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Tuesday night’s Intelligence Squared debate entitled “When It Comes To Politics, the Internet Is Closing Our Minds” had little to do with politics, and treated the internet as if most political attitudes were driven by Google and Facebook.
The real subject of the debate was the personalization of the internet, and maybe incidentally, the political impact of personalization, that is the effectiveness of Google and Facebook driving (through filters) users to websites which catered to their individual preferences. In other words — pushing conservatives to conservative web sites and liberals to liberal websites. One set of debaters foresaw major problem arising from the filtering process; the opposite side welcomed the filtering, and foresaw it only as, at worst, a “theoretical” problem.
To me, the question seemed both overstated and insignificant. As a journalist, I always believed that objective readers/viewers always saw our news through the eyes of their own prejudices, though they refused to admit them. When I was growing up (until 1950), New York still had seven newspapers. Readers gravitated towards the paper that most confirmed his/her points of view. Before World War II, The Daily News and the Journal American were anti-New Deal isolationist papers, mostly read by Catholics; The Daily Mirror was internationalist, pro-Roosevelt, and mostly read by Jews. The Herald Tribune was Republican, mildly internationalist and read mostly by Wasps; The Times was mildly Democratic, strongly internationalist and read mostly by Jews. The Sun was the most conservative of all papers, and read mostly by the most conservative members of all races and creeds, each group searching for reinforcement of its own opinions.
Last Tuesday’s debaters acknowledged that consumers have the right to choose the media that most accords with their biases, but the key word is “choose.” One side was afraid that Google and Facebook are weighing the choices in favor of what they perceived as the users’ biases. The other side, that was no big deal, the users were going to find what they were looking for on their own.
It seemed to me, much ado about nothing. The debaters were all smart men, and they loved to talk, but their talk had very little to do with politics. Three of them had previously written books about the internet, and proud to quote from them, but I didn’t hear the word “politics” often, if at all, in their quotes. The fourth one, a journalist who had in 2007 had been named “Web Editor of the Year,” rarely mentioned politics either.
I had gone to the event with the hope that I would hear something about what impact the internet might have on the 2012 election, because I had previously learned about a new website designed specifically to inform voters about their choices and permit candidates to advertise to its audience. It’s called eVoter, and claims to be nonpartisan. (I want to make it clear that I was asked by eVoter to invest in the company and serve on its board. I declined, because I’m currently overly involved in other things.) Nevertheless, I introduce it here because I believe it will have a positive effect on the political process.
eVoter plans to provide every voter in every voting district in the United States with a list of all the candidates, from dog catcher to president, who will appear on his/her ballot next November. (eVoter is currently providing lists of primary nominees to voters state by state.) It’s greatest virtue might be its simplest — it will provide every voter with the address of his/her polling place.
eVoter also offers candidates the opportunity to provide brief biographies and accepts endorsements and advertisements from organizations that back the candidates. Since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United case gives PACs and other organizations, even foreign companies, the right to back their favored candidates, eVoter is likely to be very profitable very quickly.
Internet advertising has one great advantage over other forms of advertising — it has no deadline. In the past, most political advertising time was purchased weeks or, at best, days in advance. In an era of constant polling, it was difficult to reframe ads in accordance to the polls or adapt ads to meet new attacks from rival camps. In the post eVoter world, political advisers have the ability to create new messages, concoct new talking points, until the polls close in every state in the Union.
Intelligence Squared suggested that “When It Comes To Politics, The Internet Is Closing Our Minds,” I suggest that sites like eVoter will be changing our actions. | <urn:uuid:22b88956-8595-484c-92f2-7935f8fb55ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://evoternews.wordpress.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978447 | 961 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Our great nation was built on freedom and independence. We as citizens have the privilege (and responsibility) of controlling our own lives and choices. Which means that we always have to come up with new and innovative ways to end those lives. Today we're not talking about guns, cigarettes, or semi-legal drugs. We are talking about fat -- lots and lots of fat.
Naturally, the government does not regulate the amount of calories Americans are allowed to consume (that would be as ridiculous as regulating who we're allowed to marry!), but the Food and Drug Administration does post a suggested caloric intake. For men, the FDA advises an average consumption of 2,500 calories, while women should be able to get by with 2,000. Surprisingly, certain restaurants have flown in the face of these recommended standards! Imagine consuming 75% of your daily caloric quota in one, heart-attack-inducing sitting. Now that artery-clogging dream can come true with the help of your friends at IHOP, Burger King, KFC, and Sonic, among others.
Our senses have already been assaulted with the KFC "Double-Down." Consisting of four pieces of bacon, two slices of swiss-cheese slathered in special sauce and flanked by two breasts of world famous fried chicken, the Double Down clocks in at 540 calories. Although the Double Down has been getting a lot of negative press, the Burger King Quad Stacker (bun, burger paddy, bacon, chee, paddy, bacon, chee, paddy, bacon, chee, paddy, bacon, chee, bun) accounts for half a day's caloric intake: 1,000 calories! Sonic is responsible for the Pancake on a Stick, one of which can put you back 400 calories, but the prize, the ultimate chest-clutcher belongs to IHOP. The International House of Pancakes has presented the Pancake-Cheesecake Sandwich, aka the "Pancake Stacker." Imagine a stack of fluffy flap-jacks, each one separated by a dense layer of cheesecake. This shocking amount of carbohydrates easily accounts for half of ones daily intake: 1,250 calories.
How can this possibly seem like a good idea? And why do "restaurants" like KFC and IHOP take such pride in out-doing each other with their wax-paper-wrapped heart attacks? Sure, it's your right to kill yourself one Pancake-Cheesecake Sandwich at a time, but maybe you wouldn't self medicate with food if you could marry the person of your choice.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Does our nation's standard of inequality have you running to the restroom to check your smudged guy-liner? Well, hold onto your mascara, Children of Lambert, because with the woeful lack of regulations on public bathrooms in this country you might want to consider waiting. Not only are there generally no restrooms to be had, but those that are available are filthsome at best.
On a scale of one to ten how big of a priority is using the bathroom to you? For us, it's somewhere in between food, shelter and Harry Potter. While the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) requires employers to provide access to clean restrooms to all of their workers, there are no government regulations requiring businesses to supply latrines to their patrons. Similarly disappointing is the lack of any federal requirement for water-closets on state property. So if you plan on leaving the house today, you'd better pack your stadium pal or be prepared to break some public urination laws.
The American Restroom Association (ARA) maintains that the people's bladders deserve a defender. Some ARA research revealed that the inability to access safe/clean/non-rat-infested bathrooms can dramatically affect one's health. For example, it was discovered that people would rather risk dehydration than drink enough water to send them to a municipal toilet in New York City. Additionally, public schools don't answer to the DHHS's standards of restroom facilities. Imagine America's children. Now imagine them without bathrooms. Look again: they are forced to urinate into trashcans, empty bottles, and shrubbery. Now, back to me: these unbelievable circumstances are real -- there are accounts of "bathroom lock-downs" in Minnesota, Florida, and South Carolina, et al.
Wouldn't you agree that access to a restroom is a serious health issue? Especially since we know (some of us all too well) that emergency street-peeing is an imprisonable offense! So why should we be law breakers for answering the call of nature when the lawmakers don't seem to respond to this vital concern. You're telling me that the government can tell me who I can and cannot marry but doesn't have to enforce simple health standards? Guess I'll be crossing my legs for the foreseeable future.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Does the government's prohibition on same-sex unions have you on a vengeful bender? Why not go James Bond on their asses?* That's right, whip out those super stealthy pen guns, cane rifles and flashlight grenades! Even though you can't get gay married, there's nothing stopping you from making an artillery of improvisational weapons.
If you think hidden firearms are just for 007, think again. Since the National Firearms Act of 1934 the government has tried (somewhat unsuccessfully) to control "non-sporting" weapons. While the NFA does cover many different kinds of guns, 48 states allow AOW's, or "any other weapons." An AOW is defined as "any weapon or device capable of being concealed on the person, from which a shot can be discharged..." Pretty vague, right? Essentially, AOW's are anything and everything that can be rigged, duct-tapped, and jiggered to fire a bullet. In many ways, these weapons are legal by omission -- there's just no way to make a law that covers guns made from . . . well, whatever you want to make them from.
DIY guns might seem bangin', but do you really need a secret cell-phone gun? Those babies have terrible service coverage and are totally inaccurate. A lot of these weapons have super short barrels, which makes them only good for shooting things that are slightly larger than barn doors. Of course, one might argue that this actually makes them more dangerous, but hey, it's a free country. (Also, if you are questioning how fatal these weapons can be, consider this.)
So go ahead, call up Q and have him make you a combination crazy-straw/assault rifle, I hear they're efficient and festive! But, if you're allowed to make a gun out of a PVC pipe and two soda cans then why on earth can't I get gay married?
*We aren't actually condoning violence. We happen to be conscientious objectors (re:Quakers).
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
People say that your wedding day is that happiest day of your life (not that we would know. . .). But why limit yourself to only one memorable experience? Date, marry, divorce, rinse and repeat, right? Conveniently, neither the state or federal governments have any restriction on the number of times a (straight) person can get divorced/remarried.
Now, we at B4GayMarriage are a "live and let live" bunch. If you'd like to get married a couple (dozen) times, who are we to say boo on that? But we can't help noticing that there doesn't seem to be a quota on the number of times one can get hetero-married. Everyone's got an uncle or cousin who has been hitched 2, 3 or 10 times. However, the Grand Poobah of Knot Tying is Glynn Wolfe, a California minister who has said "I do" 29 times.
Twenty-nine marriages in 89 years of life. That's pretty prolific. I mean, this guy puts Henry VIII to shame. Most of the unions seem to have lasted less than a few months, with the spectrum ranging from nineteen days to 11 years. When Wolfe died in 1997, his only son reported that Wolfe detested "living in sin" and so he would marry every chance he got (translation: let's hump on God's time). Most of his marriages ended in divorce, including the expulsion of one wife over her habit of eating sunflower seeds in bed. I guess that's better than beheading. Nice to know that the State sanctions even these trivial dismissals of marital bonds.
By the end of his life, it became clear that Wolfe was not looking for that one perfect soul mate. Instead, his 29th marriage was merely for publicity - by exchanging vows he got his matrimony-lovin' mug in the Guinness Book of World Records. Good to know that straight couples have the option of marrying (innumerable times) for sport. We just want to do it once, and we want it to last forever.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Has the government's regulation on gay marriage got you spinning? Does it feel like you're climbing ever higher toward some gut-scrambling nose-dive? It probably does, but just to be sure - are you presently riding on a roller coaster? If your answer to our previous query is yes, get the hell off.
Some might say that by strapping into that rickety ol' cart on Death Mountain you are taking responsibility for your own actions. I mean, there is truth in branding. But would you feel better or worse knowing that there are no universal safety standards for amusement parks? What about the fact that there is a federal ban prohibiting ride experts from investigating amusement park accidents . . . including the incident of fatality?
Unlike other areas where government agencies regulate public health and safety, there is no organization that promulgates policies to control these popular thrills. That leaves local governments responsible for planning their own ordinances. Unfortunately, 21 of our 50 states don't have any programs overseeing their amusement parks. And isn't it ironic (don't you think?) that the Mickey Mouse state has the loosest regulations? Or is it just convenient that the state with the biggest and most famous theme park has some of the most lenient restrictions, allowing these attractions to function without federal oversight? Perhaps we should stop being so cynical and simply say: Congratulations Florida, you're #1!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Feeling a little down as a result of the state's involvement in your love life? Chewing on ice as a way to alleviate your sexual frustration? Well, stop! That crap is poisonous! Do you even know what's in packaged ice? Unfortunately, we just found out.
People often worry about rancid food or contaminated beverages, but what about the other things we consume? If bad food and drink can make you sick, can't bad ice as well? The Food and Drug Administration doesn't seem to think so. Despite the fact that studies show that packaged and manufactured ice chips are about as clean as toilet water, the FDA does not regulate packaged ice producers or the ice made at food retailers. That's right, the ice in your Big Gulp has never been inspected and is not held to any standard.
So what, it's just a little bit of ice, right? That's not how the Beeman family of Phoenix, Arizona feel. In 2002 their son died after drinking beverages chilled in a public cooler. The cause was filthy ice, which infected him and 80 other youngsters. Noroviruses, like the one that killed Scott Beeman, are rarely fatal, but they can (and should) be easily avoided. Maybe this wouldn't happen if the FDA had a standard for the production and handling of ice? No, that's too much to ask.
If the United States government is so worried about the health and well-being of its citizenship then why allow contaminated ice on the market? It's almost as though they are too busy regulating our private lives to notice that some of these companies are getting away with murder. Does it sound like we are suggesting that there's a discrepancy between how corporations and citizens are expected to operate? Because we totally are. | <urn:uuid:83d94dd9-5987-4338-a832-020a9ed8488b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://beforegaymarriage.blogspot.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967444 | 2,546 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Refractions: Pagan & academic ideas interacting
Using multiple lenses to shed additional light
The Illogic of Straight Lines
After much introspection and discussion with Anne, I'm totally revamping this blog. Refractions is now a space for me to muse on the connections and interactions between ideas I encounter in the broader world of ideas, especially academic works, and Pagan ideas, themes, and practices, playing with the ways each contribute to or change the vision of the other, refracting these ideas through multiple lenses. For this re-inaugural post, I start with a simple observation: my car's GPS has trouble finding the shortest routes through Washington DC. When I started thinking about this in the context of ideas about humans and computers, it turns out that this is a refraction in microcosm of something important Paganism has to say about the macrocosm and our need for the natural world.
I coined a name for my observation: the illogic of straight lines. The programming of my little device seems to be stubbornly convinced that because a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, a straight road must be the fastest path as well. DC abounds with straight roads, thanks to its extensive planning, starting with L'Enfant's plan for the city layout. This physical manifestation of Enlightenment rationality relied on a grid of streets interpenetrated by major diagonal avenues which should, in theory, provide excellent access to any location. My GPS, nicknamed Betty, certainly buys into this theory. Time after time, it will insist on sending me down miles and miles of roads constantly interrupted by streetlights and traffic circles, which make the "expected arrival" times anywhere from laughably optimistic to just wildly inaccurate.
In the case of DC streets, the mismatch between theory and practice creates some alternatives. The theoretical street grid is built on top of a non-manmade landscape which doesn't always go in straight lines. In fact, in nature, truly straight lines are incredibly difficult to find. In some parts of the city, a mostly-level topography with few insurmountable interruptions makes the grid neat and dependable, much like the checkerboard pattern of easily-surveyed lands in the Midwest. In other areas, the environment could be made to accommodate the vision of ruler-wielding surveyors, as testified by former wetlands that now support urban densities. But some things were too much to deal with, especially Rock Creek. Now there's a beautiful parkway which follows the meandering path of the creek, providing drivers with a view of mostly-natural surroundings that seem worlds away from the nearby grids and highrises.
Rock Creek Parkway isn't just prettier, though: it's faster. Sure, the speed limits aren't any higher than the grid roads - and in some areas they're lower! - but it tends to have a constant flow of traffic movement. The parkway is incorporated into the grid with sporadic connecting-points, but these mostly take the form of ramps back to the fickleness of the lights, letting the road imitate the more consistent flow of the waterway it follows. After a few years of learning these alternate ways, I now defy my GPS, pointing my car towards Rock Creek Parkway or the GW Parkway along the banks of the Potomac, while Betty frantically recalculates, desperately trying to get me back onto stop-and-go streets.
I don't know how quickly someone in L'Enfant's day could navigate the city's streets by horse or in a carriage, but I suspect that the hyper-rationality of the original grid fell prey to changes in the very technology it was trying to accommodate. I also suspect that Rock Creek Parkway gets a little less traffic precisely because it is less logical; whether people or machines are looking at the map, it's a bit less predictable. If you miss the turn-off that you needed to get back to the grid, you can't just go around the block to get back there; you'll have to go a lot further and run the risk of being much later. Regardless of the reasons, in its own way the seeming illogic of this meandering, low-speed, indirect road has become more efficient than the predictable, carefully-planned and gridded alternative.
The role this green space plays with respect to the rest of the city reminded me of how Paul N. Edwards describes the difference between the "closed world" and the "green world" in his book, The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America. Edwards writes about the interaction between machines and mentalities in the Cold War, when "computers and the political imagination reciprocally extended, restricted, and otherwise transformed each other." (Paul N. Edwards, The Closed World (Cambridge: MIT Press) 1996, 7) He explains the title by saying, "As metaphors, [Cold War computer] systems constituted a dome of global technological oversight, a closed world, within which every every event was interpreted as part of a titanic struggle between the superpowers." (Edwards, 1.)
In a way, the street grid of DC and the navigation information and software I use - which relies on a quintessentially Cold War technology, the GPS system - are part of a discourse about travel. Betty's insistence on returning me to the grid reveals that although they were created centuries apart, they rest on shared assumptions about what creates the greatest efficiency in transportation, but those assumptions don't prove true in the real world. Hemmed in by these assumptions about efficiency, the device is prevented from achieving that very goal. When I circumvent the artificially-imposed boundaries and assumptions, going back to the less-predictable, less-planned spaces where nature insistently weaves her erratic embroidery through the interstices of the tightly-regulated warp and weft of the grid, I find a better solution.
Edwards explains that he drew the term "closed world" from literary critic Sherman Hawkins: "A 'closed world' is a radically bounded scene of conflict , an inescapably self-referential space where every thought, word, and action is ultimately directed back toward a central struggle. Turned inexorably inward, without frontiers or escape, a closed world threatens to annihilate itself, to implode." (Edwards, 12) In contrast, "The alternative to the closed world is not an open world but what Northrop Frye called the 'green world.' The green world is an un-bounded natural setting such as a forest, meadow, or glade. Action moves in an uninhibited flow between natural, urban, and other locations and centers around magical natural forces - mystical powers, animals, or natural cataclysms (e.g., A Midsummer Night's Dream). Green-world drama thematizes the restoration of community and cosmic order through the transcendence of rationality, authority, convention, and technology. Its archetypal form is the quest, in which characters struggle to integrate (rather than overcome) the world's complexity and multiplicity." (Edwards, 13)
Notice the important contrasts there: no world is entirely open, but the "green" spaces, which are less ordered and bounded by human planning and control, have more options and opportunities. They are home to the unexpected, to the non-human, and hence are the abode of magic. The "complexity and multiplicity" there can be "transcended" rather than "overcome." That idea of transcendence, with inherent transformation, echoes the idea of alchemical synthesis and transformation.
One of the great gifts Paganism has to offer the world is the restoring the value, in our own minds and hearts, of green space. Not just physical green space, but this kind of metaphysical green space, a green world, which we desperately need. Taken to extremes, many forms of rationality will turn inwards on themselves until they become self-defeating and even self-destructive, threatening the very safety of the creators ensconced inside the structures they thought would protect them from uncertainty. Sealing ourselves away intellectually is inherently dangerous; we have to live with some openings, and we have to go back to the boundaries to refresh ourselves with the green world. It offers us wonder and whimsy - was that a noble stag stepping through the misty glen, or a bumbling buffoon with the head of an ass? It offers us alternatives we never would have dreamed of. It offers us a way forward.
We need the green world, both literally and metaphorically, because no matter how many straight lines we draw on a map, life doesn't always follow the paths laid out for it.
Note on comments: None of this has to do with whether Masonic symbols played a role in DC's design. Please take those conversations elsewhere; comments solely on that topic will be deleted.
Please login first in order for you to submit comments | <urn:uuid:b9a2ece1-35a9-4eea-89bc-4c68611addc0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://witchesandpagans.com/EasyBlog/the-illogic-of-straight-lines.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95443 | 1,837 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Like any new piece of tech, your iPhone is going to need some good maintenance. And with the price at which Apple is offering the iPhone, one should really look into squeezing the most out of the device and using it at its full potential. Battery life, physical damage, OS maintenance – all these and more are things to look out for when caring for your little device. Lest you want to be caught with a broken screen or a phone that won’t turn on, here are some good tips in maintaining your iPhone.
Battery Life. Like any electronic device, the iphone battery is probably the most important part of your iPhone. After all, how could you take advantage of all the snazzy features and iPhone apps if there’s no battery powering it? Exposure to heat and extreme temperatures will reduce the performance of your battery the most. Shield your iPhone from the warm rays of the sun, and keep it out of heated areas like inside your parked car, near ovens, etc. Avoid overcharging and remove the plug once the battery reaches 100%, then completely drain to 0%. Do this at least once a month. Also, try turning off some power intensive features (running apps in standby, turning down the brightness, etc.) to prolong the battery life.
Touchscreen. One of the best things about the iPhone is its glorious 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen display. As the primary source of input and output, the iPhone screen gets the most abuse from its touchy owners. Common sense would tell us to never spill any liquid on it like coffee, and other beverages. So be careful when using your iPhone while hanging out in your favorite bar or coffee shop. Also avoid using the touchscreen with wet or damp hands. For added maintenance, keep a small piece of clean cloth specifically for your iPhone; to wipe off dust, grime and unsightly fingerprint marks on the screen.
Software. Maintaining your iPhone OS is just as important as caring for the actual physical phone. Always update to the latest version of the software to take advantage of fixes, added features, and protection from malicious exploits. Jailbreaking your iPhone might give you more functionality, but it also breaks your warranty. Some 3rd party applications may even cause damage to your iPhone OS. Only jailbreak your iPhone if you are aware of the consequences and you really know what you are doing.
Memory and Processor. If you experience apps crashing, webpages freezing, or just a general sluggish performance of your iPhone, it might be caused by a memory problem. Don’t fully load your iPhone; free a certain percentage of the memory to compensate for spikes in activity. Also take note of general trends; if an app keeps crashing, the problem might lie in the app itself and not on your phone. Quickly uninstall these problematic iPhone apps. If a webpage doesn’t load, it might be that the page is too big. Most websites have a mobile version that requires less memory. To be sure, try rebooting your iPhone to free up some memory.
Added Accessories. To add an extra layer of protection for your iPhone, why not invest in some protective accessories. iPhone cases, screen protectors, and the like would go a long way in keeping your iPhone looking as good as new. Body cases – in hard plastic or moulded rubber – would protect your iPhone body from dents and scratches, as well as absorbing impact from drops or falls; saving you the agony of seeing your iPhone cracked open and exposing its electronic guts. Screen protectors make sure your iPhone display is as crisp and clear as the day you bought it. Stylish designs also abound for these added accessories to give that extra bit of customization to your iPhone. Be protected and geek-chic at the same time.
If any other problems would arise for your iPhone, immediately take it to an Apple Service Center to find a solution. Also, only buy products and solicit services from brands and companies you know you can trust. Quality is not a high price to pay for the happiness that a well-maintained and fully functioning iPhone brings.
This Article is written by John C Arkin, contributor of PrintCountry News Articles. | <urn:uuid:2a6938c2-b0ab-4927-a49d-31eacb6e53f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://news.printcountry.com/tag/screen-protector | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937829 | 854 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Verb: Sice is like slice, except for it's sice. Often yelled while playing Call of Duty and using the melee attack to kill an opposing player.
Adjective: used to display great excitment or approval of nearly uncontainable joy.
Related words: throwing sice, shooting sice
Guy #1 kills opposing Call of Duty player with knife attack
Guy #2: Sice!
Guy #1: What does sice mean?
Guy #2: Sice is like slice except for its sice!
Mon, I had Marathon, Lightweight and Commando on and I was sicing guys all night!
To conduct a knife attack on an opponent or team mate while playing Call Of Duty.
When your opponent dies from a knife attack you would scream "SICE" into the headset so you team mates would know.
Throwing knives are also sice-worthy.
"Yo guy, I'm about to sice the sniper camping at the top of the hill". as I walk over to his position, i maneuver my way behind him and then, "SICE" !!! | <urn:uuid:b9dd394f-195e-4c06-850a-267554a6cf32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=throwing%20sice | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965563 | 234 | 1.664063 | 2 |
I'm working on a new WIP (yeah!) and I'm turning to you for help. My dilemma stems because I'm unsure if I'd like to use present or past tense. Do you have a preference? Something you typically use? Do you find it works better in some genres vs others?
Once done reading, there's a poll asking for your valued opinion. Feel free to also leave a comment if you'd like to elaborate on your preference.
Thank you so much in advance. Your opinion is greatly appreciated :)
What a neat concept! Wish I wasn't at work so I could take a look at your WIP, sounds facinating. I always lean towards past tense. For some reason I personally just don't like writing in first person. I don't mind reading it though, go with your gut!
Okay, I looked a little over the chapter. In regards to tense, you basically have to ask yourself what the point of telling is (i.e. is the narrator writing this down ten years later or is it happening now). Present tense creates more suspense. If it's written in past with a 1st person narrator then there's the idea that somehow everything will turn out alright enough (at least enough that the narrator can tell the story). You just need to weigh these ideas and decide. Good luck!
Hi, Leigh! for a silly reason, I couldn't access your post. However, I write first person past tense. I do put internal dialogue in present tense. Good luck. I hope you figure it out!
I think present tense is better, because it sounds more immediate. Plus, it helps you avoid using past-perfect, which always sounds awkward. (In other words, if you write in past tense, when you want to go further back in the past, everything is all "had been this" and "had done that".)
Despite that, I wrote my novel in past tense. I have chosen it for philosophical reasons. Primarily because there is another POV in the book, and that character literally lives without memories, so her chapters are distinguished by her present-tense voice. The protagonist is learning to let go of the past and live in the present, and in Part III, the book shifts to present tense once she has learned to let go. I may abandon the latter if my reading group thinks it's too weird.
Thank you all for weighing in!
Also, it appears that the html of the chapter & poll are not showing up in all browsers in the provided link. I'm not sure what's going on. It works on all my computers and even my phone. Sorry for those who are left blind.
Right now, I'm really resonating with Kelsey's POV that present tense creates a "happening right now" & "unknown fate" type of vibe.
I'm definitely open to hear more opinions, so feel free to keep 'em coming.
Thanks again, everyone! :)
There is a trend to write in the present tense at the moment, and it does make the story more immediate in one way, as if it's happening right now. However the present tense is very tricky to write in and takes great discipline to keep all the writing in the present tense. Writing in the past tense is far easier and familiar. I like to write in the present tense at times, but when I do I'm writing about subject matter as if it is occurring now. By the very nature of your historic material, the shooting of the Romanov family, you're asking the reader to make a great leap of faith by going back in time and becoming alive in the past as present, like a time traveler. Doable but difficult.
And I did notice in your excerpt in several places where you fell into the past tense here and there. When writing in the present tense you have to watch out for using past tense verbs. They may work in dialogue, you can say, "I went to see John yesterday but he wasn't home," I tell him as I scramble the breakfast eggs. However, you can't switch back and forth in time in expository or narrative segments.
My rule of thumb is write in the POV and tense most natural to you and your story. Try it several ways and see what comes easiest to you and reads the best in terms of getting what you want say across. Trust in the process.
Thanks so much for your thoughts. One of the reasons why I want to write in present tense is because I find it a challenge and it's something unfamiliar to me as a present-tense newbie.
This draft is definitely rough -- I haven't done much massaging or editing and it's likely I have slipped in areas where I hadn't intended to (whoops).
I tried to only use past tense in narrative when referring to prior events. I used the following blurb as my foundation for this approach. Based on your feedback, it looks like I'm going to have to put some added effort into smoothing out these transitions from present to past:
"Events do happen prior to the current experience, and describing them in a present-tense story requires a shift to the past tense. However, the author may need to include those events to help the reader understand the present experience or to provide the motivation for a character’s actions and thoughts. This is difficult to accomplish. The author must make these time shifts smoothly, without losing the present-tense perspective and without making the reader wonder when the event is taking place. The author has to separate present and past tense without damaging the readers’ engagement in the present tense events."
I have a few "present tense" books on my TBR list so I can get a feel for how other authors have handled this.
Thanks again for your thoughts. SheWrites is a wonderful source to learn from other authors :) | <urn:uuid:e344c7fe-2c96-4ef0-aa63-09d47b805fac> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shewrites.com/group/novelistsstrugglingornot/forum/topics/present-vs-past-tense-what-s-your-preference?commentId=3506464%3AComment%3A750529&xg_source=activity&groupId=3506464%3AGroup%3A77339 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970746 | 1,205 | 1.726563 | 2 |
= Member Content
Knowledge Shelf articles are available at no cost to all PMI members. Join today to take advantage of this and many other member benefits.
Creating Value Through Team Management
- by Anthony Woods, PMP
Being productive in today’s business environment means continuously doing more with less. The next generation of savings and productivity lies in the collaboration of larger, more diverse teams to share ideas and implement new process improvements. The author explains how he put together the right team for a “cost-cutting treasure hunt,” leveraging good program management practices to increase its chance of success.
Star Light, Star Bright: The Trials and Tribulations of Managing a Star Performer
- by Ajay Widge, PMP
Imagine you have a project associate who is bright, hardworking, knows the subject matter very well, and has initiative; in other words, a real star! While this is a nice asset to have on a complex project, it also presents challenges for the team leader. The author presents insights and advice for building an effective team that features a star performer.
Aligning Pressure and Desire to Increase Performance
- by Andre Malan, PMP
Project managers recognize that the proper motivation of key resources is a primary cause for project success. The author has compiled the PDP model, aligning pressure and desire to increase performance, that aims to provide project managers with a structure for motivating key project resources by aligning the project’s objectives and the personal aims of the resources and incorporating them into the project in a way that results in optimal team performance.
The Holistic Approach to Motivating and Building Morale
- by Joseph D. Launi, PMP
Building on the works of management scientists, this article seeks to tap into the human psyche to position project team members to be increasingly focused and productive. The author provides lessons learned and recommends some actions managers can take to capitalize on these lessons to create a truly satisfying and productive project environment.
Integrated Team Approach in a Client-Supplier Project Environment: A Value Addition to Project Management?
- by Sajitha K. Nambiar, PMP and Naomi Brookes, PhD, DIC, FHEA
How do we manage the team in the current project environment when there are many teams involved in one project delivery? In this article we explore a generic project environment in which there is a client (sponsor) project team and one or more supplier (vendor) project teams working toward a common project goal. Practitioners in two different project domains (construction industry projects [capital intensive projects] and IT service sector projects) were interviewed as part of a case study project, and practices are recommended to set up and maintain integrated project teams for a successful project delivery.
The Intangibles of Trust, the Art of Adaptation, and Soft Skills in Team Leadership
- by Shara Beach, PMP
Although there are many tangible factors that affect the success of your projects, this article focuses on the synergy created from the elusive intangibles of trust, the art of adaptation, and the cultivation of soft skills in team leadership. Together, these three principles will help you create an environment in which people willingly perform at their highest levels.
Team Building and Development in a Matrix Environment
- by Karen Davey-Winter
Project teams are often matrix in nature, staffed by members taken from diverse functional teams in order to achieve the project goal. This is complicated enough if the structure is a well-defined functional hierarchy. However, a matrix environment for completing projects adds in another layer of complexity. The functional "teams within teams" still exist, and each person has a functional "home" team, but now they also belong to a "project" team which has a finite life span, and a project manager to whom they also report. All of these teams need nurturing if a project is to be successful.
Clique or Team? A Fine Line Indeed
- by Kwei Akuete, PMP
Project leaders need to watch the chemistry that evolves among their team members to make sure that cliques don't form--or even that a perception of cliquishness does not occur. The result could be bad morale, both for new team members and for those within the group. | <urn:uuid:167dda74-c1ee-4a38-a2ed-1800374e0afe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pmi.org/en/Knowledge-Center/Knowledge-Shelf/Team-Management.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943761 | 879 | 1.570313 | 2 |
MS Attacks Open Source
Microsoft is launching a two-pronged offensive against what it sees as its chief competition on the Internet: open source code.
In a preliminary license for its wireless Internet tools, the software giant appears to be floating a trial balloon by explicitly banning the use of open source code. Microsofts language, which could become part of its commercial licensing terms, specifically bans use of the Linux open source operating system (OS), which Microsoft seems to find especially objectionable.
But in a bid to attract more software developers to its Internet initiatives, Microsoft last week announced a "shared source" program, in which it will make available two key tools for Internet applications. The announcement appears to be an effort to broaden its appeal and escape the stamp of offering only closed Windows systems.
Microsofts ability to move on these two fronts simultaneously may be clouded by the June 28 appeals court decision that upheld the finding that Microsoft abused its monopoly power.
"Microsoft has identified Linux as its potential competitor and is attempting to limit its use," said Albert Foer, an attorney and president of the American Antitrust Institute, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit group that acts as watchdog for competitive factors in the American economy. "Microsoft seems to be going ahead as if antitrust doesnt exist and wont affect them."
Language included in a license that labels open source code as "potentially viral" marked a stepped-up attack by the software giant.
The license for Microsofts Mobile Internet Toolkit, which is in its second beta release to developers, says that it may not be used with any software under the Free Software Foundations General Public License (GPL) and six other forms of "potentially viral software." That language refers to open source codes freely available and shared code licensing agreements. The wording of the license cites the Linux OS and the Perl scripting language as examples.
For a company with monopoly power, "these provisions could be construed as attempting to leverage their current position in the operating system market into new markets," a potential violation of antitrust, said Tim Cahn, an attorney at Legal Strategies Group in Emeryville, Calif. While software companies can put whatever restrictions they choose into a software license, "this isnt just another software company. This is Microsoft," Cahn said.
Microsoft did not have any representatives available to comment on the license issue.
"Microsoft cant beat us technically, so theyve decided to strangle us in legal paperwork," said Lorne Cooper, president of NuSphere, distributor of the MySQL open source database system, a potential competitor. Microsoft announced its restrictions as NuSphere and Great Bridge, a distributor of another open source database system, have begun to enjoy limited success as Internet systems.
At the same time, Microsoft is adopting a more open stance on its upcoming Internet software.
Microsoft is offering all comers a chance in the first half of next year to download and use for experimental purposes its upcoming language, C Sharp (C#), and its multilanguage Common Language Infrastructure, a sort of workbench for building Web services.
Until now, Microsoft has released only binaries, the ones and zeroes that disguise the original code. But in the "shared source" program, developers will receive the actual source code, written in letters and numerals, of the two future Microsoft products.
"There will be an incredible amount of interest in this among the academic and research communities," said David Stutz, general program manager for Shared Source CLI at Microsoft. "There are a lot of positive lessons to be learned from the open source example," he added.
By launching its Shared Source initiative for C# and CLI, while restricting competing open source code tools and code, "Microsoft is trying to confuse the issue," said Miguel de Icaza, chief technology officer at Linux user interface firm Ximian.
De Icaza noted that, in the beta license, Microsoft restricts seven specific open source licenses, but made an exception of the FreeBSD, an open source Unix OS that came out of the University of California at Berkeley.
"Its an attack on Linux, which has market share as an operating system. FreeBSD has no market share, so they say, Oh, thats the good one, " de Icaza said.
FreeBSD is offered with a less restrictive license than the GPL under which Linux is issued. With a GPL, additions to the source code that are published or distributed must be made available for free to any interested third party. With FreeBSD, companies may convert the source code into a commercial product without airing the changes or additions they have made.
Microsofts Tony Goodhew, project manager for Share Source CLI, said Microsoft is moving in the same direction as open source code advocates, but wishes to continue to protect its intellectual property from commercial exploitation by others. He said the companys Shared Source initiative goes so far as to allow developers to examine the example of C# and CLI code, and then build similar structures on the platforms of their choice.
Tim OReilly, president of OReilly & Associates, a Sebastopol, Calif., computer book publisher, said Shared Source represents Microsofts response to the popularity of Java and open source code in colleges and universities. "Theyre very desirous of having the academic community adopt C Sharp. Java has made a lot of headway there," OReilly said. | <urn:uuid:fcdfbae2-aeaf-4a57-accd-03fd23e1f043> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eweek.com/print/c/a/Application-Development/MS-Attacks-Open-Source/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947816 | 1,086 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Navy patrol boats reach capsized boat
- From: AAP
- June 21, 2012
TWO Australian navy patrol boats have arrived at the scene of the latest asylum seeker boat capsize and have started rescue operations, Customs and Border Protection says.
Two Armidale class patrol boats, HMAS Larrakia and HMAS Wollongong, have arrived at the disaster, about 200km north of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, and have started recovery operations.
An AMSA Dornier aircraft, with additional rescue resources and search capability including life rafts, was expected to reach the scene later tonight.
Three merchant vessels have also responded to a request from AMSA's Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) for assistance and are now in the area supporting recovery efforts.
Customs and Border Protection said initial reports indicated a number of survivors had been pulled from the water.
In an update on the rescue operations, Customs said the asylum seeker vessel was initially sighted by a Border Protection Command Dash-8 surveillance aircraft about 3pm today.
At that time it was capsized with some 40 people clinging to the hull and others in the water.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is coordinating a number of ships and aircraft in support of the search and rescue operation.
A Customs and Border Protection Dash-8 surveillance aircraft is providing aerial surveillance to assist in the rescue.
As well, a A RAAF maritime patrol aircraft has deployed a number of life rafts and is providing on-going aerial surveillance. It will be replaced by another RAAF aircraft later tonight. | <urn:uuid:7b90e47d-1898-49ed-9d47-61c3911ddb95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/navy-patrol-boats-reach-capsized-boat/story-e6frfku0-1226404884193 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961134 | 326 | 1.609375 | 2 |
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Bill to label GE fish fails in California Legislature
"It's shameful that nine members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee chose to keep consumers in the dark as to whether salmon sold in California is genetically engineered or not, should GE Salmon be approved by the FDA," said Marie Logan of Food and Water Watch.
Bill to label GE fish fails in California Legislature
by Dan Bacher
You would think that a simple bill requiring the labeling of Frankenfish would pass easily through the California Legislature.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, since Assemblymembers apparently beholden to the bioegineering and biotechnology industry on January 19 voted against a bill, AB 88, that would have required that all genetically engineered (GE) fish sold in California contain clear and prominent labeling.
The legislation, authored by Assemblymember Jared Huffman (D-6), failed in the Assembly Appropriations Committee by a vote of 9-7. Assemblymembers Harkey, Calderon, Hall, Nielson, Norby, Solorio, Wagner, Campos and Donnelly voted no on the bill, while Fuentes, Bradford, Chesbro, Gatto, Hill, Ammiano and Mitchell voted yes.
Assemblymember Blumenfield, who voted for the bill last May, was out of the room during the vote.
"It's shameful that nine members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee chose to keep consumers in the dark as to whether salmon sold in California is genetically engineered or not, should GE Salmon be approved by the FDA," said Marie Logan of Food and Water Watch. "We will continue to fight for labeling of all genetically engineered foods and continue to urge the FDA to not approve GE salmon, so that this potentially risky product never reaches grocery store shelves. Food & Water Watch will continue working to support national legislation that would stop the approval of GE salmon by the FDA."
The legislation, AB 88, was stalled in Appropriations last year, and was held-over for reintroduction this session by Assemblymember Huffman. This bill is modeled after similar legislation passed in the state of Alaska in 2005 that requires labeling of all genetically modified seafood.
"While we are disappointed that AB 88 failed today, we are encouraged by the level of support the bill received in a tough Committee," according to a statement from the Center for Food Safety (CFS). "The bill’s failure in Committee came despite clear consumer demand for labeling of GE fish."
As Huffman told TakePart, “If we had put this bill before the people of California, it would have passed overwhelmingly.”
“It is shocking and such a big mistake for California to allow 9 people to decide NOT to label GE Fish!” said Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “Assemblyman Huffman is right that if the people had a vote, those Frankenfish would not exist at all! This vote was important to what is happening in the U.S. Senate on the other bills about the FRANKENFISH, the Salmon Killer.”
She emphasized that “ALL GM foods are having negative hormonal growth effects on humans, especially babies, toddlers, children, teens and young adults.”
Consumer, environmental and fishing groups oppose the approval of genetically engineered salmon and other fish by the federal Food and Drug Administration because of its potential human health impacts and the danger presented to struggling West Coast salmon populations if the GE fish escape from aquaculture facilities. They supported the legislation as a way of safeguarding human health in California if efforts to stop the approval of Frankenfish at the federal level fail.
BIOCOM, an organization representing the biotechnology and life sciences industry, opposed the Legislation by claiming that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "closely regulates" the use of bioengineering and biotechnology in foods and is currently reviewing the approval of consumption of genetically engineered salmon. BIOCOM argued that it should be left to the FDA to determine whether or not labeling should be required on these products.
The Frankenfish issue is not going to go away as long as AquaBounty’s salmon is on the table for FDA consideration and while other biotech corporations push for the approval of GE animals. The Obama administration, the same administration that is pushing for the privatization of ocean public trust resources through "catch shares" program and the construction of a peripheral canal that will destroy Central Valley salmon and California Delta fish populations, has also put the GE salmon approval process on the fast-track.
On December 19, a coalition of 11 food safety, environmental, consumer and fisheries organizations sent a letter to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) calling for a halt to its approval of a genetically engineered (GE) salmon after learning that the company’s – AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. – research site was contaminated with a new strain of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA), the deadly fish flu that is devastating fish stocks around the world.
“This new information calls into question the reliability of AquaBounty’s data and the validity of its claims that their fish are safe for the environment” said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety. “The FDA must respond appropriately and conduct their own environmental impact statement that looks at a broad range of environmental risks from these genetically engineered salmon, including the risk of spreading diseases such as ISA and antibiotic use for other diseases.”
The coalition included the Center for Food Safety, Friends of the Earth, Food & Water Watch, Center for Environmental Health, Alliance for Natural Health USA, Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, PCC Natural Markets, Organic Consumers Association, Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and Mangrove Action Project.
Legislation advocating a ban on GE salmon, S. 230, and mandatory labeling, S. 229, is making its through the U.S. Senate.
Legislation advocating a ban on GE salmon, H.R. 521, and mandatory labeling, H.R. 520, is also proceeding through the U.S. House of Representatives.
For more information on GE fish, visit CFS’s campaign website, http://www.ge-fish.org, or Food and Water Watch's website,http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/genetically-engineered-foods/stop-frankenfish. | <urn:uuid:31177ee2-f1c1-4975-99d4-95dea074815a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/01/20/18705119.php?show_comments=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937061 | 1,338 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Protests by tens of thousands of Pakistanis infuriated by an anti-Islam film descended into deadly violence yesterday, with police firing tear gas and live ammunition in an attempt to subdue rioters who hurled rocks and set fire to buildings in some cities. Three people were killed and dozens injured on a holiday, Love for the Prophet Day, declared by the Pakistani government so people could rally against the video.
In the Pakistani city of Peshawar, police fired on rioters who were torching a cinema. Mohammad Amir, a driver for a Pakistani television station, was killed when police bullets hit his vehicle at the scene, said Kashif Mahmood, a reporter for ARY TV who was also sitting in the car at the time.
A protester shot during a demonstration in the city also died, police officer Rohhullah Khan said.
In Karachi, armed protesters among a group of 15,000 fired on police, killing one and wounding another, police officer Ahmad Hassan said. The crowd also burned two cinemas and a bank, he said.
Clashes between police and stone-throwing protesters also occurred in Lahore and Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. Police fired tear gas as well as warning shots in an attempt to keep them from advancing toward US missions in the cities. At least 55 people, including nine police, were injured in the nationwide unrest, according to police and hospital officials.
The film denigrating the Prophet Mohammed, Innocence of Muslims, has sparked unrest in many parts of the Muslim world over the past 10 days, and the deaths of at least 33 people, including the US ambassador to Libya, have been linked to the violence. Much of the anger has been directed at the US government even though the film was privately produced and US officials have criticized it for insulting Muslims.
In Peshawar, several hundred protesters set ablaze two cinemas and the city’s chamber of commerce, and damaged shops and vehicles. Police beat demonstrators with batons.
Police clashed with over 10,000 demonstrators in several areas of Islamabad, including in front of a five-star hotel near the diplomatic enclave where the US embassy and other foreign missions are located.
The government temporarily blocked cellphone service in 15 major cities to prevent militants from using phones to detonate bombs during the protests, an Interior Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf called on the international community yesterday to pass laws to prevent people from insulting the Prophet Mohammed.
“If denying the Holocaust is a crime, then is it not fair and legitimate for a Muslim to demand that denigrating and demeaning Islam’s holiest personality is no less than a crime?” Ashraf said during a speech to religious scholars and diplomats in Islamabad. | <urn:uuid:bb0ebc0a-cf84-460f-92bc-7f709f164416> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2012/09/22/2003543365 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975482 | 578 | 1.695313 | 2 |
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Macomb County communities Sterling Heights and Utica have approved an amendment to their current water contracts with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department which will increase the price their residents pay for water and sewer service.
Sterling Heights water users will pay 4.6 percent more on their water bills, while Utica residents will pay 12.9 percent more starting July 1.
Sal Conigliaro, Sterling Heights director of public works, said Sterling Heights has a 30-year contract approved by the City Council in 2008 to buy water from Detroit. The contract allows Sterling Heights to periodically review the contract and make adjustments.
Conigliaro said one of the main reasons for the price increase in Sterling Heights is the city’s demand for less water than in previous years.
“After a review we came back with numbers how much water we are going to purchase,” Conigliaro said. “There has been a gradual decline in water consumption for a number of reasons.”
Conigliaro said economics and conservation have played a major role in the price increase. He said people are using less water in an attempt to conserve water, especially on hot summer days where there are restrictions when they can water their lawns.
He also said people also are using less water because of new shower heads and improved toilets that use less water.
Conigliaro said another major reason water consumption in southeast Michigan also is down because the population has fallen.
“Obviously, Detroit has fixed costs that never go down,” Conigliaro said. “Water volumes have decreased and their costs go up and it pushes rates in an upward direction.”
Conigliaro said the average water rate increase set by Detroit is 4.4 percent. He said Sterling Heights is right at the average.
Conigliaro said the DWSD invited all 86 of its wholesale water users to participate in the drafting of a new Model Water Service Contract.
Mayor Jacqueline Noonan said Utica’s purchases from DWSD decreased 10 percent while maintaining its peak flows since 2008. The Utica City Council approved an amendment to its current water service contract with Detroit on Jan. 29.
DWSD is seeking 5.6 percent more from Utica than it charged last year.
“Detroit bills a portion of its costs based on volume and since the amount of water we use is decreasing our unit cost for water is increasing by 12.9 percent,” Noonan said.
She said other costs that go into the charges from Detroit include full-time staffing, equipment, billing, debt service and capital improvements. | <urn:uuid:ede4fbe8-727e-4898-ba2f-41cfaa877817> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macombdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130210/news/130219963 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961867 | 550 | 1.648438 | 2 |
As per Mr. Hashmi, C.E.O of the company, “Hashmi has been serving mankind since 1929 and has gone ahead and launched a completely safe and natural range of health products for both males and females. They have been manufactured using organic ingredients are completely natural and without any kind of side effects. All these health products have been created after extensive research at our state of the art R&D facility. Simultaneously they have also been launched in both U.S and European market.”
The company has an ambitious plan for launching a wide range of herbal cosmetic products for both male and female. It has been extensively hiring talent from the industry to become a world leader in the field of Unani by 2020. The company plans on increasing headcount and set up more R&D and manufacturing facilities in both India and abroad in the coming months. It has already raised capital for its ambitious target which will be utilized towards meeting its goals.
Hashmi intends to attain the numero uno position in the field of Unani and become a leader in this field by 2020. It already has around 100 products in various categories and aims to add 100 more in the next five years.
Founded in the year 1929, Hashmi is a world renowned Unani company based out of Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is involved in manufacturing of life saving medicines using patented formulations. The company was started as a one man industry with a hand operated tablet punching machine aimed at treating sufferings of the mankind and having a disease free world. It had a modest beginning by treating rural villages of northern India and today its healthcare products are shipped across the world providing immediate relief to the patients from life threatening diseases. Hashmi has transformed into a big group and today is one of the frontrunners in the field of Unani. | <urn:uuid:45e28804-deea-4fc0-9217-c3f28d33e92f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prlog.org/12081605-hashmi-launches-wide-range-of-male-female-unani-herbal-healthcare-products.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971565 | 373 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued a final rule implementing the whistleblower provisions of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). OSHA is charged with enforcing the whistleblower provisions in 21 separate statutes, including Section 219 of the CPSIA. Section 219 of this statute prevents manufacturers, private labelers, distributors, and retailers from firing or otherwise discriminating against an employee who provides information to the employer or federal or state government official relating the employer’s violation (or perceived violation) of the CPSIA or related regulations or standards. The employee is also afforded such protections if he or she testifies in a proceeding regarding the violation, assists in such a proceeding, or objects or refuses to participate in an activity that he or she reasonably believes would violate the CPSIA.
As discussed in the summary of the final rule, published in the July 10 edition of the Federal Register, the final regulations establish the procedures and time frames for handling retaliation complaints under CPSIA, “including procedures and time frames for employee complaints to OSHA, investigations by OSHA, appeals of OSHA determinations to an administrative law judge (ALJ) for a hearing de novo, hearings by ALJs, review of ALJ decisions by the Administrative Review Board (ARB) . . and judicial review of the [Labor] Secretary’s final decision.”
The final regulations do not deviate significantly from the interim final rules issued in August 2010. Minor differences between the two sets of rules include the following:
- To be considered timely, a retaliation complaint under CPSIA must be filed within 180 days of the alleged retaliation. In response to a commenter’s suggestion that the limitations period should not begin to run until an employee becomes aware of an alleged retaliatory act, OSHA amended the final rule to clarify that the statute of limitations may be tolled “for reasons warranted by applicable case law.”
- With respect to investigations of whistleblower complaints, OSHA has revised the procedures under CPSIA to include certain safeguards “aimed at ensuring that complainants and respondents have equal access to information during the course of the OSHA investigation.” Specifically, the rule stipulates that after receiving a complaint, “the [Labor] Secretary shall notify the respondent of the filing of the complaint, of the allegations contained in the complaint, and of the substance of the evidence supporting the complaint.” In addition, the Secretary must allow both parties to submit a written response to the complaint, meet with a representative of the Secretary and present statements from witnesses. Moreover, throughout the investigation of the complaint, OSHA will provide the complainant or the complainant’s counsel a copy of all of the respondent employer’s submissions to the agency regarding the whistleblower complaint, redacted of confidential information as necessary. The complainant will be given the opportunity to respond to these submissions. Finally, the rule states that the complainant will be given a copy of all materials that the agency provides to the employer.
- With respect to hearings before an ALJ, the final regulations reference the “broad authority of ALJs to limit discovery in order to expedite the hearing.” According to OSHA, this section was included to make it consistent with other OSHA whistleblower regulations. Similarly, a section was added that specifies that the formal rules of evidence will not apply to proceedings before an ALJ, but that “rules or principles designed to assure the production of the most probative evidence will be applied.”
- As for the ability to appeal the ALJ’s decision and order, OSHA revised the period for filing a timely petition for review with the ARB to 14 days rather than 10 business days.
- With respect to the matters contested in the petition for review, the interim final regulations had specified that "[a]ny exception not specifically urged will ordinarily be deemed waived by the parties." Agreeing with a commenter that this might be too stringent a standard, OSHA replaced the phrase "ordinarily will" with "may."
- As for the complainant’s ability to file a whistleblower complaint in federal court, OSHA has revised the final rule “to more clearly explain the circumstances in which the complainant may file a complaint in district court and to incorporate the statutory provision allowing a jury trial at the request of either party in a district court action under CPSIA.” Specifically, the final rule states that a complainant can file a CPSIA whistleblower complaint in federal court “without regard to the amount in controversy” in either of the following circumstances: (a) the complainant can file such a complaint within 90 days after receiving a written determination from the Assistant Secretary stating whether or not there is reasonable cause to believe that the respondent has retaliated against the complainant in violation of CPSIA, so long as the Secretary has not yet issued a final decision; or (b) there has been no final decision of the Secretary within 210 days of the filing of the complaint. Either party may request a jury trial. However, the agency notes that it is the Secretary's position that complainants may not initiate an action in federal court after the Secretary issues a final decision, even if the date of the final decision is more than 210 days after the filing of the complaint or within 90 days of the complainant's receipt of the Assistant Secretary's written findings.
The provisions of this final rule take effect upon publication in the Federal Register.
Photo credit: Lkmorlan | <urn:uuid:f94c1aa8-e123-4ad8-bacf-2fc626ad4c41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dcemploymentlawupdate.com/2012/07/articles/agency-rulemaking/osha-issues-final-whistleblower-rule-under-cpsia/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935231 | 1,115 | 1.75 | 2 |
The Modesto Police Department Explorer Post #219
A Great Opportunity for Young Adults
Modesto Police Department’s Explorer Post #219 is an invaluable experience for young adults,
ages 16-21 years old, who are interested in a law enforcement career. Explorers are involved
in community activities that prepare them for the future while learning effective communication
skills and the basics of law enforcement and leadership. They also gain incredible relationships
with people they look up to and may even work with in the future. Modesto Police Explorers
participated in many activities throughout 2007, including: providing security at national holiday
parades, the Riverbank Wine and Cheese Festival, and X-Fest.
In addition, the Explorers participated
in scenarios with community police academies, and by working with different units throughout the police
department, such as the S.W.A.T. Team and Reserve Officers, received valuable training experience. The
Explorer Post had over 200 Beanie Babies donated to them by a caring citizen. In turn, the Explorer
Post proudly donated a majority of the Beanie Babies to Stanislaus County Child & Family Services to be
given to children who are abused, neglected, and taken out of their homes. It is through experiences like
these that the Modesto Police Department Explorer Post #219 will continue the tradition of law enforcement,
following the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics for life.
For more information on joining Explorer Post #219,
contact the Explorer Recruitment Advisor
For an application, click here. | <urn:uuid:51997e51-1f7c-498f-808b-926fbf832d55> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.modestogov.com/mpd/programs/explorers.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94031 | 323 | 1.515625 | 2 |
I hope our regular readers have moved over to PLoS Neuroanthropology. But just in case you haven’t, I’ve posted some of our recent posts from over there below. And for those of you new to neuroanthropology, welcome! Here’s a taste of what we do.
But one thing first. If you like getting your internet through a feed, please update the rss subscription for PLoS Neuroanthropology> Here’s the actual address in case you need it: http://feeds.plos.org/plos/blogs/neuroanthropology
An Interview with Mark Changizi: Culture Harnassing the Brain
*Our most popular post has been an interview with cognitive scientist Mark Changizi, who has some provocative ideas about how culture evolved by adapting itself to our brains.
Food for Thought: Cooking in Human Evolution
*Richard Wrangham, Heribert Watzke, Marlene Zuk and the trade-offs between big brains and big teeth and guts, and how humans overcome that trade-off through cooking, a diversified diet, and more – all that in another very popular post.
Life in the Dark
*Another post that people have enjoyed covers how much we’ve changed our nighttime environment through human lighting, and the effects this can have on sleep, vision, and behavior. It also presents the work of photographer Peter DiCampo and his work on dark photos as activism
Culture of Poverty Series
*The controversial concept of a “Culture of Poverty” appeared in a front-page NY Times article, as well as in a prominent collection from sociologists this summer on Reconsidering the Culture of Poverty. That kicked off a series of posts on the Culture of Poverty. The first covered the debate and critiquing the NYT article for how it represented culture and poverty. The second presented a range of critical reactions to the re-emergence of this old idea, before advancing an idea about “cultural inequality” to go along with notions of structural inequality. The third focused on mistaken notions of culture, and what we might actually do in terms of ideas and policy in relation to culture, poverty, and behavior. | <urn:uuid:4849d589-4e95-4f49-b176-6b4eb6339a03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://neuroanthropology.net/2010/11/14/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930184 | 460 | 1.570313 | 2 |
NEW YORK - State and local leaders have created two new housing initiatives that aim to help droves of people put out of their homes by Superstorm Sandy.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a rapid repair program designed to get thousands of New Yorkers displaced by the storm back into their homes. And Gov. Andrew Cuomo is creating the Empire State Relief Fund, a charity that will raise money for permanent housing solutions in the metropolitan region.
Bloomberg's plan will identify large general contractors who will come to storm-damaged homes, assess the damages and assign electricians, carpenters and other subcontractors to do the necessary repairs quickly.
"The best temporary housing is permanent housing," said Bloomberg, who indicated the program would begin next week with the aim of getting most of the displaced back home by year's end.
In most cases, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay for the work, said Brad Gair, the former FEMA official Bloomberg appointed earlier this week to lead the city's post-storm housing recovery effort.
The federal, state and city government will save by getting the work done quickly and in bulk, said Bloomberg.
Displaced New Yorkers can apply if they have a warning sticker on their home signifying it was damaged and have obtained a FEMA identification number. Additionally, electrical power must have already been restored to the street where they reside, said Bloomberg.
Those whose homes were damaged by Sandy still have the option to work through their insurance companies and get repair contractors of their own choosing. But that, said Bloomberg, is often a time-consuming and difficult process.
"We'll try to schedule as fast as we can," said Bloomberg. "That's the whole idea here. We're going to a bunch of carpenters, electricians, plumbers, whatever. And they're all going to come here supervised by a large contracting company with lots of experience, who knows how to deal with permitting, who knows how to the job done. We think we can kick-start this."
Cuomo's charity plan will enlist the help of several New York-based celebrities. Robert De Niro, Michael J. Fox, Whoopi Goldberg, Al Pacino and a number of sports stars have agreed to appear in a filmed public service announcement to raise awareness about the effort, said Cuomo. Most major broadcast and cable TV networks serving the region have agreed to run the announcement, he said.
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Housing-relief programs help people displaced by Sandy | <urn:uuid:62d75917-a081-4f3d-af7d-d39169de6d9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fdlreporter.com/usatoday/article/1695805?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968047 | 515 | 1.632813 | 2 |
“[IDC's] expectation over this 5-year time period is that annual compound growth rate of the public IT cloud business will be five times greater than the growth of the IT industry, signifying a weather change to the acceptance of public cloud IT services across the board.”
Growth is primarily from “businesses evaluating and moving existing applications and internally supported services to the cloud, and that the major growth will be seen as companies begin to look to cloud services to drive innovative new offerings and innovations that will expand business opportunity,” the ZDNet report notes.
IDC defines five key areas of growth for cloud services and expects these services to provide more than 40% of the overall industry growth with these key technologies; basic storage, servicers, applications, systems infrastructure, and Platform as a Service (PaaS). This prediction for PaaS is the most tenuous of those offered as the growth of this service has not been as strong as analysts previously expected, with a significant amount of customer concern over turning this much control over to a public service.
Small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) are also expected to go big on the cloud.
But there’s another bigger takeaway here for cloud watchers. Chernicoff notes the IDC reports lack of a focus on private clouds, highlighting “a presumption that as public cloud IT services mature, that they will eat into the market for private clouds as potential customer concerns about reliability, availability, and security are addressed by public cloud providers.”
Weigh in: Will Amazon — which launched a cloud server marketplace just yesterday — and other public cloud giants grow as fast as IDC predicts, and will some of that be at the expense of private clouds?
A new report from IDC claims that, “by 2015, more U.S. Internet users will access the Internet through mobile devices than through PCs or other wireline devices.” IDC includes tablets in the roster of non-PC mobile devices, although I confess that I typically consider a tablet to be a “PC.” (For most analysts and pundits nowadays, “PC” seems to mean “something with a mouse/trackpad and keyboard.)
More important than the share of mobile users surpassing the share of “mouse + keyboard” users (again, why is this input distinction invested with such significance?) is the fact that IDC projects that another 700 million users by 2015. Keep this stat in mind, because you’re going to hear plenty of similar talk out of Intel at IDF this week.
At the most recent Intel Investor Day, Intel CEO Paul Otellini claimed that for every 600 smartphones you need a server; and the same for every 122 tablets. So regardless of how Intel is faring vs. ARM on the cloud client front, the growth of the Internet via mobile—even of 100% of those mobile clients run non-Intel hardware—is still going to be huge for Intel’s booming cloud server business (and everyone else’s cloud server business, for that matter).
Back to the client issue, though: Intel is also keen to argue that a “tablet” is just another type of PC, and the company has been trying to redefine “PC” to cover the kinds of applications—tablets, set-top boxes, and the like—that most pundit like to put in the “post-PC” bucket. I’m sort of in this camp myself. Tablets, set-top boxes, and even mobile phones are all computers, and they’re all personal, so why not just admit that “PC” is a spectrum of devices of different sizes, shapes, and usage models? It keeps journalists and analysts busy churning out “death of the PC” headlines, I guess, but other than that I’m not sure what purpose it serves. | <urn:uuid:82abe6dd-7892-4b1b-9df4-1cd5b3cbd7ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wired.com/insights/tag/idc/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955012 | 819 | 1.546875 | 2 |
When marketing is executed properly, cannibalization is minimized.
When marketing is executed like we execute it, cannibalization is a daily reality. So if we're going to have one advertising channel cannibalize another, we may as well put ourselves in a position where long-term customer value increases as a result of the cannibalization.
Take e-mail marketing. Of all the marketing disciplines I study, e-mail marketing is the least well understood. E-mail practitioners focus almost exclusively on short-term metrics (open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate) that give a highly incomplete picture of the value of the advertising channel. This isn't the fault of most e-mail practitioners --- they simply haven't been given the tools necessary to analyze the medium properly.
In a recent Multichannel Forensics project, I was able to illustrate the following:
- E-Mail customers were the most likely to shop other advertising channels.
- E-Mail customers had an average annual spend, at a customer level, but spent more than the average online shopper. Migrating a customer from an online shopper to an e-mail shopper caused an incremental increase spend in the short term, even if the sale cannibalized an existing online purchase.
- Because e-mail customers were the most likely to shop other advertising channels, there was a gain in long-term customer value associated with e-mail marketing. Each dollar a customer spent because of e-mail marketing generated $0.33 of incremental long-term spend across all other channels (catalog, search, affiliates, television, radio, newspaper), over the course of the next five years.
Can your e-mail vendor community provide this type of information for you? Or your Business Intelligence team? Or your Web Analytics team? Or your existing E-Mail Marketing team? It is important to accurately measure how e-mail marketing interacts with your existing customers, advertising, products, brands, and channels. | <urn:uuid:1622e5b3-4c09-4aa8-b914-a8aa40944894> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.minethatdata.com/2009/02/e-mail-marketing-influences-long-term.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94276 | 402 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Here's the first episode of Pioneer One, a neat webseries that was entirely crowdfunded. The pilot is about a mysterious downed spacecraft over Montana and Edmonton, deadly radiation, and a Cold War secret.
This series was written by Josh Bernhard, directed by Bracey Smith, and distributed by VODO. Pioneer One has a strong X-Files vibe, but is more grounded in reality — no monster of the week here, folks. Here's the official description of Pioneer One:
An object in the sky spreads radiation over North America. Fearing terrorism, U.S. Homeland Security agents are dispatched to investigate and contain the damage. What they discover will have implications for the entire world.
You can learn more about the program at its main page. Also, here's the show's funding page, which also has episodes available for download from VODO. They've reached ~$27,000 of their $30,000 goal and will begin filming again in September.
Thanks for the tip, Keith! | <urn:uuid:e808e4ce-5266-42f4-8586-bb0a8c63462f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://io9.com/5608647/watch-pioneer-one-a-cosmonaut-thriller-that-was-made-using-6000-of-internet-donations?tag=crowdfunding | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961914 | 208 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Tawakul Karmen has crossed significant barriers to demonstrate against Yemen's President Ali Absullah Saleh, a man who has dominated Yemini politics for more than three decades.
More than 5 million Yeminis live in poverty and nearly half are illiterate. Yemen is resource poor. It is expected to be the first country in the world to run out of water within the next few decades.
Karmen is a 32-year-old mother of three who has been credited with initiating protests demanding President Saleh's resignation.
Read the full story about this extraordinary woman on my Living in the Heartland blog.
- There are no comments yet | <urn:uuid:a78ec0a5-4658-46ea-91ae-4f9876545dd3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://womenontheverge.net/blogs/entry/She-Roars-Like-a-Lion-in-a-Country-that-Expects-Her-to-Act-Like-a-Lamb-Tawakul-Karmen | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960221 | 136 | 1.601563 | 2 |
October 31, 2006
Customer communities do pay off!(Posted by francois to: communities | marketing | self-organization | social innovation | social networking | technology enablement )
The most recent Harvard Business Review reports on a study (requires subscription) that was done on the impact of customer communities on customer behavior at eBay in Germany (disclosure - I have an active interest in this topic as I have agreed to chair a conference on the business of communities - Community 2.0 - but more on that later).
The numbers are quite interesting. The experiment involved 140,120 eBay customers who had bought or sold on eBay but who had not participated in the eBay customer communities before. 79.242 were invited to join the online customer community, while the remaining 60,878 were used as a control group. Of the people who were asked to join the community, 3,299 became active participants and 11,242 became lurkers. Over the course of a year they compared the behavior of the active participants and lurkers to that of the control group and found that:
- Lurkers and active participants won up to 25% more auctions
- Lurkers and participants paid prices that were as much as 24% higher
- Lurkers and participants spent up to 54% more money in total
- Active participants listed up to 4 times as many items
- Active participants earned up up 6 times as much monthly sales revenue
- For first time sellers who were lurkers and participants, 10 times as many of them started selling on eBay after joining the community
All in all the activities of the lurkers and participants resulted in 56% more sales during the year of the study - bringing in millions of additional dollars into eBay's bottom line.
So can the results of this experiment be replicated in more traditional businesses?
Some people clearly think so, while others who used to be very enthusiastic about the business of communities are starting to become very skeptical.
Communities require a certain critical mass to get going - and not all companies have a large enough customer base to get to that point. They also require a lot more work and resources than most companies are willing to invest - to set up the infrastructure, to nurture the communities, to acquire content, etc.
Active communities of employees, customers and partners are clearly powerful management instruments that can dramatically improve core business processes like innovation, product development and marketing & sales. They can also backfire and have very negative impact if they are not managed properly, or set up wrongly. Before embarking on this path, companies have to truly understand the dynamics as well as the pros and cons of communities. They also need to find out if they have the resources and wherewithal to create their own communities or whether they should play in someone else's sandbox.
Unfortunately, many will start the process by throwing technology at the problem - let's just hope that those ignorants won't destroy the market for the rest of us like email spammers destroyed email marketing and (un)ethical zealots are slowly destroying word of mouth marketing.
Posted by francois at October 31, 2006 10:51 AM | Bookmark This
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Another great find. I've referenced you and the article. Keep up the good work! Interested in finding out more about your community 2.0....
Posted by: PaulSweeney at October 31, 2006 03:32 PM
another great example of people getting duped by statistics involving parties who were self-selective.
this survey only does good to those who want to prove a point. to anyone who knows anything about the reliability of a self-selected control group (i.e. those more likely to be pre-disposed towards passionate E-Bay usage), will not look past the first couple paragraphs of this "study".
Posted by: marcus at November 1, 2006 12:53 AM
The people who were asked to join vs. those that were left as a control group were selected randomly. I am not sure if that is the piece that is missing.
Posted by: francois gossieaux at November 1, 2006 04:55 AM
Thanks for this post--useful pointer! I particularly like your cautions about the fact that 1) you shouldn't lead with community technology and 2) that you need both a large enough customer base and 3) enough active engagement by execs, employees, and partners as well as partners to make a community work!
Keep the insights coming!!
Posted by: Patricia Seybold at November 24, 2006 08:42 AM
Patty - thank you for the comment. It is amazing that so many people do not get those basics. Another issue is that most companies will fail because of underfunding these projects.
Posted by: francois gossieaux at November 24, 2006 09:57 AM
Just came across your very thoughtful analysis of our HBR piece. It was indeed a controlled field experiment. The HBR piece was only a very short synopsis, I will be happy to share the full-length academic article if any one is interested.
Posted by: Paul Dholakia at December 4, 2006 06:31 PM
Paul - thank you for your comment on the post. I would love to see the complete study. I had also emailed you but unfortunately used the wrong email address. Hopefully we can connect live sometimes soon!
Posted by: francois gossieaux at December 4, 2006 06:54 PM | <urn:uuid:b827c85e-f7d8-4cd0-83f5-6d1491135f6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.emergencemarketing.com/archives/2006/10/customer_communities_do_p.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974016 | 1,125 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Move a story idea forward – with a little help from TCL
Stephanie Edwards knows the routes that a story idea must travel before it reaches its destination, whether it’s a short story, inspirational article or commercial product. The local author just completed her first novel A Husband, a Loft and a Dog and touts that when she isn’t writing, she’s teaching about writing.
This May, Edwards will bring her wealth of experience to the Technical College of the Lowcountry Life Enrichment Center to help others give shape and form to their story ideas. “The Story” is a half-day offering being held Saturday, May 21, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at TCL’s Beaufort campus. The cost is $69 per person.
Edwards believes it takes a general interest in writing and a unique concept or idea to construct a story.
“After that, it’s walking that concept or idea through all the elements that make up a complete story to determine its success or failure,” says Edwards.
Course participants will volley through a series of exercises to assist them in moving forward with their story and gain access to a set of formulas to guide the writing process through to a completed work.
Former student Gloria Singleton, author of Beaufort Through the Ages, says “I am inspired to write more and write better! Although I have published two books, my writing now is more disciplined and focused, thanks to Stephanie’s insightful and thoughtful critiquing. Additionally, I no longer beat myself up for shifting directions. She has helped me to realize that it is all a part of the writing process; consequently, I am now more accepting of the fact that the book will continue to evolve until I settle on what it really is about.”
To register, please call 843.525.8205.
TCL’s Life Enrichment Center is designed to offer individuals opportunities to explore passions, heighten interests, or simply learn something new.
The Technical College of the Lowcountry is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all qualified applicants for admissions or employment without regard to race, gender, national origin, age, religion, marital status, veteran status, disability, or political affiliation or belief. | <urn:uuid:6fe976c7-fbf6-47ba-8c9d-3b1a4c1e54a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tcl.edu/news-events/move-a-story-idea-forward-%e2%80%93-with-a-little-help-from-tcl | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937233 | 483 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Our region’s wide array of educational opportunities doesn’t usually come up when we talk about the attributes that make Seattle a great place to live, but we truly are lucky to live in an urban area with so many vocational and academic programs designed to help launch or supercharge careers. Here are several that have intrigued us over the years.
Antioch University, Seattle
Antioch University Seattle, located in Belltown, is one of five Antioch campuses nationwide dedicated to offering experiential learning and fostering engaged citizens who give back to the community. It builds on its progressive heritage by offering innovative advanced degrees through its School of Education and School of Applied Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy; and its Center for Creative Change offers master’s degrees in communications, environment and the community, management and organizational development.
It also offers a liberal arts bachelor’s completion program and certificate programs for those who want to lead effective change in organizations, businesses and communities. Its Center for Continuing Education features short-term courses and workshops in the areas of education, nonprofits, business, psychology and mediation and certificate programs in coaching, case management and professional mediation.
Argosy University, Seattle
Argosy University was formed in September 2001 by the merging of three separate academic institutions: the American School of Professional Psychology; the University of Sarasota, which offered degree programs for working adults in business and education; and the Medical Institute of Minnesota, which prepared skilled allied health care personnel for careers in the booming medical technology fields.
It offers strong degree programs in psychology and behavioral sciences, business education and health sciences, and many classes combine on-campus and online learning to accommodate working schedules.
In addition to its degree programs, it offers professional graduate business certificates for professionals with a bachelor’s or master’s degree who desire additional knowledge in one of seven specialty areas: corporate compliance, finance, health care administration, information systems management, international business, management or marketing. Advanced professional graduate business certificates in accounting, information systems, international business, management and marketing are designed for those who desire additional doctoral-level knowledge but do not want to complete a full PhD program.
Respected internationally for its science-based natural health programs, Bastyr is a private, accredited university offering a range of graduate and undergraduate degrees, including naturopathic medicine, acupuncture and Oriental medicine, nutrition, midwifery, health psychology, exercise science and herbal sciences. “People who are drawn to Bastyr are passionate about their pursuits and often see themselves as agents for change,” says Director of Admissions Ted Olsen. “When you combine that energy with the amazing knowledge of our faculty, it’s no surprise we are the leader in natural health education.”
Three informational events are planned in August to help future students decide which course of study is right for them, spotlighting naturopathic medicine, graduate programs in nutrition, and an Evening at Bastyr that will showcase all of the university degree programs in natural health. Check the website for exact dates or visit www.bastyr.edu/continuinged to learn about its continuing education program for health care professionals interested in expanding their knowledge and skills.
City University of Seattle
If you already have a college degree in education or are working in the field, City University offers a variety of endorsements which show special training in specific areas, including elementary or special education or English language learners. The university offers several certificate programs at the undergraduate and graduate level. Business certificates include academic ESL, accounting, marketing and project management. Education certificates include alternative routes to teacher certification and professional certification for principals and program administrators. Undergraduate certificate programs offered in the Department of Arts and Sciences are in child and adolescent services and gerontology. The on-site Career Center offers free services for students.
Seattle Pacific University
SPU offers certifications through the Continuing Professional Education Department of its School of Education, including school principal, school counseling, program administrator, school superintendent, professional certificates and residency teacher certification. Endorsements build on teaching degrees in subjects including special education, library media, health fitness, reading and math. Distance and online learning is available for many programs.
University of Washington Professional & Continuing
Although the name has changed from UW Extension, UW Professional and Continuing Education carries on the century-old tradition of providing training for mid-career professionals. It offers more than 100 certificate programs, including many that require minimal or no prior professional experience in the field and can be completed in six to nine months. These include human resources management, 3D animation for games and digital media, editing, wetland science and management, paralegal studies, decision making for climate change, urban green infrastructure, health informatics and fundraising management. Classes are generally held in the evening or on the weekend and many are available online.
Not surprisingly, given its Eastside location, Bellevue College, which used to be called Bellevue Community College, has a strong informational technology (IT) program as well as a large number of programs in health-related fields including medical informatics and medical imaging and a new bachelor of applied science in radiation and imaging sciences.
Cascadia Community College
Specializing in informational technology, engineering, the green economy and health care, Cascadia offers associate of applied science degrees in environmental technologies and sustainable practices, network technology, and web application programming and technology, as well as 13 shorter-term technical and professional certificates.
Edmonds Community College
Edmonds offers over 100 associate degrees and certificates in business, health, computers, construction, culinary arts, horticulture, hospitality, and social and human services, with unique programs in greenhouse/nursery operations and management, construction management, energy management, geriatric aid, horticulture therapy aid, multi-skilled health care technician, recreational therapy technician, rehabilitation counseling/service worker and emergency dispatcher programs.
Lake Washington Technical College
Training is available in 41 programs, with more than 100 professional/technical degree and certificate options in information technology, business and service, health and fitness, manufacturing and transportation technologies and arts, language and science.
North Seattle Community College
Sixty-five degree and certificate programs are offered in accounting, business, early childhood education, electronics, engineering technology, health, IT, real estate and watch technology (the only two-year program in the art of Swiss watchmaking and repair in the Western United States).
Seattle Central Community College
SCCC is known for its culinary arts program and offers popular programs in dental hygiene, IT, nursing, apparel design, opticianry, business information technology, web design and development and courses in the medical and human services fields. SCCC partners with Seattle Maritime Institute and offers programs in wood construction, marine carpentry and boatbuilding.
Shoreline Community College
Shoreline’s emphasis is on business, marketing and administrative services, education, health and IT and is the only local college offering programs in logistics management, biological lab tech, home health aide, beauty salon management, zero energy building technology, music management and merchandising, recording arts tech, and security and loss prevention services.
South Seattle Community College
SSCC offers certificate and/or associate degrees in 30 different areas, but its Bachelor of Applied Science in Hospitality Management and its associate degrees and certificates in restaurant, culinary and catering management and banquet operations are not offered anywhere else in the state system.
MORE EDUCATION STORIES ONLINE
Read these additional stories on this website to help you advance your career.
INVESTING IN YOUR EDUCATION
ADAPTING TO A CHANGING WORLD
TRICKS TO APPLYING FOR JOBS
SURVIVING NIGHT SCHOOL
©Copyright 2011, Caliope Publishing Company
©Seattle Woman Magazine | All Rights Reserved | 206-784-5556 | <urn:uuid:97e8be4c-a41e-417e-aec9-556dc4481d1d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seattlewomanmagazine.com/articles/julyaug11-2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938531 | 1,599 | 1.742188 | 2 |
After William Letfordâs Edinburgh International Book Festival reading, which he shared with Cape poet Sean Borodale, one poem dominated the Q&A. âThe light and dark of Adeonaâ describes an encounter between a young man and his somewhat younger â âyoung for her age,â the poem notes â female roommate.
At breakfast, her arms and legs
were crossed with shallow cuts. I asked
if she had fallen, this gave her the chance
to say yes. So I watch her more closely. Not out of
worry, or pity, out of interest. She is a person
of course, but she is also a story.
The audience seemed disturbed by the poemâs stance, with all the questioners taking for granted that the speaker was Letford himself. Didnât you do anything about this? someone asked. One woman wanted to know if the girl Letford describes had seen this poem, and suggested very firmly that he send it to her. âIâm not sure about using people in poems this way,â another audience member mused. âIs it allowed?â While the audience tried to wrap their heads around the poemâs conundrum, Letford smiled, and gave very little away.
This is the great strength of âBevel,â one of the most idiosyncratic first collections you could hope to find: each poem raises more questions than it answers. So many of the pieces concern a mysterious something, usually referred to as âitâ: âWit is itâ offers a series of possible answers â âItâs aboot perspective, son, where eh yi standing / Wit eh yi lookin itâ â but the question is conspicuously missing. In âOutside the cityâ, âthe grass is full of it / the trees are alive with itâ, but what exactly this âitâ is, we never discover. The collection is peopled by mysterious women, who only ever appear in fragments. âI suspect that she had tasted asparagus beforeâ; âshe has the outlines of stars tattooed onto her spineâ; âyou know, I had the idea that she had lived.â But the collection also wears a wry smile, recording funny as well as poignant moments Letford has observed. âItâs aboot the labourâ captures the awkwardness many poets feel about discussing their work with the uninitiated â âwidayyemean / dizthatmeanyegetmoneyfurritâ â while âThurs hunners a birds oan the roofsâ, a poem Letford favours at readings, revels in playing with sound. âNut a look / nut a nut plod on then mouldy breed heed woop woop look it that / fingle foogle boogalooâ. Perhaps unsurprisingly, by far the best poems in this collection are those in which Letford allows his day-to-day work as a roofer to inform the message. These roof poems convey something way above and beyond their images of hard manual labour. From his rooftop perch, William Letford offers us a brand new and often startling perspective on the everyday world we all too often take for granted.
youâll need your back to make your money | <urn:uuid:39c4cd67-5ff9-4280-ae84-d0a823b34a4b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.scottishreviewofbooks.org/index.php/editorsblog/entry/it-s-aboot-the-labour-william-letford-s-bevel-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964967 | 694 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Hispanic attorney named new Girl Scouts CEO
Anna Maria Chavez remembers joining Girl Scouts at age 10 and loving the crafts, cooking and camping adventures.
Growing up in tiny Eloy, Ariz., "we didn't go camping much when I was little, so this was a great experience," says Chavez, a Texas attorney selected Wednesday as the new CEO of the 3.2 million-member Girls Scouts of the USA.
Travel opportunities with Girl Scouts were particularly meaningful, giving Chavez "the first opportunity I had to go away by myself, without my family. It really opened my eyes and gave me a certain amount of courage."
Today, building courage, confidence and character is the expressed goal of the 99-year-old organization, which says it also teaches girls and young women the value and power of leadership and service through its programs and activities, including financial literacy, environmental conservation, math and science education and health.
Girl Scouts "provides a pipeline to leadership in this country," says Kathy Cloninger, the outgoing CEO, who is retiring after leading the organization for eight years.
Although many know Girl Scouts for its "wonderful cookie program, Girl Scouts has a wonderful story of preparing women for leadership that may not be out there in the public domain," says Chavez, 43, who has been CEO of Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas since 2009.
Prior to that, she worked in numerous federal and state government positions, including as a deputy chief of staff for urban relations and community redevelopment for Janet Napolitano, former Arizona governor and current U.S. secretary of Homeland Security. Napolitano is herself a lifetime Girl Scout member.
"It's living the American dream to start as a girl member several decades ago and now be part of the national leadership team," says Chavez, a Mexican-American who will be the first person of color to lead the group, which includes 2.3 million girl members and nearly 880,000 adult members.
Like most non-profits, the Girl Scouts organization has been affected by the battered economy, but has remained strong, says David Thompson, vice president of public policy for the National Council of Nonprofits. Girl Scouts is "a premiere name-brand non-profit that has gone through transition, transformation, reorganization and restructuring. It's led the non-profit community in that regard. It's done a great job of adjusting its mission to where there are girls in need of support and leadership training," he says.
Among recent initiatives was a national brand campaign, a new program portfolio for girls built around "leadership journeys," as well as consolidating the number of Girl Scout councils, or local offices, from 312 to 112.
"We had no idea the economy was going to sink when we started with the mergers," says Cloninger. "But we ended up in a better position to weather the economy than if we had stayed with many of the smaller staffs. We were able to operate with a greater economy of scale."
Girl Scouts still service "every ZIP code," says Cloninger, whose tenure also saw an extensive outreach to girls in traditionally underserved communities, including minority and immigrant populations, isolated rural communities, public housing, homeless shelters and juvenile detention centers.
A targeted effort to take Girl Scouts to the growing Hispanic population resulted in a nearly 55% membership increase between 2000 and 2010, says Cloninger.
"We are still looking for opportunities to serve more girls in more communities. We're still committed to reflecting the nation's diversity," she says. | <urn:uuid:68db34c1-d86e-443b-ba7e-900f5668eaad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://yourlife.usatoday.com/mind-soul/doing-good/story/2011-08-24/Hispanic-attorney-named-new-Girl-Scout-CEO/50127058/1?csp=34news | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97858 | 720 | 1.609375 | 2 |
The Dance and the Railroad
Yuekun Wu (Lone) and Ruy Iskandar (Ma). Photo by Joan Marcus.
BOTTOM LINE: A terrific new production of Hwang's second play, performed for the first time in 31 years, explores the exploitation of Chinese immigrants brought to the U.S. to build the Transcontinental Railroad during the 19th century.
Since its founding, the U.S. of A. has captured the imagination of impoverished and adventurous people the world over. After all, its streets are said to be paved with riches and even its nickname, Gold Mountain, seems to beckon the tired, poor and tempest tossed.
Lone and Ma, the protagonists of The Dance and The Railroad, are both young Chinese immigrants who came to the US in the 1860s, ostensibly to help build the Transcontinental Railroad. Lone had previously studied to be an opera singer, dancer and actor—that is, until his parents unceremoniously yanked him out of school and sent him to America to help support his starving family. He’s been laboring for three years and despite backbreaking work on a construction crew, he refuses to let go of his theatrical ambitions. Each night, he ignores his carousing coworkers and practices alone.
18-year-old Ma (Ruy Iskandar), in the U.S. for just four weeks, has seen Lone (Yuekun Wu, in a stand-out performance) and begs for training because he, too, has theatrical aspirations. Since the laborers are on strike—“The white devils try to stick us with a 10-hour day,” Ma says, “Eight-hour day good for white man, eight-hour day good for Chinamen”—at least for the duration of the work stoppage, he has plenty of time to train and practice.
Lone’s response is icy and he expresses his refusal to take on a protégé in no uncertain terms. Bitter and full of rage, he cannot believe that this idealistic upstart has what it takes to endure the rigors of daily rehearsals and muscle-pulling dance moves. He also seems to have no desire to be either a role model or mentor to the younger man. Suffice it to say that a battle of wills, with some pithy and surprising turns, ensues.
At its heart The Dance and the Railroad addresses what it means to have personal integrity and retain one’s humanity in the face of misery and want. And while the play is not overtly political, the Chinese workers’ exploitation, by bosses eager to squeeze every ounce of strength from them, is blatant and reminds the audience of the necessity of unions to promote decent working conditions and fair pay.
That said, this is the story of two men who simply wish to prosper without losing their cultural identity. Their struggle includes moments of both humor and pathos. Indeed, at the start of the play Ma’s teenaged idealism is heartfelt, if absurd—he fantasizes about returning to China in a gold sedan chair, accompanied by 20 wives—and gives Lone ample fodder for jest. At the same time, his descent into cynicism is heartbreaking, even as a bit of his youthful optimism rubs off on the sullen Lone. It’s quite moving.
Mimi Lien’s simple set—a bunch of angular platforms meant to evoke a mountaintop—allows both actors to leap and tussle, showcasing the play’s precise choreography. Jiyoun Chang’s lighting design is a perfect complement, shifting day into night and brilliantly transforming the enticing gold sunlight into a dank, dark workplace. In addition, an original score by Huang Ruo adds drama, but does not overwhelm the two-character ensemble.
(The Dance and The Railroad plays at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at the Signature Theatre, 480 West 42nd Street, through March 24th. Performances are Tuesdays at 7:30PM, Wednesdays at 2PM and 7:30PM, Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30PM, Saturdays at 2PM and 8PM, and Sundays at 2PM. Tickets are $75, and $50 for partial view. Tickets can be ordered by calling 212.244.7579 or going to www.signaturetheatre.org.) | <urn:uuid:200ecee8-1c94-41a9-8b75-b652f5faeb63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theasy.com/Reviews/2013/D/thedanceandtherailroad.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96067 | 910 | 1.554688 | 2 |
The annual Girl’s Day Festival will be held from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, March 2, at the Hawaii Japanese Center, 751 Kanoelehua Ave. The event is free to the public.
This year’s Girl’s Day festival will feature a display of the center’s extensive collection of Japanese dolls, tea ceremony by the Urasenke Hilo Association and food demonstrations by the ladies of Subaru telescope. Included are performances by the Puna Taiko group, the koto students of Shizuko Akamine, and a karaoke group singing Japanese children’s songs. Also, old 78 rpm records of children’s songs will be played on a 1920s hand-cranked Victrola. Ben Franklin will conduct “make it and take it” workshops. Richard Fukui will be offering pain relief therapy sessions. Skilled crafters will have unique handmade Girl’s Day items for sale. There will also be food booths, including andagi, Ikebana arrangements, and Girl’s Day and other related Japanese children’s books from the Book Gallery. Kimono dressing and picture taking will also take place throughout the day.
At 1 p.m., girls are invited to participate in our first ever Girl’s Day mini Cherry Blossom Princess Parade of Girls dressed with the Girl’s Day theme in mind, “kimono” or “Sunday Best.” Girls ages infant to 16 are welcome and eligible. Several local judges will select the young girls from different age brackets who best represent the Girls Day theme. Winners will receive a ribbon and gift from the Center.
This year’s Girl’s Day graphic was designed by Tiana Honda, a senior at Waiakea High School and member of the school’s Japanese Club. Flyers for signing by the budding Waiakea artist and limited issue T-shirts will be available at the event.
A new vintage gift shop will be launched on Girl’s Day. The shop is called the Hawaii Japanese Center “Mukashi Mukashi aru tokoro ni,” which means long, long ago the traditional beginning of many Japanese folktales. The gift shop will feature gently used Japanese items as well as new and interesting items, such as the Wabi Sabi cat series designed by Brian Tanimoto and Jerry Sasaki based on a drawing by Brian’s daughter, Erynn Tanimoto, at age 13. The proceeds of the gift shop will be used to support the center’s efforts to share with the community the rich history and cultural traditions of Japanese immigrants to Hawaii.
Hinamatsuri, or Girls Day, is celebrated on March 3 — the third day of the third month — and is an occasion to pray for a young girl’s growth and happines. Hinamatsuri comes from the ancient Chinese who believed that the sins of the body and any misfortunes could be transferred to a doll and washed away by setting the doll adrift in a river. When this practice spread to Japan, it was linked to girls playing with dolls in the Edo Period and developed into Hinamatsuri.
Onna no Sekku, which translates to “Girl’s Festival,” is usually celebrated with parents or grandparents presenting a set of Ohina dolls to their daughter or granddaughter at birth or on her first birthday, and these traditionally become a part of her bridal trousseau. The dolls are put on display about a week before the actual day. However, they are quickly put away at the end of the day on March 3, as leaving the dolls out beyond that date is considered unlucky and may lead to delay in a girl’s marriage. The dolls are carefully rewrapped and packed away, not to be seen until the next Hinamatsuri.
One particular food that is served for Hinamatsuri and is considered very lucky is steamed rice with red beans. A pink mochi called sakura mochi is filled with red bean paste, wrapped in a cherry leaf and eaten for dessert. In Hawaii, the cultural traditions of Girl’s Day continue with the display of Japanese dolls and the sharing of hinamatsuri foods in a number of island homes.
The mission of the Hawaii Japanese Center is to serve as a bridge for diverse generations of the future to understand the triumphs and struggles of Japanese immigrants to the island of Hawaii through its educational and cultural activities and access to its collections. The center is a non-profit 503(c)(3) organization. Please contact [email protected] for more information. | <urn:uuid:7ac69b66-9afc-4cdf-9d0e-0fe3db9450a3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/sections/news/community/girl%E2%80%99s-day-celebration-planned.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94915 | 980 | 1.523438 | 2 |
2014 Jeep Cherokee: Is an Old Name Good for a New Car?
Last week's unveiling of the 2014 Jeep Cherokee in advance of the New York Auto Show triggered a polarizing range of reactions: While some embraced the crossover's forward-thinking design, others thought it looks like it's sucked on a lemon a tad too long (and some have gone so far as to re-render it, sans sour-face)... but more curious than the style reactions is the chatter surrounding the Cherokee nameplate.
The original Jeep Cherokee (or SJ-series) was a hulking, full-sized proto SUV produced by AMC from 1974 to 1983, while the smaller, boxy, unibodied follow-up (dubbed the XJ) became a favorite of both urbanites and hardcore offroaders. Both of those rather different but distinctive Cherokees were beloved for a variety of reasons, which begs the question as to whether Jeep should be delving into history when naming their new crossover, or coming up with a new name for their squinty-eyed sport 'ute, especially when it promises notable breakthroughs like 45 percent better fuel economy than the Liberty model it replaces.
This isn't the first time the Chrysler Group has dusted off an old name for a new car (consider the Dodge Dart, for starters), but should it be the last? The true gauge of that crucial marketing choice will be determined by the Cherokee's sales response when finished cars ship from Chrysler's assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio to showrooms in the third quarter of 2013. | <urn:uuid:93e3b35c-ea65-4a09-a296-c259d7b7ec22> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/auto-blog/2014-jeep-cherokee-old-name-new-car | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950221 | 317 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Housing affordability rose to a record high during the fourth quarter of 2011, which means a home buyer’s purchasing power is greater than it ever has been before, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.
The index showed that 75.9 percent of all new and existing homes sold in the fourth quarter were affordable to families earning the national median income of $64,200, according to the index. That marks the highest percentage recorded in the index’s 20-year history.
"While today's report indicates that home ownership is within reach of more households than it has been for more than two decades, overly restrictive lending conditions confronting home buyers and builders remain significant obstacles to many potential homes sales, even with interest rates at historically low levels," says Barry Rutenberg, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders.
Most Affordable Cities
According to the index, the most affordable major housing market was Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio, in which 95 percent of all homes sold during the fourth quarter were affordable to households earning the median family income of $54,900, according to the index.
Other top affordable housing markets include: Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla.; Modesto, Calif.; Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pa.; and Toledo, Ohio.
Least Affordable Cities
However, some metro areas still remain too pricey for buyers. The least affordable major housing market during the fourth quarter was New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J., in which 29 percent of all homes sold were affordable to those earning the area's media income of $67,400.
Other high-priced metro areas at the bottom of the affordability index include: Honolulu; San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, Calif.; Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, Calif.; and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif.
- ^ National Association of Home Builders (www.nahb.org)
- ^ Study: Today's Market Is a Good Time to Buy (speakingofrealestate.blogs.realtor.org) | <urn:uuid:84794eb7-3d23-4e7c-85b0-e7b415fd8f31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://santanvalley.com/about-san-tan-valley/elected-officials/pinal-county/item/6859-housing-affordability-reaches-new-records | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945738 | 439 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Nice post by Chris again over at Performancing – Maximise Your Income With Common Sense:
‘Answer this, what is the basic unit of blogging? The blog post. Each post is like an individual worker in your workforce. Some posts might work harder than others. Some attract more attention than others. Each earns you a little revenue, together they are your means of gaining income. So common sense point number one; it makes sense that if you grow your work force, your body of work within your blog, that your income potential will grow.’
I love the ‘posts as workers’ analogy – very cool.
I was talking to someone recently about this very same topic and I used the analogy of each post being like a small deposit into the bank.
When I was a kid my parents would give me 20 cents each week to take up to the teller in the bank (back when banks had humans to serve you) to put into my savings account. They taught me the power of investing from a young age because my 20 cent pieces added up over the years and with the help of some interest and a few gifts from Nana Rowse saved up for that cool dragster bike I’d dreamt of.
20 cents by itself doesn’t get you much but consistent deposits can add up to something quite significant.
The same is true with blogging. Each post by itself might not have much impact in terms of traffic, ad revenue, incoming links (or any other way that you might measure it’s success) but write a few posts a day for a year and you’ll find yourself building something with a higher chance of ‘success’. | <urn:uuid:b756b624-0eee-487d-8a42-fae6ad404477> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/01/14/investment-blogging/comment-page-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969711 | 348 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The Indiana legislature made it a misdemeanor for specified registered sex offenders to use social networking sites, chat rooms, and instant messaging programs that allow access by persons under the age of 18. Plaintiff sought an injunction and declaratory judgment arguing that the law violated the First Amendment. The District Court for the Southern District of Indiana heard the case.
The district court first analyzed the growth of social networking sites. In particular it noted use of Facebook by Indiana residents was widespread. Nearly 50% of residents use Facebook and the site allows access for persons over 13. Further, Facebook accounts are becoming integrated with other Internet use including some news sites.
The district court discussed how this widespread use has been shown by anecdotal evidence including the show "To Catch a Predator” and countless news stories, that social networking sites are frequently used by sexual predators. One study found that one in seven youth reported receiving online sexual solicitations.
Plaintiff claimed the law infringed on his First Amendment rights to communicate, receive information, and freely associate. The district court held that these rights were implicated in Internet communications.
The court said the legislation was content neutral as it was tailored to serve a significant government interest and left open alternate channels for communication. As to how narrowly tailored the law is, the law affects communication outside its intended purpose, such as making comments on the Indiana Star website which requires posters to log in with their Facebook accounts.
Still, most Internet activities are still open to the plaintiff. The statute does not cover e-mail, listservs, or social networking sites restricted to adults. The court also noted the law does not prevent individuals from using sites that prohibit minors even if minor might be able to falsify their age and make an account. Further, the plaintiff has numerous traditional types of communication available to him. The court concluded the law was not overly broad.
Plaintiff also claimed the law was unnecessary because soliciting minors over a computer network is already illegal. The district court concluded that the criminal statute prohibiting solicitation of a minor aims to punish sexual offenders, while the social networking law aims to prevent and deter sexual exploitation.
Based on the above, the district court denied the plaintiff’s request for an injunction. | <urn:uuid:5ea0fc6e-54e7-49fb-b003-63385f0d9374> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.americanbar.org/publications/child_law_practice/vol_32/sample_issue/statute_prohibitingsexoffendersfromusingsocialnetworkingsitestoa.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954977 | 448 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The votes have been counted (except for Florida). The balloons fell from the ceiling. The gracious speeches were given.
America chose President Barack Obama for four more years.
And now we can all breathe a sigh of relief. You either got what you wanted, or you can at least appreciate the end of the political commercials, tweets and tension.
Without the focus on reelection no longer commanding his time, Obama can hopefully now fulfill the promises he made on the campaign trail.
The election process not only sifts time from the president and other politicians, but it can often be counteractive to compromise. Candidates begin to fear that a compromise will appear weak or as a departure from their party’s platform.
Democrats and Republicans have and will always have problems agreeing, and an election decided by 3 million votes doesn’t exactly help this relationship.If Obama wants there to be any forward movement, he needs to honor his promise to build bridges across the divide. A promise that is only possible if politicians on both sides can step off the campaign trail and begin to seriously work towards solutions that will settle our country’s growing list of problems.
The first problem on this list will not only have great ramifications on the economy but is also paired with a very palpable deadline. The fiscal cliff is a set of legislature that will result in massive, widespread spending cuts and an end to Bush-era tax cuts that could stunt economic growth and increase unemployment. Assuming no other plan is agreed upon, these changes will begin on Jan. 1, 2013. This very real and tangible deadline is hopefully what Washington needs to force politicians toward the center, willing to find a middle ground.
Along with this immediate decision, Obama has also promised to solve problems such as reducing the deficit, reworking the tax code, revising immigration laws and reducing dependence on foreign oil.
A second term offers a chance to continue working toward laws and policies that he began in the last four years. The continuity in the White House will hopefully lead to some order and experience that will result in change toward what we all believe America can and should be.
While the respective parties have no doubt started thinking about 2016, we as Americans can begin to forget about this candidate or that candidate and get behind our president and our country.
Comments are closed | <urn:uuid:f31767ce-c8fa-485f-a039-86561567f96e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.acuoptimist.com/2012/11/second-term-brings-need-for-compromise/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963026 | 468 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Yarl's Wood Holiday Camp
From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
“It's like Butlins but a million times better, why should foreign nig-nogs get so many freebies from the state?”
“I wish I could go on one but I'm not allowed because I'm too British”
Yarl’s Wood Holiday Camp is a five star rated holiday camp near Bedford in England. It was built by the Zanu-Labour party in 2001 to provide freebie holidays for Asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.
Yarl’s Wood is noted for the famous "Blackshirts” who provide entertainment and organisation at every level.
The patron saint of Yarl’s Wood is Saint Oswald Mosely.
The plan was to give out places to a selected few foreigners in order to create the impression that asylum seekers are all getting loads of freebies from the government. This would infuriate the retarded readers of the Daily Mail to rise up in a British Kristalnacht for the 21st Century, ridding the country of it's immigrant problem.
The main problem with this theory is that Tony Bliar and the Nu Liebore party forgot to factor in that Daily Mail readers are notoriously workshy, and although angered by the “news” that bloody foreigners were getting freebies, they were to lazy and stupid to get off the sofa and stop watching daytime TV like the Jeremy Kyle show to organise themselves into lynch mobs capable of ridding Britain of foreigners forever.
Despite this failure, the holiday camp had to be kept going as the government had signed a 30 year PFI deal with private operator Sercock.
The holiday camp has 3 wings named after three great British statesmen and patriots;
- Lord Haw-Haw
- Edward VIII
- Enoch Powell
Places at Yarl’s Wood are awarded by the immigration authorities using a lottery system. It has become tradition that winners of the free holiday trips are taken by surprise in the early hours of the morning. They are often taken from their homes in their pyjamas with no personal belongings as their every need will be catered for by Yarl’s Wood’s dedicated team of "blackshirts".
In 2008 civil servant Alan “Botney” Yentob blew the whistle on goings on at Yarl's Wood Holiday Camp. He claimed that asylum seekers were being killed for their adrenal glands, which are then cured and added to Pease pudding, the corpses are then coated in metal and used by sick artist Antony Gormley in exhibitions like Another Place.
Sercock, the owners of Yarl's Wood have denied that this is the case, saying that Yentob is simply a deluded fantasist who also believes that he is Creative director at the BBC and a popular TV presenter.
Yentob is currently in exile in Argentina, we are unable to determine whether he has fled in fear of repercussions from Sercock or in order to avoid being found out as a liar and a fantasist. | <urn:uuid:02e8b96a-32f9-46bf-a1e4-30e54160c342> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Yarl's_Wood_Holiday_Camp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96992 | 638 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Volunteers Tackle a Big Project with Teamwork
For the 11th consecutive year, Yellowstone National Park rangers welcomed the energetic, dedicated ARCH Yellowstone Volunteers, working with military veterans, and other friends, for an intensive week of service in mid-September. After successful past corral rebuilding efforts at Lamar Buffalo Ranch, Snake River, and Tower, the team set its sights on its most ambitious project yet: much-needed improvements to the West Corral, near the park’s West Entrance, in a mere five days.
Although seldom seen by the public, the West Corral is one of the largest corral operations in Yellowstone. It provides vital support to backcountry rangers and other park staff who require mules and horses to pack supplies for projects ranging from fisheries research, to bear management, to trail maintenance. The primary goals of the project were to rebuild three corrals to withstand severe winter conditions, replace gates, and add a 60-foot diameter round pen for training and working the horses.
With great gusto, a team worked together to bring the vision to reality in record time. The volunteers consisted of 11 members from ARCH Venture Partners, led by Clint Bybee – ARCH co-founder and Yellowstone Park Foundation (YPF) Advisory Council member; eight veterans from Wounded Warrior Project; some intrepid YPF staff and volunteers; two local citizens; and 16 National Park Service staff. Thanks to the generosity of the ARCH volunteers, their donations to YPF’s Ranger Heritage initiative made supplying the materials and equipment the project’s easiest task.
By the time the volunteers arrived, Yellowstone staff had already removed the rotting posts and sagging rails, and had re-designed the corral layout for efficiency and safety which led to extensive rebuilding and enlargement of the corrals. On Day One, after a safety briefing by rangers, the volunteers began by demolishing the old feeding trough, and staging posts and rails for constructing the new fence.
Next, the grueling work of installing posts. Smaller groups self-selected to dig 3.5-foot-deep post holes for the treated posts that would support new rails. Other groups devoted their muscle to puzzling through the geometry of creating fence corners and then carefully placing posts and bolting rails in a uniform pattern.
By Day Five, the dedicated crew had installed more than 700 linear feet of fencing and had constructed a West Corral entrance, complete with a carved wooden sign. After toiling side-by-side for long days of problem-solving, sweat, and laughter, the volunteers and NPS staff are immensely proud of what they accomplished in 900 intense volunteer hours. And like other ARCH Yellowstone Volunteers and Wounded Warrior Project collaborations, participants left the Park feeling like Yellowstone had given them just as much in return.
“It was a wonderful experience for all of us that were lucky enough to attend. [It] made me proud to have been able to serve with my fellow veterans, as well as all others involved,” said Paul Horton, a Wounded Warrior Project member from the Boston area. “[It] helped us to prove what a few disabled veterans can do, with the right people behind us.” | <urn:uuid:f50a20bd-a947-42cc-a94a-e39933690483> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ypf.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6078&news_iv_ctrl=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958263 | 662 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital said a titanium plate and cochlear implant were successfully attached in two operations yesterday.
Malala was attacked by the Taliban in October after campaigning for girls' rights to education.
A bullet was removed from her head by surgeons in Pakistan, before she was flown to the UK for specialised treatment.
A hospital spokesperson said she was continuing to recover and was in a stable condition after the surgery, which lasted five hours.
They said the medical team was "very pleased" with the progress Malala had made so far and that she was awake and talking to staff and members of her family.
Malala had been discharged as an inpatient from the hospital in January after undergoing weeks of specialist treatment.
The Queen Elizabeth is also home to the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, which has treated many of the injured servicemen and women returning from Afghanistan.
In December Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari visited Malala at the hospital.
Malala's family are currently living in the West Midlands.
Her father has been appointed education attache at the Consulate of Pakistan for the next three years.
London: Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting girls' education, has undergone two successful operations to attach a titanium plate and cochlear implant, doctors said today.
First Published: Sunday, February 03, 2013, 21:39 | <urn:uuid:7274c6de-0a27-4c3d-94e7-4c8fa5fec478> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zeenews.india.com/news/south-asia/malala-undergoes-two-successful-surgeries_826852.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988979 | 297 | 1.734375 | 2 |
The discogs.com entry for Melissa F. Clarke is mercilessly brief, and with good reason. This New York-based sound artist doesn't go in for headphone music; she crafts immersive, science-fueled audio/visual experiences that demand observation of the interplay between images and sonics, like the haunt ... More >>
There's an interesting story in The Wall Street Journal about how we should get ready for a "Nigerian P.F. Chang's" because African food is the next big thing.There is only one largely unexplored continent left -- and it isn't Antarctica. With the exception of North African and Ethiopian cuisine, th ... More >>
This just in to add to your terrifying end-times-esque tales of animal takeover (see also: Crabs in Antarctica! Mountain lions in Connecticut! Ladybugs on Long Island!). Thanks to climate change, so say the scientists, the ole armadillo, 'dillo for short, is moving on from his Texas home, where he a ... More >>
Pay the hurricanes and earthquakes no mind, what we really need to worry about are the giant crabs set to take over Antarctica. They have arrived, with their "crushing claws and ecosystem-altering habits," in a deep basin in the Antarctic continental shelf, and oceanographers are worried not ... More >>
Alex Stupak has confirmed that he will open a second location of Empellon, in the space currently occupied by Counter.
April Bloomfield on her first-ever trip to Paris and Lyon: "I wasn't expecting it to be so peasant-like, so that was a nice surprise, and Paris is not as anal as I ... More >>
Don't worry!An asteroid named 2011 MD will pass by Earth today at about 1 p.m. According to Space.com, the rock, which is "the size of a tour bus," and between 29 to 98 feet wide, will zoom past earth about 7,500 miles above, which is close enough that it will be beneath some of the planet's ... More >>
Happy Feet, a young emperor penguin, is stranded in New Zealand. It (scientists haven't determined if the bird is male or female) arrived there last Monday, its appearance being the first time in 44 years that an emperor penguin has been spotted in New Zealand. All is not well. Happy Feet fel ... More >>
Things may be looking grim for Coney Island's future. Old haunts like Ruby's have poured their last beer, and although Central Amusements International and Sodexo plan to make the neighborhood into a 'year-round' destination, it's worth mentioning it's a pretty magical one right now.
Take a ... More >>
Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent.
Low-resonance, high-discomfort ambient drifter Beauclerk is a one-man drone menace, mixing glory and danger via saxophone and a Line 6 pedal. The seismic side gig of James Bradley, owner of trusty W ... More >>
Robert F. Scott and his doomed 1912 crew. What is so great about barren, uninhabitable Antarctica? First people are chomping at the bit to run marathons there, now they're racing to the South Pole to celebrate the 100th anniversaries next year of Roald Amundsen's and Robert Scott's expedition ... More >>
This has been a banner weekend for extreme exercise. As the Post puts it, "Ninety-nine maniacal marathoners" (it's like a Lewis Carroll poem), including several New Yorkers, will travel to Antarctica next month to compete in the Antarctica Marathon. For the privilege of trying to survive 26.2 ... More >>
Photo by David Wentworth
Discussed: United Bamboo, Rag & Bone, Zero Maria Cornejo
Ladies, this fall, it's time to book that trip to Greenland! Or climb Mount Everest! Or fly around the world solo! Yes, more than a few designers are preparing us for thrilling adventure (think Amelia Earhart) ... More >>
SOTC-beloved French pop doggs Phoenix and hyperactive aggro-twee synth-bashers Passion Pit love each other so much they can't stop playing shows together -- fresh off a stint at Central Park a couple months back, they reunite this evening at Hammerstein Ballroom for 101.9 RXP DJ Matt Pinfield's Ho ... More >>
Ladyhawke makes her New York debut tonight at the Bowery Ballroom and at Studio B on Thursday, March 26.
Taking her name from the 1985 Richard Donner film, New Zealand's Ladyhawke is next in a line of dance-wave acts that've recently surfaced. Although she's played "dirty rock and roll" with he ... More >> | <urn:uuid:baf107ce-b5eb-4f6b-a157-78e339e19d44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Antarctica/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940217 | 1,001 | 1.546875 | 2 |
By Josh Fisher, Manager of Legislative Information Services
Not according to Nancy Leppink, the Acting Administrator of the U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, who has taken to the official blog of the U.S. Department of Labor to respond to criticism of a ruling she issued this summer. The ruling issued by Ms. Leppink has faced disapproval from both the public and private sector because it disturbed decades of previous interpretations of the Davis-Bacon Act and a resolution may be years away. Since its passage 80 years ago, and as its plain language puts forward, the Davis-Bacon Act has been understood to require contractors on public works construction projects funded by the federal government or the District of Columbia to pay their workers a “prevailing wage.”
At the heart of this matter is a privately funded construction project in Washington, D.C. called CityCenterDC. The project is being built with private money raised by the developers. Neither the federal government nor the District is paying a dime. During contract negotiations between the city government and developers, neither side believed the Davis-Bacon Act applied and no provisions related to the Act were included in the final agreement. However, a regional union petitioned the Wage and Hour Division to apply the Act. In 2010, an official from the Wage and Hour Division denied the union’s request. Subsequently, the union appealed and Nancy Leppink, the Acting Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division, ruled in favor of the union this summer.
Despite the fact that no government funds are being used on the CityCenter project, the traditional measuring stick for Davis-Bacon applicability, the Administrator determined the Act applied. This determination was based on the city’s retained ownership of the land with a lease to the developers, that the project will be carried out “directly by the authority” of the District and “will serve the interest of the general public.” This ruling raises the question of what other projects the prevailing wage requirements of Davis-Bacon may apply to in the future.
In September, Nancy Leppink used the Department of Labor blog to defend her ruling and highlight the public benefits of the project which she believes makes it a “public work.” These include jobs for the District and the requirement that 20% of the residential units in the project be committed to affordable housing. Ms. Leppink cites the Washington Nationals baseball stadium and the D.C. convention center as similar “public works.” Both of these projects utilized public financing which is in stark contrast to the privately funded CityCenter project.
The immediate reaction to the ruling is that it will likely increase the number of projects that will fall under the Davis-Bacon wage requirements. If this happens, the ruling could push up labor costs on a substantial number of economic development projects in DC and across the country. But what now is the standard? Clearly, no longer are government dollars required to turn an otherwise privately funded endeavor into a public project. At the very least, it creates even more uncertainty about costs during a time where both the public and private sector are trying to contain spending.
Then there is the question of who pays for the increased costs. The administrative ruling stated the D.C. government would be responsible for the increased labor costs. Understandably, city officials are likely to try and have the tab picked up by the developers. The D.C. government and the developers are appealing the ruling before an administrative review panel. That board’s decision could then be appealed in federal courts. All of this could take years to reach a conclusion. Both the D.C. government and the private sector are now left to guess about how to proceed and who will be responsible for the potential added cost.
In economic times like these, a compelling argument can be made to suspend the Davis-Bacon wage requirement on all applicable projects. In one study, economists found that Davis-Bacon rules cost federal taxpayers about $8.6 billion annually.[i] However, after this ruling and the Department of Labor’s response to the criticism, that does not seem likely.
Now the question of whether Davis-Bacon will apply is no longer whether the project is receiving financial assistance from the federal or D.C. government, but an uncertain application of “public benefits” and a vague measure of retained authority by the government. We are left asking: What minimum threshold of government involvement will require a prevailing wage to be paid and who will be left holding the bag?
Tags: acting administrator, administrative ruling, city center, construction, Davis Bacon Act, Davis-Bacon, DC government, developer, District of Columbia, federal court, government dollars, labor department, Legislative Monitoring, prevailing wage, privately funded, public benefits, public works, regulatory forecasting, regulatory tracking, state and local, state government affairs, state government relations, stateside associates, union, USDOL, wage and hour division, working at stateside associates | <urn:uuid:582bb48b-5571-4e4b-bc56-79ff748308e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://statesideassoc.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/davis-bacon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949386 | 1,028 | 1.5 | 2 |
The nightmare before Christmas
For presidential candidates, the holiday season will not be restful
EVEN those who dislike Hillary Clinton want to hitch a ride in her helicopter, inevitably dubbed “the Hillacopter”. With a dozen presidential candidates criss-crossing Iowa to scramble for support before the caucuses on January 3rd, everyone following them wants to be in several places at once. And the roads are icy.
Parking is like curling. The main roads have been salted well, but not perfectly. Your correspondent spun once on black ice and saw three accidents. After dark, the oncoming traffic includes farm trucks with only one headlight. Mrs Clinton only has to dodge heckles.
The locals grumble more about the weather than politics. In a coffee shop in Creston, a small town south-west of Des Moines, the customers form two groups: those whose electricity has been restored since a recent storm, and those who are still waiting. “We're living like cavemen,” chuckles one of the staff.
When talk does turn to politics, the mood is disgruntled. Between mouthfuls of syrup-soaked pancake, Dalyne Gaede laments that he can no longer find work. He used to help make sophisticated machinery: self-service cash registers for Wal-Mart and trash cans that say “thank you”. But then he needed back surgery, and suddenly no one will hire him because his health insurance is too expensive.
A triumph in Iowa can kick-start a candidate towards his party's nomination. Yet turnout is usually low. Out of a voting-age population of 2m, only 130,000 caucused in 2004. More will probably show up this time because both parties are competing and the races are close. On the Democratic side, Mrs Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama all have a shot. Mr Obama is slightly ahead, but Iowa polls are habitually unreliable. Among the Republicans, Mike Huckabee has opened a sizeable lead over Mitt Romney, but with his new prominence has come unaccustomed scrutiny.
Every candidate faces a holiday season without rest. Most will campaign until as close to Christmas Day as they can without interrupting the festivities. The Democrats especially are working harder than ever, inflicting their friends, families and celebrity endorsers on hapless Iowans.
Besides firing up their existing supporters and courting undecided voters, they are also trying to persuade their rivals' supporters to make them their second choice. Under Iowa's caucus system, voters will gather in some 2,000 small precincts and discuss the candidates before selecting their first choice. Under the Democrats' version (though not the Republicans') those whose candidates fail to win more than 15% or so of the votes in a precinct are then invited to transfer their vote to another, “viable”, candidate. This takes time, so only the most motivated take part.
Each candidate has a different style. Mrs Clinton leads her troops through the snow with such discipline that, had Napoleon copied it, he might have conquered Russia. Other Democrats' campaign staff are happy to answer questions. In Des Moines, Jim Mowrer, an Iraq veteran, says he supports Joe Biden because he is the only Democrat with a plan to quit Iraq without leaving chaos behind. The Clintonistas beside him say they are not authorised to talk to the press.
At Mrs Clinton's campaign office in Creston, the lone staffer consults his boss by telephone. His boss tells him not to reveal anything. Not even his personal reasons for liking Mrs Clinton? No. Not even where a guy can get a cup of coffee in Creston? The staffer hesitates before divulging this potentially sensitive information.
At Mr Obama's campaign office in the same town, the welcome is warmer: a seat, a cup of coffee and a list of local Obama-ites to call. Karl Knock, the chairman of a local bank, says he likes the openness of Mr Obama's campaign. The candidate does not simply issue orders; he asks questions. America needs a new leader who is not entrenched in old battles, he says.
Mr Edwards, a former trial lawyer and vice-presidential nominee, is running the angriest Democratic campaign. Though his manner is smooth and smiley, he rails without cease against the greedy corporations that supposedly make ordinary Americans' lives miserable. He lies third in the polls in Iowa, but his tireless stumping in remote hamlets might conceivably allow him to snatch a victory.
Mrs Clinton is still the woman to beat, however. Other candidates pander. She does her homework and then micropanders. For voters who fret about the environment and globalisation, she praises solar power. Someone has to screw those solar panels on the roof, and that's a job that can't be outsourced, she tells a crowd in a fire station in Shenandoah, near the Nebraska border.
Are you worried about violent video games? So is Mrs Clinton. They can lead, she says, to horrors such as the recent massacre in a mall in Omaha. Mrs Clinton knows the name of the local man who was injured there, of course. She's really intelligent, agree several members of the audience. But one couple say Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, is more qualified. A paranoid local lawyer mutters about Vince Foster, a friend of Mrs Clinton's who killed himself in 1993 but whom conspiracy theorists say was murdered.
The Republicans' Mrs Clinton is Mitt Romney, an ex-governor of Massachusetts. He, too, faces a younger, more charismatic threat. Mr Romney gives PowerPoint presentations; Mr Huckabee airs an ad wishing Iowans a merry Christmas.
Mr Huckabee has ethical problems (he accepted a ton of gifts when he was governor of Arkansas), eccentric policies (scrap income taxes, make America self-sufficient in food) and a feeble grasp of world affairs. But his verbal dexterity and years as a Baptist preacher allow him to dodge almost any awkward question with a Biblical allusion. He is joyfully backed by evangelicals and home-schoolers. Eric Woolson, his campaign manager in Iowa, cannot understand why the media harp on about his strong support among those who go to church every week. “Everyone I know goes to church every week,” he says.
A loss in Iowa could cripple Mr Romney, so he is fighting back hard. His television spots accuse Mr Huckabee of being soft on crime (his faith led him to pardon many criminals when he was governor) and illegal immigration. This is risky. Iowans don't like negative campaigning, says Cary Covington, a politics professor at the University of Iowa. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, two Republicans with no hope in Iowa but national reputations, are biding their time.
For both parties, a bitter struggle looms. But actual violence has so far been mild. Dan Holman, who follows Mrs Clinton around waving a gruesome anti-abortion banner, was allegedly poked in the ribs with a broom handle by an elderly householder who accused him of standing on his property. But Mr Holman recovered and is still haranguing his nemesis. | <urn:uuid:fa799096-ff12-490d-8800-c3f3a271a1bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.economist.com/node/10331499 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970993 | 1,469 | 1.609375 | 2 |
What is the name of your state? CA
When does the clock start ticking? In the fall of 2000, a new homes developer started to excavate the entire bottom 40% of a hill (which stood some thirty to forty feet high at its highest point) to build 11 homes. My home and backyard sits on the upper 60% of the hill with my backyard fence sitting on my property but approximately eight feet inside the property line. The fence obstructed my view of what the developer was doing immediately behind my fence during the excavation. I did on one occasion personally witness the developer’s mechanical shovel coming into contact with my fence. I also observed the developer’s work crew pouring concrete behind the fence as late as November 2002.
At the end on January 2003, my fence (which was only 38 months old) broke at the base of a fence post and fell down the hill. It was at this time that I could see the extensive destruction to my property. Nearly all of the hill (some 150 cubic yard of dirt and rock) behind the fence line was gone leaving an eight feet vertical drop from the point where the fence once stood to the first point of solid and stable footing inside my property line.
The questions, from a legal standpoint, are when does the “Statue of Limitation” start and how long does it last. Does the clock start ticking in the fall of 2000, November of 2002, or January of 2003? Again, I first became aware of the extensive damage in January of 2003 if that matters?
Thanks for your reponse. | <urn:uuid:7823977e-60da-4a60-ac88-f1526947440e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forum.freeadvice.com/civil-litigation-46/statue-limitation-question-california-191493.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975303 | 322 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The impact of corruption on our communities cannot be accurately conveyed in numbers or reports. To understand how it affects the lives of people, we must listen to their voices.
Fair Play is a global competition for original songs by young bands (18-35 years) on the theme of anti-corruption. Bands are invited to enter the 3rd edition by submitting their anti-corruption music videos online from 24 April to 24 July 2012. The 3 winning bands will win a trip to Brazil to participate in the 3rd GYAC Voices Against Corruption Forum and perform live in Brasilia!
Fair Play is an awareness-raising program and network building effort to connect socially conscious artists and citizens worldwide, brought to you by the JMI Foundation, the World Bank Institute and the Global Youth Anti-Corruption Youth Network.
The JMI Foundation is an international non-profit organization, the charitable arm of Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI) which has operated for over 60 years with the goal of ‘Making a Difference through Music.’
The JMI Foundation works to support the well-being, social cohesion, and economic development of our communities by delivering music programs for youth globally. Determined to bring about improved living standards of youth from all walks of life, the work of the JMI Foundation demonstrates the transformative power of music and the positive social change that can be realized when the needs of youth are addressed, and their creative and innovative potential unlocked. | <urn:uuid:8559f678-605a-4d82-a645-32cb2d2f0f35> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.anticorruptionmusic.org/?about | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947378 | 295 | 1.796875 | 2 |
A consumer rights campaign group has called for a US government investigation into AOL's recent release of customer search data.
Filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Monday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said AOL should be ordered to reveal more details about its publication of 650,000 users' search queries on the web.
AOL apologised for the move last week after receiving widespread criticism that it had breached customers' privacy. However, the search requests were publicly accessible for 10 days before their removal and continue to circulate on the web.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation said it had submitted evidence that some queries could be tied to individual AOL subscribers, despite the fact that AOL released them without users' names.
It said the data included 175 searches containing Social Security numbers, which could raise the possibility of identity theft.
The group called for AOL to notify customers affected by the disclosure and to stop logging search data "except where absolutely necessary".
"Search terms can expose the most intimate details of a person's life -- private information about your family problems, your medical history, your financial situation, your political and religious beliefs, your sexual preferences, and much more," said EFF staff attorney Marcia Hofmann.
"At the very least, AOL should notify every customer whose privacy has been jeopardised by the company's careless handling of this incredibly private information, and AOL should not store this kind of data in the future when it doesn't have to."
Last week, The New York Times reported it had tracked down 62-year-old Thelma Arnold based on the search data. | <urn:uuid:027df904-d48f-44f6-9d14-3d9ef9c0cc96> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://econsultancy.com/mt/blog/166-group-calls-for-aol-search-data-probe | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955205 | 321 | 1.625 | 2 |
Editor's note: Victoria Pynchon is the co-founder of She Negotiates Consulting and Training, a firm which aims to close the wage and leadership gap in business. After a 25-year career as a commercial litigator and trial attorney, Pynchon earned a legal masters degree in conflict resolution and has since published two books, "The Grownups' ABCs of Conflict Resolution" and "Success as a Mediator for Dummies."
(CNN) -- When coupled with the word "business," flirtation brings to mind mythical Hollywood "casting couches" and Film Noir femme fatales whose brazen sexuality served as camouflage for evil hearts and small-caliber pistols.
Our near universal distaste for women who use their feminine "wiles" to reach the corner office rather than the marriage bower is more a testament to the power of movies and cheap fiction than to lessons learned through our lived experience.
Because business remains stubbornly male, nearly every quality associated with femininity puts women at a disadvantage in the workplace. If we do not conform to the positive stereotypes of selflessness, tolerance, accommodation and, yes, purity, we are scorned -- and sidelined -- for being "mannish," severe, or shrill. If we conform to these stereotypes, we are deemed too weak, passive, sensitive and emotional to engage in commerce as the competitive sport to which it is so often compared.
What do you think? Is it ok for women to use their feminine charms to improve their chances of success at work? Tell us in the comments below and we'll feature the best on CNN.com
Having entered the world of commerce as a litigator and trial attorney more than three decades ago, the futility of attempting to beat men at their own game became quickly apparent. They were combative, physically imposing, eager to intimidate and quick to anger. As long as they could save face, they backed down easily enough, returning to jocular, towel-snapping, frat house bonhomie. No one criticized them for deploying these masculine characteristics to achieve. You'd be labeled a spoilsport, unworthy of their company and barred from playing their games.
I was a slip of a girl when I first went mano-a-mano with roomfuls of crusty old defense attorneys. One of my primary tasks in those early years was to gather information from my opponents by eliciting pre-trial testimony in a process we call taking depositions.
Obstructing my attempts to unearth facts from reluctant adversaries was, of course, their job. But they took special pleasure in batting me about conference and court rooms like a cat toy -- an inexperienced, foolish girl who thought she might one day be an actual trial attorney.
My job was to win every skirmish in the long war of attrition that is litigation. There was no reward for looking good, only for being good. And it didn't take me long to realize that I could be good using their low opinion of my abilities as my own secret weapon of attack. When I needed their favor, I did not hesitate to use "feminine charms" to gain it. Those "charms" included warmth, flattery, playfulness, and sexiness. Bringing them onto the field of play in no way diminished my intelligence, growing savvy, meticulous preparation and growing reputation as a worthy adversary.
I possessed, as so many women do, a lively curiosity about other people's motivations, the ability to locate and praise that which is praiseworthy in even the worst of people, and a strong sense of who I was and who I could never be.
When I teach young lawyers deposition and beginning trial practice skills for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, I encourage all of them, male and female, to use every one of their authentic personality traits to get as many people as possible up in their tree house, playing their games.
Tom Sawyer famously hornswoggled a neighborhood of kids to whitewash his aunt's fence by noisily enjoying the task before ever so reluctantly passing them a brush. Daniel Craig woos women and undoes men with a hint of subterranean menace spring loaded to please or harm once he decides which shot to call. With Sawyer the charm is playful. With Craig it is danger. For each, it is who he most deeply is, including his inescapable sexuality.
The stage on which we women are instructed to play, fingers waggling in our faces, is often so constricting it's a wonder we can move at all. To deny ourselves access to any of our powers too often leaves us without any power at all.
When I mentor women, I urge them to use whatever they've got. If warmth, playfulness, and flattery get the job done and they are comfortable expressing themselves in these dimensions, by all means, I counsel, go ahead and use them. As Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn wrote in Half the Sky, more girls have been killed in the last fifty years because they are female, than men were killed in all the wars of the 20th century. We have important work to do and we do not have time to waste our energy on appearances.
When I boldly say these things, I'm challenged for "setting the women's movement back forty years." I strongly disagree.
What sets us back, or simply keeps us mired in place, is the persistence of a commercial culture primarily powered by intimidation, sharp practices, greed and obstruction. Think the economic meltdown of 2008. These practices pose real danger and leave little room for the collaboration, inclusion, and creative play required to innovate our way toward a better world.
When men or women paper over that which makes us most human, dimensional and flexible, we deprive ourselves and one another of what is truly generative within and among us.
If we instead attune ourselves to those whom we would influence, a well-placed bit of flattery can take us places no amount of earnest argument ever will. If we are true to ourselves and trustworthy players in the business of commence, our success will be fairly earned and our behavior above reproach. | <urn:uuid:b93cd140-7937-415a-a814-ae15c136634a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/14/business/women-flirting-business/index.html?hpt=op_mid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971541 | 1,259 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Partisanship Guides Americans' Attitudes on Health-Care Reform Law: Poll
THURSDAY, Oct. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Two years after it was signed into law, Americans' views on the Affordable Care Act continue to track along party lines, even among those who say they've personally been affected by the controversial health-reform legislation, a new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll finds.
According to the poll of more than 2,500 adults conducted earlier this month, 31 percent of adults surveyed said they want the entire law repealed, another 27 percent want to keep it in its entirety, and 22 percent want to keep only parts of it.
But as with a similar poll conducted a year ago, attitudes hewed closely to party lines: Most Republicans (63 percent) favor repeal while many Democrats (49 percent) want to keep all of the law or just tweak parts of it (19 percent).
And yet big majorities across the political spectrum said they want to retain parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The law, one of the legislative centerpieces of President Barack Obama's presidency, has been a frequent topic of debate during the pending election, with Republican challenger Mitt Romney pledging to repeal it.
For instance, 70 percent of those surveyed said they want to keep the rule that prevents insurers from denying health coverage based on pre-existing conditions -- up from 64 percent in 2010, when the law was signed by Obama.
The "individual mandate," on the other hand, remains a bitter source of contention, with 55 percent opposing it, roughly the same as two years ago. This provision requires Americans who don't have insurance to buy it or face a penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the provision in a ruling handed down in June.
Harris Poll chairman Humphrey Taylor said the results aren't surprising. "This survey indicates that many people can have different attitudes to the forest (the 'big picture') and to the trees (the 'specifics')," he said.
Although the ACA isn't scheduled to take full effect until the end of 2014, some provisions are already in place. For instance, people under the age of 26 can remain on their parents' health insurance plan; many seniors on Medicare now have lower drug costs due to a shrinking of the infamous "donut hole" reimbursement gap; and insurers are no longer allowed to exclude people from coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
But Americans seem unclear on which provisions have already been implemented, which haven't, and how they personally might have been affected.
For example, when pollsters asked respondents about the possible effects the Affordable Care Act might have had on them -- including some provisions that have been implemented and some that have not -- 60 percent said they had already been impacted, whether the effect was real (based on provisions already in place) or imaginary.
Some of these perceived effects would be highly unlikely to have manifested at this point in time, including a tax increase as a result of the bill's passage, which was noted by 19 percent of respondents, and a decline in health care quality, noted by 16 percent of respondents.
Some respondents said they or someone they know have already benefited from the Affordable Care Act: 23 percent cited the provision allowing young adults to gain coverage from a parent's health plan; 14 percent cited the provision granting wider access to preventive services; 14 percent cited the new "pre-existing condition" rule; and 13 percent cited lower drug costs for seniors on Medicare.
Predictably, individual views on the law's effects -- for good or ill -- also fell along party lines. Twenty-two percent of Democrats say the ACA has had an overall positive effect on their lives, compared to only 4 percent of Republicans. Similarly, 42 percent of Republicans deem the overall effect as negative, compared with 9 percent of Democrats.
"Republicans are much more likely to see negative effects of the ACA, including some effects (increased taxes or a decline in quality of care) which are almost certainly not linked to the Affordable Care Act," Taylor said. "Democrats tend to see positive effects that [also] may be real or imagined."
Although the poll numbers appear mixed, Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA in Washington, D.C., believes that public attitudes will lean more toward the positive as 2014 approaches and more of the law's key elements are enacted.
"As more and more people gain the experience of these very reforms having a positive impact in their lives and understand that the ACA was the vehicle by which those changes occurred, I think you're going to see the overall numbers change," Pollack said.
But John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas, believes the poll's results may be skewed because the questions asked of respondents were oriented toward the benefits and not the costs.
"If insurance companies can't deny people coverage because they're sick, what if it raises your premiums? Then how do you feel about it?" he said. "People should understand that there is no free lunch. There are trade-offs."
The online survey was conducted within the United States between Oct. 2-4 and involved 2,516 adults aged 18 and over.
Learn more about the Affordable Care Act at HealthCare.gov.
SOURCES: Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll, October 2012; Humphrey Taylor, chairman, The Harris Poll; Ron Pollack, executive director, Families USA, Washington, D.C.; John Goodman, Ph.D., president, National Center for Policy Analysis, Dallas | <urn:uuid:94cec51b-2696-4be7-bf14-ed95accbdf6b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lcmh.com/Taxonomy/RelatedDocuments.aspx?id=184&ContentTypeId=6&ContentID=669924 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971178 | 1,131 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The October issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine is on its way to subscribers and to news stands. If you have SketchUp installed on your computer (it’s a free download available here) you’re just a couple of mouse clicks away from getting a preview of the projects in the next issue. Visit our collection at Google’s 3D Warehouse and select “Sort by Date” to view or download the latest additions.
In addition to the cover project, there is also a Factory Cart Coffee Table (this issue’s I Can Do That project, and my favorite is the drawer structure Toshio Odate added to the dining table featured in an article in the August issue.
There are two other recent additions. When I was teaching a SketchUp class at Marc Adam’s School of Woodworking a few weeks ago, I needed to transfer a model of a cabriole leg pattern from my computer to the students. Instead of passing around a jump drive, I loaded the pattern to the 3D Warehouse, and the students downloaded the model. Lastly, the cabinet I use in the Shop Class video to demonstrate how to add raised panel doors has been added to the collection.
If you’ve been using SketchUp, you know how valuable a tool it is both for planning your projects, and for understanding how projects you see in the magazine go together. You can look at these models from any angle or any direction, and take them apart and put them back together on your computer.
If you want to learn how to use SketchUp for woodworking we have some resources available. Out Shop Class: SketchUp for Woodworkers is in video format. Part One will get you started in 3D modeling and Part Two will take your skills further. If you want more in depth instruction, Woodworker’s Guide to Google SketchUp is a 184 page book on disc in PDF format with plenty of screen shot illustrations and 49 short video lessons embedded in the text. | <urn:uuid:892ba4a9-1d94-452c-9f41-1d9e5e52c528> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.popularwoodworking.com/sketchup-for-woodworking-models/more-free-sketchup-models-from-october-issue/comment-page-1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932908 | 406 | 1.796875 | 2 |
"In malpractice case, Catholic hospital argues fetuses aren’t people...The lead defendant in the case is Catholic Health Initiatives, the Englewood-based nonprofit that runs St. Thomas More Hospital as well as roughly 170 other health facilities in 17 states. Last year, the hospital chain reported national assets of $15 billion. The organization’s mission, according to its promotional literature, is to “nurture the healing ministry of the Church” and to be guided by “fidelity to the Gospel.” Toward those ends, Catholic Health facilities seek to follow the Ethical and Religious Directives of the Catholic Church authored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Those rules have stirred controversy for decades, mainly for forbidding non-natural birth control and abortions. “Catholic health care ministry witnesses to the sanctity of life ‘from the moment of conception until death,’” the directives state. “The Church’s defense of life encompasses the unborn.”
As Jason Langley, an attorney with Denver-based Kennedy Childs, argued in one of the briefs he filed for the defense, the court “should not overturn the long-standing rule in Colorado that the term ‘person,’ as is used in the Wrongful Death Act, encompasses only individuals born alive. Colorado state courts define ‘person’ under the Act to include only those born alive. Therefore Plaintiffs cannot maintain wrongful death claims based on two unborn fetuses.”
In other words according to the Catholic Church," it's a person if you want to have an abortion, but it's not a person we kill it as a result of our negligence" | <urn:uuid:4060537a-b9e5-48e9-8bc4-80a9640691cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dawgsaloon.com/showthread.php/57236-Catholic-Church-quot-Life-begins-at-conception-unless-it-s-gonna-cost-us-money-quot?p=3437859&viewfull=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946575 | 355 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Got that pioneering spirit? You’re invited to help build Israel’s periphery by planting roots in southern soil with Nefesh B’Nefesh.
Publisher: Talmudic Books
At the same time the book can also serve as an appetizer, a first introduction to the synagogue and its most significant prayers, for those from outside shul life – people who have not been inside an Orthodox synagogue since their bar mitzvah.
It is livened by autobiographical reminiscences that include how shul felt for the author, as the son of the rabbi of what was then Zichron Ephraim and later the Park East Synagogue. The combination of growing up as the rabbi’s son of one of the most prestigious Orthodox congregations in New York City, and the intellectual honing provided by being part of academe for many years, prepared Zahavy well for writing this unique presentation of Jewish prayer as practiced in the synagogue.
Indeed, his background and credentials make him eminently qualified for this undertaking. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees, as well as rabbinic ordination, from Yeshiva University, where he spent four years studying with Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. He then earned a Ph.D. in religious studies from Brown University, and went on to pursue an academic career at the University of Minnesota, where he was a professor of Jewish Studies and was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award.
In God’s Favorite Prayers, Zahavy describes the prayer service as it is encountered in real-life synagogues, defining it as a series of discrete and somewhat diverse elements that have their own internal coherence. At the same time, it somehow synchronizes and creates a rewarding whole.
The major thrust of the book is what, lacking any better term, I call the psycho-emotional dimension – not the literal meaning of the prayers but rather the impact that their recitation should or could have on regular synagogue goers. It is particularly successful in evoking a renewed spiritual dimension, respecting texts whose essence sometimes tends to fade through their constant use.
The prayers are categorized typologically, a separate chapter being devoted to each of the following: The Performer’s Prayers; The Mystic’s Prayers; The Scribe’s Prayers; The Priest’s Prayers; The Meditator’s Prayers; and The Celebrity’s Prayers. The chapter headings are not intended to indicate either their authorship or their history, both of which Zahavy considers to be largely unknown and, in any event, irrelevant for his purpose.
Following these chapters is one on the Kiddush, both as a special blessing recited several times during the Sabbath or holiday and as the social event held in many synagogues immediately following the Sabbath morning service.
The book closes with a short epilogue portraying the emotional experience accompanying the blowing of the shofar, particularly, but not only, at the close of the Yom Kippur service.
While the book will ring a bell for regular synagogue attendees in all countries, it will have particular resonance for those used to the American experience. An especially noteworthy example: particularly American is the endeavor to be respectful of women vis-à-vis the synagogue experience.
Zahavy has succeeded in relating to women and addressing them “at eye level” as real and active participants in the prayer experience, without “moving the curtain aside” or giving them an active part in the pageantry of the prayer service that in Orthodox Judaism is considered to be an exclusive male domain. He somehow manages to provide his women readers with a feeling of inclusiveness,without their intruding into the traditional male domain of the synagogue service.
He achieves this primarily by choosing women as the archetypes in several of the chapters. He not only uses the biblical Hannah to introduce his discussion of The Mystic’s Prayers. He doesn’t hesitate to introduce a contemporary woman in the ensuing narrative to illustrate his point. So too Zahavy places a lady at the center of his description in his chapter on meditation.
An important insight that in and of itself makes the book worthwhile is its illustration of one of the major axioms of the nature of Jewish prayer – that it is the one who prays who, in the last analysis, determines the content of the prayer that is recited. While the words of the prayers provide the common denominator that make it possible for communal prayer to take place, it is the individual prayer of each of us (and even our own prayer at different times) that provides the common and virtually timeless text with contemporary and personal meaning.
While I too have taught prayer in university classes, and hopefully was interesting and informative, this book is entirely different. While I concentrated on content and sources, Zahavy’s aim here is to re-evoke dimensions of meaning in texts whose familiarity has caused their sharp meaning to fade. For all these and other reasons, the book is an enjoyable read and well worth the time doing so.
Dr. Naomi G. Cohen taught for many years at Tel Aviv University and Haifa University, and is a senior research fellow at Haifa University. She has published extensively on Jewish liturgy and on Philo Judaeus, including Philo’s Scriptures: Citations from the Prophets and Writings. She is married to Rav She’ar Yashuv Cohen, former Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Haifa.
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Yet all are part of one neshamah, planted in rich, verdant soil, determined to grow. May our garden continue to produce a glorious assortment of flowers and trees, each attached firmly to its roots. Our diverse southern vegetation flourishes and grows into different trees, flowers, and fruits, and a rainbow of glorious shades and hues appears. Yet each shoot is rooted in the same soil, stretching its branches and blossoms heavenward in an endless pursuit of growth and connection to the One above.
This past Lag B’Omer, we were blessed to make our first upsherin, where we celebrate our son’s first hair cut. It’s a wonderful milestone that mimics the three years that we refrain from plucking a tree’s first fruits and symbolizes the entry of the child into the world of Torah learning. It’s a clear sign to everyone; this boy is no longer a baby.
Although there are more direct and faster routes to Beer Sheva and Eilat and all the sites and towns in-between, the Basor River is one of the beauties of the Negev that defiantly justifies a diversion.
The importance of death customs has been ingrained in me since birth. When I served as a shomeret for my grandmother, I was instructed not to eat, drink or perform a mitzvah in the same room. In the shock of death, it seemed rather inane to be told it would be considered mocking the dead. My grandmother was gone; she couldn’t do those things because she didn’t exist anymore, a fact that still makes me tear up.
I would have to say that one of the most annoying things about having a newspaper advice column, aside from all these people writing to me and asking for advice, is that they frequently don’t tell me WHY they’re asking.
Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt”l, who passed away on 28 Tammuz, (July18) this year at age 102, spent all of his days and most of his nights learning Torah. He was the paramount leader of our generation, and inspired tremendous awe and reverence in everyone who knew him. Now, every woman has the stunning opportunity to do something in his memory. A Sefer Torah is being written in his memory and women around the world have the chance to dedicate a letter.
Due to her family situation, it is understandable that she will have more responsibilities than other girls her age, but she would benefit from having some free time and receiving more appreciation for her hard work.
For children, summer means outdoor sports, picnics, and of course, no school! Teachers and students work hard all year long – and everyone deserves a break from education over the summer. However, this two-month break can often have some pretty devastating consequences.
It was only after we celebrated the great news that we were expecting twins that we saw the first sign of problems. First of all, my wife was losing, not gaining weight, even as the babies continued to grow normally. Soon after, routine blood work revealed that my wife was suffering from gestational diabetes.
Rabbi Pinchas Gruman is the new rav of the Minyan at Aish Tamid.
One of the most respected Torah figures in Los Angeles, Rabbi Gruman has been described as “The Los Angeles link in the mesorah of the yeshiva world” by Rabbi Nachum Sauer. As a talmid in Lakewood in the 1950s, Rabbi Gruman received semicha from Rav Aaron Kotler, zt”l, and Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l. Soon after, he moved to Los Angeles.
God’s Favorite Prayers, by Tzvee Zahavy, makes for fascinating reading. It is an intelligent, sometimes amusing, and always highly readable essay addressed first and foremost to those who know “everything” – those so familiar with the prayers that they don’t really need a siddur to follow the service.
Printed from: http://www.jewishpress.com/sections/books/book-reviews/title-gods-favorite-prayers-2/2011/10/05/
Scan this QR code to visit this page online: | <urn:uuid:0f341dad-2edf-467e-a11c-9511f69d1113> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewishpress.com/sections/books/book-reviews/title-gods-favorite-prayers-2/2011/10/05/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967353 | 2,079 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Ham-Handed At Smithfield
November 17, 2006
Yesterday, hundreds of workers walked off the job at the world's largest pork-processing plant in Tarheel, N.C. The spontaneous protest against Smithfield Foods involved as many as 1,000 workers, who were protesting the company's practice of retaliating against employees who stand up for their rights. The Tarheel workers' struggle is depressingly common. As longtime labor activist Nathan Newman put it to TomPaine, "What Smithfield workers face is what 20,000 workers face every year—illegal retaliation and firings for standing up for their legal right to form a union."
The plight of workers at Smithfield—famous for its hams which will grace many Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner tables this year—embodies the struggles facing American workers today: obstacles to joining a union, and employers who exploit immigrant workers to degrade the standards of the U.S. workplace. As former Congressman David Bonior noted in a recent piece for TomPaine, "Every 23 minutes, a worker in this country is fired or discriminated against for exercising the basic human right to form or join a union."
True, Smithfield employees have it especially tough. Human Rights Watch singled out the plant in 2005 as "a poster child for worker rights abuses, including brutally dangerous working conditions; retaliatory firings for workers who speak out; even hiring private security guards to harass and assault suspected union activists," according to Facing South, a blog about progressive politics in the South.
Pictured above are two Smithfield employees who have suffered under the extreme working conditions at the plant, which processes 34,000 hogs a day. Hector David Rodriguez led a walkout of his line because of its excessive speed. His wife, Wanda Torres, was injured at work. Smithfield refuses to offer compensation to employees injured on the job. Almost half of the plant's workers are immigrants and the threat of firing or deportation is a powerful weapon management uses to discourage employees from organizing for better conditions.
The good news is that now we have a government in place that can help the workers at Smithfield and other workplaces demand rights without fear. Days after the Democrats swept the midterm elections, the labor group, American Rights At Work, sent out an action alert calling on the Speaker-to-be Pelosi to put workers' rights at the top of her agenda. Pelosi, along with many other Democrats, is a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, which offers protections for workers trying to organize to protect their rights on the job. In 2005 and 2006, the Republican majority prevented a vote on the bill. Smithfield workers are bravely standing up for themselves. Will Democrats use their power to stand up for all U.S. workers? | <urn:uuid:50a6ceb8-a449-4ddf-b04c-04ffead2f3d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.tompaine.com/print/hamhanded_at_smithfield.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963457 | 565 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Folks hoping for an opportunity to celebrate Memorial Day outdoors can rejoice — it’s shaping up to be sunny and warm.
The National Weather Service in Salt Lake City predicts Monday will be mostly sunny across the state, with temperatures expected to be in the 60s and 70s. Tuesday is expected to be even warmer, with temperatures reaching the 80s and 90s.
But first, those in northern Utah had to make do with a rainy Sunday.
Storms dropped 7 inches of snow at Brighton and 6 inches of snow at Alta, said Pete Wilensky, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.
“It is a little late, but this is not that uncommon,” Wilensky said. “We often get cold systems all the way into early June that can put snow onto the peaks.”
Over two days, Park City recorded 1.22 inches of precipitation, and Ben Lomond Peak received almost 3 inches.
“Water totals were impressive in the northern Wasatch Front,” Wilensky said.
Sandy led Salt Lake valley areas for precipitation, tallying .72 of an inch.
Temperatures reached 63 degrees in Salt Lake City, 52 degrees in Logan, 75 degrees in St. George and 72 degrees in Moab.
While it’s unusual to see snow in the valleys on Memorial Day weekend, “to get snow in the mountains on Memorial Day is not particularly uncommon,” agreed weather service meteorologist Monica Traphagan.
Last Memorial Day, South Ogden picked up 2 inches of snow and an inch fell in Millcreek, she said.
Currently, the entire state remains under a hazardous weather outlook expected to last most of the week. Authorities warned residents to keep children and pets away from streams and rivers because waters are swift, cold and dangerous.
Air quality merited a “green” or healthy rating statewide through Tuesday, according to the Utah Division of Environmental Quality.
For Monday and Tuesday, Salt Lake City is poised for a high of 71 and 82, respectively, while Ogden expects highs of 71 and 79, respectively. St. George is predicted to hit 86 and 91; and Moab 80 and 87 degrees. | <urn:uuid:d9704dc7-4df6-45ad-8b6a-3d0ba8cb87cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sltrib.com/csp/cms/sites/sltrib/pages/printerfriendly.csp?id=54192037 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938173 | 467 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, joined by county officials, just announced that 14 more wind power companies doing business in New York — either through existing farms or planned facilities — have signed on to the Wind Industry Ethics Code, which is designed to bring transparency to a rapidly evolving industry that, as Cuomo noted, can at times resemble the gold rushes of the 19th Century.
The code is intended to clarify disclosure rules while at the same time making it clear that any kind of “self-dealing by local officials is strictly prohibited. Rural counties, for example, have seen cases in which elected officials with approval power over wind projects have personally profited from their relationships with the companies behind them.
Cuomo said these signups mean that roughly 90 percent of New York’s wind power companies have agreed to follow the code.
At the same time, the AG has issued a subpoena to Reunion Power, which has several projects pending in Otsego, Schoharie and Warren counties. Reunion has not signed on to the code.
The code will be enforced by an advisory task force including several county representatives who took part in the press conference, including Franklin County District Attorney Derek P. Champagne, Monroe County District Attorney Michael C. Green and New York State Association of Counties Executive Director Stephen J. Acquario.
The code’s provisions will:
- Ban wind companies from hiring municipal employees or their relatives, giving gifts of more than $10 during a one-year period, or providing any other form of compensation that is contingent on any action before a municipal agency;
- Prevent wind companies from soliciting, using or knowingly receiving confidential information acquired by a municipal officer in the course of his or her official duties;
- Require companies to establish and maintain a public Web site to disclose the names of all municipal officers or their relatives who have a financial stake in wind farm development;
- Require companies to submit in writing to the municipal clerk for public inspection, and to publish in the local newspaper, the nature and scope of the municipal officer’s financial interest;
- Mandate that all wind easements and leases be in writing and filed with the County Clerk;
- Dictate that within 60 days of signing the code, companies must conduct a seminar for employees about identifying and preventing conflicts of interest when working with municipal employees.
Signatories would be subject to fines of up to $50,000 for a first violation of the code, and up to $100,000 for subsequent violations.
Cuomo’s press conference also included a reprise of his regular gubernatorial tap dance, which boils down to:
- He’s happy right now to be doing the people’s work as Attorney General;
- 2010 is an election year and a time for politics, and this is not yet 2010;
- He’s encouraged by his robust poll numbers only to the extent that it reflects well on the job he’s currently doing.
Read the AG’s full press release here. | <urn:uuid:bea4caf1-fe51-4273-b7a0-4f97238da272> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/17154/more-companies-sign-on-to-ags-wind-power-code-of-conduct/ | 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 | 0.960934 | 623 | 1.65625 | 2 |
May 21, 2012 – Vol.17 No.10
RETHINKING ELECTRIC CARS - PART 9
by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News
At least on paper, Toyota's recently introduced, next generation RAV4 Electric Vehicle is a disappointment.
To begin with it's more expensive than the first generation RAV4. Toyota should be introducing new electric models that are less expensive, not more. The first RAV4 electric had a sticker price of $42,000. The new one has a list of $49,800. (Sigh.)
Secondly, even though its battery pack can hold more juice, (27 kWh old, 42 kWh new) the new RAV4 EV doesn't go any farther. In fact it's a little less. The old had a range of 80 -120 miles, the new about a 100 give or take a few miles depending on who's driving and where.
Now that I’ve trashed the vehicle, let me defend it.
Even though the name is the same, there's nothing in common between the first generation and now. The first generation RAV4 EV was, of course, based on the first generation gas SUV which was much smaller and lighter. Two generations later, the current conventional vehicle, for which the EV is based, can seat up to 7 and has an optional V6. It's big by comparison. The bigger new vehicle should be expected to need a larger battery pack in the electric version which would push the price higher and not add range.
There's also a matter of inflation. It's been 10 years between the old and new RAV 4 EV: $42,000 in today's dollars is almost $54,000 somewhat more than $49,800 sticker for the new EV. In a way Toyota did cut the price.
(While I'm on the subject of RAV4 generations, the current gas model introduced for the 2006 model year is about to be replaced by a fourth-gen, yet it doesn't appear as though the electric version will be used that on that platform. Kind of weird, but I thought I’d mention it.)
Now back to that price. Again, totally different vehicles, so it's comparing apples and oranges. But there's more. Only executives at Toyota know the exact cost figures, however it's fairly certain that Toyota lost money on the first RAV4 EV and could very well be losing money on the new vehicle. It's the degree of which Toyota takes its loss the determines the sticker price. Who knows? Toyota may have taken a $50,000 loss per vehicle on the first and a $10,000 loss on the second. (Just speculating with made up dollar figures.)
Then there's that range issue.
As has been shown in a previous installment in this series, lithium-ion batteried vehicles don't really get outstanding range unless the battery pack is unaffordably huge. The battery in the new RAV4 is rated at 42 kWh, the old nickel metal hydride pack 27 kWh. Again, the old RAV was light to begin with, the new heavier, perhaps by as much as 800 lbs. Further, the old was not very quick, 0-60 in 18 seconds. The new is very snappy off the line with 0-60 in seven seconds. That will burn up some electrons and reduce range.
Toyota is only planning to build 2600 vehicles, about twice as many as the first-gen cars.
With so few to be produced, and limited to only a few California markets, there may be something going on here and more than meets the eye that could be a very good thing for electric vehicles, as well as Toyota in the long run.
California has revived its zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate. Though the details are not finalized, Toyota, as well as all other car manufacturers, will soon be required to sell a percentage of electric vehicles if they want to sell cars in the state. Electric cars and trucks developed for the California market could be sold elsewhere. The more cars sold, the cheaper they could get.
Technically there’s also something under the hood that Toyota may be experimenting with.
The new RAV4 EV is using an electric drive motor and controller built by Tesla Motors. On the surface not a big deal, except this: Tesla’s motors don't use permanent magnets. Sounds like a fairly geeky detail right? Not really. The U.S. government is spending millions to find substitutes for the rare earth metals used for magnets in everything from drive motors in hybrids and electrics to wind turbines. The government is doing this because the only major source of the rare earth metals currently used is China and China has shown, in the past, a willingness to limit or shut down exports of these metals. No rare earth metals, no magnets and whole clean tech industries could be brought to a standstill.
So, along comes Tesla Motors and others, foreign and domestic, that use all-copper motors, no magnets at all. Their motors, also known as copper rotor induction motors, are still are able to become generators to capture the energy of slowing and braking and turn it to electricity to stuff back into the battery pack. In other words, permanent magnets aren’t needed for energy regeneration
There's really nothing new to the all-copper design. The Tesla Roadster, the new Tesla Model S and upcoming Model X have no magnets. BMW's Mini-e went without. And I'm almost certain GM's EV1 was a magnet-free motor.
By incorporating a Tesla-built drive and electronics, the Toyota has a real world test bed for all-copper motors. If all works well, and Toyota starts using copper motors in all it's hybrids and future EV's, the company could end up cutting costs as a result. Toyota also won’t have to worry about trade wars with China. Other companies will follow suit.
According to the Copper Development Association, “Copper-based induction motors are 20 percent less costly to manufacture than their permanent magnet counterparts, yet provide performance advantages.”
Daimler, by the way, has also placed an order with Tesla for electric drive systems for a new Mercedes-Benz EV. The value of the order is about $280 million.
Beyond Tesla, companies involved in copper motors are Remy International, Fukuta Electric & Machinery, and AC Propulsion. There may be others.
RETHINKING ELECTRIC CARS - PART 1
If EV’s don’t catch on at a quicker pace, manufacturers might have to go back to the drawing board.
Green Energy News is not responsible for content on external websites. | <urn:uuid:d51d2dc5-624b-43c9-8d52-9f6b7de2e080> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.green-energy-news.com/arch/nrgs2012/20120051.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957907 | 1,385 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Livestock Risk Protection (LRP) insurance covers the risk of price declines for feeder cattle, fed cattle, and swine. It provides producers an indemnity if a regional or national cash price index falls below an insured coverage price. Similar to a put option, the LRP policy is price insurance only, providing single-peril price risk protection for the future sale of insured livestock, explained McDonald in referencing information provided by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL).
Livestock Gross Margin (LGM) insurance offers protection against a decline in the feeding margin for cattle and swine. An indemnity is paid if the insured gross margin is greater than the total actual gross margin at the end of the insurance period.
Both insurance policies are available through the crop insurance agent system. Neither of these products guarantee a cash price received as the producer's actual cash market selling price is not used to determine indemnities. LRP and LGM Insurance programs allow producers to customize these products to their individual needs and efficiently manage price risk without the use of the futures market.
I had the opportunity to interview McDonald following her presentation to further explain these two livestock insurance programs available to producers. Take a minute or two to listen to our conversation below. Have you heard of these programs before? If so, have you thought about using them? Does anyone have experience with these programs to add to the conversation today? I think these are two risk management options worth considering for producers developing a marketing strategy, and if anyone has a success story, I would love to hear it.
BEEF Daily Quick Fact: In 2009, 4,072 head were insured through LRP in the state of South Dakota, more than any other state on record. In South Dakota, 1,500 head of fed cattle were insured using LGM in 2009. Iowa had the most enrolled in this program in 2009 with 2,815 head. (Source: McDonald) | <urn:uuid:e32bf081-c914-4dcc-a2cb-27dc9f2452de> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://beefmagazine.com/print/blog/risk-management-through-livestock-insurance-programs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947557 | 397 | 1.679688 | 2 |
AMD released its first 64-bit processors that year. While sales were
decent, there was no consumer 64-bit operating system to take advantage of the
hardware. Then finally in
2005, Microsoft released Windows XP in 64-bit form. Yet again the 64-bit
industry seemed set to explode.
The release was met with much criticism, though. Part of the problem was
necessity -- even in 2005 the average user did not need more than 2 GB, in most
circumstances. Another major hitch was driver support. All drivers
had to be rewritten to work with the new width.
Despite these difficulties, three years later, for the first time, the 64-bit
industry is at last healthy and growing. With virtually all new processors
from Intel and AMD supporting 64-bit, 64-bit OS's are flourishing as
In a recent
blog, Microsoft's Chris Flores reported that 20 percent of new Windows
systems connecting to Windows Update were 64-bit. This is up from a mere
3 percent in March. He stated, "Put more simply, usage of 64-bit
Windows Vista is growing much more rapidly than 32-bit. Based on current
trends, this growth will accelerate as the retail channel shifts to supplying a
rapidly increasing assortment of 64-bit desktops and laptops."
Retailers such as Best Buy and Circuit City are also catching on to the trend,
offering largely 64-bit OS-equipped machines for their most heavily advertised
models. Many manufacturers are also throwing in their support; Gateway
transitioning its entire desktop line to 64-bit in time for the
back-to-school shopping season. To put this in perspective, in its first
quarter, only 5 percent of Gateway's notebooks and desktops were 64-bit.
In its third quarter, a whopping 95 percent of desktops will be 64-bit and 30
percent of notebooks will be.
Aside from the increased memory, one other possible cause for adoption is the increased
availability of software that takes
advantage of the increased capacity. Adobe's various graphical design
product lines have been revamped for 64-bit. Another drive may be gaming,
which is typically memory hungry. "64-bit versions of Windows will
begin to find their way into high-end gaming notebooks, which increasingly are
being used as high-end notebook workstations as opposed to strictly gaming
systems," said IDC analyst Richard Shim.
Finally, it may just be inevitability that is helping 64-bit. While the
upgrade will only provide subtle benefits to the majority of users, even power
users, it is an iterative advance. And like most advances, after a period
of reticence, people are finally warming up to it.
quote: I think this is why 64 bit Vista is flourishing.
quote: Got any proof XP64 isn't flourishing?
quote: The installed base of 64-bit Windows Vista PCs, as a percentage of all Windows Vista systems, has more than tripled in the U.S. in the last three months, while worldwide adoption has more than doubled during the same period. Another view shows that 20% of new Windows Vista PCs in the U.S. connecting to Windows Update in June were 64-bit PCs, up from just 3% in March. Put more simply, usage of 64-bit Windows Vista is growing much more rapidly than 32-bit. | <urn:uuid:eb51af3e-517d-4d06-a22a-93c7a4a6d072> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=12568&commentid=328080&threshhold=1&red=3451 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965134 | 721 | 1.609375 | 2 |
WHITESBURG, Ky. (AP) - The U.S. Geological Survey is reporting an earthquake has occurred in eastern Kentucky, but it rattled at least three other states.
The USGS website said the epicenter of the 4.3 magnitude earthquake on Saturday afternoon was about 10 miles west of Whitesburg. Residents in eastern Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee reported feeling the temblor.
National Weather Service spokesman Jeff Carico said employees at the office in Jackson, which is about 60 miles northwest of Whitesburg, felt the ground shake for about 15 seconds. He said the office has gotten a multitude of calls, but so far no one has reported any serious damage. | <urn:uuid:5e7c4401-2071-4d1a-8eac-592dc02a3c06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wkyt.com/news/headlines/43-magnitude-earthquake-reported-in-Ky-178414671.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964974 | 141 | 1.78125 | 2 |
The ulna is one of the two long bones in the forearm. The ulna head is the end of the bone located in the wrist that attaches the hand to the ulna bone. This may be removed and replaced with a prosthesis.
0 patients have reported taking Ulnar head replacement.
There are no evaluations for Ulnar head replacement . | <urn:uuid:553c74de-94d0-4ac0-ae69-e106dfa1131a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.patientslikeme.com/treatments/show/23364-ulnar-head-replacement-side-effects-and-efficacy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946735 | 71 | 1.835938 | 2 |
What is the state of the press release headline?
Odd question perhaps, but one that’s important to people who write these headlines and who want journalists and Google to notice them.
Schwartz MSL Research Group and Business Wire address this topic in a report on headline optimization out this week. The aim of the study is search engine optimization (SEO) in press releases, and it includes useful information about word choice and word length in headlines.
The bottom line of the study is that PR pros are doing a lousy job of optimizing their press release headlines. (More on that in a moment.)
There is good news: The use of buzzwords in headlines is dying out.
The second annual study, which analyzed 16,000 press releases on Business Wire during a 31-day period last year, compiled the 20 most common buzzwords and noted how many headlines included each one. The most overused word—“solution”—was present in a mere 1.8 percent of headlines. This chart provides the full breakdown:
Schwartz and Business Wire also listed the top action words in headlines. They are:
• “Announces” (used 13.7 percent of the time);
• “Launches” (2.4 percent);
• “Partners” (1.8 percent).
The study’s authors insist that headline writers needn’t avoid buzzwords or action words at all costs, but that “it’s much more important to use the keywords being used in searches by your company’s target audience.”
Basically, the study says to use buzzwords if your audience is searching for them.
In terms of SEO, the study found that 80 percent of PR professionals are doing a poor job of it in their press release headlines.
Although SEO’s intricacies remain a mystery to many, it’s become a necessary means to getting more eyes on your content. Still, only 19.5 percent of news release headlines are optimized for SEO, according to the Schwartz group.
A Schwartz blog
“Most PR professionals are not fully optimizing their headlines. (I am sure Schwartz MSL is guilty of that as well from time to time.) Our analysis showed that only 19.5 percent of all releases have headlines with 65 characters or fewer, a one percent increase over last year. When we look at 70 characters are less, the total is 23.7 percent, an increase of less than one percent.”
Many headlines, the report continued, are way
“While the majority of release headlines are under 150 characters, we did see some examples that were much longer than the recommended length. The most egregious cases were the 2 percent of releases with headlines in excess of 300 characters, with one headline that was over 1,800 characters. The shortest headline we found was 21 characters, which is also probably not ideal for SEO as it’s unlikely that enough of their keywords were included. Overall, the analysis found the average headline length to be 123 characters, unchanged from 2010.”
Headline writers should limit the number of characters in their headlines to 65, according to Schwartz and Business Wire. The city with the highest percentage of headlines with fewer than 66 words is Chicago, the study found. Here’s the breakdown, by city:
• Chicago (33.3 percent of headlines have fewer than 66 words)
• Austin (26.9 percent)
• New York (24.9 percent)
• Philadelphia (19.7 percent)
• Washington, D.C. (15.4 percent)
• Atlanta (15.4 percent)
• San Francisco (14.3 percent)
• Boston (12.2 percent)
• San Jose (12.5 percent)
• Los Angeles (10.4 percent)
But, if PR pros are angling for Google News—not simply Google search—then 70 characters is still too long, because Google News likes brevity. “For a news release to show up on Google News,” the study said, “it must have fewer than 23 words in the headline (subhead not included).”
You can download and read the full study here
Kevin Allen contributed to this story. | <urn:uuid:b0bb6551-0bfe-4cb7-b595-1bf893b88a54> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/10841.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944392 | 891 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Vol. X. No.
Sivan 5612 June 1852
The Hebrew Benevolent Fuel Society of Philadelphia, at its late annual meeting, elected the following officers for the current year: D. Pesos, President; L. J. Leberman, Vice-President; Joseph Newhouse, Treasurer; Alfred T. Jones, Secretary; M. Arnold, Z. A. Davis, M. De Bruin, Abraham Finzi, B. Greenewald, A. Hart, Solomon Kayser, Isaac Lobe, Samuel Lyons, H. Van Beil, M. A. Van Collem, and A. S. Wolf, Managers. The Society expended and incurred responsibilities, during the past year, to the amount of $388.19, and received only $214.57, leaving a deficiency of $173.62; which will have to be made good from its fund, amounting to $1,000. We believe that this is the first time that a deficiency has occurred; owing probably to the usual means of replenishing the treasury not having been resorted to.
The Rodef Sholem Congregation of Philadelphia.—A confirmation of eight girls and four boys, all of the usual age (near thirteen), took place at the Julianna Street Synagogue, on the first day of Shabuoth, after the morning service. Mr. Bachman, the teacher, had the confirmards arranged in front of the hechal steps, where he stood before a temporary pulpit; after which, he made an address to the audience, next he addressed the children, after which, he examined them thoroughly in the catechism, and they certainly showed that they had been well instructed in the principles of the religion which they had come to bind themselves to by a solemn declaration, which each one, in succession, made, giving the right hand to Mr. Bachman, as a pledge, an outward token of assent. After this, a prayer was offered by each one of the candidates. either in verse or prose; after which, followed a parting word from Mr. Bachman, exhorting them to watch well over their heart, “for from it are the issues of life.” A hymn was sang at the entrance of the procession, after the examination, and again after the closing address, which was followed by a prayer and benediction by the Rev. Isidore Frankel, the Hazan of the congregation. The whole of the exercises were in German, and, notwithstanding, nearly all of the children are natives of the city, although of German parentage, they spoke with a fluency which proved that they had been well instructed in the language of the fatherland. The whole ceremony lasted an hour and three-quarters; and though we cannot say that it was otherwise than solemn, and at times highly impressive, we are not yet prepared to sanction it, by making it, as is done so generally among Europeans, a pre-requisite to an entry into religious life. It may have <<169>> its good effects; but, we fear, that, whilst parents are not as strict as they ought to be, it is folly and sin to demand a solemn pledge from children that they will obey truly to the last day of their life the dictates of the Lord, when the very next hour, perhaps, they have placed before them prohibited things, or are induced to violate the Sabbath and festivals. Our remarks are general; and do not apply to any particular case; and we throw out the hint merely for reflection by those who annually get up the solemnities of confirmation, and attach to it an undue importance. It was the first time that we were a witness of this ceremony: and it is no more than justice to say, that the whole management of the proceedings was exceedingly creditable to the Synagogue officers, choir, teacher, and pupils, and a visible effect was thereby produced on the audience; and we sincerely trust that a permanent impression has been left on the mind of the interesting group of twelve young Israelites, and that they will indeed remain true to the Lord, and his law, to the latest day of their earthly existence, as they vowed in the presence of one of the largest Jewish congregations we ever saw assembled within the walls of one Synagogue.
New York.—We lately
Contribution For Palestine.—Mr. Benjamin Harris Lichtenstein, late of St. Louis, but now of New York, having been appointed by Rabbi Aaron Selig Ashkenazi, one of the Treasurers for the German Perushim of Palestine, requests us to publish the subjoined statement of funds transmitted at various times to the above destination:
Mr. Lichtenstein makes this publication to
satisfy the various contributors to this charity;
and he wishes at the same time to state, that if one
or two active persons would take the matter in hand
at St. Louis, a considerable sum yet due might be
easily collected, besides ohtaining more
contributions. Mr. L. may be addressed at
Rev. Abraham Lissner, late of
At an examination lately held, great proficiency was displayed in the English elementary studies; but more yet by the boys in Hebrew Grammar, translating of the Prayer and Bible passages, religion; and the pleasing success of this new Institution is the more laudable, since the greater portion of the pupils are under nine years, and from the shortness of the period since the school was opened. Mr. Jacobs intends taking boarding in addition to the day scholars, and to engage a German and French master, besides those teachers already in his school. We wish him, heartily, ample success in his endeavours to combine religious with scientific education.
New Orleans.—A report has reached us, that Mr. Touro has purchased a valuable property in the first district of New Orleans, for the purpose of establishing a Hospital, and has appointed Dr. Joseph Bensadom resident physician. We have, however, obtained no authentic information on the subject. The Hebrew Benevolent Association lately elected the following officers: Charles Emanuel, President; Nathan Worms, Vice-President; Abel Dreyfous, Treasurer, John Abrahamson, Secretary; John Marks, Samuel H. Levy, Manuel Goldsmith, Joseph Simon, and Rev. James K. Gutheim, Directors.
Augusta, Georgia.—The Rev. Mr. Shatz has been appointed Hazan and Shochet of this congregation. The subjoined are the proceedings referred to in our last:—
At a meeting of the congregation Beney
“Resolved, That the thanks of this congregation are due, and tendered to Isaac Mayer, Esq., for his zeal on behalf of this congregation in collecting the sum of sixty-eight dollars, towards purchasing a Sepher Torah for this congregation.
“It was further resolved, That this congregation
do return their heartfelt thanks to the following
gentlemen, residents of
“It was farther resolved, That the thanks are due and tendered to <<178>> George Sloman, Esq., for the sum collected by him, for the purpose of purchasing two silver Yads, and that the above resolutions be published in ‘The Occident.’ ”
Columbia, South Carolina.—We reached Columbia the 4th of February, and met here, too, with quite a respectable body of Israelites, although not as numerous as those in Augusta. We do not believe that they have a regular Shochet; at least, we heard of none. Mr. P. S. Jacobs reads prayers and teaches Hebrew to the children, and is acting Hazan. Mr. Jacob Lerin is President of the congregation. We were, however, pleased to see so neat a building as that owned by the charitable society of the place, and which is used as the Sunday School and Synagogue; and it speaks well for the zeal of the people that they have achieved so much with so few persons and limited means. We spoke before quite a numerous audience, taking into consideration the small number of resident Israelites, on the evening of Thursday, the 5th, from Deut. iv. 39, exhorting them to remain true to the blessed Unity who has proved his existence and power to us in so many and memorable ways, and never once to swerve from the path of duty marked out to us by his law, if they wished to live happy and die in peace to reawake in the presence of the Lord of life and death. We thank our friends for their kind attendance, as our presence and intention to speak were not known till past the middle of the day.
Charleston, S. C.—During
our visit, last February, we found that the
congregation Shearith Israel was in a prosperous
condition, and that public worship was well attended
the two Sabbaths we spent there. On the first, we
addressed the people on the text, Exod. xvii. 7, on
the unbelief of the Israelites in ancient and
modern times, and showing the truth of prophecy, as
regarded the past, and the hopefulness of that which
has not yet been accomplished. On Sunday, the 15th
of February, we had again the privilege of speaking
before an audience composed, in part, of the school
attached to the Synagogue, on the nature of the
Wilmington, North Carolina.—Here, also, we found quite a number of Israelites. They have a charitable society; but, as yet, we have not learnt that they have organized a congregation.
too, a Kahal has been formally constituted, and
they lately sent for the Rev. Max Michelbacher, of
Petersburg, Virginia.—We regret that we cannot say that the numerous Israelites of this place have formed a congregational union; since we believe that a little earnest effort would readily effect all that is needed to make, at least, a proper commencement. We hope it will be tried before long.
to our sorrow, we found the Portuguese and German
congregations at variance about the possession of
the burying-ground, which was many years ago granted
by the city council to the then-existing community.
A weary law-suit has been commenced to settle the
question; and we deeply regret to state that both
parties seem averse to a compromise. We will not
give our impressions at this time, but will reserve
them for another opportunity.—We addressed the
people, by request, on Sabbath Mishphatim, at Minchah, in Exodus xxii. 31, on the nature of
personal holiness, and its object in connexion with
the observances, even the trivial ones in
appearance, as commanded by our religion. It was
with much grief that we saw the old congregation,
the successors of those who first planted the
standard of our faith in
record with pleasure the appointment of Major,
conferred hy the King of Denmark, in the local
militia of the
Hebrew Benevolent Society.
“It is with much pleasure we announce to our
readers the formation of a Society in this city,
under the above title, composed principally of our
Jewish resident business men of
England.—Dr. Schiller has been elected local Rabbi of Manchester. An extract from his introductory sermon is reported in the “Jewish Chronicle,” of February 27th; it is on the character of Moses, as the model of every Rabbi; and is in the usual fervid style of this eloquent teacher. We wish him a happy and influential life in his office.—We see by the public papers that the chief Rabbi, Adler, is making efforts to establish a Jewish college. But, thus far, we regret that the donations, as published in the Chronicle, fall far short of what we had expected from the Jews of England—little as this is; since we have not seen any evidence as yet that they are greatly in favour of diffusing a literary taste among themselves. Perhaps, there is an awakening among them, and if this be so, we hope that the contagion may spread rapidly to our brothers on this side of the Atlantic.
—We have been informed by a private letter,
and see it confirmed in the Chronicle, that the
Duke’s Place congregation, as such, has voted 6000
pounds towards erecting a new Synagogue at the West
End of London, provided a like amount be contributed
by individuals. The number of persons belonging to
the various metropolitan congregations living in the
West End has increased so greatly, that this measure
of opening a regular Synagogue for their
accommodation has become indispensable; as the
distance to the houses of worship at the
—We see from the Chronicle and other papers, that a translation of the Chizzuk Emunah, by Rabbi Isaac, has been made by Mr. Moses Mocatta. The work has been printed for private circulation only.
—An Essay on the Post-Biblical History of the Jews, for which a prize was awarded by the proprietor of the Jewish Chronicle, has also been published. We have not yet been able to obtain a sight of the work.
—Dr. A. Benisch has, we see by
his advertisement, published a new translation of
the Pentateuch, and is, it is said, busy with the
other portions of the Bible; but we hope to be ready
with our own before the completion of his. If we are
not mistaken, Dr. B. never informed the public that
such a thing as a thorough revised version of the
Torah had been published in
—The Reverend David M.
Isaacs has returned to the ministry in
—The late change of the British ministry we hardly think will injure the cause of Jewish emancipation materially. True, that Lord John Russell’s bill will not be urged by the new premier, Lord Derby, the former Lord Stanley, who started as a liberal whig, and is now a violent anti-liberal; but the sincerity of Lord John was more than doubted; and unless he was entirely powerless in the matter of keeping his promise to the Jews, he betrayed the confidence they had placed in him. However, for our part we care little whether a few Jews sit in Parliament or not; especially have we little interest in those who are now so prominent as quasi members, seeing that in real Jewish matters they are among the absentees; but, for the sake of the principle, we should be happy to see equality of right granted to our brethren, no less than all other inhabitants of England. Religion should on no account be an element of political preferment. | <urn:uuid:f406c9ab-024a-43f7-b1c0-a4f08dbe9c62> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jewish-history.com/occident/volume10/jun1852/news.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968226 | 3,049 | 1.601563 | 2 |
A Boy Who Was "Like a Flower"
This is an excerpt from a story by Anthony Shadid that ran in the Washington Post on March 31, 2003.
Baghdad--On a cold, concrete slab, a mosque caretaker washed the body of 14-year-old Arkan Daif for the last time.
With a cotton swab dipped in water, he ran his hand across Daif's olive corpse, dead for three hours but still glowing with life. He blotted the rose-red shrapnel wounds on the soft skin of Daif's right arm and right ankle with the pose of practice. Then he scrubbed his face scabbed with blood, left by a cavity torn in the back of Daif's skull.
The men in the Imam Ali mosque stood somberly waiting to bury a boy who, in the words of his father, was "like a flower." Haider Kathim, the caretaker, asked, "What's the sin of the children? What have they done?"
In the rituals of burial, the men and their families tried, futilely, to escape the questions that have enveloped so many lives here in fear and uncertainty. Beyond some neighbors, family, and a visitor, there were no witnesses; the funeral went unnoticed by a government that has eagerly escorted journalists to other wartime tragedies. Instead, Daif and two cousins were buried in the solitude of a dirt-poor, Shiite Muslim neighborhood near the city limits.
The boys were killed at 11 a.m. today when, as another relative recalled, "the sky exploded." Daif had been digging a trench in front of the family's concrete shack that would serve as a shelter during the bombing campaign that continues day and night. He had been working with Sabah Hassan, 16, and Jalal Talib, 14. The white-hot shrapnel cut down all three.
Return to Home### | <urn:uuid:15d1d69d-7dae-470c-9698-0dea4dea813f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=3692 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979698 | 392 | 1.804688 | 2 |
This is 230 Warren Street. It started out as the home of the Hudson City Savings Institution. In the early 1900s, the bank moved upstreet to the building designed by Warren & Wetmore at the corner of Sixth and Warren. In the early 1990s, it moved to Hudson City Centre and became Hudson River Bank & Trust. In the early 2000s, the bank was sold to First Niagara and ceased to exist, but its original home will soon become Bank House Bakery.
Daniel Nilsson's sister Anna (that's Daniel Nilsson of DA|BA) appeared at the Planning Commission meeting last Wednesday night to present her plan to open a bakery in the original Hudson City Savings Institution building. The members of the Planning Commission, who determined that a site plan review was unnecessary because the building was in a commercial district, were enthusiastic about a bakery returning to Warren Street. They reminisced about Jersey Bakery, which closed nearly twenty years ago, remembering most fondly the hard rolls. Anna told them that she had Jersey Bakery's recipe for hard rolls and implied that they would be available at Bank House Bakery. The new bakery, which will produce pastries as well as breads, is scheduled to open on May 1. | <urn:uuid:adbf00e6-830f-4ba0-8d6e-4e5fe7c76625> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.jp/2011/02/more-comfort-and-indulgence-on-way.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983199 | 249 | 1.726563 | 2 |
Some seasons are particularly intriguing, like the spring and fall whaling seasons. Local crews go out in search of bowhead whales, which are then butchered on the beach and shared with the entire community. If you’re lucky enough to be invited to taste a bit of muktuk, or whale blubber, do it: it’s like a buttery piece of the ocean. In June, the annual Nalukataq blanket toss festival celebrates a successful harvest.
Barrow's wildlife is also a draw.
Other possible animal sightings include Arctic fox, caribou, seals and, many species of avian life like snowy owls and eider ducks. In fact, Barrow is a popular destination for many serious birders looking to cross species off their "life list."
The most sought-after (and also dangerous) sighting is of a polar bear. Polar bears are an increasing danger in Barrow: as the sea ice melts, they are spending more time on shore searching for new food sources. The bears are very dangerous and you should never approach one. An organized tour guide will be able to tell you how to safely observe and photograph them from a distance.
The real heart of this place is its people – both the Inupiaq Eskimos that have lived onAlaska’s North Slope for thousands of years and newer arrivals to the region. Take a trip to the fascinating Inupiaq Heritage Center to learn more about the culture and history of the Alaskan Arctic's indigenous people.
When exploring, you'll find that the best way to get around Barrow and the newer neighborhood of Browerville is a car of taxi. Walking is possible but some sites – such as a quirky group of metal palm trees festooned with prayer flags along the road to Point Barrow – would be a long trek on foot.
The town has has plenty of places to eat and sleep -- for a (steep) price.
Brower’s Café sits in a historic building where a Yankee whaling captain named Charles Brower first established a store and whaling station during the 19th century. Now, the Brower family is one of the biggest and most established in town. These days, a Korean-American family runs the joint and makes satisfying American and Korean dishes – you’ll find reindeer sausage breakfasts alongside spicy bulgogi. You’ll notice that here, and at the handful of other Barrow restaurants, the menus veer from Chinese food to burgers to halibut and chips, often with a long visit to the deep fryer. Just outside the café is the iconic whale bone arch, with the Arctic Ocean beyond it, a favorite place for photographs.
Pepe’s North of the Border – which claims the title of being the northernmost Mexican restaurant in the world -- deserves its own pilgrimage, if more for the scene than the food. For one, 82-year-old Fran Tate – a former electrical engineer who opened the place on a whim and continues to wear her signature flower adornments on top of her hear every day – is one of the great characters you’re likely to meet inAlaska. She’s appeared on theJohnny Carson show and has been the subject of profiles in Time and the Wall Street Journal.
Just steps away from Pepe’s you’ll find a sandy beach that leads to the Arctic Ocean. During the narrow window when the ice breaks up (between June and October) hundreds come here to become members of the Polar Bear Club. The rules: Pay $10, run in as Tate’s underwhelmed son watches to ensure that you’re completely submerging yourself. Afterwards you’ll get an “official” patch and certificate stating that you’ve taken a swim in the Arctic Ocean. The gimmick is popular: Each year 350 people do it, according to Tate. Other eating options include Arctic Pizza, Arctic Thai and Sam and Lee’s Chinese Restaurant, which gets enthusiastic reviews – especially from cab drivers. | <urn:uuid:6719808b-45c3-4df1-a416-e9daacbb6687> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.ktuu.com/2011-06-29/bowhead_29719820 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949865 | 845 | 1.679688 | 2 |
From: JONIFERRIS <[email protected]>
Stunnng High Level French Government Report On UFOs And Defense
From CNI News, Vol 5 No 11, 8-1-99
Note - Our thanks to Michael Lindemann for permission to bring this report to you
The second part, entitled "the present state of knowledge" ("Le point des connaissances"), surveys the organization of official UFO research in France, from the first introductions given to the "gendarmerie" in 1974 for the reaction of reports, to the creation of GEPAN in 1977, its organization and its results: collection of more than 3,000 reports from the gendarmerie, case studies and statistical analyses. It then surveys agreements passed by GEPAN and, later, SEPRA, with the air force and the army, civilian aviation and other organs, such as civilian and military laboratories for the analysis of samples and photographs.
Regarding the methods and results, we are reminded of some famous cases (Trans-en-Provence, l'Amarante), and emphasis is directed to the catalogues of cases, notably of pilots (Weinstein catalogue), and "radar/visual", world wide. A historical note appears here with a quotation of the famous letter of General Twining, of September 1947, asserting the reality of UFOs. [The reference is to a then-secret memorandum sent by U.S. General Nathan Twining to General George Schulgen, in which Twining states: "The phenomenon reported is something real and not visionary or fictitious... There are objects probably approximating the shape of a disk, of such appreciable size as to appear to be as large as man-made aircraft..." Twining notes the impressive aerial performance of these objects, their apparent metallic structure, and other characteristics often associated with UFO reports - ed.]
The following chapter, called "hypotheses and attempts at modeling" ("OVNI: hypotheses, essais de modelisation"), discusses some models and hypotheses which are under study in several countries. Partial simulations have already been made for UFO propulsion, based on observations of aspects such as speed, movement and accelerations, engine failure of nearby vehicles, paralysis of witnesses, etc. One model is MHD [magneto-hydrodynamic] propulsion, already tested successfully in water, and which might be achieved in the atmosphere with superconducting circuits in a few decades. Other studies are briefly mentioned, regarding both atmospheric and space propulsion, such as particle beams, antigravity, reliance on planetary and stellar impulsion. The failure of land vehicle engines may be explained by microwave radiations. In fact, high power hyperfrequency generators are under study in France and other countries. One application is microwave weapons. Particle beams, for instance proton beams, which ionize the air and become therefore visible, might explain the observation of luminous beams. Microwaves might explain body paralysis.
In the same chapter are next studied "global hypotheses." The authors regard hoaxes as rare and easily detected. Some non-scientific hypotheses are put aside, such as conspiracies and manipulations by powerful secret groups, parapsychic phenomena and collective hallucinations. The hypothesis of secret [human] weapons is also regarded as very improbable. We are then left with various extraterrestrial hypotheses. One version has been developed in France by astronomers Jean-Claude Ribes and Guy Monnet, based on the concept of "space islands" of American physicist O'Neill, and it is compatible with present day physics.
The organization of UFO research in the United States, Great Britain and Russia is surveyed rapidly. In the United States, the media and the polls show a marked interest and concern of the public, but the official position, especially of the Air Force, is still one of denial, more precisely that there is no threat to national security. Actually, declassified documents, released under FOIA, show another story, one of surveillance of nuclear installations by UFOs [this has occurred repeatedly in both the US and Russia - ed.] and the continued study of UFOs by the military and intelligence agencies.
The report stresses the importance in the United States of private, independant associations. It mentions the "UFO Briefing Document" [subtitled "Best Available Evidence" - ed.] sent in 1995 to a thousand personalities worldwide, and the Sturrock workshop in 1997, both sponsored by Laurance Rockefeller. The "Briefing Document" has obviously been welcomed by the authors of the COMETA report. The committee also notes the public emergence of alleged insiders such as Colonel Philip Corso, and considers that his testimony may be partly significant as to the real situation in that country, in spite of many critics.
The report describes briefly the situation in Great Britain, with a special mention of Nick Pope [civilian employee at Ministry of Defence, author of two books on UFOs - ed.], and poses the question of the possible existence of secret studies pursued jointly with American services. It mentions as well research in Russia, and the release of some information, notably by the KGB in 1991. | <urn:uuid:90d822de-5335-4faa-8034-141ccdda2221> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.zetatalk7.com/theword/tworx096.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947928 | 1,049 | 1.617188 | 2 |
well I believe Everything is Connected and there are no coincidences
check my signature
Roscoe is preaching to the choir with me
I love that your bringing this up because I have been writing articles about
Genesis and the "Sons of God" who came down from the Heavens and found the daughters of Eve
beautiful and married them....they were the Giants and they were called "renown men (heroes)
and example is Hercules
In Boudets book
he brings up that the Celts favorite hero was Hercules
The other word for them was the Nephilim
in the Book of Enoch ...these were the ones who taught man how to build swords and spears about mathematics
stars and cosmetics for women.
Now God decides that evil reigns so man must be exterminated except for the pure one Noah
this story was placed up in the stained glass of Chartres
It seems St Louis IX and Blanche Castile were very interested in the Giants
as was Boudet
the Megaliths all around them were said in oral stories passed down from the Celts were built by the Giants of old
why do I say St Louis IX and Blanche because they placed in the stained glass some interesting pictures of the Giants
and not just a man giant also a woman giant.
To get back to the Antediluvian civilization...we are talking about the Nephilim in the Bible
a group of people who came down from the heavens and interbred with humans
Here is the stained glass windows even the academics are having a hard time explaining themhttp://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/chartres-cathedral-window-photos/slides/w64_8681c-giant.htmAn intriguing scene in which a man carrying a club listens to a significantly smaller person. The cathedral guide says only, "These medallions are very difficult to understand." One suggestion made by scholars is that it depicts Genesis 6:4: "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown" (KJV). Detail of the Noah Window, located at the west end of the north aisle. Like most of the windows in Chartres Cathedral, it dates from the early 13th century.
Here is one of the female giantshttp://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/chartres-cathedral-window-photos/slides/w64_8682c-giant.htm
there are not just one but four or five about the Giants
what is interesting about this is that one of the Giants has a club in his hand
I have connected this Giant with the Giant called Orion
and that would be the Orion star system
I'm beginning to wonder if the Female giant is Virgo and that would mean Spica
I have found more possible evidence that the Angevins and Capetians may have believed they were related to
"am infernal bloodline" Richard the Lionheart is on record for saying this
Blanche was related to Richard and was St Louis.
Richard the Lionheart bloodline was traced from the time of Noah and Woden. It was through Edith wife of Henry I and Alfred the Great. Richard was said to be 6 foot 5 inches in height. A giant in the Middle Ages where people were small from lack of nourishment. Blanche and St Louis came from this Angevin bloodline.
Did these royals come from a antediluvian bloodline? They may have believed they did.
Blanche and St Louis placed this in the stained glass windows and passed their bibles that THEY commissioned to their family. How was a Pope going to stop them from reading it.
Now how does this connect with Saint Michael
In the Book of Revelation, the War in Heaven is a battle between Michael the Archangel and his angels against the "dragon," or "ancient serpent," and his angels
There are few Dead Sea Scrolls that allude to the concept of a War in Heaven, such as: the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice (SSS) Song 5, 11Q13, 1QM and 4Q491-497.
a divine warrior who is involved in the conflict with Michael the Archangel in the futurist sense
The War Scroll (1QM), also known as War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, mentions angels who carry on a War in heaven while the Sons of Light combat the Sons of Darkness on Earth. During the last of the seven battles, the angels intervene to aid the Sons of Light. These angels of Light identify with the archangel Michael, while the angels of darkness identify with Belial.
The Book of Daniel contains apocalyptic imagery of heavenly warfare between Michael as national angel of Israel and the "princes" (or archangels) of Persia and Greece
Another correlating story
there is the Celts
Tuatha Dé Danann was "the men of science who were gods," danann being here connected with dán, "knowledge."
In the Cúchulainn cycle they are supernatural beings and sometimes demons, helping or harming men, and in the Fionn cycle all these characteristics are ascribed to them. But the theory which prevailed most is that which connected them with the hills or mounds, the last resting-places of the mighty dead. Some of these bore their names, while other beings were also associated with the mounds (síd)--Fomorians and Milesian chiefs, heroes of the sagas, or those who had actually been buried in them. 3 Legend told how, after the defeat of the gods, the mounds were divided among them, the method
I compare Lugh with his spear ...to Michael with his spear | <urn:uuid:e0082d5f-69c7-4a3f-9aae-928f7efabbab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://andrewgough.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3679&view=previous | 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 | 0.973906 | 1,227 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Want to Solve the Roswell UFO Mystery?
Simple – Explain Blanchard’s Press Release
The other day I watched an 8-minute YouTube video entitled ‘Larry King Live on UFOs’ from July 2007. Looking smug as always, everyone’s favorite UFO buffoon Stan Friedman was seated beside Jesse Marcel Jr. and hammering away at Larry, explaining the United States Army Air Force cover-up of the 1947 Roswell Incident.
As usual, Stan was vague about why the Air Force covered it up and how they handled it.
Then I realized if the Army Air Force (specifically Colonel Blanchard, Roswell’s base commander) hadn’t issued the flying saucer press release in the first place, if they’d handled their affairs in the usual military fashion, they wouldn’t have had to cover-up anything. So, the question Larry should’ve asked ol’ Stan was ‘why did Blanchard risk the Air Force’s reputation and national security to issue his controversial press release’.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Is there a ufologist anywhere out there who can answer that question with a logical explanation? For all my research, I’ve haven’t found one ufologist who tackles that question because, for them, there’s only one bad answer—that Blanchard issued the press release because Major Jesse Marcel Sr. found a flying saucer.
Why is that a Bad Answer?
Simple. We’ve all heard how Russia purchased America’s atomic secrets in the 1940’s from agents and spies—so how hard would it have been for them to steal technical secrets gleaned from a crashed flying saucer? It would have taken America time (most likely years) to exploit the advanced technology, but we’re talking about technology that could’ve made us a dominate force on Earth and in nearby solar systems for decades or centuries to come.
Consequently, if Marcel had really recovered a flying saucer, Blanchard’s press release might well have been the most treasonous act in history.
The other problem with the ufologists’ bad answer is it would trigger another tricky question they want no part of—why then did General Ramey publicly humiliate Marcel at the Texas press conference later that day if Marcel actually recovered the wondrous technology for the Air Force to exploit?
I sifted through the Air Force’s 1995 Roswell Report for any explanation as to why the Air Force issued the press release, but all I found (on page 47) was a suggestion that Colonel Blanchard and Major Marcel ‘overreacted’. I found no other reference to the press release.
Since I don’t believe Marcel recovered a flying saucer and I don’t believe Blanchard and Marcel simply overreacted, I probed the question of why Blanchard issued his press release from the angle that Air Force Command, and he in particular, were competent. Based on those criteria, the only sensible scenario is that Blanchard’s flying saucer story and General Ramey’s weather balloon story were both approved cover-stories.
That scenario could also explain why former Major Marcel ‘told and sold’ his flying saucer story 31 years later with impunity. Ufologists contend he was free to tell everyone he really recovered a flying saucer even though the Air Force denied he did because he didn’t have a pension for the Air Force to revoke. Marcel had resigned his commission as an Air Force major after less than 10 years of military service.
However, if Marcel or any former soldier started divulging top-secret or classified military information to the public, I contend they could be imprisoned, or worse.
NOTE: The Washington Post published a story entitled Air Force Intelligence Joins Search for Flying Saucers, quoting, among others, an unnamed Army Air Force source. The story mentioned a reward, and it supported Roswell Army Air Field’s flying saucer press release of that same day. Coincidence? I doubt it.
Source: The Washington Post, 08 July 1947
Why did the Army Air Force need Cover-Stories?
In 1947, the United States Army Air Force faced 4 major problems.
1. Russia was rattling its sabers in East Berlin and only 2 years away from perfecting its own atomic bombs
2. Demobilization of the military after World War II stood to make the United States Army Air Force less powerful
3. They were losing high-flying Mogul balloons and the payloads of experimental acoustical equipment intended to eavesdrop on the progress of Russia’s atomic bomb and ballistic missile programs—finding them was crucial
4. But the Air Force’s biggest concern was winning their independence from the Army at a time of military cost-cutting, consolidation and shrinking budgets
Consequently, since national security usually takes precedence over budgetary concerns, the notion that flying saucers were real gave the Air Force a potentially powerful new enemy and a credible threat to help justify their existence, their expansion, and even their separation from Army control.
And it seems those cover-stories worked. Despite their apparent ‘overreaction’, less than three weeks after the scandalous press release that should have delayed or derailed the Air Force’s chance for autonomy, President Truman separated America’s Army Air Force into a separate and equal arm of the military. It meant instant and significant promotions for the top USAF officers, many of whom had been appointed or lobbied for by Truman. | <urn:uuid:e8f07e73-3cda-472f-b6f9-3bd45956b30f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.centerforinquiry.net/forums/viewthread/15355/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958064 | 1,177 | 1.625 | 2 |
iPad Uses Micro-SIM for 3G. What is it and Will the 4th Gen iPhone Get It?
The 3G version of the iPad is unlocked, so if your carrier supports micro-SIM, it should "just work". Wait... what? Steve Jobs dropped the micro-SIM comment so matter-of-factly during the iPad introduction that it took us a moment to process -- Micro-SIM, aka 3FF or 3rd generation SIM card. Yeah, don't have one of those, and neither does any iPhone. Awkward...!
PCMag's Sacha Seagan fills us in:
3FF SIMs were developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to fit into devices too small for a regular SIM. Where a regular SIM measures 15 millimeters x 25 mm, a 3FF SIM card measures 12mm x 15mm.
Today's "regular" or mini-SIM is the 2FF, much smaller than the credit card-sized SIM that was generation one, and the 3FF is teensy-tinier still. Sure, no one in North America uses them yet, but T-Mobile is getting them, AT&T is obviously getting them since they're supporting the iPad with data plans, and we're guessing over the next 3-6 months, more carriers will get on board too. (Engadget is saying the pipeline is set for Orange and O2).
And the reason why Apple went with the Micro-SIM in the iPad? Could be they needed to save space in a device already twice the size of an iPhone. Could be it's just Apple being kill-the-floppy-drop-firewire-Apple. If that's the case, it's quite possible the 4th gen iPhone will get it next, and then what would Apple do with all that extra space? | <urn:uuid:b276044f-3f18-43b2-a279-f44f70e52740> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.imore.com/comment/94081 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950651 | 374 | 1.539063 | 2 |
A San Diego photographer took a photo of what appears to be a shark inside a wave with surfers all around it. At all times the surfers were unaware of the shark’s presence, and no one was attacked.
Photographer Gary Elliot took the snapshot while taking pictures of the high surf off Encinitas, California, which is near San Diego. Elliot did not even realize what a rare photo he had until he examined the shots on his home computer.
Marine biologist Marcelo Szpilman writing about the photo says, “I cannot say exactly what it is, but it sure is not a white shark, because the shape of the caudal fin is different.”
Of course, it might easily be some type of shark other than a great white.
- Two Sharks Attack Surfer
- Hurricane Fay Tosses Surfer Like Rag Doll
- US Marine Throws Puppy Off Cliff
- Redneck Car Surfing Videos
- Surfer Dude Graffiti | <urn:uuid:ea83597c-d362-41b4-8bc0-47b28c612943> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mcself.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/shark-photographed-in-wave-among-surfers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959589 | 206 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Dirt is only natural. Now so is a clean home.
As for so many other animals, home hygiene is essential for our health, ease, and efficiency. Take honeybees and their incessant order and constant cleaning of the hive. Being an animal doesn't mean my house has to look like a pigsty (no offense piggies).
It is my joy to provide detailed cleaning services using conscientious methods that are as safe as possible for the cleaner, inhabitants of your home, and any organism that could be affected downstream.
Is it REALLY clean?
It took me too long to discover that I could clean well without dangerous chemicals! White vinegar is actually a great disinfectant and many essential oils are powerfully antibacterial and anti-fungal. Sure, safer cleaning solutions sometimes mean a little more elbow grease, but the benefits are more than worth it. It really is only natural to feel comforted and more relaxed when I know my home has been cleaned thoroughly and so much more when it's been done with the gentle chemicals nature has provided.
Is it REALLY safe?
I am 100% committed to using and ongoing searching for the most ecologically friendly and human-friendly cleaners, methods, and cleaning tools available. I have extra incentive for this commitment; my health, the health of my human community, and the health of our ecological systems are of utmost importance to me. I consider toxicity, biodegradability, irritant potential, residues, sourcing, processing, and packaging when reviewing options for cleaners. I am happy to fully disclose ingredients in any of my cleaners.
The cleaners used contain NO ammonia, alcohol, butyl, chlorine, DEA, EDTA, glycol ether, petroleum solvents or surfactants, phosphates, SLS, SLES, and NO artifiical fragrances, colors, or preservatives.
To provide non-toxic, ecologically friendly, reliable and consistent cleaning service to residents of the Lawrence area, contributing to the health of your families, beauty of your homes, and ease of your lives while making the world a safer place to breath, one clean home at a time. | <urn:uuid:da89feab-b934-44ca-909e-36f94d21f344> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.downtoearthclean.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949459 | 438 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Rockets in the Maoist arsenal may seem, presently, to have nuisance value. However, the possibility of the Maoists acquiring greater capability to fire the rockets with accuracy cannot be ruled out. Many strategic and static locations would come under threat with disastrous consequences.
With an expected fractured poll results, Pakistan is further heading towards uncertainty. The question is not so much as to who forms the next government but more importantly on how it functions. Chances are that the May 11 elections could well end up making Pakistan further ungovernable.
Most developed economies are already feeling threatened by increasing equity investments sponsored by foreign government-owned and/ or foreign government-controlled entities in the defence and high-tech industries. A coordinated government response for supervision of foreign investments will emerge on the horizon sooner than later.
On April 20th, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) of the Ministry of Defence announced 15 major amendments to the defence procurement and production policies, with the hope to incentivise indigenous defence manufacturing while promoting transparency and efficiency in the procurement process.
The Indian Air Force’s (IAF’s) MMRCA project continues to creep towards actualisation. The Issue Brief chronicles the need and requirement of MMRC, examines the negotiation process and searches for some plausible alternatives. With some regular media reports highlighting the stumbling blocks, the Issue Brief tries to put things into a perspective.
Defence acquisitions are always much debated and scrutinised. The criticism ranges from a lack of direction in procurements to needles procedural complexities and from corruption in defence deals to bureaucratic apathy. The Defence Acquisition Council, chaired by the Defence Minister, has taken some bold and much needed decisions on April 20, 2013 in an attempt to address some of these issues.
India-China relations may not be ideal in the narrative of a bilateral relationship between the countries. But given the complexity of the engagement and interaction between the two countries and taking into account the divergent political systems, the unresolved territorial issues, compulsions of geo-politics, the quest for resources and markets, and aspirations of the two countries for global influence and power, the relations between the two countries are certainly a matter of reassurance and optimism.
In the aftermath of recent North Korean actions and threats, there has been in recent times some open debates and discussions about the prospects of South Korea “going nuclear” i.e. developing its own nuclear weapons. This brief argues that short of abrogating all its bilateral and multilateral treaties and obligations with heavy costs, the prospects of it doing so in the short/medium term are not that easy and may not be cost effective. | <urn:uuid:38976db4-de25-4211-9c46-69284610e880> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://idsa.in/new | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950198 | 533 | 1.75 | 2 |
The pet blogosphere has lit up this week in support of World Spay Day. A most worthy initiative indeed.
Reading all the varied opinions on spay and neuter surgeries has been enlightening. When I was a kid, it seemed like it was just what you did. If you had a dog or cat, you made sure he or she couldn’t have babies. It was a no-brainer. When I entered the world of animal welfare as an adult, at first it baffled me how many people didn’t automatically alter their pets. Unless one plans on breeding, I didn’t understand why she would take the risk. Now I realize it is a lot more complicated than that.
There are many good reasons people have for not spaying or neutering their pets. I trust that everyone reading this today knows all about the costs and benefits. I’m not going to ramble on about it again. You all are responsible and have made your decisions in the best interests of your family. It’s part of why we get on so well.
The struggle begins when trying to reach those who don’t read the literature – people who genuinely don’t know the costs and benefits of spaying and neutering. These are the people who might need the information shared by organizations across the continent in promotion of the big event.
By this point, you all know how I feel about cats. More specifically, you know how I feel about the massively massive overpopulation of cats and how these beautiful animals are often ignored, abandoned, and then euthanized. It is impossible for me to think of spay and neuter programs without immediately thinking of the feline plight. In my opinion the latter cannot be improved without the former. These neglected animals are the reason World Spay Day exists.
The large cat overpopulation problem has been building for decades. There is no one individual or group to blame. Most people who bring home pets have the best of intentions. No one adopts a cat unless one enjoys being around animals. People might be misinformed but they are not purposefully negligent. Yet, no matter how kind the thought, priorities change. Life happens. Vet care is expensive. Things get busy. Appointments are pushed off. Indoor cats escape. Things get busier. Pets get forgotten.
I understand. There is a lot to think about every day. That’s why spaying and neutering is so vital. It’s kind of like insurance. I don’t want to think about how many litters of kittens my cat could have sired by now if he wasn’t altered. Between Calgary and Halifax, he might have had quite a crew of offspring. And we’d never even know it. Getting him snipped prevents me from having to worry about his fatherly duties. I’d hate to think of more cats killed due to my own ignorance.
Cats like this guy:
And this guy:
And even these guys:
They are the lucky ones. None of the above cats will ever have to face euthanasia because they are unwanted. I wish I believed they were the majority. Cats deserve better. All companion animals deserve better.
World Spay Day isn’t about debating whether or not it’s healthier to keep a dog intact for two years, or five years, or forever. It’s about saving lives. The animals aided in these promotions aren’t the ones owned by knowledgeable humans making informed choices. They are the ones who may otherwise face abandonment or death.
It’s a cause I am pretty sure we can all get behind.
Poster shown above taken from SpayUSA.org. | <urn:uuid:68f7c0d5-002f-4d7b-b218-569e47ac732b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rescuedinsanity.com/2013/02/27/there-is-such-a-thing-as-too-many-cats/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966506 | 772 | 1.679688 | 2 |
MANAGED CARE November 2003. ©MediMedia USA
She's in the forefront of efforts to define the unique domain of doctors who become managers. One thing she knows for sure: Trustworthiness is everything.
Appropriately, for someone whose research includes looking at physicians who cross professional boundaries to become executives, Kathleen Montgomery, PhD, is something of a boundary buster herself. As her professional affiliations attest, she has an active interest in health care, management, and sociology.
An associate professor of organizations and management at the Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Riverside, where she also chairs the department of management processes and systems, Montgomery has written extensively on the hybrid phenomenon of physician executives that has sprung up in response to the need for leaders who combine clinical and business expertise.
Successfully negotiating — while seeking to narrow — the chasm separating clinicians from executives requires an ability to gain and hold the confidence of both sides. That ability often hinges on an ancient virtue: trustworthiness. It may be difficult to quantify, but trustworthiness can be distilled to a few key characteristics, notably competence, benevolence, and integrity.
Montgomery earned a bachelor's degree from American University in Washington, D.C., and master's and doctoral degrees in sociology from New York University. Her perspective has been deepened by stints as a visiting scholar in Australia and France. She spoke recently with Senior Contributing Editor Patrick Mullen.
MANAGED CARE: Why do physicians decide to become executives?
KATHLEEN MONTGOMERY: There have been so many changes in health care over the last 25 years, changes that have only accelerated in the last 10 to 15 years. Decisions about what health care treatment one should have traditionally had been based on a physician's own unique experience and training. Those decisions now reflect evidence-based medicine and clinical protocols. There have been great changes in how care is accessed, monitored, paid for, and financed. Each of those changes brings an additional layer of management and administrative oversight. So it's almost been inevitable that some physicians, when confronted with additional layers of administration, would decide to get involved in a more hands-on way rather than just having change imposed on them. A physician I interviewed very early on in my research said, "Well, if we can't beat 'em, let's just join 'em and lead 'em." It's worth noting that many physicians who have gone over to the management side have gone in as leaders at the top from the beginning, rather than having to start at the bottom and work their way up. The MD credential carries so much cachet that I have encountered a number of physicians with virtually no management education and very little management experience who took on extremely important executive positions.
MC: Physician executives cross a boundary between two professions. Talk about the concept of boundaries and what it takes to cross them.
MONTGOMERY: In health care, the issue of boundaries is longstanding, primarily with regard to different clinical specialties. These boundaries define the domain that various clinical specialties are responsible for and who can have entry. Often, these boundaries are based on credentialing and are self-established. Specialty certification is a self-established boundary set that serves as a signal to people inside and outside the group. We don't even think about negotiating those boundaries until they become challenged or until we engage in some boundary-spanning activities. For example, obstetricians have worried about their boundaries from encroaching occupations like midwives. When you have professionals like physician executives, whose job is explicitly to cross boundaries, it becomes especially challenging to try to figure out what is it that they do that is unique so they can be recognized as a distinctive unit. Their core work is much more boundary spanning than, say, someone in a clinical specialty, so they wrestle with the issue of boundaries every day.
MC: Is there a typical path that physicians take on the way to the executive suite?
MONTGOMERY: No, there doesn't seem to be any one normative path of education that we're seeing the physicians follow.
MC: Is there one that tends to be a predictor of success?
MONTGOMERY: That's a good question and I don't have an answer to that. Partly it's because it's difficult to measure success. It's very difficult to say how much of an organization's performance is affected by the fact that it has physicians in executive roles. Organizations seem to assume when they decide to bring physicians into high-level management positions that they need someone who will be a liaison to help articulate the organization's strategic direction and decisions to clinicians and communicate the views of clinicians back to management. That doesn't always work. A lot depends on the individual capabilities of the person in that role. We have some evidence that indicates that clinicians become quite distrustful of physicians who have gone over to the other side.
MC: Over to the dark side, as some physicians would see it.
MONTGOMERY: We know from a number of case studies that people who are still on the clinical side aren't particularly happy dealing with those whom they now consider former colleagues. Much of that is a function of the individual and of the trustworthiness of the person in this very difficult hybrid professional position. Much depends on individual capabilities and interpersonal skills. Does the person act with integrity? Has the person demonstrated a history of competence as a physician as well as competence in management? It is an extremely difficult set of skills to maintain.
MC: Do physician executives need to continue to spend at least part of their time in clinical practice to maintain credibility with other physicians?
MONTGOMERY: People in this hybrid profession wrestle with that all the time. My research has shown that they ultimately end up intensifying the amount of time in management partly because it's such a challenge even for full-time clinicians to stay on top of the latest research in their field. Physicians recognize this and don't want to put themselves in a position of not being able to be at the top of their specialty as clinicians. So ultimately, as they get into their management career they eventually stop doing clinical work. Part of it depends on their specialty, but for the most part physicians themselves acknowledge that it is an extremely difficult balancing act to try to do both well.
MC: Have you seen any evidence that physician executives have a hard time gaining the confidence of executive colleagues who have come up through the ranks, earned MBAs, and spent their careers in management, just to have people who have been trained in a very different line of work come in and say, "I can do what you do, too."
MONTGOMERY: Sure. That's been a challenge and probably more than anything is what prompts physicians who are going into management to go back and get a formal management degree. They need that credential to appear credible to their nonphysician colleagues. The phrase "selective signaling" describes how sometimes physicians will emphasize their MBA or the graduate management education they've had when they're talking to nonphysicians and emphasize the MD credential when they're talking with clinicians. They walk an interesting tightrope. Another colleague of mine has referred to this as the paradox of legitimacy. You use different credentials to appear legitimate depending on your audience.
MC: Is there a particular specialty of physician that tends to end up in these hybrid roles?
MONTGOMERY: More come from the primary care specialties and fewer from other specialties. Internal medicine was perhaps most represented.
MC: You write that trustworthiness is crucial to the success of a physician executive. What traits make someone trustworthy?
MONTGOMERY: Trustworthiness is especially important when you're dealing with situations of uncertainty because trust is most important when people feel vulnerable. Trust is necessary when you can't control the actions of someone else that may have an impact on you. It's hard to think of many other industries where people feel more vulnerable than health care, both on the receiving and delivery ends. A model of trust development that has been synthesized from a lot of the research suggests that trustworthiness falls into three categories: competence, benevolence, and integrity. Competence has to do not only with one's credentials, but also with how one has performed in one's job. For physician executives, not having an MBA may not be critical if the individual has done a superb job leading a medical practice or hospital. The credential isn't the only signal. Benevolence is a reflection of compassion, of how much the person truly seems to care about others and not be self-interested. Integrity is a wonderful word that people throw around, but what does it mean? It has components of honesty, follow-through, and fairness. Do you do what you say you're going to do? Realizing, for example, that missing deadlines can erode someone's perception of your trustworthiness may help people to realize that letting deadlines slide can have more far-reaching implications than they realize. Fairness is tricky as an aspect of trustworthiness for physician executives because people define fairness in different ways.
MC: If you're fair to me, you're fair.
MONTGOMERY: Yes. It's important to be able to articulate the assumptions that drive your perceptions of fairness and recognize that not everyone perceives fairness the same way you do. This is at the heart of many clashes between the medical profession and the management of health care. Are we looking at fairness at a micro level, as it affects an individual patient, or from a macro level, and what's fair for the population? Either definition can be justified intellectually.
MC: You have identified three areas of focus for physician executives: quality assurance, communication, and conflict mediation. What skills are needed to be effective in those areas?
MONTGOMERY: You've got to be able to be perceived as a trustworthy person by all sides involved in the mediation or the negotiation. That requires integrity and the perception that the person can speak convincingly for both sides.
MC: To what degree are physician executives recognized as a profession?
MONTGOMERY: Efforts in that direction over the last 15 to 20 years have sputtered. The main association for physician executives is the American College for Physician Executives, made up exclusively of physicians. There's also the very large and very long established American College of Healthcare Executives, but physicians constitute a much smaller percentage of its members. ACPE initially hoped to achieve medical specialty certification similar to the American College of Physicians or American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, but that didn't work. The difficulty is that, unlike with OB/GYN or other medical clinical specialties, defining the unique domain of physician executives has been elusive. It's been very difficult to say, this is exactly what we do and no one else can do this.
MC: Do you have any insights into the personal toll that's being exacted on people who work in the buffer zone between two sometimes-conflicting groups of clinicians and executives?
MONTGOMERY: I began this research with a working hypothesis that they were fed up with the intrusion of management, and were grudgingly going into management. I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the physicians I interviewed were embracing this career shift because they wanted to be leaders of health care. They had been leaders all along, from their earliest times in medical school and through their residency training. So maybe they had been frustrated because they weren't able to have a larger policy making and leadership role. One wonderfully optimistic perspective on these physicians is that we're seeing the cream of the crop of leaders among clinicians who are finding ways to use those talents more directly.
MC: Thank you. | <urn:uuid:8a0f6e25-73e2-40a7-a1c5-093369aea565> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.managedcaremag.com/print/archives/0311/0311.qna_montgomery.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978849 | 2,397 | 1.71875 | 2 |
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On the 4th of July, the 43 annual marijuana legalization march,
originally the "smoke-in" assembled in Lafayette Park for a march to
their concert site on the Mall near 23ed st. As has been the case every
year since 2002, they had to pass through bag search checkpoints to
enter the concert area!
That is what they fall "Freedom" in the post Sep 11 United States-the
"right" to have your bag searched by police, or in this case, event
staff backed by police. The only way to exercise your 4th Amendment
right not to consent to a search is to refuse to enter the area
"protected" by the checkpoints!
"Freedom" in the United States also seems to mean the "right" to piss in
a cup while some swine watches in order to get a job or not be held in
jail pending trial for the most trivial of so-called "offenses."
The march combined medical marijuana advocates with others who quite
sensably advocate an end to this "war on drugs" that has allowed brutal
cartels to terrorize northern Mexico while shitting on people's rights
to control their own body.
The cartel violence was not mentioned during the speeches, but the exact
same protests could have been staged by relatives of those murdered by
the Zetas, (often SOA graduates), to speak on the hypocrisy of a "war on
drugs" foreign and domestic policy by a nation that is the world's
leading consumer of recreational drugs. Drug testing, jump-out cops, and
the police terror in our inner cities are all symptoms of this
moralistic hypocrisy, and so is the blood-curdling violence in northern
Mexico, sometimes worse than Iraq at the height of the war,.
In: Other News
Tags: July 4, drugs, marijuana, pot, Marijuana Party, 4th Amendment, checkpoint, bag search
Location: Washington, District of Columbia, United States (load item map)
Marked as: approved
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|Liveleak on Facebook| | <urn:uuid:60cb1837-b76a-4da0-b8ab-ab4913eb2595> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6cb_1341531005 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943729 | 507 | 1.742188 | 2 |
The yawning gap between the transparency rhetoric of companies and the reality of their actions has never been more apparent than it is now.
By Ian Gary
Ian Gary is Senior Policy Manager for Extractive Industries at Oxfam America.
Cross posted with permission from Oxfam America’s Politics of Poverty blog.
The oil and gas industry loves to trumpet their support of international transparency initiatives and their tax contributions to the US government, but when a new law requires them to tell the public exactly how much gets paid to whom around the world, they bring out the lobbyists and lawyers.
Browse through the corporate social responsibility reports of the top oil and gas companies, and you’ll see them singing from the same transparency hymnbook. Chevron says it “believes that the disclosure of revenues received by governments and payments made by extractive industries to governments could lead to improved governance in resource-rich countries.”
Many oil and gas companies are also “supporters” of the global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). (Companies can become a “supporter” simply by declaring “their support publicly”.) Unless a country decides to implement EITI, though, they are obliged to disclose nothing. For a company such as Chevron, this means disclosing tax and other payments in Nigeria (perhaps years after the fact), but nothing in next-door Equatorial Guinea, a classic petro-dictatorship. For the citizens of Equatorial Guinea—mala suerte (tough luck)!
In July 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act was signed into law. Dodd-Frank contains an important provision (“Section 1504″) that requires each oil, gas, and mining company to disclose their tax, royalty and other payments to governments in every country of operation. (Oxfam and our allies in the Publish What You Paycampaign fought hard for the inclusion of this provision—alongside our support for EITI.)
Many of the same companies praising transparency have been actively lobbying since the law passed to gut implementation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The hypocrisy is out there in the open if you know where to look. Senate lobbying disclosure forms show that Chevron, Exxon, Shell, Conoco Phillips,Marathon, Occidental, the American Petroleum Institute (API), and others have been very active in Washington on this provision, targeting not only the SEC, but the House of Representatives, Senate, Department of State,Department of the Interior, and the National Security Council.
As I wrote last week, API (revenues of more than $198 million in 2009) has now threatened to sue the SEC unless the agency withdraws its proposed rule and starts from scratch to meet big oil’s secrecy wishes rather than the law and Congressional mandate. (Five API member companies are also on the EITI board, Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP, and Statoil.)
No one knows how much the oil and gas industry is spending specifically to undo the Dodd-Frank provision, but the oil and gas industry is one of the biggest lobbyists in the US, spending more than $145 million on lobbying activities in 2011. ConocoPhillips, Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP were the top five oil and gas spenders on lobbying in 2011, with ConocoPhillips spending a staggering $20.5 million. API spent more than $7 million in lobbying in 2011 and is spending a “significant amount” on its faux “grassroots” advertising campaign called“Vote 4 Energy”. These are the same companies who complain that the cost to disclose information they already collect is too onerous.
The yawning gap between the transparency rhetoric of companies and the reality of their actions has never been more apparent than it is now. The SEC may shortly issue a final rule to implement the Dodd-Frank provision, while on February 14th the oil industry’s designated transparency groupies, governments, and civil society groups will convene in the UK for the latest EITI board meeting. While the EITI board members enjoy the lovely and historic “Downton Abbey”-esque country manor setting of their board meeting, the industry’s lawyers and lobbyists will be working hard in Washington to gut a new global corporate transparency standard.
It’s time to blow the whistle on the industry’s transparent hypocrisy. For the more than 1.5 billion people living on less than $2 a day in resource-rich countries, there’s no time left to wait. | <urn:uuid:de965732-2a02-4526-9bcc-5aac6b1d3969> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.egjustice.org/?p=364 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953767 | 943 | 1.789063 | 2 |
One of the consistent themes of this blog has been that India should think big. My favorite quote in this context is from Daniel Burnham, the fabled Chicago architect who said that we should think big:
Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.
That quote has appeared before on this blog. Two years ago in April 2007, I wrote in the context of India’s urbanization that India should “Make no little Plans.” Nearly four years ago in July 2005, the same quote appeared in the post where I revisited the “Integrated Rail Transport System (IRTS)” proposal that I promote. India needs a modern — efficient and fast — rail transportation system. I concluded that post with
. . . India always uses outdated ancient technology. For once, India should aim to use the best. And using the best — even if initially imported — will help us learn how to make the best. We need to have the humility to say that we need to import stuff that we can’t make today. We need to have the pride which makes us want to take the imported stuff and improve upon it so that others will look to us when it comes to the technology. We need to have the courage to make big plans.
We need to move beyond the myopia of the politicians and the idiocy of the generals wanting to arm themselves with nuclear subs and missiles and the greed of the peddlers weapons of mass destruction.
We need vision more than we need resources.
What brought this to mind is a recent editorial in the Indian Express titled — surprise, surprise — “Make No Little Plans” (Hat tip: Pranav Vasistha.) It talks about the US plan to spend $13 billion on a set of high-speed rail links. The US was never in the business of making little plans, anyway. But the US has not displayed the most exemplary of visions when it comes to rail transportation. Thankfully, reality is creeping up on them and they will figure it out eventually. Better late than never, I say. Now the high and mighty are quoting Burnham and saying “make no little plans” about rail transportation.
India should wake up and instead of making little plans must think big. Then I will stop having to say, “I told you so.” | <urn:uuid:5a471ddb-556a-462e-bbd1-4a63ab2efe39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deeshaa.org/2009/04/20/make-no-little-plans-revisited/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951236 | 570 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Just south of the medical border
Just South of the Medical Border
© 2005 Bruce K. Stampley,PhD
World Traveler, Pilot,Writer,
Scientist, JunkYard Philospher,
Lover of Boats and Beer
It's just a short run to the Third World. Twenty five miles in fact. That's how far it is from Deming, New Mexico to Palomas, Mexico. Deming sits quietly along Interstate 10, fifty miles from Las Cruces and about a hundred miles south of Tucson, Arizona. In fact Deming's claim to fame is that it is a great spot for snowbirds (for those of you that do not speak Travelese, Snowbirds are migratory folk who seek out warm climes in winter) to escape the frigid Minnesota winters and that Palomas, Mexico, is so close. Being close is important to travelers and residents alike.
When I first heard of inexpensive dental treatment in a little clinic in Palomas, my mind conjured pictures of a Mexican dentista in a blood stained apron yanking teeth out with waterpump pliers and no anesthetic.
As I have been an uninsured victim of the robbery that is health care in America, I decided to see for myself. My imaginary dental clinic could not have been farther off the mark.
Palomas looks like many of the lesser known border towns. It is slightly unkempt, with pot holed streets, houses that have no color, and dogs of dubious ancestry roaming around. They are, however, friendly dogs and Palomas feels Okay. There is no sense of needing to look over your shoulder that is common in so many border towns.
On my first trip, we elected to leave the General, my trusty Ford Expedition, on the American side and walk across the border. It is only two blocks to the clinic. We later found that it is perfectly safe to take your vehicle across. Just make sure that you have no firearms aboard and that you lock the car securely.
The Fierro Clinic is well known to folks who live in the bootheel of New Mexico. Dr Fierro has been practicing dentistry in Palomas for many years. He is well regarded in both the Gringo and Hispanic communities and over the last few years, his clinica has blossomed into a full fledged dental hospital, with oral surgery and full periodontal care available.
As the demand for less costly health care has grown, many Americans have looked to the South for a way to make their medical dollar go farther and the Fierro Clinic is a prime example of the quality of care that is available to those who choose to look.
There are eleven dentists. Every one of them, all Mexican nationals, trained in dental schools in the United States, or at the internationally known University in Guadalajara. The clinic is a shining example of modern sterility, high tech equipment and sparkling cleanliness. The staff all speak some English and if one hits a linguistic snag, Vivian, the doctor's secretary is fluent in both Spanish and English and is always available to untangle the problem.
The clinic opens at 8 AM and goes all day long until 6PM. There are no appointments. It is first come, first serve, so get there early if you want to spend some part of your day playing in Palomas.
The clinic offers a full range of dental services from cleaning and deep scaling to crowns and bridges and all sorts of appliances. They also offer laser whitening which my wife found to be wonderful. The clinic accepts some insurances, but if that is an issue, call them before you make the trip. Remember that although America runs on credit cards, much of the world still uses cash, so plan your foreign travels accordingly.
If you should need a prescription for pain medication, there is a pharmacia right across the street where you can also stock up one non- prescription pharmaceuticals for about a third of what they cost in the States.
There is also a modern vision center where you can have your eyes examined by an American trained optometrist for much less than in the States and still have your glasses in two hours. I had a complete eye exam done and got a six months supply of disposable contacts for less than one hundred twenty dollars US.
Then there is the famous "Pink House" Restaurant and Bar which is purported to have been a bordello in times gone by. Used by famed bandido Pancho Villa as his headquarters for the only foreign invasion of the United States in history, the Pink House is now a great eating spot and shopping mecca for travelers. We have been back several times now, for dental care and just to have a fun day. The margaritas are great and powerful, and the salsa is very picante. Just down the street at the Hotel Santa Cruz, the Veracruzano style seafood is special.
To give one an idea of the economic gulf that separates American dental care from that of Mexico, I give you, dear reader, this comparison. I required a full set of X-rays, a deep scaling (yuk), a thorough cleaning, a small permanent bridge, and eight crowns. The estimated cost of this project? My American dentist, a wonderful person, smiled and said ten thousand dollars. The Fierro clinics quote? Two thousand US dollars. Much more do-able on an underinsured writer's pay.
Pancho Villa State park is a good place to overnight with your RV and the little town of Columbus, on the American side has a couple of decent motels if your dental care needs more than one visit.
Dr. Fierro is in the process of building "Hotel Fierro," reminiscent of a La Quinta, right around the corner from the clinic to accommodate the needs of people whose treatment plan requires they stay overnight.
Or you could go back to Deming. I think we'll just stay another day in Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico.
If you want to know more about the American border towns you can contact me at my email address above. | <urn:uuid:97c2dfec-7f6d-4c06-88d0-85a3ce198ae4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/329-just-south-of-the-medical-border | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961317 | 1,263 | 1.617188 | 2 |
ADVOCATE FOR CHILDREN IN CARE - GET HEARD!
If you're a child or young person in the care of the Department for Child Protection and Family Support, then Judy Garsed, Advocate for Children in Care, is here especially for you.
Judy can help you have your say and get heard. She can help you with problems or complaints you can't sort out with your case worker, and she can make sure you have a say in decisions that affect your life. She will:
- listen to children and young people, help them say what they want to say and help get adults to listen
- give information & advice about what children and young people are entitled to, and how they should be treated
- support children & young people if they want to have a decision reviewed or complain about things they believe are wrong
- speak to people in authority about what young people tell her works or doesn't work in their lives.
If you're a relative, friend, carer or professional involved with a child or young person in care, please let them know about this service.
The Department for Child Protection and Family Support wants to protect and promote the interests of children and young people in care, and the Advocate for Children in Care has been created especially to focus on them, their views and their concerns.
You can contact Judy by telephoning 1800 460 696 (free call), or 0429 086 508 (mobile), or (08) 9222 2518, or you can email her at [email protected].
Charter of rights for children and young people in care:
Zero to six years Seven to twelve years Thirteen to eighteen years | <urn:uuid:7dd3eb3c-b63a-4d46-b4b7-8e8e65d9e7d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dcp.wa.gov.au/ChildrenInCare/Pages/AdvocateforChildreninCare.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963495 | 357 | 1.671875 | 2 |
You might not be aware that Texas has an official state railroad, but it does. And for sometime, people have wondered how long that will be the case. The Texas State Railroad, which runs between Palestine and Rusk in East Texas, has been through some hard times and was almost shut down. Now it appears the Texas State Railroad is on the right track.
Many Americans grow up in love with the game of baseball. They dream of hitting it out of the park – turning a big double play, but how many dream of standing behind the plate and doing perhaps the toughest job in the game? Three umpires from the Texas League and their quest to wear blue in the bigs. | <urn:uuid:c9036023-f48e-4d3b-85a8-3bd20894bcf8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tpr.org/term/texas?page=39 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982506 | 140 | 1.507813 | 2 |
VANCOUVER – Apolo Ohno and Bode Miller have broken records and shocked experts with their Olympic performances. Mutating gamma radiation is suspected to have been used.
Ohno and Miller have won a total of 27 medals in various Olympic events. This is a record number of medals for one country in the Winter Olympics. Miller took home the gold in men’s Super Combined, one downhill plus one slalom. Then he went on to take bronze in the men’s Mega Combined, which is one downhill plus two slaloms three and a blindfolded ski jump. He took home another gold in the men’s Ultra Combined, which is two downhills, three slaloms, four vodka shooters, and a fistfight with a bear. He beat out the highly favored Russian team in this event. Apollo Ohno has won 18 medals in various speed skating trials. At the 500 meters Ohno had enough time to do a victory lap, then make a cappucino and present it to the silver medalist as he crossed the finish line. Miller and Ohno are highly favored in the upcoming mens Competitive Snowman. All medals won will be melted down and used to fund future Olympic teams.
These exceptional accomplishments are now marred by scandal. Miller and Ohno are believed to have been using performance enhancing gamma radiation. Rumors are circulating that the two have mutated their way to Olympic glory. Last week during a standard training the two became angered at coaches, turned green and threw their bowflexes into a nearby lake. The US Olympic team officially denies all claims that any of their athletes have been intentionally mutated. “That’s Malarky!” says head coach Paul Swizzel. “Pure horse-puckey every bit of it! Why my boys are just as clean and healthy as the driven snow! No crazy performance enhancing chemicals or radiation here I tell ya!”
Scientists, however, tend to disagree. Dr. Salomon Vasloo of the Vancouver Science Institute confirms “What we are seeing here is beyond human capacity. These are not men, they are more like the heroes of legend. Prime physical specimens capable of feats beyond those of mortal man. Only science could imbue such gifts, such that the gods of old either can’t or won’t. Praise be to Science! Amen.”
Whether their medals will be revoked depends on a pending drug tests for Miller and Ohno. | <urn:uuid:b6f8ce45-42f4-4edd-b447-64e0b74f06ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://weeklyworldnews.com/sports/16056/apolo-ohno-and-bode-miller-olympic-scandal/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=eb9f8a7f00 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967278 | 512 | 1.6875 | 2 |
This program is no longer airing. You can access audio archives here.
Pop & Politics with Farai Chideya is a three-part series about the 2010 midterm elections, looking beyond the horserace to get to the real issues, fears, and beliefs that motivate voters. Chideya looks at hot-button issues such as race, immigration and economics. She presses politicians in battleground states for answers and turns to real people, on their turf, to ask if they think America is headed in the right direction.
Also examined is the undercurrent of vitriol present in American political discourse, and Chideya will explore how America can move forward, post-election, towards reconciliation. Pop & Politics with Farai Chideya will include a truly diverse spectrum of people in the conversations of our times. | <urn:uuid:522aaf53-1f7a-4bb9-9c30-c0a212004588> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wnyc.org/shows/pop-politics/about/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955245 | 164 | 1.5625 | 2 |
The State Board of Education is in the process of considering a Performance Based Funding (PBF) scheme for community colleges in Oregon, tying a significant portion of the Community College Support Fund to measures of ‘completion‘ and ‘success.’ Little or no public discussion of the proposal has been allowed, and most commentary has come from proponents who rarely acknowledge the negative consequences PBF schemes promote. When concerns about the impact on ‘quality’ have been raised, they have been met with hollow ‘We have faith that the faculty will hold the line on quality’ responses, and ‘We will carefully monitor and assess quality’, but in fact proponents have no plans to even assess the impact on quality, let alone plans to protect the integrity of our schools. But schools struggling to hold onto their shares of state funding are likely to do all they can to ‘keep or get their numbers up,’ and studies show are likely to:
- Pressure educators to reduce the rigor and academic standards of current certifications and degrees
- Pressure educators to create certifications and degrees that may not be justified by employment opportunities
- Pressure educators to inflate grades and pass more students
- Decrease emphasis on CTE programs in favor of transfers, and transfer degrees
- Limit the courses taught to those that are part of a certification or degree
- Create policies or reduce funding that limits access to community colleges for disadvantaged and/or academically unprepared students
With proponents ignoring or negating such concerns, it’s up to faculty and others to defend the integrity of our educational programs, credentials, and schools, by documenting and publicizing ways that academic quality is already being undermined as schools respond to the ‘completion agenda‘ and prepare for the possible implementation of performance funding systems.
As such, the OEA Community College Council invites you to report ways that the completion agenda and the expectations of upcoming PBF schemes are already undermining educational quality at Oregon’s community colleges, so that we can document and publicize such practices, and report them to our legislators and the State Board to consider as they weigh proposals to formally adopt PBF systems into Oregon’s school systems.
Please share this page with others interested in protecting our schools from these schemes, and encourage anyone you hear is facing pressure to dumb down their classes, pass failing students, create questionable certificates, etc, to report these assaults on our schools in the space below.
Educators from states that already implement PBF systems are also encouraged to tell their stories.
Please post your report as a comment by clicking on the comments link in the title bar of this post above. If viewing this post from the Performance Based Funding page you can also comment in the area below this post; comments are reviewed prior to posting in order to prevent spam, so you will not see them posted immediately.
Thanks in advance for all your help. | <urn:uuid:8933abfc-5699-4807-a7ba-3e1bfb4f42d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oregonedccc.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954966 | 595 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Binghamton University, with its beginnings in Harpur College, is known for its commitment to the liberal arts. The study of the humanities, broadly understood to include studies in traditional humanities disciplines and of topics relevant to the humanities more generally, is among the constitutive elements of a liberal arts education. Due to the kind of research that is pursued in the liberal arts in general and the humanities in particular, the humanities are uniquely qualified to address some of the growing needs for complex and critical thinking. Humanities faculty in Harpur College produce influential scholarship that makes significant contributions to a variety of disciplines and interdisciplinary areas. Fresh scholarship and a robust exchange of ideas keep the humanities vibrant and help faculty convey to both undergraduate and graduate students the power of the humanities. The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) stimulates and sustains scholarship in the humanities and helps support humanities research, teaching, and programming. The mission of IASH is to promote and publicize original and collaborative study of ideas in culture and society and IASH facilitates research in the humanities and about topics relevant to the humanities, a conversation that crosses academic disciplines and deepens their synergies, as well as the development of teaching innovations. IASH serves the university and the community with lectures, symposia, fellowships, and an expanding range of programs and research projects designed to inspire the cross-pollination of ideas, encourage emerging knowledges and ways of knowing, and spark meaningful campus-community engagement.
Last Updated: 10/31/12 | <urn:uuid:93e00770-08bd-4c8c-80d0-7d5d465421bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www2.binghamton.edu/iash/about/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949077 | 307 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Councillor Keith Evans
The minerals and gravel extraction issue continues unresolved.
Hampshire County Council's position is unchanged insofar as it is still pushing for 1.8 million tonnes per annum compared to the original Government target of 2.3 million and inspectors recommendation of 2 million.
The change in Government prevented any final agreement and current situation is the County is redeveloping the plan for the overall approach to minerals extraction with public examination anticipated early 2012 with submission to government circa April/May 2012.
Hampshire County Council is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
2013 Election Result for Fareham Warsash
Date First Elected: 05/05/2005
Members Web Pages Acceptable Use Policy
This page has been provided to the Councillor by the Local Authority. It has been provided subject to an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) that this Councillor has agreed to. Please tell us if you think that this page is not being used according to the AUP by using our complaints procedure. | <urn:uuid:68661972-7d08-4f29-bf0d-597f039b6843> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www3.hants.gov.uk/yourcountycouncillors/findyourcouncillor/topics.htm?blogid=434453&memid=ymcoke&pref=tab2&detail=Y | 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 | 0.931742 | 209 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Nūz: Santa Cruz County News Briefs
Santa Cruz County's biggest non-city looks for a little respect, and a UCSC prof gets ready to launch a water research center.
Live and Kicking
Judging from the numbers, Live Oak is the redheaded stepchild of Santa Cruz County. At 25,000 residents, it's home to more people than Scotts Valley and Capitola combined, but just two sheriff's deputies are assigned to cover it. It has the highest concentration of mobile homes in the county, but no banks or post offices. Its elementary schools—which are 44 percent Latino, reflecting an accelerating demographic trend—have the lowest API scores between Davenport and Watsonville. And its fortunes seem to be in free-fall. In 1990, Live Oak's household median income was just $316 behind that of the city of Santa Cruz; by 2000 the gap had grown to more than $5,000. But things could start turning around for Live Oak.
The very fact that these figures are available means that, for the first time, someone has bothered to dig them up. That "someone" is a handful of dedicated activists working out of the Live Oak Family Resource Center. "Live Oak: A Community Snapshot" represents the first extensive collection of data ever gathered about Live Oak. And as laborious as collecting that information was, the people who did it are hoping that when they present the report at a community meeting this Thursday, Feb. 7, it will be the beginning of something, not the end.
"On Feb. 7, we'll be offering people ways they can get involved," says Elizabeth Schilling, who with Erika Hearon co-directs the Family Resource Center. "'Will you take this report back to your neighborhood; will you go on the bus tour?' We have a feeling it will reinforce more and more as people come out of isolation. There's a certain amount of hope that grows. And that's what Live Oak needs."
The goal of this week's meetings is modest: to begin a community conversation that will eventually lead to revitalized civic engagement. From there, the citizens of Live Oak can rally around issues like whether this or that parcel will be developed for affordable housing.
"We're not ready to be specific about issues," says Schilling. "We just want to be engaged in conversation, deepen relationships with people."
The Family Resource Center is spearheading the effort, but it isn't going it alone. It has support from Communities Organized for Relational Power and Action (COPA), an umbrella group of churches and organizations in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties working on cross-cutting issues like health care, affordable housing, public safety and education.
Live Oak resident and COPA leader Ken Thomas says one of Live Oak's challenges is its unincorporated status, which leaves it reliant on a busy, overstretched county government for attention and funding. "It doesn't have a dedicated city council or government, so there are a lot less government resources to address these problems," Thomas says, adding that incorporation, however, is not the goal.
COPA members like Heather Dillishaw-Spencer, a minister at First Congregational Church, say what happens in Live Oak affects everyone in the community, even more affluent pockets of it. "For our faith community it's very simple: as Christians we're called to love and serve our neighbors, and our neighbors are not just the people who live next door to us," she says.
"Santa Cruz County is a hard place to live and a great place to live, and it's less hard if we address these things together."
Jorge Zavala, who grew up in Live Oak and works with Community Bridges, a sister organization to the Family Resource Center, has already seen benefits from the community effort. Last year he was selected by COPA to attend a leadership training session sponsored by the Industrial Areas Foundation, of which COPA is a member. "I felt like I became a different person," he says.
More than that, it galvanized what is now Zavala's nearly tireless work for the community.
"I can imagine a better world here," he says. "We may not be able to change the country or the state, but we can certainly change our little world here. Eventually we can change the world if people start thinking this way."
LIVE OAK: A COMMUNITY SNAPSHOT is presented on Thursday, Feb. 7, at Green Acres Elementary School, 966 Bostwick Lane (call first; seating is limited), and Monday, Feb. 11, at 7pm at 2525 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. The first of several bus tours is Feb. 16 at 10am. For reservations and information, call 831.476.7284, ext. 105.
The Water Man
Brent Haddad is blazing a new trail in the quest for local climate change solutions. The cheerful UCSC environmental studies prof, who has given talks on water policy from Croatia to China, has spent the past two years searching for ways to increase water supplies available to the Monterey Bay region without creating a pounding headache for ratepayers, local governments or Mother Nature.
This is tough job, so it's a relief to learn Haddad will have good help. On Friday, Feb. 8, as part of the Warming Up to Water conference in Capitola, Haddad plans to unveil UCSC's new Center for Integrated Water Research (CIWR), which he founded to bring together the cream of the crop in water economics, policy research and public communication. The center will have more than enough on its plate as desalination plants and wastewater reclamation centers become the favored projects of water agencies and companies looking to offset looming water shortages in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.
"We're facing a situation in California and nationally where climate change is changing our background understanding of rainfall, temperature and how much water different regions need and how much they're going to get," says Haddad.
The CIWR may be new to the public eye, but Haddad and his colleagues at UCSC have already, um, gotten their feet wet. In just two years, this group of top-flight academics have created one of the most thorough desalination bibliographies in existence, brought together historically antagonistic groups to begin hammering out a water resource plan for the Monterey Peninsula and launched head-first into the controversial topics of desalination and sewage reclamation.
And this is only the beginning. Haddad rattles off a list of unanswered questions:
"How much will these facilities cost?" he asks rhetorically. "Who will benefit? Who will pay for them? How do we trade off environmental impacts with social benefits from additional water? How much water reliability does a region need?"
Talk about a five-course meal. And let's not forget dessert: "How do you fold in climate-change risks into all these questions?"
The answers may still be a few years off, but for the crew at CIWR, asking the questions is an important first step.
"There are three main roles that a public university plays in society: research, teaching and service," says Haddad. "At our center, we're doing all three. We focus on research, but because our research is applied research, which means problem-oriented, it also provides services to the communities we work with and in."
Without the methodical fact-checking and broad context provided by Haddad and others at CIWR, the risk of rushing willy-nilly toward a solution with unforeseen consequences is high.
"These are pressing policy, economic and communication questions that have millions of dollars hanging in the balance," says Haddad. "We need to do our best with these decisions because the stakes are very high."
DR. BRENT HADDAD will be speaking on Friday, Feb. 8, 7-9pm. at Capitola City Hall, 420 Capitola Ave., Capitola, as part of the 'Warming Up to Water' presentation. Dr. Lisa Sloan and Andy Fisher, both UCSC professors, will also be presenting. Admission is free; 831.475.7300.
Nūz just loves juicy tips about Santa Cruz County politics.
Send a letter to the editor about this story. | <urn:uuid:bf4eea92-04fe-4e97-b241-98c9d145ae30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.metroactive.com/metro-santa-cruz/02.06.08/nuz-0806.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960127 | 1,730 | 1.625 | 2 |
Muslim Brotherhood runs out of steam in Libya
TRIPOLI, Libya - Nijad Sharfeddin was the face of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya's historic parliamentary elections. Featured prominently on campaign posters in her hijab and glasses, sans makeup, she was the image of both modernity in Arab politics and conservative Islamic values.
But voters suspicious of the Brotherhood, which has no real history in Libya, often asked her to name a Libyan on her ticket whom they would have heard of. She couldn't. Those suspicions and a lack of an identity in the Libyan street were some of the many factors that led to the Brotherhood slate's distant second-place finish in Saturday's vote, experts and everyday Libyans said.
The official election results may not be announced until next week, but the Brotherhood is already absorbing its biggest loss of the Arab Spring, having earned, according to projections, as little as 3 percent of the vote in some cities. While Brotherhood members lead in Tunisia and Egypt, and have made a strong showing in Yemen, Libya brought the electoral momentum of the world's largest Islamic party to a screeching halt.
Mahmoud Jibril - former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's foreign minister and the head of the interim government after the Gadhafi state collapsed last fall - already has taken a commanding lead even as election workers continue to count ballots. Jibril, a former professor at the University of Pittsburgh who is generally popular despite his former ties to Gadhafi, led a pro-Western coalition called the National Forces Alliance.
The Brotherhood's setback in Libya may not reverberate in the region, given the North African nation's small population and isolation from the heart of the Middle East. But it appeared to be a consequence of the Gadhafi regime's long-standing suppression of Islamists, which made Libyans wary of them. In interviews, many Libyans said they don't need a party to tell them how to incorporate Islam into their state - made up almost entirely of members of the Maliki school of Sunni Muslims - and said that the Brotherhood is enigmatic, untrustworthy and didn't take part in the revolution that overthrew Gadhafi.
Brotherhood members said that the short, 18-day campaign didn't give them enough time to overcome 40-plus years of demagogy by Gadhafi, and that voters appeared to be less interested in the implementation of Islamic Shariah law - one of the party's key planks - than in candidates who could solve the nation's massive economic and security problems. Jibril already has promised to implement Shariah law as part of a nationalist platform.
"A revolution alone does not change minds," said Alamin Belhaj, the executive officer of the Justice and Construction Party, the largest slate to represent Brotherhood candidates in Saturday's election.
The long-standing organization and grassroots messaging effort that defines the Brotherhood in the rest of the Arab world is notably absent here.
"I don't know the Brotherhood politics but I know Jibril's. We don't need someone telling us how to practice Islam," explained Walid Omar Regabi, 26, a government worker, while sitting outside a mosque where Jibril campaign posters hung inside. "We didn't see the Brotherhood during the revolution."
One Libyan, while smoking a water pipe in Tripoli's old city, near the Roman-built arch that defines the city landscape, put it more bluntly: "We are smarter than the Tunisians and Egyptians."
There were exceptions. In the western city of Misrata, which saw some of the heaviest fighting last year, the Brotherhood came in a close second place, according to election results released so far.
Even though most people in this clan-based society see themselves as Muslims, not Libyans, Libyans more than people in other Arab nations have historically been suspicious of religious-based politics, said Dirk Vandewalle, a Dartmouth College professor who specializes in Libya. The result: More organization and time on the ground may not be enough for the Brotherhood to improve its standing in Libyan politics.
In the new government, "what we will see is a lot of Islamist sensibility. But I think it will be much more of a nationalist movement here," Vandewalle said in an interview in Tripoli.
In a nation of only 2.8 million registered voters, many said they turned to the one candidate they recognized, not religious-based politics. The complex makeup of the Parliament was designed to stop any one party from dominating; voters chose among individual candidates for 120 seats and among parties for the remaining 80 seats.
With more than 3,700 candidates and slates to choose from, many often knew their pick through work, neighborhood associates, tribal associations or mutual friends.
Yet many of those running as Brotherhood candidates had spent decades in exile during Gadhafi's rule. Sharfeddin and her husband, longtime Brotherhood members, moved to Canada 30 years ago before returning in 2011 as the uprising began, not enough time to rebuild personal ties. Belhaj joined the Brotherhood in 1981 in the United States, while working on a degree in telecommunications engineering, only returning to Libya last year.
"The personality of the candidate is the most important thing," Belhaj said in his office Tuesday, where English-language books titled "Winning Elections" and "The Campaign Manager" sat on his desk.
Regardless, it was a surprising outcome for the Brotherhood, which won 51 percent of the vote in local council elections held two months ago in about a half-dozen cities. But Jibril's slate was not running then and there were no council races in the capital, Tripoli.
Belhaj contended that when voters have a chance to meet the candidates _ as they did in the council races _ the Brotherhood can win.
Vandewalle disagreed. "What we saw earlier this year was a bit of an aberration," he said.
Belhaj insists that the national outcome was expected. He noted that the Brotherhood had been active in Tunisia since 1985 and was founded in Egypt in 1928. With only a few months since it could operate freely here, Libya's Brotherhood did not have enough time to spread its message nationally.
"Our problem is that we have not touched the hearts and minds of the people," Belhaj said. "But in the long run, we will educate them."
Many Libyans reject such thinking, insisting they are more learned than the Brotherhood.
"We are centrists. We don't need the Brotherhood," said Tariq Ali, 32, a taxi driver, after finishing his midday prayers at a Tripoli mosque.
The Brotherhood's low popularity was apparent even before the vote. Rather than name a slate exclusively of its members, the Brotherhood candidates split themselves between Belhaj's party and the Al-Watan party. Belhaj said that the Brotherhood already was considering allying with other parties that lost to Jibril's coalition, and that he expects his slate to do better in the next elections, scheduled roughly 18 months from now.
Sharfeddin was equally optimistic.
"It is not the end of us," Sharfeddin said. "It is the beginning." | <urn:uuid:47dab3ee-afb2-48e8-a2a7-3c7855ad78dd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stripes.com/news/africa/muslim-brotherhood-runs-out-of-steam-in-libya-1.182640 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97695 | 1,480 | 1.523438 | 2 |
In an act of unprecedented and powerful symbolism, Queen Elizabeth will shake hands with Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness next week. The historic handshake will, however, take place behind closed doors. ITN's royal correspondent Tim Ewart reports.
Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness, a former Irish Republican Army commander, will meet with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II next week and shake hands in an historic first for the Northern Ireland peace process, the party has confirmed.
The Northern Ireland deputy first minister will attend a cross border event in Belfast on Wednesday, which the president of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, will also attend.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said the decision had been taken after consulting with grass roots support and allowing the party's ruling council, the ard comhairle, to decide at a 4-hour meeting in Dublin.
“This will understandably cause difficulties for some republicans and nationalists,” Adams said. “Especially for those folks who suffered at the hands of British forces.”
WPA Pool via Getty Images file
Sinn Fein confirmed that Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness and First Minister Peter Robinson are to meet with Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to Northern Ireland next week. They are shown here arriving for a meeting at 10 Downing Street on June 8, 2011 in London.
Adams, who, alongside McGuinness, helped end decades of sectarian violence and gave Catholics an equal voice in a power-sharing government with former Protestant foes, said, "This is a very significant initiative by us. We don't have to do it, we are doing it despite the fact that it will cause difficulties for some of our own folk but we think it's good for Ireland."
Sinn Féin stressed the meeting is not a celebration of the queen's Diamond Jubilee, although 86-year-old monarch will be in Northern Ireland at the time for jubilee events.
There has been speculation since the queen's momentous visit to Ireland in May last year that a senior Sinn Féin figure would meet her at an event.
Stefan Wermuth / Reuters
Britain's Queen Elizabeth smiles after her horse Estimate won The Queen's Vase on Friday, the fourth day at Royal Ascot, southwest of London.
McGuinness was always the candidate to shake the queen's hand but delicate talks have been going on for months to arrange a suitable venue and occasion.
The meeting is understood to be taking place in the Lyric Theatre in south Belfast and is sponsored by Co-operation Ireland, which works to bring divided communities together.
Since it was established in 1979, the charity has created opportunities for groups from the two main religious communities in Northern Ireland and from both sides of the border to learn about each other's traditions and cultures.
Adams said the party's decision was not unanimous but that a clear majority were in favor of the meeting. He also confirmed that McGuinness would "of course" shake hands with the queen.
The handshake will be viewed as another in a long list of dramatic advances in Anglo-Irish relations.
The queen has never met a senior figure in the now-defunct IRA, which killed her cousin Lord Mountbatten in 1979, or its political wing Sinn Féin.
The IRA ended its 30-year armed campaign against British rule in 1998, but small splinter groups have continued to launch attacks against British targets, prompting security concerns that have prevented the queen from publicly announcing trips to the province ahead of her arrival.
The Tuesday and Wednesday visit was the first to be announced in advance since violence broke out in the 1960s and will see the queen and her husband, Philip, travel to Belfast and Enniskillen, scene of an IRA bombing that killed 11 people at a memorial service in 1987.
ITV is an international television partner of NBC News. This article also contains reporting by Reuters and Jim Gold, msnbc.com staff. Follow Gold on Facebook here.
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Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world | <urn:uuid:e813c6fe-98cf-4c7a-9359-1a000bc7fc48> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/06/22/12359223-queen-elizabeth-to-hold-historic-meeting-with-former-ira-commander?lite | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961269 | 929 | 1.585938 | 2 |
The Wombles by Bill Pitzonka
In 1974, the British charts were awash in glam rockers and toothy teen idols. Rising somewhat surprisingly above this glittery sea to claim Music Week's Top Singles Act of the Year was a group of furry, burrow-dwelling litter-gatherers—the Wombles. And just like the Archies before them, the Wombles made the leap from printed page to pop playlists via the power of television.
British author Elizabeth Beresford was walking on Wimbledon Common with her children when she was inspired to write about “the tidiest creatures in the world” which “go round clearing up the rubbish which has been left behind by people.” The Wombles debuted in 1968, and the adventures of these cuddly recyclers proved so immensely popular that two further volumes followed: The Wandering Wombles in 1970 and The Wombles At Work in 1973. That year, Filmfair acquired the television rights and commissioned Mike Batt to write the theme song.
The classically trained Batt had been a member of the chamber rock group Hapshash & The Coloured Coat, which recorded for Liberty /Imperial in 1967. He had since written numerous commercial jingles, arranged and orchestrated many a pop recording session, and released several high-quality budget-label cover albums. He waived the flat fee offered and instead wrangled the music rights to make the Wombles an authentic recording outfit, taking on all the creative duties—writing, arranging, producing, even performing all the vocals. To help him get into character, his mother made him a Womble suit, which he wore for an entire week.
Batt notes that "the first album [Wombling Songs] was really just character songs and background music for the television series." Though he dismisses the album as "rather twee," it did feature the group's first and longest-running chart single, "The Wombling Song," which hit #4 and spent 23 weeks in the British Top 75.
"The second album [Remember You're A Womble] was really the first proper album for the Wombles as a group," Batt beams with justifiable pride. Indeed it spawned three sizable and musically disparate hit singles: the title track was a rockin' call-and-response number with a highland jig break that hit #3; the sax-driven reggae of "Banana Rock" limboed up to #9; and most surprisingly, "Minuetto Allegretto"—an authentic Mozart minuet complete with period orchestration—waltzed up to #16. By this time, the Wombles were also making personal appearances as a five-member group in full costume—Orinoco on vocals and sax, Wellington on lead guitar, Madame Cholet on bass guitar, Great Uncle Bulgaria on violin, and Bungo on drums. In addition to performing as Orinoco, Batt somehow managed to corral stalwart session guitarist Chris Spedding (who would later produce three cuts on the Sex Pistols’ album) to suit up and strap on a flying-V guitar as Wellington.
The Wombles set off to conquer America in the summer of 1974. CBS Television aired Womble shorts on Captain Kangaroo, and Columbia Records issued a slightly revamped version of the Remember You're A Womble album for their stateside debut. The first single was the spot-on Beach Boys homage "Wombling Summer Party," a tightly edited version of "Non-Stop Wombling Summer Party" (down to the title). Despite the overtly American theme, the single only wombled halfway up the Billboard Hot 100 to #55 in August. "Remember You're A Womble" was quickly issued as the follow-up, but it was the last Wombles recording released in the U.S. Batt still regrets that "Wombling U.S.A.," which he had written specifically for the American market, was never released—even in the U.K.
Back in Britain, the Wombles capped off 1974 with the Spectoresque "Wombling Merry Christmas"—a #2 hit and their highest-charting single. The parent album Keep On Wombling was released in the new year. Its first side was a concept suite, which followed the adventures of Orinoco, the sleepiest Womble, through a series of dreams.
The Wombles’ fourth album Superwombling arrived mid-1975, and proved that Batt was adept at maneuvering his fictional charges through any musical style he pleased: Barbershop harmony ("Down At The Barbershop"), spaghetti Western ("The Orinoco Kid"), James Bond themes ("To Wimbledon With Love"). He even cast them in a classic Hollywood musical (complete with tap dancing) for the single, "Wombling White Tie and Tails," a #22 hit. The follow-up "Super Womble," their sort-of stab at glam including a wheezy harmonica solo and varispeed chorus, leapt to #20.
They closed out the year with their final charting single, "Let's Womble To The Party," a swing-style number that stomped up to #34. By this time, Mike Batt's talents were being sought after by all manner of artists, including Steeleye Span and Kursaal Flyers. He even issued his first (and only charting) solo single, "Summertime City," which was the theme for, as he puts it, "a dreadful series called Seaside Summer." So dreadful, apparently, that despite its #4 chart peak, he refuses to allow the track to be reissued.
As for the Wombles themselves, their television series ended after the second season. They did manage one last hurrah on the big screen—the film Wombling Free for which Mike Batt rehashed major portions of their existing repertoire. As a symbolic parting gesture, he issued the tuneful single "Rainmaker" in 1976, credited to Wellington Womble as a solo artist, to signal the breakup of the band.
Mike Batt went on to record a string of adventurous solo albums (Schizophonia, Six Days in Berlin) which have made him perennially popular in Germany. And while the Wombles never gave him a #1 single, he did top the UK chart in 1979 thanks to another group of furry burrow-dwellers from children's literature: He wrote, arranged, and produced Art Garfunkel's hit "Bright Eyes," from the animated film of Richard Adams's rabbit-warren-as-human-condition parable Watership Down. It stayed in the pole position for six weeks and was the year's biggest selling single. Batt also wrote a full-scale musical based on Lewis Carroll's The Hunting Of The Snark, which played at London's Prince Edward Theatre in 1987.
1998 marked the silver anniversary of the Wombles’ U.K. television debut. To commemorate the occasion, Columbia Records and Reader’s Digest both issued CD retrospectives of Wombles hits. Columbia even rereleased two singles, "Remember You're A Womble" and "The Wombling Song," which both hit the Top 30. A new series of Wombles television programs was commissioned, and Mike Batt, as busy as ever, found time to come up with new material for his old "bandmates." Twenty-five years later, the Wombles are still cleaning up. | <urn:uuid:4a7ab426-3826-48d7-9ac5-b3afb5d3e49a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bubblegum-music.com/the-wombles | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972697 | 1,573 | 1.578125 | 2 |
IT Salaries See Slight Rise in 2012: Report
Despite generally healthy growth in the overall IT jobs market, IT workers hoping to improve their standard of living in 2012 will not likely find relief through annual salary raises, according to the Computer Economics "2012 IT Salary Report," which found IT organizations are planning to hand out average raises of 2.8 percent this year.
Employment by technology companies grew more than 2 percent last year, while the unemployment rate for all workers stood at 8.5 percent at year's end, according to the report whose findings are based on a fourth-quarter survey of more than 130 U.S.-based IT organizations.
The report said that even organizations at the 75th percentile are budgeting for only a 3 percent wage increase for employees, which lags well behind the 3.4 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index for the 12-month period through November 2011. On a positive note, most IT workers will get some measure of increase. Even organizations at the 25th percentile are increasing salaries for existing employees by 1.8 percent, which was deemed an improvement over the no-raise policy that prevailed last year in the bottom quartile. Still, the typical raises planned for 2012 are somewhat compressed across all quartiles and show little variation by job function or level, according to the study's findings.
"Developers with skills in mobile app development will remain in tight supply, as will those with experience in supporting infrastructure virtualization," the report said. "In the IT world, there are always skill shortages in the growth technologies, and many IT organizations have no choice but pay up for those skills or turn to service providers for in-demand expertise-and pay a premium."
"Although there are modest improvements in the general employment picture, our research indicates hiring by IT organizations across all sectors will remain weak in 2012, especially among large organizations," the report said. "If the domestic economy continues to improve, we anticipate some upward pressure on wages, however."
The organization said IT businesses would need to take steps to retain key workers due to the rise in voluntary turnover rates. Voluntary turnover rate for IT organizations, after dropping to nearly 2 percent in 2010, is on track to return to normal levels in 2012. Turnover rose to 4 percent to 2011, and Computer Economics said it anticipates the rate returning to the 5 percent level, which was typical during the period prior to the 2008 recession. "As such, IT organizations will face demands for higher pay from some workers," the report noted.
In the full study, available for purchase via the company's Website, Computer Economics projected total salary (base pay plus incentive pay) for 65 IT job functions. The study estimated total salaries for 20 sectors and more than 400 metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas. The company publishes salary tables in a searchable Excel workbook, where the first worksheet provides salaries by metropolitan area and the second by sector.
The latest IT jobs report from online job site Dice suggested tech hiring managers are resolute in their staffing priorities for 2012; they need innovative professionals who design, code, build and operate. The report found that developers dominate the new year's most pressing hiring needs for a second straight year, although ops professionals made their list debut. According to data compiled from nearly 1,200 tech-focused hiring managers and recruiters, Java developers are the top priority. Demand for tech professionals with Java know-how has grown year-over-year for more than two years as measured by job postings on Dice. | <urn:uuid:11d2fcee-08f2-4c68-9413-2c196e612ad3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eweek.com/print/c/a/IT-Management/IT-Salaries-to-See-Slight-Rise-in-2012-Report-539272/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957345 | 714 | 1.601563 | 2 |
On board Silurian
Silurian is HWDTs research and
Most weeks April through October she is either monitoring
the waters of the west coast of Scotland for whales, dolphins, and
porpoises, or serving as a floating classroom for one of the many Argyll
island primary and secondary schools.
log below to find out what Silurian and her crew have been up to each
week and all about the whales, dolphins and porpoises they spot!
To find out about the latest marine life sightings spotted elsewhere,
If you would like to send the crew an e-mail with your questions click here.
Click here to view the Silurian Log archive.
Friday 15th July 2011
Distance travelled: 50.2NM
Today we woke up to overcast weather with predictions of occasional rain. After breakfast we did some distance training to which we found some of us had improved at least before we were then introduced to a new rota. We then went on effort.; throughout the day we received 29 acoustic detections, 25 harbour porpoise visual sightings, 1 grey seal and 4 common seals. In total the volunteers on the mast spotted 47 individual harbour porpoises; 3 of which were just 5 metres from the front of Silurian. Towards the end of the day we were let off effort and enjoyed yet another delicious meal cooked by Emma of chicken and veg; with lentil pie for the vegetarians. We are currently anchored at Kerrera playing an interesting game with skittles...
Thursday14th July 2011
Thursday 14th July
Anchorage: Craighouse, Jura
Distance travelled: 47.3NM
Today we woke up to cloudy weather. After eating breakfast we were able to have some time off before going on effort. During this time we played cards. When we went on effort we experienced some glorious weather, with perfect conditions for cetacean surveying. Through the course of the day we spotted 1 unidentified seal, 2 common seals and 1 grey seal, 5 minke whales and 14 harbour porpoises, although the hydrophone showed us that there were actually 27 harbour porpoises within our range. Upon locating the minke whales, we took time off effort to watch and photograph the whales. The whales were demonstrating feeding behaviour. Gemma enjoyed several hours watching them from the crow’s nest. Towards the end of the day, upon going off effort, we took time to relax and then ate a delicious dinner of macaroni cheese followed by lemon cheesecake. Tonight Laura enjoyed her first shower. We are currently trying to persuade Liam to follow Laura’s example.
Wednesday 13th July
Position: Bowmore, Islay
Distance travelled: 46.7NM
Today we were given the opportunity to survey an area where they are considering building a wind farm. Every day before we had been surveying with a systematic approach today we surveyed using line transects. We were each given two lines each to survey rather than changing every half an hour. The data we collected along with that of previous groups surveying the same area can be used to determine how diverse the eco system is and whether a wind farm will disturb marine life. Throughout the entire day we only saw one porpoise, however there were a lot of porpoise clicks being picked up by the hydrophone, we just weren’t getting a visual on the mammals. Although we didn’t see a lot it did mean that the wind farm being built possibly wouldn’t impact our marine eco system hugely. We think that the process of building wind farms causes disruption to the ecosystem, however once built it can provide a man-made reef for the marine animals. Therefore although for us surveying was relatively uneventful it was a fantastic thing that we weren’t making a lot of sightings in that area.
Although we weren’t seeing a lot of marine mammals the amount of coastal birds we saw was huge. By the end of the day we were all confident in identifying the different birds. We also learnt which birds are usually associated with marine mammals. For example shearwaters are associated with Minke whales and Gannets are commonly associated with Common dolphins. We were also able to view how each bird hunts and what effect that can have on its life span.
We ended the day by anchoring in Bowmore, Islay. Our usual shore trip was cut out of our daily routine as we were all far too tired after the long day and definitely ready for an extended sleep.
Written by the Earthwatch Teen team: Laura, Emma, Ailidh, Liam and Emma.
Tuesday 12th July 2011
Anchorage: Nave Island, Islay
Distance travelled: 41.4NM
Today we began by going outside and practicing our distance measurements. Although we are improving in comparison to the days previous there is definitely still room for improvement. We then began our day of surveying. Although initially there weren’t many animals for us to record we were able to begin identifying birds with our team facilitator which made the time of surveying far more interesting. Luckily however our time of few sightings was brief. Upon approaching the Lighthouse Dubh Artach we were graced with the presence of a few seals which was gratefully received by the whole crew. As we left Dubh Artach some of the volunteers were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a passing Minke whale, although not all the crew saw the Minke it definitely boosted team moral as we scanned the seas with a new found enthusiasm. Sadly the sightings again dropped until the end of the day where we saw numerous seals and porpoises. We were all so excited about the sightings it was difficult to record them all and was far more difficult than anticipated. We anchored in between Islay and Nave. We were given a presentation on the birds and boats we were likely to encounter and from tomorrow onward we will begin recording this data as well as the sightings of marine animals. After dinner we went out on the tender (Cecelia) and saw a group of seals. We were able to make up for the lack of sightings for some of the crew by seeing the seals. We then went to Nave and climbed to the top of the hill on the island. Whilst on the top of the hill we were able to watch a beautiful sun set and as the sun was beginning to fall below the horizon we saw a slight green tinge which we were informed by the skipper can sometimes be seen as a flash of green.
Monday 11th July 2011
Distance travelled: 35.5NM
Today we had 4 sightings of porpoise, 2 common seals, 2 grey seals and 2 unidentified seals. We then continued surveying the minke whale recording its movements and taking lots of photographs to ensure a reliable picture used for photo identification. We went ashore to Lunga Island where we encountered a mass of puffins, razorbills and guillemots. Not only did we see the adults but also the chicks which upon seeing we were provided with plenty of information on the species and each species behaviour. The only downside was that it smelt really bad. We left the island and continued surveying throughout the afternoon. Although the sightings of marine mammals were low we were able to apply the knowledge of birds we gained from the island in a more practical situation. We then anchored between Erraid and Mull in a calm spot where it was even possible to see the sea floor, not particularly exciting for us but the skipper and the first mate showed enough excitement for the entire crew. At dusk we decided to go explore on the tender. We saw plenty of seals along our journey; sadly we weren’t recording as the data would have been extremely useful. We ended up exploring a small island called Eilean Dubh (Bob island as we prefer to call it) where we scaled the steep heathery slope giving us a fantastic view of the surrounding area as well as Silurian. | <urn:uuid:3186dfcf-c7f5-41fa-8b62-9d4f15d6883a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hwdtblog.co.uk/2011_07_10_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980437 | 1,647 | 1.757813 | 2 |
It is extremely unlikely that all three receptacles all have bad grounds. Not impossible, but unlikely.
The most likely scenario is that your home was built before grounding became required by code (1962, plus however long it took for your state/municipality to adopt it), and then someone renovating after that time put in 14/2 Romex with a bare ground for the outlets, but then found that the supply wire from the panel didn't have a ground and didn't bother to replace that wire. So, the ground is either shorted to the neutral or left open.
The other likely scenario is that there is a discontinuity in the ground between these three outlets and the supply wire. The necessary wires exist, but whoever last messed with your home's electrical didn't connect them properly.
An outlet tester, and a more thorough inspection of the wiring, can tell you. Head to Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace, whatever, and pick up a 3-prong GFCI outlet tester:
Plug it into all of the outlets on each receptacle; ideally, you should see the two amber lamps light, but that's unlikely if the surge protector doesn't detect a proper ground path. What's more likely is that you'll see only the middle lamp light, indicating an "open ground".
Unfortunately, because the neutral and ground are supposed to be continuous (they both tie directly to the neutral bus strip in the service panel), there isn't a really good way to detect a neutral-to-ground short or swap without opening up all the outlet boxes; a 3-lamp tester will read "correct", and a multimeter will read continuity between neutral and ground no matter whether they're correct, swapped or shorted. However, this scenario is very unlikely in your case, as the surge protector should read "grounded" if the ground pin has continuity.
With the symptoms confirmed (hopefully), turn off the breaker (or pull the fuse) for this circuit, and open up all the outlet boxes. Verify that all of the wire bundles coming into each of the outlet boxes have a bare ground wire, which is twisted together with any other bare wires in the box, and is also connected to the outlet's grounding terminal (it is also acceptable, if the outlet box is metal, for the wires to be screwed into the box itself; the outlet will then be grounded through its chassis and the mounting screws. If the box is a resin or thermoplastic, the ground screw of the outlet chassis must be used).
If that doesn't indicate the cause of the problem, you will need to determine which of the various wire bundles is fed directly fro the panel. This is generally done by disconnecting all the black wires from all the outlets, then turning the power back on and VERY CAREFULLY probing each one with a non-contact voltage tester, like this:
The black wire that lights up is the one fed most directly from the panel; however, it may not be the actual wire run from the panel itself, as there could be something further "upstream". The usual culprit is the switch for the lights, especially in older homes (newer NEC code encourages lights and outlets to be on different circuits, by encouraging calculation of demand load based on separate lighting and appliance branch components, so you're not fumbling around in the dark if your hair dryer shorts out). If your NCVT lights up on anything else that you know is "dead" when the power to this circuit is off, turn the circuit back off and pull those things out of their boxes to inspect those wires. Check for the existence of ground wires, whether they're properly continuous with all other grounds, and with all black wires disconnected, whether any black wire still lights up with the power on.
If the trunk that seems to be the main power feed does have a ground, use a multimeter to measure the ohms between the neutral (white) and bare (ground). It should be zero. If it isn't, the ground is probably not properly connected to the neutral bus strip at the panel; this is where you call in a qualified electrician, because the rails in a fusebox or breaker panel can kill you instantly with one wrong move. If the ground doesn't exist in that supply wire, that's the problem; you'll need to run a new length of grounded Romex to the panel, or alternately run a green-jacketed ground wire to another box with a known good ground (I THINK this is acceptable; an electrician can verify). Understand that if you have a fusebox and the electrician has to open it up, he may insist on replacing it with a breaker panel in order to bring everything he's touching up to current code. | <urn:uuid:63058e31-89b8-4a80-a8ad-ab972991260f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/13643/how-can-i-determine-if-my-receptacles-are-grounded-and-how-can-i-fix-it-if-they?answertab=active | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956866 | 978 | 1.6875 | 2 |
One of the main reasons for the Firefox browser's successful seizure of market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the desire to escape the inundation of PC-slowing spyware. However, spyware experts indicate that with its increased popularity, Firefox itself will become a target for spyware creators, who are already poking at the open source browser alternative.
Webroot Vice President of Threat Research Richard Stiennon said he expects there will be spyware for Firefox this year, adding that while the browser was designed to be immune from the spyware infecting IE, Firefox will face a new breed of spyware tailored specifically for it.
"Basically, if you use Firefox today, you're not susceptible to any spyware, other than what you download when you're on Kazaa," Stiennon said. "The spyware writers target mostly Explorer users because that's the most fertile feeding ground for piranha-like (spyware) attacks. They'll watch as Firefox becomes mainstream, they'll see opportunity there and start targeting them."
Spyware action and reaction
Stiennon said while spyware for Explorer has become widespread and relatively easy to create, it will be the more advanced spyware writers who turn their sites on Firefox.
"It'll be the more sophisticated guys that'll write Firefox spyware," he said. "I predict that by the middle of the year, we'll start to see it."
Stiennon also said Firefox was created specifically, in part, to avoid the kind of spyware that has riddled Explorer along with worms and adware.
"Firefox was written for the existing world of Internet Explorer exploits, but it has its own vulnerabilities that will be exploited," he said.
Stiennon said while a computer running Firefox will still not be as good of a machine to infect with spyware and it takes the malicious software some time to have an impact, the Mozilla browser will come under fire as it nears and surpasses 10 percent market share.
Nevertheless, Stiennon also indicated the creators, maintainers, and even users of Firefox will quickly and aggressively step up their anti-spyware efforts along with the increased threat.
"The people who use Firefox -- their reaction to any spyware-type attacks will be pretty vehement," he said. "There'll be fast reaction from both Firefox developers and users."
Not so fast for Firefox
Despite Stiennon's prediction, other experts are not convinced that spyware will besiege Firefox as soon as this year. Computer Associates Director of Malicious Content Research Roger Thompson said although spyware for Firefox this year is possible, it is unlikely.
"It's possible," Thompson wrote in an email to NewsForge. "While user numbers would need to be pretty big to present a more attractive target than something known to be on about every desktop by default, I don't believe the botherds (a bot gives the botherd complete control over a "zombied" machine) are actually doing their own research. They are merely following the security lists closely, and quickly implementing those exploits, and vulnerability researchers probably do subject Firefox to scrutiny, and probably do find things, so it is possible.
"But unlikely," Thompson continued. "The preponderance of Internet Explorer users is simply too good a target. And in any case, it's just not necessary and only a small percentage of spyware plants via an exploit -- most relies on social engineering to 'talk' people into installing it, or by allying itself with some 'desirable' service or product, such as the various P2P networkers."
Thompson, however, said some typical spyware vectors may be open for Firefox, too. To infect and run on machines, for example, much of today's spyware either talks directly via port 80, or inserts itself as a Layered Service Provider (LSP), "which will nail Firefox too," Thompson said.
The expert also said with increased spyware competition, which he is seeing already, anything is possible. Thompson said while Firefox and other "non-IE" browsers avoid exploits, ActiveX control issues and browser helper object (BHO) issues, the alternatives are not necessarily immune to keyloggers, LSP injectors, remote administration tools, and adware that is "invited in."
In terms of the Firefox spyware tipping point, Thompson said he believed 10 percent market share might be too low, but again emphasized that increased spyware competition will put other browsers to the spyware test.
Working on it now
For his part, Stu Sjouwerman -- founder and COO of Counterspy maker Sunbelt Software -- agreed that Firefox spyware is likely in 2005.
"I'm pretty sure you can expect one or two Firefox (spyware) exploits before the end of the year," Sjouwerman said. "The more popular a platform gets, the more likely it is to come under attack. Firefox -- which I use myself -- I don't think is going to be immune from that. If you go wide like this, you have to expect that your product will be exposed to a trial by fire."
Sjouwerman reported that his company's research on Firefox revealed some Explorer-like situations that may draw spyware.
"We looked into it and found that the security of Firefox had similar openings or vectors where spyware can be utilized to exploit or bypass protection," he said.
Adding that the spyware exploits would have to be changed to target Firefox, Sjouwerman said once the alternative browser has around 15 percent of the browser market, it will be "commercially interesting" for spyware creators to target. In response to spyware for Firefox, Sjouwerman said developers and other backers of the alternative browser will fix the holes that allow it. Third-party companies, such as Sunbelt, will also provide protection against spyware for Firefox, he added. There is not yet a Firefox version of Sunbelt's CounterSpy anti-spyware, but it is coming, the company has said.
Sjouwerman indicated spyware writers are likely already playing with other, non-IE browsers and the first spyware for Firefox -- the most likely browser to "break through" with significant market share -- is probably coming soon.
"I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of Russian spyware writers were turning Firefox inside out," he said. "In the next couple of months, we'll see the first exploits." | <urn:uuid:90376929-cebd-4194-8c63-1d335bd0f544> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.antionline.com/showthread.php?263277-Experts-predict-Firefox-spyware-will-show-up-this-year&mode=hybrid | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959131 | 1,347 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Deborah MacKenzie, consultant
The renowned London Zoo in Regent's Park has released some suitably erotic photos in time for Valentine’s day. Starring in the images are Raika and Lumpur, the zoo’s Sumatran tigers, a subspecies so endangered that only a few hundred still exist in the wild - a situation which, to judge from these pictures, isn’t the tigers’ fault.
In fact the zoo is trying hard to get the pair to breed successfully. In new film footage, they certainly seemed in the mood, going crazy over bits of fabric scattered with Valentine hearts. “Raika, the female, rubbed her face and body all over the hearts, which seemed to make her irresistible to Lumpur,” says zoo spokesperson Rebecca Smith.
No wonder. They were laced with Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Men, which in the 1980s became famous (or infamous) for over-the-top erotic advertising. It probably wasn’t the ad campaigns that inspired Lumpur this morning - more likely, it was an animal he would regard as lunch.
In their quest to make caged animals’ lives less boring, zoos spritz perfumes around the enclosures of species whose sensory world is dominated by smell - and every cat owner knows how odd scents perk up a puss. (I had an otherwise fastidious Siamese who drooled off-puttingly on the collars and cuffs of anyone who wore certain top-of-the-range perfumes.)
The Bronx Zoo in New York discovered a few years ago that big cats adore Obsession for Men. Researchers now even use it in the jungle to bait camera traps, which take pictures in response to motion, and are getting lots more shots of inquisitive, otherwise secretive cats like jaguars and ocelots. It must work pretty well if the wildlife crowd will spend research budgets on it: a 200 ml bottle of that stuff will set you back fifty bucks.
It turns out that these romantic human scents pack chemicals of great interest to species that regularly sniff their friends’ anal glands. In many species, these glands secrete grease containing chemicals used for scent marking, and a wide range of animals, from muskrats to musk ox to musk deer - note the recurring theme - pack a chemical with a ketone ring structure that smells like what humans call, well, musk.
Civets, a relative of the mongoose (which also eat, then poop, the world’s most expensive coffee), produce especially powerful stuff containing a musk-related molecule called civetone, with a rank odour comparable to faeces, or very unpleasant cheese.
And our ancient olfactory brain circuits recognise it. Diluted, the stuff apparently smells great. It is perhaps the world’s oldest perfume - the Queen of Sheba is said to have given some to King Solomon, just before they disappeared into the king’s bedroom. It sells for around $500 a kilo.
Civetone can be made artificially from plant oils. But around a tonne of the natural stuff is harvested yearly, mainly by Ethiopian farmers, who hold captive civets in squalid wooden cages, and scrape out their anal glands with a horn spoon every week or two. It isn’t a great life for the civets. The World Society for the Protection of Animals investigated in 1998, and recommended that perfume makers switch to artificial civetone.
More recent studies by wildlife conservationists advise instead making the trade more humane and sustainable, by moving to captive-bred, well-treated civets. This seems reasonable: impoverished farmers aren’t likely to stop, as current production doesn’t begin to cover demand.
Which is odd, as 31 leading perfume companies, including Calvin Klein, told the WSPA in 1998 that they don’t use the real stuff. Only Chanel, Lancôme and Cartier admitted it. Last year Calvin Klein described its civet as “synthetic”.
Real or fake, as far as Raika and Lumpur are concerned, the stuff works fine. It’s not clear what this means for the future of Africa’s civets, which are not endangered - yet. The zoo says it will let us know if Calvin Klein’s Valentine’s gift to the world is a litter of baby Sumatran tigers. | <urn:uuid:58f16b7c-aff8-4e51-b0c1-289ec73918ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2012/02/obsession-for-tigers.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946253 | 930 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Since the introduction of the iPhone, Apple has pushed the storage capacity higher with almost every release.
In 2009, Apple announced the 32GB iPhone 3GS, and in 2011 the 64GB iPhone 4S hit the market.
As the iPhone 5 release date approaches, and my 64GB iPhone 4S warns me that I don’t have enough storage space to update my apps, I have to wonder if Apple will bump the storage sizes of the iPhone 5 up this fall.
Running out of Space
I had just over 5GB of storage space left. In order to download these updates, I had to delete several apps including Modern Combat 3 and Almost DLSR, which was loaded up with video files.
After cleaning house I have 11GB of breathing room, but this has taught me that the iPhone needs at least 5GB of storage free to function.
My iPhone has a lot of photos and videos, which take up about half of the space, with Apps occupying another 16GB. I may be in the minority here, but I know I’m not alone.
Cost of a 128GB iPhone
Cost is the biggest factor that could prevent Apple from introducing a 128GB iPhone 5. According to iSuppli, Flash storage is responsible for most of the cost difference to Apple.
The price of 64GB Flash memory is $76.80, 32GB Flash memory is $38.40 and 16GB Flash memory is $19.20.
Even if advances bring the price of Flash memory down, Apple would need to charge a premium for a 128GB iPhone 5 or eat a larger portion of the cost if it retailed for $399.
Smaller 128GB Flash Chips
This February Samsung, a manufacturer Apple works with for parts of the iPhone, announced the smallest 128GB NAND Flash memory chip. These chips are smaller than a penny, and are already ramping up into high production.
Silver Lining in the Cloud?
The cloud could help alleviate some of the storage woes without the need for a 128GB iPhone 5. PhotoStream currently stores the last 1,000 photos taken, but if it stored more photos and included videos, users could rely on the cloud more.
4g LTE speeds will also help users call up photos and videos on the go, even with 4G LTE data caps.
Apps currently can’t benefit from the cloud, but if Apple would allow OnLive for the iPad and other services that stream games instead of storing the assets and processing locally, the iPhone and iPad could be used to play higher quality games without the need for massive amounts of storage.
Do you need a larger iPhone? Would you pay more than $399 for a 128GB iPhone 5? | <urn:uuid:5ef29fd1-600a-4f44-9eff-2b3335964afa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/05/16/will-the-iphone-5-be-the-first-128gb-iphone/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940877 | 557 | 1.5 | 2 |
Washington - In a challenge to one of the most powerful lobbying tactics used by the Jewish community, a county in Maryland decided last week that local legislators could no longer go on sponsored trips to Israel.
Montgomery County’s ethics commission decided last month that council members are prohibited from traveling at the expense of the local Jewish community, even when funding is indirectly provided by a private foundation. A trip planned months in advance was subsequently canceled.
“We were stunned by the commission’s decision,” said Ron Halber, executive director of the Greater Washington Jewish Community Relations Council, which organized the trip.
In an e-mail to a Montgomery County legislator, the ethics commission wrote that “the routing of monies through a lobbyist organization to provide travel services makes the gift unacceptable.”
The decision has such weight because sponsored trips to Israel are widely used by Jewish groups both nationally and locally to build support for Israel among non-Jewish leaders and to cultivate one-to-one relationships between American and Israeli leaders. On a national level, the trips have recently come under scrutiny amid the scandals surrounding Washington lobbyists and their relationships with lawmakers. The Montgomery County decision now brings the dilemma to the local level, as communities face the need to adjust to the changing winds in Washington and growing concerns about the power of lobbyists.
Hadar Susskind, Washington director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, called the Montgomery County decision “mistaken.” Susskind said that his organization has already begun looking into the decision in order to check if it represents a wider trend that could affect other Jewish communities.
“If it will become a widespread phenomenon, that would be misguided and unfortunate,” he said. According to Susskind, the trips to Israel are seen as an important tool for educating local leaders on issues relating to Israel and for building ties between Israeli and American leaders on the local level.
The attention given to lobbying trips to Israel has caused a number of organizations to make a formal separation between their lobbying arm and the branch in charge of sponsoring travel to Israel. Groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee have founded subsidiary organizations that deal with taking lawmakers, officials and journalists to Israel. As accompanists for trips to Israel, other organizations now have dedicated staffers who are not registered lobbyists.
The concern about the trips has already seeped down to the local levels where policies tend to depend on state and county ethics rules. Many JCRCs have turned to private foundations to cover the costs, and some have given up funding the trips altogether.
In Boston, the JCRC has asked since 1999 that trip participants pay their own way, covering an estimated $3,200 in travel costs. A Massachusetts ethics commission approved the community’s funding of the trip, but the local JCRC decided to drop the funding anyway, according to executive director Nancy Kaufman.
“Even though we felt we are on solid ground, we decided to err on the side of caution,” Kaufman said.
She added that there was no decline in participation after the funding was stopped. But other officials in Jewish organizations are skeptical about dropping the community funding for travel to Israel, arguing that local council members don’t have the official travel fund available to members of congress.
“It would not be fair to ask elected officials to pay from their own pocket,” an official with a major Jewish group said.
In Montgomery County, a nine-day trip to Israel was scheduled to leave September 2 and was expected to include council members and county officials from the region surrounding the nation’s capital. The JCRC of Greater Washington organized the trip and paid for all travel expenses, though the costs were reimbursed by a private foundation. Participants were requested to pay only $500 to help cover the costs.
The trip, according to the local JCRC, was supposed to expose Maryland lawmakers to different facets of the Israeli society, including immigration, homeland security and other issues specific to each participant’s fields of interest. Organizers make clear that “this is not a junket” and that traveling officials have a long and demanding schedule while in Israel. “They come back exhausted,” Halber said.
For the local Jewish community, the trips help forge stronger ties with the lawmakers and government officials and help to make them aware of the political issues relating to Israel.
In Maryland, each and every member of congress and most of the local officials have taken part in trips to Israel. Many of them later moved on to higher positions on the local and national scene.
Though dozens of local officials have traveled to Israel under the same arrangements for years, this year councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg contacted the county’s ethics commission asking for an official approval prior to leaving for Israel. A month later, Trachtenberg received a short e-mail from the commission, stating that after “many hours of deliberation, the Ethics Commission has decided that you may not accept the gift of a trip to Israel that has been offered to you.”
The full decision has not yet been released, but in the brief explanation given to Trachtenberg the commission said that the trip was not possible as long as the JCRC played any role in the funding.
“I was surprised by the decision,” Trachtenberg told the Forward, “and so were other council members.”
The councilwoman added that after receiving a full explanation from the commission, she intends to seek a new formulation that would make the trip possible.
“We view it as no more than a temporary setback,” Halber said. He stressed that the visits to Israel of local lawmakers and officials are purely educational and have nothing to do with the group’s lobbying work, which focuses mainly on support for Jewish institutions dealing with health and human services.
Halber said that if the ethics commission does not change its mind, local leaders are poised to find ways of changing their funding system to make the trips possible.
“One thing is clear,” Halber concluded. “We are not stopping our missions to Israel.” | <urn:uuid:bfc0c90e-8b59-43a9-b057-e7fc70292f65> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://forward.com/articles/11553/ban-on-political-junkets-to-israel-deals-blow-to-l-/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970613 | 1,267 | 1.554688 | 2 |
After reading about the latest intent to buyback $15 BILLION worth of shares from Chevron (CVX) following an earlier announcement this summer from ConocoPhillips (COP) for the same amount; along with Exxon's (XOM) continuous buybacks, this set me to thinking. Is the market simply destined to go up because we don't have enough stock for people to invest in? Basic economics - supply (of stock) shrinking, demand steady (or rising), prices must go up.
Without getting into a debate of what is in the best interest of the American consumer i.e. should these companies be spending even more in capital expenditures to try to find more oil in more difficult (read expensive) manners (which would benefit many) or should these companies be spending the cash for corporate buybacks (which benefit far fewer, i.e. stock holders) - let's take a step back and look at the really big picture.
First, there is a lot of money sloshing through this world. And more of it is printed each day, especially petro dollars - see the rising billionaire class in Russia, Middle East, Far East. Think of it as a transfer tax - money going from the many (consumers) to the few (those who own petroleum). Or just think of the new riches being formed as more money is being circulated through this world as more middle class consumers are created in the Far East, South America, parts of Russia, parts of Middle East. The underlying fact is the money supply *is* growing, whatever the debate of how it is being created. And it wants to be invested. I think this is part of why the private equity (bubble?) is formed (forming?) and won't be going away. Ultra rich back these firms. So again, worst case scenario is a flat demand for assets and I'd argue that one could say an increasing demand for assets such as equities.
Second, let's look at the supply of US stock. Do you realize the level of buybacks that have been going on? Not announced buybacks but tried and true "after the fact" reporting of buybacks is >$100 BILLION for 8 quarters in a row. It has accelerated lately... $118 Billion in Q1 2007, and $158 BILLION in Q2 2008. Even if we drop back to low $100s for Q3 and Q4 2007 that is an annual buyback bing of just under $500 Billion. On top of that is 6 previous quarters (back half of 2005 and 2006) of another $600 Billion+. So this is $1.1 Trillion of stock value that will be taken out of circulation by year end 2007.
What does that number mean? Well I wanted to find out myself. So I went to look at some median capitalizations in the US market. (off on a tangent here - it is hard for the common man to find a nice table of market caps sorted from highest to lowest for the SP500!) I had to use the Russell 1000 and Russell 200 indexes and work backwards using their median market cap figures.
For the Russell 200 which are the largest 200 stocks in the USA, the median market cap (meaning the 100th largest stock in the USA) was 31 Billion. The smallest market cap (meaning the 200th largest stock in the USA) was 11.8 Billion.
Then looking at the Russell 1000 the median market cap (meaning the 500th largest stock in the USA) was 5.75 Billion.
So more simply
100th largest stock in US = 31 Billion
200th largest stock in US = 11.8 Billion
500th largest stock in US = 5.75 Billion
So last quarter alone (Q2 2007) companies bought back $158 Billion of stock. Now that was of course mostly done by the largest companies in the US (the true mega caps with >$100 Billion market cap) but it doesn't matter WHO is retiring this equity, it simply matters that it is being retired from the market as a whole. And when it is retired that means SUPPLY of stock in the US as a whole is falling. Of course some of this is offset by new IPOs and new stock options and restricted stock being sold but in general those are drops in the bucket save for the Google's (GOOG) and VMWare's (VMW) of the world. Let's acknowledge those facts but ignore them for now. (I don't have any great source to see how much new equity is 'created' each quarter, but would love to see it)
So if we retired on average say $110 Billion a quarter, that is essentially saying we are eliminating 10 huge companies the size of 200th largest stock in the US (market cap $11.8 Billion) So supply of stock equal to 10 of those companies are disappearing each quarter; or 40 a year. Or if we move down the scale a bit to the 500th largest company size, which is $5.75 Billion, we are eliminating 20 of those companies a quarter; or 100 a year. These are not tiny fish, these are companies at the bottom end of the SP500...
Again, 'some' of this is offset by new shares and IPOs but for every VMWare with >$25 Billion market cap (but only part of it is freely circulating in the float to be part of the stock 'supply'), there are 20 tiny $200 million IPOs which don't add much new supply to the market. Also balanced against these IPOs are private equity deals that take supply off the market.
So after looking at this, and knowing we have a global demand for equities, in part driven by governments enriched with petrodollars, along with newly minted billionaires/multi millionaires being created - along with a dwindling supply of product (i.e. stock) to be bought here in the US - is it simply inevitible that supply/demand dynamics point to ever increasing prices as long as cash flows allow our domestic corporation to buy back stock at such a staggering pace?
Any comments on what I am missing in this analysis would be welcome. If it's (relatively) sound one must ask how one cannot be a bull for the medium to long term, as this 'transfer' tax pulls money from consumers/workers and into pockets of employers, only to redeployed (along with massive gains from petrodollars) into stock buybacks.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Buybacks are all the Rage - Is the Market Inevitably Going Up in the Long Run?
Best Of FMMF
- 1: Warren Buffet Piles on Europe
- 2: [Video] Jim Chanos Returns from Europe, Even More Bearish on China
- 3: A Chart to Open Our Eyes - Staggering Changes by Multinationals in Employment Behavior 00s vs 90s
- 4: Futures Blasted on Dexia Woes... and Poor Preliminary China Data
- 5: Market Working to Worst Thanksgiving Since 1932
- 6: Et Tu, German Bonds? Poor Auction Raises Eyebrows | <urn:uuid:f79c891b-ad4d-45f7-81df-add006ca54e3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fundmymutualfund.com/2007/09/buybacks-are-all-rate-is-market.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 | 0.962292 | 1,472 | 1.765625 | 2 |
I absolutely think you should wait until your full retirement age to claim Social Security benefits, and if you're able to, you should consider waiting until up to age 70 to claim benefits so you can earn delayed retirement credits. (I don't know the details of your health care plan, but it's likely that you'll still want to file for Medicare at age 65.)
When you apply for Social Security benefits prior to your full retirement age, you receive a reduced benefit based on the number of months between when you file and when you reach full retirement age. If you file for benefits this month, when you turn 65, you'll receive 93.3 percent of the benefit you would have received at your full retirement age of 66. If you're able to wait until age 70 to claim benefits, your annual benefits will be 132 percent of the benefit you would have received at age 66.
Since you would still be working when you file at 65, it's possible that you would lose part of your monthly Social Security benefit. When you are under full retirement age during an entire calendar year, Social Security deducts $1 from your benefit payments for every $2 you earn above the annual limit. In 2012, the annual limit is $14,640.
In the year you reach full retirement age, Social Security deducts $1 in benefits for every $3 you earn above a different dollar limit ($38,880 in 2012), but it only considers the earnings before the month you reach full retirement age. If your earnings will be over the limit but you will be retired for part of the year, Social Security has a special rule that applies to earnings for that year.
Under this special rule, Social Security allows you to get your full check for any whole month you are retired, regardless of your yearly earnings. In addition, if you are self-employed, Social Security does consider how much work you do in your business to determine whether you are retired.
Social Security benefits may also be taxable, based on your annual income. If you file a federal tax return as an individual and your combined income -- defined as your adjusted gross income, plus nontaxable interest and half of your Social Security benefits, is between $25,000 and $34,000, you may have to pay income tax on up to 50 percent of your benefits. If your combined income is more than $34,000, then up to 85 percent of your Social Security benefits may be taxable.
If you are an ex-spouse, were married to your ex for more than 10 years and have never remarried, you might also be eligible for a spousal benefit. If that's your situation, then consider filing for a spousal benefit at your full retirement age, while earning delayed retirement credits on your own work record up to age 70. When you hit 70, you would file for Social Security benefits based on your work record.
Thanks to Edward Lafferty, a public affairs specialist at the Social Security Administration, for helping me with this reply.
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To ask a question of Dr. Don, go to the "Ask the Experts" page and select one of these topics: "Financing a home," "Saving & Investing" or "Money." Read more Dr. Don columns for additional personal finance advice. | <urn:uuid:e028e851-3bf0-448f-adb3-ba054964bb6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bankrate.com/finance/retirement/patience-pays-taking-social-security.aspx?ec_id=cmct_001_HP_image_headline-test | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966611 | 697 | 1.632813 | 2 |
I arrived in Papua New Guinea a day in early September 2012 after way too many hours travelling through way too many countries. The first I saw of the country from the airplane was green, lush forests, mountains, lonely rivers running through unsettled land.
Finally I was here! Port Moresby was chaotic, hot, humid, dusty and green all at the same time. However, I only observed a minor bit of it since my cognitive abilities were at quite a stand still after all that travel-related sleep deprivation. I received several briefings at the MSF office on the day of my arrival, but only two things stuck to my mind: 1. Always double check MSF Labor terms and conditions when the national staff asks you questions regarding job terms, and 2. The orange I was served by Head of Mission was the most delicious one I’ve had in my whole life. Luckily MSF continues briefing its field workers thoroughly throughout the first weeks of a mission so I was able catch up.
Tari – a rural, little town in Papua New Guinea’s Southern Highlands has become my home for the next nine months. Here MSF runs an emergency surgical program and a Family Support Center, my work place, where survivors of domestic and sexual violence receive medical and psychological care. The level of domestic and sexual violence in PNG is epidemic. Official data is hard to obtain due to lack of research, but it is estimated that around 70% of all PNG women face physical abuse during their lives.
Around half of PNG women are raped in their lifetime. The numbers are horrific, and the numerous individual fates feel overwhelming. At the Family Support Center we daily see women who have been beaten and chopped by their husbands, raped by family members or strangers, raped by their husbands, chopped by the husband’s co-wives. We see school girls who have been brutally raped. A while ago MSF’s international president Dr. Unni Karunakara visited our projects in PNG and said that the levels of violence are unique outside a war-zone or state of civil unrest and described the situation as an ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Facing violence traumatizes people. A main focus at the Family Support Center is to provide the violence survivors with psychological support. The staff (nurses and counselors) have quite good counseling skills and even though counseling is a novel thing for people in Tari, it feels good to notice that many patients say that they find it beneficial. At the counseling sessions the patients learn about common symptoms that people present after they have experienced violence. This helps normalize their reactions and decrease their level of anxiety. The staff also helps them to find ways of coping with the experience and the difficult feelings it gives rise to. As one can imagine, seeing such traumatized clients is emotionally very challenging, but in the end also extremely rewarding.
Here is a link to a recent video about MSF’s work in Tari, where you also can hear a patient talk about how she was helped at the Family Support Center: | <urn:uuid:35c5073b-b923-4bc4-abd4-b6b21004f455> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.msf.org/minjaw/2012/11/introduction/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975946 | 618 | 1.617188 | 2 |
In the UK and 14 countries around the world, Language Assistants are preparing to move to a new country to teach their native language and to improve their own language skills and cultural awareness. Jennifer Murray from Glasgow, Scotland who is blind and hearing impaired, blogs about her year as an English Language Assistant in Spain with the British Council, and how the experience has changed her.
This article originally appeared on the British Council blog - thanks to Jennifer Murray and the Language Assistants team at the British Council for sharing it with us.
In October 2011, I began my year abroad adventure in Murcia, south-east Spain. Prior to starting my placement as an English Language Assistant, organised by the British Council, I spent a week in Murcia with my family to get to know the people who would be supporting me during my stay. This was essential as it helped me know what help would be available to me as a blind person.
Although I did a preparation visit, I still wasn’t ready to adapt into a new way of life, and went over with far too many expectations. When these expectations were not met at first, I struggled to cope and it took me a few months to feel settled. For the first four months of my stay, another English Language Assistant stayed with me once a week. I made a true friend for life, who supported me during the difficult first few months and who gave me advice when I needed it most.
It took a little time to make friends, but gradually this all changed. After Christmas, I started to do more activities with my support worker outside of teaching. With the other English Language Assistants, we shared our experiences and worries, and supported each other whenever any of us needed it. It was like a big international family – if you did not meet everyone in person, you knew of them through other people. I got to know people from around the world, including far-off places such as America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
At times, due to my hearing loss, I struggled to follow a conversation in Spanish where there were a lot of people talking at the same time, but towards the end I could understand practically anything that anyone said to me! At the end of my stay, the local radio station did an interview with me regarding my time in Spain. It was very nerve-wracking for me as I had never done an interview entirely in Spanish before. However, I took up the opportunity and although I felt I could have done better, I was happy I did it as everything went fine in the end!
The staff and pupils at the bilingual primary school where I worked were very welcoming and friendly, and accepted me as part of the team from day one. Each day was different. In class with the younger ones, I played guessing games and used songs, stories and flashcards. Whenever any of the teachers were away, I used to take the classes on my own, with the help of my support worker when I needed it. At the start of my teaching placement, I was not very comfortable doing action songs with the children in the younger classes. I don’t know why, but I did not feel comfortable using body language in order to express myself. Perhaps it had something to do with my visual impairment. Despite this, I quickly combated my anxiety and began to use my body language a lot with the younger children to help them learn English in interactive ways.
After Christmas, I loved every moment of the year abroad and the months just seemed to go by quicker and quicker. Towards the end, I did not want to leave! This year abroad changed me as a person. I feel more confident, my Spanish has improved dramatically and I am seriously considering doing something similar again in the near future, either in France or in another part of Spain.
Find out how to become an English Language Assistant abroad.
Check out the English Language Assistants Facebook page.
Jennifer Murray, aged 22, is from Glasgow, Scotland. As a result of being born early, she is totally blind and has recently returned from a year abroad in Spain as an English Language Assistant via the British Council. As well as her visual impairment, Jennifer also has hearing loss, so wears a hearing-aid. She is studying Languages (Spanish/French) at university, and will be going into the third year of her degree this September. | <urn:uuid:80cd6b05-8f2e-464e-a7bb-034326c21b86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://languagerichblog.eu/tag/languages/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987016 | 889 | 1.773438 | 2 |
May 6, 2012
Despite protests and fierce lobbying from gay rights groups, United Methodists voted May 2 to maintain their denomination's stance that homosexual acts are "incompatible with Christian teaching," the Religion News Service reports. Two "agree to disagree" proposals were soundly defeated during separate votes by the nearly 1,000 delegates gathered to the United Methodist Church's General Conference in Tampa, Fla. One proposal would have replaced the "incompatible" phrase in the Book of Discipline, which contains the denomination's laws and doctrines, and both sought to soften the disputed doctrine by adding more ambiguous statements about homosexuality. With nearly 8 million members in the U.S., the UMC remains the country's largest mainline Protestant denomination -- but United Methodism is shrinking in the U.S. and growing in Africa and Asia, shifting the balance of power to overseas conservatives. Nearly 40 percent of the delegates gathered in Tampa live outside the U.S. | <urn:uuid:656fde63-275f-4717-a25d-9fdcc1cebb43> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.religiontoday.com/blog/methodists-uphold-policy-that-calls-homosexuality-incompatible-with-christian-teaching.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964078 | 188 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Advanced Micro Devices, the world’s second largest supplier of x86 microprocessors, said Thursday that it would continue to gain market share throughout 2008 despite of the incoming competition from Intel Corp. with the new micro-architecture. The company said it would aggressively offer competitive solutions not only for high-end consumers, but also for those, who seek for more affordable systems.
Phil Hester, who is in charge of technology at AMD, is reported to have said that the chipmaker would focus heavily on “chips for PCs below $1000 over the next few years”, which may indicate AMD’s further commitment to gain unit market share x86. The firm also confirmed that it plans to increase its microprocessor market share to 33% while a meeting with analysts.
“It’s the right thing to do and it’s a great business opportunity for us. We believe if we don’t start now we will not get the solutions the market wants in the next two or three years,” said Mr. Hester, according to CNN Money.
Earlier AMD already claimed about probability to ship one third, or 33%, of x86 microprocessors worldwide by 2008 – 2009 timeframe, however it was not clear whether the chipmaker would be able to ship so many chips shortly enough. Now that AMD has introduced plans to upgrade its Fab 30 (by improving it and call it Fab 38) and increase performance of the Fab 36, the firm is likely to boost its manufacturing capacities by three times from now.
According Mercury Research, AMD increased its market share of the overall x86 chip market to 21.4% versus Intel’s 76.9% as of the end of 2005. | <urn:uuid:e45afca7-65fd-40fd-9e82-5ed3d9ee8133> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/cpu/display/20060601152416.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971322 | 356 | 1.625 | 2 |
Any story of the origin of barbecue starts with a meat that is too tough and undesirable to be sold for a profit. Mutton barbecue is no different. Aging sheep who no longer produced good wool became a virtually unlimited resource, but the meat was too tough and too strong tasting to be worth anything, so people turned to the tried and true methods of low and slow cooking. In the early days a whole sheep would be cooked for long hours over a low fire. A mixture of salt water would be mopped over it and it would be served up with a dipping sauce of vinegar and hot peppers and stuck between a couple slices of bread. In Kentucky this "sauce" is called a dip, specifically Mutton Dip or Vinegar Dip.
In more modern times, people have put aside the whole sheep for select parts, particularly shoulder roasts which are similar in many ways to the pork shoulder roasts used in Carolina Barbecue.
Today the best place to get this kind of barbecue is the Old Hickory Pit Bar-B-Q in Owensboro. Here, large pieces of mutton are cooked for 12 hours at temperatures in the high 200's while being mopped with a mixture of water, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
As for the method it's a pretty basic barbecue procedure. Get your smoker ready for a long smoke at about 220 degrees F. (105 degrees C.). Place the prepared piece of mutton (or lamb) fat side up in the smoker. Plan on smoking for about 1 1/2 hours per pound. Mop every hour and remove when the meat is around 170 degrees internally. Mutton barbecue is typically served sliced on buns with a table sauce. See the recipes on the top right hand side of this page for specific suggestions.
Sadly, mutton barbecue is becoming something of a lost art. The Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn says that they now serve as much pork as they do lamb and there are few people stepping up to the plate to continue the traditions of this unique style of barbecue so if you try it and like it, pass it on. | <urn:uuid:80c55ab2-dd0d-49dc-a819-acc64aacfc97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bbq.about.com/cs/lamb/a/aa102000a.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951048 | 436 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Kazipeta (Greater Warangal)
|— suburb —|
|Time zone||IST (UTC+5:30)|
Kazipet (Telugu: కాజీపేట) is a town in Warangal district, Andhra Pradesh, India, one of the tri-cities of Warangal-Hanamakonda-Kazipet. It is known for its religious diversity, with a population composed of Hindus, Christians and Muslims. Recently, Kazipet underwent a road widening program to accommodate for its huge resident population.
Kazipet is well known for its professional & convent educational institutions, with one college LIPS - Landmark Institute of Professional Studies and four major convent schools - St. Gabriel's High School, Fatima Girls High School, Bishop Beretta High School, St. Ann's High School. These schools are well recognized throughout the state. Kazipet also have schools run by South Central Railway. These are South Central Railway Mixed High School (English Medium), South Central Railway Boys High School (Telugu Medium), and South Central Railway Girls High School (Telugu Medium).
Kazipet has two government-run schools. The Government Boys School popularly known as Pedda badi is one of the oldest schools in Kazipet, and the Government Girls School is located near the highway to Hyderabad, just few hundred meters from the Kazipet Junction.
One of India's premier engineering institutes, the National Institute of Technology, Warangal (previously called REC (Regional Engineering College)), is located in Kazipet. The Kakatiya University is located 9 kilometers from Kazipet railway station. The Kakatiya Medical College is attached to the MGM Government Hospital. It is the third largest medical college in the state Andhra Pradesh.
Kazipet got its name from a Sufi saint of great eminence by name Syed Shah Afzal Biabani who was a Kazi during the British regime. His shrine at Kazipet is visited by thousands of people of all faiths round through the year. He was a direct descendant of Ali.
Railway Junction
Kazipet is famous for being a major railway junction and locomotive (largely diesel) maintenance division in Andhra Pradesh. This is evident from the fact that many of the residents are employees of Indian Railways. Kazipet Railway station has a history of more than 100 years. It was started in early 1900's by Nizam Government. It is the hub connecting North and South, East and West India with more than 60 daily trains passing through the station. The railway junction is located next to a large granite hill (known as Bodigutta), which is used to house radio communications, presumably for the railways. The railway station has three platforms. Platforms 2 and 3 are generally for trains towards Hyderabad. Platform 1 is generally used for trains which come from Hyderabad. Kazipet is one of the busiest stations in the South Central Railway. Kazipet is one of the stations(like Secunderabad, Kachiguda, Nampally, Begumpet, etc.) started during Nizam rule. Its a median between the South and North India because of its location in Railways
Some of the streets in the town are Vishunupuri, Diesel Colony, Rehmatnagar, Prasanth Nagar, Siddartha Nagar, Bapuji Nagar, Venkatadri Nagar and Somidi. All are well established and good facility availed locations in the town.
Syed Shah Afzal Biabani (1795 – 1856 A.D / 1210 – 26 Safar, 1272 AH) was a Sufi from Warangal, Hyderabad State (now Kazipet 132 km from Hyderabad, India). He was appointed as Kazi of Warangal during the reign of Nizam Ali Khan (Asaf Jah II). His dargah is among the pilgrimage centers of Warangal, Andhra Pradesh.
The word "Biabani" indicates a type of rural area in Persian and Urdu. He received this nickname because he spent 12 years in Tasawwuf (a form of Sufi meditation) in the caves located in the forest of Battupalli near Kazipet.
Aiwan e Shahi Mosque (Big Mosque) warangal AIWAN E SHAHI MOSQUE POPULARLY KNOWN AS BIG MOSQE SUBEDARI WAS BUILT IN 1887AD BY THE NIZAM OF HYDERABAD H.H. NAWAB MIR OSMAN ALI KHAN ON THE MODEL OF JAMIA MASJID DELHI INDIA.THIS MOSQUE IS NOW UNDER GOING MASSIVE EXPANSSION AND RENOVATION UNDER THE AUSPICIES OF MR M.A .BASITH
Temples near Kazipet
SRI SOMESWARA LAXMINASASIMHA SWAMY TEMPLE, PALAKURTHY: It is located at a distance of 50 km from Warangal on a hillock in the out skirts of Palakurthy Mandal head quarters. It is also the birthplace of famous poet palakurthy Somanadha Kavi of 12 the century. His samadhi can be seen here. This historic temple is dedicated to Lord Siva and Vishnu who incarnated in two adjacent caves at a height of 120 meters on the hillock. The 'Pradakshina Path' encircling the two caves is quite natural. There is a dilapidated 'Surya' Temple and Koneru can also be witnessed at this place. This place once flourished which the adherents of 'Veera Saiva' sect of Hiduism has lost prominence in cource of time presently it is a famous pilgrimage centre in warangal district. Pilgrims mostly from Karnataka and Maharashtra. Mainly the Veera Saivas will certainly make a visit once in year to have the blessings of presiding deities and Somanadhakan.
SRI RAMACHANDRA SWAMY TEMLE, JEEDICAL: It is located at distance of 10 km from Jangoan. The temple is an ancient one and believed that, Lord Sri Rama visited this temple on his way to 'Lanka' (Sri Lanka) after separation from Sita Devi. People also believe that, Rama has killed the 'Maricha' who was in the guise of 'Maya Ledi' or the Magis deer. A boulder namely 'Ledi Banda' can be seen here. "Jeedigundam" and "Palagundam" are the two pushkarinis for the holy dip of the pilgrims.
Sri Mettu Ramalingashvara Swamy temple, Kazipet: It is located at distance of 5 km from Kazipet railway station. The temple is 100 years old situated on top of hill called Mettugutta. This historic temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva.
Our Lady of Fathima Church, Fathima Nagar St. Joseph's Church, Kazipet Our Lady of Velankanni, Diesel Colony Kazipet
- Warangal District website. Come & Explore the Glorious Historic City
- Warangal Attractions
- Ganapesvara temple in Ghanpur | <urn:uuid:e83ca351-e6fa-473e-ab86-96f959fe1ac6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazipet | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954326 | 1,566 | 1.664063 | 2 |
The Guy's Guide to Breast Cancer
If the woman you love is diagnosed with breast cancer, you have to cope, too.
By Gina Shaw
Reviewed By Cynthia Haines
In August 2001, Jackie Thomas was diagnosed with breast cancer and quickly had surgery and started chemotherapy. Her husband, Michael, a Lutheran minister with a background as a chaplain at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha found that his experience counseling others through illness hadn't prepared him for this. "It's a very difficult position to be in. You're used to being in control and you're not in control. You want to come up with a solution and there is no solution."
When a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, it can blindside the men who love her - husbands, boyfriends, fathers, sons. It's not just a "woman's issue," say the men who've been affected. But many of them know little about the disease itself and find themselves at a loss as to how to help the women they love cope emotionally (much less cope themselves).
What's Happening to Her?
"Breast cancer is one of those diseases where there isn't a simple formula for treatment," says Judy Perotti, director of patient services for Y-ME, a national breast cancer organization. "Treatment is very individualized based on the woman's age, the size of the tumor, whether it's in the lymph nodes, and whether it's estrogen-receptor positive. Those are pieces of information that are critical to know and understand."
Y-ME offers a brochure called Understanding Your Breast Cancer Pathology Report that can help decipher the "medicalese" behind your wife's or mother's hospital chart. "People should know that they have to be active in the treatment decisions, because there isn't a formula," Perotti says.
Still, there are some things you can expect. "Most younger women with invasive breast cancer get chemotherapy. That takes at least three months, sometimes more," says Anne O'Connor, RN, MSN, clinical nurse coordinator at the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University.
"Every three weeks, she'll get chemo for an hour to four hours. For the next several days, she'll be taking a lot of medication and not feeling well. After that, she'll probably be feeling more like herself, but she'll still be fatigued, and the effects are cumulative."
There will be other changes. "If she has radiation therapy, just going for it is fatiguing, since the treatment is usually Monday through Friday for six weeks. There can be skin changes and sensitivity," O'Connor says. "There will be changes to the breast. And there will be emotional changes."
What Can I Do?
For many men, the biggest challenge is dealing with the fact that they can't "fix" this. "They feel helpless. It's a horrible feeling," Perotti says. "It's very difficult to stand by and watch as the person who's dearest to you in the whole world is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease and goes through treatments that may be very difficult. A lot of men want to fix things, and they're very frustrated when it becomes evident very quickly that they can't."
Instead, "Just listen," Perotti advises. "That can go contrary to instinct. She's talking about her feelings, treatment options, whatever, and he's probably going to jump to problem-solving pretty quickly. But there's tremendous value in just listening to someone. Then, what to say, if you've listened, will come naturally. Be empathetic with her feelings. Let her know that you recognize she's feeling very sad and very angry. If you're really struggling, just say 'I don't know what to say.'"
Marc Heyison, whose mother is a ten-year breast cancer survivor, and Steve Peck, who lost his wife to breast cancer, founded Men Against Breast Cancer. The organization provides resources for men who support women with breast cancer including "Partners in Survival" workshops and support tips on a wallet-sized card. "Men like to make lists of what they can do," Heyison says.
Among the card's pointers:
Communication is vital, especially when couples deal with intimacy issues. "Some men may say, 'I don't know how to approach my wife. I don't know if it's okay to be sexual with her,'" Perotti says. "If a woman is going through chemo, there will be times when the last thing on her mind will be sex. But on the other hand, she may be thinking, 'I lost a breast and he lost interest.'"
Perotti advises men to talk openly with their partners about sexual needs. "If you tell her 'I feel very sexual toward you, but I'm concerned that you might not feel that way. You might be tired or in pain.' Then she can say 'Whew! I really don't feel like having sex right now, but it's so important to know you want to, and you still want me.' That's very reassuring."
Y-ME offers a "Men's Match" program, pairing men with others who've gone through the same experience (1-800-221-2141), and it offers a guide, "When the Woman You Love Has Breast Cancer."
The Long Haul
Breast cancer, even if it's successfully treated, lingers in a woman's life for a long time. "Women often say that even years later, the cancer comes up in their mind a lot. They'll think about anniversaries of when they were diagnosed or when they had surgery" says O'Connor. "That's hard for many partners to think about. He has to be patient with that, acknowledge it, and not just expect it to be 'over.' Don't say 'get over it!'"
Mike Thomas agrees. "That's a very tough reality, because Jackie is a cancer survivor, but it will always be with her, and with us. That's something that she will live with for the rest of her life, and I have to understand that."
Originally published Sept. 30, 2002.
Medically updated Aug. 9, 2004.
©1996-2005 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.
Last Editorial Review: 4/28/2005 12:02:22 AM
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