnered a lot of publicity in certain circles, it is unlikely that there was any truth that to its claim, but still, it was taken seriously in some circles, and its conclusion, in short, is the world, i.e. the United States, would be better off without an Israel.
Many of the reasons detailed in the paper have to do with the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria—the extremist, violent “settlers” and the anti-democratic, apartheid-like state of Israel.
Perhaps the most appropriate response to that paper on the part of Israel would be the immediate return of Jews to Beit HaShalom and Beit HaMachpela, here in Hebron, basically telling the authors exactly what we think of it and them.
Following the illegitimate expulsion from our homes in Beit HaShalom, the state of Israel, under Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, has a legal responsibility to return this property to its lawful owners, immediately, ensuring that Barak not torpedo this move.
But on a higher level, this decent and rightful move would state, loud and clear, not only in words, but with action, that we will continue to live in our land, all our land, be it in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Hebron. This is our land, always has been, always will be.
This is Israel’s moral obligation to our people, our history, our land.
About the Author: David Wilder is the spokesperson for the Hebron Community and a regular contributor to Tazpit News Agency.
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How many people carry a laptop with them? Most of them, isn’t it? That’s where I wanted to reach… technology portability.We take the technology with us by phone, laptop, tablet and all kind of gadgets to keep us informed, in contact with our friends or business. SONY, always having a vision to the future, thought to upgrade the concept of portability gadget technology and will provide us with NEXTEP, a gadget concept that will change the perception about reality.
Our need for internet connectivity is so profound that secondary devices like NEXTEP computer are bound to happen. Designed to be worn as a bracelet, the concept is based on a flexible OLED touch screen. Earmarked for 2020, features like holographic projector, pull-out extra keyboard panels and social networking capabilities, make the concept plausible. Eight years from now it’s not too far, so how many of you think we will actually be buying such gadgets?
When we think about mobile computing right now, we picture all sorts of different netbooks, laptops, and even tablets at this point. And, while some watches out there offer up Bluetooth capabilities to show our text messages, we want something better. A lot better. And thanks to the crazy minds at Sony, it looks like 2020 is the target date to get us what we want. The NEXTEP Computer concept is completely designed to be worn on your wrist like a watch – so much so, in fact, that its OLED panels are of the touchscreen nature, but are completely flexible to shape around your wrist.
The futuristic device by SONY called NEXTEP computer and designed by Hiromi Kirik from Japan is equipped with a flexible touch-screen based on organic light-emitting diodes. It has a holographic projector and retractable touch-sensitive keyboard and it is assumed that SONY NEXTEP Computer will focus on communication in social networks and more than that, you can fold out the NEXTEP Computer and place it on the table to answer your emails, Instant Messages, tweet news, upload photos or whatever else you need to do on your mobile watch computer. This concept aims at not only small, handy and great technology at our disposal, but also aesthetically superlative, because it can be worn as a bracelet that changes color depending on clothes changed daily.
Of course, it is not perfect and there are many problems to think of and to improve. There are some questions about durability of the device, especially if you take into account the fact that it is worn on the wrist – this is not quite safe, because the device is exposed to such negative factors as water (sweat, rain) and mechanic damage. So, will you buy it? MAKE. BELIEVE. “SONY” | <urn:uuid:79fdff3f-3746-48d0-9525-6a1582ce8bd3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://informaatie.nl/2011/12/in-2020-we-can-wear-sony-nextep-computers-on-our-wrist/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953788 | 568 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Senators Say DOJ is Lying About the PATRIOT ActSeptember 22, 2011 - by Donny Shaw
It’s always nice to see members of Congress challenging secrecy, lies, and privacy violations from the executive branch. As Charlie Savage reports at the New York Times, Democratic Senators Ron Wyden [OR] and Mark Udall [CO] wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday accusing him of using secret legal opinions to miselad the public on how the PATRIOT Act is really being used.
Mr. Wyden and Mr. Udall have for months been raising concerns that the government has secretly interpreted a part of the Patriot Act in a way that they portray as twisted, allowing the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conduct some kind of unspecified domestic surveillance that they say does not dovetail with a plain reading of the statute.
The dispute has focused on Section 215 of the Patriot Act. It allows a secret national security court to issue an order allowing the F.B.I. to obtain “any tangible things” in connection with a national security investigation. It is sometimes referred to as the “business records” section because public discussion around it has centered on using it to obtain customer information like hotel or credit card records.
But in addition to that kind of collection, the senators contend that the government has also interpreted the provision, based on rulings by the secret national security court, as allowing some other kind of activity that allows the government to obtain private information about people who have no link to a terrorism or espionage case.
This “other kind of activity” likely involves geolocation monitoring using data from people’s cell phones. As Julian Sanchez describes in the excellent post at Cato@Libery, all the evidence points to the existence of a secretive and massive geolocation datamining program that includes suspected terrorists, people they may communicate with, people those people may communicate with, and so on down the line. Such a program woud require the government to have access to private information involving millions of innocent civilians.
Unfortunately, the PATRIOT Act was reauthorized by Congress this summer until June of 2015 with no reforms. Sen. Wyden has introduced standalone legislation, the GPS Act, to require a specific court order for the government to obtain geolocation tracking data on an individual under the PATRIOT Act and any other program, but so far the bill has not attracted any co-sponsors.
Meanwhile, Congress is advancing new legislation that could give the government access to more private information about innocent civilians. The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act, which has been approved by the Judiciary Committee, would require all internet service providers to retain customer records and hand them over to law enforcement agents for any purpose. Just like how the PATRIOT Act is not used exclusively, or even primarily, for going after terrorism, the Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act would not be used only for catching child pornographers. When ow of the bill’s primary co-sponsors, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz [D, FL-20], was asked by NPR whether she would add language to the bill to limit it to just child pronography cases, she responded, “um, no.” | <urn:uuid:36e87a66-d4e4-4b0b-90e8-e16e0c09d9c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/2385-Senators-Say-DOJ-is-Lying-About-the-PATRIOT-Act?comment_id=235573&comment_page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946746 | 662 | 1.53125 | 2 |
You can drag the image around to explore it.
Spokesman of the Sikh People
New Delhi. Sunday September, 21, 1947
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS GOLD HERE
LET PATIALA LEAD THE PANTH TO GLORY
The heinous and suicidal decision of the Punjab Boundary Commission has been implemented. To say the least, it is highly disappointing from the Sikh's point of views- A clever British I lawyer has deprived us of our innumerable holy shrines, including our Mecca and Jerusalem, Sri Nankana Sahib, and more than 70 per cent, of our holdings just with one stroke of his pen. Can any Sikh tolerate this intolerable position? Most certainly not. The clarion call of our lost prestige and fatally wounded pride beckons all of us to stake our all now and here in the struggle either to win it or to meet a martyr's death.
Hark, there is another voice. It is not so soul-inspiring as the first, but it is saner and seems more promising. We do not want war to lose it and thus be deprived of whatever is left with us. We want a war to win it and get our due share. Winning of war requires large, efficient and well-equipped army and vast resources. Our opponents no more consist of partially trained and poorly equipped fanatic mobs. They have now been reinforced by strong, well-trained and highly equipped army, whereas, our strength and our army are in the hands of those who dare not risk anything for us at this moment. Thus to fight our enemies now is to invite our own disaster.
It is no cowardice if we utilise this time in strengthening our hold at one point and then wait for a chance, which will not be in the distant future, to pounce upon those who dare stand between our due share and us.
Let us unanimously choose the Maharajadhiraj of Patiala the head of our community and I then put our demand before the Indian Union that the whole of the Punjabi speaking area of the East Punjab be joined with the territory of Patiala State. The Maharaja of Patiala should be preferred to other Sikh rulers for the simple reason that nearly a million of our stout bretheren are residing in that State. Our compact and constitutional union with them at this juncture will create a new sense of self confidence and security among our ranks and files who have been greatly unnerved by the recent sad happenings in the Punjab. We should solemnly assure the congress and our Hindu bretheren that the new State thus formed will remain within the Indian Union and guard its western frontiers stoutly and faithfully and that it will follow democratic principles.
The creation of a bigger Sikh State is a matter of urgent necessity, otherwise we will not be able either to stop the present haphazard mass migration of our men from the West Punjab, which is economically so disasterous to us or to rehabilitate to our national advantage those who have already come to this side. Only States with their vast resources and prestige, and not private bodies, however well organised these may be, can hope to tackle these mighty problems successfully.
May God grant us sufficient courage, determination, unity and above all constructive statesmanship to enable us to realise our dream of Khalistan.
Khalistan Zinda Bad. Jubbulpore. | <urn:uuid:a5c9a07c-cdee-4d20-b2ac-f621bfb790a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/topics/the-liberator.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942261 | 685 | 1.679688 | 2 |
AT&T Wireless has announced plans to upgrade its 3G network to support internet access at speeds of up to 20 megabits per second, starting in 2009.
The update, known as HSPA Release 7, is an intermediate step between the company's current 3.6 megabit HSPA network, and its planned deployment of a fourth-generation network beginning in 2010. According to the company, the Release 7 rollout will be primarily software based, requiring few hardware modifications on the deployed towers, speeding deployment.
Existing users, however, will almost certainly require new devices to take advantage of the added speed. Currently existing HSPA devices only support speeds up to 7.2 megabits.
The company's CEO also heavily emphasized the role of data and internet access for the company going forward, including a smooth integration of its future LTE network with existing GSM and HSPA deployments. | <urn:uuid:eeab46b7-1fb5-41b6-a875-26e173793da4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=23290 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961841 | 180 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Remarks of the Hon’ble Prime Minister at a Press Conference releasing the first natural, social, and human capital results of Bhutan’s new National Accounts
Bhutan will be the first country with expanded capital accounts
10 February, 2012
Three decades after His Majesty the Fourth Druk Gyalpo made his now famous proclamation that “Gross National Happiness is more important that Gross National Product,” I think we are only beginning to unravel the profundity of that seminal statement.
In His Majesty’s presence, one thing was always crystal clear to me – he chose his words very carefully and very deliberately. Each word and each phrase had meaning. Two examples are particularly relevant for what I now want to present now:
His Majesty could have chosen simply to talk about GNH and its benefits. But he very deliberately introduced and presented GNH in direct contrast to GNP. That means it is incumbent on us really to understand GNP (or GDP as it has now become in international accounting systems) if we really want to understand GNH. How and why is GNH more important than GDP? And since GNP or GDP is actually an accounting system, what would GNH accounts look like?
And His Majesty could have chosen to say that “GNH is more important to the people of Bhutan than GNP”. But again he deliberately stated it as a universal truth that is therefore applicable to all peoples. This is crucial to understand. GNH matters not only for us. It’s also His Majesty’s gift to the world.
At a time of devastating environmental and cultural destruction globally and the growing bankruptcy and collapse of our global economic order, the world desperately needs an alternative to the materialist, consumerist obsession that has wreaked such havoc. If we can demonstrate the practical viability of a working set of GNH (not GDP) accounts that chart a sane and balanced path forward, that will be one of the greatest contributions our little country can make to the wider world.
Let’s consider our current reality – the way the whole world now keeps its national accounts is enshrined in the official global System of National Accounts that is accepted by the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and by every government in the world. It’s the reason GDP is comparable globally from London to Addis Ababa to Beijing to Buenos Aires.
It is hard to rock that boat…!!! But rock it we must, because that universally accepted system is based on untenable premises that have led governments to adopt some of the most bewildered, confusing, and destructive policies imaginable. And challenge it we must if we are serious about charting a sane and balanced GNH path forward, both for ourselves and for the world.
The conventional and almost universally held belief, globally, is that the more the economy grows, as measured by GDP growth, the better off and more prosperous we are. But consider this:
Because the GDP only counts monetary market transactions, it mistakenly and misleadingly counts the depletion and degradation of our natural wealth as if it were economic gain. If we were to cut down all our forests in Bhutan, GDP would mushroom, because GDP only counts the timber value of our forests once they are cut and sold at market. GDP takes no account at all of the resources we leave behind, and so it entirely ignores the value of our standing forests.
Yet, as we well know, and as our own Constitution wisely recognizes by vowing to keep most of our country under forest cover, our standing forests have immense value – protecting wildlife, biodiversity, watersheds, soils, and sacred places, sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, ameliorating the danger of landslides, and much more. Because those values are invisible in GDP, it’s no wonder the world has accumulated a massive ecological debt that appears in no country’s national accounts.
Keeping accounts this way, as the world presently does, is like a factory owner selling off all his machinery and seeds and counting it as profit, even though he’ll have nothing to produce next year. And yet that’s the way the world, and even we here in Bhutan, keep our national accounts! How absurd and foolish..….!
There are so many examples of this absurdity…. The more fossil fuels we burn and the more greenhouse gases we therefore emit, the more GDP will grow, and therefore – according to conventional economic dogma – the ‘better off’ we are! The true costs of climate change remain invisible. For that matter, as we learned the hard way watching the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the true costs of oil have never been reflected at the petrol pump, primarily because our present GDP-based accounting systems ignore ecological benefits and costs. Indeed, it is sadly ironic that natural or human-induced disasters actually make GDP grow, simply because money is spent on repair and clean up costs.
In fact, many things that make GDP grow, and that are therefore conventionally (and misleadingly) counted as positive signs of an expanding economy, actually signify a decline in wellbeing. The more crime, pollution, war, and sickness we have, for example, the more GDP will grow, simply because money is being spent on prisons, police, weapons, drugs, cigarettes, and pollution clean-up costs to deal with the consequences of these ills. So long as you spend money, GDP will grow, regardless of whether that spending signifies an improvement or a decline in wellbeing. So simple GDP growth can’t actually tell us if we are better off or not.
And if GDP counts as gain many questionable things that actually signify a decline in wellbeing, it entirely ignores a whole range of productive economic activity that genuinely does contribute to wellbeing – ignoring it simply because no money is exchanged. And so, volunteer work, community service, and the vital unpaid work done in households count for nothing in GDP, and the precious free time that we need to meditate, garden, and socialize with family and friends is completely value-less in GDP.
And since equitable development is one of our core GNH principles, it is noteworthy that GDP only measures the total amount of income a country produces and takes no account of how that income is shared. So the rich could be getting richer while the poor are getting poorer, and GDP can still continue to grow, with the growing inequities invisible in our standard accounts.
I could go on listing many more fundamental flaws in our present reliance on GDP accounting methods which, sadly, send highly misleading signals to policy makers who continue to undermine timely action on climate change, disease prevention, and other crucial preventive actions. But just these few examples I’ve noted suffice to explain what the primary architect of GNP / GDP accounting, Nobel Prize winner Simon Kuznets, knew 60 years ago when he warned that GNP /GDP should never be used to assess a nation’s wellbeing, prosperity, and progress. To do that, Kuznets recognized that you always have to ask, not just how much is growing, but what is growing. But the world has long ignored Kuznets’ sage warning and still uses GDP as its primary measure of wellbeing, prosperity, and progress.
That total misguided reliance on GDP was never clearer than in the global economic collapse of 2008-09 when the world’s leaders almost unanimously decided that the most important thing they could do was make the economy grow again – in other words, to stimulate GDP. The world is now paying the price of that one-sided approach as governments slide into devastating debt from which they cannot emerge.
All this leads me directly to the key announcement I want to make today. From now on, we will start accounting properly for all this country’s precious wealth – including our natural wealth and our human, social, and cultural wealth – and we’ll stop focusing narrowly on our financial and manufactured wealth alone, as if that was all that mattered. Of course, we’ll continue to count that, but from now, we’ll be able to figure, for the first time, the true costs of economic activity, and we’ll be able to balance that activity with a proper accounting of our natural, human, and cultural wealth, which of course are key pillars of Gross National Happiness. In short – we’ll create balanced GNH Accounts for this country, and thereby build the world’s first comprehensive set of national accounts.
We are in good company here, since this is precisely the action recommended by the Stiglitz Commission that was appointed by French President Sarkozy. We’ll be the first country actually to do it in practice, and we are already drawing on some of the world’s top expertise to do it well and credibly. It won’t be easy, it will take time to do properly and fully (several years in fact), and there will be huge methodological challenges, like the inadequacy of money to properly to describe the value of non-market activities like ecosystem services.
But we have already begun work, thanks to Drs Costanza and Kubiszewski here, by starting to train our national statisticians, key GNH Commission and Finance Ministry officials, and others, in the new concepts and methods. And – even though we don’t yet have complete GNH Accounts ready – we are today releasing the first natural, social, and human capital results of our new expanded accounting system.
There is more information, and three detailed reports, in your press packages. But here I’ll just let you know in a nutshell:
Drs. Kubiszewski and Costanza have worked hard to give us the first ever estimate of the economic value of our country’s natural capital, which provides Nu 760 billion worth of ecosystem services every year – 4.4 times more than our whole GDP. Nearly 94% of that ecosystem service value is provided by our country’s forests. And here is where our little country is performing a huge service to the world, because 53% of that value accrues to those beyond our borders. Why? Because our forests regulate the climate, store carbon, and protect watersheds from which others benefit.
And every year, our people generously give their voluntary time to helping others, cleaning up litter, repairing lhakhangs, fighting fires, helping the sick, elderly and disabled. Through their voluntary work, our people are not only living GNH in action, but providing extraordinarily valuable services to our country and economy. If we had to replace their voluntary work for pay, we now know it would cost us Nu 320.5 million every year. This is our first economic valuation of our social capital.
And we have started valuing our human capital too, learning for the first time that the health care costs of alcohol abuse cost our health care system more than Nu. 30 million every year.
So for the first time, by starting to value our natural, social, human, and cultural capital, we are beginning to get a true sense of our rich and abundant national wealth, and also of real costs like alcoholism – all of which are hidden in conventional GDP-based accounts. The new information will help us tremendously in making policy based on real evidence, and in creating a true GNH society.
More than that, our new full benefit-cost National Accounts are really the foundation of a new GNH based economic paradigm that at last weans us off our consumerist economic growth addiction and that will lead us to sustainable human happiness and the wellbeing of all life forms.
Some will undoubtedly ask: Why is all this number crunching necessary? And others might also ask – aren’t our GNH indicators enough? Well first, the new measures matter simply because what we count and what we measure is what gets attention. If we don’t count something, we think it has no value, and it doesn’t catch the attention of policy makers.
And when we measure properly, we need both indicators and also accounts. Certainly our GNH indicators – and the key data and information they provide – are the essential basis for our proposed new GNH accounts. We will always need these indicators for basic information about our country – and particularly as the important policy screening tool they have become. But they are not enough. Indicators and accounts are two entirely different, though fully complementary, sets of measures. Indicators assess trends over time. Accounts assess value – what something is worth.
As simple examples, crime rates are an indicator (i.e. are they going up or down), but accounts assess the economic costs of crime to society – money we’d save if we had no crime. Smoking rates are an indicator, while accounts assess the economic costs of smoking to our health care system due to higher rates of lung cancer, heart disease, and respiratory ailments – money we’d save if no Bhutanese smoked. Greenhouse gas emissions are an indicator of whether we are emitting more or less GHGs this year than last, while accounts assess the costs of climate change attributable to these emissions.
In other words, our new GNH Accounts will add a vital economic valuation dimension to our current indicator information. And that is essential for the simple reason that GDP is not an indicator but an accounting system. If we are really to challenge the dominance (even stranglehold) of GDP-based thinking over our thinking and policy formation, then it is completely necessary to construct a broader and more accurate and comprehensive accounting system that properly accounts for the value of our natural, human, and cultural wealth.
So long as budgets make the world go round, and so long as we ignore the true benefits and costs of our economic activity, indicators alone will not unseat the GDP from its present dominant role. And if we are to realize His Majesty’s profound understanding that GNH is more important than GNP, then we have to take the next step in creating a true GNH society by building on our excellent indicator system to construct now a new set of GNH Accounts.
What does this new accounting system mean in practice? Let me give just a couple of examples. When we present our annual budgets, it means we will also start accounting for the health of our forests and other natural resources like water. And if we’ve had a bad year of forest fires, for example, then we’ll need to count the consequent forest loss as a depreciation of our natural wealth, just as we presently figure depreciation when we account for the value of our built and manufactured capital. And if we plant trees, we’ll count that as an investment in natural capital, just as we presently account for investments in our built capital.
Or to take a human capital example, we will start figuring preventable illnesses as costs to the economy rather than misleadingly accounting for such expenditures as economic gain. We have started, for example, to calculate the costs of alcoholism to the economy, and therefore to see preventive expenditures designed to reduce alcohol abuse as worthwhile investments in our human capital (rather than simply as costs, as in our present flawed accounting system.)
In other words, our budgets and accounts won’t look the same, but they will definitely give us a much more accurate picture of how we are doing as a country, and how prosperous we really are when we consider our total wealth and the full benefits and costs of our economic activity. Because they give us much more comprehensive information than our present GDP-based accounts, the new accounts will also make our policy making much more informed than it can possibly be when we rely on narrow market measures alone. The new accounts will point accurately to our hidden strengths (like our rich natural and cultural heritage), on which we need to build rather than taking them for granted, and they will identify weaknesses and investment requirements in our national wealth that are overlooked in conventional market measures.
Perhaps most importantly, our new national accounts will finally reflect all the key pillars of Gross National Happiness, so that we can truly chart a balanced path forward for the benefit of all our people. And in so doing, the new accounts will certainly be a gift to the world from which many other countries can learn. I truly believe that this major step on which we are embarking will not only help us understand more profoundly what His Majesty the Fourth King meant when he said GNH is more important than GNP, but in fact will help fulfill His Majesty’s vision of a happy and contented people. | <urn:uuid:30f1a4b9-7b87-4253-adeb-e5594a089abc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cabinet.gov.bt/?p=472 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94977 | 3,394 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Great State: Art Gone Wild
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA — Just the sight of these huge animals is enough to draw a crowd at the OKC Zoo. Elephants Asha and baby Malee really are a feast for the eyes. But today both audience and pachyderm get a special treat. Their handlers call it enrichment, something different to spice up an Asian Elephant’s summer morning. We would call it painting.
Asha is the real artist here. She’s trained to hold a paint brush in her trunk. She uses non-toxic paint. Handlers hold the canvas and choose the colors. She paints the picture. Asha is also capable of another style of painting. She can suck up a small amount of paint with her trunk and spray it just like from a can.
Elephants aren’t the only aspiring animal artists here. Another painter, a Red River Hog named Sir David Pigglesworth III can also handle a brush in his snout. Again, his handlers hold the canvas and, in return for treats, he moves a paint brush. “He just likes the interaction with his handlers,” says a zoo employee helping Sir David hold his brush. “It gives him something different to do.”
Zoo administrators always keep any animal paintings that might come their way. They have abstract paintings by an anaconda snake, an ostrich, a cockatoo, and even a darter fish that squirts water.
Artist and gallery worker Anna Lisa Campbell spent hours hanging dozens of original animal paintings at the In Your Eye Gallery in the Paseo Arts District. The gallery hosts an annual show called Art Gone Wild. Even to a trained eye, Campbell says some of the paintings show promise. She playfully points out, “A lot of the animals and their trainers chose Thunder colors.”
The art that sells goes back to Zoo conservation efforts. The artists don’t get a commission unless you count edible treats. They don’t get any start treatment either, but they deliver every year. And this modern art is the wildest yet.
The In Your Eye Gallery starts the Art Gone Wild show each year with a reception and party. You can’t meet the artists there but you can purchase their work. Most of it is less than $100.00. Official opening night for the show is Friday, August 3. The show runs through September 2. | <urn:uuid:07648eb1-42aa-48f4-a045-8888e6b5e9c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kfor.com/2012/08/03/great-state-art-gone-wild/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954992 | 514 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Here’s a story out of the UK about a Prowind proposed project. Again, it concerns HUGE turbines; people are complaining that Prowind is not easy to deal with and that information the company presents may not be accurate.
700 sign petition against Mease Valley wind farm
Monday 17th January 2011, 10:00PM GMT.
More than 700 people have signed a petition handed into Lichfield District Council against plans to build four 420ft wind turbines.
Lichfield planning chairman, councillor Richard Cox, has handed in the petition which says the turbines will harm the heritage and environment around Haunton. German firm Prowind is hoping to build the turbines.
It wants to site them in the heart of the Mease Valley — between Lichfield and Tamworth. People living nearby, opposing the plans, say the company has failed to answer crucial concerns.
Locals also say produced illustrations of the massive structures significantly underestimate the impact on the surrounding area and historic buildings.
Lynette Lewis, from the small community at Dunimere, a few hundred metres from the proposed wind farm, says the last 18 months have been a worrying time.
She said: “It’s been difficult for the communities of Clifton Campville, Harlaston and Haunton. But hundreds and hundreds of people have been united in opposition to this wind farm.
“It’s not been easy dealing with the company proposing this development.
“Concerns were raised a year ago over the accuracy of illustrations they provided showing what the impact would be on the local area.
“We and many others felt they’d missed the most sensitive aspects but requests for additional illustrations fell on deaf ears.
“The ongoing delays to this planning application are because Prowind are now finally being forced to provide those extra illustrations we asked for long ago.”
Matthew Ellis, the area’s county councillor, says local communities are clearly united in opposing the plans.
He said: “Whether or not you believe in the viability of on-shore wind energy, these proposed turbines will be some of the largest ever built on mainland UK and will undoubtedly affect the wider Mease and Tame area for miles around.” | <urn:uuid:33df5e44-7337-4907-9fea-39714d19f697> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://northgowerwindactiongroup.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/uk-residentsnot-easy-dealing-with-prowind/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951822 | 467 | 1.515625 | 2 |
American activists detained in a Greek port
NBC News — American activists aiming to defy Israel's sea blockade of Gaza, remain detained in a Greek port. The ship "The Audacity of Hope" has been docked at the Greek coast guard shipyard since activists attempted to set sail for Gaza last friday. The ship was hoping to join an international human rights movement known as The Freedom Flotilla.
The campaign experienced a major setback when the Greek Foreign Ministry announced on friday that it had banned the flotilla from sailing out. Greek authorities then arrested the captain of a boat when he tried to leave Greece without permission. Nine activists on a Turkish boat were killed last year in an Israeli raid on a similar flotilla, and Israel eased its land blockade after an international uproar over the incident. | <urn:uuid:7bd051a6-3b45-4e09-9146-29f9be84e3e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbc33tv.com/news/national-news/american-activists-detained-in-a-greek-port | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969417 | 162 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Read All City News
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Selected Aggregation Electricity Supply Rate 26.8 Percent Lower Than Current Ameren Rate
The City today selected an energy supplier as part of the recently approved electricity aggregation program that is expected to save residents and small businesses an average of almost 27% percent per month on electricity bills.
Homefield Energy emerged as the lowest of three bidders Tuesday afternoon for the right to provide electricity to local residents who do not decide to opt out of the local aggregation program. Homefield’s price of 4.099 cents per kilowatt-hour for a 17-month term was .00111 lower than the next lowest bid and is roughly 26.8% lower than the current typical Ameren base price.
The low price allowed the City to secure a significant amount of the electricity to be provided from renewable sources. This will set the stage for the City to be deemed a “Green Power Community” by the Environmental Protection Agency and will make us much more competitive for future EPA grant offerings.
Individual savings per household will depend on actual usage. The 17-month term will allow the city to match up and bid with communities that started the program earlier once the term expires in an effort to secure lower rates.
On July 30th 2012 the Decatur City Council passed a resolution placing a referendum question on the November 6, 2012 ballot, which, if approved, would allow the City of Decatur to undertake the process of Municipal Electric Aggregation. Voters passed the referendum by 57% allowing the City to arrange for the supply of electricity for residential and small business customers in conjunction with other communities. Under the program, all eligible customers become part of the program unless they elect to opt out.
Residents who choose to remain in the program will see minimal changes to their power bill with one exception – a lower price. Ameren will continue to bill customers and residents who participate in LIHEAP and PIPP energy assistance programs will continue to receive assistance with energy bills from the state.
“Our goal as a city council in moving forward with this process was to secure lower electricity rates for the residents of Decatur,” said Mayor Mike McElroy. “The community in conjunction with other Illinois cities and towns was able to negotiate a very aggressive price for electricity that will allow residents to save money with no additional effort if they choose to stay in the program.”
Between December 18, 2012 and January 4, 2013 residents should receive two letters from the City, which will include the winning offer rate and the approximate percentage of savings as compared to default rates offered by Ameren. Residents are encouraged to compare this rate to the current Ameren rate as it relates to individual usage to gauge the savings that could be realized through the aggregation program.
Residents will need to return one of the two letters if they don’t want to participate or opt out if desired through other yet-to-be-determined means that could include email and or telephone. There is no penalty for not enrolling.
New electric supply rates will begin in January or February (dependent on individual meter read dates) and will be reflected on following month's Ameren bills.
Contact Billy Tyus at 217-424-2727 or Vasudha Pinnamaraju at 217-424-2778 for more information. | <urn:uuid:7829b613-50b5-43bf-821f-00c40498267e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ci.decatur.il.us/citynews/newsitem.aspx?id=Selected%20Aggregation%20Electricity%20Supply%20Rate%2026.8%20Percent%20Lower%20Than%20Current%20Ameren%20Rate | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943441 | 692 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Updated November 26, 2012
Watts vs. Speed
Cyclists: here you will find three (3) graphs for watts vs. speed plus Calculator for Watts to Speed plus Race Category per Power to Weight measurements and more regarding cyclist power & speed.
The graphs and Race Category table look like this:
The live version of this file has been moved to: Cycling Performance Simplified
Links to calculators for speed to watts are found at the very bottom but are also copied immediately below for your convenience:
Links to original source materials are also at the bottom of this page.
The page you are now on was originally begun in July of 2007 during my own search which was probably similar to yours that brought you here today.
Since 2007 I have worked out the details to my own satisfaction, and this page remains part of the history of the search and testing which was formalized into the book:
Below is the original version of this page that you are now on as it was first published here in 2007.
My quest for a simple formula to get a ballpark figure on how many continuous watts Mary will have to average for her 23+ Hump continues. I hate to waste everybody's time by not providing the simple answer, but maybe somebody will know it, or know where to find it.
Just don't start some endless he said, she said Chatter Box forum crap.
I am sure there is a formula (amenable to plugging into a spreadsheet) to answer the following question:
I have seen numerous references to this concept, and lots of side issue charts and graphs, but I'm telling you, my friend, somewhere there is a simple answer to this with at least as much veracity as the rule of thumb for HR, which is 220 minus your age... which of course always gives a figure nothing like an actual person's HR.
I explained it to Mary thus: "Look, it's a simple concept. Everybody, and every ride, and every bike, and every wheel, and every day, and every pedal, and every jersey, and every helmet, and every rider is different. I give you that. But there are absolutely no riders who are ten feet square weighing 10,000 lbs. (discounting Zirra), and there are no riders four inches tall weighing a pound and a half (discounting Miguel), so there is a range within which one can say: THIS WEIGHT x THIS WATTS = THIS SPEED. Plug in your numbers."
Bikes, components, clothes, and weight are pretty much minimal for making this calculation. The only significantly strong variable is the air resistance. Air is elastic, and the problem is that the harder you push it, the harder it pushes back. However, it doesn't push back harder in some willy-nilly any-old-way fashion. It increases its push back in a regular and predictable manner, so you would think the first thing off everybody's lips who has anything resembling a discussion about this would be the exact logarithmic constant for how it does that.
But no... everybody wants to spend three or four hundred pages explaining how good aerodynamics, and great equipment is going to make you faster, and how the fastest stuff is the stuff they just happen to be selling. Otherwise, everybody is rather reluctant to give you specific information about just how much faster that equipment is likely to make you.
Once a long time ago (this isn't a totally new quest for me), I had a conversation with a sales rep for Mavic about their then new Kyserium's. It went like this, "Really, those little cutouts make the wheels a lot faster? Great! Could I see the wind tunnel specs?"
Mr. Mavic, "Well, we aren't allowed to publish those specs, because in Europe it is illegal for us to say anything bad about our competitors."
And I thought, "I guess it's ok for you to say bad things about yourself in this country."
Later I was helping somebody write an article for one of those big-time glossy sports magazines. I was only doing some proofing and copy editing, they had the knowledge and were in charge of the content. I bailed out of the project immediately on hearing the person was going to change the facts in the article because the magazine said, "That is all true, but we can't print it, because of our advertisers."
So I'm not surprised that nobody wants to come right out and tell you exactly how much that extra $8,000 is going to buy you in terms of your own performance. I've been around this block on my bike.
In any case, now with our watt meter we have a great resource for getting valid reliable repeatable feedback on performance in real time (or close to it) and on an actual ride.
Finally, a no bullshit ride-ometer. The Widder has one, and it has allowed me to explain concepts to her which she would never have believed without it. Plus, it gives us the ability to establish a controlled performance beyond any dreamed of finesse that would be possible without it. Still, I am totally pissed off at how hard it has been to find a solid baseline figure.
The two books I was waiting for, in hopes of finding a reliable formula for the ballpark wattage for the Widder's Hump, came today and proved more or less worthless. Same ol' same ol' regarding jumping from lovely distraction to lovely distraction, but not a solid word on the most basic issue of watts vs. speed.
I did find this chart on page 2 of one of them, and it sure as fuck came close:
If this chart can be trusted, the figures I extrapolated in the chart on Fort De Soto page were more accurate than I had thought. Plus, they were happily just slightly conservative. Maybe we can go a little faster with a few less watts than I calculated. Considering we just did a 19.8 avg with only 170 watts as target (which Mary is getting pretty good at hitting), that puts my previous calculations closer to what would be the expected as an ideal performance according to the chart above.
You will note that Mary's 23+ Hump goal lies just between the ranges shown above. I got excited to trace back to a formula so that I could plug in Mary's exact weight, and exact 23+ to get a more precise reading. Guess what? The references at the bottom of the figure were to two studies which were not given in the reference index. Who the fuck knows what periodical is referenced, what methodology was used, what players, what etc.
I read the rest of the text anyway. Turns out the graph is merely a charting of empirical studies. Also turns out our own study is just as valid, in fact probably more so given the circumstances.
Anybody knowing a formula for rule of thumb calculation for weight and watts vs. speed while wearing tight clothes and riding a suitable road bike on a flat and windless course, give us a buzz. Otherwise, don't bother me until somebody decides to take this shit seriously and get rational about it.
02/11/08: Mary found the graph below which is more refined than the one above, plus it is taken from Computrainer specs. A formula into which one might plug numbers is yet to be found, but this chart is one step closer.
You will note that this chart shows the increase in watts and speed as a curve, not a line. It is a logarithmic, not a linear, progression. That's what I've been screaming about... partly.
You will also note that this graph has a finer division of numbers, plus it repeats the watt values on both sides of the graph. Including numbers on both sides of an actual graph facilitates interpolating through using a straight edge. The earlier graph required establishing your own perpendiculars in order to guess at the numbers between the ones which were stated, and having to do that placed all the numbers into question.
Was the other graph a true scale graph or merely a vague representation meant merely to aid in presenting a point? Turns out the original graph was only a graphing of the results of an empirical study, so a straight line was sufficient. We need better data for the Widder, and the graph above is getting us closer.
The green, blue, and red lines shown (with the percentages) are to help explain that once a person moves outside optimal wattage (based on their own performance ability), they receive only marginal benefit in speed compared to the significantly greater effort.
Voilą! Additional support for my calculations and how we are approaching the 23+ Widder's Hump.
Also an unstated truth illustrated by this chart is something that I have been trying to explain to Mary. Objects function best within a certain parameter range and moving either direction (faster/slower, or harder/easier) is a matter that requires a method to achieve the skill in both directions. More on that later.
For the chart below, I used the one above
then erased the differencing lines that illustrate percentage of effort
relative to percentage of speed increase. This will simplify the
discussion regarding the basic concept.
More speed on a flat course at sea level air pressure with no wind can be generalized and reduced to a logarithmic curve. Deriving a baseline wattage requirement in terms of wattage in order to complete any given course at a given mph average can then be found by picking the intersection of watts and mph which matches.
With that basic information as a starting point a training program can be carefully designed around a rational goal.
The graph assumes a normal human, with a modern road racing bicycle and appropriate clothing. No extreme measures in terms of aerodynamic design, exotic geometry, extraordinary materials have been addressed in the graph. This is merely a basic view of general functional kinetics according to basic classic physics. Nothing to it.
The fine tuning begins from here. First we determine a specific athlete's current capacity through careful testing using a variety of methods, measuring tools, and real world performance observation.
Secondly the specific course to be mastered is reviewed to see if any extraordinary elements exist which require special attention.
As of 02/14/08, we have assessed the baseline of The Widder's current performance level and have begun work on improving it through studies in technique and a variety of staged resistance exercises.
We have also identified the first obstacle to be addressed on The Hump.
The major challenge with Mary's 23+ Hump will be the downhills. Her body weight and power ratio have proven more than adequate for the uphills, however, she will have problems keeping a high enough wattage on the downhills to keep her average in the 23+ mph range which is nominally just below 260 watts.
The most extreme example of this will likely occur on the Oil City Road downhill. That is the steepest downhill on The Hump, and she will certainly be spun out by the half way point. Thus she will be drawing zero watts for about an eighth of a mile.
Our current plan is to make up the wattage lost on the Oil City downhill by increasing wattage used on the Dog Hill Climb before it. That uphill poses a very close analog to the Oil City downhill, and it is about a mile and a half before it. So the proximity will allow reassessing performance of the record attempt during the attempt itself. If something goes wrong, there will be plenty of time to make up the difference using a slight adjustment throughout the remainder of the ride. There is approximately 18 miles remaining at that point.
We believe having Mary push above her 260 watt goal on the Dog Hill climb, she will be still be able to recover enough to maintain her wattage for the rest of the ride. We hope that her momentum lost on the Oil City downhill (due to not being able to apply any wattage at all ) will not be so severe that a little wattage bump on Dog Hill will fail to make up the difference.
We will be doing specific testing of this idea once we return to NY where we can perform reconnaissance rides plus conduct workouts on the course. In the meantime we continue to improve Widder's performance specs and skill sets with her winter workouts on the local trails and roads.
02/15/08: Google search for "speed and watt calculator" found the following top return:
Bicycle Power and Speed Calculator (Once there, click on the image of the calculator.)
Also found was this online calculator for power while climbing (no wind resist considered):
Cycling Power while Climbing Calculator
Also you might like to use:
Super Simple Power to Weight Calculator which includes this Race Categories Chart:
Burke, Ed. 2003. "High-tech cycling." 2nd ed. Champaign, Ill.: Human Kinetics. ISBN: 0736045074
Wilson, David Gordon, Jim Papadopoulos, and Frank Rowland Whitt. 2004. "Bicycling science." 3rd ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN: 0262731541
Wright, Gordon Dr. High Performance Interval Training by Dr. Gordon Wright ABCC Senior Coach
this page last updated:
11/26/2012 10:46:15 AM
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October 23, 2003
Visions for Tower Clash at Trade Center Site
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
The architects David M. Childs, left, and Daniel Libeskind, center, with Larry A. Silverstein at the trade center site in July.
Only 10 months before groundbreaking is expected to take place for the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site, the master planner of the site and the architect for the tower's developer, who are supposed to be collaborating, have reached an impasse on how the skyscraper should look.
Although the version being designed by David M. Childs, of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, for the developer, Larry A. Silverstein, has not been seen publicly, it is stylistically quite different from the widely publicized images of the Freedom Tower drawn up by Studio Daniel Libeskind as part of its master plan.
Mr. Libeskind has called for an asymmetrical composition: a slender, antenna-topped spire rising along the western edge of an office tower, abstractly complementing the Statue of Liberty on the skyline. Mr. Childs has proposed a more monolithic and symmetrical structure that would twist and taper as it rose, culminating in antennas surrounded by an open framework.
The differences are more than cosmetic. Without an agreed-upon aesthetic approach, there can be no detailed drawings. Without drawings, there can be no construction. So the pressure to find common ground is enormous, particularly since Gov. George E. Pataki has set Sept. 11, 2006, as the deadline for the topping off, or structural completion, of the Freedom Tower.
Asked whose vision would prevail, those involved answered yesterday that the collaborative effort would resume and that Mr. Libeskind and Mr. Childs would pick up again after an uneasy meeting four days ago.
"Every artistic collaboration in history had its fits and starts, but they are ultimately judged on what they produced," said Matthew Higgins, chief operating officer of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is planning the site with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
"In this case," Mr. Higgins said, "we are confident that Libeskind and Childs will design a Freedom Tower that will make our entire nation proud." He said the corporation was not even considering the prospect that the two architects would fail in a collaborative effort.
Mr. Libeskind said he had tremendous respect for Mr. Childs's ability. "We both have strong opinions about design," he said. "Nothing worthwhile was ever created without some conflict, and what emerges from a collaboration should be even greater than the sum of its parts."
Employees of Studio Daniel Libeskind, at 2 Rector Street, are working in the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill office at 14 Wall Street. "Sometimes we shoot quickly ahead and sometimes it slows down," Mr. Childs said. "We're proceeding toward what we both believe will be a magnificent end result."
And Mr. Silverstein, while acknowledging that there were issues between the architects that "need to be worked through," said yesterday that he still expected the collaboration would produce an exceptional tower.
But these public pleasantries do not change the fundamentally awkward arrangement — by no means unique to the trade center site — that arises when prominent architects are compelled to work together, one of them on a master plan for a complex, one of them on a building design within the complex.
Complicating matters is that while the Port Authority owns the 16-acre site, Mr. Silverstein is the long-term leaseholder. So the redevelopment process has long reflected the tension between the needs of the public and those of a commercial landlord who is expected to have at least $3.5 billion in insurance proceeds with which to finance reconstruction.
Mr. Libeskind's master plan for the site was chosen in February by the Port Authority and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation after an international competition that, at one point, included Skidmore. Seen around the world, the Libeskind concept, called Memory Foundations, showed an array of towers around the memorial area, rising to a 1,776-foot skyscraper at the northwest corner of the site, which Governor Pataki named the Freedom Tower.
In May, Mr. Silverstein said Mr. Libeskind would not actually design the Freedom Tower, though he promised that it would "reflect the spirit of Dan's site plan." Instead, he chose Mr. Childs, with whom he was already working on the 7 World Trade Center office building project across Vesey Street.
Two months later, the development corporation announced a "historic collaboration" on the tower between the Skidmore firm, which was to serve as "design architect and project manager," and the Libeskind studio, which was to be the "collaborating architect during the concept and schematic design phases" and a "full member of the project team."
What must be resolved, however, is the vital issue of whether the tower is meant to be a hybrid of distinctive ideas or a Skidmore, Owings & Merrill design that will be critiqued by Studio Daniel Libeskind.
A revised version of the Memory Foundations plan that was presented last month continued to show an asymmetrical, angular Freedom Tower with a side spire rising to a pinnacle.
Asked at the time whether the completed building would resemble his model, Mr. Libeskind replied, "Well, I'm an optimist."
Mr. Childs and Mr. Libeskind appeared together three weeks ago with three more architects whom Mr. Silverstein has brought into the project: Norman Foster, Fumihiko Maki and Jean Nouvel. "This is not an assault on Danny's talent," Mr. Childs said that afternoon, noting that the master plan always anticipated the participation of a number of architects.
This week, as efforts were going on behind the scenes to smooth over the differences between the architects, Mr. Libeskind gave a lecture about the design process at the National Building Museum in Washington.
"Look, I come from a Hasidic background," he said on Tuesday night. "I know forced marriages and they always worked for a long time."
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company | <urn:uuid:7ce3a5fd-25cb-4377-aed6-68bb3fdacf7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3672&page=4&p=15590&viewfull=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967287 | 1,287 | 1.671875 | 2 |
||[Jun. 6th, 2010|01:22 am]
Imagine that one night, an alien prankster secretly implants electrodes into the brains of an entire country - let's say Britain. The next day, everyone in Britain discovers that pictures of salmon suddenly give them jolts of painful psychic distress. Every time they hear about someone photographing a salmon, or they see a picture of a salmon, or they even contemplate taking such a picture, they get a feeling of wrongness that ruins their entire day.
I think most decent people would be willing to go to some trouble to avoid taking pictures of salmon if British people might hear about it. If someone deliberately took lots of salmon photos and waved them in the Brits' faces, I think it would be fair to say ey isn't a nice person. And if the British government banned salmon photography, and refused to allow salmon pictures into the country, well, maybe not everyone would agree but I think most people would at least be able to understand and sympathize with the reasons for such a law.
I tend to think in metaphors a lot, and then compare and contrast different metaphorical situations to understand where my intuitions come from. So I've been thinking about this sort of salmon situation quite a bit for the past two weeks. The central issue is: why don't most people extend the same sympathy they would give Brits who don't like pictures of salmon, to Muslims who don't like pictures of Mohammed?
I occasionally appreciate a good trolling - not stupid annoying trolling like Aster on Shireroth, but classy trolling that makes people think about what they're doing and is funny at the same time. So I appreciated Everyone Draw Mohammed Day while also wondering whether or not it could be justified by a moral system that didn't go around showing salmon to Brits.
The following answers are, I think, only incomplete parts of the puzzle:
• In this situation, Brits did not choose to have their abnormal sensitivity to salmon. Muslims might be considered to be choosing their sensitivity to Mohammed. I have general objections to using the word "choose" to solve any philosophical problem, but a more specific objection might be this: I can see little difference between how a Muslim "chooses" to get upset at disrespect to Mohammed, and how a Westerner might "choose" to get upset if you called er mother a whore. Even though the anger isn't being caused by alien technology, it doesn't feel like a "choice" and it's more than just a passing whim. Likewise, if tomorrow I tried to "choose" to become angry every time someone showed me a picture of a salmon, I couldn't do it - I could pretend to be angry, but I couldn't make myself feel genuine rage.
• Muslims' sensitivity to Mohammed is based on a falsehood; Islam is a false religion and Mohammed is too dead to care how anyone depicts him. I agree with this statement, but I don't think it licenses me to cause psychic pain to Muslims. I couldn't go punching Muslims in the face and saying "Your religion is false, so you deserve it!". Or, to continue the salmon metaphor, let's say the alien's electrodes only work on Christians - any British person who converts away from Christianity will be able to view salmon pain-free. I still think nice people wouldn't go showing British Christians salmon pictures.
• It is necessary to draw pictures of Mohammed to show Muslims that violence and terrorism are inappropriate responses. I think the logic here is that a few people drew pictures of Mohammed, they got death threats and there were embassy burnings and stuff, and now we need to draw more pictures of Mohammed to convince Muslims not to do this. But it sounds really stupid when you put it in exactly those words. And besides, this is collective punishment. Say I kicked a Muslim in the face, and a few other Muslims got really angry, blew the whole thing out of proportion, and killed me and my entire family. This would be an inappropriately strong response, and certainly you could be upset about it, but the proper response wouldn't be to go kicking random Muslims in the face. They didn't do it, and they may not even approve. But drawing pictures of Mohammed offends many Muslims, not just the ones who send death threats.
• The slippery slope argument: if we allow Muslims' concerns to prevent us from drawing pictures of Mohammed, sooner or later we'll have to accept every two-bit group with a ridiculous superstition and we'll never be able to get anything done. I take this more seriously than the previous three arguments, but I've previously argued that granting large established religions exemptions to stuff is relatively immune to slippery-slope. And anyway, drawing pictures of Mohammed is such an unusual thing to do that we can stop doing it without giving up our right to keep doing something else that's actually useful if the situation comes up later.
None of these excuses really does it for me separately. Together, they kind of part-way do it for me, but I'm still not convinced. So my provisional conclusion is that yes, people who draw pictures of Mohammed where Muslims can see them are jerks in the same way that people who go around showing photos of salmon to Brits are jerks.
So the big question is: why didn't I notice this before? And why do I still feel a little tempted to go draw some pictures of Mohammed and get outraged at any Muslim who tells me I can't?
A few nights ago, I was talking on MSN and I mentioned that the word "offensive" is a trigger point for me. There are some very personal, me-specific reasons for this: for one thing, back a few years ago someone misinterpreted something I said, decided without asking me that it was "offensive", and then spent the next few months trying to discredit me, tar me as an offensive person, and make my life miserable - with pretty resounding success. For another, part of my obsessive-compulsive disorder, back when it was really bad, was a tendency to be offended by almost everything (to the point where even someone saying the word 'damn' could send me into shock and horror), I went to therapy for it and got better, and so now I tend to think of getting offended as a character flaw to cure rather than a sacred right to be respected. So these are my biographical reasons, and I always assumed they were exhaustive.
But now I'm thinking that this is actually part of a larger phenomenon. Certainly many other people have the same reaction to the word "offensive" I do: sometimes when I need people to feel superior to I read way-out right wing blogs, and it's practically a staple of the far right that the whole idea of "offensiveness" is an evil liberal plot and they hate it forever. And even some liberals privately admit that they get pretty upset about offensiveness when it's used against them.
Now, I've been thinking a lot about deontology versus consequentialism lately, to the point where every passing cloud looks like Jeremy Bentham, so I may be seeing relationships that aren't there. But I can't help but notice a way in which that dichotomy bears on this problem.
The Brits and their salmon tend to bring up a consequentialist mode of thinking; I deliberately used the word "pain" in the description of the electrode's effects. One can imagine showing a Brit a picture of a salmon, and ey shouting "Ouch! Auugh! Please, stop doing that, I beg you!" And you would stop, because you don't want to hurt em.
The Mohammed issue, on the other hand, has gotten mired in a certain sort of deontology. It's no longer an issue of whether drawing a picture of Mohammed makes Muslims unhappy. It's an issue of whether Muslims have the right not to see a picture of Mohammed - and this is cashed out in the term "offensive". If you draw a picture of Mohammed, you are a bad person and you deserve to lose status for offending the Muslims, who have the god-given right to live without their beliefs being challenged.
The Brits are perceived as saying "We would really appreciate it if, as a favor to us, you would quit with the salmon photos"
The Muslims are perceived as saying "Our preferences are binding on you, and unless you do what we say, you are a bad person."
One of the techniques in any good book on conflict resolution is switching from "you" centered statements to "I" centered statements. You never say something like "You're annoying, go away." You say something more like "I really need to finish this paper, so I'm not in the mood to talk".
The "you" statement gets interpreted as an attack on the other person's status, and status attacks get dealt with as, well, attacks. The automatic response to an attack is to brand the other person an enemy and come up with a reason you're totally in the right and they are wrong and evil. Tell me "You're annoying", and I'll probably respond "Yeah, well, remember that time you kept whining to me about stupid stuff while I was trying to do my paper, which incidentally I finished last week because I'm not a lazy kvetcher like yourself? You're even worse!"
The deontological-Muslim-"you statement" approach immediately puts the Mohammed-drawer and the Muslim into an oppositional relationship in which the Muslim tries to gain status at the expense of the drawer by portraying emself as a victim and the drawer as an evil person. The Mohammed drawer responds by creating a counternarrative in which ey is the victim of a campaign of censorship and oppression, and in which drawing Mohammed becomes a heroic act.
In the consequentialist-British-"I statement" approach, the victimized party doesn't try to gain status; in fact, ey puts emself into a low status position by asking a favor of the other party. Most people are very willing to do favors for other people if asked nicely, and so most of us would be willing to avoid photographing salmon where the Brits can see them. We can even engage in a constructive dialogue like "Look, we really like having salmon pics on seafood menus, so maybe you guys can just stay out of American seafood restaurants?" which is totally impossible after it's become about offense and victimization and censorship.
This does correspond to my own experience. I was enraged for a while at feminists trying to make me use gender neutral language like "chairperson" because they were framing it in terms of "Ha! I just caught you saying chairman, now you're a bad person and you owe me!". But after reading some stuff that presented the issue in non-value-laden language, and made a point of exactly how women might feel in a world where they had to be represented as male, I became less hostile (and thanks to gryphonavocatio and his work on the Shirerithian dialect I even started using neutral pronouns).
I would like to be able to say that this solves the problem for me once and for all, but just knowing what's going on is pretty useless. I still get angry and upset whenever anyone phrases something in terms of offense, and I can't just convert it to the corresponding "you statement" phrasing. I suggest that anyone talking to me or to any other human try using the less confrontational phrasing and see if you get any further with it
(assuming that getting further is your goal; I think in quite a few cases it probably is entirely about status, and that the people involved have no interest in changing behavior if they can't make themselves look superior to other people while doing it. I'm going to avoid placing Muslims who don't like Mohammed pictures in that category without further evidence). | <urn:uuid:7b834f9c-b781-457b-b128-4c9427bcd56a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://squid314.livejournal.com/274220.html?thread=1560876 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973799 | 2,438 | 1.664063 | 2 |
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