text
stringlengths 211
22.9k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 14
371
| file_path
stringlengths 138
138
| language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.93
1
| token_count
int64 54
4.1k
| score
float64 1.5
1.84
| int_score
int64 2
2
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
"In the world of management, I am constantly faced with new challenges and new opportunities to increase the company's bottom line. But to tackle these new ventures requires learning a lot of new information at lightning speed. Traditional companies take 12 to 15 months just to get off the ground. Thanks to Cornell's OCAAT training, our company was able to open shop in just 3 months."
-- Brian Balster '04
Brian Balster '04
Brian Balster '04 has used the liberal arts education he received at Cornell to create his own destiny as an entrepreneur.
"Since graduating from Cornell I have had some pretty amazing experiences," he says. "From launching a new online company to backpacking through Eastern and Western Europe. Through it all, the strong foundation I gained at Cornell has been invaluable. I've always had an entrepreneurial streak, so when the chance presented itself to found my very own company, I jumped at it. The company, mortersupplements.com, provides nutritional support to thousands of loyal customers worldwide."
Balster appreciates the flexibility of working online and credits One Course At A Time with his organizational abilities.
"Being solely online has opened so many doors for me. I am able to live where I want, travel when I want, and work when I want. The OCAAT system was the reason I attended Cornell and its educational advantages have paid off richly for me. I am now very project-driven, something for which which Cornell's class structure has thoroughly prepared me."
Balster continues to appreciate the liberal arts education which he has received, "I loved how Cornell didn't emphasize the memorization of random facts, but instead taught me how the world works behind the scenes." | <urn:uuid:45cee5b1-ec57-4ffa-af2b-b320baf845bf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cornellcollege.edu/admissions/outcomes/brian-balster.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971932 | 350 | 1.609375 | 2 |
(ARA) – An fast adore of highway trips and fast gas prices are mixing to boost a miles Americans design to record during this summer’s transport season.
The longer trips challenge early deteriorate predictions of fewer and shorter highway vacations.
Gas prices rose toward $4 a gallon during a winter and early open of 2012. Travel attention observers approaching a normal summer cost spike would shock consumers divided from prolonged pushing tips.
But a gas cost spike didn’t materialize, and it appears that Americans aren’t too disturbed about what happens in Jul and August. Only 17 percent are holding off on transport plans, watchful to see either gas prices come down. The rest have done their skeleton and they’re attack a road.
Americans devise to expostulate an normal of 212 miles over in 2012 than they did in 2011 according to a Hankook Summer Gauge Index, that surveyed 1,012 incidentally comparison Americans. The meant stretch of a miles consult respondents are formulation to transport jumped from 725 miles in 2011 to 937 miles this year.
Tips for breakdown-safe travel
With some-more people on a highway pushing further, automobile upkeep is even some-more critical for preventing breakdowns. Summer feverishness is tough on engines and tires. A few elementary precautions can assistance revoke a chances of removing stranded on a behind road, in a parking lot or, worse, on a highway:
* Check liquid levels. Make certain a check includes commanding off antifreeze, window washer, stop and delivery fluids.
* Check brakes and stop pads, generally if we can’t remember how prolonged given they were final checked.
* Park your automobile in a shade when possible, and keep a vigour sign accessible to check tire vigour often. Heat is your tires’ enemy. Air in your vehicle’s tires expands as temperatures arise – In fact for each 10-degree boost in ambient atmosphere temperature, your tire’s acceleration vigour can go adult by about 1 bruise per block inch.
* Check your case to make certain we have a collection we need to change a flat: a gangling tire, a projection wrench and a jack.
* Check a step abyss on your tires during slightest once a month to equivocate hydroplaning on soppy roads. If you’re in hunt of an glorious tire for summer and year-round traction, demeanour during Hankook’s Optimo H426 oppulance opening furloughed all-season tire. The Optimo H426 is designed with an modernized silica step devalue that offers softened step wear and reduce rolling insurgency for improved fuel economy.
On a road, what now?
In further to seeking how distant Americans will expostulate this summer, a index also asked drivers what they like to do while they’re logging miles, and with whom.
Traveling with a associate or partner was by distant a many renouned choice for a highway outing during 48 percent. Younger Americans are some-more expected to transport in packs; 22 percent of drivers 35 and underneath are highway tripping with groups of friends this summer.
The lone-wolf interest of a solo outing is flattering limited. Only 7.3 percent are roving alone this summer.
Playing song was a exile favorite pastime, with 60 percent of drivers observant they need their tunes. Men preference song some-more than women – women are some-more expected to spin off a radio and speak to other passengers to pass a time.
While articulate with other passengers came in during 23 percent, singing and personification games were approach down a list during 4 and 3 percent respectively. | <urn:uuid:2f7f4fd9-d016-4d96-8b0f-bdfe1401d5eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://jeeptours.net/with-americans-traveling-more-this-summer-tips-for-safe-travel/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934523 | 758 | 1.78125 | 2 |
It's about a woman named Patty. She is the one who taught me about mayonnaise. And of course, it's a little about Julia Child...
Patty died last week, too young. Even though I hadn't seen her in years, I've been flooded with clear memories of her bright spirit, particularly in the way it manifested itself in the kitchen. Patty holds a special place in my life because it was around the time I was getting really interested in food — I mean a deep interest beyond an affection for eating — that I stumbled across her one day in her kitchen making mayonnaise.
As a life-long avid mayonnaise-hater, I was skeptical. Why would someone take all this extra time and effort to make something by hand that you can get in a jar, especially when said item is such a stomach-turner? Watching her methodically whisk the sauce on her spotless white counter-top, she invited me to put a finger in to sample, and I started to understand why you should take time and effort with some things.
Patty did it the way Julia did... slow and steady. Like Julia, she got a thrill out of feeding people. It's one of the things that made me so fond of her.
Now is the perfect time to make this sauce: slather it on a high-summer tomato BLT, top a piece of grilled fish with it, dip in your homemade french fries, or just dip a finger. Get fancy by stirring in blanched fresh herbs (Julia says this will keep them from souring the mayo, and of course brighten the color.)
In honor of Patty, whose brightness lured me into her kitchen and got me to start using mine more, here is Julia's method for mayonnaise. May your journey be peaceful, dear Patty. Thank you, and your muse Julia, for giving me this petite yet vital gift.
makes 2-2 3/4 cups
Adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, Simone Beck (Knopf, 1961)
You'll need a round-bottomed, 2 1/2 to 3-quart glazed pottery, glass or stainless steel mixing bowl. Set it in a heavy casserole or saucepan to keep it from slipping. You'll also need a large metal wire whisk.
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon wine vinegar or lemon juice (more drops as needed)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dry or prepared mustard
1 1/2 - 2 1/4 cups of olive oil, salad oil or a mixture of each. If the oil is cold, heat it to tepid; and if you are a novice, use the minimum amount
2 tablespoons boiling water
Warm the bowl in hot water; dry it. Add the egg yolks and beat for 1 to 2 minutes until they are thick and sticky.
Add the vinegar or lemon juice, salt and mustard. Beat for 30 seconds more.
The egg yolks are now ready to receive the oil. While it goes in, drop by drop, you must not stop beating until the sauce has thickened. A speed of 2 strokes per second is fast enough. You can switch hands or switch directions, as long as you beat constantly.
Add the drops of oil with a teaspoon, or rest the lip of the bottle on the edge of the bowl. Keep your eye on the oil rather than on the sauce. Stop pouring and continue beating every 10 seconds or so, to be sure the egg yolks are absorbing the oil.
After 1/3 to 1/2 cup of oil has been incorporated, the sauce will thicken into a very heavy cream and the crisis of potential curdling is over. The beating arm may rest a moment. Then, beat in the remaining oil by 1 to 2 tablespoon dollops, blending it thoroughly after each addition.
When the sauce becomes too thick and stiff, beat in drops of vinegar or lemon juice to thin it out. Then continue with the oil.
Beat the boiling water into the sauce. This is an anti-curdling insurance. Season to taste.
If the sauce is not used immediately, scrape it into a small bowl and cover it tightly so a skin will not form on its surface.
Related: Hellmann's vs. Homemade Mayonnaise
A version of this post was originally sent to our email subscribers yesterday. To receive Sara Kate's weekly email, sign up in the column to the left or click here. Something tasty will arrive in your inbox every Thursday. | <urn:uuid:5c3355bd-706a-486e-8373-0a55df9e9448> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thekitchn.com/the-one-who-taught-me-mayonnai-92558 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950179 | 958 | 1.59375 | 2 |
What's an auto job worth?
In Tennessee, where officials offered Volkswagen an incentive package
worth $577 million to build a 2,000-worker assembly plant near
Chattanooga, each job is worth about $285,000.
Translate that to the 235,000 workers employed by GM, Ford and Chrysler
and the total worth of those jobs nears $70 billion. So $25 billion in
federal bridge loans would seem like a relative bargain to avert
bankruptcy that auto experts say would wreck the industry.
States have been providing expensive financial help to car companies for
years so opposition by southern members of Congress to federal help for
the domestic industry is more than inconsistent.
U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, a Republican from Tennessee, said last week that
the Detroit Three had to learn its lesson "the hard way." But hailing
Volkswagen's announcement, Wamp said back in July that it was his
region's "destiny" to make "the vehicles of the future."
"As Volkswagen succeeds in our community, it will mean so very much," he
gushed. As for those GM workers in Spring Hill, Tenn. who assemble the
new Chevy Traverse crossover, Wamp last week wasn't expressing much
concern. Maybe because they're in a different congressional district.
Michigan would have given Ford hundreds of millions in tax breaks to
build the cars that are the foundation of that company's destiny right
here instead of Mexico.
As great as the new 2010 Fusion and Fiesta
models look, it's a little difficult to get excited when Ford's mammoth,
shuttered plant along I-96 in Wixom, once rated as one of the most
productive in the world, awaits the wrecking ball.
Ford's $3 billion investment in its Mexican operations this year will
create an estimated 30,000 direct and indirect jobs, which happens to
equal one-tenth of the manufacturing job loss in Michigan since 2000.
"Ford is absolutely committed to leveraging our global assets to
accelerate the shift to more fuel-efficient small cars and powertrain
technologies that people really want and value," Ford President and CEO
Alan Mulally said of the May decision to build the new Fiesta outside
Six months later, he was in Washington seeking to leverage
billions from American taxpayers in order to protect those global
Now Ford has invested billions in Michigan and by all rights the company
should be selling lots full of new F-150s when gas costs less than $2 a
gallon. Consumers don't want to spend money right now and those who do
have a hard time getting financing. Having experienced the pain of $4.50
a gallon, American car buyers should assume fuel prices will hit those
peaks again some time in the course of their car loans.
Having punted the decision on whether to loan the Detroit Three money
until December, Congress says it now wants a plan for domestic auto
industry viability and accountability.
Viability rests on the ability of GM and Ford to turn Accord and Camry
drivers into buyers of Malibus and Fusions. Accountability to taxpayers
in return for their money would suggest a firm commitment by an American
car industry to build their cars in America.
It became clear last week how much political capital foreign automakers
have accumulated by building car plants in the U.S. The loudest
proponents of forcing the Detroit Three into bankruptcy have been
lawmakers with Japanese and German auto investment in their states.
(Except for Mitt Romney, Michigan native with Rambler blood in his
veins, who opined that bankruptcy was the only course for GM and Ford
lest they join Studebaker and American Motors on the scrap heap. Romney
apparently isn't including Michigan in his Electoral College path to
victory in 2012.)
The Detroit Three, meanwhile, have been shedding political capital with
each cost cut from Delaware to Minnesota. So much so that the industry's
decades-long champion in Congress, John Dingell of Dearborn, was voted
out of his chairmanship of the Committee on Energy and Commerce by his
In the end, Ford, GM and Chrysler will get the funding they seek because
the reality is that they are building quality cars with competitive
labor costs effective with a new UAW contract in 2010.
They are simply too important to an economy given the 3 million jobs at
stake. The country, as Michigan does all too well, knows it.
E-mail Peter Luke: [email protected] | <urn:uuid:efe454e7-2ce8-46d6-9bad-48f023160046> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.mlive.com/peterluke/2008/11/national_urgency_needed_to_sav.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959784 | 958 | 1.632813 | 2 |
California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation into law that prohibits attempts to change the sexual orientation of patients under age 18.
As a result, two therapists who practice “reparative therapy” and a student who says he was successfully converted to heterosexuality, are suing nearly two dozen California state officials, including Brown, saying a new state law infringes on their civil rights.
Joining HLN’s Dr. Drew Wednesday night to talk about the issue was David Pickup, a spokesman for the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. He once lived life as a gay man -- but says he was able to maximize his “heterosexual potential through authentic reparative therapy.”
Also on the program was Ryan Kendall who says that when his parents found out that he was gay, they sent him for this therapy -- but he claims it almost killed him.
Watch the heated debate in the video above. | <urn:uuid:936ee12d-2fa6-4786-b17f-fca5117bfa77> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hlntv.com/video/2012/11/28/should-gay-person-try-reparative-therapy?hpt=hp_bn15 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980948 | 192 | 1.65625 | 2 |
What gift can you give to the solar industry person who has everything except a succinct history of Germany’s path to solar FiT success? Or perhaps you’d like to give some inspiration to the solar or climate change activist spending their Christmas vacation chained to a Keystone XL pipeline dump truck. Well, I have two recommendations for you: Rooftop Revolution and Clean Break.
Rooftop Revolution: How Solar Power Can Save Our Economy — and Our Planet — from Dirty Energy by Danny Kennedy; $9.99 for Kindle Edition, a few bucks more for paperback.
Danny Kennedy, the co-founder of Sungevity, has written a book that is part autobiography, part solar advocacy campaign, and part solar industry education and introduction. It’s part Sungevity marketing too, of course, but that really isn’t its main intent.
The biography part tells of how and why Kennedy eventually became the co-founder of solar leasing company Sungevity. While I knew that Kennedy had worked for Greenpeace, what I didn’t realize was that he’d directed Project Underground, an organization committed to protecting the human rights of people in the mining and oil business. That occupation (avocation?) led Kennedy to routinely putting his life at risk and getting arrested for guerilla marketing type protests.
Reading about those pre-Sungevity adventures makes me realize why Sungevity is fearless at marketing. In addition to the company’s heavy social media usage, the company has launched many solar-related advocacy campaigns, most famously to put solar on the White House. My personal favorite is its used delivery truck that was converted into a colorful orange mobile solar powered education and marketing vehicle…and gives out free ice cream. Those types of guerilla marketing/advocacy risk taking examples are reflections of Kennedy’s past activist/risk-taking careers, and it’s an attitude that I wish more solar companies could learn about through reading this book.
Rooftop Revolution is also an introductory solar education tool for non-solar people. In clear simple language and fun acronyms, Kennedy educates readers about solar’s benefits and potential, while also unveiling the risks and dirty history of fossil fuel energies for our world. Lots of energy and industry facts and figures are mentioned, but you don’t have to be a solar wonk to understand them — or find the endnotes for future dinner conversations.
Because Kennedy is solution and communication oriented, the book (especially the Kindle edition) is also interactive. Readers can go to the book’s tumblr-based website and send solar-support letters to Washington representatives. Moreover, each chapter ends with a list of action items and resources. Of course, the book also contains links to Sungevity’s website, but the narrative honestly doesn’t read like a sales pitch. It’s clear that Kennedy’s intent is to inspire people to go solar and to become solar policy activists and join him in the “Rooftop Revolution.”
Clean Break: The Story of Germany's Energy Transformation and What Americans Can Learn from It by Osha Gray Davidson; available only as a Kindle download for $0.99.
My second solar book recommendation is Clean Break from environmental writer Osha Gray Davidson. For years, I’ve heard about Germany’s famously successful feed-in-tariff (FiT) program, but I never knew how it started or why it became so successful. With Clean Break, now I know. (German Renewable Energy World readers, forgive me for my ignorance.)
Davidson, who has written for Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Solon, and other noted publications, took three weeks in the summer of 2012 to travel through Germany and learn all he could about Energiewend or “energy change.”
It all started with Chernobyl’s disaster in 1986. Fall-out from that failed nuclear plant drifted from Russia and contaminated crops. At the same time, reports showed that acid rain from country’s coal plants were beginning to affect forests.
A local movement grew into a political movement, and with fervent voter support, solar became a leading solution for transitioning the country away from nuclear and fossil fuels to 80% renewable energy by 2050 — or sooner.
Davidson also interviews the FiT pioneers and many Germans about their view of the program, utilities, and the proud self-reliance of German energy consumers.
In terms of applying Germany’s success to America, Davidson points to our growing solar success, but that our own American-style Energiewend will depend on politics and policy. John Farrell, senior researcher for energy think tank The Institute for Local Self Reliance, also adds his thoughts on what it will take to have the same type of distributed solar model in America.
My own take is that the other reason for the Energiewend success was that it was borne of energy catastrophe, namely acid rain and nuclear disasters. (I say disasters because Fukashima’s meltdown has recently reinforced Germany’s commitment to solar policies.) In America, we seem to be more resilient to taking action based on BP oil spills, the Big Branch Coal Mine Disaster, or natural gas fracking earthquakes or explosions. Perhaps Hurricane Sandy’s devastation will be our Chernobyl, but it’s too early to tell.
And that’s why these two books go well together. We need more energy activists like Kennedy and Davidson to learn about the success of Energiewend and to convey that success to policy makers, who may find the political courage to enact such an energy plan before the next energy catastrophe.
Of course, another reason why I recommend Rooftop Revolution and Clean Break is because they both…UnThink Solar.
Tor Valenza a.k.a. “Solar Fred” advises solar companies on marketing, communications, and branding. Want more solar marketing info? Sign up for the Solar Fred Marketing Newsletter, or contact Solar Fred through UnThink Solar. You can also follow @SolarFred on Twitter.
The information and views expressed in this blog post are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of RenewableEnergyWorld.com or the companies that advertise on this Web site and other publications. This blog was posted directly by the author and was not reviewed for accuracy, spelling or grammar.
To add your comments you must sign-in or create a free account. | <urn:uuid:e531c726-d9dd-4165-b0c9-07898c677c1c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2012/12/two-solar-book-recommendations-for-solar-industry-advocates?cmpid=rss | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945889 | 1,344 | 1.5 | 2 |
Designers of Planned Twin Towers Look-Alike in Seoul 'Regret Deeply' Resemblance
A Dutch architecture firm has designed a building in Seoul that has offended some because of its uncomfortable resemblance to the World Trade Center in a cloud of dust and smoke:
The project, called "The Cloud," is the work of MVRDV, a firm in Rotterdam. It's intended to be luxury high-rises. This week the firm has issued a statement apologizing for "any connotations The Cloud projects evokes regarding 9/11."
The full statement:
MVRDV regrets deeply any connotations The Cloud projects evokes regarding 9/11.
The Cloud was designed based on parameters such as sunlight, outside spaces, living quality for inhabitants and the city. It is one of many projects in which MVRDV experiments with a raised city level to reinvent the often solitary typology of the skyscraper. It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks nor did we see the resemblance during the design process. We sincerely apologize to anyone whose feelings we have hurt, it was not our intention.
The design inspiration of The Cloud is visualised in the first image on our website, a cloud covering the centre of the Sky scraper.
The above-mentioned design inspiration:
On their Facebook page, they add that "A real media storm has started and we receive threatening emails and calls of angry people calling us Al Qaeda lovers or worse."
The designers haven't said whether anyone thought of the resemblance before all this, but the Daily News does report that a Dutch newspaper quoted the firm's spokesman saying that the designers had considered the "obvious parallels."
Go to Runnin' Scared for more Voice news coverage. | <urn:uuid:4d8c3f64-0745-4f4d-97c2-39026aa2dcf3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/12/designers_of_pl.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959706 | 359 | 1.734375 | 2 |
First Lady's Man Bill Clinton
October 15, 2007
By Brian W. Peterson
In American history, we only have had "first ladies." From Martha to Laura, for better or worse, from silent to vocal, women all. Naturally, that is because all presidents have been men. But now there is a possibility that we will have a woman become president. And given that she is married to a man, that would mean our nation would have its "First Gentleman." Except that it would be Bill Clinton, so there goes that title.
Now what? "First Lady Bill Clinton" doesn't work. Given his reputation, maybe "First Lady Killer." In fact, Bill Clinton could be "First" a lot of things, given his well known (but regularly denied) sexual proclivities and vices. This brings us to "First Man." First Man to be president and accused of rape. First Man to be president and sued for trying to take away a person's right to a fair trial (lying under oath). First Man- and last- of the twentieth century to be impeached as president. First Man as president to allow the People's Republic of China to have access to super-secret military and aerospace equipment. Lots of First Man options for Bill, so perhaps that's not so good of a choice, either.
If Hillary wins the presidency, "First Lady" will be used to mock Bill, but our national conundrum will still exist: forget health care, social security, or the war against the terrorists. What will we call Bill Clinton if his wife gets elected?
While "First Gentleman" does sound the most logical- given that the president's wife is known as the "First Lady"- what about "First Husband?" Now wouldn't that be ironic? From philanderer to "First Husband."
Bill Clinton liked to call himself the "first black president" in America. "First Black Male First Lady" is just too cumbersome. That's out. First Black Man, maybe.
How about "First Gigolo?" That would work. Hey, if the guy could go on the prowl while working as the president of the United States, he certainly could escape the Secret Service again as First Lady.
Ah, but no one really cares about this important question. Everyone is worried about or hopeful about what a President Hillary Clinton would be like. There's the prospect of "free" health care for everyone; a kinder, gentler, military that doesn't exploit those poor Islamists who just want to kill innocent people in peace; and government handouts as far as the government eye can see. Eugene Debs would come back from the grave. All would be right with the world.
But what fun is all that gruesome stuff? What fun would it be watching Republicans do what they do best: play the part of minority party? What fun would it be watching the mainstream media fall all over Hillary and the Carter rejects that she would appoint?
No, it would be more fun to watch the "First Dude." He is always entertaining, without fail.
"First Lady's Man" Bill Clinton would be entertaining. Lately he has remade himself into this controlled-angry righteous defender of the Republic. He's only missing a cape and leotards- ah, but there's already been enough jokes about his proclivities. He's got the feigned anger down, much to the delight of the Kool-Aid Clintonistas and the bubble-headed average Democrats. They love it, and they love him, with or without the high crimes, misdemeanors, tacit encouragement of terrorists, and the support from and to the PLA in communist China. It's all good. It's Mr. Charisma- that's all that matters.
Someday we just may hear the words, "Introducing the president of the United States, Hillary Clinton, and First Lady's Man Bill Clinton!"
If that happens and you are nearby, listen closely and you just might here a man with a slight Southern accent shout, "Woohoo, bring on the babes, Secret Service! Bill is back in town!" | <urn:uuid:60390dd6-bdfa-4c79-82ca-da82848b9191> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://conservativetruth.org/article.php?id=106 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971098 | 848 | 1.820313 | 2 |
This plot of land where I have built my house
It is not mine,
To someone else it belongs.
I don’t get the orders of the zamindar
In whose domain my house stands
Nor can I see him
Such is my lot
To whom shall I complain!
I don’t sow as he wants
And all year round I reap nothing.
I pay all my rents
Yet the land is put on auction
I try hard to please him
Yet I don’t get his call!
Transcreation of one of the most famous folk songs of Bengal – Parer jayga parer jamin ghar banayia ami roi/amito sei gharer malik noi – by Hason Raja (1854-1922), a rustic song writer and composer, whom Rabindranath made internationally famous by mentioning his simple philosophy in his Hibbert Lectures ‘The Religion of Man’ delivered in 1930 at Manchester College, Oxford. | <urn:uuid:165d0b98-f8e2-4589-bf33-4c870e370792> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Poem&PoemID=9897 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930252 | 214 | 1.601563 | 2 |
1. Average user has about 60 friends in his/her contacts list, while a few users have 400 ~ 500 friends.
2. About 70% of users have their avatars.
3. About 25% of users set their status messages.
More interesting numbers may be dug later.
Posted in Statistics
Hi, we think that communications between people are very important for all of us, both offline and online. And instant message, including mobile SMS and PC IM, help people for a better life. So izuz.net is trying to provide free web IM services, like web Gtalk and web MSN Live Messenger, for all visitors. More web services, like web AIM, web Yahoo! messenger may be provided in the near future, please keep tuned.
From feedbacks of some users, some companies may block common IM service ports in their gateway so its employers can not use common IM services. But we think that this is a bad idea for most of the employers. We believe that communications may help employers to be more innovative and more productive. So lots of service providers are on to provide web IM service through normal HTTP 80 port, which may always be open to all. So is izuz.net.
izuz.net’s web Gtalk is unique, as it uses the same familiar UI as Google desktop Gtalk UI, which helps user to get a better experience for talking smoothly and happily. So we think choosing izuz.net as your default web IM provider is the correct choice.
This blog is setup to talk more about IM, and may mainly focus on web IM technologies. And this blog is also a place for our users to report bugs and make feature requests.
I talk, you talk, we talk. We hope we will provide you a better services. | <urn:uuid:21a080fb-14cc-4435-a39f-8536b7863292> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.izuz.net/2008/04/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938396 | 372 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Gulf smugglers slow runs amid Iran tensions
KHASAB, Oman (AP) – By dawn, the unmarked speedboats from Iran pull into port. By dusk, they are racing back across the Strait of Hormuz loaded with smuggled consumer goods ranging from Chinese-made shoes to cut flowers from Holland.
Even as sanctions squeeze Iran ever tighter, there's one clandestine route that remains open for business: A short sea corridor across the Persian Gulf connecting a rocky nub of Oman and the Iranian coast about 35 miles (60 kilometers) away.
Yet even this established smugglers' path is now feeling the bite from the pressures on Iran over its nuclear program.
Business is sharply down, the middlemen and boat crews say, as the slumping Iranian currency leaves fewer customers for the smuggled wares. At the same time, the risks of interception are higher as Iranian authorities step up patrols near the strategic oil tanker lanes at the mouth of the Gulf.
The strait, which is the only access in and out of the Gulf, has been the scene of Cold War-style brinksmanship between Iran and the West after Tehran last month threatened to block the passageway for about one-sixth of the world's oil in retaliation for new U.S. sanctions.
"We used to make two or three trips across every day. Now, it's maybe one," said an Iranian middleman, who gave only his first name Agheel to protect his identity from authorities in his homeland.
He watched crews load up a pickup truck with bolts of fabric from Pakistan and table-size boxes of cut flowers from the Netherlands, before the trucks headed off through the treeless mountains to Khasab port.
The operation smuggles in merchandise to avoid Iranian tariffs and to bring in American and European products that have disappeared from Iranian markets because of international sanctions. Experts note that the consumer items post no real challenge to efforts to block material with military or nuclear uses.
"Still, it shows you can't close off all channels into Iran no matter how hard you try," said Paul Rogers, who follows security affairs at Bradford University in Britain. "People will find a way."
On this side of the Gulf, the smugglers operate under a tacit tolerance from authorities, even though Oman and the United Arab Emirates are close U.S. allies and have pledged to enforce sanctions. The port lies in a sparsely populated peninsula enclave belonging to Oman but encircled on land by the UAE, a legacy of how the area was carved up in the final days of British rule here in the last century that resulted in Oman holding joint control with Iran over the strait.
The goods are legally imported into the UAE and truck drivers take them across the border, paying the customary 50 dirham ($13.50) entry fee, according to the smugglers interviewed by The Associated Press. In Khasab, the merchandise is taken to warehouses and then piled on the docks less than 100 yards (100 meters) from the port police headquarters.
Omani authorities did not respond to requests for comment on the traffic.
The Khasab speedboats are far from the only back channel into Iran. Drug traffickers easily cross the hinterland borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, and black market networks stretch across the frontiers with Iraq and Turkey. Authorities in Iraq's Kurdish region have been under pressure for years to crack down on fuel trucks heading into Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.
But Khasab stands out for its openness and for lying on the highly sensitive Strait.
A shipment arranged by the Iranian smuggler Agheel this week was done with practiced efficiency.
A pickup truck backed into a wood-floored warehouse with hundreds of cases of cigarettes bundled three together and wrapped tightly in gray plastic weave — in total 3,000 cigarettes under south Asian brands such as Ruby Menthol. The truck was soon sagging under the weight of boxes piled five high.
Agheel did some quick calculations: Each three-case load cost him about $1,200 and he could sell them to merchants in Iran for the equivalent of about $1,350 under current exchange rates. The truck pulling out of the warehouse represented a potential return of about $4,500.
"If we don't get caught," he added.
The smugglers have their ways of avoiding Iranian authorities.
Spotters off the coast — on the island of Qeshm and near the port of Bandar Abbas — call in coast guard movements to Khasab. The speedboat drivers keep close attention to the water conditions on the Strait and try to approach the Iranian coast just after sunset. The trip can take as little as 90 minutes in calm seas and up to four hours in rough water in the stripped down stripped-down 16-foot (five-meter) fiberglass boats.
Agheel's truck passed through the Khasab customs station at midday and then down a strip of hardscrabble road.
At the port — almost in the shadow of a Costa cruise ship making a day stop — dozens of boats were being packed and secured for the trip. There were no names or markings on the speedboats. But the items loaded on carried familiar logos: LG 42-inch flatscreen TVs, Discovery Channel DVDs, Panasonic microwaves, Yamaha motorcycle parts. Also in the stacks were textiles, satellite dishes and Chinese-made clothes and shoes.
One boat driver, who gave his name only as Aziz, had a breakfast of eggs, beans and Mountain Dew as he waited for the day's shipment to be loaded for the return run to Qeshm, a long arrow-shaped island near the Iranian coast and a main waystation for the smugglers.
Months ago, he could make as many trips as possible because the merchants in Iran were demanding goods.
But now the struggling Iranian rial — dragged down partly by U.S.-led sanctions that could target Iran's Central Bank — has put many things out of reach for Iranians, he said.
"No one wants to buy because the (rial) rate is not stable," he said.
He also said the Iranian coastal patrols have been boosted amid the escalating tensions over the Strait.
On Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the American military is "fully prepared" to deal with any Iranian effort to close the waterway. Next month, Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard plans naval exercises in the area.
If spotted by patrols, Aziz said the two-man boat crews try to heave the goods overboard. They then must pay back the smuggling network, which can amount to thousands of dollars.
But it's worth the risk, he said.
"The situation is getting worse now," he said. "All the prices are up and Qeshm has nothing else" except smuggling. | <urn:uuid:6098562d-e3e0-4c6f-a187-b974ded8f4b9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-01-22/strait-hormuz-iran-smugglers/52745890/1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961305 | 1,395 | 1.734375 | 2 |
| || |
January 25, 2010 - Joselyn King
Prior to the start of the current regular session of the West Virginia Legislature, state lawmakers said there would be no legislation this year requiring new spending amid a projected $100 million state budget deficit.
And a quick look at bills intoduced early on shows these largely reflect that philosophy. It seems the lawmakers are seeking to instead legislate behavior in 2009. These moves largely come cheaply, and look good during an election year that's starting to look contentious.
To their credit, state lawmakers are starting with their own behavior. Under House Bill 4016, state office holdees would have to list their job title, employer address and job duties when conforming with the reporting requirements of the State Ethics Act. They would also have to list their spouse's income. HB 4006, meanwhile, would pertain to lobbyists. It would require the reporting and publication of any compensation they receive for their work, and this would be published on the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Web site.
Other bills introduced seek to improve health and safety through legislation.
Senate Bill 24 would prohibit pharmacies from selling tobacco products of any kind. If a pharmacy violates this bill, their pharmacy license would not be eligible for renewal.
SB 52 would prohibit the use of a handheld cell phone while driving. Violations would be a secondary offense and would not result in points deducted from the offender’s license.
HB 4005 would make failure to wear a seatbelt a primary offense.
Two other bills introduced take into consideration recommendations late last year by the Governor's Panel on Judicial Reform:
HB 4036 would establish an eight member Judicial Vacancy Advisory Commission, which would assist in filling judicial vacancies. The commission would submit a list of qualified candidates to the governor for consideration of judicial appointment. The bill would also require the commission to create procedures for choosing candidates.
HB 4130 would create a pilot program providing alternative campaign financing options to Supreme Court of Appeals candidates. The program would begin in 2012 and would be funded through public funds including attorney fees and special court fees. Participating candidates would be required to raise a certain amount of campaign funds to qualify for the pilot program. After accepting public funds, participants could not accept money from private sources.
And what about some guidelines for educating the state's school children?
HB 4040 would require county school boards to adopt contingency plans guaranteeing students receive 180 separate days of instruction. The bill would limit the county boards to commencing no earlier than August 26 and terminating no later than June 8. A provision in the bill would require county boards to create plans to include icy conditions and emergencies and still meet the state requirement of 180 instructional days.
No comments posted for this article.
Post a Comment | <urn:uuid:33180ded-2fb2-4696-a609-b786b931e065> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theintelligencer.net/page/blogs.detail/display/989/Legislating-Behavior.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962595 | 562 | 1.679688 | 2 |
As little boys we’re like sponges just soaking up the world around us. With the guidance of our loving parents we traverse life’s obstacles and learn to find a place in our own bodies. Little boys in particular are very resistant to change and are pretty sure, most of the time, that what they know is right. Of course, parents have that responsibility to teach their children the rights and wrongs of life.
Which leads me to my next point. Perhaps many parents, in their very best effort to “do right”, actually wind up assisting their children in unlearning what is actually true. This belief rests on the principle that we are born with all the inherent qualities we have as humans. The inherent qualities I speak of include compassion, lovability, thoughtfulness, sensitivity, vulnerability, creativity, and many others. I believe one of two things happen as young children. Either we are reminded about what is already true about us (the inherent qualities) or we unlearn what is true and are taught the opposite. The opposite being not lovable, not good enough, not worthy, etc.
My wife had her phone on her and asked my son Jake (he’s two) if there was anything he wanted to say to his best friend “Connor” (who is also two). Without prompt this sweet little boy told his best friend that he loved him. My wife sent the video to Connor’s mom and he too wanted to send Jake a message back. Of course, his message was just as touching as I think you’d agree.
Jake and Connor were both born loving, lovable, tender, sweet, thoughtful, sensitive, vulnerable, creative, and sensitive. These qualities are clearly present in the video. Yet for the average “Jake” and “Connor” at 18 or 28 or 48 for that matter they would not be described that way. Men aren’t typically described as sweet, tender, vulnerable, sensitive or loving. So where does this get lost?
For now, I think it’s best that we’re all reminded what’s true about these two boys and every other boy. No matter what they unlearn down the road they’re all sweet, loving, lovable, tender,and sensitive among hundreds of qualities. They don’t have to win anything, do anything better, faster, or harder. They’re already everything they should be. So if you’re a parent reading this I invite you to consider that perhaps as, if not more, important than what our children have to learn is what they need to be reminded of. Those same things are what we can remind ourselves about. After all, we may not be children anymore but we still have all of those qualities we see in these two little boys.
What are some of your favorite ways to remind your son or daughter what’s true about them? How about yourself? | <urn:uuid:df3018ba-24ec-4c0b-96cd-3657d6dbb0ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dadstreet.com/tag/truth/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978375 | 614 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Shuksan Middle School is located within one-third of a mile of the Northwest Avenue and McLeod Road intersection, which serves as a southbound on and off access to Interstate 5. Many of Shuksan Middle School’s 600+ students walk or bicycle to school, and a portion of these walkers and bikers routinely cross the Northwest Avenue and McLeod Road intersection. Northwest Avenue is a busy transportation arterial that accommodates high-frequency bus transit and serves as a freight corridor. Over time, increases in interstate and local traffic have resulted in significant congestion at this intersection, in turn leading to related safety concerns for pedestrians and motorists alike. Through grants from the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program and other sources, the City was provided an opportunity to help improve the intersection for students by constructing a modern roundabout, which will ultimately benefit all roadway users. | <urn:uuid:47f273a1-7077-46d5-9b93-5ffcefacb07f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.saferoutesinfo.org/program-tools/case-study-bellingham-wa | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963503 | 183 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Newtown massacre thrusts gun politics to fore
(CBS News) There have been several high-profile mass shootings in recent years, and none of them led to any changes in the nation's gun laws. But on Sunday night in Newtown, Conn., President Barack Obama said, "We surely have an obligation to try" and prevent future tragedies.
Some Democrats on Capitol Hill are saying that means stronger gun laws.
The federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004, and Congress has resisted any moves to bring it back, or to put any other curbs on firearms. But now the question is posed starkly: Will this particular tragedy, with the deaths of 20 children, spur some action? Could this time be different?
Hundreds of bullets, multiple 30-round clips at Conn. school
The unanswerable questions wrought by gun violence
Assault rifle used during Sandy Hook massacre
Bob Schieffer: To what depths of horror must we sink?
Complete coverage: Elementary school rampage
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said, "As a first-day bill, I'm going to introduce in the Senate -- and the same bill will be introduced in the House -- a bill to ban assault weapons."
For some Democrats, Friday's shooting has inspired a new push to bring back the ban on assault weapons, a bill that would restrict the sale of guns like the one used in the Newtown massacre.
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., who lost her husband in a mass shooting in 1993, said, "I do believe this is a different time. I'm not gonna say this is easy, this will not be easy. ... This is where the American people are going to have to be outraged again."
President Obama said Sunday he would use all the power of his office to prevent a repeat of tragedies like the Newtown massacre. The president supports renewing the ban on assault weapons. But he ignored the gun control issue in his first term. And when he ran for president in 2008, he tried to reassure gun owners, saying at the time, "I am not going to take your guns away. So if you want to find an excuse not to vote for me, don't use that one. Because it just ain't true."
Gun control advocates are outnumbered in Congress. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, argued Sunday that more guns are needed to prevent such tragedies -- even inside a school principal's office. He said in a television appearance on "Fox News Sunday," "I wish to God she had had an M-4 in her office, locked up, so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out and she didn't have to lunge heroically with nothing in her hands."
The politics of gun control are toxic. Gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association wield tremendous influence. Paul Barrett, who has reported on Washington's powerful gun lobby in his book, "Glock: The Rise of America's Gun" (Crown), said of the NRA, "It's a very skillful lobby organization."
He says that despite the fact that Americans are about equally divided on gun rights versus gun control, this massacre is no more likely to put limits on firearms than any previous one.
Barrett said, "It's almost impossible to imagine them taking on the NRA and defying the NRA, and that being the case, I just think it's very, very unlikely, as a pragmatic political matter, for anything to be enacted."
But there is going to be a push for action in Congress. On Tuesday, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence -- named for President Reagan's press secretary who was shot in the assassination attempt on the president -- plans to bring survivors and victims' families from the shootings in Aurora, Colo., Virginia Tech, and Columbine to Capitol Hill.
- British soldier savagely killed in London machete attack
- Watch: Fiery collapse of railroad trestle
- Fox News reporter secretly monitored by Obama administration
- Miller on London attack: "We've never seen anything like this"
- Video shows London suspects with radical preacher
- How tornado survivor Barbara Garcia, rescued dog Bowser are faring
- Calif. pols push for law to make reckless pay price of rescue
- Extra: Okla. dog owner and dog Bowser reunited
- Woman tried to "talk down" suspects in UK slaying
- Eye Opener: Bridge collapse makes for holiday travel mess
- Former POWs reunite after 40 years
- Liberace talks his style in 1985 "Nightwatch" interview
- Wayne Brady on Bill Maher: Black man comment "pissed me off"
- London attack novel in its simple brutality
- Tornado survivor, dog receive outpouring of support
- Bowser and Barbara: Dog owner's joy amid Okla. rubble | <urn:uuid:643416f1-308c-4099-b231-435df5f8cad8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505267_162-57559508/newtown-massacre-thrusts-gun-politics-to-fore/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957738 | 988 | 1.820313 | 2 |
The lives of five patients with mutiple sclerosis will be chronicled online as part of a new program jointly developed by the National MS Society and Sanofi's Genzyme unit. The program, called Everyday Matters, chose the patients from a pool of 1,200 entries to receive individual support as they share experiences.
Organizers say they will seek to engage and inspire those living with or affected by MS by tapping into the field of positive psychology, drawing on the achievements of the patients to help inspire others. Patients will be tracked through a combination of personal text, video, and photo journals, all to be showcased on the website everydayMSmatters.org.
The patients -- who include a school teacher and single mom -- will focus on the top five aspects of life, as identified by MS patients in a June 2012 poll by the society: wellness, work/education, relationships, family and empowerment. Emmy-winning producer Kristen Adams, herself an individual living with MS, will help film the stories. A life coach who also has MS, Michelle Clos, will provide one-on-one coaching, and best-selling author of The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor, will guide efforts.
The site will also offer general resources, including toolkits that address the five core concerns highlighted in the MS society's survey.
“I know first-hand that ‘staying positive' can become that much more challenging after being diagnosed with a chronic and unpredictable disease like MS,” Clos said in a statement.
In June Genzyme submitted Lemtrada (alemtuzumab), for relapsing MS treatment, to the FDA and European regulators. An annual injection, the drug would compete against MS treatments like Novartis' Gilenya (fingolimod), Teva's Copaxone (glatiramer) and Biogen-Idec's Tysabri (natalizumab). | <urn:uuid:aec47eca-94b9-4654-a178-841a8f42a0b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mmm-online.com/genzyme-backed-program-to-chronicle-lives-of-patients-with-ms/printarticle/253220/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946093 | 394 | 1.703125 | 2 |
- Partnership Opportunities
- Respond to a Solicitation
- Build a Partnership With Us
- Bring us Your Ideas
- Get Involved
- Partnership Inquiries
What programs does USAID offer students?
Students of all levels will find that the U.S. Agency for International Development is a rewarding place to acquire skills that will last a lifetime. We have a variety of programs, from volunteer internship positions to fellowships, all of which allow students the ability to participate in projects vital to the success of U.S. foreign policy. Overseas or in Washington D.C., there may be a student program that matches your background and will help you to achieve your goals.
What are the basic qualifying factors to be eligible to participate in this program?
- U.S. Citizenship
- Current Enrollment in a College or University;
- A minimum Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0
Volunteer Student Intern vacancies are posted on this site when opportunities are available. Please review the vacancies along with additional qualifications and apply to any that interest you by e-mailing the contact person(s) listed. Send a resume, cover letter of your interest and possible dates of involvement.
Can I participate in a Student Program if I am not a U.S. Citizen?
The programs on this site are for students who are U.S. citizens. Non-U.S. citizens may apply for programs available through the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), at http://exchanges.state.gov
What are some of the responsibilities assigned to Interns?
The work normally assigned to an intern in most of the office divisions consists primarily of research, the writing of memoranda and the drafting and review of documents. USAID interns are regularly included in the bi-weekly meetings of the entire legal staff, during which current issues relating to USAID in general, and to specific foreign assistance programs in particular, are presented and discussed.
Interns may work in one of the Agency Regional Bureaus: Africa, Asia and Near East, Europe and Eurasia, or Latin America and the Caribbean or in one of the technical sectors such as Democracy, Economic Growth) , Education, Humanitarian Assistance, and Global Health.
What are the benefits to becoming a student intern at USAID?
Although USAID cannot offer compensation for legal internship work, many legal interns arrange with their schools for credit and/or financial assistance for the time they spend at the agency.
How do I apply?
There are different application processes and deadlines for each student internship and fellowship available at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Some positions require you to be nominated for application; others you can initiate on your own. We suggest you read through the various opportunities to see which one is the best match for you. At the end of each description is information, or a link to information, that will describe in detail the position's specific qualifications, application processes, vacancy announcements, and deadlines.
I am not sure which Student Program is right for me. How can I decide?
Spend some time with us on this site. You just might be taking the first step toward making an important and rewarding career decision. Competitive candidates for Student Internships have foreign language ability and are full- or part-time junior, senior or graduate students completing studies relevant to the type of work in which they are interested. 60 or more semester hours, or 90-quarter hours must be completed by the time the internship begins.
A broad range of academic majors is sought in areas such as Business, Public Administration, Social Work, Economics, Information Management, Journalism and Biological, Physical or Engineering Sciences; intern duties and responsibilities vary according to office assignment, from scientific/ technical tasks to administrative projects to logistical support.
Last updated: May 15, 2012 | <urn:uuid:8aaec950-16bc-4178-9feb-791c0e0501eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.usaid.gov/working-usaid/careers/student-internships/student-internships-faq | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935753 | 785 | 1.5 | 2 |
It has been said that nobody who buys a drill actually wants a drill. They want holes. They want the tool for what it can do: bore through plywood, metal, or a cement wall; hammer through the earth to find oil, or prepare a tooth for a filling. In sales training, students learn to look beyond what the customer is asking for in order to discover the underlying need. This is the difference between a simple order-taker and a sales consultant.
How does this apply to the meetings business? "Let's see, we'll need an Acme LCD projector with a zoom lens, a 7-foot screen, two microphones at the lectern, an overhead projector, two flip charts, and a slide projector." That's the sort of thing the AV representative hears from an event planner or facility salesperson. But how was that particular complement of AV components determined?
Did the client ask for it because that's what worked well last time? Is that what made the sales representative's last client happy? Is it part of a package?
What if we practiced a new way of asking for what we really want? What if we were to describe the hole we need, rather than the tools themselves?
What Do You Really Want? Let's consider visual displays. Describing the "hole" might go something like this: "I want a visual display that accepts both IBM and Apple laptop computers and provides a bright, high-contrast image so that everyone in the room can see and read the presentation materials. These will include both PowerPoint and Excel spreadsheets. And I would prefer the display system not be in the middle of or in front of my audience. The projector should be quiet if it is in the room, either in the back or on the ceiling." Note the emphasis on both seeing and reading.
Here's how you might describe your audio "hole:" "Everyone must be able to comfortably hear and understand both the presenter and the panelists, as well as questions from the audience. And I want a clear recording of the meeting. The sound should be consistent throughout the room, with no hot spots or dead spots."
Think in terms of expressing performance requirements rather than requesting specific equipment. And yes, you can stress that you want to keep the setup simple and reasonably priced. Give your representatives your AV budget up front, if you're comfortable doing that. Challenge their flexibility, skill, and creativity.
Expectations Lead to Questions If you ask for what you want, you are more likely to get it. Expressing your expectations and needs holds the AV department and facility responsible for overall performance, not just for taking your order and throwing some equipment in the room.
Once you have described your needs, the AV staff should begin asking questions such as: What resolution will you be using? What types of information will you be displaying? Is it OK for audience questions to be asked from the aisle? Will the presenter be moving around or remain standing behind the lectern? What is the typical age and age range of the attendees? These types of queries indicate a willingness to understand your particular needs and not try to shoehorn you into a predefined equipment package.
Beware of the AV representative who tries to get you to agree to specific products without asking these probing questions. By getting you simply to sign off on equipment, he or she may be dodging responsibility. Stick to your performance specifications. With expectations stated up front, it is much easier to evaluate the AV setup. Can you read the projected Excel sheet? Can you understand what a speaker is saying from anywhere in the room? If the room meets the specifications, you've got the right drill for the job. | <urn:uuid:dc6644ce-0efd-4dbc-a672-476332cd3a1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://meetingsnet.com/ar/meetings_audiovisual_order_solutions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955986 | 747 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Grief Recovery Institute® Guidance Center
John W. James
Founder of The Grief Recovery Institute®
Co-Author of The Grief Recovery
Handbook & When Children Grieve
Co-Author of The Grief Recovery
Handbook & When Children Grieve
Where were you when I needed you?
The saddest question we ever hear is, "Where were you when I needed you?"
That's what people ask when they find out what we do in helping grievers. We're presenting helpful and accurate information on this site, at the time you need it most, with the hope that you'll never need to ask that question.
It's an honor and a sad privilege to be addressing you, knowing that each of you has recently experienced the death of someone important to you. We also know some of you are reading this because of your care and concern for someone who is confronted by the death of someone important in their life.
We bring our personal experience in dealing with the deaths of people who were important to us, and our professional know-how in helping grievers for more than 30 years. We'll help you distinguish between the "raw grief" that is your normal and natural reaction to the death, and the equally normal "unresolved grief" that relates to the unfinished emotions that are part of the physical ending of all relationships.
A basic reality for most grieving people is difficulty concentrating or focusing. With that in mind, we asked Tributes.com to print our articles in a large type font to make them easier to read. Sharing our concern for grieving people, they agreed.
From our hearts to yours,
John & Russell
Articles & Media
Stages of Grief: Are There Actual Stages Of Grief?
Is there any truth behind the idea that grief and loss recovery comes in stages?We are often asked if there are actual stages of grief or grieving. The answer is NO! There are no stages of grief or grieving. Even though you may hear or read that there are such stages, there is no predictable progression of feelings and thoughts that applies to any one person, much less to a group of people.
Every relationship is unique. Therefore the feelings you have when someone important to you dies are also unique. Any attempt to quantify your emotional reaction to the death of someone important to you may keep you from taking the actions that will help you deal with your unique reaction to the death of that person.
Why Do People Think There Are Stages? Many years ago Elizabeth Kübler-Ross wrote a book entitled On Death and Dying. The book identified five stages that a dying person might go through after being told they had a terminal illness. Those stages are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. For many years, in the absence of more accurate information, well-meaning people incorrectly assigned the stages about dying people to the grief people feel when someone important to them dies.
It is fair to say that following a death, grievers may feel sad, and they might have some anger about the circumstances or cause of the death, or even about things that did or did not happen in their relationship with the person who died. But those are feelings, they are not stages. They are normal and natural emotional reactions to a death. They don’t happen in any predetermined order if they occur at all. If we start with an incorrect premise, we will wind up far away from the truth. The idea that stages of grief even exist is dangerous.
After all, a griever is often in a very suggestible condition; dazed, numb, walking in emotional quicksand. Many grievers are told that they are in denial. Yet in all of our years of experience, working with tens of thousands of grievers, we have never met anyone in denial that a loss had occurred. They say, "Since my mom died, I have had a hard time." There is no denial in that comment. There is a very clear acknowledgment that there has been a death, and that there has been an emotional impact.
What about anger? Often when a death has occurred there is no anger at all, as this story explains: “I had a wonderful relationship with my grandmother. At age 92, she got ill and died. Blessedly, it happened quickly, so she did not suffer very much. I’m pleased about that. I had just spent some time with her, sharing memories and saying how much we cared about each other. I’m very happy about that. The funeral ceremony created a truly accurate memory picture of her, and people came and talked about her. I loved that. A friend reminded me to say any last things to her and then say goodbye, and I did, and I'm glad. I think of her often with fondness and sometimes with a tear in my eye and I cherish those feelings. I am aware of the wonderful memories of my relationship with the incredible woman who was my grandma, and I miss her. And, I am not angry.”
Unresolved Grief Is About Undelivered Communications Unresolved grief is about undelivered communications of an emotional nature. It is about the things we wish we had said or done differently, better or more; and it’s about the unrealized hopes, dreams, and expectations about the future. It can also be about the things we wish the other person had said or done, or even had not said or done.
The discovery of those undelivered communications or actions that were never taken is not an orderly process that can ever be quantified and applied to groups of people. Nor does each person attach the same emotions to the awareness of those unspoken things or untaken actions.
The fact is that there are a whole host of feelings that may be attached to those unsaid things. Happiness, sadness, love, fear, anger, relief, compassion, are just some of the feelings that a griever might experience. We do not need to categorize, analyze, or explain those feelings. We do need to learn how to communicate them and then say goodbye to the physical relationship that has been ended by the death.
It is most important to understand that there are no absolutes. There are no definitive stages or time zones for grieving. Grief is the normal and natural reaction to loss. Grief is emotional, not intellectual. Rather than defining stages of grief which could easily confuse a griever, we prefer to help each griever find their own truthful expression of the thoughts and feelings that may be keeping them from participating in their own lives. We all bring different and varying beliefs to the losses that occur in our lives, therefore we will each perceive and feel differently about each loss.
Please don’t let anyone label your feelings as stages.
Note: In a most interesting statement in the introduction to her book, Question & Answers on Death and Dying, Kübler-Ross states: “I have specifically excluded chapters on ‘Religion and Life after Death’ as well as chapters on ‘Bereavement and Grief.’ This was done not only because of lack of space, but because there are others who are more qualified to answer those questions.”
For an even more in-depth look at the idea of “stages,” please access and read this article of ours which was published in 2008: http://budurl.com/NOStagesofGrief.
© 2013 Russell P. Friedman, John W. James and The Grief Recovery Institute®. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint this and other articles please contact The Grief Recovery Institute at [email protected] or by phone, 800-334-7606.
The Boston Marathon Bombing, The Aftermath: Loss of Life, Loss of Safety, Loss of Trust, and Loss of Innocence
April 15, 2013, the date of the Boston Marathon bombing, joins the list of dates we’d rather not remember, but we can’t forget. It takes its sad Read More »
Post-Holiday, Grief-Related Blues!
Logically, for many grieving people, the holidays are difficult enough, especially the first season after someone important to them has died. But Read More »
Not following impulses leads to unfinished emotional business—aka Unresolved Grief!
Today I feel compelled to write about a personal loss, that just happens to be one of the national obituaries currently featured on the home page of Read More »
Newtown, Connecticut—Our Grief, Because We Are The Family Of Humankind
Certain events have the power to propel us into an emotional numbness, as if a hidden thermostat inside our hearts shuts us off. The pain is too much Read More »
Veterans Day—Lest We Forget
In its day, World War One was called "The War to End All Wars." Sadly, it wasn't. WW I officially ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day Read More »
Dealing with Grief During the Holidays
Dealing with Grief During the Holidays While there are other critical dates and times that affect grieving people, the holiday season is the biggest Read More »
We Never Forget The Important People In Our Lives.
We recently received a note from a woman named Linda, who had a child die, and who interacts with other parents who’ve also experienced the death Read More »
On Crying—Part Two
In Crying—Part One, we focused on the idea that it can be dangerous and counterproductive to attach our personal ideas and beliefs to how other Read More »
On Crying—Part One
Almost everyone has some questions and confusion about crying. How much crying is enough? If I start crying, will I be able to stop? Do I have to Read More »
9/11: The Aftermath, Loss of Life, Loss of Safety, Loss of Trust, and Loss of Innocence
By Russell FriedmanSeptember 11, 2001 now lives in our language in the same emotional way as December 7, 1941 and November 22, 1963. Nearly everyone Read More »
Am I Going Crazy?—An all-too frequent question from grievers.
“Since my mother’s death, I’ve had the experience of being in one room, deciding to go to another room to do something, and when I get there, I Read More »
Father’s Day 2012 - My Dad, Babe Ruth, and the Ball That’s Still in Orbit
In the kind of emotional reviews our minds and hearts make on chronicling days like Father’s Day, we often discover a level of appreciation that Read More »
What a Difference a Day Makes
Memorial Day as we know it today began as Decoration Day in 1866, in upstate New York, after the cessation of the Civil War. First conceived as an Read More »
Mother’s Day! Remind Me—Remind Me Not—Remind Me
In mid-April there are two things you can count on in the United States. One is the due date for filing your tax return. The other is the arrival of Read More »
BECAUSE WE ARE THE FAMILY OF HUMANKIND
BECAUSE WE ARE THE FAMILY OF HUMANKIND [March 11, 2011]At 11:15 PM on March 10th, 2011, my heart was burning and my stomach was churning. I was Read More »
Am I Paranoid, Or Are People Really Avoiding Me?
The simple answer to the question posed in the title of this article is, “No, you’re not paranoid, people really may be avoiding you.” Even Read More »
Valentine’s Day—For Many, The Most Painful Holiday
The traditional Holiday Season begins around Halloween, continues through Thanksgiving, crests with Christmas and Hanukkah, and ends with New Read More »
Our Reaction to The Tucson Tragedy – Because We Are the Family of Humankind!
Within a two year span, from February 1, 2003 to December 26, 2004, we used the title “Because We Are the Family of Humankind!” for articles we Read More »
Uh-oh, it’s that time again. Grief and the holidays
Many Grievers Wish They Could Skip The Holidays And Jump From Late October To Mid-January The holidays are approaching. A joyous time. A festive time Read More »
Stages of Grief: Are There Actual Stages Of Grief?
Is there any truth behind the idea that grief and loss recovery comes in stages?We are often asked if there are actual stages of grief or grieving. Read More »
Is It Ever Too Soon To Recover?
Conflicting opinions from a wide variety of sources confuse the question of when to begin a process of completing what was left emotionally Read More »
Why Won’t Anyone Let Me Feel Sad?
If we were forced to quantify the problems grieving people encounter, there’s no doubt the number one offense they must confront is being told that Read More »
Six Major Myths – The Short Version
There are six major myths about grief that are so close to universal that nearly everyone can relate to them. This is true not only for those of us Read More »
Do I Have to Cry To Grieve?
"My father died recently. I have been very sad, but I have not cried. Do I have to cry to grieve?"That is a question we get all the time from people Read More »
When Your Heart Is Broken, Your Head Doesn’t Work Right And Your Spirit May Not Soar
For most people, the immediate response to the death of someone important to them is a sense of numbness. After that initial numbness wears off, the Read More »
If I Start Crying Will I Be Able To Stop?
Grieving people sometimes hold back their tears based on the fear that if they start crying, they won’t be able to stop. To the best of our Read More »
Time Doesn't Heal - Actions Do
I have heard that it takes two years to get over the death of a loved one, five years to get over the death of a parent, and you never get over the Read More »
I’m Fine And Other Lies!!!
Approximately 20% of your ability to communicate is verbal, leaving about 80% as non-verbal. Non-verbal communication includes tone of voice as well Read More »
Normal and Natural reactions to the death of someone important to you.
Grief is the wide range of normal and natural reactions to the death of someone important to you. The seven most common reactions are: Read More »
If you or someone important to you wants help with grief: Look for a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist℠ in your community. The Grief Recovery Institute ® trains and mentors Certified Grief Recovery Specialists℠ throughout the United States & Canada.
Workshops & Training Schedule
The Grief Recovery Institute ® offers Certification Training programs for those who wish to help grievers.
May 2013Los Angeles, CA - May 17 - 20, 2013
New Orleans, LA - May 17 - 20, 2013
Denver, CO - May 17 - 20, 2013
June 2013Hartford, CT - June 7 - 10, 2013
Phoenix, AZ - June 7 - 10, 2013
Calgary, AB - June 21 - 24, 2013
St. Louis, MO - June 21 - 24, 2013 | <urn:uuid:3f4ed018-0f21-46f4-8f99-1b8b8986e8e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wkyc.tributes.com/grief_recovery_center/article/8 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951677 | 3,243 | 1.75 | 2 |
Sounds like you used Marine-Tex or another similar product. Your repair method is one that many Hobie sailors take, but unfortunately it's a poor shortcut for a proper repair.
Your putty job may look good for a while, but know that this is not the way to make a structurally sound, long lasting repair. The putty you used (epoxy or otherwise) is simply not equivalent in strength to the original fiberglass/foam sandwich hull construction. Epoxy putty has high compressive and shear strength, but nowhere near the tensile strength of fiberglass cloth. As a result, it will eventually crack out due to the flexing that occurs in a Hobie hull. Depending on where the damage is located, that may happen the first time you sail the boat, or it may not happen for years. Just know that eventually, it will happen. Once the putty begins to crack, it will allow water to seep into the damaged area and into the foam core. When the foam core is continually exposed to water, it will break down and the hull will begin to delaminate in that area. You'll have a bigger job on your hands.
The proper way to fix the hull- a method that will last the life of the boat- is to grind out the damaged outer fiberglass skin and remove any damaged foam core. Then repair any damage to the internal skin, bond in a new piece of foam core material, and then laminate new glass to the outside surface. Finally, gelcoat the repair.
Using epoxy on an outside surface of the hull is also a big no-no if you ever want to match the gelcoat and have a cosmetically finished repair. | <urn:uuid:93dca476-3223-4ac0-9e78-0d027cb4dcc2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=174099 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938476 | 351 | 1.625 | 2 |
GREENVILLE — Former President Bill Clinton said today that he would take Senator Barack Obama up on his challenge last night to prove himself as the first black president by entering a dance competition — against Mr. Obama.
Mr. Obama was asked at last night’s debate whether Mr. Clinton was “the first black president,” as Toni Morrison, the novelist, has said. Mr. Obama replied that he would first have to see whether Mr. Clinton can dance before calling him a brother. It was a brief moment of levity in a contentious slug-fest of a debate with Senator Hillary Clinton and former Senator John Edwards.
In response to a question at a town hall meeting here today, Mr. Clinton said, “I would be willing to engage in a dancing competition with him, even though he’s much thinner and younger than I am, but only if I got an age allowance.”
The audience laughed and applauded. No response from the Obama campaign yet as to whether they want to go toe to toe, literally, with the former president on the dance floor. They have been going head to head lately, but Mr. Clinton today had largely shed his combative persona and appeared more relaxed.
He was asked several other questions here specifically relating to race.
One young man, whom Mr. Clinton later suggested might have been from the Obama campaign, said to him: “A lot of us believe Senator Obama eventually will be the first black president. Are you going to be OK with having stood in his way? Do you think that will affect your legacy among blacks in South Carolina?”
“No,” Mr. Clinton replied. “Yes and no. Yes, I’m OK, but I’m not standing in his way; I think Hillary would be a better president.” This brought a round of applause as he went on to say that “with the severity of our economic challenges and the severity of our challenges abroad,” the country needs someone who is “ready for the job on the first day.”
He said this reasoning did not amount to standing in Mr. Obama’s way. “No one has a right to be president, including Hillary,” he said. “Keep in mind, in the last two primaries, we ran as an underdog. She was out there as the underdog winning in New Hampshire, where no one thought she could win, and in Nevada, where all the organized forces were against her.”
He said he hoped to have the chance to vote for Senator Obama “some day,” presumably after Mrs. Clinton has served two terms.
Mr. Clinton told the audience, about half of whom were black, “I think it would be just as much a change, and some people think more, to have the first woman president as to have the first African-American president.” The crowd whooped and cheered.
As for his legacy, he said: “My legacy, whatever it is, is done. I did what I did.” By his own measure, which is whether people were better off after he left office than when he started, he said his presidency was a success.
At yet another point, he said he understood the pride that African-Americans felt in Mr. Obama’s candidacy. “We honor your decision,” he said, “but we think you ought to support Hillary.”
He then went on to say it was a sign of progress that a black man and a woman could have such a spirited debate as they had last night. “I know you think it’s crazy, but I kind of like seeing Barack and Hillary fighting,” he said. “They’re real people, flesh and blood people, they have differences, let them have it. That’s America. I’ve been waiting all my life to see this sort of thing.”
He was applauded throughout, and the crowd thronged around him afterward seeking his autograph and pictures. | <urn:uuid:fbca83d1-7db1-4d04-834f-eea7f7a0a9c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/dance-off/?apage=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991024 | 850 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Welcome! Today I have author Laura Lam on the book to answer my questions about her fantastic book, Pantomime. You can see my review of the book here and find out more about it on its goodreads page here or you can read on...
Pantomime is a tale of magic, mayhem and identity, where did the inspiration for your story come from?
It came slowly and partly by accident. I started writing a book with an adult Micah Grey, but I was 18. It was hard for me to tap into his voice. Going back to a teenage Micah was really easy and I tapped into his voice right away, and combined with the circus and Micah figuring out who he was and who he wanted to be was the story I wanted to tell. Though Micah’s story might not end when he’s a teenager and I might return to the original book one day.
Social standing and hierarchy makes a huge impact on your story, your two characters, Micah and Gene, belong to complete opposite ends of the spectrum, did you always want to show both sides of the story in the duel narrative kind of way, or is that something that came about whilst writing the book?
I’ve always been interested in people who go from one extreme to the other in society. Rags to riches or riches to rags—both have long fascinated me both in fiction and in history. I think that having Gene and Micah have such different lives provides a contrast to give a fuller picture of the world.
Originally the book was written chronologically, however, so there wasn’t that juxtaposition that there is now.
The book is set in a fictional area called Ellada, was this area inspired from anywhere real?
It’s based loosely on Victorian England, but it has its own religion, society, and culture that differs from the original inspiration. But the social etiquette and mores are quite similar. I also researched industrialization and colonialization, which influenced Ellada’s relationship with the former colonies of the other islands of their Archipelago.
Ellada also is another name for Greece, and though that was an accident, I think it works, as Greece was an empire that, like all empires, expanded too far and then had to contract.
The tittle reflects the story brilliantly, not just due to its circus element, but also due to the characters and what they go through. Was the book always called Pantomime or did it have other working titles?
The book was just called “Gene” until a week before I submitted it to Angry Robot’s Open Door. I did go through quite a few potential titles, and some of them were laughably bad—too bad to share, even! Once I settled on Pantomime, though, I knew it was the right one.
Pantomime is very unique in its style and story, however if you were to suggest a few ‘if you liked *insert book name here* you will love Pantomime” What would you suggest?
|click to embiggen|
Oh man. This is hard. Let’s say if you’ve read and enjoyed the Alanna books by Tamora Pierce, the Tamir Triad by Lynn Flewelling, then you might like mine. For the circus element, if you liked Water for Elephants, this might capture your fancy. A few people have also compared me to Robin Hobb in tone, but as she’s basically my literary idol I am not objective enough to say, as I don’t think I hold candle, or even a matchstick, to her.
Have you any plans for a sequel to Pantomime and are you working on anything at the minute? if so can you tell us about it?
The first draft of the sequel to Pantomime is finished and at the time of this interview is with my agent. It features magicians of the illusionist variety, stolen kisses, doctors, clockwork body parts, and phantom dreams.
Doesn't that sequel sound so amazing! I can't wait to find out more and I will definitely be checking out some of the books mentioned by Laura! Thank you Laura for taking your time to answer my questions and readers, please don't forget to check out the other stops on the blog tour too! | <urn:uuid:1e86d449-54cc-4d8c-84d7-ec8b56237cb3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.readaraptor.co.uk/2013/01/pantomime-laura-lam-blog-tour_23.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980627 | 905 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Carl Medearis is a man of two worlds.
Medearis, an international expert in the field of Arab-American and Muslim-Christian relations, spoke at Cedar Creek Church Saturday evening.
He has dedicated his life to promoting peace between two different worlds and has worked with former state Gov. David Beasley.
An ordained pastor and evangelist, he also is the author of “Muslims, Christians and Jesus” and “Speaking of Jesus: The Art of Not-Evangelism.”
Originally from Denver, Medearis lived in Beirut, Lebanon, for 12 years along with his wife and three children.
Medearis has worked with many individuals in the Middle East and has encouraged them to live by the principles taught by Jesus, according to his website.
On Saturday evening, after returning from Baghdad earlier this month, he had a dialogue with residents about the relationship between Christians and Muslims. He told stories about his experience with dear friends of the Islamic faith with heartwarming memories and even a few anecdotes.
Medearis said the world and its perception of Muslims drastically changed after 9/11. Muslims were grouped together as people trying to “take over America” and associated with words like “sleeper cells” and “terrorism.”
“What does that do?” Medearis asked. “It just keeps our fear level at a certain pitch.”
Medearis asked the audience to think of someone maybe living in a place like Iraq who has access to the Internet or television and has never left the country.
He then asked how they believe that individual would perceive America?
People called out a variety of words like “immorality,” “violence,” “greed” and “pornography.”
Medearis continued by citing the Aurora, Colo., theater shootings that occurred last year which happened only about 15 miles away from his hometown.
He was out of the country and with some of his Saudi friends when it hit the news. Medearis’ friends first showed concern, asking if he possibly knew anyone who was injured and were relieved when Medearis said no. Then, one of his friends asked what was wrong with America because they had noticed so many shootings and then inquired if it was something in Christianity causing them.
Since some individuals in the West assume Muslims are violent because of their religion due to what’s seen in the news, Medearis said some people in the Middle East have misgivings about those who are Christian by what they see in the media, too.
“You can be afraid of the generalization, but you can’t love the generalization,” Medearis said, later adding, “The best way to fight fear and misunderstanding is to get to know some real, live Muslims – actually spend time with them.”
Medearis said when he talks with those in the Middle East, he discusses Jesus, not the “religious system of Christianity.”
These days, he spends time working with both leaders in the West and Middle East in hopes to establish healthy, strong relationships between the two through Jesus’ teachings.
Cedar Creek Pastor Phillip Lee thanked Medearis for taking the time to visit the church and thanked Global Outreach Director Kristi Hunter for inviting the speaker.
Lee said he hopes that what Medearis said will challenge those to think differently and to not share the religion but “the only hope in the world ... Jesus Christ.”
Medearis will speak again at Cedar Creek, 3001 Banks Mill Road, today at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Visit www.carlmedearis.com for more about his life and work. | <urn:uuid:d5ad5f6a-5bce-485f-b463-6a1eca3cc99d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20130112/AIK0101/130119836/1079/man-gets-life-in-sc-restaurant-shooting-death/carl-medearis-promotes-peace-amid-christian-muslim-worlds | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979481 | 790 | 1.515625 | 2 |
"Yudhishthira said, 'Thou hast said, O grandsire, that behaviour is the first (of requisites for a man). Whence, however, does Hope arise? Tell me what it is. This great doubt has taken possession of my mind. There is no other person than thee, O subjugator of hostile towns, who can remove it. O grandsire, I had great hope in respect of Suyodhana that when, a battle was about to ensue (in consequence of his own obstinacy), he would, O lord, do what was proper. In every man hope is great. When that hope is destroyed, great is the grief that succeeds, and which, without doubt, is equal to almost death itself. Fool that I am, Dhritarashtra's wicked-souled son, Duryodhana, destroyed the hope I had cherished. Behold, O king, the foolishness of my mind! I think that hope is vaster than a mountain with all its trees. Or, perhaps, it is vaster than the firmament itself. Or, perhaps, O king, it is really immeasurable. Hope, O chief of the Kurus, is exceedingly difficult of being understood and equally difficult of being subdued. Beholding this last attribute of Hope, I ask, what else is so unconquerable as this?'
"Bhishma said, 'I shall narrate to thee, O Yudhishthira, in this connection, the discourse between Sumitra and Rishabha that took place in olden times. Listen to it. A royal sage of the Haihaya race, Sumitra by name, went out a hunting. He pursued a deer, having pierced it with a straight shaft. Possessed of great strength, the deer ran ahead, with the arrow sticking to him. The king was possessed of great strength, and accordingly pursued with great speed his prey. The animal, endued with fleetness, quickly cleared a low ground and then a level plain. The king, young, active and strong, and armed with bow and sword and cased in mail, still pursued it. Unaccompanied by anybody, in chasing the animal through the forest the king crossed many rivers and streams and lakes and copses. Endued with great speed, the animal, at its will, showing itself now and then to the king, ran on with great speed. Pierced with many shafts by the king, that denizen of wilderness, O monarch, as if in sport, repeatedly lessened the distance between itself and the pursuer. Repeatedly putting forth its speed and traversing one forest after another, it now and then showed itself to the king at a near point. At last that crusher of foes, taking a very superior shaft, sharp, terrible, and capable of penetrating into the very vitals, fixed it on his bowstring. The animal then, of huge proportions, as if laughing at the pursuer's efforts suddenly distanced him by reaching a point full four miles ahead of the range of the shaft. That arrow of blazing splendour accordingly fell on the ground. The deer entered a large forest but the king still continued the chase.'" | <urn:uuid:838cc16e-45b4-4af2-82ff-e479c9901582> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a124.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97861 | 669 | 1.78125 | 2 |
World Scouting @ COP17
The environment is our playground and we are sharing with the tens of thousands of international non-governmental and governmental delegates at the event how scouting has always cared for the planet, not because we had to, but rather, simply that we are in the business of creating a better world.
The first day began with all accredited members of the delegation, Jared Abayo the Youth Director WOSM-CO, Amos Ndegwa the IT Officer and Communications Assistant WOSM-Africa,Magdalena Elisabeth Werner, Antje Kathrin Schroeder, Lars Martin Kramm, Daniella Drilling from DPSG, Jessica Von der Meden, Quintin Combrink, Sally Makofane, Previn Vedan, Ivan Povall, Yubishin Moodley from South Africa Scout Association.
YOUNGO is the officially recognised constituency of the Youth Non-Governmental Organisations by the UNFCCC, of which the World Oganisation of the Scout Movement is a part. The spokes council is the decision making body of YOUNGO, and is formed by representatives of the Youth Non-Governmental Organisations participating in COP17.YOUNGO makes statements and carries out actions on behalf of YOUNGO but at the same time it is representing all of its members.
The spokes council provides for a transparent and formal method of decision-making that includes all of its members in a meaningful and constructive way.This first meeting of YOUNGO saw the constituency having to elect five of its members who would then go on to have access seats inside for the Plenary session for the official opening of the conference.
At this opening, the president of the Republic of South Africa, Jacob Zuma reinforced the importance of the next two weeks, he said, “Climate change poses serious threats especially in the developing world,” he added, “Africa is more vulnerable because of poverty which limits the ability of most African nations to cope with the impact of climate change.”
WOSM, as a leading global youth movement, will demonstrate its leadership and commitment to broadening the climate change dialogue. This follows a successful high profile discussion on climate change, involving Scouts aged 14–17 from 68 countries represented at the United Nations Simulation on Climate Change which was held at the Parliament Hall of the Region of Skåne, in Kristianstad, Sweden during the World Scout Jamboree.
Zuma ended off his opening address by saying that ‘Change and solutions are always possible. In these talks, States parties will need to look beyond their national interests to find a global solution for the common good and benefit of all humanity. We have come a long time since Copenhagen and Cancun. Durban must take us many steps forward towards a solution that saves tomorrow today.’ | <urn:uuid:904b2c40-273a-41ab-baf1-cbcfe86c861f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scout.org/ru/o_skautinge/programmy/environment/news/cop_17/world_scouting_cop17 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951305 | 582 | 1.789063 | 2 |
New directions in UK development policy – Tony German is director of DI
The Secretary of State for International Development in the UK’s new coalition government, Andrew Mitchell, made his first major policy speech on development policy on Thursday. The full text of the speech is here.
In addition, Prime Minister David Cameron wrote an article about UK development policy in the Guardian last week. The article said:
“There won’t be any less money – in fact, there’ll be more. But we are taking a new approach to the way that money is spent, and how spending is monitored. It’s time to bring greater transparency and accountability to overseas aid.
To start with, we are going to publish online details of every international development programme, letting people see where aid money should be going. Over time we also want that information to get to the very communities who depend on the funding, so they can blow the whistle if it doesn’t get through.”
Andrew Mitchell’s speech indicates some important new directions in UK aid policy:
In addition, the speech argued that aid is in the UK’s interest as well as a moral duty; and it restated the government’s commitment to increase aid to 0.7% of GNI from 2013, and to legislate for this.
There is a lot to digest in this speech. Here are some initial reactions:
First, the emphasis on transparency and accountability as a tool to improve the effectiveness of aid is right on the money. As my colleague Owen Barder has argued elsewhere, we won’t get better aid by having more committees of donors discussing their commitments under the Paris Declaration; we’ll get improvements (and progress towards the goals of the Paris Declaration) when donor agencies, NGOs and governments come under more direct pressure to do a better job. These announcements are a big step.
Second, the speech makes it clear that DFID will make aid transparent to citizens in recipient countries as well as to citizens in the UK. The focus on access to information for people in developing countries is hugely important. Their needs for information about aid has been ignored for decades. Literally none of the existing systems for publishing information about aid (notably, the OECD DAC) has a mandate to meet the information needs of citizens in developing countries. Indeed, until the aidinfo programme began working on this, nobody had ever systematically asked people in developing countries what information about aid they need and want.
Third, the speech recognizes that if we are going to put transparency to citizens of recipient countries at front of our minds, then we are going to have to change the way we make information transparent. Having each donor putting information on their own website, locked up in an internal database, in its own specific formats, with its own definitions and conventions, is no use at all to someone in a developing country. Parliamentarians, civil society organisations and citizens in developing countries want information from all donors – government, foundations, NGOs and private sector – in a form that they can access, compare, aggregate, consolidate, and mash up with their own information (especially information about their own budget). They are not going to get that from a plethora of different donor websites; nor is it possible at the moment for information intermediaries to aggregate the data from many sources. That’s why the data published by donors must be standardised, detailed, comparable and reusable, which is what the Secretary of State promised. The reference to “traceability” is also hugely important: if the UK can pull off an agreement to an international system of aid traceability, this will make a huge difference to closing down the opportunities for waste and corruption, improving performance, and hugely increasing public trust in aid.
Fourth, the section on empowering women stood out for me. We have all talked for decades about the importance of women for development. And there have been some (but too few) examples of really exciting progress. But we have not done anything like enough to put it front and centre in our thinking. It is remarkable that this is getting so much attention in the new Secretary of State’s first policy speech; this suggests that he plans to step up a gear on making sure women are put at the centre of development thinking.
Fifth, the Secretary of State is sending a strong signal that old-style, woolly, process evaluation is no substitute for rigorous impact evaluation. He specifically name-checks the Poverty Action Lab at MIT for showing that we can be more scientific about measuring what works. A lot of evaluation consultants are going to have a lot of new tricks if they want to stay in business. A few years ago an aid agency official pointed to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Effectiveness (NICE) as a model for what we need in development. Take a look at their mandate: this may be a good analogy for what the new Aid Effectiveness Watchdog might try to achieve.
Sixth, the speech gently warns NGOs and others who spend UK Aid that they too will be subject to the same disciplines of transparency and accountability. These groups have tended to argue, with some justice, that they should be subject to different kinds of accountability than governments. But a citizen in Malawi doesn’t care if the organisation that is supposed to deliver them fertilizer is a government agency, an NGO or a private contractor: they want information about all the services they are supposed to be receiving from all the donors, through whatever channel, all in one place. So one way or another, the aid system – including NGOs, foundations and private sector contractors – needs to make this information available in a common format that everybody can use and access.
Seventh, the Secretary of State appears to be thinking quite radically about the importance of empowering the poor, both as individuals and through their governments. This will bring to development policy the coalition government’s ideas about the Big Society and the post bureaucratic age, and it suggests that he is willing to challenge the vested interests and bureaucracies of the aid system. The speech talks about making more use of cash transfers directly to people in poverty (listen to more on this in a Development Drums podcast, out soon). It talks about Cash on Delivery Aid – as a way to give aid directly to developing country governments with few strings attached, provided results are achieved. These ideas are part of a growing movement challenging the waste of time and money involved in employing large numbers of consultants and the over-elaborate processes that aid agencies and NGOs put in place.
All in all this speech, sets some very important new strategic directions. It was an unfamiliar experience to listen to a policy speech on development that did not feel the need to announce £20 million for some new pet project, to provide a “deliverable” for the news, or a sop to a vocal interest group. Instead of a miscellany of new spending commitments, this speech signalled a new approach which aims to empower the poor and poor countries; and to improve the aid system by making it more transparent and accountable. Instead of a new development policy, this was a new way of doing development policy.
Below are a few thoughts from DI which we think chime in well with the thinking the new government has set out:
Gunilla Carlsson, the Swedish development minister, said this the other day:
“The fight for the future of aid assistance will be between those who think it enough to speak beautifully about poverty reduction and those of us who are willing to do whatever is necessary to get the assistance to function properly.”
The new UK development strategy is a big step on the road to doing what is necessary to get assistance to function properly. It is an approach that requires political courage: transparency and accountability are not as sexy as new announcements of projects for AIDS or clean water. There will be vested interests within the development system who will not be happy to see the rocks being turned over, and who would rather have the government just dishing out more money. There may be difficult days ahead when transparency leads to the uncomfortable exposure of mistakes, and perhaps some waste or corruption. Organisations will face closer, more detailed questioning, and no doubt that will be a bore for them. But these steps to empower citizens and to make the system more accountable are the right steps towards improving the system so that aid works better and achieves more, and towards building trust among the people whose money is being spent.
Shelter Afrique Building
4th Floor, Mamlaka Road
PO Box 102802-00101
Development Research and Training (DRT)
Ggaba Road, Mutesasira Zone, Kansanga
P.O Box 22459 | <urn:uuid:3758616c-66ad-4024-95f7-5e3e2f05e002> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.devinit.org/new-directions-in-uk-development-policy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955563 | 1,782 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Regarding specifically your request for incremental backups, I suppose the first question is to ask how you define the word incremental. Long ago there were two terms used in backup strategies: differential and incremental. A differential backup made copies of files that had changed since the previous backup. A full restoration required restoring each differential backup. An incremental backup copied all files that had been modified. A full restoration required only restoring that one backup. Definitions change and I think those two words are used differently today. Further, the file systems used in Linux-based systems do not use an archive bit, common in Microsoft file systems. Linux-based file systems do use modification time stamps, which serves a similar purpose.
Rsnapshot uses rsync and hard-links to backup files. Because rsync and hard-links are used, each backup is a difference between the previous backup. A rather fascinating and efficient process.
I use rsnapshot in a comprehensive backup strategy. Although originally written for my Slackware environment, the same strategy can be adapted easily to Debian.
You can read more here:
A Backup Strategy
In my backup strategy I have cron run rsnapshot every three hours to backup my most important configuration and data files. I manually run rsnapshot weekly to perform a full backup. I have additional computers here in my home LAN and I run another rsnapshot backup of those systems. However, those systems do not change anywhere near as much as my primary office machine. Therefore I run that full backup about monthly.
I use a different rsnapshot config file for each backup routine.
For the manual backups I use a 750 GB SATA drive and a removable drive bay. The SATA drive is hot-pluggable. I store 26 weeks of weekly backups and about 6 remote backups.
A critical test is whether I can restore files from this backup strategy. I did this just the other day when I restored a copy of a CD ISO image I wanted to play with that I hadn't used in a while. I had deleted the local copy but the backup provided me a means to restore the file without wasting ISP bandwidth and waiting 45 minutes for the image to download.
I haven't reviewed the how-to in a long time and I would be grateful for any helpful comments. Feel free to ask questions too. | <urn:uuid:2888f506-eb7d-4656-b103-b9ecc3cc362f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/backup-running-server-using-rsnapshot-785987/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948031 | 470 | 1.507813 | 2 |
So You Want to Trade Forex?
Created by EQUITIES Magazine
The current volatility and fluctuation in global currencies have attracted investors and traders to the foreign exchange market. The growing popularity of trading Forex, though, has also created the need for improved regulation to better protect beginners.
Thanks to the Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000, regulating bodies like the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the National Futures Association have taken on larger roles in establishing proper procedures with the goal of improved oversight and stricter requirements.
"The industry is continuously growing," says Larry Dyekman, director of communications and education for NFA. "Growth with no regulation is ripe for fraud. Customers have lost hundreds of millions of dollars. The CFTC has taken much legal action and hopes that new requirements and regulation [will help] a lot of this fraudulent activity disappear."
As a self-regulating agency for the U.S. futures market, the NFA reports to the CFTC. The Commodities Futures Modernization Act requires that any firm acting as a counterparty to futures contract transactions must belong to some form of regulatory organization.
"There are a lot of reasons Forex is a little more difficult to regulate," Dyekman says. "It's more global, and there's no central clearinghouse. These dealers are acting as the counterparty to the trade, so it's not as transparent as on-exchange futures contracts. So when you don't have that kind of transparency and liquidity in a central location, it's a little harder to regulate."
There are a few major differences when comparing Forex trading to trading stocks. Whether these features create an advantage or disadvantage depends on the investor's preference. Retail Forex operators like FXCM, which boasts more than 100,000 live accounts, have made it easier than ever for beginning traders to enter the market.
"True 24-hour access is a major advantage that the Forex market has over equities and futures—it eliminates weekday overnight risk for traders," says Brendan Callan, managing director of sales and customer services for FXCM. "They can trade as news breaks on the other side of the world, and transaction costs are substantially lower than in the equities and futures market. Leverage capabilities are another draw. In Forex, retail traders can leverage their accounts 100 to 200 times. We don't suggest using that much leverage, but the ability to do so gives them a great deal of flexibility with their trading strategies."
Callan adds that FXCM shifted away from serving as a counterparty to trades, adopting a "No Dealing Desk" execution model three years ago. Forex brokers usually generate revenue by collecting bid-ask spreads, or pips. "FXCM simply passes on the best prices from the many banks that we have clearing relationships with," Callan says. "We don't need them to lose in order to earn revenue, which is the case with many of our competitors, who trade against their own clients."
When selecting an appropriate Forex broker to use, Dyekman recommends that traders do their due diligence and investigate each firm. "Before making any decisions about trading in Forex or any investment decisions, you need to know the product you're going to trade and know who you're trading with," he says.
On the flip side, increased regulation has put the onus on Forex operators to know their customers. The Patriot Act of 2001 requires that all financial institutions verify the identity of their customers as part of an anti-money laundering program. The NFA has put in place a program designed to mirror that of the federal government. In addition to identity verification, brokers are also required to evaluate customer information to provide the appropriate risk disclosures.
"We have a rule that requires our members to obtain certain information from a potential customer before accepting them," Dyekman says. "Things like their name, address, income, net worth, and their experience in trading the product they're going to be trading. There are definite procedures that we ask the firm to follow when they open a new account for a customer."
However, for investors looking to capitalize on the ups and downs of the Forex market, the information gathering and verification process to open and fund an account could take longer, says Darren Rennick, director of transaction software developer M2 Global.
M2 has developed a patent-pending technology called card-integrated acquiring, which streamlines the verification process for Forex brokers and shortens the time it takes to transfer money in and out of trading accounts. For many brokers, the quickest way for customers to fund an account still takes at least one or two days.
"Let's say you open up a trading account, but then it takes five days to get your money into your account and start trading," Rennick says. "You can imagine how frustrating an experience that is for somebody who wants to trade. It's so volatile an industry that the opportunity that you're looking to capitalize on might be gone after five days. The challenge is that it's not particularly easy for people to fund their trading accounts. M2 has solutions to a lot of these problems."
Rennick says that the technology works similarly to how online retailers complete transactions. M2 provides the Forex broker with a merchant account, and through that account, the company's proprietary technology will verify the customer's identity, process the transaction, and fund the account.
"Nobody's come up with a solution until now," Rennick says. "It's patent pending, so we just need to educate people about how it works, why it conforms to NFA regulations—which it does—and then walk them through the technical implementation aspect of it. It's a simple thing to do. The issue that we have right now is that it's new."
After the account is opened, traders should also fully understand the strategies and the potential consequences that they expose their portfolio to. One major risk that beginning traders need to be aware of is the power of using leverage, which is a popular investment strategy that magnifies the impact of trades and market movements.
"Leverage is the big one," Callan says. "Clients that come to this market need to use leverage wisely. Relatively speaking, Forex moves very little. A 1% to 2% move in a day would be considered significant volatility. While 1% to 2% isn't much, if you are leveraged 100 times, that becomes a 100% swing on your account in one trading day. As they say, leverage is a double-edged sword."
For investors that want to trade on the Forex market, Dyekman stresses that due diligence and information gathering is a must. "[The NFA website] goes into a lot of details that you should know," he says. "Please do your due diligence. It's a volatile market place, and you have to have a certain temperament to deal with it."
By Henry Truc | <urn:uuid:fe3477c1-af9f-4092-bd10-ebed58d7a26b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nasdaq.com/investing/forex/so-you-want-to-trade-forex.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964938 | 1,438 | 1.5 | 2 |
Here’s a piece of automotive history: Back in 1988, much of the German auto industry agreed, voluntarily, to govern their top-of-the-line cars to 155 mph. Carmakers were wise enough to suppress what they feared would be perceived as a pissing contest in top speed, which could well have ended with a rude awakening in the form of a general autobahn speed limit.
As angry turbo-diesels got faster and faster, the voluntary agreement was cautiously softened; BMW’s M GmbH and Mercedes’ AMG cars, as well as some Audis, can now go beyond 155 mph. But the industry wisely preferred not to be noisy about it. The option to ungovern some of the premier luxury and sports cars was typically buried deep in price lists, or only verbally communicated to prospective buyers.
Daimler, it seems, can’t hold off anymore. The goal: Humiliate Audi’s mid-engined R8 supercar, which—we now deduce—served as AMG’s benchmark in defining the SLS.
Evidence? The R8 V10, powered by a 525-hp engine, goes from 0 to 62 mph in 3.9 seconds; top speed is 196 mph. The 563-hp SLS, by contrast (and according to figures released at the Frankfurt show), passes the 62-mph mark in 3.8 seconds; top speed—lo and behold—is governed at 197 mph.
A Daimler source tells me that this top speed was deliberately chosen to outmatch the R8 V10—and the governor would fool customers into thinking the retro-styled SLS could go much, much faster (“of course, you guys know it wouldn’t”).
Sounds clever? Audi is smiling. “This game is as old as the industry, but we are not going to respond,” I am told. | <urn:uuid:c9b6c12d-59fc-46fb-bf0f-4efe0812b36e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.caranddriver.com/sls-to-r8-mine-is-bigger/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965599 | 403 | 1.820313 | 2 |
9OYS Education Watch
Should a school administrator be armed at every Arizona school?
Attorney General Tom Horne proposes administrators could be trained with a computer screen and fake electronic gun.
Reporter: Valerie Cavazos
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne is proposing to arm and train an administrator at every school, but one expert says it's not that simple.
Warrior School founder, Jeffery Prather, is a former army special forces and DEA special agent. He currently trains teachers and administrators to shutdown a gunman in a school. He said most people, including children, can be trained to use a gun in a crisis situation.
Prather shows KGUN9 reporter Valerie Cavazos a semi-automatic gun -- "basically the same type of weapon that our military is carrying overseas." And it's the same type of weapon used by the gunman in Connecticut. Cavazos asked, "They see a gun like this. How then do (administrators) have the inner fortitude to fight back against something like that?" Prather replied, "That's where tactics and strategy become involved."
Horne said that computerized training that creates realistic scenes and scenarios is sufficient to ensure student safety. Prather said, "That's called decision shooting, no shoot scenerios, is a very important point of training and it's actually required for decision shooting for law enforcement these days, but that doesn't take the place of firing a real weapon at all."
And without proper training, Prather says administrators may not develop the inner fortitude and skills to rise up and fight back. "Not every school principal is going to be physically fit, emotionally prepared, psychologically prepared to carry a weapon."
Prather says other staff members, who have prior military or law enforcement training, might be a better choice.
Not everyone is keen on the idea of guns on school grounds. The National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers issued a joint statement saying they're opposed to any plan that would arm school faculty.
Horne said that if his plan is passed schools would not be required to designate an armed staff member, but the option would become available. | <urn:uuid:75fa3642-766b-4d46-9451-5fe922d55963> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kgun9.com/news/local/184992381.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956839 | 453 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Brett Walker, who runs the @DarwinorthOZ Twitter account, shared a non-Top End link last night that caught my eye, it read:
Good post ~ Please don’t be that guy: some advice for using social media
It contained a link to an article by Anne Chaconas, entitled, Please: Don’t be “that guy.”
In short, the article was a call for being ‘social’ in social media, a common theme throughout The RITE Series and a core part of my Two Commandments of Social Media Marketing.
What prompted Anne to write the piece was a rogue member in one of her social networks, a writer who shared some of the following atrocious tweets.
Anne’s piece also prompted me to run a tool that checks people in your Twitter account to see who should be deleted. That’s where the Chief Minister account comes into it.
Me, myself, I leads to goodbye
Anne’s rogue spammer was a fellow writer who basically contributed nothing to the social network he was part of except for tweets like these:
- “The cover of my book is truly spectacular–and the content is even better!” 12:45pm
- “My background qualifies me as an expert in my field, which is why my book has positively affected so many people.” 1.13pm
- “Check out this 5-star review on my book.” 1:30pm.
- “Have you purchased my book?” 1:52pm.
- “This book will change your life.” 2:17pm. Including link to his book’s Amazon page.
I truly hope you do not see yourself in those tweets.
Anne’s important warning is to remember people join social networks to connect with each other, build community and gain access to people with shared interests. She reminds us to also ‘shut up and listen’ to others so that we might interact more meaningfully.
I was prompted to review my Twitter habits on the weekend. Firstly, Anne’s post made me check the mirror. And then Alain de Botton, during his interview on One Plus One, commented that simply being noisy in social media and seeking fame for its own sake is a sign of brokenness, whereas seeking to be genuine and giving in your social interactions can actually lead to fame as a result of the value you bring to others’ lives.
To aid my review, I used a free service called Twit Cleaner, which I recommend, with caution.
Twit Cleaner analyses the Twitter output of Twits you are following to determine the ratio between content they create and:
- how many times their tweets include links
- how many times their tweets have been generated automatically or used an RSS feed
- how many times their tweets include others – a sign of engagement
- how many times their tweets include advertising or spam
- how long it has been between tweets
The results make for fascinating reading and I was relieved my personal account, @stevedavis, got a clean bill of health. However, my @theriteseries account got a little talking to, primarily because I don’t use it enough for conversation and tend to use it as a broadcast medium for The RITE Series blog, as the source of The RITE Series Daily, and to connect directly with people who have questions about The RITE Series.
Even more interesting was the list of ‘potentially dodgy’ Twitter accounts that Twit Clean had found I was following was led by the Chief Minister himself, Paul Henderson.
I was shocked.
I have never met ‘Hendo’ personally but thought he did a great job of making the Northern Territory look good to the rest of Australia when Q and A was filmed in Darwin duing my October visit.
As it turns out, the account in question was Paul’s old account, @chiefministernt, while his current account, @NTChiefMinister, passed the test. So, that was a relief.
However, Twit Cleaner said I should ditch @Hot100Darwin because the account was 80 percent links and not used for almost two years. A similarly brutal report was meted out to 8HA in Alice Springs. Twit Cleaner dubbed @yourstation8HA as a ‘snob’ because it followed back less than 10 percent of those who followed it. However it was almost two years without content as well. It appears to me that the two stations have simply stopped using Twitter, worth noting as you work your way through your report.
Surprisingly, the quite active @skycitydarwin was placed in the list to ‘drop’ because Twit Cleaner says it partakes in ‘no interaction at all’.
What we learn from tools like Twit Cleaner is that fellow social media users will value your presence if you ‘tweet unto others as you would have them tweet unto you’, as it were. This means making sure your value others in the social space, by listening and responding to them, sharing good things they have published, in balance with your own raw material.
One word of caution about Twit Cleaner, and any tool that uses and algorithm to quickly calculate and ‘judge’ human interaction, review the Twitter accounts it suggests you delete first. It may well be that the Twitter account that is ‘mainly links’ might just happen to be sharing links you really care about. Even Twit Cleaner suggests you exercise caution.
Why don’t you run the test and click on the tab called, How Do I Look? I have found it to be a most worthwhile exercise and I hope it prompts me to making @theriteseries more worthwhile for you in the future. | <urn:uuid:3661b0d2-0a19-4d2b-b780-458737d64c5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theriteseries.com.au/please-dont-be-that-guy-on-social-media-and-i-dont-mean-the-chief-minister/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965639 | 1,225 | 1.585938 | 2 |
In the aftermath of President Obama’s Keystone Pipeline decision, it looks as if Canada may be turning its gaze more to Asia in marketing its tar sands oil. Speculation north of the border is that TransCanada may be able to build the pipeline in stages. Other observers predicted the pipeline may win approval after the November election. Meanwhile, the Administration defended the decision, running an ad in several states criticizing the pipeline and saying clean energy can do better.
Entergy had a good day, restarting its Indian Point reactor and winning a decision in federal court on Vermont Yankee. The Mississippi-based utility will be able to keep the Vermont reactor open in the face of state efforts to shut it down. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave VY a 20-year license renewal last March but the state had attempted to exercise a 2001 agreement that it would have veto power over any renewal. Entergy argued successfully that the state’s main concern had been safety, which is the exclusive jurisdiction of the NRC. The state may appeal.
California began a new phase of its Green Revolution with the launching of the “Green Button,” an Internet-based system that will allow residential customers instant access to data about their energy consumption. The program is a favorite of White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra (above), who was present at the launch in San Diego. The hope is that code writers will invent applications that will enable consumers to save energy.
Renewable Energy Group, an Iowa-based biodiesel manufacturer, launched an IPO that garnered $72 million in new investment. The company runs six plants in the Midwest. The USDA has also introduced an ethanol data map that it hopes will encourage investment in the technology. Investment in renewable technologies hit an all-time high in 2011 but Patrick Michaels, writing in Forbes, still calls it a “scam.”
Finally, the United Kingdom has launched a “Green Car” initiative bent on making hydrogen fuel cell cars commercial by 2014. Opel-Vauxhall and several other major manufacturers have joined the initiative. Apple has also taken out patents in the technology. Hydrogen cars had a bit run in the US in the early 2000s but fizzled. Canada’s Ballard Power Systems has been at it since the 1990s. But maybe it will succeed this time. | <urn:uuid:1219c452-9115-4ab7-a254-3a794714b24b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2012/01/20/the_daily_energy_106423.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96177 | 477 | 1.796875 | 2 |
I’m often puzzled by the notion that livestock are abused in pursuit of the almighty dollar.
I know some of that sentiment is generated by images seen on television or the internet of animal mistreatment. Just to set the record straight, I think anyone who abuses livestock should be out of the business. I do not condone abuse of any animal for any reason. Neither do the other farmers and ranchers I know.
But I can tell you about the welfare of my livestock.
My name is Justin Dauer, and I’m a fifth-generation farmer and rancher. My family raises cattle, corn, grain sorghum and cotton on the windswept plains of the Texas Panhandle.
The welfare of my livestock is a top priority each and every day. My family depends on the income generated from our cattle operation. I need a productive herd to make a profit. Although there is no room for shortcuts, there is room for good management.
And good management is what pays my bills and keeps meat in the supermarket for you at an affordable price.
So what is good management? On my ranch, it is:
- Helping a mother cow who has trouble giving birth—even when the temperature is below zero with a howling wind.
- Bringing an orphan calf home and sheltering it in the garage or utility room to give it an even chance for life.
- Providing proper nutrition and plentiful water for my cows and calves.
- Managing my herd numbers to where they do not overburden the land.
- Checking my herd each and every day to make sure they are healthy. I give them vaccines to prevent disease. In the rare case that one gets sick, I call in the vet.
Healthy, fat calves are how I make my money. I need healthy bulls and mother cows to produce those calves.
No, my cattle are not treated as pets. Their purpose is to produce beef.
Good management keeps my cattle healthy and productive, providing income for my family and supplying a source of affordable, high-quality protein for yours.
Do you have questions about ranching in Texas? If so, leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.
The above post is from Justin Dauer, a Texas farmer and rancher from Panhandle, Texas. Justin is one of five guest bloggers who is talking about food and farming during Texas Food Connection Week, sponsored by Texas Farm Bureau Feb. 17-23. | <urn:uuid:be6f8458-aa63-4e19-aab5-619b32ddabc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-resources/cow-calf/Commentary-Animal-care-is-my-responsibility-192585421.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93542 | 509 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Charlotte Shapers Fighting High Youth Unemployment
CHARLOTTE, NC- The plan for the Queen City Mobile Market is in place.
"Phase one will start off with a used pick up truck and a trailer hitch," said creator Barry Francouis.
Francois says the purpose is to bring fruits and vegetables into Charlotte's food deserts – those areas with little or no access to fresh food.
"Between Uptown and NoDa area, there's only the Food Lion in Plaza Midwood and the Harris Teeter. Uptown is almost a food dessert itself," said Francois.
The chef and creator says the plan lacked one thing - money. That was until he submitted the business plan to the Charlotte Shapers, who pitted him against five other 18 to 30 year-olds with business models that solve social issues like hunger and poverty.
"We wanted to really promote a spirit of entrepreneurship amoung young people," said Chip Johnson, chairman of the Charlotte Shapers.
18 to 29 year-olds face a 10.9 percent unemployment rate. That's three points higher than the overall national average and Johnson say we face a similar gap here in Charlotte.
"We've seen it affect our peer group first hand," said Johnson.
Through Shape Charlotte, Barry won almost 13,000 dollars, an office space and partnership with Queen City Forward.
"Making sure Barry and his company are connected to the right capital opportunities and investors that can help his business grow," said Charles Thomas with Queen City Forward.
Johnson says the growth will create local jobs.
Until then, Barry is starting small and getting the market rolling around Charlotte in March.
The Charlotte Shapers are part of the world economic forum.
The group is supposed to create programs in Charlotte that make a global impact.
What's On TonightFull Schedule
does someone have to go | <urn:uuid:e45b1eaf-a39f-4670-800c-269bbcf26b06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wccbcharlotte.com/news/top-stories/Charlotte-Shapers-Fighting-High-Youth-Unemployment--182896621.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950024 | 382 | 1.507813 | 2 |
For True, running — the pure act of running relentlessly and running far — was a passion that needed no justification. To those who knew him well, it also brought forth an intense playfulness in the 58-year-old Boulder ultra-marathon runner.
"When he was out on the trail running, it was like someone just rang the school bell and said, 'Recess.' It was utter playfulness," recalled Chris McDougall, a friend of True's and author of the nonfiction best-seller "Born to Run."
True's body was discovered Saturday evening in a remote part of southern New Mexico's Gila Wilderness. The search began for him days earlier after he failed to return Tuesday from a 12-mile run.
His body was found near a cold stream, his legs still in the water and his water bottle next to him, about a mile southeast of the Gila Cliff Dwellings.
The cause of death wasn't known Sunday. There were no obvious signs of trauma, and State Police Lt. Robert McDonald said it could take a couple of days before authorities know what happened.
But word of his death spread immediately and sorrowfully through the community of runners, both amateur and accomplished, some of whom view True as an inspiration, a reason they took up the sport. Friends and admirers also posted condolences and shared fond memories on social networking sites of a man who, by nearly all of those accounts, was a truly memorable person.
Barry Anderson, a manager at Runner's Den in Phoenix, said the sport would miss True greatly.
"He was both an international running celebrity, and the first person to smile and shake your hand when you crossed the finish line behind him," Anderson wrote. "The fact that so many people from all over the country dropped everything and immediately went to his aid is testimony to the way he lived his life and the way he himself treated his friends."
Many on Sunday described True in the most reverential and laudatory of terms, with "legendary" and "inspirational" chief among them.
True was the race director of The Copper Canyon Ultra Marathon, a 50-plus mile extreme race that took place in Urique, Mexico. This year's race marked a record turnout with hundreds of runners, including the local Tarahumara, or Raramuri, Indians who are known for their running traditions. True was featured in articles in running magazines and was a central character — known by his nickname, "Caballo Blanco" — in McDougall's "Born to Run."
McDougall, who was leaving New Mexico on Sunday after having helped with the search, said he based his book on the first Copper Canyon marathon that True organized in 2003.
Without True, McDougall said he's not sure whether the Copper Canyon race will be able to continue. The Tarahumara are extraordinarily reclusive and True was able to build a relationship with them based on trust and confidence, he said.
"He is the only person, I think, in our lifetime who has done a great job of very respectfully bringing awareness of that tradition to the rest of the world and creating a race that is a celebration of who they are."
And then there was True's smile, recognized by runners around the country.
Mark Cosmas, owner of iRun in Phoenix, said True was all about living life and helping other people enjoy running.
"He might not have been the fastest or the most talented, but the joy and the passion that he brought to the ultra-running community was just infectious," Cosmas said. | <urn:uuid:b9a31736-62c5-4329-8fa3-39dca4adf74a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_20303566/entertainment/classicalmusic | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985649 | 738 | 1.570313 | 2 |
History unfolds in a white-knuckle ride to the top
MOUNT WASHINGTON, N.H. — Freelan Stanley drove into history when he became the first motorist to scale New England’s tallest peak by automobile in 1899. Unfortunately, there were no “This car climbed Mt. Washington’’ bumper stickers for sale at the summit to immortalize his achievement.
While Stanley’s trip up Mount Washington’s long and winding road took more than two hours, it will take competitors in the June 26 Climb to the Clouds auto race mere minutes. First run in 1904, the historic race returns after a 10-year hiatus as part of the Mount Washington Auto Road’s 150th birthday celebration. Seventy-five vehicles — including vintage racers, rally cars, and even a purpose-built Freightliner race truck driven by a Hollywood stunt driver — will compete to negotiate New England’s ultimate road course in the quickest time.
“Unlike a lot of competitions where drivers are racing against each other, this is a unique competition between the drivers and the mountain,’’ says Paul Giblin of Vermont SportsCar, the event director. “Mount Washington is a great challenge and one of the most technical hills in the world. It’s quick and narrow.’’
Watch the YouTube video of Travis Pastrana’s recent trip up the 7.6-mile asphalt and gravel road — as he navigated more than 70 corners without guardrails and averaged 72 miles per hour — and you’ll get white knuckles just sitting at your keyboard. While Pastrana is not expected to race, this year’s field includes Frank Sprongl, who is seeking to shave a minute off his Climb to the Clouds record (6:41.99). Giblin says it’s very possible given the changes since the last race in 2001. “The cars are lighter, more efficient, and handle better. The course also has more pavement than 10 years ago.’’
Five days of festivities, including concerts and fireworks, lead up to race day. On June 24 and 25, ticket holders will be able to watch practice runs, get an up-close look at the racecars, and meet the drivers. Spectators will be able to watch the races from a grandstand at the starting line or take a shuttle to a viewing area at the halfway point. A select number of spectators will be allowed to drive to the summit and watch at the finish line.
Among the classic cars racing up the mountain will be a 1933 Alfa Romeo that won the 1937 Climb to the Clouds and a Studebaker that won pole position in the 1931 Indianapolis 500. A 1904 Orient Buckboard that competed in the inaugural race will be on display, and the Auto Road’s museum will feature a Locomobile that could be the one Stanley drove to the mountaintop. There’s just no bumper sticker to prove it.
Christopher Klein can be reached at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:d17fa1fe-58f1-4e6e-9613-4c3d9b42d4e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.boston.com/travel/explorene/newhampshire/articles/2011/05/29/history_unfolds_in_a_white_knuckle_ride_to_the_top/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938207 | 642 | 1.71875 | 2 |
|Yankee Derek Jeter with his 3000th hit|
I’m the first to admit that I’m not a huge baseball fan. The games are too slow, too long and could benefit from instant replay. But this post is only tangentially about America’s favorite past time. It has to do with a moral conundrum.
This past weekend, Derek Jeter – shortstop for the New York Yankees – became the 28th player in Major League Baseball history to have his 3000th career hit at bat. That is a significant achievement. What made the milestone even more memorable was that it occurred at Yankee Stadium and it was also a home run. Awesome!
The home run was caught by a 24-year old Yankees’ fan named Christian Lopez. When the game was over, Lopez voluntarily returned the ball to the team to give to Jeter. The Yankees responded by giving Lopez box seats for the rest of the games at home as well as an assortment of autographed bats, jerseys, ball caps and gloves.
Here’s the conundrum, was Lopez obligated to return the historic ball to Jeter – why or why not? What would you have done? | <urn:uuid:1aea47a6-e46d-4e3d-b1aa-6c154508143f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thedailyretort.com/moral-conundrum-jeters-3000th-hit-baseball/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982467 | 244 | 1.578125 | 2 |
When topologists speak of an "immersion", they are quite deliberately describing something that is not necessarily an "embedding." But I cannot think of any use of the word "embedding" in algebraic geometry, except sometimes as a word for an immersion of varieties. And the notion of an "immersion" of schemes, especially an "open immersion," seems much more similar to the topologists' "embedding" than their "immersion." [Closed immersions at least have the somewhat flimsy rationale that the scheme structure does not depend solely on the choice of subset.]
Does anyone know of a good reason, other than cultural momentum, to use the word "immersion" rather than "embedding"?
[Note: this has come up in Ravi Vakil's blog on his Algebraic Geometry notes.] | <urn:uuid:6be0e524-c98e-4c8f-a024-a0faa3604c12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mathoverflow.net/questions/48527/why-open-immersion-rather-than-open-embedding | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960986 | 173 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Camera-size means also includes lens size. So for the image quality (and a shallow depth of field) a big sensor is needed, which means big lenses.
I shoot advertising -- I couldn't care less about paper thin DOF. Most of what I do is shot between f5.6 and f16. YMMV.
Just look at a NEX with a telephoto lens, the size of the body is becoming less important, because it's the lens that makes up the bulk. Then there is the handling issue for serious work with a camera. I think most people would get a cramp in their hands, if they have to cover a sport event for 2 hours with a NEX+telephoto-lens.
Always use the right tool or the job. I don't think many people will be covering the Super Bowl with a Sony NEX.
On the other hand, these systems are nice to go hiking ...
They are also great if you are holding a camera for 8 hours during a commercial shoot. Some Pros are talking about dumping their DSLRs for mirrorless. My primary lenses are 24mm and 85mm primes. A NEX 7 and a 24mm f1.8 Zeiss weight about 20 Oz total.
People who do not care that much about IQ, will buy a smaller camera ...
People who don't care will use their phones. The P&S market is dying. And not many people will "step up" from Smart Phones to real cameras.
I think there is room for an APS-C or even FF EVIL-camera in the rangefinder style. SONY is close to this, but the ergonomics of the NEX sucks.
Since I got my NEX 5n my Canon DSLRs don't get much use. When I pick-up a NEX 7 I doubt they will get any use.
If I were Canon, I would take some time to find the ideal sensor-size for a future EVIL-System. It is not an easy task...
APS-C is the perfect size. Canon needs to get their act together and make a small and light Pro quality camera. It doesn't need to be mirrorless, a Digital EOS IX (an APS film camer from the 1990s) would be great with a EF 85mm f1.8. or a new 22mm f1.8 EF-S. | <urn:uuid:6fa8a9cb-2a0f-4588-8ae3-69c6b156f4c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=2747.msg58803 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966771 | 499 | 1.625 | 2 |
Special Report: Cone Zone: Coping with Montreal's traffic
Published Thursday, October 20, 2011 12:28PM EDT
MONTREAL - The dream scenario promoted in car commercials of a solitary car zooming down an open road is divorced from reality.
Rob Allardyce is in the car business, and even he admits that often getting into a car just means having somewhere comfortable to sit while staring at cars and trucks lined up bumper-to-bumper for kilometres.
He lives in LaSalle and works across the river in Kahnawake.
On good days the trip across the Mercier Bridge takes eight minutes, but when it's bad "It could take me up to two hours," said Allardyce.
When the bridge closed this summer for urgent repairs, Allardyce decided enough was enough and made a creative change.
Now his commute to the South Shore is made via his local marina, where he dons a lifejacket, boards his jetski, and motors under the Mercier Bridge.
"It takes about five, ten minutes. Sometimes we take a little detour when it's really nice, so that takes a little longer," said Allardyce.
He may get a little wet, but he has found a way out.
Two wheels beats four
Allardyce is far from the only person who has realized the freedom of the open road is really a cage for commuters.
Craig D'Orsay has given up his car for a bicycle, and a shower at the office.
"I live on one side of the Decarie Interchange, and I work on the other side, so getting through the Decarie Interchange by car could take about a half hour on most days. Going by bike I can do it in about 20 minutes," said D'Orsay.
That's just one example of where muscle beats machine.
D'Orsay's employer, Silanis, said a decision it made two years ago to relocate has had a drastic effect on its employees.
Two years ago the company moved to a location that was closer to a public transit hub.
"Just moving one mile from Ville St. Laurent into this part of Montreal completely changed people's ability to get into work, and get cars off the road," said Tommy Petrogiannis, the president of Silanis.
The Horseshoe is not a lucky place
Traffic in Montreal has only grown worse since the province launched a massive infrastructure campaign to repair or replace key bridges, highways, overpasses and interchanges.
It's all on display at Transport Quebec's traffic centre, where controllers like Frederic Ducharme have nicknamed three major thoroughfares "The Horseshoe."
"It's Decarie, the 40 between Decarie and the 25, and the 25 till the tunnel," said Ducharme.
Drivers caught on those roads are anything but lucky.
"Traffic builds up more rapidly within that given area," said Ducharme.
It's an area that is pockmarked by construction sites, the latest being the closure of exits from the 40 to St. Denis and St. Laurent.
Would-be employees avoiding Montreal
One recent survey found more than half of local companies say traffic is putting the brakes on their profits, whether due to employees being late or absent more often, or recuperating from commuting stress.
Traffic is also making it hard to recruit employees.
"It's more and more difficult to attract people in Montreal," said Florent Francoeur, of Quebec's Human Resources Association.
"We can see now that some employees said that when the job is in Montreal, [they] just don't want to apply for the job."
Bad as the commute may be for people who only drive to and from work, it's worse for truck drivers like Peter Dutil.
"I don't want to go anymore to Montreal. It's too crazy," said Dutil.
After 33 years behind the wheel of his transport truck, Dutil told his boss he'd be willing to earn less rather than stress out in traffic.
His boss took him up on the offer and now his deliveries are only on the South Shore.
Dutil says the ease of driving makes up for his 25 per cent pay cut.
"If you want to go in Montreal you're going to have 25 per cent more, but you're driving in Montreal too," said Dutil.
MexUsCan Cargo says adjusting to Montreal's traffic woes has not been cheap.
The Montreal Board of trade pegs the overall loss of productivity at $2 billion each year.
Marie-Chantal Goyette estimates it costs her company alone thousands of dollars a day.
"When you're running a truck two hours a day more because of road closures or bridge closures, times 50 trucks, that's very expensive," said Goyette.
Any possible solution is not likely to come soon.
In addition to the projects currently affecting drivers, two major projects will take place over the next decade: the complete replacements of the Turcot Interchange and the Champlain Bridge. | <urn:uuid:b3f81590-e6a0-443e-856c-afea056df27a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/special-report-cone-zone-coping-with-montreal-s-traffic-1.711937 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972433 | 1,069 | 1.53125 | 2 |
A history of violence
Joyce Carol Oates: evokes the harshly beautiful style of DH Lawrence. photograph: jeremy sutton-hibbert/getty
FICTION:Joyce Carol Oates’s new novel, about the abduction and torture of a young boy, is harrowing, horrifying and utterly contemporary
Daddy Love, By Joyce Carol Oates, A Mysterious Press Book for Head of Zeus, 279pp, £16.99
In the photograph of Joyce Carol Oates on this book, her vast eyes gaze plaintively upwards. She resembles nothing so much as a medieval saint or perhaps, in her pallid delicacy, a flower. But Daddy Love, a story of abduction, is sinister, harrowing and utterly contemporary.
There is a mimetic, even incantatory quality to Oates’s writing that evokes (at least for this reader) the harshly beautiful style of DH Lawrence. Bleakly repetitive, the first four chapters of Daddy Love mirror in language the obsession of a mother with the moments preceding her son’s abduction: “Take my hand, she said. He did. Lifted his small hand to Mommy’s hand. ‘Please take my hand, Robbie.’ He did. He lifted his pudgy hand . . . ‘Take my hand. Please, Robbie!’ Take my hand, she said . . . And she’d clasped the little hand tight for she was Mommy, and she was responsible.”
Robbie’s captor, who seizes him from his mother after striking her on the head with a hammer, is Chester Cash, a preacher like something out of Flannery O’Connor, only much more fiendish. For Chester Cash is evil, and the novel compels us to consider that evil is endlessly self-justifying: “Daddy Love” truly believes he is rescuing five-year-old Robbie from “an impure woman, the female you were entrusted to”, and that the extreme forms of verbal, physical and sexual torture he inflicts on the boy are acts of love: “Daddy Love is your destiny. Daddy Love will be both Daddy and Mommy to you.”
Among Oates’s masters (Poe, the surrealists) is Lewis Carroll, and shape-changing is one of her prevailing themes. For six years Robbie lives in thrall to this shape-changing monster who is alternately the Preacher, Chet Cash and Daddy Love. We read that the Preacher’s skin was “pale and bleached-looking . . . comprised of thin layers, or scales, of transparent skin-tissue, like a palimpsest”. And Dinah, Robbie’s mother (whose body is a “smashed starfish” after Chet Cash’s assault on her when she tries to rescue her son) endures lasting disfigurement, her face composed of “papery-thin scar tissue in layers”. In her graduate psychology course, Dinah has learned of “the uncanny valley in which the degree of the unbearable increases as the nonhuman approaches the look of the human . . . had wanted to say to the professor, wittily, Hey, I live there!”
It could be argued that despite her fascination with violence, Oates is concerned mainly with the soul or spirit. And with the search for self, which in the US is often resolved through violence. According to her biographer, she herself has borderline anorexia, which could be considered an affliction not so much of the body as of the spirit, an attempt to refine the self to its purest lineaments.
In this book she speaks of “lostness as a condition of which no one can speak clearly for it is a mystery – the lostness deep within the soul.” And after Dinah is struck and her child seized, she is aware that “her skull was cracked because her soul was leaking through the crack”. | <urn:uuid:d9613886-32f3-41c3-aa8d-af4220c5933e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/a-history-of-violence-1.1314330 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957834 | 849 | 1.65625 | 2 |
New tax breaks enacted last year are causing confusion for taxpayers and enforcement problems for the Internal Revenue Service, according to a government report issued Thursday, the deadline for filing individual returns.
As of March 5, the IRS erroneously gave out $24.2 million in Making Work Pay tax credits, according to the report by J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration. The IRS issued a total of $25 billion worth of the credits during the period, for an error rate of less than one-tenth of 1 percent.
The IRS also erroneously issued about $4.7 million in tax credits meant for people who bought plug-in electric cars. The new tax breaks were enacted as part of the massive economic recovery package passed last year.
"Our report concludes that the IRS is having a mixed filing season this year," George said. "On the one hand, they are having difficulty implementing many of the changes created by the passage of the laws designed to stimulate the economy. On the other hand, the news is not all bad as the IRS is detecting and stopping more erroneous refunds this year."
The report covers returns processed as of March 5. At the time, the IRS had received about 61 million returns. The agency expects to receive about 140 million individual returns this year.
"Any time you have major tax changes you will see some confusion over it," said IRS spokesman Terry Lemons. The IRS is doing "everything we can" to work through problems and process returns quickly.
The stimulus package enacted last year presented many challenges for taxpayers and the IRS, making an already complicated tax system even more complex. There were tax credits for qualified families who buy new homes or make energy improvements to existing ones, as well as tax breaks to help pay college tuition or buy new cars.
The Making Work Pay tax credit was President Barack Obama's signature tax break in the package. It provides individuals with up to $400 and couples up to $800.
The homebuyer tax credit was so popular that Congress extended and expanded it in November. Buyers who have owned their current homes at least five years are eligible, subject to income limits, for tax credits of up to $6,500. First-time homebuyers - or people who haven't owned homes in the previous three years - can get up to $8,000. To qualify, buyers have to sign purchase agreements before May 1 and close before July 1.
The IRS expects half the people claiming the homebuyer credit not to include proper documentation, such as a settlement statement, and that will delay refunds, according to the report.
As of April 2, the average refund was $2,950, up about $255 over last year, Lemons said. The fastest way to get a refund: file electronically and have the refund deposited directly into a bank account, which takes about 10 days.
Refunds can take six to eight weeks for last-minute filers who use paper returns and receive checks, Lemons said.
The Associated Press | <urn:uuid:ffbd1da2-fc0d-43e3-8855-f7e05461be69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2010/apr/14/new-tax-breaks-cause-confusion-enforcement-issues/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976221 | 618 | 1.773438 | 2 |
University of Wisconsin-Madison Wins Clean Snowmobile Challenge
HOUGHTON, MI - March 23, 2004 - Victory is always sweet, but for the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Saturday's win in the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge was a moment to savor.
The Badgers climbed from last place in the 2003 Challenge to take the gold this year, rising a dozen places in the standings. Inspired by team members who had participated in FutureTruck automotive competitions, Wisconsin-Madison built a totally new (and probably unique) modified hybrid gas-electric engine, which included an electric motor for power assist on acceleration.
"We decided to try something completely radical, so we did a lot of work with hybrid integration," said team captain Eric Schroeder. "I'm just overwhelmed, he added. "I was here last year when we finished absolutely last and blew up our engine twice."
The Wisconsin-Madison team also received the Best Design Award, presented by SAE International.
Teams from 14 U.S. and Canadian universities competed March 15-20 at Michigan Tech's Keweenaw Research Center, located in Houghton, MI. This is Michigan Tech's second year hosting the event, which was organized by the Keweenaw Research Center and MTU's Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics.
The Clean Snowmobile Challenge is the newest addition to the SAE Collegiate Design Series. Teams of engineering students from were presented the challenge of taking a stock snowmobile and reengineering it to reduce emissions and noise while maintaining or improving performance.
Michigan Tech held onto it's second place status in the Challenge rankings, despite a gas-tank failure that forced their sled out of the endurance run. "It was a bad first day," said team captain Brian Barr. "Everybody was pretty down, but I said we have a great sled, we'll do well." And they did, earning the Quietest Snowmobile and Best Performance awards, as well as the Blue Ribbon Coalition Award for Most Practical Solution.
The University of Maine finished third and also received the Gage Products Award for Best Fuel Economy and tied with the University of Wisconsin at Platteville for the Emitec Award for Best Value.
Finishing fourth was the State University of New York at Buffalo, which also earned the Lotus Engineering and Horiba Instruments Award for Lowest Emissions. Clarkson University finished fifth.
Other specialty award winners were the University of Wisconsin at Platteville, which shares the Best Value award with the University of Maine and also earned the International Engineering and Manufacturing Braking Award.
The Ecole de Technologie Superieure, in Montreal, earned honors in two categories: the Dana Long Manufacturing Award for Best Acceleration and the U.S. Army TACOM/National Automotive Center Award for Best Handling. The University of Waterloo received the Founders' Trophy for Most Sportsmanlike Conduct.
Volunteers from the Michigan Snowmobile Association praised the efforts of all the teams. "You are building the future of snowmobiling," MSA president Rick Brown said. "Please don't stop."
Additional information and photos from the 2004 Clean Snowmobile Challenge are available at the following link: http://www.admin.mtu.edu/urel/snowmobile/photos.html or by contacting Marcia Goodrich, MTU Media Relations Manager, at 906-487-2343. Information pertaining to the SAE Collegiate Design Series is available at http://www.sae.org/students/index.htm or by contacting SAE Public Relations at 800-441-2919. | <urn:uuid:41976f2d-02e0-4815-8966-05f1b6470e14> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sae.org/news/releases/04cscwin.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958217 | 742 | 1.515625 | 2 |
It’s been a busy month for the processor industry, as companies have been unveiling their latest technologies at various conferences and lining up manufacturers to take their products to market in new handsets and tablets. In the light of the recent Tegra 4 benchmarks, it’s a scary time for competitors to be talking about going head to head, but considering the release of the rumored Exynos 5 Octa-powered Galaxy S4 is just around the corner, I think it’s about high time we finally stacked these next generation chips up against each other.
Of course we’re yet to get our hands on any devices using these two chips, so everything discussed in this article is based on the best information currently available, rather than benchmarks I’ve conducted myself. But even so, we should be able to judge how these two SoCs compare relatively accurately.
Both Nivida’s latest high end chip and Samsung’s next generation Exynos 5 SoCs will be using the new Cortex A15 architecture for the lead CPU. This is partly responsible for Nvidia’s impressive benchmark results, as the Cortex A15 is the fastest processor available in the market at the moment, substantially beating out the widely used older Cortex A9s from devices like the Galaxy S3, Note 2, and a plethora of tablets. The Cortex A15 also takes the performance crown from Qualcomm’s S4 Pro, and should also beat out the beefed up Snapdragon 600 as well.
The Tegra 4 sticks with the same 4+1 design as the Tegra 3, utilizing four main cores for general processing and a lower clocked companion core to run background processes and save on idle battery drain. The main processors will be clocked up to an impressive 1.9GHz, whilst the companion core will peak at 800MHz.
Samsung’s Exynos 5 series will be using four Cortex A15 cores, just like the Tegra 4, which will be clocked at 1.8GHz. This is ever so slightly slower than the Tegra 4′s peak frequency, but in real world applications users are not going to notice any difference in peak CPU performance.
The Exynos 5 deviates from standard processor designs by introducing the new big.LITTLE architecture. In this design, the four Cortex A15s are backed up by four separate Cortex A7 cores, but rather than turning this chip into an eight core monster, the A7s are designed to keep power consumption low whilst the device is performing basic tasks.
You’ll notice that the A7s are pretty low down on ARM’s performance sheet, as they aren’t designed for heavy duty processing, but four simple cores are actually more than you’ll need for basic Internet browsing, email syncing or playing music. But the real benefits from big.LITTLE shine through when it comes to prioritizing processing needs, as the chip can switch between cores in just 20,000 cycles. To put that seemingly large figure in perspective, it takes just 20 microseconds to switch over when the processor is running at only 1GHz.
You don’t have to compromise between leaving a process running on a low power core or draining your battery, processing can be transferred between A7 and A15 cores mid-cycle, ensuring that you always have maximum performance on stand by, whilst keeping your battery healthy. This demonstration from MWC shows off big.LITTLE in action.
Overall the Tegra 4 and Exynos 5 Octa are going to provide users with virtually identical peak performance, and are both head and shoulders above any other processors currently on the market. We’ll have to look a bit further at GPU performance and energy efficiency to decide which is the better chip.
It’s hard to directly compare the potential GPU performance without a head-to-head benchmark, but we can probably hazard a good guess based on the bits and pieces of information floating around.
Nivida’s new and improved 72-core GPU blitzed Apple’s A6 chip used in the Phone 5, and comes up trumps against PowerVR SGX543MP4 GPU in the benchmarks we saw last month, scoring an impressive 4148 on Geekbench and 57fps on the Egypt HD compared with the iPhone 5′s 1640 and 27fps, respectively. That’s a two fold increase in terms of frame rate, which is nothing to be shy about.
But how does this stack up against the top of the line tablets? Well, the fourth generation iPad scored a respectable 52fps on the same Egypt HD benchmark, whilst the MatlT604 powered Nexus 10 only managed 33fps. So Tegra 4 is fast, very fast, and is the quickest GPU on the market by a fair margin. Granted this is only a single benchmark result, but it’s a decent enough indicator of whereabouts real world performance should lie.
Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa chip is going to utilize a tri-core PowerVR SGX544MP3 clocked up to an impressive 533MHz, or significantly faster clock-wise than the same GPU which is used in Apple’s A6X, which is only clocked at 300MHz. Of course the absence of a fourth core, compared with the A6X chip, is going to lop off a decent amount of performance, but perhaps the increased clock speed can make up the gap.
There is good evidence to suggest that an overclocked three-core SGX544 could end up besting its quad-core brother. If we recall back to the previous SGX543 chips used in Apple products, the iPhone 5 featured a higher clocked three-core GPU than the iPad’s quad-core, and managed to best the chip by a couple of frames on the Egypt HD benchmark (according to Anandtech). So there’s a good chance that the Eyxnos 5 Octa could pull performance roughly around the iPad 4, which is very respectable.
The Exynos 5 Octa will definitely perform better than the MaliT604 seen in the dual core Exynos 5 variant, and will likely sit very close to the quad core SGX544MP4 used in the latest iPad. The difference in performance is likely to be slight and will vary based on the application. The Exynos 5 Octa will in all likelihood fall short of the mighty Tegra 4, but of course we’ll have to wait for the benchmarks to be exact.
Other SoC Features
What is likely to interest many handset developers is what other features, each of the SoCs add to their products, besides brute processing power.
Firstly and most disappointingly, neither of these two chips will come with a build in LTE modem. Considering Qualcomm has had built in LTE compatibility available for a while you have to wonder what these two tech giants are up to. Unless of course they are targeting these SoCs more at tablets than smartphones, in which case they are forgiven.
Nvidia has upped it’s game since the Tegra 3, and not just in terms of hardware specs. Its new chip comes with support for higher resolution displays, up to a massive 3200 x 2000, and will happily export images to 4K resolution screens via an HDMI output. We’ve also heard lots of news recently about Tegra-specific graphics options in games, and support for new APIs like DirectX11 and OpenGL ES 3.0. Nvidia is clearly keen to live up to it’s reputation as a gaming chip this time around.
Tegra 4 also supports up to 4GB of DDR3L memory and a wide range of LTE and HSPA+ bands, so if manufacturers are prepared to add on an optional LTE chipset the Tegra 4 can finally be used on networks all around the world.
Information on the exact features of the Exynos 5 Octa are a little thinner on the ground, but from what I’ve found out, the chip shares many similar features as far as network support, memory and connectivity. The real difference comes in the form of graphics, the SGX544 GPU is older than the Tegra 4, and is only certified for older APIs like OpenGL ES 2.0 and DirectX 10.1. Unfortunately the white sheet doesn’t mention supported resolutions so I wouldn’t hold my break for 4K compatibility, but at least 1080p displays and codecs are confirmed.
We know that the Exynos 5 Dual is based on a 32nm process, but the Octa is supposedly going to use a 28nm die just like the Tegra 4. So heat production should be roughly similar.
Tegra 4 deserves to win this round as it seems to support a larger number of optional technologies, but this could change as the last pieces of Exynos 5 information drip through.
This is where I believe the two chips are really going to clash heads. Nvidia was the first to really get to grips with the need for more energy efficient SoC designs when it came to low performance tasks, but has big.LITTLE manage to take the idea one step further?
We’ll start off by looking at the Tegra architecture, which, as I mentioned, runs from five Cortex A15 cores. The main four cores run at a peak frequency of 1.9GHz, whilst the low power companion core runs at between 700 and 800MHz. Just like the Tegra 3, the fifth core won’t be visible to the operating system to assign applications too. Instead it operates solely in the background, performing tasks, like syncing emails, checking Twitter updates, or processing audio, whilst your device is in standby mode.
The Tegra design does go some way to help reduce active battery drain as well, by adjusting clock speeds and gating each of the cores to use them only when needed. But this is common practice amongst nearly every chip manufacturer, and doesn’t provide any perks over other manufacture’s designs.
Many users were disappointed with the Tegra 3′s battery life as the 4PLUS1 core architecture only provided decent battery saving benefits whilst the device is asleep, but didn’t save significantly on energy whist it’s awake. Sadly, Tegra 4 doesn’t do anything to address this complaint, and with more powerful Cortex A15 processors draining even more power than the Tegra 3′s A9s you can expect some significant battery drain whilst gaming, etc.
The Big.LITTLE design in the Exynos 5 on the other hand has totally switched things up since the Exynos 4. The SoC is split into two sets of quad-cores: four A15 for heavy duty processing, just like Tegra 4, and four lower power Cortex A7s for general processing. The diagram from the big.LITTLE white paper says 1000 words: the peak drain from an A7 doesn’t even come close to the minimum power drain from a single Cortex A15.
As we saw in the video at the start of the article, the Exynos 5 can switch between cores incredibly quickly, keeping battery drain to a minimum when performing moderately demanding tasks like quickly loading flash heavy webpages or starting up a new application. This is something that Tegra 4 simply cannot do, adjusting clock speeds and gating cores simply isn’t as efficient as being able to switch down to a lower power core.
The Exynos 5 Octa also benefits massively from having all of these processors visible to the operating system, allowing for core assignment on the fly. As Tegra doesn’t allow for applications to be assigned to the low power core, evening running something simple like an email client will require an A15 to be switched on and the battery begins to drain, whilst the Exynos 5 can do this easily on an A7.
The big.LITTLE architecture should win in this category by a long way. There simply isn’t another architecture like it available from any of its competitors.
It’s tough to say exactly who comes out on top in this match up. Performance-wise both chips are very similar, but I’d give the slight edge to Nvidia’s Tegra 4 thanks to its impressive GPU benchmarks. On the other hand the Exynos 5 Octa offers and incredibly power efficient design, which is becoming more and more important as high performance chips eat up ever more battery.
Nvidia also comes out slightly ahead when you look at additional chip features. But even though Nvidia supports outputs to 4K displays, I don’t see a major deal breaker here for the average consumer. Neither side comes with a built in LTE modem, so manufacturers won’t have a clear preference there either.
If you are to pressure me for a winner, I’d probably have to pick the Exynos 5 Octa simply because of big.LITTLE. Nvidia’s chip comes out slightly ahead when you jot everything down on paper, but prolonged battery life whilst maintaining very similar performance is surely the better deal. And I’m positive that the majority consumers will prefer big.LITTLE over 4K HDMI support, DirectX11, or a few extra frames per second whilst gaming. But your opinion will obviously depend what you are looking for.
So does this mean that I think the Tegra 4 will be doomed to live out its days in just a few devices like the Tegra 3? Well no, Tegra 4 is an excellent high performance chip, and is the preferable choice when it comes to picking a SoC for gaming. Better performance, the latest API support, and Tegra specific graphics options will definitely make devices like Project Shield appealing to Android gamers, and it would be a very welcome SoC in a high performance 10 inch tablet as well.
However, I don’t see the Tegra 4 being popular amongst smartphone manufacturers due to the relatively high power consumption compared with competing chips and lack of built in LTE.
Similarly I think the Exynos 5 Octa is much more suited to tablets than handsets, although big.LITTLE does open the door for a smartphone, like the leaked EU Galaxy S4, to dabble in high performance quad-core goodness. Time will tell just how much big.LITTLE can prolong your battery life, but personally I’d rather see a dual-core big.LITTLE A15/A7 chip for smartphones.
Either way, I’m looking forward to seeing how devices using the two chips stack up in the real world. Feel free to let me know if you agree with my analysis, and if you’re particularly excited for either chip set.
Showdown: Nvidia Tegra 4 vs Samsung Exynos 5 Octa | <urn:uuid:e6f7b5be-7b74-46e4-87a6-eb8df0f20aec> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.frenzyphones.com/showdown-nvidia-tegra-4-vs-samsung-exynos-5-octa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935792 | 3,074 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Last week, I went on my annual trip with my dad, looking for snowdrops.
Snowdrops in the Dorset and Hampshire region have flowered quite late this year and after all the cold windy weather we have been having, some snowdrops which are open to all the elements, have had a rough time holding their delicate heads held high.
In the language of flowers the snowdrop means – A friend in adversity and hope.
If you know someone who is having a hard time, a trip to see the lovely snowdrop is sure to life their spirit.
Now is the time to plant snowdrops ‘in the green.’ Planting them now will give you a fantatstic display next year.
On my day out we decided on visiting 2 areas that we knew would be excellent to see this lovely flower.
Damerham church has the wow factor of several thousand snowdrops planted together in the church grave yard. They often hold special snowdrops days to welcome visitors. It was lovely to see, and just how I remembered.
The snowdrops were beautiful, even though they were a little windswept. If you want to see snowdrops in their thousands, then this is a lovely place to visit next year.
We then moved on to Breamore church.
As we carefully moved around the wonderous display of snowdrops in the pretty church yard, I counted around 5 different varieties growing there. There was probably more, but this was the number I spotted. These snowdrops had a little more protection from the elements than the ones at Damerham, so there was plenty of opportunities to photograph them.
There was also a lovely area of winter aconites.
The yellow of the aconites and white and green of the snowdrops had a really fresh, spring feel.
I watched Countryfile the other week, and the presenter looking at snowdrops in Scotland said he thought snowdrops looked all the same. Well if you view them from a far, you may agree. It’s not really until you examine the detail of each of them, that you will see how different and special they can be. It’s epecially hard to see the differences, due to the fact that they are low to the ground, and the flower heads point downwards.
This particular snowdrop wanted the world to see her beauty, as this flower head was pointing outwards. I was so pleased to have spotted this one and capture the image. I have heard of some people using dental mirrors to see the insides of low growing flowers, and I can quite see how useful this would be.
If you like this snowdrop image, it is available to buy as a framed, mounted or canvas print
As I have said before you can see beautiful flowers all over the place. You don’t always need to go to a specific garden to see them, it’s often fun to look into alternative places, such as church yards, roundabouts etc…
Where are your favourite places to go? | <urn:uuid:b1212a64-80b2-4c64-be8b-de3c9c9803d9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://handmadegreetingcards.info/tag/hampshire/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981292 | 624 | 1.695313 | 2 |
“The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States
Just looking at the wording here “The requirement to detain” does not mean they can’t do it. Seems the wording here is something to be concerned about.
This section is all about extending the powers of the federal government to unilaterally declare someone or some group of someones outside the judicial system. They are doing it in the name of intelligence gathering and preventing terrorism. They are calling it a ‘war power’ which seems understandable, a prisoner of war really does lose out. The problem is we are in an indefinite war now. Which means there is no end or conclusion and the power will creep. No knock warrants won’t even be needed, they can just round you up under the war powers act and call you the enemy because you are associated in some arcane way to Al-Queda goals or beliefs.
The wording is actually worse -- it gives the government the power to pick and choose who will be detained, for any reason (e.g. he p!$$@d off some politician) or no reason. | <urn:uuid:57ce5a2c-d1f2-4da3-b20f-ae50c8e1c0a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2814596/replies?c=22 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952787 | 240 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Authors: Joshua Cohan
(NEW YORK) -- Dog owners are certainly fond of their pets, and a new survey reveals some actually hug their pooches more than their relatives and best friends.
A survey commissioned by Beneful Baked Delights found 68 percent of dog owners admitted they hug their four-legged friends more often than certain people in their lives.
Thirty percent of the dog owners surveyed say they hug their dogs more than their relatives, and 26 percent say they hug their dogs more than their best friends. One in ten women who own dogs admit they hug their pooch more than their spouse of significant other.
Additional findings from the survey of dog owners:
- 56 percent of dog owners say hugging their dogs makes them smile.
- 55 percent say it makes them happier.
- Almost 40 percent of dog owners say hugging their dog makes them forget about the stress in their life.
- More than 60 percent of dog owners surveyed say when they hug their dog, it returns their affection.
The survey involved 482 U.S. dog owners.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio | <urn:uuid:ed21effc-b026-45bf-a512-050632da7082> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://akronnewsnow.com/lifestyle/health/item/30484-where-is-the-love-many-hug-pets-more-than-relatives | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97995 | 226 | 1.671875 | 2 |
While the Jovan Belcher tragedy may have helped Jason Whitlock and Bob Costas formulate their personal opinions on gun control, it is doubtful the events in Kansas City will have any lasting or meaningful impact on the public debate.
The furor will ebb and flow periodically, with each high tide of outrage lower than the one preceding it, until all vestiges of it are swallowed by Honey Boo Boo or Dancing With The Stars.
But while the topic is still in the front pages, perhaps some context would be helpful. I don’t agree with Mr. Whitlock’s proposition that if Jovan Belcher had no access to firearms that both he and the mother of his child would still be alive, there simply isn’t enough information about Belcher’s motivation or intent.
But what I can say is that if there were no guns in our society the homicide and suicide rates would plummet dramatically. Maybe a hypothetical scenario best illustrates this point.
Suppose I were to give you a device you can wear on your belt. Just a box with a little red button, and if that button is pushed a person of your choosing dies immediately. No discussion, confrontation or mess. The person would simply disappear. Let’s also suppose that I want to give every single person in America the right to purchase this device, would there beresistance to this idea?
I would most certainly think so. It would be far too easy to kill a person, and many people could not possibly be expected to use the device in a rational or judicious manner. It’s a frightening scenario yet when that red button morphs into the trigger housing group of a pistol strangelythe conversation changes.
Would Americans be less responsible with my little red button than they would be with firearms, simply because the right to own firearms is constitutionally guaranteed? Doubtful. Yet that seems to be what many like to pretend.
The fact is that the pervasive presence of firearms in society has caused the death of countless Americans. Notice that I have made no statement whatsoever about the ethical implications of this. My red button could just as easily be used for self-defense or law enforcement purposes just like any firearm, but we need to stop pretending that “people, not guns, kill people.”
That’s technically true, of course, but it is a red herring with zero relevance. The very nature of a gun is what’s important. They are designed to kill as fast and as easily as possible.
As far as I can tell no child has ever died in the crossfire of a drive-by stabbing, primarily because there is no crossfire. Getting beaten with fists or stabbed with a knife is generally a survivable situation, while getting shot generally is not.
Nothing that I have written here advocates the repeal of the 2nd Amendment nor does it advocate any particular policy change, but if we are to make any serious headway in our culture of violence we need to stop pretending that firearms don’t contribute to the problem.
It doesn’t matter how much money the NRA pours into its efforts to highjack America’s founding fathers into advocating a position that many of them would have found abhorrent.
The 2nd Amendment is a function of a weak central government which lacks the ability to finance a standing army, which was exactly the federal government’s position in the 18th century.
Please stop dusting off the fossilized remains of a frontier culture, which no longer exists, in order to make a political point. All discussions should remain on the table if we actually want to solve a problem. | <urn:uuid:01618308-72a6-40fe-8fd5-06f391e80082> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://timonium.patch.com/groups/christian-ericksons-blog/p/bp--stop-pretending-that-guns-are-not-the-problem | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967681 | 750 | 1.75 | 2 |
Women report many changes to their bodies during and after pregnancy. During the months of pregnancy, a woman gains a significant amount of weight. This in turn results in the skin being stretched out in a short period of time. The Mustela Stretch Marks line was developed in order to provide a solution for new moms hoping to improve the appearance of their post baby bodies. There are also Mustela Stretch Marks products that can be used during pregnancy to help prevent and reduce the severity of stretch marks.
Stretch marks are actually a form of scar that develop when the skin experiences a form of tearing that is associated with rapid growth. Some stretch marks are colored while others appear to be white. The stretching action associated with weight gain puts a lot of force on the skin and causes it to scar. The hips, bottom and belly are especially vulnerable to stretch marks but scarring can also occur on the breasts, thighs and even other areas like the arms. Stretch marks may improve on their own over time but Mustela Stretch Marks formulations can help minimize the tearing to begin with and speed healing after pregnancy. Mustela Stretch Marks can help restore lost confidence associated with changes to the body.
Mustela Stretch Marks Products
Additional Mustela Stretch Marks Information
Many women put all of their focus onto their babies before and after giving birth. Mustela Stretch Marks products allow new mothers to care for their own bodies after sacrificing so much for their little ones.
Mustela Stretch Marks Double Action can be used prior to giving birth in order to prevent the formation of stretch marks and reduce the appearance of those that do manage to form. Mustela Stretch Marks Double Action can be used all over the body, wherever stretch marks may form. The formula supports healthy elasticity in the skin so that it maintains its shape more easily even during rapid weight gain. Mustela Stretch Marks Double Action can also be used on recent stretch marks to improve the appearance and encourage faster healing. This is a very gentle product that is absolutely safe to use during pregnancy and breast feeding. It will not discolor fabric.
If you already have stretch marks and want the strongest solution possible to improve the appearance of your skin, consider Mustela Stretch Marks Intensive Action. This is a light gel formula that tackles even the toughest of stretch marks. It works wonders at reducing the look of stretch marks, making them smaller, lighter in color and less noticeable. Mustela Stretch Marks Intensive Action stimulates the skin with a unique blend of exfoliating acids, vitamins and silicium. You can use this product while breast feeding. Mustela Stretch Marks Intensive Action has been tested for safety and will not harm your newborn baby. | <urn:uuid:1c639b83-e3e4-4481-9ece-498942100282> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.skinstore.com/mustela-stretch-marks.aspx?avs=Line%7CMustela+Stretch+Marks&ppp=12&c=True | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936036 | 533 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Top of Africa, Johannesburg
Did you know?The logo of Transnet, present owners of the Carlton Centre, sits outside on top.
If you’ve a head for heights and want the best view in Johannesburg, then be sure to visit the Top of Africa on the 50th floor of the 223m-high Carlton Centre, a building that just fails to make the list of the world’s top 100 skyscrapers by a mere 40m.
The Top of Africa is a wrap-around viewing deck with stupendous 360° degrees views over Johannesburg. On a clear day you can see as far as the capital city of Pretoria, and at any time of year you’ll be amazed at the number of trees you’ll see – more than a million of them, making it the biggest urban forest in the world.
Take the lift up the 50-storey building – the highest in Africa and once the highest in the Southern Hemisphere – and prepare to be amazed at just how much you can see of the city and its lovely suburbs.
You can’t fail to notice the old mine dumps that appropriately look like gold nuggets clustered around the south of the city. Remember that Johannesburg – also known as Egoli, or City of Gold – owes its history to the gold reefs that were discovered here in the late 1880s.
You won’t, however, see any water anywhere. Johannesburg is the only major city in the world that is not built near a river or on the sea, thanks to those gold deposits that were the richest in the world.
There are helpful information boards posted around the deck and a particularly interesting exhibition of photographs about Gandhi and his connection with the city and South Africa’s turbulent past.
Although the Carlton Centre, home of the Top of Africa, has lost some of its former glamour and glitz since it was first opened in 1973, and no longer hosts showbiz celebrities in its now-closed five-star hotel, the array of shops and bustling crowds make it a great place to feel the vibe of a modern African city.
Travel tips & Planning info
Who to contact
Tel: +27(0) 11 308 1331 | <urn:uuid:a6eb82cb-b50d-497a-8856-4d15cf050d9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.southafrica.net/meetings/en/articles/entry/article-top-of-africa | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958283 | 461 | 1.710938 | 2 |
By Danny LaChance | photos By robin lietz
“Have you ever heard an Indian water buffalo?” composer Christopher Marianetti ’03 asks before making a sound somewhere between a horse’s neigh and a trombone’s downward slide. “It’s insane. It sounds like a creature from another planet,” he laughs.
Sounds like this one are the unconventional notes in Marianetti’s musical universe, and recording and arranging them in meaningful ways are the foundation of his approach to composing music. Where most composers stick to major and minor chords, he imagines recorded sounds he’s collected on different continents: desks in Brooklyn scraping against linoleum; hands beating rhythmically on a worn snare drum in an artists’ café in Zimbabwe; a musician on a Manhattan street corner recalling events from his itinerant past.
Marianetti isn’t the first musician to challenge conventional assumptions about what music is and how it should be composed. Minimalists like Steve Reich and Philip Glass have done that as well. But he is quickly emerging as a leader in using this approach to music making as a tool for building and connecting communities around the world.
He’s doing this through Found Sound Nation, a New York City–based nonprofit he cofounded with fellow New York musician Jeremy Thal. Found Sound Nation, Marianetti says, is like a traveling sound squad. In short-term visits to sites around the world, they work with youth and communities to collaboratively create music; help people understand the principles of computer-based sound recording and engineering; build the infrastructure and expertise necessary to produce, record, and remix sound; and produce an initial project. In two short years, Marianetti has worked with groups as diverse as juvenile detention center youth in New York and meditation teachers at a Northern India ashram.
Inspiration for the organization came from an experience Marianetti had in Milan, Italy, shortly after his Macalester graduation. He was studying composition at the city’s International Academy of Music, immersed in a world of music that seemed abstract and theoretical. “Something felt like it was missing from my musical life,” he explains. “I wanted to do something more social with my music.”
His wish was about to be granted. Hearing of Marianetti’s interest in sound recording, the conservatory director’s wife asked him if he wanted to work with a group of first graders she taught at a local elementary school. In the two weeks of classroom time that followed, Marianetti recorded the students making all sorts of sounds, vocal and otherwise. Then, after importing the sounds into his computer, he had the students visually arrange the color-coded sounds in their own sequences on a projected screen. Using music software and the projections as his guide, he spliced together the recordings into a song.
“I was surprised at how weird, complex, and original the music was,” Marianetti says. New career possibilities entered his head along with the haunting music. Several years later, back in the United States, Marianetti visited students in the Bronx classroom of Soshana Daniels ’03, whom he’d run into at one of his concerts. What started as three kids banging on a table in classroom-turned-recording studio grew, in a matter of days, into more than 30 kids producing an album of original musical recordings. Found Sound Nation was born.
Since its inception, Found Sound Nation has helped youth activists from New York and Philadelphia record their experiences on a service-learning trip to New Orleans. It has created performance art pieces related to HIV/AIDS with youth at the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe; recorded CDs of original music with youth and adults in New York public schools, hospitals, and juvenile detention centers. And it has recorded a dynamic guide to meditation with teachers at the Ashram Paryavaran Vidyalaya school in the Northern Indian Himalayan region of Uttarakhand.
Teaching communities to recognize the taken-for-granted sounds unique to their environment is a big part of his work, says Marianetti. “A lot of artists talk about discovering their voice or finding their sound,” he says. “I think this can also mean going to an institution or neighborhood and asking, ‘What is the sound of this place?’”
Having worked with groups on four continents to answer that question, Marianetti says his organization’s next goal is to encourage sharing across different sound communities to create an imagined musical nation that transcends geographical, linguistic, and political borders. This summer, Found Sound Nation will travel to Haiti, where, as part of the country’s long-term recovery plan, the Ciné Institute is attempting to rebuild and expand its film industry.
Marianetti and collaborators will help the Haitians produce and record music for their latest films, and also create a sound library for the institute’s filmmakers. But when their work is complete, the institute’s sound library won’t just have sounds from a Caribbean island. It will come fully stocked with giggles from New Orleans, drumbeats from Harare, chair scraping from Milan—and, of course, the whinnying cry of one North Indian water buffalo. | <urn:uuid:659684b5-3cf8-498d-b305-d25c8e260ac0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macalester.edu/news/macalestertoday/2011summer/streetmusic/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964132 | 1,104 | 1.8125 | 2 |
It is true that for the greater half of this decade, iPods have been one of the best-performing and most sought-after media devices world-wide. It boasts of a minimalist design, which makes for superb ease-of-use and simplicity. However, as the competition thickened between portable media devices, newer iPods, including the redesigned Nano, began to lose some steam.
The competition was catching up and the iPod’s basic design was getting stale. Fortunately, with the coming of the Apple iPod Touch 32 GB media device, the iPod brand is ready to storm the market once again. Get ready for the brand new iPod experience and see why everyone is so excited about it.
BlackBerry is currently one of the industry leaders in the wireless communications world. They offer mobile users terrific access to email, phone, instant messaging, web, SMS and MMS messaging , schedules and more. New to the 8800 line of its continious innovation is the Blackberry 8820 Unlocked GSM Smartphone.
The BlackBerry 8820 smartphone is packed with great features for the savvy professional today. It is a quad-band GSM phone that uses EDGE technology. EDGE, or Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution, is a radio signalling technology for 3G mobile networks. EDGE works by improving the signalling interface used to communicate over the radio waves, boosting data transfer rates and volumes on existing GSM/GPRS networks and therefore significantly increasing data transfer speeds.
Is your current Wireless Network Adapter giving you problems connecting your laptop to the network? Are you experiencing slow access time within your network? The Hawking HWUN1 Wireless N Network Adapter is already here to solve even your most complicated Wi-Fi problem.
One of its most impressive features is that while it can support the 802.11n wireless standard, it is still backward compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g. Data transfer rates for this wireless device can reach up to 300mbps, so accessing files, music, and movies will be spectacularly fast!
When I think of an antenna, the fist thing that pops into my mind is an image of the old rabbit ears that used to sit on top of my TV set back when I was a kid. Perhaps I’m dating myself once again as I reveal such imagery to you but there it is. Now ask any kid today what an antenna looks like and they’re more than likely going to describe something that looks like a dish. And why not since the satellite dish has become the antenna icon of the 21st century.
So it seems only natural that when you design something that’s supposed to receive a modern, computer radio signal of some kind today that you make it look like a dish. And that’s exactly what they’ve done over at Hawking Technology in designing their small antenna to receive a Wi-Fi signal.
If you like road trips and the great outdoors but like to stay connected to the outside world, I have the perfect product for you. The D-Link DIR-450 3G Mobile Router for EV-DO Networks offers you WiFi Routing for those convenient Wireless 3G Internet Cards.
If this sounds a little confusing, it’s not. Don’t worry, I’ll explain it all. This router works with these nifty PCMCIA adapters that your cell phone service provider carries. If you’ve never seen one, it’s the best thing since sliced bread for people that are on the road and need to have Broadband Internet access. And essentially, if you have cellular signal, you’ll have Broadband Internet access: most carriers offer 1.5Mbps.
CompUSA customers tend to be a bit more hip than the average bear – and you are probably using the internet more than your peers on mobile devices – and according to Google – more than ever.
When nobody was using the Internet on the phone, I was. When nobody had a Blackberry, I did. When nobody had Windows Mobile, I did. Now, I just have a phone. While the allure of the iPhone and some of the other sexy GSM devices that have been coming out – I’m not sure exactly how I feel about mobile computing – although I love using my iPod Touch on WiFi – and having that everywhere would be nice – but after spending 20 hours a day on a computer – do you need more time to be connected?
The HP iPAQ Pocket PC hx2790 is the perfect handheld computer for the professional who values the combination of the traditional, the familiar, and the versatile in their technological innovations. The HP iPAQ Pocket PC hx2790 stays true as the classic PDA, but with a different twist. It is designed to offer more than what we have been accustomed to using in this new century, where pets can actually run on batteries and the web is more than a thing we remove from the corners of our ceiling. It performs all the basic functions we need from a PDA, but at the same time offers enough to satisfy our entertainment and business needs.
Converged networks. Seamless link exchange. Passing Off to the next tower. These are all things we take for granted – and your cell phone is a great example. While you can seemingly stay connected for an endless stretch of the road – you are actually making those calls from different cellular towers along the way. The closest tower is generally going to get the call. As you move, that changes and they are passed between one another without you even realizing it.
Catering to users who pursue extreme performance at a low price, Asus presents to us the the M3A32-MVP Deluxe WiFi Motherboard. This cutting-edge motherboard supports the AMD Phenom quad-core AM2+ CPU with the latest AMD 790FX chipset. It features the latest HyperTransport(tm) 3.0 (HT3) system bus with up to 5200 MT/s speed, quad PCIe 2.0 x 16 slots, and the ASUS patent pending memory heat pipe design – ASUS Cool Mempipe. Plus, the board includes an 802.11g (54 Mbps) WiFi access point, allowing you to share your Internet connection wirelessly without a wireless broadband router. All of these advantages add up to one impressive motherboard, so yes – pray to get your hands on one. | <urn:uuid:a28f479c-0744-4ade-9104-d0e7c4c1f04e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.tigerdirect.com/tag/wifi/page/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940936 | 1,315 | 1.546875 | 2 |
On June 29, 2011, an expert panel that advises the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unanimously recommended removing the indication for Avastin (chemical name: bevacizumab) in combination with Taxol (chemical name: paclitaxel) to treat metastatic, HER2-negative breast cancer that hasn't been treated with chemotherapy. The next day, a spokesperson for Medicare announced that even if the Avastin breast cancer indication is removed by the FDA, Medicare will continue to pay for treatment with Avastin to treat metastatic breast cancer.
The expert panel's recommendation came after two days of hearings that were part of an appeal by Genentech, the company that makes Avastin. In December 2010, another expert panel made the same recommendation to remove the breast cancer indication for Avastin, and Genentech asked the FDA to reconsider.
Both expert panels concluded that Avastin has not been shown to be safe and effective for treating metastatic breast cancer. So the experts recommended that the breast cancer indication should be withdrawn. The FDA doesn't have to follow the recommendation of the expert panels, but it usually does. Margaret Hamburg, FDA commissioner, will make the final decision about withdrawing the breast cancer indication for Avastin.
An FDA decision to withdraw the Avastin breast cancer indication will not affect the approvals of Avastin to treat advanced cancers of the lung, colon, and rectum.
Despite the panels' recommendations, many doctors believe that the benefits of Avastin for certain women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer are worth the risks and cost of treatment. Doctors can choose to use Avastin to treat metastatic breast cancer whether or not that particular use is officially approved by the FDA. Still, loss of approval can make it less likely that insurers will pay for Avastin to treat breast cancer.
Medicare's announcement that it will continue to pay for Avastin to treat metastatic breast cancer is important because many insurers follow Medicare's payment policies. Medicare and insurance companies often pay for treatments prescribed by doctors for a condition even if the treatment isn't FDA-approved for that specific use.
If you've been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, you and your doctor will develop a treatment plan that will likely include chemotherapy and possibly hormonal therapy and/or targeted therapy medicines. No matter which treatments are recommended for you, you may want to talk to your doctor about:
- why each treatment is recommended (including any combinations)
- treatment timing and sequence
- the expected benefits, risks, and side effects of each treatment
If you're already getting Avastin and are responding to treatment, you may want to ask your doctor about the expert panels' recommendations. It's likely that your doctor will recommend that you stick with your treatment plan unless it stops being effective or unacceptable side effects develop. The announcement by Medicare makes it more likely that your treatment will continue to be covered by your insurer (if it's already covered).
Stay tuned to Breastcancer.org Research News for more information on the final decision on Avastin. | <urn:uuid:48e95a3f-7ab7-445a-ac61-8709cd2dbf00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/20110630 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954223 | 634 | 1.789063 | 2 |
There appears to be a new rule in North Carolina's high school wrestling rule book: Prayer is prohibited. Nicholas Fant, a junior at North Carolina's Wake Forest-Rolesville High School and a 220-pound competitor in the February 12 state wrestling tournament, found that out the hard way. After dropping to a knee for a customary two-second prayer prior to his first round match, Fant was given a warning for stalling, which cost him a point in the contest. The varsity wrestler, who had not been penalized in the past for such prayers, ultimately lost to his opponent by a score of 3-0.
The penalty angered Fant's coach, Sam Hershey, who said that the one-point deficit starting out forced Fant to change his strategy for the match. Hershey said that while he would not comment on the referee's decision, he would seek a clarification to determine if penalizing a wrestler for a two-second silent prayer comported with the spirit of the rule against stalling.
In its rulebook the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) explains that a referee may call a penalty for stalling “when either wrestler delays the match. This includes straggling back from out of bounds, unnecessarily changing or adjusting equipment, or delay in assuming the starting position on the mat.” While in 2008 the NFHS issued 27 pages of guidelines for how a ref is to call for stalling, nowhere is prayer mentioned.
Nonetheless, Commissioner David Whitfield of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association insisted to Fox News that the referee who penalized Fant made the right call. “When the referee called them to the center of the mat, at that point it’s time to wrestle,” Whitfield explained. He said the referee's ruling had nothing to do with prayer or religion. “It had everything to do with the rules of wrestling,” he said. “You have discretion in all rules as it relates to wrestling, but in this case, one of the wrestlers was in the circle waiting.”
But David Culbreth, an official with the Southeastern Wrestling Officials Association, said that he would have cut Fant some slack, saying that when he is reffing a match “God gets two seconds.” He insisted that “I’m not going to call that. But if it turned into a 60-second prayer, he’d probably get a verbal warning — or I might try to say ‘Amen’ for him.”
High school athletes like Fant may be influenced by the now world-famous actions of NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, who since college has had a tradition of dropping to a knee in thanksgiving to God every time his team scores. Additionally, during his college career Tebow had the scripture reference “John 3:16” inscribed into his eye black during games, a practice that college athletic officials later prohibited as distracting and unnecessary.
(This article was originally published at TheNewAmerican.com on February 18, 2013, and is reposted here with permission.) | <urn:uuid:6cadb92c-6aa0-49fd-b82b-0a4fd43408a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jbs.org/education/n-c-high-school-wrestler-penalized-for-silent-prayer-before-match | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975172 | 640 | 1.5 | 2 |
Allowing underage drinking creates huge liability for adults
Underage drinking is a big problem on the Vineyard, public safety officials say. And often adults contribute to the problem, by providing alcohol to minors or providing a venue for underage kids to drink.
That was the message attorney Mark J. Hoover delivered to a group that included parents and police officers Monday night at a program the Youth Task Force (YTF) hosted on the Social Host Law, which focuses on the civil liability for adults who furnish alcohol to minors.
And, adults who confiscate car keys and create so-called safe havens for minors to drink in the mistaken belief that they can somehow protect young people not only face criminal prosecution but also expose themselves to civil liability that can have significant financial consequences.
Mr. Hoover, a Martha's Vineyard Regional High School alumnus and member of the Boston law firm Campbell, Campbell, Edwards and Conroy, emphasized the lengthy and costly trials that result from violations of the Social Host Liability statute. He said that civil suits can take up to five years and may result in millions of dollars awarded in damages. A typical homeowners insurance policy only covers about $500,000, he said.
Mr. Hoover gave an example of a civil case in which nearly $8.7 million was awarded to the plaintiffs of a Social Host Liability lawsuit.
"District attorneys offices and police departments are taking a no-tolerance policy to underage drinking," he said. "I think district attorneys are more and more willing to bring the hammer down because of how often these things happen."
West Tisbury police chief Beth Toomey said she has had conversations with concerned parents about underage drinking on the Island, and that the focus of preventing teens from drinking must be just as great year-round as it is in the summertime. "Any time we can communicate about this is always better," she said. "There's been some more parties lately and I think we focus on prom and graduation, but it would be great if we concentrated more on year-round."
Oftentimes kids throw parties at their parents' homes when parents are out of town or off Island. If an adult comes home to drunk teenagers, whether or not they knew the teens were drinking on their premises, they will still be held liable under the Social Host Law if the underage kids leave the home and get into an accident.
One parent asked Mr. Hoover if she is responsible for getting kids home safely if she returns home to her child hosting a party. "Yes," he answered. "Call the parents, or the police."
West Tisbury police sergeant Dan Rossi said the police should be the next phone call if kids' parents are not home. "If you come home and there's a party and drunk kids, do you want to deal with that liability?" he asked. "Call the police. Let us deal with it." | <urn:uuid:87b88c24-676c-4a12-a4e7-a68e193c0e13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mvtimes.com/marthas-vineyard/news/2009/06/11/underage-drinking.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973006 | 589 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Think you’re a die hard Martial arts fanatic? Do you really live for the elation of a fantastic fight. You’ll certainly be pleased to discover that MMA is here for keeps. Are you addicted to the forms of martial arts and just want to get the top coaching/ a number of the top martial arts teachers you could come across with mma training Bronx.
Precisely what is mma in New York? MMA is short for Mixed Martial Arts and is made up of Jujitsu, karate, Kung Fu, Muay Thai and various other fighting technique forms. New York houses several of the best quality teaching in the United states of america. If perhaps you happen to be seeking coaching in the mixed martial arts then you should practice someplace, at which the team realize what you want.
There can be various good reasons why a person can like to learn about mixed martial arts and be coached by a handful of the best quality teachers in their martial arts disciplines. You might need to know the skill of protection, to just look after and safeguard your self in today’s challenging society or you might just want to gain knowledge of to proficiency. Jungle gym martial arts may well aid you in this, they’ll help to show you.
Lots of police force divisions nowadays employ mixed martial arts as an important part of their combat instruction courses. The martial arts don’t just develop a solid ground for control but they will also deliver a great method to practice for dangerous problems which necessitate a specialized familiarity with the skill of your survival in combat, not merely the skill of you surviving but additionally the will to triumph.
Like with quite a few police departments, the U . S . Military also employs MMA programs for the structure of a lot of their exercise programs. Lots of special forces soldiers are highly competent and expert MMA authorities who were coached by a few of the finest pros on the planet. As said before before martial arts training does much more than deliver a strong ground for control it as well permits someone to master the skill of survival, but on top of that the skill of winning the combat. This particular instruction is crucial in the instruction of members of the military to triumph on the battle field. It really is what can help to always keep them in the right condition and recognize how to make it through in the worst of circumstances.
You’d like the best quality that there is available and Jungle Gym Martial Arts could supply you with exactly that. They can supply you with the skills you need to survive and help you to achieve your goals, whether it be learning to protect yourself or learning how to compete, they will train you.
~Team Jungle Gym | <urn:uuid:99a945d7-0b2f-4649-9794-ae8dd66ead3b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mmainnewyork.com/2012/04/13/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968203 | 547 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Photos by Jerry Heasley
Many enthusiasts incorrectly assume that Pontiac high performance began in 1964 with the GTO’s introduction. That was indeed a watershed year for muscle cars in general, but Pontiac had been tearing up drag strips, oval tracks, and the nation’s highways and byways for the better part of ten years.
Pontiac joined the V-8 revolution in 1955 along with Chevrolet, but it was virtually unnoticed in the huge shadow cast by the small-block Chevy. Pontiac got a Rochester fuel injection unit in 1957, along with Chevrolet. The limited edition Bonneville convertibles (630 produced) were fuel injected and now command six-figure prices. Pontiacs had their share of dual-quad and tri-power engines long before 1964. The 389 that gained so much positive attention in the new GTO first appeared in 1959 Pontiacs. David Fischer’s 1961 Pontiac Ventura, seen here, was one of the lightest fullsize models, weighing 200 pounds less the 1960 models and riding on a three-inch shorter wheelbase. The Ventura two-door hardtop has a unique roofline that gives it a very open feeling. This style roof (also used on other GM products) was commonly referred to a “bubble top” or “bubble window.”
Adding to the distinctive styling of the 1961 Ventura are the optional 8-lug aluminum wheels. These Pontiac-only wheels are unlike any others. The Kelsey-Hayes wheels first appeared on 1960 Pontiacs. These wheels weren’t just for looks. They were cast integrally with the brake drum for improved braking. All manufacturers were big on acceleration, but Pontiac also provided superior braking.
The 1961 389 V-8 was available in several horsepower and induction system variants. The top-of-the-line setups were the 333hp single four-barrel engine and the tri-power version, which was rated at 348 horsepower. Both of those engines had compression ratios of 10.75:1 and put out 425 lb-ft and 430 lb-ft of torque, respectively.
If either of those engines wasn’t powerful enough, an owner could get added boost with over-the-counter speed equipment from Pontiac. That’s the case with the 1961 Ventura featured here. The famous Super Duty Pontiacs weren’t officially offered by the factory yet, so savvy 1961 owners relied on their local Pontiac parts departments. David’s engine sports an aluminum intake manifold with dual Carter four-barrel carbs and factory cast iron headers. The factory 4-speed manual transmission was upgraded with a Hurst shifter.
The 1961 Pontiac Ventura is a unique muscle car that predicted much of the Pontiac excitement that was to come in the next few years.
Dare to Be Different! - Introduction
The Wide, Wide World of Muscle Cars
Dare to Be Different! - 1961 Ford Starliner
An excellent muscle car for any Ford fan looking for something different.
Dare to Be Different - 1961 Pontiac Ventura
A little known and often overlooked precursor to the Pontiac performance timeline.
Dare to Be Different - 1964 Pontiac Grand Prix
Different enough to be unique, but so handsome as to be universally admired.
Dare to Be Different - 1966 Dodge Polara 500
A competitor to the Ford Galaxy 500 and the Chevy Impala that demands a second look.
Dare to Be Different - 1968 Chevy Impala SS 427
A viable alternative that’s still daring and different.
Dare to Be Different - 1969 Chevrolet El Camino SS 396
A different way to enjoy muscle car ownership at bargain prices.
Dare to Be Different - 1969 Mercury Cougar Eliminator
An excellent way to enjoy some of the finest engines Ford Motor Company ever produced.
Dare to Be Different - 1970 Dodge Swinger
Power-to-weight ratio makes this A-body a great choice.
Dare to Be Different - 1971 AMC Hornet SC/360
This a one-year wonder was a daring exercise for AMC.
Dare to Be Different - 1972 Ford Gran Torino Sport
Thanks to Clint Eastwood this overlooked muscle car is back in the spotlight.
Dare to Be Different - 1972 Buick GS 455 Stage 1
Is this one of the most underrated muscle cars ever? | <urn:uuid:ebbbcd0e-879a-4338-aa7c-92efa3add3ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.autotraderclassics.com/car-article/Dare+to+Be+Different+_+1961+Pontiac+Ventura-200341.xhtml?conversationId=216258 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93463 | 904 | 1.671875 | 2 |
"It takes two people to couple up and get married," says Harriet Lerner, PhD, celebrated author of The Dance of Anger, "but only one to make a relationship better." Waiting for your spouse to change first, she believes, is a recipe for unhappiness and divorce. Her new book, Marriage Rules, lists 100 clear-cut, everyday ways to improve your marriage—starting with you and your own behavior. This week, we spoke with her and gleaned the ten most surprising:
1. Describe it in three sentences (or less). Your partner might say things like "I don't want to talk" or "I'm not good at talking." Usually, the real issue is that he gets easily flooded with too much information and shuts down. So, when bringing up an issue, end your description after three sentences. For example, cut off your point at "You said you'd clean up the kitchen, and you didn't." Don't add on all those extra but related issues like: "You don't do what you say you're going to do. I can't trust you. I can't even trust what you're going to do next. And by the way, I saw that you also left the dog out in the yard."
2. Disorient him with praise. Surprise your spouse with praise just when he's most expecting you to criticize him. For example, if he has a tendency to be overbearing with his younger brother, and the two of you have fought about this, repeatedly, wait until you hear them on the phone together. After he hangs up, say something like: "I so admire the way you used humor to lighten things up with your brother. You can be so funny with him." It's disarming. It's unexpected, and it encourages new behavior—from both of you.
3. End the phony I-statements. Many of us know about the value of an "I-statement," a technique that requires you to talk about your feelings instead of your partner's behavior. For example, if your partner is frequently late, instead of saying to him, "You're always late. It's so rude," you might say, "It's more difficult for me when you're late because I don't know how to plan the dinner." This way, you can talk about the issue without attacking him. But be warned: Not all statements that begin with the word "I" are I-statements. Tacking on an "I think" does not necessarily mean you are talking about yourself. Avoid comments like "I think you're controlling," or "I think you're treating me like your domineering mother." That is, unless you want to start a big fight.
4. Invite what you dread. If you're sick of hearing, say, your partner's repetitive worry about putting his mother in a nursing home, you need to initiate that very conversation. You may worry that you will open the emotional dams and have to talk about what you least want to hear about—for forever. But in fact, your partner will dwell on the issue less if you really invite him to tell you everything in one fell swoop. You don't have to come up with solutions or cheer him up. You just have to listen.
5. Never say the word "foreplay." Yes, it's true...very true. Most couples need to talk more about sex. But not with clunky '70s The Joy of Sex vocabulary. Not only is the term "foreplay" not sexy, but worse, it also suggests that whatever you do short of intercourse isn't "the real thing" and is just something you do to get ready.
Next: Why it's important to put limits on your listening plus more advice
Most Popular Today | <urn:uuid:af70006e-806d-4914-a55f-fcc57234bf7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oprah.com/relationships/10-Unexpected-Ways-to-Save-Your-Marriage?SiteID=cnn_201201_saving_your_marriage | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97763 | 775 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Honolulu Condos and Distressed PropertiesPosted by Douglas Fischer on Thursday, November 18th, 2010 at 9:58am.
Honolulu Condos and Distressed Properties
Today, many buyers are interested in bargains and some focus on distressed properties that may be a short sale, in foreclosure or is bank owned. Many are confused by these different terms and situations so I thought I would take a moment and define three common situations and terms.
Today, let's take a look at short sale properties:
Short Sale Properties - Short sale is the process a homeowner attempts to go through to prevent foreclosure. They ask the lender to forgive the debt since they are selling the property for less than what is owed. This is also known as a short pay. The sale is contingent upon approval by the lender. There is no guarantee that the bank will accept a short sale even if the buyer offers the full list price. Most short pay approvals from the lender will require that the homeowner be able to prove some sort of financial hardship. It is also not uncommon for most lenders to require that the homeowner be in default (behind in mortgage payments) before considering a short pay.
In these situations, the seller still owns the property. When purchasing a short sale, you normally have to accept the property in ‘As Is' condition. You are still allowed to ask for a home inspection period, termite inspection, and survey like a normal transaction. | <urn:uuid:62029bc8-c6fe-4cc9-9f69-c53bb0329622> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.highrises.com/blog/honolulu-condos-and-distressed-properties.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964542 | 291 | 1.570313 | 2 |
EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
- How the US Turned Three Pacifists into Violent Terrorists
- Corporate Win: Supreme Court Says Monsanto Has 'Control Over Product of Life'
- Cornel West: Obama 'Is a War Criminal'
- Revealed: How US State Department 'Twists Arms' on Monsanto's Behalf
- Victory in Seattle as Teachers Win Battle in Standardized Test Boycott
Today's Top News
Eichmann and bin Laden
Moshe Landau, presiding judge at the 1962 trial of Adolf Eichmann, died on Sunday May 1, just in time to roll over in his grave. Judge Landau sentenced Eichmann to death for crimes against humanity after a 14 week televised trial. Mountains of evidence showed the world that the Austrian-born bureaucrat bore direct responsibility for the murder of 6 million Jews.
As Judge Landau’s body was interred on May 2, in compliance with Jewish burial law, Osama bin Laden’s corpse -- only a few hours cold -- was dumped in the drink. bin Laden, as we know, was linked by hearsay to the murder of 3 thousand Americans on 9/11. The FBI never felt it had sufficient evidence to put him on its “most wanted” list. So Navy SEALs just shot him in cold blood.
When Adolf Eichmann, proven killer of 6 million innocent victims, was executed 49 years ago, it was a somber moment. The state of Israel had never executed anybody convicted in a civilian courtroom, nor has it done so since. The day of Eichmann’s hanging was a one of quiet reflection for Jews and non-Jews alike, the world over bin Laden’s murder, on the other hand, was met with the kind of rejoicing one associates with Olympic gold medal victories. And, shockingly, celebrants included many considered by their friends and colleagues to be intelligent and kind.
What’s more, the revelers seem to think that questioning the veracity of the bin Laden narrative, whose details change daily, makes one a “conspiracy nut.” But somehow, the official story of 9/11 -- that 19 ragtag Islamic militants, none of whom were thought by their instructors to be competent pilots, were led by a guy in a cave on dialysis to thwart a multi-trillion dollar defense and security apparatus -- doesn’t strike these folks as, itself, a whacky “conspiracy theory.”
Public trials of alleged criminals, of course, are the antidote to speculation about cabals and cover-ups. Our nation was able to move past the plot known as Watergate only after high ranking government officials were convicted in open court, and sentences were meted out. Absent a posthumous trial of Lee Harvey Oswald, on the other hand, we’ve had to live with the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations’ finding that there was “likely a conspiracy” in the murder of JFK.
So, too, doubts about bin Laden’s life and death will linger. Some surmise he was killed in cold blood because a trial would have exposed his ties to the CIA. Others believe -- because of information reported by mainstream news outlets such as CNN and CBS, along with “alternative” internet sources -- that bin Laden died of kidney failure years ago and that the May 1, 2011 operation was a public relations ploy. Since our history over the last half century is littered with presidential lies, from Tonkin Gulf in 1964 to “weapons of mass destruction in Iraq” in 2002, such speculation hardly seems idle.
What we do know for sure is that jubilation over the killing of a suspect who’s never been tried degrades us all. A zealous advocate of truth and justice such as Moshe Landau would have been appalled at Obama’s handling of the Osama bin Laden matter. And he would have been sickened by the ease with which so many good people got swept up in the hysteria. | <urn:uuid:e82f3e97-ea40-4927-b302-88e0bd18ea61> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/07-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968091 | 843 | 1.523438 | 2 |
[EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a regular links feature at Press Play, spotlighting notable viral videos and video essays.]
A Moving Image Source video essay by Press Play contributors Ken Cancelosi and Matt Zoller Seitz about the partnership between Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Commissioned as part of the Museum of the Moving Image exhibition Jim Henson's Fantastic World."
"Jim Henson and Frank Oz were puppeteers, writers, and filmmakers. They were also partners who boasted some of the finest comedic teamwork of the 20th century. They worked together for 27 years, from 1963 until Henson's untimely death in 1990, and their friendship and professional association spanned several TV shows (including Sesame Street and The Muppet Show) and a series of feature films. The title of this video essay sums up their excellence, and their significance: 'Henson & Oz: Never Before, Never Again.' "
A Nerve.com mashup of Bob Odenkirk's greatest moments from "Breaking Bad."
Bits and pieces of inspirational scenes on "Friday Night Lights." By Sarah Frank and Amanda Dobbins.
From Moving Image Source, a video essay proposing that "that the essence of a cult film can be found in the unique, spiritual power of its close-ups." By Mike Miley.
YouTube user Harry Hanrahan (creator of "Nicolas Cage losing his shit" and other classics) noticed that Mr. Bean's characters have trouble making it all the way to the end of a film or TV program alive. | <urn:uuid:6c3ecc64-9779-4c74-82cf-8c93a05a73e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/viewing_list_6_18_11 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944743 | 323 | 1.515625 | 2 |
We all scream faux ice creamI had my eye on an old ice cream maker at an antique shop a couple of weeks ago. I found it when I was crouching on the floor digging through a cardboard box filled with an array of treasures someone must have dropped off at the shop. It was an old hand-cranked model with a deep narrow tin inside of a round wooden container, with room for packing in plenty of salt and ice.
By: Sue Doeden, The Jamestown Sun
I had my eye on an old ice cream maker at an antique shop a couple of weeks ago. I found it when I was crouching on the floor digging through a cardboard box filled with an array of treasures someone must have dropped off at the shop. It was an old hand-cranked model with a deep narrow tin inside of a round wooden container, with room for packing in plenty of salt and ice.
I took the old ice cream maker up to the counter. I was getting close to the purchase when I silently reminded myself I already have two large electric ice cream makers on a shelf in the basement. They work fine. When our family gets together, one ice cream maker just doesn’t make enough of the frozen stuff to satisfy their sweet, rich and creamy desires. And in my freezer, I have two inserts for my Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt, Sorbet and Ice Cream Maker, ready to go whenever the ice cream urge hits. I convinced myself I didn’t need to bring home another ice cream maker to add to my collection.
I did bring home a craving for ice cream, though.
I’ve discovered I can have a creamy frozen treat in minutes using frozen fruit and my food processor. Yes. Just frozen fruit. No need for high-fat, high-calorie cream. No need for sugar. Just pure fruit.
The base of this faux ice cream is frozen ripe bananas, which make a thick tasty treat all by themselves when they are pureed in a food processor. Add some frozen berries and the creamy mixture can fool even the most discerning ice cream palate.
For a more neutral-flavored base, use bananas that have just begun to develop little brown spots. That’s usually about the same time many banana-loving families start to ignore them. Rather than putting whole, unpeeled bananas into the freezer as I often do when I’m building my stash for banana muffin baking day, I peel the bananas, slice them into thin rounds and freeze them overnight in a single layer on a platter.
When it’s time to make “ice cream,” just scrape the frozen banana slices into a food processor, add some frozen berries and turn on the machine.
The frozen fruit will turn into a crumbly mixture as it whirls around in the food processor, making it necessary to stop the machine and scrape down the sides several times. Then, like magic, the mixture seizes, forming a thick, luxurious mass that falls somewhere between soft serve and hard ice cream. It is scoopable and will hold its shape for a short time. I like to put my ice cream bowls in the freezer for a while before serving the frozen dessert. Scoops of Banana-Berry “Ice Cream” will stay pretty a little longer in cold bowls.
If you want to make Banana Berry “Ice Cream” Pops, add a little bit of liquid to the frozen fruit as it transitions from crumbles to cream. If you want to keep it non-dairy, almond milk works well. I added a tablespoon of the thick white layer of coconut cream that’s found at the top of a can of coconut milk when it’s opened to give the Pops extra richness. That is purely optional.
Banana-Berry “Ice Cream” is a guilt-free pleasure that is best eaten as soon as it is made. The texture changes a bit when it has spent time in the freezer, but it is still delicious. Unless you make several batches at a time, I doubt you’ll have any “Ice Cream” left to put into the freezer.
Banana-Berry “Ice Cream” is so easy to make and even easier to eat. No fancy ice cream maker needed.
Banana-Berry “Ice Cream”
2 whole bananas, with lightly speckled skin
1/2 cup frozen strawberries, chopped, blueberries or raspberries
The night before you plan to make the ice cream, peel the bananas and slice them into thin rounds. Arrange them in a single layer on a large platter or baking sheet that’s been lined with plastic wrap. Freeze overnight.
When you are ready to make the “ice cream,” put the frozen banana slices into the work bowl of a food processor. Add the berries. Pulse the frozen fruit. The mixture will get crumbly before it becomes creamy. Continue to scrape down the sides of the work bowl.
As soon as the mixture resembles ice cream, scoop and serve. Makes about 1 1/2 cups.
Tips from the cook
--It’s much easier to slice and freeze the bananas rather than freezing them whole in the peel. It gets a little tricky removing the peel from a frozen banana. And your hands get very cold.
--Add a little milk or yogurt to the mixture if you want to make “Ice Cream” Pops. The thinner mixture will be easier to pour into the freezer pop molds. Freeze the Pops for several hours before unmolding.
--I’ve tried making Banana-Berry “Ice Cream” in a blender. It doesn’t work unless you add a lot of liquid. And then you have a smoothie.
--The riper the bananas you use, the more pronounced the banana flavor will be. | <urn:uuid:46000817-8b75-47b8-b664-ba880d1feb6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jamestownsun.com/event/article/id/163678/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936778 | 1,222 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Taking the reins of the Georgia Solar Energy Association (GSEA) is an exciting opportunity. My recent arrival coincides with the results of GSEA’s effort to amass a comprehensive snapshot of solar development so far in Georgia. The picture it creates is impressive.
More than 900 solar installations now cover the Georgia landscape, with many more in the planning stages. The state’s total solar capacity has now topped 15 megawatts, which is enough energy to power 2,000 homes.
Significantly, this acceleration of solar development in Georgia has increased awareness of what renewable energy can mean for our state. We have taken a great stride forward in energy diversity, security and innovation.
The best news of all is that we are only beginning to realize our widely recognized and academically analyzed solar potential. A 2010 analysis by an Arizona State University professor ranked Georgia third in the nation in solar potential.
Solar development’s pace and promise in Georgia is not the only bright sign of what our energy future holds. Our research also reveals that solar installations are currently operating in 82 of Georgia’s 159 counties. From wineries and schools in North Georgia to farms and manufacturers in Middle Georgia to homes and small businesses in Coastal Georgia, solar is becoming a more prominent feature of our energy portfolio.
Georgia’s solar industry continues to grow rapidly, and firms are hiring workers in manufacturing, installation, sales and distribution, as well as a variety of other roles. The Solar Foundation’s 2011 Census places Georgia in the top 20 nationwide with more than 1,700 solar jobs.
And Georgia-made products, Georgia-based companies and Georgia workers have created this trend.
What does this tell us? The proliferation of solar development in Georgia is not an isolated, urban phenomenon. Solar energy can be applied in every geographic region of the state and in every sector of the state’s economy. Solar energy is making Georgia’s farms more viable, its small businesses more efficient and homes statewide more affordable and valuable for their owners.
The Georgia Solar Energy Association’s membership includes acknowledged experts in solar manufacturing and installation, academia, finance, energy conservation, and the law. GSEA leads the effort in Georgia to promote the economic and environmental benefits of solar energy through education, advocacy and industry support. Working together, we can make Georgia a leader in sustainable energy and green job growth because increasing our use of solar energy in Georgia just makes good sense.
We believe that Georgia should benefit from the global solar investment that is defying the economic malaise gripping so many other sectors of the market. According to January 2012 figures released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the total worldwide investment in solar reached new heights in 2011 at $136.6 billion. In 2011, the U.S. invested $55.9 billion in solar development, up 33 percent from the previous year, according to Bloomberg.
Given Georgia’s abundant sun and robust business environment, our state should be a much larger part of that investment trend than we currently can claim. Georgia can be in the top tier of the U. S. solar economy with its innate solar advantages, a number of significant projects in the pipeline, common-sense policies that create a fair competitive environment for solar, and the amount of innovative talent available here to bring it to fruition.
GSEA is working with business, civic and political leaders to create a business and regulatory environment in which the promise of solar to make affordable, safe, renewable energy widely available is fully realized. On June 15, we will host our 3rd annual Solar Summit at GTRI on 14th Street, where we assemble the region’s most respected experts to talk about the latest in policy, opportunity, technology and best practices in a day-long forum. Last year’s Summit, as well as our Annual Meeting in December, sold out.
In October, we will once again offer our annual Solar Tour, where solar projects around the state, including many new and exciting developments, will open for close-up inspection. This offers everyone from the casual curiosity seeker to the sustainability professional a chance to learn more about individual projects in their own communities.
Like many Georgia residents, I have been unaware until now of the remarkable advances in technology that have made solar energy more reliable and more affordable than ever. With high-quality solar panels now available at prices more than 30 percent below what they cost just a year ago, solar energy has never been more of a bargain. And once installed, its fuel source is perpetually available for a price we all can afford – free – and it will never rise.
How much money you save on your energy needs with solar is up to you in consultation with a solar professional. Solar energy provides endless possibilities for using clean energy in Georgia to make businesses more productive, taxpayer dollars more effective and homes less costly to operate.
In 2012, the Georgia Solar Energy Association will be working harder than ever to bring the good news of solar to the residents of this state and to make its benefits as widely and easily available as possible. GSEA’s dedicated group of knowledgeable professionals is moving Georgia forward with cutting-edge technology, job creation and sustainable, domestic energy. If you want to join us, visit our website, www.gasolar.org. | <urn:uuid:d80a61ad-a8a7-4c57-b9ee-e4b6c59d05dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.renewablesb2b.com/ahk_united_kingdom/en/portal/index/news/show/40e62ba9eb1a4cc9 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943767 | 1,077 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Angel is scared and a million thoughts race through his mind as he sits contemplating the events of the previous night. As he was coming back from the bathroom at a restaurant a man began to throw racial slurs his way. Naturally, Angel became angry and in a burst of fury shattered the restaurant window. When he was unable to pay for the damage, the manager called the police. Before he knew it, Angel was detained with an immigration hold.
Once detained, a 48 hour immigration hold was placed on him; however, what was supposed to be two days in jail turned into three weeks for nothing more than a broken window. That is because he fell under Secure Communities. Secure Communities (S-Comm), is a federal program that has been expanded by the Obama administration to local and county police departments throughout the nation. This program has facilitated in the deportation of mass amounts of people. It has contributed to over 2 million deportations in Obama’s first term alone, which is more than the last four presidents combined. Just like many others, once Angel was detained, law enforcement officials took his fingerprints and sent them to ICE, whereupon ICE determined his immigration status.
In an effort to put an end to S-Comm in Texas, the Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance has written a letter to president Obama accompanied by a written and electronic petition, and a photo petition. Anyone can write their own message to Obama and take a picture with it in order to show the faces of those who have been or have the potential to be affected by this program.
Angel still awaits his court date with ICE which will determine whether or not he will be deported. Brought to the U.S. as a baby, Angel may be thrown into a country and a culture that he knows little about and may never be able to see his family again just because of a broken window. We now have an opportunity to take action on behalf of Angel and people like him by signing the petition and being involved in the photo petition.
Take action for Angel and people like him. Sign the petition now!
Thank you for your involvement in putting an end to S-Comm! | <urn:uuid:560fe26e-6e7f-4e86-8c09-ce8ed933ce35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://lupergv.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/angels-bright-future-turns-into-a-nightmare/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986565 | 433 | 1.5 | 2 |
New Web Site, National Outreach and Partnerships to Focus on Emerging Issue
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced the implementation of its "Youth@Work" initiative, an unprecedented national outreach and education campaign designed to proactively prevent discrimination against teenage workers. Information about the initiative can be found on EEOC's web site at www.eeoc.gov.
"Our Youth@Work initiative enlists a key ally the nation's next generation of workers in the battle against discrimination," said EEOC Vice Chair Naomi C. Earp during a kick-off event this morning at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. "Our goal is to empower these young workers as they enter and navigate the professional world so that they are confident in their rights and responsibilities at work. By way of this effort, our nation's youth will carry their knowledge of employment laws with them throughout their careers, effectively expanding the potential for equal opportunities."
The three main components of EEOC's Youth@Work initiative are a new youth web site at youth.eeoc.gov, dedicated to educating young workers about their equal employment opportunity rights and responsibilities; a series of national outreach events by EEOC Commissioners and field office staff for high school students, youth organizations, and small businesses who employ young workers; and partnerships with business leaders, human resource groups, and industry trade associations.
Vice Chair Earp, whose office is spearheading the initiative, noted that figures from the U.S. Department of Labor suggest that almost three million youth ages 15 to 17 work during the school year. During the summer months of June, July and August, the figure increases to at least four million.
Commission Chair Cari M. Dominguez commented: "We at the EEOC recognize and value the significant contributions that teenagers make to our nation's workplaces. From stocking shelves at bookstores to serving food at restaurants, all the jobs that teens do are an important component of the U.S. labor force. Therefore, we want to ensure that their workplace experience is a positive one."
In addition to today's launch event by Vice Chair Earp, the Commission is planning dozens of outreach events over the course of the next year to promote the Youth@Work initiative at the grassroots levels throughout the country. In the Washington, D.C. metro area, Chair Dominguez and EEOC Commissioners Leslie E. Silverman and Stuart J. Ishimaru will also host events at local high schools in the coming weeks to discuss the program. At the field office level, the Phoenix District Office will host a Youth@Work event on October 7 at Cholla High School in Tucson, Arizona. EEOC district offices in New York City, Miami, St. Louis, San Francisco, Detroit, San Antonio, Memphis, Philadelphia, and other major cities will also host events over the coming months.
EEOC's Youth@Work partners will likewise play a vital role in increasing public awareness about the federal anti-discrimination laws as they relate to teens in the workplace. The Commission will host a series of forums and roundtable discussions with business leaders, human resource groups, and industry trade associations to further explore the workplace trends and challenges affecting young workers.
The new Youth@Work web site, available online at http://youth.eeoc.gov, explains the different types of job discrimination that young workers may encounter and suggests strategies they can use to prevent, and, if necessary, respond to such discrimination. The site includes an interactive tool called "Challenge Yourself!" that provides an opportunity for teens to test their knowledge by analyzing sample job discrimination scenarios. The site, created with the assistance of student interns, also includes examples of recent EEOC cases involving workplace harassment of teens.The EEOC enforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including sexual harassment or pregnancy) or national origin and protects employees who complain about such offenses from retaliation; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, which protects workers age 40 and older from discrimination based on age; the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which prohibits gender-based wage discrimination; the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits employment discrimination against people with disabilities in the federal sector; Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits employment discrimination against people with disabilities in the private sector and state and local governments; and sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Further information about the Commission is available on the agency's web site at www.eeoc.gov.
This page was last modified on September 21, 2004.
Return to Home Page | <urn:uuid:eeff2839-415e-4a8e-bbc5-280553914d20> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www1.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/archive/9-21-04a.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943483 | 945 | 1.773438 | 2 |
In the United Kingdom, the Leveson Inquiry into the "culture, practice and ethics of the press" has released its long-awaited awaited report, and the result is pretty much as expected (PDF): Assurances as to the value of a free press, coupled with calls for regulation of the press backed by law. As you might expect, the report has been met with glee by most politicians — with the perhaps surprising exception of Prime Minister David Cameron.
In the House of Commons, the prime minister said:
Now I have some serious concerns and misgivings on this recommendation.
They break down into issues of principle, practicality and necessity.
The issue of principle is that for the first time we would have crossed the rubicon of writing elements of press regulation into the law of the land.
We should I believe be wary of any legislation that has the potential to infringe free speech and a free press.
In this House – which has been a bulwark of democracy for centuries – we should think very, very carefully before crossing this line.
If that sounds to you like a less-than-enthusiastic enforsement of unfettered freedom, it's still the best you're going to get from a prominent British official. Especially since Cameron has promised to resist press-regulation even if it's approved by Parliament.
Nick Clegg, Mr. Cameron's coalition partner, chose to demonstrate that there's damned little that's still liberal about his Liberal Democrats by breaking with Cameron and endorsing regulation of the press:
I have always said that I would support Lord Justice Leveson’s reforms, providing they are proportionate and workable. I will come onto why – at first glance – I believe that to be the case for the report’s core proposal: for a tougher system of self-regulation, supported by new, independent checks, recognised in law.
Ed Miliband, the leader of the opposition Labour Party which was largely responsible for turning Britain into the charming quasi-police state it is today during its years in power, endorsed the idea of press regulation even before the report was released. No surprise, he signed on whole-heartedly to its recommendations.
For its part, the British press has been remarkably subdued in its reactions, generally praising Cameron for holding the line, while engaging in a little public-self-criticism to satisfy the mob. The lefty Guardian went so far as to largely endorse the Leveson recommendations.
The press is already far too unfree, hemmed in by dozens of restraining laws and by informal self-censorship. A top editor has warned of an ‘ice age’ for investigative journalism even before a new regulator is imposed. What we need is more diversity, boldness and troublemaking in the press. The last thing required is another policeman, state-uniformed or not, looking over the shoulders of journalists and editors.
It's easy to be smug, as an American, and rest on this country's First Amendment protections and history of relative respect for the free press. But we've had periods of state-domination of the media in this country, especially duing wartime, and most of the media complied with barely a whimper. I'm not convinced that American journalists would show more defiance than their counterparts across the Atlantic if the control freaks in D.C. sought more power over the profession that's supposed to hold them to scrutiny.
But, since we do still have somewhat firm protections for the free press in the United States, it might be worth extending that umbrella to our colleagues. Even before a new British media regulator is in place, I'd like to see American media offering to help their colleagues defy such control by publishing material online and out of reach of the U.K.'s government. A little subversive solidarity wouldn't be a bad thing. | <urn:uuid:4672cd84-ebf0-4fc1-87f5-5e9bea155d22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reason.com/blog/2012/11/30/with-britains-free-press-on-the-brink-pm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967867 | 791 | 1.632813 | 2 |
UC Davis student receives IHS Health Professions scholarship
Laura Jordan, a third-year medical student at UC Davis, received a Health Professions scholarship from the Indian Health Service (IHS), a federal health program for American Indians and Alaska natives, last month.
The scholarship covers the cost of tuition, required fees and additional education and living expenses for the next two academic years. Health Professions Scholarship Program recipients incur a service obligation of one year for each year of scholarship support, whereby she may elect to work serving the health-care needs of the American Indian population. The mission of the Indian Health Service, which is an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, is to raise the physical, mental, social and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives to the highest level.
Jordan, a native of Hoopa in Humboldt County, is a member of the Yurok Tribe of Northern California and grew up on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation. Since she was 14, she worked and volunteered her time at K'ima:w Medical Center in Hoopa as the assistant to Medical Director Eva Smith. She graduated from Humboldt State University, majoring in cellular/molecular biology and minoring in chemistry. She is a first-generation college graduate and would like to be a physician, providing health care for the underserved. | <urn:uuid:36cd03b2-b0e8-4429-84b5-41f43b17bb6a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/publish/news/giving/6992 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965155 | 279 | 1.578125 | 2 |
When Tanya Mahrous accepted a buyout package from her corporate job she knew exactly what she wanted her next move to be. She wanted to start a business that combined a favorite pastime—bargain hunting—and a passion—helping homeless pets. She returned briefly to her hometown of Lincoln, Neb., where she shadowed a friend with a second-hand shop. Then with her husband, Toby Tobias, she opened her dream shop, Second Life, in Avondale Estates earlier this month.
The business name has a double meaning. When customers buy the previously owned items in the store they help to give homeless animals a chance at adoption. Actually a nonprofit, the business depends on donated items and volunteer help. Mahrous is the only employee. “And right now, I’m pretty much a volunteer, too,” Second Life’s president and co-founder said with a laugh. Tobias, who spends most of his time working toward a Ph.D. degree at the University of Georgia, works there on a volunteer basis whenever he has free time.
Profits are donated to four non-profit organizations that have missions that involve rescuing animals. One day, Mahrous said, there may be actual adoption events at the store, which she said offers education on spaying, neutering and pet adoption. The only animal in the store most days, however, is the couple’s Dalmatian Lucky.
“He’s our CSO—our chief smile officer,” Mahrous said. “He makes our customers smile.” The 15- or 16-year-old animal—elderly by dog standards—comes slowly forward to check out strangers who come in, then returns to his bed in the corner.
She said that Lucky, whom they adopted just days before he was scheduled to be euthanized, has been with them approximately 10 years. “He was classified as hard to place because he was a large, older dog—and male. Most people want smaller dogs and want to adopt them as puppies. They also more often want females. I can’t imagine what the last 10 years would have been like without him.”
After looking around a bit, Mahrous and Tobias settled on the space near North Clarendon and Avondale Road, which she said seems to be working out perfectly. It’s near their home and has other advantages as well. “There are lots of other bargain shops in the area—Finders Keepers, the Salvation Army—and that actually helps since people shopping resale stores like to go to areas where there are several of them. We’re right next to the police station so we feel safe, and it’s a nice large space.”
In fact, the owners first thought the space might be too big. “We were going to partition it off to keep it from looking bare, but that hasn’t been necessary since large numbers of donations came in the first week,” Mahrous said.
She noted that she’s also pleased with the quality of the merchandise that’s being donated. “Many of our donors tell me that they are so delighted with what we’re doing that they are happy to donate high quality items.”
Mahrous said that her experience as a bargain hunter has helped in pricing the merchandise. When something really unusual is donated, she may ask the donor for help in assessing its value. Second Life sells gently used clothing, home décor and furniture in a boutique-style environment. The owners say they are striving for consignment store quality at thrift store prices. “We want to give our customers good deals, but we want to make enough money to make a real difference,” Mahrous said.
Noting that approximately 80,000 unwanted pets—about 200 a day—are put to death in the Atlanta area each year, Mahrous said, “If we can reduce that number substantially, this will all be worthwhile.” The store’s mantra, she said, is “save money; save a pet’s life.” | <urn:uuid:9a88195d-7642-4f40-bd3d-2d6790c5fb5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.championnewspaper.com/news/articles/779new-store-in-avondale-estates-gives-second-chance-to-merchandise-and-pets779.html?comment_id=6559 | 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 | 0.978623 | 866 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Mobile Support Equipment Operators operate military vehicles ranging in size from standard automobiles to snow removal equipment and all-terrain vehicles.
The primary responsibilities of the Mobile Support Equipment Operator are to:
- Operate buses, automobiles, trucks and tractor-trailers
- Operate specialized mobile equipment such as fuelling tankers, snowplows, tractors and all-terrain vehicles
- Receive, load, secure and unload materiel and equipment transported by road
- Provide transportation support for combat and field operations
- Maintain equipment in serviceable condition by cleaning, inspecting and correcting minor faults
- Prepare dispatch schedules and coordinate user requirements for vehicles and equipment
- Prepare and maintain job-related forms, records and reports
Mobile Support Equipment Operators encounter a variety of employment and environmental conditions as they are required to operate a broad range of mobile support equipment. Conditions may vary from working indoors on bases to working outdoors, especially during field operations and while on missions abroad.
The starting salary for a fully-trained Mobile Support Equipment Operator is $49,400 per year; however, depending on previous experience and training the starting salary may be higher. Mobile Support Equipment Operators who demonstrate the required ability, dedication and potential are selected for opportunities for career progression, promotion and advanced training.
The first stage of training is the Basic Military Qualification course, or Basic Training, held at the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. This training provides the basic core skills and knowledge common to all trades. A goal of this course is to ensure that all recruits maintain the Canadian Forces physical fitness standard; as a result, the training is physically demanding.
After Basic Training, Army recruits go to a Military Training centre for the Soldier Qualification course for approximately one month, which covers the following topics:
- Army Physical Fitness
- Dismounted Offensive and Defensive Operations
- Reconnaissance Patrolling
- Advanced Weapons Handling
- Individual Field Craft
Mobile Support Equipment Operators attend training in Borden, Ontario, for approximately 70 days of training in the following areas:
- Operation of both standard and automatic shift vehicles including Standard Military Pattern vehicles
- Field operations, camouflage, re-supply techniques
- Tactical/Administrative Road moves
- Operation of vehicle systems and components
- Vehicle recovery
- Use of military maps
- Basic knowledge of Air Field Operations
- Dangerous Goods
- Dangerous Goods Instructor
Mobile Support Equipment Operators may be offered the opportunity to develop specialized skills through formal courses and on-the-job training, including:
- Safety Supervisor
- Evasive Anti-terrorist Driver
- Evasive Anti-terrorist Driver Instructor
- Tractor-trailer Instructor
- Bus Instructor
- Instructional Techniques
- Air Brake Systems Instructor
- Master Driver
As they progress in their career, Mobile Support Equipment Operators who demonstrate the required ability and potential will be offered advanced training. Available courses include:
- Section Commander training
- Middle management
- Fleet management
This position is available for part-time employment through the Reserves. Reservists generally work part-time for a Reserve unit in their community. They are not posted or required to do a military move. However, they can volunteer to move to another base. They may also volunteer for deployment on a military mission within or outside Canada.
Reservists train with their home unit to ensure that they meet the required professional standards of the job. If additional training is required in order to specialize skills, arrangements will be made by the home unit.
Typically, Reservists work or train with their home unit for at least four evenings and one weekend per month, from September to May of each year. They are paid 85% of Regular Force rates of pay and receive a reasonable benefits package. | <urn:uuid:f64a7316-222a-45b8-bd0f-a4c63bc70b10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forces.ca/en/job/mobilesupportequipmentoperator-89 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939983 | 781 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Today’s blog is -NOT- about Second Life. This blog is usually a “Second Life” commentary and fan blog, but not today. If you got here from some source outside of Second Life, you can probably ignore the posts after this one. This one relates to real world recent political events, with an historical perspective on why I feel these events are a prelude to disaster.
People have no sense of history. So they doom themselves to repeat its worst excesses.
We’re rolling ourselves back to the Robber Barons of the 1890s. No… we’ve already done that.
Two facts that have shaken America to its core on an economic level;
- The ruling that corporations can spend in unlimited amounts on elections. In the USA, a corporation is considered a human being. Well, not really; it has more rights than a human being. Human beings can only spend in limited amounts. Human beings can be imprisoned. Human beings can be put to death. Corps are immune to all of these sanctions. Human beings have free speech. Corps have extra free speech. Corps are allowed to speak for others – using their money against their will to spend on behalf of the corps owners. Corps can blacklist human beings that work for them and have dissenting opinions…
- Unions used to have these same powers. That gave people the ability to organize and gain an ability to speak back. Unions have been getting rapidly stripped of said powers. Wisconsin is now leading the charge in stripping unions down into nothing – in an effort to remove the voice of the middle and working classes.
We are back to union busting. Every American who has graduated high school should know this story… Of the days when Pinkerton guards were sent out in death squads to kill unionists. Wait… that’s what’s going on today among farm workers. But they’re migrants so no one cares…
We need to remember the late 19th century here. Well, we need to remember the entire Industrial Revolution, right up until the end of WWII.
It was a time of mass exploitation. A time when the North moved past the South because paying people -less- than a living wage for more profitable than keeping slaves. Gains were made for some, but at great costs to others – a process that led right into the Great Depression. All because the ‘job creator’ class was let lose to exploit and steal from the rest of us. They don’t make jobs; they destroy opportunity. We need to remember that America was -NOT- a first world power in those days. It was a wannabe nation, the lesser to its betters in Europe, Japan, and Ethiopia.
It was only when Europe tore itself apart over these same concerns that America had its chance. With exploitation in Europe reaching to the same levels as the US, revolutions and wars ripped the continent apart. America’s robber barons only got involved in these messes when they had to. In both of the great wars of that age; we had to be pushed into action.
America’s rise to greatness came out of World War II’s end, but our middle class, and the stability we got from them; came as a direct result of empowering unions and the GI Bill so that the working class; the exploited classes, could rise up rather than revolt. Unions saved us from following Russia’s path of revolution. Look back to that era, and radical movements of communists were very active. The elites, Babylon; feared unions – and tried very hard to bust them on a claim that they were somehow communist.
But what is a union? Its an exercise of people coming together to say that a person should be fairly paid for their work, have proper representation in the machine of their labor, and be well off enough to be able to participate as consumers in the marketplace.
Unions are the most Capitalist thing you can think of.
A tool to convert workers from ‘workers’ into market actors by… giving them the power to make money off of their labor. This is why in every communist revolution, the first thing they do is seize control over these organizations and make them arms of the state – left alone, Unions will subvert, devour, and destroy Communist systems by creating individual wealth among the workers.
They do that simply because empowering common people destroys -ANY- tool of power and exploitation.
Including Babylon’s; the Robber Barons, Bankers, the 1%ers.
We need to recall how after WWII, when unions became as common as Wonder Bread and Saturday morning cartoons – incomes rose. Common working class people once content to live in barios and work in harsh factories gained the power to own homes, buy goods, get educated, and move -UP-.
And that led to the rise of America as a power to be taken seriously. The so-called American century.
Destroy the unions, and you break the back of the “common man”.
The ripping apart of Unions by such forces of Babylon as Governor Walker is directly aimed at removing the voice of the masses. Follow the trendline. Empowering corporate speech – unlimited funding into political sources, because these demonic things with no corporeal body are somehow ‘people’… coupled with removing the rights of people to organize on their own, because their barely living wage is somehow too high… well those organization the people make… they are made to give them political voice. Voice that will fall silent.
That’s a path right into darkness. Back to an age when the people exist for no purpose other than to be exploited by the wealthy. Its a fool’s journey, even for those 1%. They too quickly forget how well they have benefited from empowering their ‘peasants’. Our wealth, our labor, our inventiveness; has been trickling -UP- to them for half a century to give them amazing benefits. But they are greedy, shallow, empty creatures. Like the scorpion crossing the river on the frog’s back; they are willing to kill everything for just another $1 of greed.
And the fools in Wisconsin have fallen for it… empowered them further by keeping this hydra of Babylon in place. Given a chance to remove the monster, they have instead chosen to fall over and destroy their futures for him. Sooner or later though, people are going to find themselves in utter desperation again.
I come out of the ghetto; I know what happens when people have nowhere to turn, no chances, and sense no future. They get violent… destructive… ruinous…
We should know this. We only have to look at how high crime rates used to be in harder times…
Is this the way they want us to live?
Yes… it is…
Go back to your Robber Baron era again… they used to even speak openly about this. Creating violent ghettos kept the people distracted from paying attention to the real problems. The only problem was a fear of those masses having enough free time to start talking to each other. Opposition to unions began there. As did opposition to shorter work days, birth control, and easy education. If the peasants got too smart, if they could control their families, if they had free time… they’d surely revolt rather than live in such conditions.
- And today we see pushes to ramp up production and hours, remove family planning, strip education, and kill organizing…
But you know… everything has a breaking point.
The last time we went down this path, while half the world went into revolution, the USA had a change of heart and stopped busting unions, and managed to keep things cool. But everywhere else…
Do we really want to go there?
I hope not, but I can’t help thinking of that everytime I think of those occupy folks… Sooner or later, its going to get rough:
(watch the footage and the 2nd interview that cuts in at 2:00, moreso than the song.)
In times like this, we could really use some leaders, some inspiration; to stop these folks.
Rastafari is very much an answer for many, on a personal level; to this exploitation of politricks. Its a rejection of Babylon’s game through spirituality and biblical wisdom; after all Jesus came from the suferah class, and was very much opposed to the exploitation of common people by the wealthy. But its a hard path, to get Babylon to see sense.
The alternative is a nation wracked by internal strife as the 1% isolate themselves into walled off camps and force the rest of us to struggle in ghettos and prey upon each other. If you think that’s fanciful, you have only to look at what the elites in Jamaica – the former slave holding plantation class – did there after the British crown left, and to the situation in much of central America. That’s where Walker and the Tea Party types will take us.
So, a final comment:
Do no evil. | <urn:uuid:405298fb-f53e-4634-af9c-26a77c92fa6f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/disaster-in-wisconsin-prelude-to-the-end-of-the-usa-as-a-first-world-nation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966481 | 1,889 | 1.703125 | 2 |
The "achievement" of prominence for the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) in 2010 seems to be the inauguration of the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) at the 16th ASEAN Summit in April 2010 at Hanoi..
China's Ascent and ASEAN by Sanchita Basu Das
In a major milestone, in August 2010, fast growing China overtook Japan to become the world's second-largest economy. According to data released by the two countries, in 2009, China's nominal GDP was US$5.0 trillion and Japan's US$5.1trillion, but summing the four quarters to Q2-2010, China's economy swelled to US$5.4 trillion, cruising past Japan's US$5.2 trillion.
Has the US become a banana republic? by Rodolfo Severino
ON THE eve of his current four-nation swing through Asia, President Barack Obama of the United States published an op-ed piece in The New York Times (NYT). In that piece, he sought to justify his trip in terms of jobs and exports.
ASEAN's Forum for Maintaining Peace by Rodolfo Severino
ASEAN and the South China Sea by Rodolfo Severino
Territorial claims in the South China Sea are one of the most longstanding security issues in South East Asia. In this article, former ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo C. Severino reviews the claims of ASEAN members in the area, and details ASEAN's involvement in the dispute since the 1992 ASEAN Declaration on the South China Sea.
I thank the Chief Whip for his question and acknowledge from the outset the role he played in the last Parliament, from 2008, in arguing very strongly that Australia having an association with the ASEAN Defence Ministers was most important and arguing for the outcome that we saw last week, the ASEAN-Plus Defence Ministers' Meeting.
Good Start on ASEAN Defence Cooperation by Ian Storey
THE inaugural Asean Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) in Hanoi earlier this week represents an important milestone in efforts by Asean and its dialogue partners to enhance peace and stability in a region grown anxious by fractious maritime disputes.
ASEAN in a Tight Spot by Barry Wain
IT IS the morning after in South-east Asia. Initially buoyed by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's willingness to stand up to Beijing over the South China Sea, some Asean governments now have second thoughts about having urged American intervention.
ECFA not the way for Taiwan, ASEAN by Rodolfo C. Severino
On June 29, Mr Chen Yunlin, president of the Association of Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, on behalf of the People's Republic of China, and Mr Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation, signed in Chongqing the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.
ASEAN on path to achieving AEC goal by Sanchita Basu Das
Despite hiccups and hurdles faced by member countries, ASEAN's economic integration efforts won't be derailed easily ASEAN leaders have repeatedly conveyed their political will and commitment to build an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015. They signed the ASEAN Charter in 2007, which put in place the institutions and mechanism to build up an ASEAN community.
Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed to invite the United States and Russia to participate in the region-wide forum, the East Asia Summit (EAS), which encompasses ASEAN plust six: Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India.
The Thai-Cambodian conflict over the Preah Vihear, a Khmer Temple, has been recently further intensified after Cambodia proposed to the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) a development plan for the disputed 4.6 sq km area adjacent to the controversial temple.
One interesting news item that seems to have emanated from the recent ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Hanoi is ASEAN's wish to help ensure the "credibility" of the forthcoming elections in Myanmar. Several ASEAN foreign ministers speaking to members of the press after their retreat session revealed ASEAN's suggestion that Myanmar should allow ASEAN observers to the elections in Myanmar.
ASEAN's Soaring Energy Challenge by Michael Richardson
Singapore's energy policy report in 2007 surveyed options for electricity generation and decided that for the time being natural gas, the cleanest fossil fuel, was the best bet.
Facing up to Second-Half Challenges by Sanchita Basu Das
Domestic demand and govt's ability to provide stimulus will likely help S'pore withstand external demand slowdown SINGAPORE'S blistering economic growth rate of 18.1 per cent year on year in the first half of 2010 makes it one of the fastest-growing nations in the world.
The Upside to Wage Hikes in China by Sanchita Basu Das
IS "Made in China" losing ground? In the past few months, Chinese factories have been hit by several strikes as the workers demanded higher pay. Employers in China also reported trouble in recruiting new employees after migrant workers failed to return to their jobs in the coastal regions after the Chinese New Year holidays.
Taking the bus to work, going to school, seeing the doctor - these are fundamental rights that we, as citizens of a country, take as given because they are built into the legal framework and the economic and social contract that form the fabric of our society. They are, for the most part, upheld by the laws of our country. This is not the case for refugees living in certain host countries; they have no recourse to the protection of their own government nor to that of their host or occupying country.
ASEAN at the G-20 by Sanchita Basu Das
The ASEAN Chair, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung of Vietnam and the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, will be attending the G-20 Summit in Toronto, where the world's leading economies will tackle the post-crisis global economy.
Towards a better security framework by K Kesavapany
The ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus Eight has finally got the leaders' nod for its first gathering to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam, in October this year. The nod could not have come at a better time.
The Thai conflict seems to have subsided for now. But Thailand has not reached the end of the protracted political trouble. Some of the red-shirted members already returned home in the north and northeast regions. Some disappeared in obscurity.
ASEAN+8 best way to engage US, Russia by Rodolfo C. Severino
A major breakthrough seems to have been achieved in ASEAN's relations with the world's major powers, and the shaping of East Asia's international configuration. In their recent meeting in Singapore, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono were reported to have agreed - subject, of course, to the concurrence of the other eight ASEAN nations - on ASEAN inviting the leaders of Russia and the United States to a summit meeting with the 10 ASEAN countries, together with Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand, in an 'ASEAN+8' setting.
Thailand's embattled Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has called for national reconciliation after the bloody army crackdown on anti-government red shirt protesters but this is unlikely to mend the deep rifts exposed by the political crisis in Thai society. What ails Thai politics is the end of a political consensus to eschew violence and resolve conflicts within parliamentary institutions. It threatens to become more unstable with blood on the streets unless the trend is reversed.
Life After Nargis by Moe Thuzar
On 2 May 2008, Cyclone Nargis smashed into Myanmar's southwest coast, devastating much of Myanmar's lower delta area and leaving a toll of some 140,000 dead or missing. Some 7 million lost families, homes and livelihoods. Damages and losses were estimated at US$4 billion.
With the global economy still coming out of its misery in 2008-2009, Greece got badly exposed for its years of unrestrained spending and failure to implement financial reforms. The country's statistics revealed a national debt of US$414 billion, bigger than the country's economy, and a fiscal deficit of 12.7 percent of the GDP.
ASEAN+8 – A recipe for a new regional architecture by K Kesavapany
As the international centre of economic gravity moves towards East Asia, the challenge for the region is to develop a new architecture commensurate with its growing role in world affairs.
Are ASEAN Members Ready for the AEC by 2015? by Sanchita Basu Das
ASEAN leaders have repeatedly conveyed their political will and commitment to build an ASEAN economic community (AEC) by 2015. They signed the ASEAN Charter in 2007, which put in place the institutions and mechanism to build up an ASEAN community.
ASEAN central to the region's future by Surin Pitsuwan
During his visit to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat in Jakarta on 4 March 2010, Kofi Anan, former United Nations Secretary General, commended ASEAN for having regained its profile in the international arena. This profile is something that needs to be nurtured further.
ASEAN shows way to a single market by Sanchita Basu Das
When the 16th ASEAN Summit convened in Vietnam on 8th April 2010, it grabbed the headlines of national newspapers for many problems among its member countries. Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva cancelled his trip to the Summit to deal with mass antigovernment protests in Bangkok.
There has been an increasing sentiment in Washington and capitals of the ASEAN states that the bilateral relationship between ASEAN and the United States must be restructured to reflect rapidly changing realities.
Slowly but Surely - ASEAN's Progress in Dispute Resolution by S Tiwari
ASEAN made good progress, at the recently completed Hanoi Summit, in further developing its dispute resolution framework. This is an important plus for ASEAN. It strengthens ASEAN's position as a rules-based organisation However, it needs to do more and at a faster pace.
In his address in Singapore last November, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama explained that his vision of an East Asian community was inspired by the concept of yu-ai, a legacy from his grandfather, which means "fraternity."
16th ASEAN SUMMIT - Families Are Messy But Important by Ernest Z. Bower
A New Role for Aung San Suu Kyi? by Pavin Chachavalpongpun
Looking across the mighty Hlaing River, one does not need to know much of Burmese history to realize that Rangoon was once a culturally rich city. But in 2005, the Burmese regime led by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) famously decided to abandon the beautifully crafted capital city to the greenfield site in Naypyidaw as the country's new government center.
China trade pact will be good for Taiwan by Sanchita Basu Das
The ASEAN-China Free Trade Area came into effect in January, but now all eyes are on the proposed trade pact between China and Taiwan. The two sides are widely expected to sign the China-Taiwan Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) this year. But how will China's free trade agreement (FTA) with ASEAN affect Taiwan?
Why ASEAN Matters to the U.S. by Keith Luse
Twenty-one years ago, determining that ASEAN mattered to the U.S., the Center partnered with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore to produce an assessment and recommendations for improved economic relations between the U.S. and ASEAN. The joint final report, (which I have here), prepared by an extensive steering committee, among other things, recommended a U.S. – ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which "could also serve as a forerunner to a wider accord in the Asia-Pacific region".
4 Key Tasks for ASEAN Leaders at Summit by Rodolfo C. Severino
Next week, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will convene its summit in Hanoi, the capital of this year's ASEAN chair. In the 43 years of its existence, ASEAN has been holding leaders' meetings with increasing frequency. The grouping did not have a summit until February 1976, more than eight years after its founding.
An ASEAN Economic Community by 2015? by Rodolfo C. Severino
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has of late been repeating, like a mantra, its aspiration to become an "ASEAN Economic Community" by 2015. The approach of that deadline – a mere five years away – has prompted concerned observers to wonder whether that aspiration can be fulfilled on time.
Australia and ASEAN: 35 Years On by Gillian Bird
A significant event for ASEAN by Rodolfo C. Severino
In A few days, United States President Barack Obama will be visiting Indonesia. It will be an event that many observers rightly consider to be historic in Indonesia-US relations. After all, Indonesia is the fourth-largest country in the world, and clearly the largest in Southeast Asia.
Asia-Pacific Security: Community, Concert or What? by Amitav Acharya
A new Asia Pacific regional grouping is being debated as a direct consequence of developments in Asia-Pacific diplomacy around the Australian proposal for an Asia Pacific community (APc) and the emergence of the G20 global forum.
For a long while now, we have all heard criticisms of ASEAN being a paper tiger or even a toothless tiger. The "ASEAN way" of building consensus and our policy of non-interference in each other's internal affairs are regularly ridiculed as being ineffective. We are chided for not having a strong legal and decision-making framework.
Myanmar's reclusive military junta has finally settled on rules that will govern long-awaited elections this year, though the measures thus far remain largely secret. On Tuesday, official media reported that a Union Election Commission comprised of at least five people -- required to be "prominent and of good reputation" -- would be formed to oversee political parties and organize the vote.
ASEAN Centrality in Regional Integration by K Kesavapany
There has been much talk and some controversy of late about "a new architecture" for dealing, in an overarching manner, with political, security and economic issues in the Asia-Pacific region.
China-ASEAN FTA: Why the anxiety now? by Rodolfo C. Severino
As 2009 turned into 2010, the mass media got all excited about the 'entry into force' of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA). This mini-frenzy was fed by Indonesians sounding the alarm about a flood of cheap Chinese goods overpowering the products of uncompetitive Indonesian industries.
Thailand is currently hosting the "Cobra Gold 2010" or CG10, the annual joint exercise with the United States and regional armed forces. The 10-day military exercise kicked off on Feb 1 in Rayong, with the participation of Thailand, the United States, Singapore, Japan and South Korea.
The government is planning to limit the flood of agricultural imports from China as a result of the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement by applying non-tariff barriers, a senior official at the Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday.
I'm delighted to be here at the East-West Center in a new year that marks your 50th anniversary on this beautiful campus in this most extraordinary place. Before I begin with this critically important subject about our future in Asia, I want to just say a few words about developments in Haiti.
The start of 2010 was celebrated by some, but many Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) industrial interests viewed the new year with great apprehension. For them, January 1 marked the full implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) agreement and ASEAN China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA).
Canberra's regional vision 'limited' by Tommy Koh
Australia and Singapore enjoy a warm relationship going back to World War II. Singaporeans will never forget the sacrifices made by Australian armed forces defending Singapore during that war, the Malayan Emergency and Konfrontasi.
The ASEAN Charter: One year on by Rodolfo C. Severino
December 2009 marked the first anniversary of the entry into force of the new Charter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The Charter went into effect one month after the last of ASEAN's ten members deposited its instrument of ratification. | <urn:uuid:ddd0143d-ef9f-48e9-8c89-48fe82a2a774> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://asc.iseas.edu.sg/opinions/opinions-2010 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945347 | 3,585 | 1.734375 | 2 |
St. Anthony Community Hospital Center for Diabetes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Deborah Marshall, Vice President of Public Relations, Marketing & Strategic Planning
or Tom Leek, Public Relations Manager
St. Anthony Community Hospital Center for Diabetes offers educational classes Diabetes patient credits program for helping him lose 115 pounds – and taking control of the disease
WARWICK (FEB. 1) – It’s an amazing accomplishment: In less than one year Steve Blehl of Milford, Pa., who has Type 2 diabetes, lost 115 pounds and, through proper diet and mild exercise, has managed to take control of the disease.
Along with support at home, Blehl credits his success to his instructors and the courses they taught in the Diabetes Center at St. Anthony Community Hospital.
“They were fabulous,” he said. “They gave me the right training and the right tools. I never thought I would change my lifestyle. Now I can’t imagine living differently.”
The Diabetes Center at St. Anthony Community Hospital offers a series of classes for people who have been recently diagnosed with diabetes or those who demonstrate poorly controlled diets. During group or individual sessions, clinical instructors offer initial assessment and emotional support, and will seek to help patients achieve a better understanding of the disease. They will show their patients how to live a normal and productive life with diabetes and how to control the
disease through diet and exercise.
Patients like Blehl often share their experience to provide encouragement to others.
Blehl, who last spring weighed a much as 370 pounds, blames much of his weight gain on “stress eating,” a bad habit he developed before he retired from a stressful job as a police sergeant. His hemoglobin A1c test - an average of blood sugar control over a six to 12 week period – measured 13.2 percent. Normal is between four and six per cent.
Bhehl’s most recent test result was 5.5 percent. He is off all medication.
“I feel better than I have felt in 20 years,” said Blehl. “I’ve been given a second chance at life.”
In order to help limit his daily food intake to 2,000 calories, Blehl employs portion control strategies such as using small plates and salad forks. And to help keep in shape he takes the stairs instead of the elevator and parks his car at the far end of the shopping plaza.
“Losing weight and keeping it off starts within you,” said Certified Diabetes Educator Lourdes Braadt, RN. “You have to have the desire then muster up the will power and keep it alive every day. If you eat less and move more, the results you are looking for will follow.
“But don’t expect it overnight. Be patient. At our program we provide you with information regarding healthy eating and exercise, as well as encouragement and motivation to help you in your life-long journey to good health.”
Additional information about the Diabetes Center at St. Anthony Community Hospital is available by calling 845-987-5168 or at bschs.bonsecours.com.
One hundred fifteen pounds lighter: Steve Blehl credits his weight loss success to his instructors and the courses they taught in the Diabetes Center at St. Anthony Community Hospital.
About Bon Secours Charity Health System
Bon Secours Charity Health System comprises Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Suffern, New York, and two community hospitals, Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis, New York, and St. Anthony Community Hospital in Warwick, New York.
Bon Secours Charity Health System also includes a certified home health agency, two long-term care facilities, an assisted living/adult home facility, and several other off-site medical programs.
The Health System, which draws its name from its two Catholic sponsors, the Sisters of Bon Secours and the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, serves nearly 1 million people. With more than 3,400 employees, the Health System is one of the region’s largest employers. For more information, visit bschs.bonsecours.com. | <urn:uuid:9fd834b3-2401-4a89-98b4-f6d300244253> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bschs.org/news-and-events-newsroom.html?newsID=1A1F5B91-E33B-408D-897D-EBB697CDEB6C | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943188 | 871 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Yesterday I shared the indoor rock climbing wall we put together for CJ’s sensory playroom. While the wall has been used tremendously since it was originally installed, it wasn’t until a couple weeks ago that we had the idea to add-on an access ladder.
We decided on a partial climbing wall mainly to address CJ’s therapy needs. As our little guy has become stronger and a bit more confident, random objects have suddenly started to appear in front of the wall - used as stepping stools to get to the holds when we are not directly working on exercises.
The ladder not only allows him access to the climbing wall, but serves as an additional strengthening obstacle in itself. So it’s a win, win and a good thing – as it only means our little guy is progressing and building up his tone.
Since we didn’t want to move or adjust anything that was already installed and in place – Butch put together some simple plans to build a ladder to perfectly fit the space we had.
We began with two 2X4′s – used as the side rails for our ladder.
Both were cut to length to fit the climbing wall.
We decided to use dowels for the ladder treads, so Butch mapped out the spacing on the 2X4′s and drilled each marking with a hole saw bit. To create a pocket for each of the dowels to sit – the hole saw bit was drilled just a 1/2 inch deep into the 2X4 – then the center was chiseled out.
Once all of the pockets were created on both 2×4′s the dowels were cut to length. The dowels were then lined up and inserted into the pockets – along with a generous amount of wood glue.
To further strengthen the dowels, and prevent them from spinning, wood screws were screwed into the dowel from the outside of the 2X4 as well. Note: pocket holes were used so they could be filled with stainable wood filler.
The bottom of the ladder rails were then notched out to sit flush with the baseboard molding. A piece of scrap wood was also attached to the top and bottom tread, for mounting, as shown below.
The entire ladder was then completely sanded smooth and stained with natural wood stain.
Here is that extra piece of wood I mentioned above. Since the wall stud is in the center of the ladder, Butch glued and screwed a piece of wood to the top and bottom tread to serve as a mounting base. Metal L brackets were then bolted to the wall stud and attached to these extra pieces of wood to secure the ladder in place.
Above you can see the notched areas to accommodate the base molding.
I tried to get some action shots but got a silly boy instead.
Then he was completely done… | <urn:uuid:b11a5f22-c855-4e42-9eaf-9a2f44353236> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2013/02/diy-indoor-playroom-climbing-ladder.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981872 | 586 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Pharmaceutical Returns or Waste Disposal Management
As the leader is healthcare waste management, Stericycle can help you with your pharmaceutical waste disposal and returns management by providing compliant returns and drug waste services. Learn more about our different business-to-business programs for:
Pharmaceutical Waste Disposal Management
- Healthcare Professional Offices
- Hospitals and Other Large Healthcare Facilities
- ExpertSUSTAINABILITY StrongPak for Retail Pharmacies
Pharmaceutical Return Service
Our Expertise Helps You Be Compliant With Regulations
The disposal of pharmaceuticals and their components are regulated by federal and local regulations or laws. Understanding which regulations apply to you may depend on your type of business, your volume of waste, and the specific type of wastes. Stericycle’s programs are designed to meet the regulatory requirements that apply to you and the pharmaceutical waste you generate. We have developed simple pharmaceutical programs that help you identify your controlled substance wastes, hazardous wastes, and other drug wastes to make sure that each is disposed of properly.
Concern Over Proper Disposal of Pharmaceuticals
Based on our internal expert research, hundreds of clinical, peer-reviewed articles have documented the presence of pharmaceuticals or their constituents in drinking water and/or groundwater in the United States and other developed nations. Furthermore, the Environmental Protection Agency under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) mandates proper disposal of any drug that meets the criteria for being a hazardous waste.
Other pharmaceuticals that are not currently regulated under RCRA are often called non-RCRA hazardous pharmaceuticals. Best management practices encourage the disposal of pharmaceuticals that are non-RCRA hazardous waste by incineration at a facility permitted to accept non-RCRA hazardous pharmaceuticals.
These pharmaceuticals should not be placed into red bags or sharps containers as these may be treated by methods other than incineration. Segregation (separation) of these items into a dedicated non-RCRA pharmaceutical container, marked for incineration, helps to ensure proper disposal.
Additionally, California Department of Public Health requires the segregation and incineration of affected waste pharmaceuticals that are not federally regulated under Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). These must be incinerated at a medical waste treatment facility.
Pharmaceutical Waste Disposal FAQs
- What are hazardous pharmaceutical wastes or RCRA drugs?
- What are controlled or scheduled substances?
- What is source segregation?
- What is trace chemotherapy?
- What can I do with unused pharmaceuticals in the home setting?
What are hazardous pharmaceutical wastes or RCRA drugs?
Many drugs can be hazardous to people or animals, if not taken as prescribed. However, the term “hazardous,” in the context of drug wastes, specifically refers to pharmaceuticals that are identified by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) as environmental hazards for people, animals, and the environment.
RCRA (pronounced WRECK-rah or RICK-rah), outlined by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), gives guidance regarding medications that are known environmental hazards. These are called hazardous pharmaceutical wastes or RCRA drug wastes. By law, RCRA drug wastes must be disposed of by a company, such as Stericycle, that specializes in hazardous waste management.
Many factors are considered when deciding if pharmaceutical waste is hazardous or non-RCRA hazardous. These include your state and local requirements, drug formulation distinctions, differences in manufacturers, and alternate delivery modes.
Among others, RCRA identifies the following as hazardous wastes:
- P-listed drugs including nicotine and warfarin
- U-listed drugs including cyclophosphamide, lindane, melphalan, and mitomycin C
- Pharmaceuticals containing heavy metals and mercury, such as some vaccines, eye and ear drops containing thimerosal, and barium sulfate preparations, among others.
Pharmaceutical may also be classified as “characteristic wastes” or wastes that have certain traits which pose threats for transportation and destruction. The four characteristics include:
Pharmaceuticals with these characteristics may need to be segregated into separate hazardous waste containers and not commingled (mixed) with other wastes.
What are controlled or scheduled substances?
Controlled substances are those that are defined by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Among others, they include depressants, hallucinogens, narcotics, and stimulants. Controlled substances are sometimes called scheduled substances, because of the DEA’s schedule, or classification (CI-CV). This schedule is based on each controlled substance’s theoretical potential for addiction and its medicinal purpose. The destruction of any of these scheduled substances must be witnessed as required by DEA.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), an agency of the US Department of Justice, requires that controlled substances be destroyed as directed by the Agency. This type of disposal is called “witnessed destruction.”
Stericycle can arrange the logistics associated with witnessed destruction.
What is source segregation?
When referring to pharmaceutical waste disposal, the word “segregation” simply means separating the different types of wastes by method of ultimate disposal.
“Source segregating” refers to disposing pills, powders, or liquids in a safe way at the time and place that they are expired, off-specification, or cannot be used (eg, medication change, patient goes home).
Source segregationis an important step in ensuring that your pharmaceutical waste disposal program is compliant with all federal and state laws.
At Stericycle, our team members can help you identify which type of pharmaceuticals can go into one single, non-RCRA hazardous waste container and which need to be segregated by law. We can also help you with the logistics of disposing pharmaceuticals at their source.
What is trace chemotherapy?
Trace chemotherapy is separated from other wastes and labeled for incineration. Some types of chemotherapy — even in small amounts — may not be disposed of as trace chemotherapy but are considered RCRA hazardous waste. Also, all full bags or bottles of chemotherapy (those containing more than 3% of the original contents by weight) are considered RCRA hazardous waste and must be disposed as such.
Trace chemotherapy is defined as vials or other containers that have less than 3% of the original contents by weight, after removing as much of the chemotherapy feasible. It also includes the chemotherapy remaining in all needles, bags, tubing, containers, gloves, and gowns used during chemotherapy infusions. When less than 3% of the original content remains in total, the items may be considered RCRA empty.
Trace chemotherapy is segregated and incinerated as a regulatory requirement in some states but as a best management practice in others. P-listed chemo wastes, however, are not eligible to be handled as trace chemo in any quantity and are required to be handled as hazardous waste.
Although there is no legal name for chemotherapy amounts that exceed 3% by volume, they are commonly referred to as “bulk” chemotherapy. Bulk chemotherapy, which falls under RCRA hazardous waste regulations, such as full bags or bottles, and P-listed chemo drugs must be disposed of as hazardous waste. However, the National Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends that all types of chemotherapy, antiviral medications, hormones, and immunosuppressant drugs be treated as hazardous waste. As a best practice, Stericycle also recommends that bulk chemotherapy be treated as hazardous waste.
What can I do with unused pharmaceuticals in the home setting?
If you are an individual with unused pharmaceuticals needing proper destruction, contact your city or county government agency that manages household waste and recycling to inquire about pharmaceutical take-back programs. If programs are not available, please follow recommendations from the local authority having jurisdiction or the US Food and Drug Administration for disposal of unused medicines. | <urn:uuid:ca77c3ee-896d-4cd8-bd1d-94ba9cb56705> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stericycle.com/pharmaceutical-returns-disposal | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934092 | 1,611 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Bring Overseas Jobs Back Home, Tops Presidents To-Do List
To the subtext of a race for the presidency, President Barack Obama in his 2012 State of the Union address called for a nation where everyone gets a fair shot and plays by the same rules.
The presence of Gabrielle Gifford softened the room for a few minutes in advance of the president’s state of the union address Tuesday night.
The president turned quickly to job creation and the economy asking American business leaders with outsourced interests to ask themselves what can they do to bring jobs back home.
Obama called for moves to discourage outsourcing and encourage insourcing and says he wants to see taxes lowered for companies that manufacture and create jobs in the United States.
On the energy front he says his administration will promote safe, responsible development of natural gas supplies that could mean more than 600,000 jobs, adding that in 2009 the U.S. became the world’s leading producer of natural gas.
He also indicated support of shale gas development.
He presented the “Buffet Rule” that would have millionaires pay a minimum 30 percent tax rate. That came as no surprise, nor was his call for an extension of the payroll tax cut for working Americans.
The president will take his message to the road in coming days as he makes a five state tour through states key to his reelection. | <urn:uuid:06c64561-0638-47f4-9ab1-89b95a8e0867> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://k2radio.com/bring-overseas-jobs-back-home-tops-presidents-to-do-list/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976531 | 282 | 1.5625 | 2 |
In X-Men: First Class, the origin of the X-Men world is born during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, with Charles Xavier/Professor X (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto meeting and becoming friends and rivals. The VFX challenge was to visually convey the nascent super powers in exciting and diverse ways, including Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), Emma Frost (January Jones) and the supper baddie, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon).
John Dykstra , a legend in the VFX world, of course, is no stranger to comic superheroes (Spider-Man ). But, as the visual effects designer, he was faced with some new challenges in turning out 1,150 shots: time and budgetary constraints and collaborating with global vendors (among them Digital Domain, Rhythm & Hues, MPC, Cinesite, Weta Digital, Method Studios and Luma Pictures).
"We had a very collapsed schedule," Dykstra concedes. "It was slightly less than a year and I've never done anything like that before (Spider-Man was frequently two years). It was a unique experience for me and I had my misgivings about it, but I really liked [director] Matthew Vaughn's irreverent approach to Kick-Ass . And one of the things I think that the superhero genre lacks is the ability to poke fun at itself. The characters are self-deprecating and I love the whole idea of it being the '60s. When he talked to me initially, he said he wanted it to have the feeling of a James Bond film, and I think it does. We shot in England in the wintertime, and, of course, this is an iconic American film, so the challenge was to find environments that either echoed the American environment feeling or that could be enhanced to look as though the stuff was shot here. The idea also was not to make a movie that looked like it was shot in the '60s…"
"The most challenging thing was to come up with a range of super powers that didn't overlap each other hugely and that we could execute smoothly using Matthew's preference for original photography. We were also constrained by time in terms of preparing things from scratch."
For Shaw, the idea was to convey his ability to absorb energy like a big battery and then unleash it. All of Shaw's scenes were handled by Digital Domain, which principally focused on animating Shaw and handling certain CG environments such as the atrium and mirror room. DD's team consisted of Jay Barton (vfx supervisor), Nikos Kalaitzidis (digital effects supervisor), Bernd Angerer (animation supervisor), Brian Gazdik (effects animation supervisor) and Dan Platt (character modeling lead).
Not surprisingly, the technique for creating CG humans on this one was different from both Benjamin Button and Clu : "We only had a few months to do 100 shots," Kalaitzidis suggests. "We used witness cams so all the animation had to be done by hand for Kevin's performance, and he has quite a distinctive walk and swagger. The mirror room was shot on greenscreen and we had to recreate this digital environment with animated versions of Shaw and Magneto as well as CG body doubles to reflect in the mirrors infinitely. In the past, we used mental ray for CG heads, but here we switched to Vray because we had a lot of motion blur and reflections in the mirrors, so we wanted a renderer that could utilize both.
For Mystique, Rhythm & Hues (under the supervision of Greg Steele) took her transition to a more sophisticated level, according to Dykstra. "In an odd way, the conceit is that when Mystique was younger she did this transformation in a slightly different way: the scales being slightly longer and the transformation being slightly showier than when she became the more mature Rebecca."
Rhythm & Hues also did Angel's wings (modeled after a dragon fly); however, Emma Frost, which posed another significant challenge. Dykstra says they made her like a faceted crystal as opposed to a piece of glass. "That was tough getting the refraction and reflection just right, and the sharpness of the edges so she was able to move without looking like she was made of jell-o or the polygon model of a human being. It's all algorithms: figuring out how much refraction to mix in, how much reflection to include and how much world noise to include as these facets adjust relative to one another for her to be able to move."
Meanwhile, Havok (Lucas Till) required a particular character arc to his light effect, which was done by Luma Pictures (supervised by Vince Cirelli). "He learns how to master its execution which starts out as rings that go in all directions like a light bulb," Dykstra adds.
And what's the big take away on this X-Men prequel?
"There's good news and bad news," Dykstra suggests. "The good news is that we succeeded and I'm proud of the work; the bad news is that we succeeded, which means it will be the standard for how these movies will be made. We were very, very fortunate. We had a director willing to give us responsibility and to trust us to provide him with what he needed, and that decision-making process was collapsed. I hope this doesn't become the norm, but, having said that, I'm sure this will become the norm."
Bill Desowitz is senior editor of AWN & VFXWorld. | <urn:uuid:450099c0-11e9-4408-959f-6ee488e99c21> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.awn.com/print/articles/going-deeper-x-mens-origins?page=0%2C1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977143 | 1,147 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Front Page Titles (by Subject) CHAPTER XI: TARIFF FREEDOM - The Comedy of Protection
The Online Library of Liberty
A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.
CHAPTER XI: TARIFF FREEDOM - Yves Guyot, The Comedy of Protection
The Comedy of Protection, trans. M.A. Hamilton (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1906).
About Liberty Fund:
Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.
The text is in the public domain.
Fair use statement:
This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit.
Two tariffs—Law of January 11, 1892—Saving raw materials.
When it was clear that the landowners had profited by tariff freedom, the manufacturers asked for it too. For a longer or shorter period, the commercial treaties stood in the way of the Protectionist dreams: they must go. M. Méline had succeeded M. Pouyer-Quertier as Protectionist leader. A man devoid of all general ideas, he was ready to promise an equal amount of protection to industries representing diametrically opposite interests. It was decided to replace the commercial treaties by a maximum and minimum tariff; the Government would apply the minimum tariff to the countries giving France most favoured nation treatment, but in no case could the duties be lowered below the scale fixed by the tariff; to other nations the maximum tariff applied.
This system was inaugurated by the law of January 11, 1892, and passed by the Chamber elected in 1889. The Protectionists had left no stone unturned to ensure a majority; in every district reactionaries bargained with the Republican candidates. “Vote for the duties, and we will support you.” Some Protectionists ran labour candidates, paying their expenses in return for their promise of support. Very few Republicans were strong enough to resist; the majority salved their consciences by saying, “After all, unless we vote Protectionist we shan’t get in; and we must not let an enemy of the Republic win the seat.” To keep their seats they guaranteed the rent of the landlord and the profits of the manufacturer. It was a wonderful sight to see a large majority whose interests were entirely opposed to Protection enthusiastically overwhelming with presents an insignificant majority consisting almost exclusively of their political opponents.
The Free Traders had to concentrate all their energies to keep the so-called raw materials duty free—wool, raw cotton, undressed skins, &c. To keep raw silk free, bounties had to be given to silk-growers and spinners. On all manufactured articles duties were raised. It was a triumph for the reaction. | <urn:uuid:d1811a09-2469-4a34-8422-ada57d89368d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2447&chapter=230872&layout=html&Itemid=27 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944178 | 611 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Peace in Cuba: Day 1
So yesterday's "Peace without Borders" concert featuring Juanes and several other "artists" went off as planned. Now all that remains is for the castro dictatorship to declare peace. After all, peace was the objective, no? And the regime has waged a war for the last fifty years. Not a war against Yanqui imperialism, not a war against Cuba's giant neighbor to the north. The castro brothers have been waging war on Cuba's citizens. They harass them, they imprison them, they extort them, they abuse them. Fifty years of violence against the very people the Cuban revolution was meant to serve.
So starting today we will count the days until the castro brothers declare peace so that then we can congratulate Juanes on a job well done. It's early still but I have seen no change in attitude from the rulers of the island. But we have to be patient, after all Juanes is just an "artist" not a politician. But I'm sure if we wait long enough his gesture will pay off. After all, how could it not. I'm sure his music is already having its desired effect on the cold hearts of Cuba's geriatric tyrants.
Join me as we anticipate PEACE IN CUBA! | <urn:uuid:f3c4564a-bd3d-43c3-8bc0-e2a2bfaa2b6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://babalublog.com/2009/09/21/peace-in-cuba-day-1/ | 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 | 0.974873 | 263 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Rob Kim Getty Images Entertainment
Here is something fun to see! Yes, it's a science project on Live With Kelly! The gas is the opposite of helium. As helium is lighter than air and makes your voice a higher pitch, this stuff is heavier than air and gives you a deeper voice. | <urn:uuid:b463d004-0e7e-4c08-93cc-7d8308ac18a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://929thebull.com/tags/live-with-kelly/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932855 | 60 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Monday, July 25, 2011
Maritime Monday - Service Record Pt. 4
Here we see another page from the Service Record of Estel E. Dillman, my paternal grandfather. This particular page has a number of different pieces of information on it, so let's look at them one section at a time and talk about the significance of each.
First, it has the usual name, service number, rate, date and command information. This is how we keep track of who this particular piece of paper is reporting on. We can see that as of 13 May 1940, my grandfather was a Machinist Mate 2nd Class aboard the U.S.S. Brooklyn, having previously served aboard the U.S.S. Chaumont. I discussed both of those ships, including links to Wikipedia articles about them in previous posts.
Next, we see that on 7 Mar 1941, my grandfather crossed the equator and was initiated as a Shellback in a ceremony I also described in an earlier post. A week later, he crossed the International Date Line. So far as I am aware, there is not a similar ceremony for crossing the date line as there is for crossing the Equator. As I served in the western hemisphere, I did not have opportunity to cross the date line to find out.
Next, the record details his participation in the first expedition to Iceland for a month in the summer of 1941. Better than a winter visit, I'm thinking! Remember, though, that this was during World War II in Europe, and even though the United States were not formally involved in the war at that point, we were aiding our allies by providing suplies, and our ships were targets for German u-boats.
Next we see that on 01 Nov 1941, Estel was promoted to Machinist Mate 1st Class, which is the E-6 paygrade. This is an upper supervisory level just below middle management if you want a civilian equivalent. Sailors at this level are starting to do more management and supervision of lower ranked men, but are still very much in the thick of getting the work done. They still get their hands dirty frequently. They also train the lower ranks by providing guidance and experience working with the equipment involved.
In my own service record, it is unusual to have several different kinds of event recorded on a single page as it is on this one, but this page is by no means unique in Estel's service record. Also, these old service record pages are narrow, where my service record has full letter-size pages.
This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman | <urn:uuid:8a2f1903-3cf0-4da9-88be-abc0369fd061> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://indianadillmans.blogspot.com/2011/07/maritime-monday-service-record-pt-4.html?pfstyle=wp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979314 | 543 | 1.5625 | 2 |
A Pipe Dream or a Feasible Task?
To answer the above question, one needs to understand a few basic ideas.
There are only two ways of getting Web traffic – either you let your visitors find you which is rather a passive method, or you actively search for places where your targeted visitors may hang around and personally engage them into communication. While the first type is illustrative of SEO and the traditional paid advertising approach, the second is more the Web 2.0 style, and may include blogging, blog commenting, participation in forum discussions, posting and voting for articles, social bookmarking, and so on.
Imagine what effect your efforts in social media marketing could bring. For example, communicating your company news to your existing and prospect customers for your brand exposure and following their feedback is one task, while receiving quality backlinks and traffic to your site are the second and the third tasks.
Next, if you look for inexpensive traffic from social media as your primary goal [its quality can hardly be compared to search engines’ paid and organic search traffic], you should understand that your message should have a great viral potential and your landing page should justify visitors’ attention. Otherwise, in spite of a possible visitor deluge, you will be back to square one.
There are different and often quite opposite opinions on the value of traffic from social media. There are Web experts who consider it to be garbage, but far more people tell about the importance of social media for creating brand awareness, getting customer feedback and attracting traffic. So the logical conclusion is not all products and services can be efficiently promoted on social media sites.
Let’s see what effects you can expect from the leading social media entities.
According to Compete’s most recent data (February 2010, also mentioned further), Facebook is the largest social media site with over 127 million unique monthly visitors. Both corporations and one-man-bands can use Facebook for creating their company and product brand awareness quite effectively, but you cannot expect much traffic and link popularity increase in connection with your Facebook activity.
YouTube comes second having more than 90 million unique visitors. YouTube is a good playground for your branding efforts, whether you are a small business company or corporation. A well-crafted creative video will become a valuable brick in your link popularity building. But since video files are hosted by YouTube itself, you can attract solid targeted traffic to your site only if your video includes a smart call to action requiring a visit to your site.
Twitter enjoys 20+ million unique visitors. Being a blog in nature, it is best for communicating company news if you are a large corporation, and for establishing your brand reputation if you are a small business, especially if you do consulting work. Don’t expect much traffic from Twitter as a reply to your marketing attempts, and shortened URLs in tweets are useless as SEO links.
Digg’s potential with more than 37 million unique visitors is a great place to release provocative information, but not for general marketing efforts. This is why so many marketing gurus have abandoned this battlefield. But if you can provide information in the format appreciated by Digg enthusiasts, you can receive rich traffic from this resource and a valuable link.
27 million unique users of Flickr have made it a great social medium but only if you have some photo and image materials to promote your brand among Flickr visitors. So if you are a web design company or your business can be represented by artwork, you may find Flickr a decent place to have a presence in.
The LinkedIn business network (14+ million unique users) is good for both individual experts and larger companies to establish and support their brands. Personal and company profiles appear high in search results for a name request and your company news can be released for members of the various “groups”.
The audience of StumbleUpon (4+ million unique users to their website) is not limited to just those who have visited their website. Most ’stumblers” activity is performed when a visitor to an interesting webpage clicks “I Like It” via the StumbleUpon toolbar in their browser. StumbleUpon is a very good traffic referrer if you publish and bookmark helpful, interesting content. Be sure to submit your own material by clicking on your own toolbar.
When considering if your business will benefit from your promotional activities in social media, you should focus on how the nature of a channel itself (news/article/video/image sharing, personal or business social network) fits your business, and what effects (brand recognition, good SEO links, targeted or just rich traffic) you can expect from your efforts.
You may find a printable PDF of this newsletter issue in the ‘Whitepapers’ section.
SEO Companies’ Visibility Rate
Are SEO companies as good as they claim to be on their sites? Will they return the efficiency they promise? Are their skills qualified? The only way to find it out is to check how they optimize and promote their own sites.
Here we share Top 10 SEO Companies according to their search visibility rate for February 2010.
Web CEO analysts use objective evidence to rate SEO firms according to their search engine visibility. SEO companies’ visibility rate is calculated using a special formula that considers the positions of SEO companies’ sites in search engines results pages for the keywords their potential clients use, popularity of these keywords and number of competitors.
Here you can see how Top 10 SEO companies’ visibility rate has changed from December 2009 till February 2010.
Top 10 SEO Companies Trends | <urn:uuid:8f254f16-f284-4d20-82e4-e001410e75cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.webseo.com/newsletter/issue-28/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937273 | 1,131 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Development blueprint in the works for Wilmington
City seeking to fill steering committee
Published: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 at 9:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 at 9:30 a.m.
Early next year, 15 residents will start working on a plan that will form development policy within the city of Wilmington for the next 20 years.
The plan should not just concern developers. It will have far-reaching effects that could change the way your city looks in the years to come.
Overall, the plan will outline priorities to consider as a part of development while preserving the city's heritage.
If you want to have a say, now is your chance. The city is looking to fill a steering committee that will spend 18 months working on the plan that Mayor Bill Saffo has said will be the "benchmark" document for future development.
The city lists a multitude of pressing issues that the plan would address.
The top challenges are: managing traffic congestion; improving neighborhood areas; reducing dependence on automobiles; expanding walking, biking and transit; continuing the revitalization of the downtown area; addressing stormwater and drainage issues; creating new parks, recreation and open space; and supporting commercial and economic development.
What is the comprehensive plan?
The comprehensive plan will direct future growth and development within the city for the next 20 years.
The actual document will have five separate sections.
The first will use public input and factual analysis to study growth issues such as housing conditions.
That will be followed be vision statements for what the city should look like and policy statements to provide guidance to city leaders when they are making decisions.
A growth strategy map will outline the needs for districts, such as the Southside area, or corridors, such as Market Street. Those needs could be zoning, parks or streets.
Finally, the plan will end with implementation actions. It will include a 3 to 5 year strategy with how to flex the city's muscle to fulfill the principles of the plan.
How will they go about making the plan?
The steering committee will meet monthly for 18 months. At the start, the city wants to hear from residents, property owners, business owners and other stakeholders. The city wants to start building the plan from the ground up by getting input in public meetings. After the initial meetings, the committee will spend several months reviewing the comments.
Eventually, the draft plan will be presented to the public. The council will ultimately vote on adopting the plan.
Has this been done before?
The city has not finalized a comprehensive development plan in recent memory, said Glenn Harbeck, the development services director.
The city's last comprehensive plan of this kind was completed in the 1940s, Harbeck said.
He rattled off several similar plans the city has been involved with over the past half a century. "Plans like this can come in many forms and many names," he said.
One, in particular, was a future land-use plan from the 1960s. It called for a bridge over the Cape Fear River (Cape Fear Memorial), a hospital on 17th Street (New Hanover Regional Medical Center) and a shopping center on Oleander Drive (Independence Mall).
"It also goes to show that plans can truly be implemented and carried out," Harbeck said.
The city's future plan could zero in on specific areas, such as the downtown area, to form special district policies, Harbeck said.
What will the steering committee look like?
At a recent agenda briefing, Harbeck encouraged council members to enlist well-respected people to serve on the committee while passing over people who serve "in name only," because of multiple time pressures. He recommended they seek geographic distribution and not forget the "old guard."
To help them select appointees, they will see applicants in a list with detailed information, such as what groups they represent, their credibility in the community and the single most likely perspective they will bring.
Julian March: 343-2099
On Twitter: @julian_march
Want to apply?
You can access an application here: wilmingtonnc.gov/comprehensiveplan. Applications must be received by Jan. 10, 2013 to be considered. Completed applications should be sent to the Wilmington city clerk. To contact the clerk's office, call 341-7816.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:1bc07b8b-ad87-48ea-b352-54c240d39d25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20121219/ARTICLES/121219632/1177?Title=Development-blueprint-in-the-works-for-Wilmington | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944847 | 920 | 1.539063 | 2 |
In a press briefing today, President Obama announced that Vice President Joe Biden would be leading a gun control task force that will examine the nation’s gun laws and come up with new reforms designed to (in theory) reduce gun violence.
“We have a deep obligation – all of us – to try” and end gun violence, Obama said from the White House podium. “This time, the words need to lead to action.”
“It won’t be easy, but that can’t be an excuse not to try,” he continued.
President Obama said that he expects the task force to act immediately, to have proposals ready by the end of January, adding that this is not “your typical Washington commission.”
Biden got the job, Obama said, because of the key role he played in authoring the 1994 crime bill that included the Assault Weapons Ban, which expired in 2004.
The president also made a direct appeal to gun owners, suggesting that there is plenty of common ground between the two sides.
“The fact is the vast majority of gun owners in America are responsible,” he said. “But you know what – I am also betting that the majority, the vast majority of responsible law-abiding gun owners would be some of the first to say that we should be able to keep an irresponsible law-breaking few from buying a weapon of war.”
When asked specifically about the National Rifle Association and how the nation’s gun lobby might respond to such comprehensive gun control reform, Obama referenced, once again, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which is – of course – the impetus behind this call to action.
“The NRA is an organization that has members who are mothers and fathers, and I suspect that they’ve been impacted by (the Newtown shooting) as well.”
Obama declined to go into great detail on which gun control measures are on the table, but gun owners should expect to see the following mentioned over the course of the next several weeks: universal background checks on all firearms transactions (closing the inaptly named ‘Gun-show Loophole’), a renewal of the Clinton-era Assault Weapons Ban (which includes a ban on high-capacity magazines), restrictions on the sale of ammunition (particularly via the Internet), and more thorough background checks, among others.
Additionally, gun owners can expect the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to play a bigger role moving forward. On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder said that in addition to gun control reform, a “strong” ATF was essential to curtailing gun violence.
At this point, it’s difficult to say what measures will gain traction in Congress and what measures will fall by the wayside, mostly because there has been very little communication from our pro-gun leaders and lawmakers in Washington.
Who will stand strong for gun owners? Who will cave under the political pressure?
With that in mind, the NRA is holding a press conference this Friday; let’s hope they’ve assembled a plan or a response that challenges the rationality and effectiveness of what’s to come from this gun control task force for the stakes couldn’t be higher – our Second Amendment rights as we know them hang in the balance. | <urn:uuid:03e3ecc8-5546-4fb5-8677-4c9a3dfbcc9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guns.com/2012/12/19/obama-assigns-biden-leader-gun-control-task-force-video/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962943 | 691 | 1.695313 | 2 |
10/23/08. Paul McHugh's new book with the above captioned title is going to be published in November. Below is a link to excerpts from this book.
Dr. McHugh, former Chair of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has had a front seat to witness the wild misdirections of psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health clinicians. These misdirections began in the 1980s, with a mass tide of false allegations of child abuse cases. These cases were focused on child care workers in day care centers, but these false accusations that sometimes resulted in long prison sentences for innocent people spread with a fever pitch to other vulnerable groups --- parents locked in custody battles, and adults in therapy recalling "forgotten" sexual abuse. These cases were given much media attention.
We have witnessed patients who come to psychologists and psychiatrists with depression or difficulty with relationships. Some of these patients "remember" during psychological therapy forgotten sexual mistreatment in childhood --- and often get the diagnosis of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), among other labels. Families are torn apart when a child - who is now an adult - falsely accuses her father of sexually abusing her many years ago.
Just as Satan appeared in Salem, Mass. three hundred years ago, in our time a vast increase in the diagnosis of MPD is used to validate the huge numbers of adults who claim to have been sexually victimized during their childhoods.
Of course some adults have experienced horrific sexual abuse in childhood --- with resulting behavioral abnormalities stemming from such cruelty.
In my experience patients who have been victims of sexual abuse by a parent, for example, almost always have trouble forgetting the horror of their abuse. They do not have trouble remembering what their parent did. That adults repress these events - or block them out of their minds --- is a dangerous myth.
In his new book, Dr. McHugh sheds light on these psychiatric misadventures and aims to inform us about the nature of competent psychological treatment. | <urn:uuid:c2048e18-4c6a-421b-a429-d7d883d5e77c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://notesofapsychologywatcher.blogspot.com/2008/10/try-to-remember-psychiatrys-clash-over.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962105 | 402 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Many advertisers are increasingly making room in their budgets for Facebook ads, but over the years, there's been a lot of talk about the general ineffectiveness of them compared to say, Google AdWords.
One of the obvious challenges with Facebook ads is that it is a social network. Unlike search, which lends itself to ads targeted to a particular search query, the site is generally being used as a tool of leisure.
That makes creating ads that stand out difficult.
Recently, one Facebook advertiser observed that an ad containing a picture of beer delivered its best CTR. In fact, it performed 57% better than any other ad tried.
Beer, of course, didn't have anything to do with this advertiser's business, but beer, for obvious reasons, seemed like a good way to grab attention.
So FeeFighters, a company that helps businesses obtain better rates on merchant accounts, decided to replicate the beer experiment.
The result: close to 396,000 impressions of the beer ad delivered just over 1,250 clicks. With a .018% CTR, this beer ad was one of the best performing ads for FeeFighters.
But, as you may have expected, those clicks didn't exactly translate into action. In fact, only one of those 1,250 clicks actually produced a conversion, which entails setting up a free auction in which merchant account providers compete for business. "That means our CPA for the beer ad was …$1951. Ouch," FeeFighters' Stella Fayman wrote.
None of this, of course, is really surprising. Associating an image of beer with an ad that really has nothing to do with beer would logically produce clicks, but not conversions. But there are several important facts this experiment highlights:
- Facebook ads realistically aren't suitable for all advertisers. Despite the targeting capabilities Facebook offers, some ads simply aren't going to produce ROI.
- In an environment where intent isn't naturally present, like Facebook, the techniques you use to increase CTR can have a (very) harmful impact on conversions. But without those techniques, Facebook advertising can be hard to scale even though Facebook has hundreds of millions of users.
- Facebook isn't always cheap. On a per-click basis, Facebook ads might not cost as much as their AdWords counterparts, but an ill-conceived campaign can be costly. | <urn:uuid:e96335e9-ccfa-4e46-8aa5-bc5c0f3a906a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://econsultancy.com/ca/blog/7802-beer-boosts-facebook-ctrs-but-not-conversions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970526 | 484 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Chemistry majors Anna Wuttig and Gary Fox have immersed themselves in the arts during their time at Princeton — discovering a creative synergy between their endeavors in the lab and on the stage. Wuttig, concertmaster of Princeton University Orchestra, and Fox, who is pursuing a certificate in theater, appear in the world premiere of "Der Bourgeois Bigwig," an adaptation of the 17th-century Molière comedy "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme."
Video stills courtesy of Nick Barberio
'Sharing the Stage: Science and Art at Princeton'
Posted November 15, 2012; 12:00 p.m.
Creativity is a passion for Princeton seniors Gary Fox and Anna Wuttig — as scientists and as artists.
On a typical weekday afternoon, the two chemistry majors can be found in the lab.
When not in the lab, they are immersed in the arts. Fox and Wuttig have successfully found a way to share the stage in pursuing both art and science at Princeton. They are bringing their talents to the fore in "Der Bourgeois Bigwig," an adaptation of the 17th-century Molière comedy "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme."
The play had its world premiere last weekend and will be performed Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 15 to 17, at the Berlind Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center.
Play the "Sharing the Stage: Science and Art at Princeton" video.
This video shows what inspires Fox and Wuttig as they pursue their dual roles on and off the stage.
Fox and Wuttig do research in the lab of Robert Cava, the Russell Wellman Moore Professor of Chemistry. When Wuttig isn't recording and analyzing results for Cava's research group, which is focused on finding new materials with unique electronic and magnetic properties, she can be found playing her 1871 Georges Chanot violin with her custom-made German bow in the McAlpin Rehearsal Hall in the Woolworth Music Center.
And when Fox isn't pulling synthesized compounds out of the Newman furnace in the lab, he may be found balancing an iPad displaying a theater script in one hand while gesturing emphatically with the other in a rehearsal room at the Lewis Center for the Arts.
For the past nine weeks, the students have been rehearsing for "Der Bourgeois Bigwig." The production, a collaboration between the Department of Music and the Program in Theater, is directed by Tim Vasen, a lecturer in theater and the Lewis Center for the Arts and director of the theater program. Michael Pratt, conductor of the Princeton University Orchestra and director of the Program in Musical Performance, conducts. The new adaptation is by James Magruder, a well-known translator of Molière and a visiting faculty member in the Program in Theater this year.
Fox, who has appeared in the annual fall theater show each of his four years at Princeton and is pursuing a certificate in theater, plays the title role of Mr. Jordan in "Der Bourgeois Bigwig."
"Mr. Jordan is a middle-aged man, who, with all of this money, decides that he wants to buy himself culture," Fox said. The character realizes his one aim in life is to rise above his middle-class background and be accepted as an aristocrat.
After graduation, Fox, who is earning a high school chemistry certification through the Program in Teacher Preparation, plans to pursue other interests before becoming a teacher.
During his time at Princeton, he has found a good balance between taking on roles such as Mr. Jordan and pursuing experiments in the lab.
"I like to think of research and performance as two entities that are built out of a toolbox, and those tools are different for each discipline," Fox said. "In science, we have balances, we have furnaces, we have mortars and pestles, we have all of these things that we need to put together in a way to create something new, something that can solve problems.
"Similarly, on stage, we have techniques, we have to rehearse lines, we have certain gestures we can rely on, props that we can use, and all of those work together to create something that's much greater than the sum of its parts," he said.
In "Der Bourgeois Bigwig," Mr. Jordan even hires a house orchestra — made up of 35 members of the 118-member Princeton University Orchestra — to impress his friends. Conductor Pratt picks up the baton with the ensemble onstage, performing the original score that Richard Strauss composed for an early-20th-century German musical adaptation of "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme."
Wuttig is the orchestra's concertmaster and has a lengthy violin solo in the play. "The music department at Princeton is really great because it offers opportunities for students who are not even music majors," she said.
One of those opportunities enabled Wuttig to have a private session to work on her solo with David Kim, concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Another paved the way for her to study at the New England Conservatory of Music last year — and to decide whether to pursue violin professionally.
While Wuttig said the experience was extraordinary, she "wanted to choose a more science-oriented career path" and returned to Princeton. Along with chemistry, she is pursuing a certificate in materials science and engineering. She plans to attend graduate school in chemistry, but said she will always find time to perform.
Like Fox, Wuttig has found a meaningful connection at Princeton between what may appear as contradictory interests.
"Science and music are really interwoven because they are both creative," Wuttig said. "In science it's important to study known systems and reactions but also it's important to be innovative so we can make new technologies for society.
"In music it's important to study the score, to know a little bit about the composer's life, to practice and work hard. But when I'm actually performing, I forget all of that. I am just living in the moment, and every note that I play is something new and organic. That experience is motivation for science and vice versa," she said.
Fox echoed this observation. "If we're not creative in the lab, we're not going to be able to solve any of the problems that we're currently facing here in the United States and around the globe. Similarly on stage or with music, if we're not creative, we're not inspiring people to think about the world in a broader context."
Remaining performances of "Der Bourgeois Bigwig" will take place at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Nov. 15 and 16; and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, in the Berlind Theatre. Tickets are available by visiting University Ticketing online or calling 609-258-9220 or the McCarter Theatre box office at 609-258-2787. | <urn:uuid:18d7339e-d407-4ef2-8e34-3697e615773c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S35/27/32C08/index.xml?from=2011-06-01&to=2011-07-01 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962555 | 1,427 | 1.6875 | 2 |
In the aftermath of yesterday’s caution delivered by education commissioner Tony Bennett that Florida needed to prepare itself for Plan B on implementation of Common Core Standards and it’s PARCC assessments, Jeb Bush’s education foundation acquiesced. From Mike Thomas in the Foundation for Excellence in Education’s blog:
(Tony) Bennett also is concerned about the ability of 22 states in the PARCC consortium to agree on common assessments and common cut scores. The range of states in PARCC goes from Massachusetts to Mississippi.
This is where the goal of rigor will clash with reality in classrooms.
Bennett apparently isn’t convinced it all will be worked out by 2014-15, which is Plan A.
Hence his call for Plan B, just in case.
And I guess the lesson to be learned by other states is this: Get your own Plan B in order.
That we have Common Core assessments up and running smoothly by, say, 2018 is more important than having them sputtering and crashing in 2015 because of a mad dash to the finish line.
Common Core presents one of those rare opportunities where we have political leaders, education leaders, teachers and reformers in something akin to alignment – if not on accountability provisions associated with Common Core, at least on the merits of the standards themselves. In Florida, 85 percent of teachers who attend training sessions like what they are being trained to do.
And that is to teach critical thinking skills and more in-depth knowledge.
Let us cling to this moment.
Implementation issues must be managed so Common Core critics don’t parlay them into deal-killing issues. If so, we’ll never get to 2018.
Thomas’ assertion of the existence 85 percent of teacher’s support is misleading. The support is for Common Core and not the massive testing regime that will come with PARCC. His admission that “Bennett also is concerned about the ability of 22 states in the PARCC consortium to agree on common assessments,” reveals that it’s ultimately about Pearson’s tests again. This new sausage making doesn’t even take into account that the Carnival Cruise of an accountability system Florida has now is making politicians use words like “implode.” | <urn:uuid:32eb0d3b-4de6-4cb3-861e-6fda0cb82284> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/bush-foundation-resigns-itself-to-plan-b-on-common-core-and-parcc-tests-in-florida/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947267 | 467 | 1.609375 | 2 |
I have read the related questions, but none of them appears to address the question directly. I am working on writing a PHP script interpreter. I have the AST generating proper nodes for everything except classes. Handling classes is a bit different than handling functions, so I am looking for how to handle classes that are standalone, and that extend other classes.
I have looked at ANTLR, but I can't afford the overhead as this is for an embedded platform. What I am looking for is the theory conceptually behind classes in ASTs so they can be executed by the executor portion of the interpreter. Good links with specific answers to this issue are definitely appreciated. | <urn:uuid:855bee9b-98eb-4f26-9acd-4b5686f9a3fe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stackoverflow.com/questions/913871/how-to-represent-classes-in-an-abstract-syntax-tree-based-interpreter | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962249 | 134 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Columbian gold! Kluge donates $400 million
Columbia University will announce later today that billionaire former Charlottesville resident John Kluge is giving his alma mater one of the biggest gifts– if not the very biggest– in the history of higher education. According to the Wall Street Journal, two sources familiar with the donation say it's at least $400 million and could be as high as $600 million. The New York Times reports that the gift is to come from Kluge's estate upon his death and that it's intended for student aid and graduate fellowships.
The German immigrant received his B.A. in Economics from Columbia in 1937 and has repeatedly told interviewers that he profited during his college years by playing poker.
By the 1980s, he'd taken over a once publicly held company called Metromedia in a leveraged buyout and assisted the launch of what becamethe Fox network by selling off its once-independent television stations. Metromedia eventually owned the Harlem Globetrotters, two chains of steakhouses (Bonanza and Ponderosa), and thousands of billboards.
As for Kluge himself, by the end of the 1980s, he topped Forbes' annual list of the richest Americans with around $7 billion. Last year, he ranked 25th on that same list with an estimated personal worth of $9.1 billion.
The gift is part of a long history of philanthropy for Kluge, especially when it comes to Columbia. Previously, he had donated $110 million for the Kluge Scholars program, which puts 40 to 60 members of each class through the Ivy League university.
Locally, he donated 7,378 acres of Albemarle countryside, including his occasional home, Morven Farm (he actually lives in Palm Beach, Florida), to the University of Virginia in June 2001. With an estimated value of $45 million, it was the largest gift in the University's history. In February 2002, Dave Matthews purchased 1,261 acres of that land for $5.3 million for farming. | <urn:uuid:e751f7b2-dd75-4412-ac87-139e2e2e5b6e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.readthehook.com/77055/columbian-gold-kluge-donates-400-million?quicktabs_1=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976219 | 420 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Just go there in Mumbai, you will see a beautiful scene – you will not see it anywhere else in the whole world – so many vultures sitting together just waiting for poor Parsis to die, praying to God, “Finish someone today.” And God seems to listen to the vultures; some Parsi is bound to come.
The English word greed comes from the same root as giddha, the vulture. The vulture is one of the ugliest birds you can conceive of. And greed is certainly one of the ugliest things in man that you can think of. But the mind is a vulture. It is never satisfied with anything. You go on giving to it; it goes on taking and goes on asking for more. It never feels grateful; it is always complaining that it is not enough. Nothing is enough to the mind. Question after question – meaningful, meaningless, relevant, irrelevant – and not even a small space for any answer to enter into your mind. It is so crowded with questions.
The heart knows no questions. And this is one of the mysteries of life: that the mind questions the whole life long and never receives any answer, and the heart never asks but receives the answer. But there is one thing to be remembered: the mind is noisy, there is maddening noise. The heart may be receiving the answer, but because of the noise of the mind you may not come to feel that the answer has been received, that you are carrying it with you, that you are pregnant with it.
Not only does the mind disturb your peace, your silence; it disturbs it to such an extent that the heart, which is capable of listening to silence, waiting, receptive, is denied all connection with your being. The mind monopolizes your being; it simply puts the heart aside. And because the heart is silent, and a gentleman, it does not quarrel; it simply goes down the street, waits by the side of the road.
Mind wants to occupy the whole space. The disciple has to understand this whole situation – that the dictatorship of the mind has to be destroyed, that the mind is only a servant, not a master. The master is the heart, because all that is beautiful grows in the heart; all that is valuable comes out of the heart: your love, your compassion, your meditation. Anything that is valuable grows in the garden of the heart.
Mind is a desert, nothing grows there – only sand and sand and barren land. It has never given any fruit, any flower. You have to understand it: mind should not be supported as much as you have been supporting it up to now. Mind has to be put in its right place.
The throne belongs to the heart. And this is the revolution through which the disciple becomes a devotee: when the heart becomes the master, and the mind becomes a servant. This has to be remembered: that as a servant, the mind is perfect. As a master, it is the worst master possible; as a servant, it is the best. | <urn:uuid:03178cfc-8a90-442d-9d1a-8ad499fb8954> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.osho.com/library/online-library-heart-mumbai-mind-ec8351ec-779.aspx?p=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969045 | 632 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The rumors appear to be true. The next model Apple iPad 3 will have a 'retina display' display. MacRumors has their hands on what appears to be the iPad 3's display component With four-times the pixels of the earlier iPad displays, the reputed iPad 3, screen with its 2048x1536 resolution, will have twice the resolution of the iPad 1 and iPad 2, which can only boast 1024x768 resolution. That's all well and good, but what will it mean for you?
Dr. Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate, the world's leading display and display tuning company, isn't in the least bit surprised at Apple's move. Soneira wrote: "The next generation iPad will quadruple the number of screen pixels with a resolution of 2048x1536." This in turn, will indeed give the iPad 3 a Retina Display [because it] does not require the same pixels per inch (ppi) as the iPhone 4 Retina Display because it is typically held much further away from the eye, whose visual sharpness is based on angular resolution rather than linear ppi resolution. The iPad is typically held 15-18 inches away as opposed to the iPhone 4's 12-15 inches. As a result, to meet the 300 ppi Retina Display specification made by Steve Jobs at WWDC for the iPhone 4, an iPad Retina Display would need only 240 ppi. So an iPad Retina Display could start anywhere above 1862x1397 pixels."
Still, we don't know who's making this display, so it's hard to work out exact what else the screen will be capable of. Soneira speculates, "Sharp is rumored as a supplier for the iPad 3 Retina Display. Sharp's IGZO is a technology for producing the thin film transistor (TFT) Active Matrix in a display - just like Low Temperature Polysilicon, which is the technology it is competing against in the current iPhone 4. So IGZO could be used to make an IPS display, which has the best Viewing Angles (but they aren't the often quoted 170+ degrees). My guess is that if Apple uses IGZO it will be IPS because Apple is unlikely to backpedal on Viewing Angle performance."
So, this is all great news right? Great resolution means sharper images, which means happier users? Yes? Well, not necessarily according to Soneira. "Technically an overkill and comes with a large penalty in cost and performance - requiring significantly more processing power, more memory and battery power, plus lowering the display brightness efficiency."
In other words, the iPad 3 display may indeed be the sharpest tablet display out there, but it may lead to slower overall performance and lower batter life. Of course, the iPad 3 is rumored to have a quad-core Apple A6 processor that could probably take care of the display's need for a faster processor, but that could only come at the cost of lower battery life.
So before getting too excited about a great iPad 3 display, I'd wait to see the first comprehensive reviews come in. I'm certain that Apple wouldn't release an iPad 3 unless it faster than its predecessors, but I'd really like to know what its battery life is going to be like before replacing my current iPad.
iPad 2 image courtesy of Apple. | <urn:uuid:128522c4-d64f-45ff-9e17-f1defbdec493> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/what-will-apples-ipad-3-retina-display-mean-for-you/69848 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946795 | 688 | 1.773438 | 2 |
With their eyes firmly set on the Super Bowl Eli Manning and the giants. Had to contend with something very common to many of us and fortunately this time of the year the stomach bug. Doctor Albert... See More
With their eyes firmly set on the Super Bowl Eli Manning and the giants. Had to contend with something very common to many of us and fortunately this time of the year the stomach bug. Doctor Albert Levy assistant professor of medicine at mount Sinai school of medicine and founder of Manhattan and the practice -- everything we need to know a -- how to prevent the stomach bug in the -- north of the things that Manning had to do himself to maybe. Get over a little fast. Doctor Levy thank you so much for being with us today first of clean up the difference then -- the virus that causes the stomach bug is not the same thing as the flu virus correct. That's correct them -- in. The food is typically a restaurant tree. Disease a tent where you have chills and fever -- sore throat. Congestion you feel like. Truck -- over you -- I -- the through. And there stomach -- is something more of contestants. Meaning. You have more diarrhea nausea vomiting you may have -- you may have fever OK it's self limited so that it comes and goes couple of days you. It's true and when you mentioned the prevention it's not that easy. Because one few catches. You think there one thing to do these try to avoid to contaminate -- coworkers and team. Rightly -- -- as the -- the giants are probably keeping their distance away from Manning a little bit because I don't wanna get that another he's better that's what's fun that's the proof right that it is very self limited and it is very very come through contact physical contact air contact what does that -- Israeli contact -- from food. Unfortunately or fecal route OK so you can wash -- hands of pushing -- go to -- restaurant and shake someone's hands. You don't have time to wash you well -- So if you do do there. -- -- Public you. Stay home so it. -- -- -- what do you have for treatment and when should do finally get it that's a very good question Buchanan first of all keep hydrate OK you don't want to dehydrated wither. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Unsweetened. -- OK we'll try to avoid so does. And they'll have a couple of things like for example unsweetened regular yogurt OK with which is great there's a -- dive which is a -- -- -- and rise up personal loss and post the -- and it paid that's for the beginning of of the diet that you should -- -- do -- it into water and then yes some tricks like for example limerick. Which he has been used for. Thousands of years rise and -- -- -- and on the very very good thing. The ensemble me off the medicines which are -- Padilla. Without side effects such -- -- from of them. Is one of them Knox of Monica -- -- -- the one OK and you have pro violence pro -- is a very very important and -- would replenish. What -- flora you lost with you or Rea. Those alternative. Things you can do you don't need them occupy holiday you don't need to go to the doctor -- -- if -- homes they hydrate them on. But you see could be very debilitating disease Ely -- and -- -- of such caliber. Get -- and he's the total value of my practice early voters so -- like smaller people like like us right right that we ought to would be -- dictators so you have to respect your body. Do stay hydrated use these alternative. Elements that you can and -- and let that point for a 48 hours cycle and that's right when you really need to call your doctor Mel. If you have something life HIV or diabetes or it's a very small child and depression according to doctors make sure that -- among and not something. OK all right some good advice and good morning their doctor Levy thank you so much appreciate it I know -- certainly happy that he's gotten over -- well I don't lot of people as well. Tickets and its advice and suggestions. Recuperate just as quickly thank you went -- them.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate. | <urn:uuid:9c766885-200c-4c75-85a2-99762554d0d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://abcnews.go.com/Health/video/stomach-viruses-15406254?tab=9482931§ion=4765066 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958105 | 891 | 1.570313 | 2 |
battle between Microsoft and Apple in the computing market has raged
on for decades. While Microsoft has a commanding lead in the
operating system market with Windows, Apple isn't exactly backing
down with OS X -- in fact, the Cupertino-based company continues to
grab market share and a large
portion of the $1,000+ computing market.
Windows and OS X users get into arguments on the web, Windows users
often point to OS X's tiny market share while OS X users point to how
vulnerable Windows operating systems have been in the past to
exploits. However, according to security guru Charlie Miller, OS X
users should subscribe to the idea that "people in glass houses
shouldn't throw stones".
claims to have found no less than 20 zero-day exploits within OS X.
Miller will present the exploits at CanSecWest
next week in Vancouver, British Columbia.
told Heise Security, "Mac OS X is like living in a farmhouse
in the country with no locks, and Windows is living in a house with
bars on the windows in the bad part of town."
sell lots of computers and nobody [shies away from] Apple computers
because of a perceived lack of security," Miller added. "So
in their minds, they don't have a security problem until it affects
their bottom line, which hasn't been the case, yet"
X has made the news plenty of times over the past year for security
holes. Last June, Apple finally fixed a Java exploit which went
unpatched for nearly a year. In late August, Apple shipped Snow
Leopard with a version
of Flash that was susceptible to outside attacks.
also took Apple to task last year saying that security protections in
OS X weren't
quite up to par with Windows 7. He noted, "It's harder to
write exploits for Windows than the Mac, but all you see are Windows
exploits. That's because if [the hacker] can hit 90% of the machines
out there, that's all he's gonna do. It's not worth him nearly
doubling his work just to get that last 10%." | <urn:uuid:4e7b9edb-4e0a-4a0b-97c9-67d43ef7903a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=17934&commentid=554475&threshhold=1&red=1211 | 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 | 0.954545 | 457 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Lately I have been working on OSM-derived data in QGIS and finding bugs in the OSM data in the process. To fix the data I have to go into an OSM editor (that’s JOSM for me), find the right position and do the actual fix. To make that process easier I added a button to the QGIS user interface that uses the JOSM remote control feature to tell the editor which area to load data for.
Adding this button was actually quite easy. QGIS has a very nice and powerful plugin system and it took me only a few lines of code. The plugin is here.
Ah yes, before somebody asks: There is QGIS plugin that gives you an OSM editor right inside QGIS. But it is pretty basic and doesn’t do all those things I am accustomed to from JOSM. | <urn:uuid:bb1b7f3e-d9a0-440c-b3e8-66c17b668619> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.jochentopf.com/2011-11-24-qgis-plugin-for-controlling-osm-editors.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94229 | 184 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Garmin was formed in 1989 during a relaxed card game between a few ambitious engineers. Although the company has expanded to include thousands of employees and multiple locations, Garmin's principles remain simple: To provide innovative, convenient products that perform.
Garmin's products range to include multiple areas of interest including fitness, running and cycling. All of Garmin's products come from ideas generated from within. From heart rate monitors to cycling computers, Garmin continues to produce high-quality GPS-enabled personal devices.
With new ideas and inventions emerging from Garmin every day, Garmin employees live up to its company's motto by continuing to produce products that contain astronomical amounts of information all packed into one simple, portable device. With products like the Garmin Forerunner 410 Heart Rate Monitor, the Garmin Forerunner 310XT Heart Rate Monitor, the Garmin Forerunner 410 Watch, the Garmin Edge 605 Cycling Computer, and the Garmin Forerunner 110 Watch, Garmin is poised to become the leader in fitness technology. | <urn:uuid:72ccbf65-35c3-4189-8cb1-4f090a610fd0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.swimoutlet.com/Garmin/MP3_Electronics_Timing/Pedometers | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940495 | 195 | 1.539063 | 2 |
More iPads coming to SD73
The Kamloops-Thompson school district board voted this week in favour of a partnership between SD73 and Apple, Inc., which will see more iPads in local classrooms and better training for teachers.
Superintendent Terry Sullivan said the deal will see the district purchase two class sets of iPads in exchange for $150,000 worth of professional-development resources.
“What we’re interested in is we really believe that personalized learning and 21st-century learning is where we need to be,” he said.
“This is where kids are. They’re already taking command of their own learning and we really need to be inventive in using these devices in the classroom.”
Sullivan said Apple also has a lot to gain as the company tries to regain its old foothold as a leader in education technology.
“What’s in it for them is that where they once were a major player, they’re a major player again,” he said.
“They probably have an opportunity to expand that market.
“Way back, 25 years ago, they were kind of at the forefront [of education technology] with the Apple IIes,” Sullivan said.
“They were everywhere, then they were kind of replaced.”
Sullivan said the 70 iPads will cost SD73 $30,000. But, the training local teachers will receive in return will make it worthwhile.
“I’ve looked at the professional-development opportunities they provide and it’s high-quality — certainly more high-quality than we as a school district could provide,” he said.
“We couldn’t afford to provide all these devices and also provide the professional development that goes with them, so this partnership is a good way to do that.”
History and astronomy classes at Westsyde secondary are also slated to begin using iPads in September, but Sullivan said that agreement is separate from the one with Apple voted on at Monday’s board meeting.
The iPads are slated to go into use at Bert Edwards Science and Technology School when classes resume in the fall. | <urn:uuid:a73ef962-2f87-4bd2-b1be-ea835e298249> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/news/125028844.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975331 | 450 | 1.820313 | 2 |
L&L - Judging from these Judicial Engagement Successes, IJ is on the Right Track
With Big Government on the march and the U.S. Supreme Court set to decide the most important federalism case since the New Deal, the need for judicial engagement has never been more acute. And IJ’s Center for Judicial Engagement is right in the thick of it.
The driving force behind judicial engagement is the idea that judges are duty-bound to enforce constitutional limits on government power and should do so without putting their fingers on the scale in favor of government. By contrast, many claim the chief judicial virtue is not independence, but deference toward other branches of government.
That tension was on full display both before and after the Supreme Court arguments over the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Indeed, the president himself admonished the Court that it would be an “unprecedented” step to strike down the healthcare law notwithstanding serious questions about Congress’ authority to force people to buy health insurance and the absence of any real limiting principle on that breathtaking assertion of power.
The constitutional challenge to Obamacare has focused the public’s attention on the role of courts like never before, and the Center for Judicial Engagement has been working to frame that dialogue in the courts, the media, public policy circles and law schools across the country.
Last fall the Center kicked off a “Judicial Engagement” debate series in conjunction with the Federalist Society featuring high-profile events at law schools from coast to coast. Those debates acquainted more than a thousand law students with the concept of judicial engagement and directly challenged the call for blind deference to other branches. I also wrote a series of posts for the “Volokh Conspiracy” that outlined the theory behind judicial engagement and explained why judicial abdication is a much bigger threat than activism. (Available at www.volokh.com/author/clarkneily.)
Just three days before the Obamacare arguments in March, the Center sponsored a symposium on judicial engagement at George Mason University School of Law featuring prominent academics who represent a wide array of views, including Harvard Law School’s Mark Tushnet, University of Texas Law’s Sandford Levinson, Pepperdine School of Law’s Doug Kmiec and Northwestern Law’s Steve Presser. The symposium included panels addressing the role of judicial engagement in protecting individual rights and preserving federalism, as well as the important differences between activism, restraint and engagement. The George Mason Law Review will publish a special symposium issue on judicial engagement this month.
Watch the full event online at
|<<<This Issue's Articles| | <urn:uuid:7dd0f5c0-83e1-4994-ace6-7ea06221d980> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ij.org/l-l-judging-from-these-judicial-engagement-successes-ij-is-on-the-right-track-2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934732 | 553 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Forget Nobel Peace Prize, EU launches summit warfare
By Luke Baker
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union may have won the Nobel Peace Prize this year, but to many EU leaders, officials, diplomats and even journalists, it can feel more like a torture chamber.
Increasingly, Europe is governed at night by leaders in an advanced state of exhaustion, disregarding scientific evidence that this can lead to bad decisions, or non-decisions.
Over the past three years, the EU has held 25 summits to try to tackle its debt crisis and related economic turmoil, with few of those meetings ending before 3 or 4 a.m. -- usually after 12 hours or more of near-fruitless negotiation.
Add to that more than 40 finance ministers' meetings -- the most recent of which ended at 5 a.m. on Wednesday, again without agreement -- and it is easy to see how a set of institutions designed to foster peace and stability in Europe can end up delivering frustration, angst and head-numbing pain.
"I'll put it this way: I woke up at 5 a.m. or 5.30 a.m. yesterday and we ended in the morning around 4 a.m.," Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico complained after the last, largely unsuccessful summit in October.
"This is how all of us operate, we adopt very serious decisions under pressure," he said, referring to the EU's increasingly weary heads of state and government.
The EU's 27 leaders gathered for another summit on Thursday and Friday, this time to try to hammer out an agreement on around 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) of spending over the next seven years.
It promises to be a bruising clash of national interests rather than the model of reconciliation and harmony commended by the Nobel committee, although it will still be "jaw, jaw" rather than "war, war". Continued... | <urn:uuid:14437b8a-22e4-4cd6-91d1-d01ae66747ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCABRE8AL0A220121122 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948828 | 392 | 1.742188 | 2 |
One of the great things about being a reporter is the opportunity to learn new things that you didn’t know (and maybe should have known) every day. That happened this morning.
Responding to a caller to his Friday-morning radio show on Talk 1300, Mayor Jerry Jennings mentioned in passing during a discussion on control that he “was in Army.” My ears did a double-take because this was not something I’d known about Jennings despite covering the city for the last four years.
When Jennings talks about his past professional life, it’s almost always about his time as a vice principal at Albany High School.
A quick check of his official city bio confirmed that there’s no mention there of his military service. An inquiry with his office revealed he was probably referring to his time in the National Guard (again, news to me).
Master Sgt. Corine Lombardo with the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs confirmed that Jennings, then 22, enlisted in the National Guard in January 1971 as a member of the signal corps and was honorably discharged in January 1977 as a Specialist 5, a position she said would be akin to modern-day non-commissioned officer. Jennings’ service coincided with the back end of the Vietnam Era.
So, there you have it. The more you know.
As the photo above recalls, longtime Albany Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd was referred to in the press as “the GI Mayor” after temporarily leaving office to enlist in the Army and fight in Europe during WWII. My colleague Paul Grondahl’s great Corning biography also colorfully recounts the raucous Hilltowns reunions the mayor would have with his Army buddies.
According to his obituary, Corning’s successor and Jennings’ predecessor, Mayor Thomas Whalen III, also served in the Army.
County Executive Dan McCoy is also a longtime member of the National Guard. | <urn:uuid:b05092f5-3606-4c15-ab35-8141b1014e40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.timesunion.com/localpolitics/13836/the-things-you-learn-mayor-jerry-jennings-military-service/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984661 | 410 | 1.585938 | 2 |
In Canada, it is a crime to publicly assert that practicing homosexuality is a sin. In my ethics class, students regularly write on their essays that being a virgin until marriage is “prudish,” and they do not take seriously the traditional view that couples should refrain from sexual intercourse until marriage. In many academic settings, those who believe abortion to be morally wrong are silenced, to the point that the University Faculty for Life presents an option to its members to hide their membership in the organization so that their colleagues do not find out. The notion that there is objective right and wrong is excluded from most public schools, and moral relativism is taught as the gospel truth (and teaching it as such is, of course a contradiction).
It is true that freedom of speech does not, as the old saw goes, give anyone the right to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater. Surely being morally opposed to abortion or to practicing homosexuality or to premarital sex is not the equivalent to shouting “Fire!” Yet such opinions are being increasingly excluded from the public square, in academic institutions first, and then in the wider society.
I believe in academic freedom. If a student or faculty member wishes to defend the moral rightness of premarital sex, of practicing homosexuality, or of abortion, that student or faculty member should be allowed to have a say in the university square. But academic freedom also implies that those with the opposite views on these issues should be allowed to make their case. I am a conservative, but if a liberal student makes a strong case for his position, he will get a good grade on his test and will not be punished for his views. The situation should be the same for a conservative student who makes a good defense of his position in a class with a liberal professor. To give them credit, some liberal professors do give their students such academic freedom and believe in such for their colleagues. There is a subset of professors, however, who want to silence conservative voices, especially on controversial moral issues. Such violation of freedom of speech has taken place in some institutions of higher education, to the point that a professor in one school who presented a natural law argument against homosexual practice (and did not even claim to agree with the argument) was fired–until a court awarded him his job back. The problem is that he should not have lost his job in the first place. What is going on is that hostile rhetoric against moral conservatives is repeated so much that people begin to believe it (“they are haters,” “these people are filled with anger,” etc.). I have never understood why holding moral action A to be wrong implies hating the person who performs moral action A. I wish I could say that such an ignorant position prevails only in academia, but it is present in broader society. More and more the elites in academia, the media, and in Hollywood, are attempting to exclude traditional moral discourse from legitimate discussion and to push their views onto society as a whole. It may be just a matter of time before the United States goes the direction that Canada has gone (depending on election results, court appointees, etc.) and makes illegal conservative moral discourse on abortion and on sexual ethics. I wonder who the real narrow minded people are, the real bigots, the real haters. I would venture a guess that most of them are not moral conservatives. | <urn:uuid:d7f2d7ba-5100-485e-a458-751c2ee96791> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gratiaetnatura.wordpress.com/tag/conservatism/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975027 | 692 | 1.625 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.