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This is the first member of the X1 family. Difficult to locate this computer in the Sharp family, it has some characteristics of the MZ 2000 but is not compatible with it.
The X1 family had a very great success in Japan, and the last models were very powerful. Go figure why Sharp didn't market these computers outside Japan… The most famous and strong feature of the X1 series is its Programmable Charactor Generator(PCG).
Tape Basic and Disk Basic were available but had to be loaded from tape. This is a concept that Sharp called "Clean Computer". X1 and MZ system (even X68000) do not have any Basic ROM or other OS ROM. They only have an "IPL ROM"(Initial Program Loader + IOCS) and a BIOS ROM. So if you want to use any OS with the X1 or MZ serie, you have to load it from external storage devices.
Sharp designed the X1 serie as an innovative multimedia system which could work with TV and video. The X1 serie has advanced features to display graphics and text over TV screens (superimpose feature). The X1 could achieve teletext functions without any additional peripherals (only the special X1 TV monitor which can be also used as a TV).
Sharp also released a "color image board" which was video capturing unit. Though it was working with 8 colours only, the result was astonishing for the time! The X1 was a real pionneer in multimedia market, but most people in Japan never realized this. The X68000 serie inherited from the X1 features.
Joe Repka reports :
Bought one of these amazingly ahead-of-its-time computers when they first came out in Japan. First floppy device was a single-sided double-drive unit that cost 100,000 yen! SS floppy disks sold for about 1000 yen (USD 10.00) at that time.
We need more info about this computer ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system,
please send us pictures or anything you might find useful. | <urn:uuid:f0ede251-1872-4fb5-a328-8eeb4f5e66a6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=313&st=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96473 | 437 | 1.8125 | 2 |
MALE SPEAKER: When man landed on the Moon, I was in middle school. It was in 19 -- they landed on the Moon in 1968. So I was in middle school, and we talked about it in class, and it was very enjoyable to hear that we had finally made such an accomplishment by going to the Moon. So it was really amazing.
You know, at one point, it was hard for me to believe it, but after I saw it on the news with my own eyes, I said wow, that was a good thing that John F. Kennedy done, you know, to get man to travel into space, and to be in the country, we were the first, that was another outstanding thing that we done. | <urn:uuid:225cac09-01fc-4f3c-b206-cb06b2584c10> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nasa.gov/50th/AARP/0009LJ-Transcript.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.99622 | 153 | 1.601563 | 2 |
How Do I Get Involved
Preparing students for a successful future means making them aware of the most promising career opportunities – and letting them know that the best jobs demand education and training beyond high school.
For students who aren’t sure that a four-year college experience is right for them, and who may have a special mechanical aptitude or knack for figuring out how things work, advanced manufacturing and logistics provide a wealth of high-tech job opportunities.
Get involved in the Dream It. Do It. campaign to help get them connected: | <urn:uuid:44a44191-d78d-4d92-98da-537403526eed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dreamitdoitindiana.com/educators/How-Do-I-Get-Involved.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948289 | 112 | 1.679688 | 2 |
On May 17, 2007, the Department of Public Instruction received a complaint under state and federal special education law from XXXXX against the West Bend Joint School District #1. This is the departments decision regarding that complaint. The issues are whether the district, during the 2006-2007 school year, properly implemented a students individualized education program (IEP) with regard to providing supplementary aids and services in a structured study hall and in English class and properly identified the appropriate placement for algebra class.
The parent alleges the district staff did not read tests aloud to her child during the first part of the school year in English class and the staff did not provide support to her child while in the structured study hall until the last two months of school. The parent states her child reported that staff were not always available to assist him with his school work in the structured study hall and English class. The parent felt it was inappropriate for the staff to rely on her child to request supports when needed.
The district responded by stating the student received support through a structured study hall two to three times a week for ten minutes from October 2006 to March 2007. Beginning in March 2007 the student received support of a structured study hall on a daily basis for one period per day. Supports in the English class were provided "as needed" or "offered daily as deemed appropriate."
For the 2006-2007 school year, IEPs were reviewed and revised on October 11, 2005, October 5, 2006, and March 8, 2007. At the beginning of the school year, the October 11, 2005, IEP states supplementary aids and services include "use a spell checker or word processor and tests may be read to X in the special education room for all classes including exploratories as needed." The October 5, 2006, IEP states "team taught classes in English, extended time to complete test, tests read out loud/explanations given, may take tests in a resource room offered daily as deemed appropriate" in the "REN and EEN settings." Finally, the March 8, 2007, IEP states the student will receive "team taught classes in English" with various additional aids and services "offered daily and as deemed appropriate" in the "REN and EEN settings," and "speech/language consultation via structured study hall at 40 minutes per day."
The supplementary aids and services as indicated in the students 2006-2007 IEPs must be described in a manner that is clear to all who are involved in the development and implementation of the IEP. The IEPs written on October 11, 2005, October 5, 2006, and March 8, 2007, do not meet these requirements because each use terms such as "daily as deemed appropriate" or "as needed" per supplementary aids and services. The IEPs do not describe the circumstances under which the supplementary aids and services are required. The frequency and amount of services must be stated in the IEP so the level of the districts commitment of resources is clear. If it is not appropriate to state the amount of service as an amount of time, the IEP may describe the circumstances under which the service is needed. In addition, the location referred to as "REN" for supplementary aids and services in two of the three IEPs was not clear to the parent.
Within 30 days of the date of this decision, the district must submit a proposed corrective action plan to ensure that an IEP team is reconvened prior to the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year to address the child-specific issues of indicating frequency and amount and location for special education services and supplementary aids and services. The district will also ensure that special education staff understand how to write frequency and amount and location of services specified in a manner that is clear to all who are involved in the development and the implementation of the IEP.
The parent contends the district did not properly identify and place her child in an appropriate algebra class that would meet her childs achievement level. The child was placed in a regular education algebra class at the beginning of the school year, and minimal progress was made. The staff utilized interventions, some of which were successful; however, the student continued to struggle with the content. The parent then requested her child be placed in a special education algebra class. The IEP team met on March 8, 2007, and determined the student will receive specialized math instruction in the special education classroom. The district took steps to ensure the student was placed in an appropriate math class.
This concludes our review of this complaint.
//signed CST 7/16/07
Carolyn Stanford Taylor
Assistant State Superintendent
Division for Learning Support: Equity and Advocacy | <urn:uuid:e34e4f8a-047f-4a71-a46f-760763d6addf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sped.dpi.wi.gov/ideacomplaint_07-040 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972605 | 948 | 1.5625 | 2 |
One recent night on East Main Street, I mushed a team of talking sled dogs. I sprayed Silly String at a few dozen people, got experimented on by a mad scientist and urged a troubled young man to gulp fistfuls of pills and wash them down with Red Bull.
My husband wasn’t a bit surprised to hear it. “Sounds great, hon,” he mumbled, then turned back to his pillow. It was 1 a.m., after all.
How, I began to wonder, had life come to this? Not just for me, but for scores of other Rochesterians who can’t get enough of doing comedy improvisation? Thirteen years ago, our city had no improv to speak of. Now, at least 20 troupes — large and small — perform so often that on many weekends, seven or eight shows are in full swing.
Among us improvisers are scientists and schoolteachers, engineers and financiers, housewives, programmers, students, therapists.
How did improv comedy grow so much? To an extent, Rochester is just one of many cities to get hooked.
In 1998, the U.S. version of a British improv show called Whose Line Is It Anyway? began the first of eight seasons. Suddenly, millions of Americans were discovering an art form that had been little known outside major cities. And they loved it. Here were actors getting prompts from the studio audience or from the host, and creating hilarious scenes and songs on the spot. No time to confer. No time to rehearse. It looked like tons of fun — and hams all over the country wanted in.
Cue a mushrooming of improv classes and troupes, from Amarillo, Texas, to Zanesville, Ohio. Some specialized in so-called “short form” — funny, unrelated scenes like those on Whose Line. Others focused on “long form,” which typically involves interwoven scenes, some of which lay the groundwork for later laughs rather than being a hoot in and of themselves.
Still, not every city got the jones for improv. And many places — Buffalo and Syracuse, for instance — have less improv for their size than Rochester. So why here? For one thing, improvisers say, it helps to be in an artsy town.
Last Modified: 3:08pm 31 Aug 12 | <urn:uuid:b917e369-1714-4230-9c5e-b0456f9d05ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cis.rit.edu/node/951 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970161 | 498 | 1.625 | 2 |
So i’ve been deciding, what would be a good introduction for new tarantula people who still kinda think tarantulas are creepy, but still want to know more about them? Well, to start off, you’re pretty awesome if you decided to learn more about them, however, I am not an expert, I am pretty meager in knowledge compared to other people out there. This website is just stating my experiences with my collection, of the stuff I acquired from back in the day, till now. I guess it’s a preview of what you will be getting yourself into if you ever decide to acquire a tarantula. I can assure you, it’s kinda like keeping fish, but you can pick them up if you want, and hold them outside of the aquarium/container, but I do not recommend it. Tarantula can be pretty feisty, and the utmost respect must be given to the tarantula if you should hold one, now or in the future. I’ll write more about handling measures on tarantulas later!
At this point, people usually question, “what! aren’t tarantulas poisonous?!” and here I would answer “venomous” because they inject their poison into you if they ever get ahold of a finger or something if you prod them too much.. (giggle) ops, probably shouldn’t giggle, that isn’t funny. Anyways, yeah tarantulas have venom to digest their prey before they actually begin chowing down on the cricket, however, theres a good side to all this creepy gooeyness! There hasn’t been record of tarantula bite actually killing a person! Most New World(North/South America) tarantula bites are relatively painless aside from the initial discomfort of something relative to a wasp/bee sting (depending on species maybe a wee more or less). However, there are some dangerous and really painful species in the Old World(africa and all them places), this is where the utmost caution is taken with the tarantula, because hey! I ain’t no pain person (no qualms if you are…..)
Lets compare tarantulas and fish…. Would you stick your hand in the aquarium of lets say a lion fish and poke one of their pretty spines?
Lets compare tarantulas and guard dogs…. Would you stick your hand inside a guard dog who is barking at you to get off of someones properties mouth?
Lets compare tarantulas and birds…. Would you stick your hand inside a very mean macaw/cockateils mouth and expect a painless love bite?
Lets compare tarantulas and cats…..I like cats, but they can be bitches, and I am sure anyone knows what a pissed off cat can do.
So peeps, do you get what I mean?
Having proper caution with the situations you deal with is key to successfully staying unharmed.
So why do I keep tarantulas?
Well first of all, they come in all different colors. Like blue, pink, purple, red, green, and who doesn’t want to collect all the colors of the rainbow? (hehe)
Since I was a kid, I was really inerested in the outside world, and spiders, bugs and all those creepy crawlies kept me busy since a young age. Then slowly it evolved to tarantulas. I guess I really like tarantulas because even though they all have 8 legs, and fangs, their behavior, color, ability to be terrestrial, or arboreal, and living requirements are all different depending on the species! Even down to a tarantulas INDIVIDUAL personality..kinda like a not properly defined algorithm!
But anyways, yeah that’s a little bit of intro a to tarantulas. Oh, i’ve been keeping tarantulas since I was 14, and I havn’t been bit before. (Not looking forward to a bite either thanks) | <urn:uuid:ebdc0693-2ca6-472d-9879-44729cda0dc2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tarantulalove.wordpress.com/category/psalmopoeus/p-cambridgei/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93657 | 853 | 1.679688 | 2 |
This weekend, Dallas unveiled the latest architectural ring on its well-jeweled fingers: the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, a 180,000-square-foot science center designed by L.A. architect Thom Mayne and his firm, Morphosis. The Perot--yes, that Perot--has been under way for almost 10 years, and remarkably, has come in under budget and ahead of schedule.
Mayne is the third Pritzker Prize winner to build a major building in the neighborhood over the past five years. Just a few blocks away sit a Norman Foster opera house, a REX/OMA theater, and an SOM-designed performing arts hall. Victory Park, where the Perot is sited, is the contribution of one of Dallas’ many philanthropists, the titular Ross, and is also home to the Maverick’s arena and W Hotel. But the Perot distinguishes itself by being the singular science-oriented building in the complex; a “living museum inspired by nature and science,” in the words of Mayne.
Frankly, the museum’s list of features make me, a science center-goer of the 1990s, feel super old. There’s a digital cheetah kids can race against, an EEG machine that lets kids attempt to guide ping-pong balls with their brain waves, an “earthquake floor,” a garden full of instruments and glowing chartreuse frogs, and so on. There are also some timeless fixtures, like a full Alamosaurus skeleton. One odd note, as Mother Jones and the New York Times note, is the exhibit on fracking and its machinery.
As a piece of architecture, Mayne’s building is consistent with his past work, eschewing conventional symmetry and proportion for a surgical treatment of public space. The plan is dominated by a 170-foot-tall concrete box, which contains most of the exhibit space. A set of escalators slice directly through the box, protruding in oblique glass shards from the upper levels. A curving armature extends into the landscape, creating a grotto condition with water features and covered outdoor space. “It is a fundamentally public building,” Mayne explains, “a building that opens up, belongs to and activates the city. It is a place of exchange. It contains knowledge, preserves information and transmits ideas; ultimately, the public is as integral to the museum as the museum is to the city.”
The facade treatment, whether you like the swooping formalism or not, is fascinating up close: nearly 700 precast panels are molded to give the impression of fabric being drawn taught over the skeleton underneath. Endearingly, Mayne’s own excitement about education shows through. Inside, certain stretches of wall have been left untouched; kids can examine pipes and other service cores. “Rejecting the notion of museum architecture as neutral background for exhibits, the new building itself is an active tool for science education,” he says.
The response to the building has been overwhelmingly positive, but there’s also a little irony to the fanfare over the Perot. Only a few blocks away, the city is embroiled in a controversy over one of its first truly remarkable pieces of architecture, Renzo Piano’s Nasher Sculpture Center. After a massive reflective condo building was erected next door, the Nasher’s gardens have been ruined, James Turrell requested that his skyspace be removed, and Piano’s elegant shading system is no longer fully functional.
Wonderfully, Dallas is full of people who love to give to arts and education. Unfortunately, after only a decade of use, it’s being boxed in with bad (or nonexistent) planning. Only two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal published a compelling post on the "Dickensian" controversy, saying "the end is nowhere in sight." Check that out here. | <urn:uuid:46eec74f-59eb-417f-b124-bd81cc9c3a9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671351/dallas-gets-a-cutting-edge-science-center-from-ross-perot-and-thom-mayne | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944782 | 821 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The Giving Tree: Dallas Urban Forest Chair Gets Bush Volunteer Award
Steve Houser's the chair of the Dallas Urban Forest Advisory Committee, as well as the founder and former president of the Dallas Historic Tree Coalition, which is "a local citizens' group advocating protection and preservation of irreplaceable trees in urban landscapes." In other words, the dude's a tree-hugger -- as evidenced by an Allison V. Smith photo of Houser actually hugging a tree in a 2002 High Profile.
And for that -- and, more specifically, his work with the North Texas Chapter-Texas Master Naturalist program -- he'll gets a hug from President Bush come October 25. That's when Houser will pick up his President’s Volunteer Service Award, given to folks who "dedicate at least 4,000 hours -- or two years -- to service over the course of their lives." (Houser's got 5,000 hours under his belt, showoff.) The city's media release concerning the award, which Houser will share with two other locals, follows. --Robert Wilonsky
Dallas Committee Chair To Be Honored By President Bush
Chair of Urban Forest Advisory Committee honored for donating more than 5,000 hours of volunteer service
The City of Dallas and Green Dallas congratulate Steve Houser, Chair of Dallas Urban Forest Advisory Committee for earning the President’s Volunteer Service Award. Houser and two other North Texans will be honored October 25th for donating more than 5,000 hours of service to their respective communities through the North Texas Chapter-Texas Master Naturalist program (NTC-TMN), which is a partnership effort between Texas AgriLife Extension, Dallas County, and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Houser is a Certified Master Naturalist and has been Chair of the City’s Urban Forest Advisory Committee since its creation in 2005. He truly loves his work as an arborist and has lent his expertise, enthusiasm and guidance to the City of Dallas through his work on the Committee. He has been instrumental in protecting Dallas’ trees, helping secure a City Forester, initiating a tree inventory to take place in 2009, and educating North Texans on our trees and their role in our environment.
Dallas is home to the largest urban forest in the country, the Great Trinity Forest. Therefore, it is especially important for the City to have the expert advice and information when dealing with this valuable natural resource, and Mr. Houser is always at the City’s beckon call.
Congratulations Steve Houser!
About the President’s Volunteer Service Award:
The President's Council on Service and Civic Participation created the President's Volunteer Service Award program in 2003 as a way to thank and honor Americans who, by their demonstrated commitment and example, inspire others to engage in volunteer service. The Texas Master Naturalist Program state office is the certifying organization for TMN volunteers to receive the president’s council award when volunteers reach the 5,000 hour service milestone.
About the Texas Master Naturalist:
The Texas Master Naturalist mission is to develop a corps of well-informed volunteers that provide education, outreach and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within the community.
The Texas Master Naturalist program was created to help cities and others struggling with costly environmental and land sustainability issues. TMN helps to educate and provide best management practices to residents with regard to conserving and protecting our natural resources.
The volunteers will receive their awards in ceremonies Oct. 25 during the Texas Master Naturalist Statewide Annual Meeting at Mo-Ranch in Hunt, Texas.
More information on the North Texas Chapter-Texas Master Naturalist program is on the organization’s Web site: www.ntmn.org
About GREEN DALLAS
The City of Dallas’ Green Dallas initiative is aimed at environmental responsibility and encourages both public and private sector involvement. To find out more about how the City of Dallas is an environmental leader and what residents can do to ‘build a greener Dallas,’ visit the City’s green Web site www.GreenDallas.net. | <urn:uuid:5775b5c8-b0f9-4c15-b3d4-ee6a680cdb38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2008/10/the_giving_tree_dallas_urban_f.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939477 | 850 | 1.523438 | 2 |
How many 90-year-old women start designing their own fashion accessories line for the Home Shopping Network and get to be the subject of a new documentary by a renowned filmmaker? Not many. But then again, Iris Apfel is not your usual nonagenarian.
In the sunset of her life Apfel, style icon and interior designer, has received the most attention and been the most appreciated. As much as you may dislike her exotic and riotous taste (“A more-is-more mix of haute couture and hippie trimmings that appears at a glance to have been blended in a Cuisinart,” is how Ruth La Ferla referred to it in The New York Times), it is hard to take your eyes off her eye-popping outfits and oversized round eyeglasses.
While those glasses are going to be the inspiration for a line of scarves that Apfel will be hocking on HSN, it is her larger-than-life personality that has attracted Albert Maysles (director of “Grey Gardens”) and his production company. Apfel is a woman with a lot of moxie, a lot to say, and lots and lots of clothes — most of them stored in a huge warehouse. “She’s wonderfully strong-willed, opinionated and single-minded,” Bradley Kaplan, president of products at Maysles Films, told the Times. “She’s not a waffler.”
Others have recognized Apfel’s uniqueness and put either her or her clothes in the spotlight. The Metropolitan Museum of Art ran a show dedicated to her wardrobe in 2005. It was called “Rara Avis (Rare Bird): The Irreverent Iris Apfel,” perhaps a reference to her willingness to wear feathers, but most likely a nod to her singular sense of fashion. In 2007, Bruce Weber photographed the then-86-year-old for Italian Vogue. The same year, her wardrobe was documented in a coffee table book by photographer Eric Boman.
Apfel started her career at Women’s Wear Daily as an assistant to highly regarded interior designers and illustrators. She and her husband, Carl Apfel, ran their own textile and design firm, Old World Weavers, until their retirement in 1992. Over the years, Apfel worked on a number of important design restoration projects, including many at the White House.
“I never thought that in my dotage, that I’d have to find an entertainment lawyer,” the style icon told the Times’ La Ferla in reference to Maysles’ documentary. But given her growing celebrity status, Apfel shouldn’t be too surprised.
We can’t wait to see what she’s going to wear to the film’s premiere. | <urn:uuid:e481764f-2a25-4271-83a0-8952d17812da> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/142311/albert-maysles-making-documentary-about-style-icon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963097 | 603 | 1.5 | 2 |
Where we are different, we have a 200 year history and culture of gun ownership. And we have a Second Amendment, and we have a system that believes the rights -- the Second Amendment in other words -- predate the republic.
And the point of having a government, as in the Declaration, is to secure the rights. In Britain, you have no such right; the government will control gun ownership. So unless you are willing to confiscate -- which would be unconstitutional and would cause insurrection in the country -- as Australia did, these things will not have an effect, except at the margins. And that's the tragedy here.
Source: RealClearPolitics. Read full article. (link) | <urn:uuid:5df61987-3247-4df1-9f05-06a7256ad367> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://reason.com/24-7/2013/01/10/krauthammer-warns-gun-confiscation-would | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964873 | 141 | 1.65625 | 2 |
When Norton reissued “The Feminine Mystique” last month, I picked it up. I’d read excerpts before, in classes I’d taken and taught, but I hadn’t read the entire book. I was stunned by its relevance.
How could a book written for my mother’s generation still be applicable or appealing to me, a working mother, in 2013?
Each time I’ve taught the university course on contemporary women’s fiction, I’ve been struck by one of its key trajectories: the unhappiness of the modern moll. Over and over again, I’ve seen in the work I teach, my students and my colleagues a profound preoccupation with what Friedan calls “a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction.” If so much has changed since Friedan wrote “The Feminine Mystique,” modern women still seem awfully unhappy.
Within her book, Friedan posits it’s because middle-class, educated women are trapped in the suburbs. Lonely and bored, they turn to alcohol and drugs to bear the ennui of their lives. She suggests that if women just got out and worked, they’d be happy – that in working lies an end to disenchantment.
But contemporary literature, psychological studies and women – both young and old – suggest this is not the case. Working has not made us happier. In spite of living the feminist dream, the women I see are tired, stressed and overworked. With the modern conveniences of BlackBerries and smartphones, we’re always on – waiting for the text from our bosses, our partners, our children, our children’s teachers, our parents, our neighbors. We’re hyper-attuned, always listening for the beep that warns us of the next emergency (no matter how small).
Our very connectivity creates anxiety. From a psychological point of view, we’re in a perpetual state of fight or flight. Friedan, I think, would take notice.
Once again, we’re responding to the situation by drugging ourselves. Statistics suggest that 1 in 4 university students is on anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medicine. We take herbs to help us sleep, go to yoga classes, practice meditation and yet, as near as I can tell, these steps aren’t helping us, at least not collectively, at least not yet.
That sense of collectivity, which Friedan also identified, is important. As an English professor, I teach individuals: individual students and individual works. I’ve been trained and I train my students to read closely. But, like Friedan, by reading enough individuals – and enough stories – I’ve started to see a pattern, one, I think, unique to our sociohistorical moment.
If women’s unhappiness is nothing new, as Freud suggests, I do think women have of late grown unhappier. Writers and psychiatrists have it right in terms of case studies: looking at people closely reveals insights larger insights. Fiction’s focus on particular people speaks to the creation of modern identity – the notion of individuality, which remains the persistent way we see ourselves. The very popularity of novels, memoirs, talk shows and contemporary feminist accounts like Anne-Marie Slaughter’s “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” or Naomi Wolf’s “Vagina” suggest we’re still impressed by individual stories. We read about people we may not like but on some level we relate to.
Women read. And we talk about what we read. In small and large groups. Friedan’s study was one of the catalysts that began the consciousness-raising movement of the 1970s, when women began talking and then effectively worked for social change. But somewhere along the way the phenomenon turned into book clubs. What is it about stories about unhappy people that make women want to read, ruminate on and talk about them? What would Friedan say?
I think people are unhappy because we work long hours, struggle too much and worry and because our current cultural moment is the moment of the individual. And the public sense of self – as emblematized within novels, memoirs, blogs and articles – is unquestioningly anxious and unhappy.
In The Chronicle of Higher Education, Rachel Shteir laments contemporary works on women as being “too narcissistically self-helpy,” but this observation dismisses how important the individual and the individual account is. Our current historical moment is the moment of the story of private suffering, even as we talk about it publicly. The reissuing and relevance of “The Feminine Mystique” in 2013 suggests that not all that much has changed in the past 50 years, even if women have exchanged their domestic chains for corporate handcuffs.
It’s time to take a cue from Friedan. If turning off that smartphone isn’t a good first step, then perhaps turning the conversation outward is.
Katherine Montwieler is associate professor of English and women’s studies at UNC-Wilmington. | <urn:uuid:9817e8c1-ec81-44c6-b580-f55edffd33fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/03/10/2735664/50-years-after-the-feminine-mystique.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947388 | 1,083 | 1.765625 | 2 |
As Dan Mitchell pointed out this morning, proposals to abolish the $100 bill, on the grounds that it’s too easily used in underground-economy activities such as tax evasion and drug dealing, are another instance in which ordinary citizens are called on to sacrifice convenience and privacy to help in the ever-expanding federal fight against “money laundering.” I’ve long been fascinated by the unintended consequences that arise from these laws, especially from the federal “know your customer” rules under which banks (and increasingly other businesses) are required to pry into their customers’ earnings sources, family relationships, overseas ties and other sensitive matters. Those who cannot furnish satisfactory answers – such as Americans who lack a suitable recent domestic credit record because they have long lived as dependents, overseas, or even as nuns in convents – may find that banks turn them away as customers or even freeze their existing accounts. The same is true of established customers who cannot explain a large or irregular series of cash deposits or remittances from abroad to a bank officer’s satisfaction.
A new example of this has emerged this fall, and it’s embarrassing even by the standards of federal government foul-ups. According to a Foreign Policy report last month, no fewer than 37 foreign governments with embassies in the United States are on the brink of losing, or have already lost, access to the routine banking services they need to pay their staff salaries and keep the lights and heat on in their consulates. The reason? These governments cannot prove to the satisfaction of U.S. banks that their accounts are not potentially open to use for illicit money transfers. From the banks’ point of view, there is no particular benefit to be had from an account which is relatively small in the first place – the countries involved are mostly poorer nations, many in Africa, with small embassy staffs – when these are dwarfed by the paperwork costs and potential legal exposures from a misstep.
The consequences for American foreign interests have already been unpleasant, and will become more so if the problem isn’t fixed. Angola, which saw its accounts closed down by Bank of America, has already had to cancel planned national independence day celebrations and has hinted at retaliation against unrelated U.S. companies that happen to do business in Angola. Extend that sort of anger to 37 countries, and some significant international frictions could result.
Now, I have no doubt that some embassy bank accounts, of smaller and bigger countries alike, are pressed into service for improper or even criminal money transfers. (I always assumed the whole point of “diplomatic pouches” was to transfer things back and forth that the host country would have preferred to stop and inspect). But the odds are near zero, I think, that the latest wave of bank refusals-to-deal was somehow a planned or intended consequence of the original federal calls for wide-ranging bank regulation in the name of money-laundering prevention. How many such unintended consequences will the new Dodd-Frank law turn out to have? | <urn:uuid:f0c14899-4639-4952-953a-0e670a8687d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cato.org/blog/tags/diplomatic-pouches | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9688 | 626 | 1.757813 | 2 |
How well prepared are UK manufacturers for the next challenge of turning their investments in productivity and competitiveness over the past decade into transformational growth in the next?
To answer this question and to understand the current state of British industry, our new report - The Shape of British Industry - Growing from strong foundations - draws on a survey of 300 manufacturers as well as in-depth discussions with dozens of businesses.
What comes out is a picture of an industry starting from strength, but cautious about growth. Having weathered the recession, UK manufacturing emerges as an innovative, diverse and globally engaged sector. Firms have continued to boost productivity and competitiveness, even if they have struggled to deliver profits or meet their ambitions. According to our new report there's both good and bad news.
Chart 1 - SMEs less likely to turn productivity boost into profits or growth
% balance with increase in productivity, profits and meeting growth objectives
There is, however, one striking feature: the UK, has relatively fewer large manufacturers – those employing more than 250 people – than our closest competitors.
Chart 2 - UK has relatively fewer larger manufacturers,
Number of manufcturers with 250+ employees (US figure is for firms with 500+ employees), and large companies as % of total manufacturers
The twin dynamics that could drive growth in manufacturing are large companies creating markets for a dynamic, diverse supply chain and innovative, agile suppliers attracting large, mobile multinationals to the UK. The danger for manufacturing and the economy is that the lack of larger companies could slow this dynamic, leading to a hollowing out of supply chains and placing a cap on future growth
After a deep recession in which the economy shrunk by 6%, a manufacturing-led recovery has helped drive a year of good economic news. Exports to developing economies are booming and the private sector is slowly creating jobs again. But with public sector cuts looming and a currency war threatening to derail the global economy, we cannot take this growth for granted.
Generating long-term, sustainable growth will require the private sector and government to work together to build on the strengths of sectors – such as manufacturing – that are essential to tackling our future challenges, such as global security, demographic change and climate change. Government, therefore, has a big part to play in providing the right framework that will support and catalyse private sector investment and business growth.
As the Prime Minister stated in his speech on growth, this will mean more than government getting out of the way.
Instead it will need to be clear about what its role is in generating and supporting growth.
The previous government’s preferred approach was overly focused on industrial champions. The current government’s attention to start-ups and young businesses is helpful, but is in danger of swinging too far in the opposite direction.
Yet growth is not a big or small issue. It is about providing sufficient demand to sustain a dynamic and diverse supply network. It is about big businesses with the capacity to drive innovation and productivity down supply chains. And it is about growing bigger businesses with the scale and muscle to invest in tackling our long-term economic challenges.
Prior to the recession, manufacturers’ investments in innovation, their collaboration and their agility were paying dividends. But knocked off their plans for growth during the recession, many companies are now justifiably cautious about investing in growth until they gain greater certainty over the economic and business environment.
Growing more, larger manufacturers is, in part, about continuing to attract new ones to the UK. But it is also about ensuring small and medium-sized manufacturers overcome barriers that constrain them.
The limited availability of affordable finance traps some young and small companies in a Catch-22: unable to get the necessary finance, their ability to plan for growth is constrained, yet unable to demonstrate clear ambitions for growth, some firms find it difficult to get the appropriate finance. If they do manage to grow, these firms would be caught in the thicket of tax and red tape that helps make mid-sized cautious about planning to become truly global in scale.
Chart 13 Tax and regulation are major concerns for mid-size firms
% balance of companies citing UK strengths by company size
The Prime Minister has challenged industry to commit “to create and innovate; to invest and grow; to develop and break boundaries”.
This report shows that manufacturers are already rising to the challenge, but it also sets out where both manufacturers as well as government must make better progress if we are to grow a generation of bigger manufacturers.
Maintaining momentum behind the recovery is crucial. But not all economic growth is equal: imbalanced and unsustainable growth can leave a terrible legacy, as the recent financial crisis and recession have shown.
To ensure our economy can pay its own way in the future, the UK does not need a handful of bigger manufacturers, we need hundreds of them. | <urn:uuid:17baf9b5-d51d-459d-89ff-648deb208d99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.eef.org.uk/blog/?tag=/prime+minister | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961994 | 984 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Instability at B.C. landslide site thwarts rescue efforts
Published Thursday, July 12, 2012 6:46PM EDT
Last Updated Thursday, July 12, 2012 10:07PM EDT
The search for at least four missing people after a landslide in a remote vacation spot in southeastern B.C. has been temporarily called off due to instability.
The slide happened near the community of Johnsons Landing, which is roughly 70 kilometres north of Nelson.
Witnesses say a wall of mud and debris came crashing down the mountain at around 11 on Thursday morning.
“I was standing on the road this morning when the rumbling sound came along, and you could actually here this rumbling come down the mountain and go past us,” resident Richard Ortega told CTV News.
The slide destroyed three homes, and the number of people still unaccounted for is between four and eight, RCMP spokesperson Cpl Dan Moskaluk said.
The area has no cellphone reception so officials have been unable to reach the residents whose homes were affected, and it is not known if those unaccounted for were home when the landslide occurred.
Crews had started a search but instability on the mountain meant the search had to be temporarily suspended for the safety of the rescue workers until geotechnicians can determine it is safe, said Bill Macpherson, a public information officer with Central Kootenay Regional District.
RCMP officers from the Kootenay Boundary Regional Detachment and Kaslo Detachment are on scene, with support from RCMP Traffic Services, a helicopter from Kelowna, two police service dog teams, and an underwater rescue team, Moskaluk said.
A rescue team from Vancouver is also expected to arrive, according to Macpherson.
A landslide expert and a geotechnician are on the scene to determine the cause of the slide
With reports from The Canadian Press | <urn:uuid:b18e8942-3672-4aca-b1f6-1f0b8cd77198> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/instability-at-b-c-landslide-site-thwarts-rescue-efforts-1.876780?playVideo= | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964898 | 393 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Book Clubs: Which is the Best One To Join?
Most of us have heard of Richard & Judy’s Book Club, made popular on their Channel Five evening TV programmes whilst it was showing. But since its appearance it has spawned many others, in national newspapers and online, with subjects covering academia to childrens books. So if you ever fancied joining one but were daunted by the prospect of where to start, we have shifted through the majority of them to find the best online book clubs and show you what they are offering. Whether you just want to browse and get a feel of a story, discover new authors or read along with fellow book enthusiasts, there is something for everyone. So let’s get started with children’s book clubs.
And speaking of Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, in late May of this year they launched the second of their Children’s Book Clubs. The Children’s Book Club is once again made up of three categories which includes- Read Together, Read Yourself and Fluent Reader, and aims to help parents choose great books which children will love. Each category has six books to choose from so you are bound to find one your child will love reading. Visit www.richardandjudy.co.uk to see what books they are recommending this summer.
For the older readers amongst us, check out The Guardian newspaper. It has an online book club which is complimented with a weekly column that is hosted by John Mullan, professor of English at University College London. The Guardian’s book club examines a book a month and has a live Q&A session with the author. Mullan’s first three columns will discuss the book in question; his final column consists of a selection of your comments from the live event and the blog. To be the first to find out about forthcoming events go towww.guardian.co.uk/books/series/bookclub.
If you don’t fancy joining an actual book club but want honest opinions of books you may want to read, then may I recommend a visit to www.classicbookclub.co.uk. Here you will find down to earth reviews of the classics from contemporary fiction to older masterpieces. Instead of pondering about which book you should be reading and wondering whether Jane Austin is worth a second go after your horrible experience at school, here you can get the gist of a book in seconds. And you can write your own reviews on the books you have loved for other readers.
Finally, for ladies who don’t have time to lunch but wouldn’t mind a half an hour to spend with a good book, how about a look at The SheKnows Book Club? You can interact with other readers in the comfort of their own homes, there is a forum to chat with the authors, read special thought pieces on intriguing topics and more. You’ll feed your love of books and connect with other busy women, book lovers and authors. And there is a new selection of books every other month so you are not too over faced. For more information on how to join visit www.sheknows.com
- World Book Day March 7 2013 billed as ‘biggest book show on earth’
- John & Carole Barrowman’s Hollow Earth books set to rival Harry Potter?
- Do you want a book with that? McDonald’s to give away 15m children’s books with burgers
- World Book Day – March 1st 2012
- Where to Find Free e-Books for the Kindle 3
- One Day by David Nicholls
- Three Steps To Writing A Research Paper | <urn:uuid:756b88fa-53b2-4a04-bfe8-9db4bc052175> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.shoppersbase.com/3131/book-clubs-which-one-is-the-best-one-to-join/ | 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 | 0.952586 | 756 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Published: Aug. 16, 2012
Updated: Aug. 16, 2012
By Sarah Avery
Prostate Cancer Drug Q&A
A new oral hormone drug for advanced prostate cancer, enzalutamide, is expected to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration later this year after clinical trials at Duke Cancer Institute and elsewhere demonstrated promising results.
Duke’s Andrew Armstrong, M.D., was co-author of a report published Aug. 15, 2012, in the New England Journal of Medicine showing a 4.8-month improvement in median overall survival, to 18.4 months for patients taking the investigational once-daily pill, compared to 13.6 months for patients taking a placebo.
Armstrong , an associate professor of medicine, said the Duke Cancer Institute has one of the leading sites to enroll patients in the Phase III trial of enzalutamide. He offered these insights:
Q: Who were the patients enrolled in this drug study?
A: These were all men with hormone resistant, metastatic prostate cancer, which means their cancer progressed and spread after receiving hormonal therapy and first-line chemotherapy with docetaxel. Overall, the study enrolled a very large number of men, 1,199 at more than 150 centers in 15 countries, and Duke was one of the largest enrollment sites.
Q: What were some of the results that have generated such excitement among oncologists and patients?
A: This drug showed results that aren’t often seen in cancer studies. In addition to the nearly five-month improvement in overall survival, the drug dramatically reduced PSA levels in 54 percent of men, compared to 2 percent on placebo. It also extended the period that the cancer didn’t grow, to 8.3 months vs. 2.9 months. Quality of life scores also improved, along with other secondary measures, and the toxicity was quite similar to that of a placebo pill.
What is so exciting is that this agent is a hormonal therapy and worked in men who were thought to be resistant to all hormonal therapies. Thus, this treatment and others like it are changing how we think of prostate cancer.
Q: Were there any side effects?
A: There did appear to be a bit more fatigue, a slightly elevated risk of falls, more hot flashes and a small but noticeable seizure risk. Six patients out of 800 who received enzalutamide experienced a seizure, but some seizures had other potential explanations such as cancer spreading into the brain or other medications that may have contributed.
Q: When would you expect enzalutamide to be available?
A: The manufacturers (Medivation, Inc. and Astellas Pharma) submitted their application to the FDA in May, and we are hoping it will be approved before the end of the year, ideally this fall.
Q: Can patients get the drug now at Duke through any clinical trials?
We are actively pursuing trials in earlier pre-chemotherapy settings for men with advanced prostate cancer, including one that is slated to begin later this fall. It will involve patients with progressive non-metastatic or metastatic prostate cancer who have failed androgen deprivation therapy but have not yet received chemotherapy.
Q: This drug is one of several new therapies that have recently shown benefit for prostate cancer patients – it seems these are encouraging times for men with this disease.
A: There really have been some exciting developments. Abiraterone acetate (marketed as Zytiga) is a hormone treatment that was approved last year for men with advanced disease who had already undergone chemotherapy, and it had similarly exciting findings to enzalutamide. Cabazitaxel (marketed as Jevtana) and sipuleucel-T (marketed as Provenge) came on the market in 2010. Denosumab (Xgeva) has shown benefit in reducing pain and fractures due to prostate cancer in the bone. And there is a new radioisotope therapy (alpharadin, or radium-223) that seeks out bone metastases and has demonstrated improvement in survival and quality of life.
So it’s been a very good two years. However, we can do better, and efforts are ongoing at Duke and elsewhere to build upon this success. | <urn:uuid:d46d6906-953e-4801-8a6a-e6434add36ba> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dukehealth.org/prostate-cancer-drug-q-a/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967658 | 880 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Lake Frank Jackson
Lake Frank Jackson is a 1,037-acre reservoir located on Lightwood Knot Creek within the Yellow River watershed in eastern Covington County, Alabama. This lake is part of Frank Jackson State Park which encompasses over 2,000 acres. This park is located just off Highway 331 on the north side of Opp, Alabama. Frank Jackson State Park provides excellent opportunities for camping, swimming, hiking, picnicking, wildlife viewing, and fishing. The park includes a two-lane concrete boat ramp. Boat launch fees are $1 per boat for adults under 62, and $0.50 per boat for seniors over 62 years old. Entrance fees for the park are $1 each for ages 12 to 61 and $0.50 each for children under 12 or seniors over 62 years old.
Anglers drift for crappie near the dam at Lake Frank Jackson, November 2007.
Biologist Mike Holley holds a good-size chain pickerel collected during trap net sampling for crappie on Lake Frank Jackson.
The crappie population in Lake Frank Jackson was sampled using trapnets by the Fisheries Section of the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division during the fall of 2007. Twelve trapnets were set on four different nights throughout the lake, and 75 crappie were collected. The collection contained both white crappie and black crappie, and crappie ranged from 2 inches long to nearly 15 inches long. The crappie ranged in age from 0 to 6 years old, with over 90% of the sample age 2 years old or less. Growth rates were fairly fast for these fish, with crappie reaching about 10 inches long after 2 years, and 14 inches long after 4 years. During the winter months, most anglers targeted crappie by slowly drifting or trolling jigs or minnows over deep ledges and structure near the dam or along the creek channel near the Highway 331 Bridge. As the water warms in spring and crappie move up to spawn, anglers usually catch most fish in shallow water along submerged brush, especially in the upper end of the reservoir.
Status of Fisheries
Bass – The last time largemouth bass were sampled at Lake Frank Jackson, the lake contained a fairly abundant population of bass in the 1- to 3-pound range. The lake is scheduled to be sampled in April of 2008, at which time the status will be updated.
Crappie - Black crappie and white crappie are both present. Fall sampling indicated that the crappie population was moderately abundant, with most fish in the 7- to 11-inch size class.
Catfish - Channel catfish are the most common species. The Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division stocked 1,000 adult channel catfish in the fall of 2007 to supplement the existing population.
Bluegill – Bluegill are fairly abundant along submerged shoreline cover throughout the lake. Worms and crickets generally work well throughout the spring, summer, and into the fall.
The Fisheries Section's District IV biologists can answer specific questions about Frank Jackson Lake by sending mail to: [email protected].
Frank Jackson Lake has fish consumption advisory. Information on the consumption advisory may be found at the Alabama Department of Public Health Web site, www.adph.org. Consumption advisory information is found in "A-Z Contents" under "Fish Consumption Advisories."
It is illegal to possess blueback herring in Alabama. Regulations designate legal capture methods for bait and specify additional species that may not be used for bait.
It shall be unlawful to intentionally stock or release any fish, mussel, snail, crayfish or their embryos including bait fish into the public waters of Alabama under the jurisdiction of the Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries as provided in Rule 220-2-.42 except those waters from which it came without the written permission of a designated employee of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources authorized by the Director of the Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries to issue such permit. The provisions of this rule shall not apply to the incidental release of bait into the water during the normal process of fishing.
Prepared by: Fisheries Section, Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. This site is presented for information only the Fisheries Section cannot be responsible for the quality of information or services offered through linked sites, disclaimer. To have your site included, send your URL, email address, or telephone number to the Fisheries Web Master, [email protected]. The Fisheries Section reserves the right to select sites based on relevant and appropriate content, of interest to our viewers. If you discover errors in the content or links of this page, please contact Doug Darr. Thank you. | <urn:uuid:30003d82-11da-441a-86e3-6844e95c3007> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://[email protected]/fishing/freshwater/where/reservoirs/jackson/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936304 | 988 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Some in the Arab World Worry that Clinton Would Be More Hawk Than Dove
Sunday, November 23, 2008
There is possibly no person President-elect Barack Obama considered for secretary of state who is more reliably pro-Israel than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), the woman to whom he appears likely to give the job sometime after Thanksgiving.
During the Democratic primary campaign, Clinton said the United States could "obliterate" Iran if it launched a nuclear attack on Israel. She said the United States should not negotiate with Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, unless it renounced terrorism. "The United States stands with Israel, now and forever," Clinton told AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, at its conference in June.
Yet Clinton is also the former first lady who famously broke with her husband's administration in 1998 and said Palestinians should have a state of their own. Ten years later, the comment seems unexceptional, but at the time it prompted the White House to make clear she was speaking only for herself.
Clinton's foreign policy views will be scrutinized closely in the weeks ahead, but as her past statements on the Middle East illustrate, she has a considerable track record that provides evidence for several plausible explanations of how she might try to focus U.S. diplomacy.
Arabs, particularly Palestinians, are nervous that Obama seems prepared to give the job of top diplomat to a senator from New York who has spent eight years cultivating her pro-Israel constituency and would continue, they think, a lack of U.S. evenhandedness in refereeing the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Because of what they regard as her bellicose rhetoric toward Iran and her initial support for the Iraq war, some see her selection as a sign that Obama intends to conduct a more hawkish foreign policy than he suggested during the campaign.
Other diplomats and foreign policy experts say Clinton would bring to Foggy Bottom one of the leading voices in the Senate for a new U.S. commitment to more aggressive diplomacy. They say she would push hard for a Middle East peace deal, in keeping with the activist approach taken by President Bill Clinton in the final years of his administration.
Some who have worked closely with Hillary Clinton during her years as first lady and as a senator say that these predictions miss the point that she would be looking to fashion practical solutions to the issues of Middle East peace, Iran's nuclear program, Iraq's political future and other problems that would confront her and Obama next year.
"The first thing you need to know about Hillary Clinton is she is a pragmatist -- she wants to know what works," said Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), who has traveled with Clinton on fact-finding trips for the Armed Services Committee. "She believes in diplomacy and multilateral solutions but is not averse to using force when that is the only opportunity to protect our national security interests."
What Clinton believes will be somewhat beside the point come Jan. 20: In her new post, she would be vying with other powerful figures -- including Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. -- for the president's ear, and she would be responsible for implementing a foreign policy established in the end by Obama.
The biggest determinant for Clinton's success, according to former State Department officials, is the kind of working arrangement she is able to establish with Obama, with whom she had a testy relationship during the primaries that seemed to warm up during the general-election campaign. Many foreign policy experts are privately baffled that Obama would deliver such a key job to someone from outside his close circle of supporters.
"She has a strong physical and intellectual presence that she can project, and she's plenty tough," said Aaron David Miller, a former State Department Middle East negotiator who advised six secretaries of state. "What we don't know is: Does she have the negotiator's mind-set? And we know she doesn't yet have the kind of trust and confidence of the president that's critically important."
Leon Billings, who served as chief of staff to Edmund Muskie, the last senator to become secretary of state, said Clinton's "success will be less a function of her own skills and capabilities than how much confidence the president places in her and the extent to which he demands, not just insists, that his inner circle give her the support she will need to do the job that he needs her to do." | <urn:uuid:23d8a5b6-bd37-488d-a736-2e786eae3857> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/22/AR2008112201999.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978543 | 901 | 1.796875 | 2 |
With the rise in internet couponing there has been a rise in fraudulent coupons as well. While it is important to know what a fraudulent coupon looks like, it's even more important to know what a real coupon looks like. If you're around the real thing long enough, it won't be hard to recognize a fake.
If you aren't sure about a coupon, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Is anything in life really free? Well, yes, but as of right now, companies are not offering printable coupons for free products. Instead companies offer those types of promotions in the form of a rebate or a snail mail coupon that you have signed up to receive. Even if you have printed a coupon for a 'free' product, many local stores have stopped taking them due to fraud. Therefore, if all your coupons are for free products and are printed from the internet, they're likely fraudulent and will cost the store money if you use them.
2. Does the coupon have an expiration date? Almost all coupons have an expiration date especially if they are internet coupons. If you find an internet printable coupon without an expiration date, it is more than likely fraudulent especially if that coupon offers a ‘free’ product. Both of those factors are signs that your coupon is likely a fake.
3. Is the coupon for an unreasonable amount? Is the coupon $10 off the purchase of one bottled water? If the value of the coupon is strangely large in comparison to the price of the actual product then it's likely a fake. Notice the picture above, that coupon would have had a value of $44! How many coupons have you seen worth that much?
4. What type of coupon is it? Is the coupon a .pdf file? Coupons that come in the form of a .pdf file or even a .jpeg picture can be altered and therefore could be fraudulent. There are exceptions to this rule, the main one being if you find the coupon on a manufacturers website. While rare, some companies still do offer coupons in this format and those are completely legit.
The coupons that come in the form of .pdf files that are fraudulent typically have the other elements I’ve described in this post such as no expiration date and/or they are for totally free products. And, they are normally sent via e-mail from friends not companies.
5. How did you receive the coupon? Was the coupon e-mailed to you or did you print it directly from a coupon site? Most e-mailed coupons tend to be fraudulent unless they are e-mails directing you to print the coupon off from a legitimate site or the manufacturer’s site or is a promotion you signed up for. If you do not recognize the promotion or if it is sent to you from a friend of a friend, just delete the e-mail.
Keep in mind using fraudulent coupons at the grocery store is the same as stealing straight from the register. If you wouldn't take money out of the register then make sure you're not using fake coupons either. Coupon fraud is illegal and hurts not just the store but couponers as well. If a store experiences too much coupon fraud, they change their policies and restrict legitimate coupon users.
Don't get so nervous that you don't use coupons, the majority of the coupons you print are likely just fine. In fact, I never saw a fake coupon until I started this business.
The most important thing is to make sure you use legit websites to get your coupons. On MoneySavingQueen.com, we take this issue very seriously and are extremely careful with each post we make. You can trust our posts and the sites we recommend as well.
If you're looking for coupons, stick to manufacturer websites and well known websites such as Coupons.com, Redplum.com and Smartsource.com. To find a list of fraudulent coupons right now, visit the Coupon Information Corporation.
More than anything, get to know the real thing and recognizing a fake will be easy!
Check out our news segment below and the recent coupon ring bust: | <urn:uuid:7b5043f1-6a31-4392-8732-0ad65b68e5ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kvue.com/marketplace/money-saving-queen/couponing-101/162565306.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955267 | 843 | 1.796875 | 2 |
A Brazilian family received some information about Islam at Kurtulus Mosque in Nevsehir in Urgup and listened to the Qur’an for around 40 minutes.
Father Jorge Bonassa (50), mother Edva Bonassa (53) and the children Andre Bonassa (20) and Marcelo Bonassa (16) asked some questions about Islam to Mr Ismail Oruc, the imam of the Mosque. Ozay Onur, the guide, explained: “The imam’s close interest and kind manners and his recital of the Qur’an with his beautiful voice as well as giving information about the religion of Islam impressed the family. Their friends in Brazil have already converted Islam, that is how they came to have interest in Islam. They asked us for a Qur’an translation in Portugal language. We presented them an English translation of the Qur’an.”
Mr Jorge Bonassa stated that they received very good information about Islam religion and were really impressed by the local people’s kind manners towards them. “The real face of Islam is peace. That is what we understand here and we became very happy.” | <urn:uuid:2554c8af-71ab-4f34-b48b-5ae2cc7b0c40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.harunyahya.com/en/works/122082/A-Brazilian-Family-received-information-on-Islam-at-Mosque | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970783 | 247 | 1.6875 | 2 |
By Jim Schutze
By Rachel Watts
By Lauren Drewes Daniels
By Anna Merlan
By Lee Escobedo
By Eric Nicholson
"I was the first to light the torch of literature in this part of the country, however small, frail and easily extinguished that flame may be..." --from a 1933 letter written by Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft
At first blush it is little more than parched flatland, colored only by rugged mesquites and prickly pear cacti, a region where tiny towns like Cross Plains struggle to survive and weary cotton farmers coax small crops from rain-starved fields while endlessly reminiscing about the long-bygone days of oil-boom prosperity. Traveling west on Interstate 20, out of Fort Worth, past Weatherford, one soon arrives at the timeless epicenter of rural West Texas, leaving modern buildings, urban angst, and traffic jams far in the distance. Its slow-paced lifestyle is a world away; in actual miles it is but a quick day trip from downtown Dallas.
What had summoned me to this cliché, to the heartland of my youth, was not nostalgic wandering or modern-day pulse-taking but, rather, a half-century-old secret still hidden from literary scholars, readers, and book collectors worldwide.
What I sought in Cross Plains was the answer to questions no one has posed, certainly no one recently, but questions that have gnawed at me nonetheless: What was it here that could have inspired one of the most prolific, imaginative, and best-read authors in Texas history--a man who quite literally created a new genre in popular fiction? And why, despite his having an avid following decades after his death in 1936, have so few in his home state heard of him while other writers from the neighborhood are praised and presented prizes?
Just down the road, Katherine Anne Porter, author of Ship of Fools, was raised in a two-room log cabin in the Brown County hamlet of Indian Creek and went on to earn a Pulitzer and a National Book Award. A few miles to the east is what remains of the community of Putnam, birthplace of Larry L. King, who gave Broadway The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Abilene produced celebrated Texas historian A.C. Greene. San Angelo, not far away, is the home of award-winning Western writer Elmer Kelton.
Why, then, has Robert E. Howard, one of the state's bona fide literary pioneers, remained more cult figure than recognized man of letters--despite the facts that millions of his books have sold here and abroad, and that movies based on the characters he created have generated huge box-office profits and impressive television ratings? The best-kept secret in the history of Texas literature, this strange, introverted country doctor's son who spent the Depression days writing pulp-magazine stories of faraway lands and long-ago times--sword-and-sorcery fantasy, the genre experts call it--is oft-mentioned in the same breath with H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Howard has even been the subject of a couple of relatively obscure biographies and a charming independently produced movie (The Whole Wide World), yet his name rarely rings a bell with the book-reading masses.
Beyond the city limits of little Cross Plains, population 1,030--which remembers him each June with a weekend celebration--he remains a virtual stranger. Even the Texas Institute of Letters, whose sole purpose it is to ballyhoo the state's literati, has never seen fit to grant him membership.
His legacy, then, is not in the name he carved for himself but, instead, in the larger-than-life characters that burst from his old Underwood typewriter in the '20s and '30s at the pulp magazines' going rate of a penny per word: Conan the Barbarian, a mighty sword-wielding warrior who fought bloody battles in an imagined land at the dawn of civilization; Solomon Kane, a 16th-century adventurer devoted to righting wrong; King Kull, a stouthearted soldier raised by wolves on the mythical continent of Thuria who destroyed all who blocked his way to the throne. And while one might never have read a word Howard wrote, it is all but impossible to escape the impact of his brief but incredibly prolific output. Movies (two of which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan, one in which Kevin Sorbo played Kull, and one featuring Brigitte Nielsen as a one-time Howard short-story character, Red Sonja), books published in dozens of languages, an animated television series, a newspaper comic strip, comic books, trading cards, posters, and action figures have turned the long-dead Robert E. Howard into a multimillion-dollar industry that began in 1924 when, at age 18, he sold his first story to a publication called Weird Tales for $16.
Most who knew him in life deemed the title of the magazine to which he made that early sale apropos. "Weird" was one of the kinder descriptions of the burly Howard who once walked the unpaved streets of Cross Plains, often shadow-boxing and talking to himself as he went, sometimes wearing a huge Mexican sombrero and a far-away look. Those a bit harsher referred to him in whispered tones simply as "Doc Howard's crazy son."
None, of course, grasped the international impact this solitary and ultimately suicidal young man would one day have. The inspiration of this man, then, is what I've come to determine--as well as discover, I hope, the reason for his anonymity. I've researched his works, his life, and his tragic relationships. I've looked for insight by talking to his most avid fans, those who keep the Howard memorabilia industry humming. Now, unsatisfied, I've driven to this place in hopes of summoning the capricious spirit that helped him create warriors from West Texas dust. Ultimately, I want to measure the dark muse that, in a simpler time and place, took Robert E. Howard far away into the strange fantasylands he created.
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Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city | <urn:uuid:1be9cf64-93ad-48b1-a9dc-80f69b29a0c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dallasobserver.com/2000-05-25/news/howard-s-end/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960252 | 1,317 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Editor's Note: Frs. Vitale and Kelly appeared in court Oct. 17, changed their plea to no contest and were immediately taken into custoy. For details see: Priests imprisoned for five months in torture protest .
This week in Tucson, Ariz., Franciscan Fr. Louis Vitale, along with my Jesuit brother Fr. Steve Kelly, will stand trial. They're being tried on thin and haughty charges -- trespass and failure to obey an officer's orders.
November 2006, the two approached Fort Huachuca, the notorious base where instruction goes on in the practice of torture. In their hands was a letter addressed to Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, base commander. She was the top U.S. intelligence officer in Iraq as torture went on at Abu Ghraib. In the letter they wrote: "We condemn torture as a dehumanization of both prisoners and interrogators…. We are here today…to say that the training of torturers must immediately stop. Nothing justifies the inhumane treatment of our fellow brothers and sisters."
Guards at the gate forbade their entry, and the two took to their knees and prayed. Now they face a caricature of court, having lost the means to mount a proper defense. The judge has ruled as inadmissible subjects such as torture, Abu Ghraib, international law and the Military Commissions Act. Likely he'll show himself more lavish come sentencing time. Louis and Steve are looking at the prospects of many months in jail. It comes with the territory when one is incorrigible and notorious. Louis, 75, has been at the task of peacemaking a good long time -- this despite his early years following a conventional path and doing the expected things.
He grew up in California and attended L.A.'s Jesuit Loyola University. There he studied and drilled with the ROTC and then entered the Air Force as a navigator and intercept officer. In 1959, he entered the Franciscans, received ordination in 1963, and then taught in a small Franciscan college while pursuing his doctorate.
Then began the social revolution of the 1960's -- everything under question, the old edifices under scrutiny, and injustices thrown off like an old garment. Most priests were of the old guard and few jumped in. Louis by contrast took the leap and landed on his feet. He joined every social movement around and took on the big issues -- civil rights, draft resistance, the rights of farm workers. Cesar Chavez was his mentor, with whom he fasted and studied nonviolence. And he moved in circles where he met Dorothy Day, Philip Berrigan, Mother Theresa, Dr. King, Thomas Merton, and later Archbishop Romero.
In the early 1970s, he moved to Las Vegas and there started the Franciscan Center for Social Justice. And with the war in Vietnam ending, he turned his gaze toward the growing anti-nuclear movement. His first order of business was to learn of the dark purposes of the infamous Nevada Test Site, a vast desolate stretch, the most bombed place on the planet.
He became a provincial in 1979, and one of his earliest official acts was civil disobedience with Fr. Daniel Berrigan against nuclear weapons development at U.C- Berkeley. (Few male provincials, before or since, have dared such an act. I think it should be a requirement of all church leadership in today's times.) And while most equate the will of God with institutional prosperity, Louis took a refreshing, one would say scriptural stand. He famously renounced development funds and endowments. Surpluses he disdained. He earmarked them for the needs of the poor -- a policy that grew with his many solidarity delegations to Central America. That's where I met him some 20 years ago.
For the 800th birthday of St. Francis of Assisi in 1982, Louis and friends launched in Francis's name the Nevada Desert Experience. Here was a Lenten campaign of civil disobedience to demand an end to nuclear weapons tests. The thing was conceived as a one-time occasion. But it goes on to this day -- probably winning the honor of being the longest sustained nonviolent civil disobedience campaign in U.S. history. (See: www.nevadadesertexperience.org ). Tens of thousands since have come and crossed over the line, and the steady pressure has had an enormous impact. The government has halted over-ground testing. And thousands of Christians have learned a thing or two about civil disobedience and the diabolical nature of the bomb.
Then from 1992 until 2003, a long stint as pastor of San Francisco's St. Boniface church, in the Tenderloin district, the city's poorest neighborhood. There Louis hung out his pastoral shingle, priest to the homeless. He opened shelters and drop-in centers and served those in need. But to the surprise of the media, and the discomfiture of Christendom, he welcomed vagabonds and the rootless to sleep in the church. News outlets across the country converged on the scene to see. The pews teemed every day with the exhausted and the ill, dry and warm at last. And parishioners rose to the occasion and helped with job training and recovery programs. To this day the homeless look to St. Boniface as a welcoming place.
Meanwhile, Louis helped get Pace e Bene off the ground -- a program to teach the techniques of active nonviolence (See Paceebene.org ), a topic for which Louis is eminently qualified. He's been arrested for peace and justice countless times. One Nevada police officer told the local paper with obvious pride that he has personally arrested Fr. Vitale a hundred times. At Fort Benning, Ga., home of the School of Americas, soldiers have arrested him twice. The first time earned him three months in jail. The second time, a harsher six months in jail.
He came to Albuquerque, N.M., last month as my friends and I were tried for our attempt to gain the attention of our senator's Santa Fe office. My friends and I will be sentenced Nov. 5. Louis came to support us, and he and I got to talking.
"There was nothing in my background that taught me about peace," he said. "I was in the military. I was told we needed nuclear weapons. But during the Vietnam War, the movement began to teach nonviolence. Hearing Dr. King, watching the Berrigans, and being around Cesar Chavez changed my life. I became convinced that nonviolence was the way of God, not killing people. Besides, I've never met anyone I've wanted to see dead.
Of his action at Fort Huachuca, he said, "Our message is that torture has come home to us. We learned from Fort Benning that the U.S. manuals on torture come from Fort Huachuca. The Nazis tortured, Latin American death squads tortured, now we know that we torture people, too. But where does it come from? It comes from Fort Huachuca. That's the headquarters. It's one of the most sinister places on the planet.
"We can make a difference. It can be done. We awakened people to the Nevada Test site. We helped stop nuclear testing. If we all realize [that] we have only this one world created by God, we can work together and help create a new world where we all live as one.
"St. Francis got caught up in a bloody war, and realized that war is not what God created us for. So he came out of it committed to a new world without war. We have to learn from him. We need to address the world's needs with love and compassion, not with war and destruction.
"And we need to have hope. Hope is justified. Half of the human race has been involved in nonviolent movements during the last few decades. These are the hopeful signs. I've seen people come together, and work together for the betterment of others. I've witnessed many nonviolent movements, the miracles of political transformation. I've seen the Berlin Wall fall. I've seen wars end. In nonviolent movements I see unmistakable signs of God.
"My conviction is that we can work together. We can transform our world, culture by culture, drawing on the way of the Gospel, drawing on the example of Francis, Clare and other witnesses to nonviolence. All human beings have the heartbeat of compassion and love. But we have to help them," Louis said. "We have to help them locate the desire for peace that beats already in their hearts."
John Dear's new book, Transfiguration (Doubleday) is available from www.amazon.com and the new DVD about him (with music by Joan Baez and Jackson Browne) is available from www.sandamianofoundation.org . For information on Fr. Louis' trial, see:
tortureontrial.org . Pax Christi has just published an Advent booklet by John, "The Advent of the God of Peace," (from www.paxchristiusa.org ). Next week, John will attend the beatification of Franz Jagerstatter in Linz, Austria. For his speaking schedule, see: | <urn:uuid:06c71eaf-7179-45a6-bd06-77b42d52d952> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ncronline.org/print/blogs/road-peace/franciscan-louis-vitale-facing-prison-peace-again | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973737 | 1,913 | 1.828125 | 2 |
CMA Capitol Insight is a biweekly column by veteran journalist Greg Lucas, reporting on the inner workings of the state Legislature.
Which one is worse off? Social Security or Medicare? The question was asked by the moderator at a recent panel of the Leadership California conference in Sacramento. Most of the audience said Social Security, perhaps because of all the media attention and lengthy number of dire predictions routinely made about its solvency. If more medical professionals were in the room, the number of people correctly answering Medicare would no doubt have risen. Some estimate that without a change – i.e., more money being contributed by employers and employees or costs being reduced – Medicare could be out of money in 12 years, perhaps less. Not to belabor the obvious but this is a profoundly serious matter – particularly with 10,000 baby boomers in America turning 65 each day for the next 19 years. In a nutshell: services received far outstrip contributions. A quick review of the math says it all. An employer and an employee each pay 1.45 percent per paycheck to support Medicare. They each send Uncle Sam 6.2 percent for Social Security. Illustrating the point a bit more graphically are Eugene Steuerle and Stephanie Rennane of the Urban Institute think tank: an average-wage couple together earn $89,000 a year. If they retired in 2011, they would have paid $114,000 in Medicare payroll taxes during their careers. But they’ll receive more than $350,000 in medical benefits from Medicare over their lifetimes. In a word, unsustainable.
Obsessed with Age
Americans spend $54 billion each year on what are called “nutri-cosmetics,” which claim to offer myriad anti-aging effects for skin. Products containing anti-oxidants, herbs and vitamins that are applied or swallowed will make you look younger, so their manufacturers say. Buyer beware, any number of groups caution. Looking for a nutrient with guaranteed health benefits for the skin? Stick with the old H2O.
Governor Jerry Brown’s budget writers in their most recent Finance Bulletin crow that the state’s unemployment rate “tumbled” 0.2 percentage points to 11.1 percent in December. True, the statewide unemployment rate was 12.5 percent in late 2010, but that 11.1 percent still translates into 2 million Californians out of work. And that 11.1 percent is the statewide average. In Merced, the unemployment rate is 18 percent, while in the Bay Area it’s under 10 percent. Riverside and San Bernardino stand at nearly 13 percent. Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Ana have an unemployment rate close to that of the state, 10.9 percent. And the unemployment rate differs by race, ethnicity and age. For Californians aged 16 through 19, the unemployment rate is more than 35 percent. It’s 17.6 percent for those aged 20 through 24. For Californians aged 35 to 54, the rate is below 10 percent. As of the end of 2011, nearly 9 percent of Asian Americans were unemployed, 11.3 percent of whites, almost 14 percent of Hispanics and 19.6 percent of African Americans.
That’s the word the Legislative Analyst uses in pointing out that more than one-third of California’s 2 million unemployed haven’t been able to find work for over one year. Nearly half of those 2 million Californians have been without work for more than six months, according to a recent report on the state of the state’s economy and what that means for the budget. “The number of Californians unemployed for long periods has skyrocketed,” the analyst writes. In December 2011, the number of unemployed still looking for work after 26 weeks was 43 percent of the number of persons unemployed nationally and 46 percent of those in California. The number of long-term unemployed has nearly doubled since 2009. While the number of Californians unemployed for 27 to 51 weeks fell in 2011 – from 321,000 in December 2010 to 246,000 in December 2011 – those unemployed for one year or more rose from 704,00 to 718,000. What this means, the analyst says, is that “there is a significant population that may face permanent difficulties in reentering” the workforce. “California governments, families and nongovernmental organizations all will have some higher costs in future years to help support these individuals,” writes the analyst. “This, in turn, may impair future economic growth to some extent.”
Not the Kind in the Tub
A new street drug, dubbed “bath salts,” is a powerful stimulant that produces effects similar to being on methamphetamine and cocaine – with paranoia, hallucinations and suicidal desires thrown into the mix. Last October, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) used an emergency order to ban for one year the chemicals used to make bath salts: mephedrone, methylenedioxypyrovalerone and methylone. In issuing its order, the DEA said this: “There has been a growing use of, and interest in, synthetic stimulants sold under the guise of ‘bath salts’ or ‘plant food.’ Marketed under names such as ‘Ivory Wave,’ ‘Purple Wave,’ ‘Vanilla Sky’ or ‘Bliss,’ these products are comprised of a class of chemicals perceived as mimics of cocaine, LSD, MDMA, and/or methamphetamine. Users have reported impaired perception, reduced motor control, disorientation, extreme paranoia and violent episodes. The long-term physical and psychological effects of use are unknown but potentially severe. These products have become increasingly popular, particularly among teens and young adults and are sold at a variety of retail outlets, in head shops and over the Internet. However, they have not been approved by the FDA for human consumption or for medical use and there is no oversight of the manufacturing process.” There’s also no test to pick up the drug – the only way to tell if someone is on bath salts is if they admit it.
Put the Fiddle Down, Nero
There’s good news at the Capitol. And bad news. The good news is that the deadline to introduce more pieces of legislation during this legislative session has passed. The bad news is that a lot of bills were introduced before the deadline – more than 1,000 on the final day and the penultimate day alone. The 40-member Senate has now introduced 1,573 bills since the session began on December 4, 2011. The 80-member Assembly has created 2,679 measures. It’s usually at this point when long-time Capitol observers trot out the often used but still apt chestnut of how it’s quality that counts, not quantity.
Examining the Age-Old Question
Are all these pieces of legislation necessary? Should California go the Washington, D.C., route and introduce only a handful of bills – albeit each the size of the New York City phone book? (The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act of 2009 clocked in at more than 2,400 pages.) Should limits be placed on state lawmakers as to the number of measures they can introduce? Limits exist, but there are still more than 4,200 bills put into the hopper. Some measures are well-intentioned: a CMA-sponsored bill, AB 2064 (introduced one day before the deadline) would require a health care service plan or health insurer that provides coverage for childhood and adolescent immunizations to reimburse a doctor or physician group the full cost of buying the vaccine and administering it. The bill also says no deductible, co-pay or “other cost-sharing mechanism” can be imposed. Another bill would reward teachers of science, technology, engineering or mathematics – the so-called STEM courses – with a $1,000 tax credit and a $1,500 credit for those who teach in lower-performing schools.
On the Other Hand
A number of bills say they would make a “technical, non-substantive” change to various parts of the state or “delete obsolete language” from the code books. It seems like it would be far cheaper and a better use of the valuable time of lawmakers if they gave that job to some functionary – perhaps create an official state copy editor who could comb through the codes and make those low level additions and deletions. After making public the changes contemplated, of course. Just a thought.
Just How Deep Can a Woodchuck Sleep?
Woodchucks –groundhogs – hibernate hard. Bears and bats can be roused, but the woodchuck virtually shuts itself down, dropping its body temperature (often to freezing), and sharply slowing its heart and respiration rates. Fascinating, but when did this become a publication of National Geographic, a reader might well ask. Turns out hibernating animals are far more resistant to sudden fatal heart attacks and arrhythmia. That’s why the New Jersey Medical School in Newark is taking a closer look at Punxsutawney Phil and his kindred to see if cardiac mechanisms in hibernators, particularly the hardcore ones, can help two-legged non-hibernators. | <urn:uuid:870f49ae-88fc-4f1b-adbe-68f946710c00> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cmanet.org/news/detail/?article=cma-capitol-insight-unsustainable | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948555 | 1,922 | 1.84375 | 2 |
May 14, 2007
If one were asked to cite companies whose datacenters epitomize the idea of Grid 2.0, he could do a lot worse than to point to any of the Internet giants that have taken advantage of grid technologies to forever transform the ways in which we shop, access information and communicate, and address just about every other aspect of our lives.
Companies like Google, Yahoo!, Amazon and eBay set the standard because they are using their massive, distributed computing infrastructures to not only host applications and store data, but also to host countless services, both internal and external, and handle hundreds of millions to billions of transactions every single day -- in real time. It is for this reason that I am so pleased to have Paul Strong, the man spearheading eBay's current grid efforts, contributing this week's lead article. If there's one man who understands what it means to manage epic quantities of data and provide access to it in real-time across numerous applications and services, and across a vast network, it's Paul.
In his article, "Interesting Times for Distributed Datacenters," Strong takes on just this topic, discussing grid computing's expansion from being solely an HPC technology to being the basis for the distributed platforms necessary to make the Web 2.0 world run. If his assertion is correct, then I have to question every time I've read an analyst or "mainstream" IT columnist declare grid a promise unfulfilled and/or a technology that simply isn't mature enough to handle the big, scary world of commercial IT. Rather, it would seem that grid technologies, while not always possessing life-changing capabilities out of the box, are firmly entrenched among some of today's most important IT users -- and their grids, or whatever you want to call them, aren't going away anyime soon.
I'll finish my thoughts on this by giving a rather large excerpt from Strong's article, which sums up this idea far more succinctly than my attempt:
Historically, the term "grid computing" has been intimately associated with the high-performance and technical computing community. The term was, of course, coined by some leading members of that community and, unsurprisingly, to many it has been almost completely defined within the context of this specific type of use. Yet when you look closely at what grid computing actually is predicated upon, it becomes apparent that the notion of grid computing is far more universally applicable than perhaps many people think. Indeed, one could make the assertion that grids are the integrated platforms for all network-distributed applications or services, whether they are computationally or transactionally intensive.
In other news, last week saw the Open Grid Forum and the Enabling Grids for E- sciencE project co-locate their respective meetings in Manchester, England, drawing in more than 900 attendees. And although the combined conference didn't produce large amounts of news in the form of product announcements, vendor partnerships, etc., it did produce a little. If you check out our "Scientific Applications" section, you'll see three items -- "Full Speed Ahead for the Grid," "Science on the Grid -- Live" and "Users Set the Standard" -- from EGEE recapping various demonstrations and applications showcased over the course of the week. In addition, the OGF portion of the event should producing some news in the weeks/months to come, as organizational leadership planned to use OGF20 as an opportunity to conduct face-to-face interviews with the more-promising presidential candidates. It shouldn't be long now before we learn who will be replacing Mark Linesch come autumn.
Rounding out the issue, we have a slew of big announcements, including: EMC forming an information infrastructure research network; Appistry EAF supporting Spring; Oracle updating its Fusion Middleware; Lenovo joining the ranks of those using Callidus' Sun Grid-powered on-demand application; and WS- Transaction becoming an OASIS standard.
Comments about GRIDtoday are welcomed and encouraged. Write to me, Derrick Harris, at [email protected].
Posted by Derrick Harris - May 14, 2007 @ 11:30 AM, Pacific Daylight Time
Derrick Harris is the Editor of On-Demand Enterprise
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The ever-growing complexity of scientific and engineering problems continues to pose new computational challenges. Thus, we present a novel federation model that enables end-users with the ability to aggregate heterogeneous resource scale problems. The feasibility of this federation model has been proven, in the context of the UberCloud HPC Experiment, by gathering the most comprehensive information to date on the effects of pillars on microfluid channel flow.
Large-scale, worldwide scientific initiatives rely on some cloud-based system to both coordinate efforts and manage computational efforts at peak times that cannot be contained within the combined in-house HPC resources. Last week at Google I/O, Brookhaven National Lab’s Sergey Panitkin discussed the role of the Google Compute Engine in providing computational support to ATLAS, a detector of high-energy particles at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Frank Ding, engineering analysis & technical computing manager at Simpson Strong-Tie, discussed the advantages of utilizing the cloud for occasional scientific computing, identified the obstacles to doing so, and proposed workarounds to some of those obstacles.
May 23, 2013 |
The study of climate change is one of those scientific problems where it is almost essential to model the entire Earth to attain accurate results and make worthwhile predictions. In an attempt to make climate science more accessible to smaller research facilities, NASA introduced what they call ‘Climate in a Box,’ a system they note acts as a desktop supercomputer.
May 16, 2013 |
When it comes to cloud, long distances mean unacceptably high latencies. Researchers from the University of Bonn in Germany examined those latency issues of doing CFD modeling in the cloud by utilizing a common CFD and its utilization in HPC instance types including both CPU and GPU cores of Amazon EC2.
05/10/2013 | Cleversafe, Cray, DDN, NetApp, & Panasas | From Wall Street to Hollywood, drug discovery to homeland security, companies and organizations of all sizes and stripes are coming face to face with the challenges – and opportunities – afforded by Big Data. Before anyone can utilize these extraordinary data repositories, however, they must first harness and manage their data stores, and do so utilizing technologies that underscore affordability, security, and scalability.
04/02/2012 | AMD | Developers today are just beginning to explore the potential of heterogeneous computing, but the potential for this new paradigm is huge. This brief article reviews how the technology might impact a range of application development areas, including client experiences and cloud-based data management. As platforms like OpenCL continue to evolve, the benefits of heterogeneous computing will become even more accessible. Use this quick article to jump-start your own thinking on heterogeneous computing. | <urn:uuid:da1c6fba-efc9-4122-bbd2-15d99213f5fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hpcinthecloud.com/hpccloud/2007-05-14/why_web_2_0_needs_grid_computing.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940245 | 1,435 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Hanukkah is behind us and Christmas is rapidly approaching for my Christian friends and neighbors. The majority of people I encounter assume I celebrate Christmas and the ones who learn that I don’t simply can’t understand why not. I know this time of year must be entirely different for Jews who reside in Israel. With a Jewish majority observing Jewish holidays and not Christian or otherwise, it must feel different because Israeli society is influenced predominately by Israeli Jewish culture rather than Christian culture or society.
For me, the feelings and viewpoints I have about Christmas were formed way before I practiced Judaism. My family life was wracked with upheaval and moving around a lot, so the holidays just became an extra burden to get through. And, later on, the commercialism of Easter and Christmas further served to turn me away from the holidays for their religious terms and for the capitalism they are moved by.
To make a long story short, Christmas just really isn’t that big of a deal to me. I understand when someone wishes me Merry Christmas they are wishing me good things for the holiday season. But once in a while it is nice to be able to explain to a willing ear what the Jewish viewpoint is regarding the “holiday season” and my personal views on the matter.
The stories of people being trampled in stores during the kick-off of the holiday season do not impress me. It’s sad actually. But to me, the question is what do individuals of good conscience and families do to restore the true meaning of their holidays? While I’m not a Christian, I respect Christians who take their faith seriously, as I do all people who live according to their belief systems.
At my home synagogue in Iowa, many folks who came to Judaism by choice, like I did, have good memories of Christmas and respect their families’ continued practice of observing the holidays. In Iowa, where it snows in abundance, it is easier to get into the spirit of the holiday. One thing I liked about this time of year were the holiday lights. They were beautiful, and still are. As you recall, Jews just finished celebrating Hanukkah, the festival of lights. So the celebration of lights during this dark time of year, when sunset is earlier each day, is a good thing.
I wish you all a great holiday season. For those of you who celebrate Christmas - Merry Christmas to you. | <urn:uuid:17ddc515-3340-47fa-8f40-6cc4182b53e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.blanconews.com/news/37548/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968231 | 496 | 1.710938 | 2 |
From the moment it became evident that Democrats had won supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature, the knee-jerk reporting of that phenomenon has boiled down to a single sentence: Now they can raise taxes.
Let me interrupt that narrative with a news flash: That's not going to happen.
Yes, it's true that any bill to raise taxes in California requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. And, yes, it's true that, come Dec. 3, Democrats will have a two-thirds majority in both the Assembly and Senate.
But voters just enacted a substantial tax increase by approving Proposition 30, and the last thing Democratic leaders want to do is to sour that sweet victory by piling more tax increases on top.
And Jerry Brown will still be governor for at least another two years.
As Assembly Speaker John Pérez, D-Los Angeles, noted in his post-election news conference, that means tax increases won't be on the agenda.
"The governor's been very clear that the only way to raise taxes, as long as he is governor, is a direct vote of the people," Pérez said. "He's never equivocated, and we've never asked him to."
So if Democrats won't use their supermajorities to raise taxes, what might they use them for?
The most promising idea is to give voters a chance to do something they have long been clamoring for, which is to fix California's broken initiative system.
With a two-thirds majority vote, the Legislature can place a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot.
More than that, it can place a constitutional revision on the ballot.
That means it would be possible for lawmakers to fashion a comprehensive proposal to place before voters. That couldn't happen until 2014, which means there is time to approach that thoughtfully.
It also means that no vote would be needed until 2014, which will in all likelihood be the time when Democrats actually have a functional supermajority.
Two senators were elected to Congress this month, which will create vacancies in January, which will trigger special elections that will likely result in Assembly members moving up, creating more vacancies and more special elections.
Add to that the Los Angeles City Council election in June, which will probably result in at least one Assembly member moving on, and it means that at no time in 2013 will a two-thirds majority actually exist.
I spoke with the leaders of both houses over the last few days, and both see some possibilities for initiative reform.
"We have an obligation to consider using this authority and begin thinking about the 2014 ballot," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, told me. "We can use 2013 to really explore the idea. There's time to do this right."
Pérez was more circumspect but noted that his interest in initiative reform predates his service in the Assembly. "We will look at some structural issues," he told me.
Two proposals fell just a handful of votes short last year: one to require more precise disclosure of funding for initiative campaigns and another that would have given the Legislature the ability to review initiatives and suggest changes, which the proponents could then accept or reject.
Those ideas, Pérez noted, were in "the realm of possibility" before Democrats won a supermajority and, therefore, will continue to be possibilities now.
Steinberg has more expansive ideas, such as creating a sunset date for initiatives after which time they could be amended by the Legislature.
Every other state that has direct democracy has such a provision.
Pérez argues that any action to reform the initiative process must include Republicans, lest any resulting proposal be seen as an attempt by Democrats to game the political system.
"Anything we do in the area of structural reforms should be done with an eye toward bringing people across party lines," he said.
Republicans are understandably skeptical of any change. Because Democrats control all the levers of representative democracy in this state, direct democracy is at this moment in time their only possible check on the majority's power.
But the new math in Sacramento changes the equation for Republicans. Since they no longer have absolute power to just say no to anything that requires a two-thirds vote, they may be more likely to engage in discussion about sensible reforms.
There is now a rare opportunity for the Legislature to take the lead.
"These are not the kinds of issues where interest groups are going to spend the money to put good-government issues on the ballot," Steinberg said.
In other words, if lawmakers don't do it, it won't get done. | <urn:uuid:4920c0db-9636-4955-b1d6-f0e1b87ce9f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/nov/20/herdt-a-chance-for-reform-not-taxes/?opinion=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974883 | 947 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Funding bills might play a key role in the GOP House majority's fight with the Obama EPA over greenhouse gas and other rules that may impact agriculture. Incoming House Energy Chair Fred Upton, R-Mich., has vowed publicly not to let the Obama Administration regulate what they've been unable to legislate, including greenhouse gases.
American Farm Bureau's Rick Krause says the key to reigning in such rules will be getting away from freestanding bills the President can easily veto.
"The appropriations strategy seems to be better," Krause said. "Just because of the fact that there is so many other things that they have to have in order to keep the government running, that something like this would be more acceptable, more palatable for people."
Krause notes even if a two-year freeze of EPA greenhouse gas rules survived in a Senate that now has 47 Republicans it would still have to be signed by the President, which Krause says at this stage doesn't s seem very likely.
But language to block funding for greenhouse gas permits, or simply for implementing GHG rules for stationary sources, as part of a massive spending bill would be harder for the President to stop. Krause believes the GOP is serious about reigning in spending and regulations but says it will be a challenge. There is no question that greenhouse gas rules will impact agriculture.
"Whether it's now or 2016 it's still out there, still hanging over people's heads," Krause said. "There are several court challenges to that rule and a court could rule at anytime on this and if they overturn the tailoring rule then agricultural sources are automatically affected."
Until then Krause says ag is still impacted by higher costs for fuel, fertilizer and electricity from those entities that are regulated today. | <urn:uuid:dcfab16c-4954-445c-a626-e01fb6e5d4a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://farmprogress.com/story-hard-road-ahead-to-rein-in-epa-0-45424 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974275 | 358 | 1.742188 | 2 |
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It's All Politics
Tue July 10, 2012
Intriguing Opportunity, Some Risk For Romney In Speech To NAACP
Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 4:30 pm
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's planned speech Wednesday at the NAACP convention in Houston comes at a precarious time for the nation's African-American community.
-- The unemployment rate among blacks is north of 14 percent — more than 5 points higher than the national average.
-- Opponents of GOP-led efforts to require voters in about a dozen states to show identification say the voter ID laws could disproportionately disenfranchise legal black and Latino voters.
-- President Obama's recent endorsement of same-sex marriage and his decision to suspend deportations of young illegal immigrants have roiled some among his African-American base.
That environment raises some intriguing opportunities for Romney, whose campaign mantra has been that Obama, who captured more than 95 percent of the black vote in 2008, has bungled the economic recovery.
There has been no shortage of advice for what Romney should say when he addresses members of the nation's oldest civil rights organization, which is focused this week on issues ranging from the economy and education, to health and voting rights: Talk about your father's civil rights legacy, urged Democratic strategist Karen Finney in a column for The Hill; talk about unequal access to health care and quality education — and ask what Democrats have done for you lately — advised Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr.
But raising issues beyond his standard campaign trail economic message, and his recent embrace of education parity as the "civil rights issue of our era," could be risky political business for Romney.
"This is an important appearance for him," says Rogers Smith, a University of Pennsylvania political science professor who has written extensively about race and politics.
Though Romney may have little chance of capturing much of the black vote (Obama's 2008 opponent, Sen. John McCain, got 4 percent), he is going into what promises to be a close election, Smith says, and has to be careful not to tread into areas that could end up motivating a turnout for the incumbent president.
"He has to show that he is concerned," Smith says, "and maybe some will stay home."
Romney senior adviser Tara Wall says the former Massachusetts governor is expected to emphasize educational disparity, which he framed as a civil rights issue during a May meeting with Hispanic leaders.
"This is a dialogue," says Wall, who was hired by the Romney campaign two months ago to assist in outreach to the black community. "There is a commonality with his message and what many African-Americans support — school choice and charters, making sure kids have a fair shot at education."
"Gov. Romney also wants to draw distinctions between the way President Obama addresses the economy and the way he addresses it," Wall says.
That's too "vanilla" for Raynard Jackson, a Washington-based Republican political consultant, who would like to see Romney use his NAACP appearance for more than just "race insurance."
"Politically, I get it," says Jackson, an African-American who supported Obama in 2008,and now favors Romney. "He wants to send a message beyond the black community to white, middle-class women and independent voters that Republicans aren't racist or hostile to the black community."
But Jackson says he believes that Romney could squander an opportunity to speak directly to black voters that he may be able to peel off, particularly black business people, for fear of being perceived as pandering to African-Americans.
He's not the only one who would like to see Romney take chances, but for different ends.
Sociologist and political scientist Theda Skocpol at Harvard University says she'd like to see Romney go beyond a speech strategy of "reassuring white, independent voters that he cares about African-Americans."
For Skocpol, a progressive whose research has included race, politics and the Tea Party, Romney's appearance before a group that has stood for civil rights and voting rights for more than 100 years provides a rare opportunity.
"I'd like to ask Gov. Romney to openly, explicitly and courageously condemn the ongoing campaign sponsored by partisans in his own party to make it difficult for African-Americans, Hispanics, poor people and young people to vote," Skocpol says. "And to call for the Pennsylvania law, and others, to be reversed."
The new Pennsylvania voter ID law requires that voters present a current government or university-issued identification that includes the voter's name and photo. An assessment by the state, which compared voter registration lists and state transportation records showed that more than 758,000 registered Pennsylvania voters, or 9.2 percent of all state voters, don't have the type of identification required by the new law.
Earlier this month, Pennsylvania Republican House Majority Leader Mike Turzai said that the state's new voter ID law is "gonna allow Gov. Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania." The law has been challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union.
But in Pennsylvania, Romney supporter Renee Amoore, an African-American businesswoman, lifelong NAACP member, and deputy chairwoman of the state Republican Party, defended the law as necessary to thwart fraud.
"I work the polls, I see voter fraud," says Amoore, founder of a health care, economic development and management consulting group. "People just need to get an ID — and we'll help you get it."
Wall, the Romney adviser, says she has also seen voter fraud "firsthand" and that people should simply "do what's necessary to be able to vote."
While the NAACP is meeting in Texas, a Texas voter ID law is being challenged this week in a special federal court in Washington. Texas is one of the states that — because of a history of voter discrimination — must get approval from the U.S. Justice Department under the Voting Rights Act before enacting changes to its state election law.
Attorney General Eric Holder, who has been moving to block some voter ID laws, including the one in Texas, spoke at the NAACP convention Tuesday. He likened new ballot box restrictions to post-Civil War poll taxes, and said that, in protecting voting rights, "we will not allow political pretexts to disenfranchise American citizens of their most precious right."
When Romney spoke in June to decidedly cool national Hispanic leaders, he softened his tough primary-campaign tone on immigration, but offered little new in the way of policy proposals.
He's expected to follow that template in Houston, where NAACP Chairwoman Roslyn Brock, in an interview on MSNBC, said members are "eagerly waiting to hear his vision for America's future ... particularly for communities of color."
President Obama addressed the convention three years ago on the group's 100th anniversary; Vice President Joe Biden will give a speech on Thursday. | <urn:uuid:cc8e9166-5f1f-415c-8c16-7b3ba3ffcfe2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wkms.org/post/intriguing-opportunity-some-risk-romney-speech-naacp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965633 | 1,484 | 1.710938 | 2 |
I don't like everything that came out of the golden age of sci fi. A lot of it was xenophobic garbage. But I think what I love about that era was most of the authors writing were scientifically trained or scientists themselves. You can almost always count on a well-thought out, clever story.
Generally, it's not so in modern sci fi.
In his lifetime, Asimov noted a decline in scientific literacy among sci fi writers:
Unfortunately, in many cases, people who write science fiction violate the laws of nature, not because they want to make a point, but because they don't know what the laws of nature are.
With the exception of Star Trek, good science-based fiction does not exist anymore, at least, not like it used to. We have fantasy parading as science fiction, dressed up in space suits, pushing faster-than-light drives and toting laser pistols and other futuristic equipment. All you have to know is that it works; authors no longer need to explain how.
It seems to me that is where the real challenge is for the science fiction writer. Creating a situation within the laws of nature (perhaps slightly bent), logistically following through with the idea, and crafting an interesting, believeable story.
I think most modern science fiction is categorized incorrectly. It has very little to do with science, and very much to do with fantasy and its rudiments.
The problem most likely lies in, like Asimov said, most authors’ unfamiliarity with science and the laws of nature. The formula is already there for space opera or post apocalyptica, one only needs to read and regurgitate. Which, by the way, is how fiction works, and should be a natural part of the writer’s process, as it lies beyond his or her hands to block out all influences, but the themes and technology of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings in particular are almost replicated, even by respected authors like Terry Brooks and Timothy Zahn (who seems to write only Star Wars fiction nowadays; it’s easier and probably pays better).
It seems like one of the few science fiction writers monitoring modern science for inspiration is Michael Crichton, especially in his perennial fan fave, Jurassic Park. But Crichton is also a paranoid Bush-hugger and a baseless climate change denier (epitomized by State of Fear). His stories typically have a simplistic singular embodiment of Dr. Faust (like Hammond in JP), we cross the moral boundary (for no other reason than arrogance) and are punished for our greed (because the power goes out on their cages? Give me a break). His ideas are neat, but his philosophy sucks.
Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods and Anansi Boys, as well as creator of the Sandman graphic novel series is another mystery to me. I don’t understand how the guy became popular outside of the comic industry. He is a terrible novel writer: Monotonous, plodding, uninspired and trite—and yet he gets rave reviews for his mediocrity. Gaiman obviously identifies with the Hot Topic folks; his characters are twelve-year-old girls (who wear black) or foul-mouthed outsiders (who wear black) or one-eyed gods (who wear, what else, black). Whereas Crichton, even with all of his hang-ups and inaccuracies should still be topically categorized with science fiction, Gaiman is considered science fiction without any semblance of science incorporated into his work.
I’m calling for a change in categorization, I suppose, if for no other reason than clarifying which stories are actually science based and which are fantasy for my own personal use. I’m tired of endlessly searching the tangle of the bookstore science fiction shelf for something decent to read. There needs to be a distinction for the readers and the writers of true science fiction, especially since the shelves have become needlessly crowded with manga as well.
I imagine that the actual number of science fiction novels (as I have defined them) available is relatively small, but I’d be willing to bet that I’m not the only reader of science fiction who feels the same frustrations. | <urn:uuid:2c3a0759-8f22-4148-832a-95d0b5e994fa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thevoltagegate.blogspot.com/2006/12/science-fiction-down-tubes.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968261 | 874 | 1.765625 | 2 |
My daughter is 12 so I hope that's a perfect age, Im looking for a bird beside tons of self-esteem?
12 is a perfect age. i suggest a parrot, cockatoo or parakeet.
That being said any hand fed powerfully socialized bird will fill the bill. Perhaps a green cheek or a senegal. Of coarse if you want to start small there are keets and tiels. Dont consent to any of these kids talk you into a gray or larger bird. The bigger the bird the more demanding and difficult they are. You really need some experience under your belt or someone contained by the house with bird experience before you tackle a larger one.
i personally believe its a great age to start, as long as you are prepared to continue to care for the bird if your daughter looses interest. it is a prized lesson for a child to learn to take care and responsibility for another go.
personally i would choose a budgie, they are colorful, interactive, fun, can talk (depending on the age you get them), mortal 12 yrs young i would not get her one that needs to be appendage fed, it makes her job too difficult.
catch her a young bird though so it gets used to her, and can become tamed. don't forget to trim its wings as you would can`t bear for her bird to escape and fly away when it is out of its cage.
also make certain you too keep an eye on the food, and water, remind her daily to check and reload them, giving her responsibilities now is a great achievement.
Get a canary!
I found this: http://birds.in the order of.com/od/breedsofbirds/...
My little sister is 5 and my parents got a cocktail a couple of months after she was born. He is a great bird he have a lot of personality he loves to hang out next to my three dogs. He does great with my sister and her friends. They are easy to teach. They love to whistle and are hugely gentle.
I am 14 and I have a budgie. At the age of 12 i tamed him myself and now he is my best friend! although he does not talk, heaps budgies will. I would suggest you get a male because they are friendlier and more credible to talk. The bond i have with Joey (my budgie) is unreal. He loves coming out of his round up and has as much personality (if not more) than any larger parrot! | <urn:uuid:a5890867-4225-484a-93cb-8d5102b34764> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://petsask.com/birds/my_daughter_is_12_so_i_hope_thats_a_upright_age_i.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97489 | 526 | 1.625 | 2 |
Natural gas is going to change everything, Cabot Martin says.
Speaking to Rotarians in St. John’s, Martin said the provincial government would be wise to change its plans for Muskrat Falls, and make way for the “natural gas revolution.”
Martin is a prominent Newfoundland lawyer, and is currently involved in the burgeoning natural gas industry as president and CEO of Deer Lake Oil & Gas.
After studying the U.S. natural gas industry extensively, Martin said, he’s convinced energy prices are about to come down drastically as the United States begins to export the cheap, plentiful hydrocarbon.
“The United States is going to be a major exporter of natural gas in the liquified form as LNG, and the prices are going to be very, very competitive. And from the numbers that I’ve done, it’s very competitive with Muskrat Falls — in fact, significantly cheaper,” he said. “One of the impacts of this is that both natural gas and oil prices will trend downward. It is a fundamental law of economics that if you get more supply, your price goes down. And when you get 10 times as much supply, you’d better watch your price.”
But nevermind the U.S. for a moment, Martin said, there’s a homegrown source of natural gas in the offshore, as part of the White Rose oilfield.
“Nalcor has not conducted due diligence in its examination of this option, the White Rose option,” he said. “They can wave their options all they want, but they can’t produce one single study by a competent engineering firm to focus on this option. And White Rose gas happens to be probably the most viable long-term energy resource that we have in this province.”
Within hours of Martin giving his speech at Rotary, Paul Barnes, speaking for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, contacted The Telegram to explain why natural gas production at White Rose isn’t going to work.
“Currently the natural gas that is associated with the oilfields that are in production in the offshore at the moment is being used to enhance the oil production and ultimate recovery of oil from the existing discoveries,” Barnes said, “So the gas is being used for that. It’s not being lost. It’s actually being put back into the reservoir for future use. But it’s being used currently to get the oil out.”
Barnes said the oil companies are looking at a way to someday commercially produce inexpensive natural gas offshore. However, he said that with U.S. supply driving the price down, it’s even harder to make the case for producing it offshore.
Martin said the Public Utilities Board (PUB) should be charged with doing a full examination of whether natural gas is a cheaper means than Muskrat Falls of bringing power to Newfoundland.
Currently, he said, the terms of the PUB review specifically exclude any discussion of natural gas.
“I will be presenting to the board next week, and I will not be able to use the phrase natural gas,” Martin said. “If I say natural gas, Andy Wells is going to hit me over the head with his gavel.” | <urn:uuid:61797e50-ff0b-43c1-a44d-74a8b33a1fc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetelegram.com/Business/2012-02-17/article-2898412/Natural-gas-will-change-everything%3A-Cabot-Martin/1 | 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 | 0.959296 | 691 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Volunteer spotlight: You can help
By: Jan O'Donnell for the Lake County News-Chronicle , Lake County News Chronicle
Literacy Volunteers needed
Arts on Superior is sponsoring a 13-week Story to Literacy arts residency for the third grade students at Minnehaha Elementary School in Two Harbors. Volunteers are needed beginning Jan. 28, or Feb. 4, to mentor students in small writing groups. Training will be provided. Volunteers will be needed from 1- 2:30 p.m. weekly for thirteen weeks.
Last year the volunteer mentors, students, and teachers had a wonderful time working with local storyteller, Rachel Nelson. Each week the students will hear a story, physically act out what they heard, and then write their own stories.
The volunteer mentors work with small groups of students on topics such as main idea, main character, and beginning, middle, and end. Our goal is to create a “culture of writing” with the students at Minnehaha Elementary School and in the community.
Please call or email Jan at AEOA if you are interested in volunteering. She can be reached at 834-2539. | <urn:uuid:39633a64-daa3-4837-8cba-0f80692317e0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.twoharborsmn.com/event/article/id/24489/publisher_ID/39/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933475 | 245 | 1.765625 | 2 |
List development ideas or discussions here. Would perhaps be a good place to summarize consensus reached on the scipy dev mailing list.
POLISHING SCIPY: THE ACCESSIBLE SCIPY PROJECT (ASP)
ASP is a roadmap for making Python-as-a-tool-for-science usable and friendly ("accessible") to as many people as possible. This page is the open-but-not-in-the-way workplace for the projects that will accomplish that goal. The roadmap identifies three areas of effort: documentation, packaging, and the web site. Discussion of the roadmap, project direction, and specific efforts takes place on scipy-dev@…. More recently, we discussed a proposal for Wiki workflow that is designed to take advantage of the Wiki Way for developing without having the site look like a perpetual construction zone.
The rest of this page serves as both a place for projects to live before they're ready for prime time and for willing help to meet new projects. If you are currently or potentially working on the non-code aspects of NumPy? or SciPy?, please enter your name and contact info above so people can find you. If you are interested in extending one of the three main efforts (e.g., writing a new doc, starting a new area of the web site, or taking on package testing for a particular architecture), please describe that new effort above in an appropriate place. Linking your new page or project here will attract the attention of people who are willing to help. Once your project is ready to go public, please ask for a review on the scipy-dev mailing list. When the community is happy, make a link to your page from one of the main pages of the site. After your project is stable and you are no longer seeking additional help, remove the link from this page. Small projects (a screen page or few) can pretty much be posted here, announced, reviewed, and go live in a matter of hours. The goal is to ensure that what is before the public is consistent, complete at some level, well presented, and correct.
Finally, we're all learning on the job here. Some resources (please post more):
- Producing Open Source Software by Karl Fogel | <urn:uuid:f73572f3-9374-4dd4-b565-3ee1546e1f31> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://projects.scipy.org/scipy/wiki/DevelopmentIdeas | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938603 | 464 | 1.695313 | 2 |
I-SPY clinical trial shows promise in breast cancer therapy
Feb 18, 2011
A new report on WNDU highlights the promise of a pre-surgery chemotherapy trial called I-SPY, which is being conducted at the University of California, San Diego, and other centers.
"It's not so much killing cells as changing them. So they then can't go on to duplicate and become worse, and worse, and worse," Dr. Anne Marie Wallace, a breast cancer surgeon at the Moores University of California-San Diego Cancer Center, told the news source. "What you do is shrink the tumor enough that 65 percent of the time, when you thought you were going to have to remove the breast, you can actually just do a lumpectomy."
I-SPY 1 trials started in 2003, while I-SPY 2 trials started in 2010 and is still recruiting participants.
The I-SPY trial is a "national study to identify biomarkers predictive of response to therapy throughout the treatment cycle for women with Stage 3 breast cancer," according to the National Cancer Institute.
The study's main goals are to find biomarkers, study MRI imaging patterns, and subsequently the relationship between the two. | <urn:uuid:5d402431-ef1c-4056-9dcc-d98645969b88> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/bcs/article/I-SPY-clinical-trial-shows-promise-in-breast-cancer-therapy555 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970372 | 250 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Amazon is planning to start collecting sales tax in New Jersey next summer, but in California, it's reportedly looking to strike a deal to share the burden. Glassdoor.com
"When you have jurisdictions that have their own budget problems, and they're dealing with very large, very sophisticated corporations, it's a huge problem," said California State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier.
Mr. DeSaulnier, a Democrat, said he is considering proposing a law that would prevent local governments from giving sales taxes back to companies unless they can demonstrate why it is in the best interest of the state.
In a cash-strapped state where jobs are prized, he may have a tough go of any legislation, but he will likely have Main Street shops, who have seethed at serving as showrooms for the products sold on Amazon, on his side.
After getting an MA in journalism from Syracuse University, Teresa worked as a general assignment newspaper reporter—general on purpose because besides the usual city hall and police articles, there was the chance to fly an F-18 with the Blue Angels and tag along with bounty hunters on a stakeout—all good preparation for covering entrepreneurs.
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Sign up for the latest business news, opinion and analysis from Upstart and get the best the site has to offer each week day. | <urn:uuid:5d001b83-f210-40d3-b50b-8976ab4f27c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://upstart.bizjournals.com/news/wire/2012/05/31/amazon-makes-sales-tax-moves-in-new-jersey-and-california.html?page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965381 | 322 | 1.75 | 2 |
5 Things You Need to Know Today: Aug. 28
Here are the five things you need to know before you start your day in Marblehead.
Today is Tuesday, Aug. 28, and here are the five things you need to know:
1. You'll want to bring an umbrella with you before you leave the house today. The National Weather Service is predicting that local residents can expect showers and a thunderstorm before 1 p.m. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. The high will be near 78. Tonight should be mostly clear, with a low around 61. (sunrise, 6:04 a.m.; high tide, 9:03 a.m.; low tide, 2:58 p.m.; sunset, 7:23 p.m.)
2. A local teen accused of violently attacking and robbing another teen at Phillips Park Sunday night was ordered held Monday in Lynn District Court following his arraignment on armed robbery and assault charges. Click Here for our full story.
3. The Marblehead Historical Commission will meet this morning on the second floor of Abbot Hall. The meeting, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., is expected to feature a discussion about several preservation projects, according to the posted agenda.
4. Believe it or not - it's been a year since Tropical Storm Irene slammed into the North Shore and sent shock-waves through Marblehead. Click Here to see a video from one of last year's biggest storms.
5. Today in History: On Aug. 28, 1859, a geomagnetic storm caused the Aurora Borealis to shine so brightly that it is seen clearly over parts of the USA, Europe and even as far away as Japan.
For more things going on in Marblehead today, check out our events calendar. | <urn:uuid:3fd0a8e3-5dd4-42d2-813e-15b6fcd27fce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marblehead.patch.com/articles/5-things-you-need-to-know-today-aug-27-2b5eea99 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934245 | 367 | 1.5 | 2 |
By Catherine Wagley
By Catherine Wagley
By Wendy Gilmartin
By Jennifer Swann
By Claire de Dobay Rifelj
By L.A. Weekly critics
By Catherine Wagley
By Zachary Pincus-Roth
Firing up a copy machine may not inspire the atavistic awe of harnessing nature that comes from turning on a water tap, but we'd be fools to forget how essential the Xerox and its competitors are to modern existence. Nor should we forget how recent an invention the copier is - or how close this machine came to entering our lives much later in time. Xerox's first demonstration model caught fire in a New York hotel ballroom hours before it was to be unveiled to an unsuspecting world in 1959. Fortunately, a backup had been sent down from Rochester; that model did not ignite, and the rest is Fortune 500 history.
But the real story of any machine is the story of its inventor - the narrative of a man's life experiences, his values and whatever deals with the devil he must make to see his "child" born. And, while the names of some inventors are synonymous with their famous creations, most are about as memorable to us as their patent numbers. So it is a double joy to watch George Shea's mostly solo show, ChesterChesterChesterChesterChester, at the Fremont Center, a poetically informative 70 minutes that summons Chester Carlson, the Xerox machine's father, from the shadows of oblivion and gives us pause to reflect upon the divine madness that drives people to invent in a world that insists everything needed in life already exists.
Carlson came from Minnesota Swede stock; his family moved to Seattle, where his father enjoyed life as a barber until stricken with spinal arthritis and tuberculosis. The Carlsons took a flier on some barren land in Mexico, which the 1910 revolution forced them to flee. They ended up in San Pedro and then the San Bernardino Mountains; for the next few years, young, science-minded Chester scraped up enough money from odd jobs to attend school, eventually graduating from Caltech - just as the Depression was wiping out research jobs.
Still, he landed a job in Bell Laboratories' New York City offices, where he was transferred to the patent office, which would soon lead him to a law degree. But it bothered him that so much of his time was spent hand-copying pages from library books, and that office secretaries had to rely upon carbon paper to make duplicates - which, by the fourth layer, were often unreadable blurs, and which also required hand corrections on each page for every mistake made on the original sheet. And so Carlson set out to invent a machine that would make duplicates of love letters, poems, suicide notes and divorce settlements - whatever the human mind had thought important enough to write down or set in type. It would be Carlson's one and only invention, but from a financial standpoint, he needn't have worried about making a better mousetrap after 1959 - his patent remains the single most profitable copyright in American history.
What Shea accomplishes so masterfully is not only the recounting of how Carlson went from envisioning his dream to introducing it to a crowd of 300 curious journalists, scientists and businessmen a quarter of a century later, but how he evokes the inventor's long journey and the vanished America in which it took place. From start to finish, Shea's character is a wide-eyed child wandering the scorpion-covered Mexican desert, papering over broken windows in the old warehouse his family lived in near Lake Arrowhead before World War I, sweeping streets in San Bernardino, picking fruit, working in a Colton cement plant. Years later, Carlson is walking from midtown Manhattan down to Wall Street in search of work, a patent office, a machining shop - the places required to realize his copier. Along the way his mother dies, then his father; he sets sulfur fires in his Queens apartment and stumbles into marriage with a German-American girl who leaves him after 10 years of disappointments.
It's mostly the disappointments we remember about this story: Carlson's Sisyphean search for a way to chemically treat reflective zinc plates, the desertion of a valued assistant, World War II's halting of nonmilitary research, and the nonplused response Carlson gets from corporate-lab representatives whenever he displays his cigar-box-size copier. (Why would anyone want to build a machine that copies documents?, they wondered.) Finally, after the war, he interests scientists at an upstate photographic company in funding further development, and then they become obsessed with ironing out the bugs that just won't go away; just as Carlson's passionate search for perfection of his idea marginalized his career, so did it bring the Haloid company to near ruin as it engaged in its mini-Manhattan Project to make . . . an office machine. It was a race no less intense than the development of the television set and had its share of outlandish moments. Early prototypes were encased in wood, had more moving parts than an automobile and required an operator to go through a process involving 14 separate steps before a copy could be made - and that copy had to dry in something resembling a pizza oven. In the meantime, 3M was developing the Thermofax copier, an inferior duplicating machine that had one distinct advantage over Carlson's - it worked.
Find everything you're looking for in your city
Find the best happy hour deals in your city
Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%
Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city | <urn:uuid:dd7e4991-7593-4ca6-ac65-497c8754224e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.laweekly.com/1998-08-06/stage/toner-poem/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967709 | 1,165 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Wouldn’t we all like to eat as much as we want without guilt or impact to our waistline? This may surprise you, but I love to eat. If I don’t feel that good sense of satiety (fullness) at the end of a meal, I feel deprived and maybe even a little angry. My mother often reminds me: “You were such a happy child as long as we kept you well fed.” Well, if you ask my husband, not much has changed. On the other hand, I also like to fit comfortably into my clothes and feel good about my appearance. I’m sure you can appreciate how these two driving forces are in direct conflict with each other. The only strategy I have found that comes close to allowing these two desires to coexist is to eat a high plant-based diet. Aside from the fact that fruits and vegetables are packed with nutrients, I have found that eating an abundance of plant-based foods can provide me with the kind of satiety I enjoy for a fraction of the calories of other foods. It’s a win-win!
I first discovered this way of eating while participating in my first Optimal Health Detox program in the spring of 2010. Over fourteen days this program teaches you new ways to enjoy a plethora of plant-based, whole foods while removing toxins from your body and jump starting weight loss leading to better eating habits that are easy to maintain beyond the program. I learned that vegetables could provide the kind of satiety I enjoyed (and thought I could only get from eating meats, breads and pastas) once I knew some new ways to prepare them. I also noticed the direct impact that what I was eating had on how I felt both physically and mentally.
The benefits of a high plant-based diet are endorsed by other programs as well, such as Volumetrics. The idea behind Volumetrics is that you can lose weight by eating fewer calories while still feeling full. “People like to eat, and research has shown that when you eat high-water content foods such as a green salad with a lot of vegetables or soup, you eat less food.” says Andrea Giancoli, MPH, RD, and a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. A focus of Volumetrics is an emphasis on learning how to eat water-rich foods, such as fruits and vegetables, which tend to be healthier foods. Similar to the Optimal Health Detox program, people who follow the Volumetrics plan are more likely to build lasting healthy habits. “They will develop a healthier lifestyle and maintain weight loss,” says Giancoli. “You’ll be getting a more plant-based diet and eating whole grains. You’ll be healthier.”
A recent article in the NY Times, “Eating for Health, Not Weight,” also supported a high plant-based diet, its long term health benefits and its ability to satisfy those on a quest for fullness rather than deprivation. Author Dean Cornish, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and the founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, states: “Calories do count — fat is much denser in calories, so when you eat less fat, you consume fewer calories, without consuming less food.” Cornish continues: “[I]t’s easy to eat too many calories from sugar and other refined carbs because they are so low in fiber that you can consume large amounts without getting full.”
To avoid any confusion, I’m not a vegetarian and I’m not advocating the exclusion of animal based proteins. I’m suggesting that if your stomach is full of high volume, high fiber, low calorie food, there is less room for other “bad stuff” that will add to your weight and have other potentially negative impacts on your overall health. If you are someone who has a difficult time with portion size, congratulations! You can feel free to over eat your vegetables! Try adding vegetables to your favorite mixed dishes — bulk up chili, soups and stews with water-rich vegetables like broccoli, carrots or tomatoes. Studies show that you are likely to eat the same portion of food as usual and will be satisfied with fewer calories because some of the space in the bowl is taken up by low-calorie-dense vegetables. If I can eat the same amount for less calories, I’m all for it!
If looking and feeling better in your clothes and that sense of fulfillment isn’t enough to convince you to give a high plant-based diet a try, there is also the fact that you are nurturing your body with an abundance of nutrients that will make you start feeling better every day. Again, it’s a win-win!
*For information on an upcoming workshop: Overview of the Optimal Health Detox Program, click here. | <urn:uuid:fb7db7eb-3530-4648-942b-de04c159503a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://medfield.patch.com/blog_posts/more-food-fewer-calories | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966434 | 1,026 | 1.585938 | 2 |
North Dakota State College of Science today announced a 6.5 percent increase in spring enrollment from 2011. As of Monday, February 6, the twentieth instruction day of the semester, NDSCS has 2,811 registered students, an increase of 172 students, compared to one year ago when 2,639 students were enrolled.
In the past four years, NDSCS spring enrollment has increased 23.7 percent from 2,272 students in 2009 to 2,811 in 2012.
“We are encouraged that more students, parents and high school counselors are hearing the message and understanding that two-year college certificates and degrees can lead to high-paying careers,” said John Richman, NDSCS president.
The spring 2012 student body includes:
- 57 percent full-time students, 43 percent part-time students
- 1,374 students living on the Wahpeton campus
- 70 percent of students are from North Dakota
- Students from 51 of the 53 North Dakota counties
- 29 students from 13 foreign countries, including Canada
- 1,703 first-year students, 1,108 second-year students
Several factors have contributed to the surge in enrollment, including the demand for highly-trained workers in western North Dakota, the impact of the national economy and greater awareness of job placement for graduates of two-year colleges. NDSCS’ 2011 graduate placement rate was 99 percent, meaning the graduates are employed or continuing their education. Seventy percent of the students found employment in North Dakota or transferred on to a North Dakota four-year university. For full details of the NDSCS Placement Report, go to www.ndscs.edu/placement.
“NDSCS has made a concerted effort to reach out to a greater number of traditional and non-traditional students through the expansion of the NDSCS-Fargo campus,” said Richman. “Our efforts to offer a variety of flexible class schedules and options will continue to expand as we make the NDSCS classes more available to a wider range of students in the future.” | <urn:uuid:707f3f24-b74e-4816-a99b-7937a76c0846> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ndscs.areavoices.com/2012/02/07/spring-enrollment-shows-continuing-pattern-of-growth-at-ndscs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956719 | 432 | 1.5 | 2 |
UK data-blurt cockups soared 1,000 PER CENT over last five years
That was supposed to be a secret but it got out
The number of times Brits' sensitive data has been lost or leaked in the UK has risen 1,000 per cent over the past five years. Councils recorded the biggest increase in breaches of data protection law, according to figures obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request.
The stats from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) revealed a huge jump in the number of self-reported bungles each year since 2007. Local government data law breaches increased by 1,609 per cent over that period of time. The average increase across Blighty's private and public sectors is 1,014 per cent.
Incidents of lost or leaked information in the private sector grew 1,159 per cent in that five-year period. NHS record breaches increased 935 per cent over the same period while central government data cock-ups increased 132 per cent.
Only the telecoms sector delivered a decrease in the number of info blunders from year to year, falling from six breaches in 2010/11 to zero in 2011/2012.
The latest full-year figures log 821 data breaches in the UK in 2011/2012. Precisely how many individuals were affected by each breach was not disclosed. The most recent quarterly results show that the NHS was responsible for the most incidents in Q2 2012 with 61 breaches, closely followed by local government (59) and private business (26).
The ICO has levied £2m in fines for data cock-ups in the 12 months running up to July 2012 - more than triple the penalties handed in the previous year, when the watchdog first gained powers to fine organisations responsible for particularly serious breaches of the law. Fines are typically applied for data breach incidents involving elements of negligence, repeat offending or other aggravating factors.
"The massive increase in data breaches in just five years is fairly startling," said Nick Banks, head of EMEA and APAC at Imation Mobile Security, which filed the information request.
"Perhaps more alarming is the consistent year-on-year increase in data breaches since 2007. The figures obtained from the ICO by Imation seem to show that increasing financial penalties have had little effect on the amount of data breaches each year."
"Undoubtedly there are some mitigating circumstances which have contributed to the rise in annual data breach numbers, such as the introduction of mandatory reporting in certain sectors, plus the increasing amounts of data being stored and accessed. But none of these factors obscures the clear trend of constant increases. Organisations must take responsibility for preventing breaches, and with so much available technology there really is no excuse for failing to adequately protect data," he added. ® | <urn:uuid:b312f51a-d267-4448-b070-e964103bdfe9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/30/data_breach_increase/print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952848 | 563 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Wisconsin Homebrew Bill Signed Into Law
On Monday, April 2, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed into law Senate Bill 395, which lifts current restrictions that prohibit homebrew from being transported outside of the home where it was made. The new law will go into effect within 90 days after being published by the Wisconsin Secretary of State.
The American Homebrewers Association has worked with the Wisconsin Homebrewers Alliance on this legislation since last Spring when the Wisconsin Department of Revenue determined that under existing Wisconsin law, homebrew cannot be consumed outside the home where it was produced.
Getting this legislation passed is an impressive achievement -one that was by no means certain. The bill would not have passed if it weren't for the dedication of the members of the Wisconsin Homebrewers Alliance and all of the contacts Wisconsin homebrewers had with state legislators. Our success in Wisconsin is a great example of the power the homebrewing community can bring to bear when it unites behind a worthy cause. | <urn:uuid:0fe949a5-d348-4c8c-b305-0afc99454fda> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/community/news/show?title=wisconsin-homebrew-bill-signed-into-law | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965424 | 193 | 1.585938 | 2 |
in the world between the covers of books,
such sandstorms and ice blasts of words,
such staggering peace, such enormous laughter,
such and so many blinding bright lights,
splashing all over the pages
in a million bits and pieces
all of which were words, words, words,
and each of which were alive forever
in its own delight and glory and oddity and light.
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to water-ski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
~ Billy Collins ~
Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one
it after all, a place for the genuine.
Hands that can grasp, eyes
that can dilate, hair that can rise
if it must, these things are important not because a
high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because
useful. When they become so derivative as to become
the same thing may be said for all of us, that we
do not admire what
we cannot understand: the bat
holding on upside down or in quest of something to
eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll, a tireless wolf
a tree, the immovable critic twitching his skin like a horse that
flea, the base-
ball fan, the statistician--
nor is it valid
to discriminate against 'business documents and
school-books'; all these phenomena are important. One must
make a distinction
however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the
result is not poetry,
nor till the poets among us can be
insolence and triviality and can present
for inspection, 'imaginary gardens with real toads in them', shall
it. In the meantime, if you demand on the one hand,
the raw material of poetry in
all its rawness and
that which is on the other hand
genuine, you are interested in poetry. | <urn:uuid:6424b385-c960-4165-b818-99c403ca697d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://olio-gallimaufry.blogspot.com/2011/02/poetry-higher-algebra-of-metaphors.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942103 | 504 | 1.757813 | 2 |
The Centre on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that the meeting of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) was likely to be convened shortly as requested by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister to discuss the distress-sharing formula.
In response to the Tamil Nadu’s application, the Centre, in its affidavit, said as per the Cauvery River Authority (Conduct of Business) Rules, 1998 the quorum of the meeting should be three members in addition to the Chairperson. Hence, a request had been sent to the member States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry for their concurrence for holding the CRA meeting, it said.
On the grievance of Tamil Nadu that Karnataka had not released adequate quantity of water, the Centre said “as per the interim order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal dated June 25, 1991 the cumulative inflow at Mettur up to August 22 is required to be 91.75 tmcft for the water year 2012-2013; whereas the cumulative inflow as reported by the Public Works department of Tamil nadu is 05.81 tmcft. Therefore, considerable deficit of 85.95 tmcft is noticed.” It said as per the decision of the 24 meeting of Cauvery Monitoring Committee, on December 4, 2009, “the distress-sharing formula as approved by the committee headed by the Commissioner (Projects), MoWR with the representatives from the States along with the stand of Karnataka government that there could not be a rigid formula, is required to the referred to the CRA for its consideration when noticeable distress condition occurs in future.”
Accordingly, the Centre said the concurrence of the States concerned had been sought.
The case comes up for further hearing on September 3. | <urn:uuid:780f30d9-4a64-489f-b79c-ff4b41bafa40> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/cra-meeting-likely-soon-centre-tells-supreme-court/article3841039.ece | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968427 | 366 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Sunday's vote—the second national election in six weeks—again left no party with enough votes to form a government on its own. Antonis Samaras' conservative New Democracy party won the most seats in parliament and was leading efforts to forge a coalition.
The socialist PASOK party, led by former finance minister Evangelos Venizelos, came in third. But its 33 seats in the 300-member Parliament means it can form a government with New Democracy, which gained 129 seats. A coalition would have to have a minimum of 151 seats combined in order to form a government.
Both PASOK and New Democracy have said they will stick to Greece's international bailout commitments, although they want to renegotiate some of the harsh austerity measures imposed in return for the international rescue loans that have kept the country afloat since May 2010.
The election results eased concern that Greece faced an imminent exit from Europe's joint currency. A Greek exit from the 17-nation eurozone would have potentially catastrophic consequences for other ailing European nations and hurt the United States and the entire global economy.
As head of the party that came first, Samaras was given the mandate Monday to seek coalition partners. He has three days to reach an agreement, and if he fails the second party is given another three days to try. The radical left-wing anti-bailout Syriza party came in second.
"With Mr. Venizlos we agreed that within the deadline of my mandate ... a government of national salvation must absolutely have been formed," Samaras said after talks with the socialist leader. "We will of course have new meetings."
Samaras also met Monday evening with Fotis Kouvelis, the head of the small Democratic Left party that finished sixth in Sunday's vote. He said afterwards that the meeting was fruitful, and would be repeated Tuesday.
Kouvelis' party had been seen as a potential partner for PASOK and New Democracy after inconclusive elections on May 6. Those coalition talks collapsed after 10 days of wrangling, triggering last Sunday's elections.
Syriza has refused to join the other two parties in a government, saying it will not cooperate with any group that insists on implementing the harsh austerity measures taken in return for Greece's two international bailout agreements.
Venizelos, however, has insisted on a broad coalition. "The most crucial thing for us right now is to achieve the greatest possible range of consensus, and this must happen by tomorrow night at the latest," he said after his talks with Samaras.
He also criticized Syriza chief Alexis Tsipras for his refusal to join in governing Greece. "You can't have some people choosing the easy position of being in opposition and lying in wait for the government to fail—or rather trying to create the conditions for the government, that is the country, to fail," Venizelos said.
On the streets of Athens, the mood was mixed, with many saying party leaders must get their act together.
"The election result isn't strong enough to put people's minds at ease," said sandwich shop owner Mary Moutafidis, 57. "They still have to agree to form a government."
European Union leaders appeared relieved that a pro-austerity government had a good chance of being formed.
"Continued fiscal and structural reforms are Greece's best guarantee to overcome the current economic and social challenges," European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a joint statement.
But an early market rally faded quickly Monday as investors turned their attention back to the other financially unstable economies in the Eurozone, Spain and Italy.
In Athens, stocks lost initial strong gains but still closed up 3.64 percent.
Greece has survived for more than two years on rescue loans from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund. The vital bailouts are conditional on the country continuing with its deeply unpopular package of spending cuts, and pushing through new structural reforms.
Athens has pledged to push through new savings worth nearly (EURO)15 billion ($18.9 billion), raise billions in company and real estate privatizations and sack about 150,000 civil servants.
Both New Democracy and PASOK want an extension of at least two years to the austerity and reform deadline, to alleviate pressure on a population exhausted by two-and-a-half years of deep income cuts and tax hikes.
Unemployment has soared to more than 22 percent, while Greece's economy is in a fifth year of deep recession.
Menelaos Hadjicostis and Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed. | <urn:uuid:2f0efbd9-4a4f-40af-aa17-502dca222bd3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yorkdispatch.com/nation/ci_20881384/greek-election-victor-hold-coalition-talks | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972598 | 948 | 1.617188 | 2 |
When the sun sets on San Francisco's Valencia Street, the corridor comes alive with cars and bicycles - and with the resulting friction between them.
Regular bicycle commuters see the scenario play out each evening: A car driving slowly along Valencia darts suddenly across the bike lane to nab a coveted parking spot or to double-park, forcing a cyclist to swerve into vehicle traffic.
"At night, after dark especially, it's dangerous," said Emily Babiak, 29, who does data entry at a nonprofit and commutes daily along the stretch. "Sometimes it happens really suddenly, so it's hard to handle and causes me some anxiety. Last night I was riding between (16th Street) and 26th and I saw at least four to six double-parked cars blocking the lane."
Other riders feel that even when they alert drivers to the rules about blocking the lane, they're ignored.
"It happens all the time," said Kyle Walsh, 36, a registered nurse who has ridden in the city for 10 years. "The other day I had a pickup truck swerve right in front of me. When I told him what he did, his response was to blast his horn. If you're a biker, you're used to getting disrespected."
San Francisco city officials transformed Valencia Street into a bicycle-friendly corridor in 1999 by eliminating two traffic lanes and adding two bicycle lanes plus a series of left-turn lanes down the center of the street.
An uptick in bike traffic followed, but as the street expanded into a popular evening dining destination, car traffic grew as well. Cars and taxis block the bike lanes to drop people off or to run a quick errand, and drivers looking for a parking spot often drift into the bike lanes.
Cyclists say they still want to use Valencia as a commuting route because of the bike lanes and its relatively flat grade. But they said careless driving, especially after dark, makes it a harrowing experience, and they rarely or never see tickets being issued, even though parking in the bike lane is illegal if it impedes bike traffic.
Double-parking is not a moving violation, so parking control officers and police can both write tickets for it, said Paul Rose, an MTA spokesman. Any careless driving, however, has to be handled by police.
Despite the perceived danger, the corridor doesn't see very many accidents, said Capt. Denis O'Leary, head of SFPD's traffic division. Police usually go for a verbal warning if someone is caught blocking the bike lane when cyclists need it, he said.
But if a driver cuts a cyclist off suddenly, "that's an infraction, and a traffic stop should follow," O'Leary said.
MTA also changed Valencia in 2011 to a "green wave" system, in which intersection traffic lights are synchronized for vehicles traveling at 13 mph, a moderate cycling speed. Rose said the agency hopes that the SFpark pilot program, which allows drivers to go online or use a smartphone to see where empty spots are available, will help ease needless prowling for parking. The program was put into place along Valencia from 15th to 24th streets in 2011, Rose said.
In the meantime, though, cyclists feel that heightened enforcement, especially during the evening hours, could help send the message that cars and bikes need to share the road and make all parties more aware of each other.
"I don't think they're doing enough to protect cyclists," said Walsh, the registered nurse. "Why don't they hang a sign on every stoplight telling drivers to share the lane?"
Leaders of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition said they hope eventually to have separated bikeways on Valencia like the city already has in Golden Gate Park and is establishing along Fell and Oak streets.
"Simple white posts are really easy for the city to install," said Leah Shahum, the bicycle coalition's executive director. "Anything to have full separation between moving car traffic. We hear anecdotally from folks it's a big difference."
What's not working
Issue: Enforcement seems to be lacking when it comes to double-parking in bike lanes along Valencia Street, where bicyclists sometimes are forced to take potentially dangerous evasive action.
What's been done: Municipal Transportation Agency parking control officers can write tickets for double-parking, and San Francisco traffic cops can cite for careless driving, but violators frequently get off with verbal warnings, police acknowledge.
If you know of something that needs to be improved, the Chronicle Watch team wants to hear from you. E-mail your issue to [email protected], or reach us on Twitter at@sfchronwatch and facebook.com/sfchronwatch. | <urn:uuid:bad8a5d7-defa-4968-96ad-7158c3cdac7e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Valencia-Street-traffic-poses-risk-to-cyclists-4147447.php | 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 | 0.969109 | 962 | 1.742188 | 2 |
After reading Bill Farish’s pointed attack at Kentucky Senate President David Williams, it is easy to say the Farish family, staunch Republicans, has decided the fight for video lottery terminals in the state is about business, not politics. But speaking during the Keeneland September sale the day after his letter was published, Farish said that is not the case.
“This is not about business,” Farish, the general manager of his family’s Lane’s End Farm near Versailles, Ky., said emphatically. “This is about an entire industry.”
Farish insisted there was no grand plan to the timing of his op-ed piece, but it was e-mailed to media outlets just days after the announcement of the drop in the size of the foal crop and in the midst of the Keeneland September yearling sale where commercial breeders were taking a beating.
“The size of the foal crop will drop more next year and that affects everyone,” Farish said.
By “everyone,” Farish means every person that breeds, races, and sells Thoroughbreds and every person that trains, grooms, or hot walks a Thoroughbred. But, he pointed out, he means many more people than that; he means people who sell fencing, gates, and trucks; people who own hotels, gas stations, and feed stores; people who plant trees, build barns, and operate vans; professionals such as veterinarians, farriers, and equine dentists.
In Kentucky alone, it is estimated upward of 100,000 individuals—in a state with a total population of about 4.25 million—are dependent on the horse industry for their livelihoods.
The ripple effect, however, goes much further than the borders of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Horses bred, raised, and sold in Kentucky race around the world. Horsemen from every state and countless countries ship their mares to be bred to Kentucky stallions. Kentucky’s tourism is a thriving industry, partially thanks to the thousands who flock to the state each year because of the state’s horses.
The state, by the way, collects 6% sales tax on stud fees, receives revenue from pari-mutuel wagering, and has numerous businesses that would not exist if it were not for the nutrient-rich water and soil that make the lush pastures of the state such a great place to raise horses.
As Farish pointed out, a recent poll by the Kentucky Equine Education Project found 70% of Kentuckians favor expanding gaming in the state. But the addition of video lottery terminals is being held political prisoner by Williams, who has said he does not believe the machines are in the best interest of the state and its citizens.
But rather than one who comes across as truly looking out for the best interests of his constituents, Williams, through his bottlenecking of alternative gaming legislation, is seen as the worst kind of bully, one with an ego.
Imagine how difficult it is for a person like Bill Farish to so disparage the state leader of his party. Remember this is a man who worked for President George H.W. Bush and his father was appointed the Ambassador to Great Britain.
“I never thought I would see such dire straits for the industry,” Farish said. “He (Williams) is deciding people’s livelihoods. He has no idea how upset people are with him.”
Many members of the horse industry, Republicans and Democrats alike, recently supported Democrat Robin Webb, who won a special election for a Kentucky Senate seat. They are poised to help other candidates, from both parties, who publicly support alternative gaming.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Farish said. “Who knows where the industry is going.”
Who knows how far the foal crop can drop?
“The other Republicans are feeling the heat,” Farish said. “They’re scared right now.”
In his rebuttal to Farish, Williams calls the addition of video lottery terminals a “band-aid” for the industry.
If you don’t apply the band-aid, the wound keeps bleeding.
David Williams needs to understand Bill Farish, and every other member of the horse industry in his state of Kentucky, is bleeding. | <urn:uuid:d400e4b4-59ab-4faf-810f-67fc63667eff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/wgoh/archive/2009/09/29/blood-on-the-tracks-by-dan-liebman.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973954 | 918 | 1.539063 | 2 |
One man's 10 year quest to bring peace to a Civilisation II game world appears to have been achieved after his story was made famous around the globe.
He said he had played the game, in which players attempt to conquer the world through war, diplomacy and technological advancement, until the year 3,997 AD.
What was left was a "hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation" - a world largely uninhabitable, flooded and beset by in-fighting and periodic annihilation, dominated by three remaining super powers "each competing for the scant resources left on the planet after dozens of nuclear wars have rendered vast swaths of the world uninhabitable wastelands".
In Lycerius's world, the polar ice caps have melted 20 times due to nuclear wars and all of the big cities have crumbled.
"Roughly 90% of the worlds population (at it's peak 2000 years ago) has died either from nuclear annihilation or famine caused by the global warming that has left absolutely zero arable land to farm," he said.
For two hours the story gained votes and comments on Reddit, before dozens of news websites (including the Huffington Post) picked it up and the post went viral.
Within hours a subReddit had been set up by the site's users to collect tales of the efforts to complete Lycerius's quest and bring peace to what was dubbed The Eternal War.
Now one user claims to have done it.
Reddit user "stumpster" said that after 58 years (in game) he'd finally managed to pull off a victory using Lycerius' original save game.
While writing with a more straightforward mindset than the original post, Stumpster described how he went about the task.
"Hopefully your alliance with the Americans holds, mine lasted about ~30 years which was enough to get production and build my army up reasonably. Fighting a two front war would be much more difficult without a doubt," he said.
"I opted for a page out of MacArthur's book and performed my own Incheon landing."
Essentially he invaded the Vikings' lands in a developed areas and used their railroads against them, taking their cities one by on, before turning his attention to the American empire and blitzing their massive armies with his Howtizers. In the end - and after much toil - he achieved victory.
Some were sad to see the game completed.
"Part of me is sad that you took the fight to the Americans. While it was a tentative peace to be sure, you yourself became a Viking, and, for what? A few more swamps to reign over?" said one.
"Makes for a nice phyrric victory to go with the depressing history. "We won the war, but we sold off our future to do it." said another.
Meanwhile one considered the cost of the 1700 year-long war
"How will my people live without Future Technology 37? We've stopped the war, but at what cost? WHAT COST?"
While some tried to fight the war, others responded in a more artistic way to the richly evocative scenario.
Finally another came up with his own creative way to celebrate the war of the Celts, the Vikings and the Americans:
"If I were to perform an interpretive dance routine of my feelings about The Eternal War in my backyard, would anyone attend?" he asked.
"I feel like this CivII game expresses everything I feel about myself, my life, the world, and humanity." | <urn:uuid:fbbfe151-1f7f-4030-a2b6-8c79023e68ad> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/12/civilisation-ii-reddit-eternal-war-over_n_1597177.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975762 | 722 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Some might wonder about the sanity of taking a late afternoon flight out of Fort Worth, later arrival at the hotel, an almost descent night’s sleep, all to attend only the last day of Educon 2.4. What I wonder about is the potential malign effects of three whole days of deep and enthrawling conversations, nearly every one pushing my thinking in subtile or dramatically new directions.
I reminded Chris Lehmann, at the end of the last session, that I talk about this stuff just about every day. Then I confessed that there was a moment during the afternoon that I realized that every contribution I had made the entire day had come from something else I’d heard at the conference. Educon is a cauldron where our ideas about education get stirred up and mixed with those of others. Our concepts get disassembled and recombined through forces of attraction and repulsion that dazzle me, and every time it happened, it left me a little stunned for a moment.
The one complaint that I have about the Educon experience is the inability to spend at least 15 minutes reflecting after every conversation. I am not referring to the larger conversation sessions, but every single conversation with every single person I encountered, in the sessions, in the hall, fixing coffee, checking my coat ….
|Chris Emdin compellingly making his point|
The first formal part of the Sunday installment of Educon was the large group panel discussion, entitled, “How do Schools Sustain Innovation?” I found myself feeling a bit sorry for the moderator, Kevin Hogan, because the panelists pretty much took off from the start and didn’t land again until Chris Lehmann had to fairly frantically call for an end.
It struck me during the discussion, that innovation – a means of finding or inventing a new and better way of accomplishing a goal (my definition) – has become “a goal.” This is understandable within the education arena, because being an inventive, resourceful, free-thinking goal-achiever is part of the skill-set that we are coming to consider basic. But innovation for innovation’s sake risks going down the same confusing road of technology for technology’s sake. It gets taken apart, sequenced, classified, curriculumized — and it simply stops making sense. Chris Emdin pointed this out when he suggested that innovations can get cooped, branded, and become dogma. One of the many threads that I rode throughout the day was that there is no one-size-fits-all “vision” for schooling.
To me, the question at hand is, “How do we sustain an innvoation-friendly school?” and even though the general discussion was riveting, I did not get any clear message on how this is done. So at some point, I started a branch on the concept map I was using to take notes where I added and eventually sorted a list of principles or process for sustaining an innovation-friendly environment.
At the heart is permission and facility. An educational community that adapts to changing conditions grants its members permission to innovate and facilities or procedures for pursuing a better way. It is part of the school’s culture.
Here is the list that I ended with. Even though it is numbered, I now see that other arrangements are at least as appropriate as this.
- Permission to Identify and Describe a Problem
- Permission to Solve the Problem
- Willingness to Let Go
- Awareness of Other Boxes
- Engineer a New Way
- Permission to fail and re-engineer
I added permission here because several times during the day people described environments that were unwilling to admit problems or listen to those who suggested any course other than “business as usual.”
This one might actually be tougher to allow than it seems. Having worked in state government, I know how risky it is to do anything that jeopardizes your reputation – or that of your boss. In some environments, it is your job to make your boss look good.
This one might better be labeled, “Permission to take a Chance.”
I suspect that many worthwhile innovations fail, because they are simply mounted on top of existing practices, rather than transforming existing practices. This is illustrated by the three challenges, made by American education reformers, to the Finnish education model (see Finnish Miracles and American Myths). The U.S. education reform movement seems unwilling to consider letting go of government testing, school competition, and accountability.
This is a bit of a twist from my usual reference to “outside the box” thinking. It was actually sparked by a previous conversation with the Director of Applications Development at a large school district I recently worked in. He told me that what he looks for in prospective hires for his programming staff is “creativity.” He went on to say that the best part of his education was all of the history, literature, science, etc. that he took.
I think that innovation does not necessarily come from outside the box, but from having access to other boxes that rearrange our perspectives and enable us to come at a problem from a different angle.
This, I guess, is where the innovation happens, and much has been written about this by smarter people than me. I will humbly suggest that it requires research, design, collaboration, negotiation, and flexibility, to mention only a few of the skills.
This may well be the toughest part to accomplish. Innovation in business and industry are easy. Failure in the public sector is fuel to those with political agendas. In the private sector, R & D are considered a legitimate and necessary cost of doing business. For schools, it is a waste of tax-payer money. You can tell that I speak from some experience here.
- “The illiterate of the future are not those that cannot read or write. They are those that cannot learn, unlearn, relearn.” – Alvin Toffler [↩]
About the Author: 35 year educator, programmer, author, and public speaker. Read more from this author | <urn:uuid:dce70c6b-ff15-4ee6-9fd7-77f161c46d32> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=3478 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971912 | 1,267 | 1.625 | 2 |
19 October 2012
With our UN victory comes prestige and responsibility
It's the Australian way to help shape the international debate and further our interests, says Michael Fullilove. Where better to do that than from the biggest table in the world?
Australia's election to the Security Council earlier today is a magnificent win for Australian diplomacy. All those involved in the initiation and prosecution of the campaign deserve kudos.
Membership of the Security Council is manifestly in our national interest. The Council is the world's pre-eminent crisis management forum. It is the pointy end of the United Nations. UN bashers hate to hear this, but the 2002-2003 debate over the invasion of Iraq demonstrates the centrality of the Council in conferring legitimacy on the use of force, or denying it - which in turn affects the risks and costs of a military operation.
Sitting on the Council will increase our international leverage. It will add to our international reputation. Like our alliance with the United States, Council membership will be a source of international prestige, but a different and complementary source of prestige.
We cannot predict which issues will come before the Council in the 2013-2014 term. Sometimes Council deliberations relate directly and intimately to Australian interests, for example, in the cases of East Timor in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001, and Iraq in 2002-2003. Sometimes the discussions go to our broader interests as a member of the world community. Issues such as the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, the Syrian imbroglio, terrorism, and the "responsibility to protect" all come to mind as possibilities.
Whatever the agenda ends up looking like, though, the fact is that that after a quarter-century's absence from the main global game, we are back. We now have the opportunity to make our own arguments in our own name. Anyone who has a large opinion of Australia's possibilities should welcome this.
Thankfully, the rather odd domestic debate about whether the campaign was worth it is now behind us. Opponents claimed that the campaign compromised Australia's values, when in fact our membership of the Council will enable us to promote our values, as well as our interests. They worried that the country could not afford a diplomatic campaign, which revealed a highly straitened view of Australia's role in the world.
They fretted that it would force us to state our position on controversial issues, preferring apparently a small-target strategy - which is not the Australian way. And they tacked between claiming that Council membership would be dangerous (because it would expose us to conflict with major powers) and irrelevant (because it would group us with minor powers).
The truth is, Australia's Council bid conformed with one of the oldest themes in Australian foreign policy. Australians are joiners by instinct and practice. We have always sought to further our national interest by joining international institutions. We invested in imperial institutions and then alliance institutions. Where institutions did not exist, we helped to stand them up - as in the cases of the United Nations itself, APEC and the G20.
Our focus since the 1990s has been on Asia-Pacific institutions. But in the past five years, we have graduated to the two most important global institutions - the G20 on the financial and economic side of the house, and now the UN Security Council on the political and security side.
This is a big opportunity for Australia. We are a country with global interests and capacities. We have the 12th largest economy in the world and a highly professional military. We have a remarkable record for contributing to international security. Now we can bring those capacities to bear in the Security Council. The benefits to us will spill over into many of our other bilateral relationships, including in the region.
But this will also be a test for Australian politicians and officials. It will stretch our foreign policy establishment, which is severely under-resourced. Sometimes Australian policy makers have let important global issues go through to the keeper. As a Security Council member, we can no longer do this. This result will push Australian foreign policy in a global direction.
Our diplomats have done a sterling job in winning this position. No good deed goes unpunished, however, and they will now have to work even harder - as will our leaders.
With Australia's win in New York, we now have a seat at the world's two biggest tables - the G20 and the UN Security Council. It's a good day for the country. | <urn:uuid:83f09520-0e61-4a77-a6d6-3e02ec9c92c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4322872.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952574 | 907 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Scott Marks 3:04 p.m., June 18
Drug war spillover at border "highly underreported," says GAO
Report to Congress by Government Accountability Office speculates on possibility drug war in Mexico may escalate and cross the Southwest border into U.S.
Heads are rolling and bullets flying in the United States-assisted drug war south of the border, but - so far at least - stateside collateral damage has been minimal, if "highly underreported."
And getting drug war soldiers and victims to talk can be nearly impossible:
FBI officials cautioned that drug cartel related crimes, such as kidnappings and home invasions, are highly underreported and are not captured in national crime statistics.
For example, law enforcement officials with whom we spoke stated that individuals who may have been assaulted or robbed in the course of drug trafficking and other illicit activities are hesitant to report their involvement to the police
Making things worse, local officials are tempted by the big payoffs working with the bad guys can bring and may not be keeping a complete account of the mayhem:
Cartels may target public officials and law enforcement for corruption. Specifically, we were told of cases from local law enforcement in both New Mexico and Arizona in which public officials had been corrupted by a Mexican cartel.
That's the grim bottom line of a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office to Congress, entitled "Southwest Border Security," that presents several scary scenarios regarding future incursions.
While [Department of Homeland Security] and [Department of Justice] threat assessments indicate that violent infighting between drug cartels has remained largely in Mexico, DHS assessments also show that aggressive tactics used by traffickers to evade capture demonstrate an increasing threat to U.S. law enforcement.
Officials noted that there is always potential for the high levels of violence in Mexico, such as organized murders and kidnappings for ransom, to spread to their border towns.
Despite the perceived threat, the report goes on to say that valid numbers on stateside drug war crime are virtually impossible to come up with:
Law enforcement agencies have few efforts to track spillover crime. No common federal government definition of such crime exists, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) components, including those with a definition, either do not collect data to track spillover crime, or do not maintain such data that can be readily retrieved and analyzed.
Officials from the San Diego office of the California Highway Patrol stated that in 2012 their field office began tracking how often they respond to calls from CBP’s Office of Field Operations to investigate incidents at the port of entry.
However, the officials noted that the data could not be a measure for spillover crime because the incident may not always result in a crime or an arrest and may not be related to cartel activity or involve Mexican nationals.
The GAO researchers even had a problem coming up with a reasonable definition of what they were studying:
Stakeholders view the term “spillover” differently. Depending on the stakeholder, the term “spillover” might refer only to Mexican drug cartel-related violence or be defined as a broader concept of spillover crime, which includes both violent and nonviolent activities.
Examples of such activities include rape or murder committed in connection with cross- border or drug cartel activity; keeping smuggled aliens in stash houses and ransoming them back to Mexico; smuggling of firearms, drugs, and people; vandalism such as littering on smuggling routes; and destroying private property, such as cutting fences and killing cattle.
Officials from 27 out of 37 state and local law enforcement agencies stated that it would be at least somewhat useful to have a common definition of spillover crime, because it would establish types of activities that constitute spillover crime and allow agencies to track such crime, among other uses.
However, officials from 22 of those 27 agencies also stated that accomplishing such a task might be challenging. | <urn:uuid:8637b007-1e3f-48a2-9f4a-3d0a3bf7872e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news-ticker/2013/mar/01/drug-war-spillover-at-border-highly-underreported-/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963153 | 806 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Community food growing project takes place in Begbrook this weekend
A COMMUNITY food-growing project is inviting people to its first wassail that takes place this weekend.
Feed Bristol was officially launched by Avon Wildlife Trust last June, and has since transformed the former market garden site on Frenchay Park Road in Begbrook.
The free celebration this Saturday includes the traditional wassail, with a children's music workshop, morris dancing and a ceilidh. There will be hot stew and mulled cider, and also bird box making for the site.
A wassail is a mid-winter festival held in apple orchards across the South West which incorporate noise, light and feasting. A good wassail will wake the orchards up from their winter slumbers to ensure a bumper harvest next autumn.
Community groups, schools, corporations and individuals have volunteered their time and adopted patches at Feed Bristol to grow organic food in a nature-friendly way. All food is donated, with volunteers receiving 'grow it' tokens.
It is part of a wider initiative run by Avon Wildlife Trust and other local wildlife trusts across the UK.
The Feed Bristol wassail, which runs from 11am to 4pm, includes Feed Bristol site tours, bird box making, a children's music workshop, hot stew and mulled cider, Bristol Morris Men and The Wassail ceremony.
Avon Wildlife Trust's Feed Bristol Project Officer Matt Cracknell said: "Feed Bristol is bringing people together to grow organic food in a nature-friendly way.
"The wassail is a great way to show people what has already been achieved and to celebrate the new growing season with lots of fun, dancing and noise."
Feed Bristol is supported by the Big Lottery Fund's Local Food Grant.
For further information visit avonwildlifetrust.org.uk/feedbristol. | <urn:uuid:9065e84b-1e30-468f-b54d-72de14d94c38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Community-food-growing-project-takes-place/story-17948833-detail/story.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940954 | 390 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The president-elect has paged CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta and asked him to be the next surgeon general, a position that has historically been used as a bully pulpit to change health behavior. To wit: Luther Terry’s warning about cigarettes back in the 1960s, and more recently, C. Everett Koop’s efforts to reframe AIDS as a health issue instead of a moral one. Those who were too outspoken got into trouble—like Joycelyn Elders, appointed and later fired by President Clinton for talking publicly about masturbation, and Bush II appointee Richard Carmona, who said the administration prevented him from speaking out about sex education, stem cells, and other hot button health concerns.
Against this historical context, the country will have more than a passing interest in what the well-known and controversial TV doctor (controversial in some journalism circles, at least) has to say about some of the key issues of our time: the overuse of medical procedures that waste a lot of money and sometimes hurt patients, ineffective, money-wasting medical technology, universal access to medical care, and the threat of obesity and diabetes, which touches more Americans every year. All of these could cause him to tangle with powerful corporate interests, who might just complain to all the president’s men.
The media has begun to pass along laudatory remarks. The Washington Post, for example, quoted Ken Thorpe, an Emory University professor and Gupta friend, saying he is “a great voice to get the public engaged in the discussion over health care reform.” And advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest issued a press release Wednesday, which praises the doctor as a “skilled medical communicator” who also “has the brains and energy to be an integral part of the administration’s health policy brain trust.” Given the importance of the position, it’s fair to ask: What does Gupta’s journalism tell about the kind of doctor-in-chief he might be?
Gary Schwitzer, who publishes Health News Review, an Web site funded by the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making that evaluates and grades medical stories, has criticized some of Gupta’s work for not meeting standards of objectivity, fairness, honesty, and completeness. In March 2007, Schwitzer examined a story about anxiety disorders that aired on Gupta’s House Call program, offering what Schwitzer called “one of those handy self-assessments “ that allows people to diagnose “almost anything under the sun.” Gupta said that if people answered yes to any of three questions, they should see their doctor or get help from the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA).
According to Health News Review, Gupta did not mention that the ADAA’s corporate advisory council includes drug companies. Groups such as the ADAA are often used to market drugs for pharmaceutical makers. Said Schwitzer: “I worry a lot about how commercial, how unquestioning, and how cheerleading much of CNN’s medical news is. It makes me very anxious.”
Another time, Schwitzer found that Gupta and his guest gave tips on medical screening tests for men—but their advice clashed with that of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a group of medical experts convened by the government to conduct rigorous, impartial assessments of scientific evidence and develop recommendations for preventive services. Many experts consider the Task Force’s work the gold standard in the field.
This past November, researchers Steve Woloshin, Lisa Schwartz, and Ray Moynihan, who often write about conflicts in medical journalism, authored a British Medical Journal piece on the entanglements of medical journalists with pharmaceutical companies. They noted that Gupta hosted at least one CNN health program that is “funded partly though drug company advertising.” A few years back, Pfizer announced in Time that it sponsored the Paging Dr. Gupta program on CNN. Of course, corporations sponsor journalists’ programs all the time; the problem arises when journalists appear to represent the interests of the sponsor.
In 2007, left-wing publication CounterPunch attacked Gupta’s reporting on Gardisil, the cervical cancer vaccine that drug giant Merck widely and actively marketed with the help of First Lady Laura Bush and nonprofit groups funded by Merck. In a lengthy article, writer Pam Martens reported Gupta had told his audience that “trials showed the vaccine could lower cervical cancer rates by 70 percent.” | <urn:uuid:705bc69a-3c15-4924-abfe-0e840a55929d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/the_tv_doc_as_surgeon_general.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957895 | 931 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Politicians can’t agree on anything. News coverage is often shrill, faulty and alarming. Nevertheless, a healthy majority of Americans insist they understand the “fiscal cliff” and all its catastrophic glory.
So says a Pew Research Center poll revealing that 57 percent of the public say they understand the implications of “going over the fiscal cliff.” Sixty one percent of Republicans and 58 percent of Democrats agree with this.
We’re not quite as sure, however, about the outcome.
The poll also reveals that 49 percent of Americans overall say President Obama and Republicans in Congress will not reach a deal on the fiscal cliff. The inevitable partisan divide emerges: 69 percent of Republicans and 36 percent of Democrats also say the deal is out of reach.
The survey of 1,003 U.S. adults was conducted Nov. 29-Dec. 2. | <urn:uuid:a375864b-0d14-4d7a-b0b4-0ef521713077> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2012/dec/5/57-percent-americans-say-understand-fiscal-cliff/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949489 | 181 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Running restaurants may not require a degree in rocket science, but at least one department at the 75-unit Eat’n Park family-dining chain is taking a NASA-like approach to its work.
Bill Moore, director of safety and security for Homestead, Pa.-based Eat’n Park Hospitality Group, said his team borrowed a playbook page from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of a three-pronged strategy to reduce incidences of food adulteration by foreign objects, such as glass, and fraudulent claims about such problems.
“Whenever NASA has a shuttle go down, or any airliner goes down, investigators find all the missing pieces and catalog every screw that was in that shuttle or airplane,” Moore explained “We’re saying, ‘Okay, let’s look at every piece of glass [or china] we have in our facility, let’s look at every piece of wood that can come off and let’s look at every screw that might fall into a drink. Let’s make sure we know [in advance] what can happen and where something can come from.”
One of the other two major components of Eat’n Park’s adulterated-food-reduction strategy involved the chain’s replacement of some types of glassware with attractive, shatter-resistant plastic products to reduce the amount of possible adulterant source materials in its restaurants, Moore said. The other, he noted, related to the chain’s use of security camera video footage to confirm that diners claiming to have suffered from adulterated food reacted in a likely manner.
Moore did not provide details about the annual number of consumer claims for compensation tied to verified or alleged incidences of foreign objects in food, but offered that when you operate nearly 80 restaurants, “It can add up.”
Speaking of Eat’n Park’s multi-piece defense strategy, he said, “Those three areas have really helped us reduce our claims, as far as foreign objects found in food are concerned.”
In addition to cataloging dishware and some building materials and equipment pieces used in Eat’n Park restaurants, Moore’s group studied how each type of dishware reacted when dropped on a hard surface from a height of three feet. That undertaking by Michael Galterio, the chain’s food code specialist, documented such things as the distance pieces flew when specific dishware shattered.
Moore said data from the distance analysis were incorporated into a chart now used as part of the food-safety curriculum presented to about 500 managers and other key employees annually. The key underlying training messages to come from that analysis, he said: “When you break a dish, you just can’t clean up the dish. You have to clean up the area [and] go 10 to 12 feet out; food that is uncovered [in the vicinity] has to be thrown away.“
The pieces left over from the breakage research were stored in labeled bins in a plastic box at headquarters so that they can easily be retrieved for comparison with objects guests report finding in their food, Moore said.
“It gives you a place to start an investigation,” he said of the ability to make such comparisons. “You can say, ‘This piece did come from our restaurant or this piece did not, so maybe we need to go back to the [food] manufacturer.’”
In instances when an object submitted by a consumer does not match one of Eat’n Park’s cataloged materials, nor does it match materials found at the manufacturer’s plant, the possibility of fraud must be considered, Moore indicated. And Eat’n Park has nailed some individuals in the act of trying to defraud the chain.
“We have caught a couple of people putting stuff in food through the use of our video security cameras,” Moore said. But as telling as what the camera footage has shown at times, is what has not been seen in video of other customers who claim to have found foreign objects in their food and even to have broken a tooth yet “didn’t even flinch” during the purported ordeal, he said. | <urn:uuid:06e66a83-465f-40c8-aebe-4c729e0e2a9b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nrn.com/news/eatn-park-borrows-nasa-tactic-help-reduce-food-adulteration-fraud | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963856 | 891 | 1.664063 | 2 |
By Anthony E. Parent, Esq.
Surviving the IRS Form 4180 interview
Unfortunately, this is not the type of trust fund that your rich uncle would make you the beneficiary of. That would be nice, but today we have other things to discuss. Namely the trust fund interview form the IRS uses, known as Form 4180.
First what is the “Trust Fund” we speak about?
The “trust fund” is a type of tax. Namely a type of tax that makes up most of the payroll taxes due to the United States Treasury.
It works like this: Payroll taxes are those taxes an employer withholds from employees for income tax and FICA (Social Security/Medicare), long with matching amounts of social security and Medicare taxes that are due from the employers.
This is probably confusing. It was to me. So let me lay out an equation:
Total payroll taxes = (1) taxes withheld on behalf of employee in trust for the US treasury + (2) additional taxes employers have to pay when they have employees.
Part (1) is the amount you would see withheld on your pay stub. It would show the amount of income tax and FICA your employer withheld. That was your money, and instead of workers paying the IRS directly, they changed the law to require employers to act as third=parties responsible for taking the employee’s money and send it to the IRS on behalf of the employee. This amount, this amount of money that the employee owes to the IRS is what we call the “trust fund” taxes.
Part (2) is the amount of taxes employees never see and employer pay. Most employees have no idea that employers are forced to pay an additional amount in taxes. The tax that an employer is required to pay is additional social security and additional Medicare tax. This is what is called the “Non-trust fund” portion of total payroll tax.
IRS Form 941 is used to calculate the trust fund and non-trust fund portions that an employer must send in. Although Form 941 is due quarterly, most payroll deposits are due bi-weekly.
When payroll taxes aren’t paid.
Typically what happens is an employer runs into a cash flow problem. They have enough money to pay the employees their wages, but not enough to also make all the required payroll deposits. This is quite common in seasonal businesses, and of course quite common in our 5-year economic recession. It is actually quite easy for an employer not to make payroll deposits. As far as the employee is concerned, the employee would never know — refunds are granted as if taxes were withheld according to the paystubs. In a sense, an employee is borrowing money due to the federal government today to fund business operations tomorrow, with the hope that tomorrow will be better and the employer will be able to repay money “borrowed” from the IRS.
Of course, it often does work this way. Many times, employers gamble wrong. And wind up with a much bigger payroll tax liability than imagined, and an IRS Revenue Officer at their business, threatening to shut down the business. This is very often when a firm like ours steps in.
Why the Trust Fund Interview then?
You see, if you think about it, the “trust fund” taxes are really employees money (even though, in most cases, the money may have never really existed). But the employer made a promise to pay an employee gross wages, net pay to the employee, and employee taxes to the IRS. But by not making payroll deposits, the employer is failing to honor its employment agreement. And the folks who are hurt are the IRS. They lose twice: First they don’t get the taxes. And second, they have to credit employees for tax payments their employers were required to make, but never did!
So you see, because it is sort of like embezzlement, and because the IRS loses out so much, the IRS is incredibly, insanely aggressive about collecting trust fund taxes.
Who is responsible?
Form 4180 is supposed to assist the Revenue Officer who is who is responsible for failing to make the payroll deposits. One does not need to be the actual owner to be held liable. Just someone who the IRS feels should have made the payroll deposits and hasn’t. Oftentimes, along with the principals, a Revenue officer will see who else has signatory authority over bank accounts.
The IRS also looks to see who was “willfull.” But this standard is not often paid attention to. For instance, I’ve seen cases where an employee was embezzling money which created a cashflow bind. Because of this bind, payroll deposits were not made. Yet, even though the owner of the company had money stolen from him, the IRS will still hold the employer was “willful,”and will claim they are responsible.
Many times people do not understand that this is a joint and several liability. The IRS can collect this tax from as many people as possible, but not more than what is owed. It can’t collect the same money twice, but it is under no obligation to apportion the amount collected, the IRS is fine is Party A pays 0% while party B pays 100%, regardless if one party was more to blame than the other. As soon as the trust fund assessment is made, everyone and anyone is just as guilty in the the eyes of the IRS.
How to survive a trust fund interview for back payroll taxes.
If you are the person responsible, just say so. Don’t fight the IRS needlessly. Accept the fact that you are a person who will be held accountable for trust fund taxes and move on to resolving that debt. Hopefully you have a legal representation that know the best way to resolve this debt including an Offer in Compromise on a running business (if your tax representative is unfamiliar with how an Offer in Compromise on a running business works for back payroll taxes, you may want to consider a different law firm).
However, if you do not think you should be held responsible, then guess what I am going to say?
You must get yourself an attorney experienced who can help you fight a proposed trust fund assessment. Look, the numbers can be huge. The more employees, the bigger the liabilities.
There are a few reasons why we the trust fund assessed when it should not have been:
- aggressive revenue officers took short cuts and want to name as many people as possible responsible;
- the taxpayer failed to properly document and build case make a case, showing that while they were involved in company’s finances, they actually had no control over how payroll deposits were made;
- taxpayer or his representative failed to properly appeal;
- taxpayer signed document just to appease Revenue Officer, the intimidation worked;
- non-responsible party was represented by company attorney with conflict of interest;
- there was a ‘ganging up’ against a non-responsible party who didn’t know how to fight back
- there was a dispute in ownership
- failure to understand just how important it is to fight, the hearing is very informal but the result, long lasting and drastic.
So what does a Form 4180 look like?
The IRS does not publish Form 4180 on its website. It is for their internal use only. Of course, I have a blank I could post. But I am far too reluctant to publish the entire form, as I don’t want anyone thinking this is something that they can do themselves. But it is the internet and So here is a screen shot of the first page: | <urn:uuid:0580efbc-1edc-42d2-93c5-c9356555f7b4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.irsmedic.com/2012/12/04/form-4180-interview/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978749 | 1,589 | 1.664063 | 2 |
The Full Hearing
At the Full Hearing, both parties present their case through witnesses and documentation. The parties may be asked to submit proposed decisions or additional documentation. After the record is closed, a decision is rendered. The decision is written up by the Commissioner/Hearing Officer who heard the case.
A hearing is a tape-recorded formal procedure and conduct of the parties must at all times be orderly. The parties may offer at a hearing all relevant evidence and information as is deemed appropriate and admissible under the rules of evidence to the discretion of the Presiding Officer. Letters and affidavits may be admitted into evidence at the discretion of the Commissioner or Presiding Officer. At times, stipulations of fact agreed upon by the parties may be regarded and used as evidence at the hearing.
You can expect that witnesses from both sides will be called before the Presiding Officer and shall be examined under oath. Information such as papers and documents relevant to the case may be entered into the record for consideration.
After testimony has been heard and documents entered into evidence, the Presiding Officer may request proposed decisions from the parties. The parties will receive a Civil Service Commission written decision via first class mail. After the record is closed, a decision is usually rendered within sixty (60) days. The decision is written up by the Commissioner/Hearing Officer who heard the case and proceeds to an Executive Session to be voted on by the Full Commission.
If an appeal is heard by an Administrative Magistrate at the Division of Administrative Law Appeals, a "Recommended Decision" is forwarded to all parties by the Magistrate and each party is given 30 days to file comments or objections with the Civil Service Commission. At the conclusion of the 30-day comment period, the case proceeds to Executive Session to be voted on by the Full Commission.
Location of your Hearing
The hearing notice you received indicates whether or not your hearing is being held at the
- Civil Service Commission: 1 Ashburton Place, Room 503, Boston, MA. If you are delayed on the hearing day, it is your responsibility to call the Commission at (617) 727-2293.
- Division of Administrative Law Appeals (DALA): 98 North Washington Street, 4th Floor, Boston, MA 02114. If you are delayed on the hearing day, it is your responsibility to call DALA at (617) 727-7060.
- Springfield State Office Building: 436 Dwight Street, Room 305 Springfield, MA 01103. If you are delayed on the hearing day, it is your responsibility to call the Commission at (617) 727-2293
- Southern New England School of Law: 333 Faunce Corner Road North Dartmouth, MA 02747. If you are delayed on the hearing day, it is your responsibility to call the Commission at (617) 727-2293.
If you cannot attend on the day set for your hearing
A motion to continue must be mailed or faxed to the Commission at least thirty (30) days prior to the hearing date. You must send a copy of your request to continue to the other party and provide the Commission with mutually acceptable alternative dates. Continuances will only be granted for extraordinary circumstances. Requests to continue a hearing may NOT be requested via telephone. | <urn:uuid:50c92a06-7602-4bc4-808f-b7a397a31269> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mass.gov/anf/hearings-and-appeals/civil-service-appeals-process/at-the-hearing.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947697 | 671 | 1.507813 | 2 |
How to Write a Promotional Article
By Patricia Fry
Are you seeking publicity for your book, your business or a favorite cause? Advertise your project or company for free through magazine articles. Yes, FREE. In fact, you may even earn a little money. Most magazines pay anywhere from $50 to $1000 for a feature article.
An article offers greater exposure than an ad because people will actually read an article that relates to a topic of interest to them. Here are some tips and techniques for producing successful promotional articles:
Give the reader something he/she wants.
Offer information or a point of view that is important and useful to the reader. Let's say that you have recently launched a Web design business. Rather than writing an article about how wonderful your services are, offer something concrete and helpful about Web design. For example, "How to Design an Effective Home Page," "Tips For Attracting More Traffic to Your Site" or "How to Select and Work With a Web Design Specialist."
Maybe you've written a book about garden insects. Instead of producing a promotional article about the value of your book, offer one featuring bugs you can import for the health of your garden or ideas for protecting the good bugs in your yard.
How do you get the publicity you seek? Through your tagline at the bottom of the article. For example, "Joan Evans operates ABC Web Design in Carmel, CA. www.ABCwebdesign.com). Or Brandon Smith is the author of "Insects: Friend and Foe" (XYZ Press, 2002), www.xyzpress.com.
Choose the right magazine.
When selecting a magazine to approach, consider the following: Circulation (number of readers), area of distribution (are you looking for national, international or regional exposure?) and suitability.
To promote a Web design business, you might consider targeting magazines for writers and small business owners. You can also reach out to more specific audiences through specialized magazines such as those for plumbers, electricians, printers, nurserymen, retail store owners and so forth. For the garden insect book, you might approach home and garden magazines as well as rural, regional and general interest publications, for example.
I've promoted my grandparenting book through religious, parenting, senior, family and women's magazines and my luau book through regional, travel, barbecue, lifestyle and cooking publications.
Keep the hype out of the article.
As tempting as it might be to advertise your book in the article, don't. You can write a piece telling how to choose a Web design professional without saying, "Choose me." You can talk about the benefits of good insects in your garden, but avoid saying why your book is better than the rest. Let your expertise shine through in the article. The point of a promotional article is to position yourself as an expert. You'll find that most magazines won't publish an article that borders on a sales pitch, anyway.
- Copyright 2002 Patricia Fry
Patricia Fry has been writing for publication for 29 years, having contributed hundreds of articles to about 160 different magazines. She is also the author of 12 books, including "A Writer's Guide to Magazine Articles" (http://www.Matilijapress.com). | <urn:uuid:8d79879e-c0b6-4935-b1c8-44b94f50786a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spawn.org/editing/writepromotionalarticle.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936778 | 674 | 1.726563 | 2 |
View Full Version : Need a Part Identified on a 2000 Camaro
12-10-2005, 11:35 PM
I would look it up, but I have no clue what the name could possibly be.
My car's been jolting due to a power issue in the engine. I know for a fact that it has to do with the connection from the battery, to the actual spark plugs in the engine (thats alot, but I'll narrow it).
The wiring is good, I know that.
What I believe is the problem is that with these cards, there are 3 or so Coils inside the engine. These send the electricity from the wires, into the spark plugs. I know these are underperforming (probably one burned out, and the fuel isn't burning properly when the combustion happens).
What I need to know is what possibly those coils could be called. This is a V6. Any idea''s?
12-11-2005, 01:43 AM
Are they the ignition coils?
12-11-2005, 10:29 AM
2000 V6 would be a 3800. "Jolting" could be misfire, but it is hard to tell. Is the Check Engine or Service Engine Soon light on or has it been on?
I would do plugs and wires before replacing any of the three coil packs, though prolonged operation with a high-resistance wire will kill a coil pack.
I realize that you're probably wanting to do it yourself and keep the cost down, but I will suggest letting someone who knows this engine and ignition system have a look and do some preliminary testing. F-cars also aren't known for their easy engine accessability or their roomy engine compartments. You might be better off to do the plugs from underneath the car.
If you take a stab at this, use ACDelco plugs and wires. Trust me on this. Be sure to put silicone grease on the insides of the plug wire boots at both ends.
A "quick-and-dirty" test for ignition secondary leakage (holes in plug wires or secondary voltage arcing to ground rather than firing the plug): Fill a plastic spray bottle with water and LIGHTLY mist the plug wires and coil packs. Have a friend start the engine, put the car in gear with the brake FIRMLY applied, and raise the engine speed to 1000 RPM or so. This loads the ignition system by running the engine up against the brake. Don't do this for more than five seconds at a time so the trans doesn't overheat. Look under the hood while under load, look for sparks, and listen for snapping sounds. This works better at dusk or at night - sparks flying are more visible that way.
12-11-2005, 09:16 PM
I will be doing the work with my Step Father and probably one of my uncles who owns a garage (so we'll have the tools). Both of them have done this before and from both theirs (and my judge) it probably is the coils. We've changed the spark plugs recently and that wasn't the issue.
Also we did hook the car up to a computer and the readout came back that the coils were underperforming. Some support for that theory is power spikes the car has from time to time (voltage meter drops 5 to 6 volts, then bounds back up). Also when reving the engine, under 2000 RPM the car jolts, once past it tends to level out.
We believe its the coils. though if we do them we'll probably do all the wiring also (car hit 70k).
Thanks for the link I have an idea what the heck they are called now.
12-12-2005, 05:07 AM
This deals more with the primary and control side, but...
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.1.12 Copyright © 2013 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:171ad6f9-5eb6-405a-826e-d8a0b0e1774b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.gotapex.com/archive/index.php/t-94805.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953132 | 816 | 1.679688 | 2 |
One of the most important car dealers’ secrets is that the car dealer usually buys the car from the manufacturer at the invoice price. When the car is sold, the manufacturer reimburses the dealer with the cost incurred for keeping it in the dealer’s inventory for 90 days. If the dealer manages to sell the car before 90 days, part of the held-back payment becomes a profit for the dealer although the car is sold at the invoice price. The dealer often makes more profit from financing the vehicle and selling "extras,” than from selling the car. Extras include extended service warranty, paint protection, scotch guard, window tinting, alarm systems, etc.
Here are another five things that car salesmen will never tell you:
Car Dealer Tactics
Car dealer tactics are many. The commonest car dealer tactic is to convince you to trade your old car for a new one. To clinch the deal, the dealer offers a good exchange on the old car. This tactic also ensures that you buy the car from the same dealer. It is a win-win situation for both the parties.
Car Salesman Tricks
The car salesman’s trick aims at selling the car as quickly as possible and at a higher rate of interest if financing is involved. The salesman will try to sell as many “extras” as possible so that he can gain a profit. Giving you a patient and sympathetic ear is another of the car salesman’s tricks!
Insider (Car) Secrets!
Most of the car dealers, car sales persons, and financial managers are ethical and honest. But all of them work on a commission basis. They think about their profit when selling the car. Car salespersons are trained to cajole you into buying the car. Therefore, your “buy decision” is often influenced by emotion rather than sound judgment. You are seldom given the time to think the proposal through.
Buy a New Car
Owning a new car is everyone’s dream. Today, getting a car loan is easier than ever before. However, your decision to buy the car should be need-based, and your choice of car should be based on your requirement. It should take into account your financial position. Moreover, you should ensure that you can set aside a fixed sum of money for its maintenance.
Buy an Old Car
Buying an old car is often better than buying a new car. Although old cars cost more to maintain and are more likely to break down, leading to heavy expenses, they are cheaper to own and operate. What’s more, your old car will not depreciate much. Cars lose most of their value during the first five years of use.
Some tips for buying the car may come in handy. Compare the different brands by the features and sweeteners they offer – like mileage, accessories, insurance, maintenance, and warranty. Choose a good dealer and a good finance company that quotes lower interest rates and EMIs. This way, you will save a lot on the car buy.
© Newsmax. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:c65fc72c-a126-427e-a3ae-69d3eaee5a83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newsmax.com/FastFeatures/Cardealers-secrets-tipsforbuyingacar-carsalesmantricks-cardealertactics/2011/01/04/id/381805 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968398 | 637 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Professors Discuss Apple-Samsung's Impact on Intellectual Property Law and Litigation
Apple Inc. recently requested that the courts kick Samsung Electronics out of the smartphone market. Apple requested a court-ordered injunction after a California jury ruled that Samsung illegally copied Apple’s patents.
The two electronics makers are in a ten-country patent war, both of them battling for the top spot in the market; and so far, Apple is winning.
In August, Apple won in a case where it accused Samsung of stealing design and technology ideas, including the iPhone’s “bounce-back” feature, its rounded edges, and its bevel design. The jury ruled that Samsung did in fact copy those very specific features, and awarded Apple a hefty damages award.
“The award was about $1.05 billion dollars, which has the potential to be increased by the judge due to the jury finding that Samsung willfully infringed the patents. There can be an increase of damages by up to three times under those circumstances,” said Jorge Contreras, an intellectual property professor at American University Washington College of Law.
Contreras and Professors Jonas Anderson and Christine Farley recently held an informal discussion about the ruling at American University Washington College of Law. The speakers discussed the decision and its implications for intellectual property law and litigation as well as for technology markets. WATCH THE EVENT WEBCAST
Just because Apple won, does not mean the fight is over.
Apple is now seeking an injunction that will prevent Samsung from selling any of the products that infringed Apple’s patents in the U.S.
“Those are not uncommon injunctions to get,” said Contreras. “Samsung and other companies who are selling smartphones have to think about how they will design around Apple’s patents. That’s the bottom line.”
If the judge grants the injunction, several of Samsung’s current smartphones could be banned from the market. Contreras said that if Samsung wants to get back into the market, it will have to be more innovative and creative.
“If Samsung wants to get back into the market, assuming that this decision is not reversed on appeal, Samsung has to change its product design and that’s likely going to happen, in fact that process has probably already begun,” said Contreras.
Just because Apple won, does not mean the fight is over. Samsung will likely appeal the decision, which means it could be several years before we really know how this case ends. Jonas Anderson, assistant professor at American University Washington College of Law, says Apple was not necessarily the first company to develop the designs, they were just the first to patent.
“Apple’s real argument in this case is that their design was preeminent and that Samsung stole it,” Professor Anderson said in an informal discussion at the law school. “That’s all they wanted you to know. What they didn’t want you to know is that they probably weren’t the first one to come up with this design in the first place.”
According to Contreras, interviews with the jurors after the trial indicated that they did not pay attention to the validity of Apple’s patents. Contreras said that the jury also should have taken a systematic approach when they considered the complexities of the patents.
“Everybody who observed this trial said it happened really fast, the jury only deliberated for three days or so, for an incredibly complicated case. They probably should have spent more time going step-by-step through the different products, the different claims,” explained Contreras. “I think they disregarded a lot of the arguments. The jury foreman was an inventor who had his own patents and swayed a lot of the others in that way.”
"We might see more design fights in the electronics industry, which we haven’t seen before."
Contreras predicts that because of the outcome in this case, there are going to be more design fights in the electronics industry.
“This case was very unusual in that it was really one of the first cases where design patents played any role in a technology lawsuit. Laptop computers and DVD players all look the same. Home consumer electronics are just black or silver boxes; no one has ever really cared that much about protecting the designs,” Contreras said. “Now, Apple has shown that it might be worthwhile to do. So we might see more design fights in the electronics industry, which we haven’t seen before.”
According to Professor Anderson, many companies, including Apple, buy, and sell design patent licenses. Apple, he said, takes affirmative action to prevent infringement suits by engaging in complex, behind the scene discussions with other companies.
“They’ve licensed a lot of their design patents to Microsoft with the caveat that Microsoft can’t get too close to the iPhone designs. Somewhere the attorneys have engaged in complex contracting around how much is too much copying, saying ‘you can use our patents. We won’t sue you for infringing.’”
According to Contreras, it was obviously worth the cost of litigation for Apple to keep as much of that market as it could. There is hope, however, for the smartphone market. Contreras believes that these fights will create diversity in the market because there are still thousands of features that Samsung can develop to make its smartphone unique.
“You’ll still be able to buy a Samsung phone that will be a couple hundred dollars cheaper than an iPhone, it’ll just work a little differently,” Contreras explained. “Maybe it won’t have as many cool features, but maybe that’s what you pay the extra $200.00 for; you’ll still have a phone, and it’ll be cheaper. If you want more luxury, you'll have to pay a little extra for it.” | <urn:uuid:f5eadb37-0d55-4552-b9c7-925e47417d69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wcl.american.edu/news/applesamsung.cfm | 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 | 0.965515 | 1,253 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Deborah Potter, 51, is executive director of Newslab.org, a non-profit resource for television newsrooms, focused on research and training. Before NewsLab, Potter spent 16 years as a network correspondent for CBS and CNN. At CNN, she anchored major news programs and reported on national politics and environmental issues. Potter joined CNN in 1991 after 13 years at CBS News, where she served as White House, State Department and Congressional Correspondent. She spoke with JournalismJobs.com recently about the state of local television news.
Deborah Potter: There are so many I don't know where to start. The truth is local television news is in trouble. One problem, which is not new, is that local television news is beset by sameness. It's very hard to find anything innovative, anything really engaging out there. It exists, but it takes work to find it. What you have is a lot of newsrooms cranking out the same kind of material on a daily basis without a whole lot of thought as to why they are doing it. One of the reasons that happens is that local television newsrooms are woefully understaffed. If you compare them to just about any newspaper in a same-sized town, you'll find that television is grinding out a whole lot of content with a lot fewer folks. The consequence is they tend to do it once over lightly. There's not a lot of depth in coverage.
JournalismJobs.com: Do you think this will continue?
Deborah Potter: The economy isn't making any of us feel particularly optimistic about the near-term future. I do think there are new models being tried that could expand the pool of journalists. For example, the whole idea of equipping every journalist with a camera could increase the number of people out there developing stories and putting them on the air. Obviously that raises concern about quality. But some say it would make for better journalism because you can actually give someone enough time to produce a story with some depth because not everyone would have to do a story every day, which is currently the situation. In most newsrooms, reporters are producing more than one story every day.
JournalismJobs.com: Is this a problem confined to large markets or is it across the board?
Deborah Potter: It's pretty much across the board. In small markets, the personnel issues are even more difficult. One reason is that stations are producing more and more news without adding any personnel. A station will add an hour-long newscast and might increase the staffing by one producer and one anchor. The content has to come from somewhere. It's being put out by people already working there. Or it's being purchased -- syndicated programs, materials about health, for example. That's quite widespread. All over the country, you can see the exact same story because stations have bought it from the same provider. Most people go to local television news to find out what's happening in their own town. The dependence on syndicated feed material isn't going to tell them that.
JournalismJobs.com: Are there any bright spots in local television news? Are there any markets in which stations are doing better than others?
Deborah Potter: Sure. There is good journalism and excellent photography around the country. You could look at a market like Denver or Minneapolis or Dallas and find really inspiring things going on. But I say that with a slight bit of concern. In Minneapolis, you used to be able to turn on the TV at 10 o'clock at night and see a long-form story on all three of the big network affiliates. Now, only one of them is doing it. In those cities, there have been changes, largely driven by the economy. You have stations that have tried this and discovered that it isn't building their audience. You also have stations that can't keep doing it with the personnel they have.
JournalismJobs.com: What kind of profit pressures do local stations face and how has this changed over the years?
Deborah Potter: What contributes greatly to the decline in quality on what gets on the air is the pressure on local stations to crank out what in most industries would be considered an obscene profit. An acceptable annual profit for a local television station is sometimes in the range of 40 to 50 percent. Sometimes it's higher than that. You hear whining at the newspapers when the push is on to get to 20 percent. You ought to try local TV.
The truth is that 50 percent of a local television station's budget comes out of their local news product. That's where they're raising the money. You can imagine why the pressure to get the ratings, which translates into advertising dollars, is so enormous. That's one of the reasons why we've seen an increase in the amount of news on the air. Ten years ago, who would have thought that a local station in a smaller market would be starting its morning news at 5 a.m. But they are because they can sell it. They can find an advertiser willing to pay for the eyeballs they'll get at 5 a.m. And they'll get more eyeballs with news than they'll get with anything else. So, there's enormous pressure. News is without question a profit center at these stations, where it used to be something you did as a community service. That really has changed the entire atmosphere in local TV.
JournalismJobs.com: In the face of these profit pressures, do advertisers have more influence on content these days?
Deborah Potter: My sense is that newsrooms do get a lot more direct pressure than they ever used to from advertisers, to both put stories on the air and keep them off. Sometimes that pressure succeeds. There are certainly plenty of stories of stations that have been threatened with the loss of advertising and have said, "Too bad. We're doing that story anyways." Stations have been known to stand up to this, but it's also true the pressure itself is quite widespread.
JournalismJobs.com: How has the quality of local television news changed in the past 25 years?
Deborah Potter: I actually think in many ways it's better. Television news today is much more engaging, much more interesting to watch. The medium has come of age and good journalists know what television does well. It takes people places they can't go. Because we have videotape and small cameras, we can get closer in ways we could not with film. In the early days, television was white guys standing in front of buildings talking. This was not the best use of the medium. In a lot of ways, it's better. The problem is what we choose to spend those resources on, the stories we choose to tell with this new storytelling that we've developed. In many cases today, the medium falls short. About a quarter of the content is crime. There's a lot of fluff. There's a lot of marginally useful information. There's not a lot of coverage of serious and important issues. You can look at local television news in one of two ways. In terms of production and presentation, it's a lot better than it used to be. In terms of content, I'm not sure. What I'd love to see and what I spend a lot of my time encouraging is using the production techniques on stories that matter.
JournalismJobs.com: Are viewers demanding more of local television news?
Deborah Potter: I think viewers are very smart. Very savvy. They understand why stations do what they do. They really do know when they're being manipulated and they don't like it. Local television has lost a lot of viewers over the years. Fifty-seven percent of Americans say they watch local TV news regularly. That figure used to be 77 percent. That's a pretty big drop. In most industries, that would be cause for great alarm and restructuring. What's happened is stations are working harder to keep the viewers they have rather than to bring back those customers they lost. That is unfortunate because almost half the country is not watching anymore.
JournalismJobs.com: What's next for local television news?
Deborah Potter: I think we're going to see more stations get out of the news business altogether. If you're number four in a market where four stations are doing news, there comes a point of diminishing returns. Yes it can be a profit center, but if everybody else has carved up the profit and you're not getting any, you might actually be better off economically not doing news. It appears that the CBS station in Detroit is going to quit doing news. This would follow the ABC station in St. Louis and a variety of others. I think those stations getting out of news, by and large, are the stations that got into it late -- in the nineties -- and that got into it purely because they wanted to make money. The consequence was that their product was generally substandard and the viewers understood that. So, is it a long-term loss in many of these communities? Maybe not. If a viewer has a choice of three good stations, why would a fourth bad one improve things? It might sound sacreligious, but sometimes more is not always better when it comes to sources of news.
JournalismJobs.com: What about the long-term future of local TV news?
Deborah Potter: I think we're going through another transition that's going to make a dramatic difference. The first transition was from film to video. Now we're in the throes of the digital revolution. We're going to be tapeless in a lot of newsrooms. What does this mean? Ultimately, I think we'll see more journalists who do it all - shoot, edit, write stories and do that for multiple outlets. For example, you'll have one person do a story for TV and the website. Just as there was with video, there will probably be a shake-out time with people leaving the business. But a whole new generation of folks will come in and think this is how we do news and they'll have the skills to do it. I don't know if we'll see a huge shrinkage in staffing overall. What we will see is a substantially different workload.
One of the strengths of television was the fact that it's a team sport. You can't really do it all by yourself. You do it with colleagues and the stories get stronger if more people have something to say about them. I think that we're going to be moving toward a point in which TV will look more like radio, in that one person can go out with miniaturized equipment and do it all. I'm not sure if that's entirely a good thing. We can produce more stories. My concern is about the quality of those stories. I'm ready to be proved wrong and probably over time will be. But I think in the near term, we may see some really rocky quality stuff on the air because it is just one person's work.
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Let's Mask a Deal
Diplomatic doublespeak for negotiating with Milosevic.
Three weeks ago, when NATO launched its airstrikes against Yugoslavia, President Clinton swore off further talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and ruled out a ground invasion. Since then, events have obliged Clinton to rethink his options. Last week he floated weasel words that would let him wage a ground war while calling it something else. This week Clinton's aides are floating weasel words for the opposite scenario: negotiations.
Now that everyone has declared Milosevic a war criminal and has agreed that the United States' manhood is at stake, the "N word" is verboten in Washington. On Sunday's talk shows, pundits asked various U.S. officials how they could even "contemplate negotiating with Mr. Milosevic after what he's done." The officials dutifully ruled out the idea, all the while sketching concessions by which Milosevic could persuade them to halt the bombing. The operative question is no longer how American representatives could dare negotiate with Milosevic. It's how they're doing it already while pretending not to by masking it in less polite terms. Here are the various characterizations, in ascending order of preference.
1.Cutting a deal. This is the most noxious formulation, slung as an insult by hawks such as the Weekly Standard and the Wall Street Journal. "This man who is engaged in this massive ethnic cleansing," Standard publisher Bill Kristol spat on This Week--"We're going [to]cut another deal with him? ... They cannot cut another deal with Milosevic." Warnings against "cutting a deal" are invariably accompanied by descriptions of Milosevic as a "war criminal." The implication is that cutting a deal with a criminal is unethical, if not illegal.
2.Negotiation. U.S. officials hate this word because it connotes capitulation. They've learned to deflect it by juxtaposing it with "bombing." When asked on Face the Nation whether the United States would "negotiate" with a "war criminal," Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott sternly replied: "We're not negotiating with Milosevic. We're bombing him." U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia Christopher Hill likewise told CNN: "We're not negotiating right now. We're conducting an air campaign." The false, glossed-over premise that bombing and negotiation are incompatible goes unchallenged.
Indeed, in this case, the bombing is part of the negotiation. While hitting Milosevic over the head, NATO is offering terms under which it is willing to stop. Conversely, Milosevic is offering lesser concessions. Though NATO rejected his initial offer, the latest proposals by Germany and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan--which would suspend the bombing in exchange for partial compliance with NATO's demands and would put the United Nations, rather than NATO, in charge of settling the conflict--suggest there will ultimately be a compromise. A few days ago, when a reporter asked about the N word, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart answered, "We have a military objective now, which is to bring President Milosevic to meet these conditions that we have laid out." By calling this objective "military," Clinton's aides obscure its negotiatory aspect.
3.Diplomacy. Like negotiation, this word smells of weakness. Again, administration officials deflect it by contrasting it with a tougher word: "force." "Fourteen months ago, when Milosevic started this crisis, our policy was one of diplomacy backed by force," Talbott argued last weekend. "Now we have force backed by diplomacy." Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her spokesman, Jamie Rubin, are fond of the same formulation. But the contrast between "diplomacy" and "force" is just as deceptive as the contrast between "negotiation" and "bombing." NATO hopes to bomb Milosevic to the table. Therefore, force is still serving diplomacy.
4.Political solution. This is the administration's code word for "deal." Clinton says he wants a "political solution." Albright and Rubin want "a political settlement" and a "political framework based on Rambouillet." Toward that end, Albright welcomes Russia's "support for dealing with the problem in a political way." Last week, when a reporter asked whether the United States wanted Russia to undertake "diplomatic mediation with Belgrade," Rubin replied, "I would put it a little differently. ... The Russians have been part and parcel of our effort to try to find a peaceful solution." Rubin expressed hope that the Russians might succeed in "convincing the Serbs to turn around" and "accept our conditions." But diplomacy? Never.
5.Harder and harder. Part of the indignity of negotiation is the implication that during the bargaining NATO will offer more and more concessions. So, American spokesmen tailor their words to create the opposite impression: that NATO will offer fewer and fewer concessions as the conflict wears on. As Defense Secretary William Cohen put it Sunday, "every day that goes by" with further evidence of Milosevic's "brutality" would "make it far more difficult to deal with him."
Last week, a reporter asked Lockhart whether it was "right for an American negotiator now to sit down with Milosevic to try to cut some deal." Lockhart replied that such a scenario "gets harder every day. But I am not going to ... rule anything out." The reporter pressed: "But it's not off the table yet?" Lockhart answered: "Dealing with him gets harder." When asked whether "at some point" dealing with Milosevic would "become impossible," Lockhart scoffed, "I am not going to spell out a timetable or what he has to do." Refusing to "spell out" demands or to "rule anything out" is a classic negotiating posture--which Lockhart effectively obscured by repeating the word "harder" five times during the exchange.
6.Demands. This is the administration's favorite description. Confronted recently with a coarse question as to whether the United States was "willing to talk to Milosevic," Lockhart stonily replied, "The NATO alliance has made demands, and he needs to meet them." Lest anyone confuse these demands with negotiation, Albright insisted, "We're not trying to please President Milosevic. ... The goal of this is to be able to get him to understand these five demands that the international community is making." American officials also speak of NATO's "terms," "conditions," and "requirements." There was only one slip-up last week, when Rubin referred to them as "our position."
Will Saletan covers science, technology, and politics for Slate and says a lot of things that get him in trouble. | <urn:uuid:5fe3c760-b97b-4c74-9e2b-46806dd38b7d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/1999/04/lets_mask_a_deal.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968817 | 1,421 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Yes! That’s what I was thinking, too.
I mean, okay, it’s all a metaphor, but really, we all know that no-one is born into a gender. I used that language so folks brand new to all of this would buy into the metaphor (this is like page 3 of the book, don’t want to confuse anyone too early), but it is deeply flawed when I think about it, and warrants changing.
most folks grow up in one landmass or the other, or are assumed to be citizens of one or the other. That wording is definitely what I’m planning on changing at the moment, because, though I like the idea of an intersex atlantian island for creative reasons, it’s still not usually a gender identity, and like you’ve mentioned, most folks I’ve talked to were not given that option; they were instead shuttled to the closest/most medically convenient landmass available to be raised in the traditions and norms of that ‘land.’
Anyway, thank you for all of your feedback, and please do keep it coming, especially if you have thoughts on specific wording that is honoring to all, while still being accessible to all. That’s one of our biggest challenges in writing a book like this.
Mel, resident artist, the GENDER book
Thanks for voicing that, beans. How would you incorporate intersex folks to this page?
To my understanding, intersex is matter of sex, you know, your body parts and DNA, not so much about gender, which is why we didn’t include it here (it certainly is covered elsewhere in the book, scroll back to see the pages about it).
Our thought process was that, for *most* intersex people we’ve talked to, they were pigeonholed or assumed into one of the two most socially acceptable gender roles shortly after birth. I’m not saying this is a good thing, that’s just how it often happens at the moment. And if you’re an intersex person, if you identify as trans probably depends most on how you were socialized more than your body. Yeah?
Let us know if your or anyone you know has a differing experience. We really love hearing from you and we’re just super open to hearing how we can make the book as a whole as inclusive as possible.
Let’s keep brainstorming. What do you think, other tumblrs?
Mel, the artist
So, last night I dreamt of erasers. Like the kind on top of pencils. Drawers and drawers of them. Blue and lavender, all different shapes. And then I woke up and realized my pencil drawer is looking sad.
Before I go to the art supply store, I just thought I’d throw this out there: the GENDER book (yes, every single image you see on this blog) is a 100% labor of love from 3hardworking individuals.
A package of erasers costs $6.95. Can you spare that, to help the project out? I normally am opposed to this sort of appeal, but if you knew how much time and <3 and $$ we’ve already put into these informational graphics and booklets, you’d know I’m not asking anything of you I haven’t already given myself.
So, please consider a little donation- every single donor will be honored in our book, from one cent on up.
We could really use $500 to help finish this project. Can you help us get there?
Mel, illustrator and co-creator of the GENDER book
(totally broke? we understand. please visit our website for more ways to help and get involved, or repost this to folks who may be in a better place to help. Thanks!) | <urn:uuid:23e9e900-441b-4e59-b450-db9a5041588b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thegenderbook.tumblr.com/archive/2012/2 | 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 | 0.958983 | 819 | 1.75 | 2 |
NEW YORK (AP) -- President Barack Obama's administration can go forward with its new plan to make the morning-after pill available to buyers of any age without prescriptions, but it needs to do it promptly or face potential sanctions in the long-running dispute over access to the emergency contraceptives, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
DUBLIN (AP) -- A miscarrying woman who died in an Irish hospital should have had her blood poisoning detected much sooner and been offered an abortion to improve her odds of survival, an experts' report concluded Thursday in a case that is forcing Ireland to modernize its abortion laws.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Don't look for the morning-after pill to move next to the condoms on drugstore shelves right away -- but after a decade-plus fight, it appears it really will happen. Backed into a corner by a series of court rulings, the Obama administration has agreed to let the Plan B One-Step brand of emergency contraception sell over the counter to anyone of any age.
NEW YORK (AP) -- After setting off a storm of criticism from abortion rights groups upset that a Democratic president had sided with social conservatives, the Obama administration said it will comply with a judge's order to allow girls of any age to buy emergency contraception without prescriptions.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Don't expect to see morning-after pills for all ages on drugstore shelves anytime soon. A federal appeals court decision allowing girls of any age to buy emergency contraception without a prescription won't immediately change access.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Generic versions of emergency contraception can be sold without a prescription or age restrictions while the federal government appeals a judge's ruling allowing the sales, a federal appeals court said Wednesday.
LONDON (AP) -- Actor Michael Douglas taught the world at least one thing Monday: oral sex can sometimes cause cancer.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Doctors have known for some time that a sexually spread virus can cause some types of oral cancer. But actor Michael Douglas' comments on his own throat cancer in a newspaper story Monday threw a spotlight on a subject not often discussed.
MUMBAI, India (AP) -- A simple vinegar test slashed cervical cancer death rates by one-third in a remarkable study of 150,000 women in the slums of India, where the disease is the top cancer killer of women.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A Utah woman gave birth to a healthy set of quintuplets over the weekend with help from a team of eight doctors, one anesthesiologist and dozens of nurses ensuring the mother and the tiny babies survived.
DENVER (AP) -- In the most prominent challenge of its kind, Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. is asking a federal appeals court Thursday for an exemption from part of the federal health care law that requires it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The decade-old law that transformed the battle against HIV and AIDS in developing countries is at a crossroads. The dream of future generations freed from epidemic is running up against an era of economic recovery and harsh budget cuts.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Kinky sex has been admitted to Harvard. | <urn:uuid:0c87062a-7e20-4307-8b09-b2562e415ff8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtPrint/WSNRM000/333/22002.html?hide=t&k=basePrint | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938828 | 664 | 1.617188 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House of Representatives voted 223-201 Thursday to require most U.S. troops to leave Iraq by April 1, 2008.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, shown with President Bush in March, says the American people are demanding "a new direction."
President Bush vetoed a war-spending bill with a similar withdrawal date in May and has threatened to spike any new effort to set a timetable for a U.S. pullout. His Republican allies in the House said the new measure has no chance of passage.
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said Thursday's mixed report on the progress of the war shows it's time for American troops to come home.
"President Bush continues to urge patience, but what is needed -- and what the American people are demanding -- is a new direction," she said.
Earlier Thursday, Bush said a report on U.S.-set benchmarks for Iraq shows "satisfactory progress" in eight areas. He admitted that there is "more work to be done." Watch benchmark report, House vote factor into Iraq debate »
During his news conference, the president commented on the nation's psyche, declaring, "There's war fatigue in America. It's affecting our psychology. I understand that.
"This is an ugly war. It's a war in which an enemy will kill innocent men, women and children in order to achieve a political objective. It doesn't surprise me that there is deep concern amongst our people."
The president said it is not Congress' job to make decisions regarding the war.
Before the House vote, Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer: We're the people who decide when to go to war, whether the war should be funded.
"Now, when [the Bush administration] keeps making mistakes as they have made, we have to intercede. The public spoke in the last election and said clearly we want the troops redeployed."
"We are wasting the time and trying the patience of the American people for no useful purpose," said Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, one of four Republicans who voted for the measure.
Rep. Jay Inslee, a Washington Democrat, said the United States has given Iraqi leaders "a reasonable chance" to work out their differences, and it was time for American troops to come home.
"The moral obligation to Iraq has been completed," he said. "The moral obligation to our families now needs to be honored."
Four Republicans joined 219 Democrats to pass the bill, two more than backed a similar measure in March. But 10 Democrats broke ranks to oppose it.
Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said most Republicans are unwilling to challenge Bush before a September report from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, the top U.S. officials in Iraq. In a closed-door meeting Wednesday, he called Republicans who break with the president "wimps."
"It was a way of illustrating the point that we ought to give the generals on the ground and our troops a chance to succeed," Boehner said.
But Rep. Jim Clyburn, the House Democratic whip, said the vote shows Republicans need to resort to "intimidation" to keep their caucus in line.
"The name-calling that other side has resorted to, I think, is beneath the dignity of the men and women who find themselves in harm's way," said Clyburn, of South Carolina.
The vote came the same day that the White House delivered a mixed report on the progress of the 4-year-old war, concluding that the political progress of the Iraqi government is lagging behind military gains. Across the Capitol, the report added new fuel to a similar debate in the Senate, where a leading Republican senator pronounced himself "disappointed" in the results.
"That government is simply not providing leadership worthy of the considerable sacrifice of our forces, and this has to change immediately," said Sen. John Warner, the influential former chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
A broader report by the top U.S. officials in Iraq -- Petraeus, the top American commander, and Crocker -- is scheduled for September, and Bush told reporters he would consult with Congress about "the way forward" at that point.
Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, a Republican, told CNN, "I think any judgments at this time, one way or the other, are quite premature."
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said, "The time to do this is now, not September."
"We're told, 'Good progress is being made. Wait till September. Good progress is being made.' How many times over the last 4½ years have we heard this?" Reid asked.
The Senate's Democratic leaders are using a Defense Department authorization bill as a vehicle to consider several amendments designed to force Bush to change course in the war.
Republicans have so far managed to use procedural roadblocks to head off those measures -- but faced with a U.S. death toll of more than 3,600 and deep public opposition, several GOP senators have wavered in recent weeks.
Three Republicans -- Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Olympia Snowe of Maine and Gordon Smith of Oregon -- have co-sponsored a Democratic amendment that parallels the House bill.
But Democrats are likely to need at least eight more Republican votes before their proposal comes to a vote.
Warner and six other Republicans voted Tuesday for an amendment that would have required U.S. troops to spend a month at home for every month deployed. Two more -- Sens. Richard Lugar and Pete Domenici -- have called on Bush to change course, but have opposed Democratic calls for an American withdrawal. E-mail to a friend
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Despite the report of record "Black Friday" and weekend sales to kick off the holiday shopping season, the White House Council of Economic Advisors warned Monday that the tax hikes due to take effect on January 1 could slow the holiday shopping spree unless Congress and the president agree on a way to avoid going over the much anticipated "fiscal cliff."
Retailers nationwide amassed a record $59.1 billion in sales from Thanksgiving Day through Sunday, a nearly $7-billion increase over the $52.4 billion of a year ago, according to estimates from the National Retail Federation. But the report of the White House panel, consistent with forecasts from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and many private economists, is that the anticipated tax hikes may yet cast a pall over the remainder of the shopping season and have the potential to cut consumer spending by about $200 billion throughout 2013. Overall economic growth would likely be reduced by 1.4 percent, according to the report, a significant drop in an economy that has been growing by barely two percent since the less-than-robust recovery began in the middle of 2009. Recent modest increases in housing prices and jobs growth have contributed to renewed optimism on the part of consumers, the report said, while warning that "the hard-earned rise in consumer confidence will be at risk if the middle-class tax cuts are not soon extended with a minimum of political drama."
The "political drama" refers to the standoff thus far between President Obama and congressional Republicans over tax policy. Republicans favor extending the lower rates for all income levels, while Obama is insisting on a rate increase for household incomes of $250,000 or more and individual incomes of $200,000 or more. Recent remarks by some key Republicans have indicated a softening of their anti-tax stand, however, citing a need to raise revenue as well as make adjustments to entitlement programs in order to stem a tide of red ink that has produced annual deficits exceeding $1 trillion in recent years and pushed the official national debt above $16 trillion.
Click here to read the entire article. | <urn:uuid:9c8c5785-81d4-4b93-a05e-493b9fcc8a5a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jbs.org/economy/white-house-warns-fiscal-cliff-threatens-holiday-shopping | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961184 | 419 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Most beauty colleges require that applicants have a high school diploma or a General Education Development certificate, also called a GED (G-E-D) certificate. If you have neither of those certificates, some beauty schools may accept applicants who pass their entrance exam. Generally, there's also a minimum age requirement of at least 17. However, admission policies may vary greatly from one school to another and may also differ by state. In addition to meeting educational standards, some beauty colleges require you to go through a personal interview, in which factors like your attitude, communication skills, creativity, and eagerness to learn are assessed. At others, an orientation meeting may be mandatory for all new students. Most colleges ask for a registration fee to be submitted with your enrollment application. Transfer students will have to meet a different set of criteria. Usually, they're required to provide an official transcript from their prior school and take a series of written and practical examinations. The number of hours that will transfer may depend on your test scores, the college at which the previous courses were taken, and other factors determined by the school to which you apply. | <urn:uuid:837a657e-c59c-4ed8-8632-652fc0822952> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.local12.com/guides/beauty/career/story/Admission-requirements/NMbDMpzEv0CdXOtEe9SeLA.cspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973481 | 225 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Chicago’s city colleges are closing the skills gap, writes Chancellor Cheryl Hyman. Last December, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Hyman launched the College to Careers initiative.
College to Careers has attracted major corporate partners, from UPS to United Airlines, from Walgreen to CVS, who are eager to help City Colleges develop what we call “credentials of economic value,” meaning that students earn credentials that have real value to both employers and 4-year colleges.
In the next decade, strong job growth is projected in health care, transportation, distribution and logistics (TDL), business, information technology, culinary/hospitality and manufacturing, Hyman writes. Chicago started with a focus on health care and TDL.
Through College to Careers, industry-leading companies work collaboratively with our faculty and staff to design the curriculum and facilities needed to train students for success. They provide City Colleges’ students with access to teacher-practitioners, internships and the latest technologies, as well as a first pass at job interviews. Why are our partners investing their time and resources? They clearly realize that the quality of their future is tied to the quality of America’s workforce, and therefore, our students’ success.
In addition, City Colleges is developing stackable credentials: Each certificate or degree will be valuable on its own and be a step toward a higher-level credential.
One partner, Allscripts, which provides electronic records and information systems to hospitals and physicians, hired 48 City Colleges’ graduates this summer, Hyman writes. The first six months of the new hires’ salaries will be supported through a $2-million fund created by the mayor. | <urn:uuid:b464b4c8-35a5-403c-8ed4-702311eb430a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://communitycollegespotlight.org/content/chicago-were-closing-the-skills-gap_10404/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952541 | 349 | 1.820313 | 2 |
State of the Blogosphere 2011: Part 1 - Page 2
BLOGGERS AND THE TRADITIONAL MEDIA
We continue to see a very large overlap between bloggers and traditional media. Almost one third of bloggers have worked for the traditional media, with a monthly magazine being the most common form (41%). 55% of Professional Full Timers and half of all Corporate bloggers have worked for a monthly magazine in the past. Of those who have worked with traditional media, 24% are still employed and blog separately.
Nearly all (96%) bloggers have an independent blog.
81% report that their blog is part of a non-media company.
BRANDS AND THE BLOGOSPHERE
The blogosphere is influencing itself – respondents say that the number one influence on the topics they blog about are other blogs they read, a huge jump from 2010. Conversations with friends and social media accounts are also influencing blogging topics.
38% of respondents say they blog about brands that they love or hate. 33% of Professional Part Timers post reviews at least once a week.
Among Hobbyists and Professionals working with brands, product reviews have elicited the most positive response. Among Corporate and Entrepreneur bloggers, the best response has come from advice or consultative content.
65% of bloggers use social media to follow brands, and this holds fairly consistently across blogger types, indicating a common practice. Further, blogging on these brands is a common activity.
Bloggers are being actively courted. Nearly four out of 10 overall, 59% of Professional Part Timers, and 66% of Professional Full Timers have been approached to write about or review products. Pros are approached eight times per week on average. The most frequently approached Hobbyist, Professional Part Time, Professional Full Time, and Entrepreneur bloggers report being approached more than 200 times per week.
The majority of bloggers report that they are influenced by the overall behavior of a brand or company. Close to 20% of bloggers report that they boycott products as a result.
Nine out of ten bloggers (91%) say it is important that the advertising on their blogs align with their values. Corporate bloggers see this as less important, with 11% agreeing that advertising does not need to align with values.
The majority of bloggers feel that bloggers are treated less professionally by brand representatives compared to traditional media.
Among those bloggers working with brands, most who have an opinion characterize their interactions with brand representatives as somewhat favorable, but a full 40% don’t know – indicating these relationships are still emerging.
Among those who work with brands, most would prefer to work directly rather than with an intermediary.
Professional Full Time bloggers view communications from brands as valuable for the most part, though 19% say brands are asking for things that would hurt bloggers’ credibility or content standards.
Product reviews are the most common type of brand programs among bloggers. Professionals also participate in traditional PR announcement coverage and sponsored posts.
More than half of respondents indicate they would participate in product reviews.
Most (86%) – but not all – bloggers who participated in sponsored posts indicate that they disclosed that the post was sponsored or paid.
After reviewing a product, 58% disclosed that they had been given the product for review, and 53% kept it.
Among those working with brands, 45% are aware of the FTC ruling on disclosure. Professional Part Timers and Full Timers have higher awareness (56% and 64% respectively) of it. 59% said the ruling had not had any effect on their blogging activities.
We asked bloggers to name their most and least favorite brands to work with. There is a lot of overlap, particularity with Apple and Microsoft. Google and Amazon really stand out as favorite brands to work with, and don’t resonate much as least favorite brands.
Who are your three favorite brands to work with?
Who are your three least favorite brands to work with?
We asked respondents for their views on blogging vs. other types of media. Among other things, we found that more than two thirds believe their blogs are getting taken more seriously as sources of information, with 76% of Professional Full Timers agreeing.
MEDIA HABITS OF BLOGGERS
Overall, 14% of bloggers spend at least 21 hours per week visiting social media sites. About two thirds spend less than an hour watching TV shows on their computer, tablet or smartphone or uploading photos to photo-sharing sites.
Continued on the next page | <urn:uuid:b23b3656-fd20-466a-bdd9-b2db71db1f71> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://technorati.com/social-media/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2011-part1/page-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966256 | 919 | 1.710938 | 2 |
This one just irritates the stuffing out of me and I have yet to see a Complementarian/Patriarchalist answer it in the way it should be answered -- simply and directly. So often the Egalitarians and Religious Feminists use the race card inappropriately. It goes like this:
In your world women are not equal to men because they are only allowed roles under the authority of a man. It would be like saying, in the pre-civil rights south, that blacks are equal to whites but they can never do anything but serve whites as porters, housekeepers, factory-workers and farm workers. We have learned that separate yet equal isn't.
OK, I guess I've been told. But really, have I?
Can anyone tell me the simple answer to this argument that squashes it like a fly with one wing that can't get away from the looming flyswatter?
I'm still waiting.
OK, here's your answer: The answer is that race is not a created difference while sex is. Simple, right?
God created men and women differently and He intended, from their very creation, for them to be different. Eve was created from Adam, for Adam, brought to Adam and named by Adam. When they both fell into sin, it was Eve that God called to account. Wait, no, it was Adam. God came to Adam in the garden first. And no one who has ever sung Handel's Messiah can forget the words of Holy Scripture, "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ, shall all be made alive." We die in Adam, a man and live in the second Adam, the God-Man. It may have been a man, Jesus Christ who saved us, but he was the seed promised the woman, born of a woman with no human male as his father.
See? Different yet equally important to God's plan -- from the beginning. | <urn:uuid:b7d90346-a710-4258-9f03-d5da4d03b4bb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bravelass.blogspot.com/2009/01/another-silly-argument.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982765 | 396 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Most Active Stories
Fri September 7, 2012
Rogers: Lake Cumberland Dam Project Fully Funded
SOMERSET, Ky. -- U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers says he understands the delays in repairs to a major dam on Lake Cumberland because it is a unique project.
Rogers, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said there is plenty of money to complete the Wolf Creek Dam repair project, which is scheduled to be finished late next year. The $594 million project has been ongoing at the massive dam since 2007.
The Republican congressman from eastern Kentucky's 5th District has complained in the past about delays but says the project is unique and needed a foreign contractor to complete part of the work.
Rogers told the Somerset Commonwealth Journal this week there is "plenty of money to complete the project."
Rogers said he is assured the money is there despite the fact that the U.S. Senate has not approved a budget for Fiscal Year 2013, beginning Oct. 1. He said a continuing resolution that would continue to fund projects is being prepared until a budget for next fiscal year is approved.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has deemed the project urgent because a failure of the nearly mile-long dam would flood communities along the Cumberland River all the way to Nashville, Tenn. Officials lowered the level of Lake Cumberland by 40 feet in 2007 to ease pressure on the dam.
The Appropriations Committee gives "the Corps money and it appropriates funds to specific projects," Rogers said. Don B. Getty, manager of the Wolf Creek Dam project, said while in Somerset last week that repair of the dam is one of the Corps' highest priority projects.
Wolf Creek Dam has been plagued with seepage since the gates closed and the lake began to fill in December 1950. A serious leak developed in 1968 and was controlled by intense grouting and installation of a barrier wall during the 1970s. Seepage continued, and in 2005, experts declared the dam a high risk for failure. | <urn:uuid:1d0f0d24-6052-4b69-b762-9bc3bd715d16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wuky.org/post/rogers-lake-cumberland-dam-project-fully-funded | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966452 | 413 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Santiago de Chile, Jan 232rd 2010
I’ve heard recently heard from experts in technology that spaces such as twitter, facebook, myspace and others are pure crap (excuse my language) and most often than not we have all looked down on sites like the giant Youtube, after experiencing sites like TED.com, under the impression that TED.COM has become a Youtube for “the smart”.
Well, tonight we all got a slap on our face.
In light of the recent earthquake that devastated Haiti with more than 200,000 casualties, one of the biggest fund-raising events after 9/11 took place tonight. TV was not enough. Here’s the story and how technology played a major role to bring us all together.
MTV and George Clooney led an initiative that will at one point down the line… become a milestone for the Internet world: Twitter, Youtube, Google, Itunes, along with Facebook and MySpace, joined in the Haiti Telethon called Hope for Haiti Now! in the next few days we’ll see how much money was collected, and I’m sure it’ll be one the greatest amounts of money since 9/11/2001. Gathering all A artists and broadcasting from the USA, Europe and Haiti, the event was followed from around the world.
US citizens could follow this telethon through all major networks: MTV, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, HBO BET International, CNN International, National Geographic and MTV Networks International. People from around the globe followed it and contributed through YouTube, Hulu, Facebook, MySpace, Fancast, AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, Bing.com, BET.com, MTV.com, CNN.com and VH1.com. Along with the donations while the show was taking place, many Itunes customers will be able to give their money by purchasing parts of the show through itunes.com in about 48 hours!
Amongst the celebrities in this concert we could all watch Shakira, Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and former US President Bill Clinton, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keys, Bono and U2′s The Edge, Coldplay, Keith Urban and Stevie Wonder. Haitian-American Wyclef Jean participated from New York, while Rihanna, Beyonce y Jay-Z did so from London, UK. From Hollywood, LA, Jennifer Aniston, Ellen DeGeneres, Brad Pitt, Halle Berry, Muhammad Ali and Clint Eastwood also made their contribution to this mega concert.
On a sad note, AMERICA could not broadcast the event, although it had been announced, since Spanish translation was not allowed. Weird thing. Thumbs down there!
If you want to contribute with money, please go to https://hopeforhaitinow.org
Would this event have been the same if Youtube, Twitter, and Google hadn’t paired up for a live version online? Would it have been the same if the major network sites hadn’t cooperated bringing their subscribers to participate in the way they did?
Educators (my main audience), IT developers and specialists and everyone involved in the development of the Web industry cannot easily look down on the current tools offered by the Internet. I oppose though the the Web 2.0 term! The web has from its very origin targeted at this type of communication. There are thousands of examples.. just search for Amazon back in 1995 ! and see how they’d already allowed their customers to collaborate in their products’ reviews. In education, back in 2001 through 2003, I had the Web “4.0″ experience! when 2.0 was just coined in 2004.
Collaborative and social communication and action tools have always been at the core and spirit of the Web. We, educators, cannot forget this essential concept and must put this to the use of our learning communities and individuals.
Look forward to your comments! | <urn:uuid:d1c36937-b1bb-4805-9b98-1baf076da0c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mauriciomiraglia.com/m/2010/01/23/social-action-in-social-networks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9419 | 823 | 1.53125 | 2 |
There are exciting things happening in Hillsboro education this year-- most specifically, the opening of the new Hillsboro Online Academy. This is a magnet high school open to any student in the Hillsboro district who wants to experience the new online model of education, which has proven successful at institutions such as the Connections Academy . Since it's the first year, they are starting out small, with about 80 students, four 50%-time teachers, and a 50%-time principal.
At the links for the schools above, you can find lots of information on the many benefits of online education. But I've recently met a couple of times with Linda Harrington, the principal of the new online academy, to discuss another opportunity that I think online education brings to the table: the ability for community volunteers to act as teaching assistants. Why is this more of an opportunity for online schools than for traditional ones? The key point is that online education is inherently asynchronous: in other words, the students, teachers, and teaching assistants do not need to be online at the same time, as much classwork and discussion can happen on message boards.
For people like me, I think this can make a big difference in the ability to help out in the schools. I typically mess around online for an hour or so in my pajamas at bedtime, with my laptop PC next to my bed. Instead of slaying digital dragons & catching up with 20 Scrabble games, could I be using this time more productively? Volunteering in a physical school or live tutoring session in this time slot would be relatively difficult. But online, I can log onto a class message board, answer student questions, help grade papers, or help in other ways. I have some experience of this teaching-in-my-jammies before: I taught a couple of quarters of Algebra I for the University of Phoenix online. So I know from experience that this can really work.
Anyway, I'm continuing my discussions with Linda, and we are going to work together (along with some Intel education people) on setting up a pilot program for online volunteers to help with the academy. If you're a local professional in the community who might be interested in this volunteer opportunity, be sure to send me an email! | <urn:uuid:1395de00-207e-44f5-bd85-85466836db02> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://seligman4schools.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957575 | 460 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Peru to Finalize $10 Billion Sovereign Wealth Fund by 2013: Finance Minister
The pre-requisites for Peru to establish a $10 billion sovereign wealth fund are in place but the mineral rich country wants to see stabilization in global commodity markets before it can finalize its plans, Luis Miguel Castilla, Peru's Finance Minister told CNBC on Friday.
"We have a fiscal surplus, we have low debt levels, and we're thinking of being able to do some asset management on those surpluses that we have," Castilla said in an interview on CNBC Asia's "Squawk Box" on Friday, adding that details will be announced sometime in 2013.
"Given that this world is uncertain, we're still dependent on commodity prices...20 percent of our fiscal revenues come from mineral revenues. So I think once this period subsides we can look into developing our own sovereign wealth fund."
Peru is the world's second biggest silver, copper and zinc producer and the sixth biggest gold producer. In all, mining accounts for 60 percent of Peru's exports.
But the slowdown in global growth and falling commodity prices are likely to hit the country's export earnings this year. Peru's central bank has cut its forecast for this year's trade surplus to $6.7 billion from $9 billion previously.
The narrower trade surplus will contribute to a wider current account deficit, which has been covered by ample foreign investments.
Castilla is currently touring Asia to promote investments in Peru's mining and infrastructure sectors by China and sovereign investors such as Singapore's Temasek Holdings and sovereign wealth fund GIC.
Peru's international reserves have doubled since the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 and now total nearly $60 billion. The country's net public sector debt load is just 6 percent of gross domestic product, and its public sector surplus in the first quarter of the year was 7 percent of GDP.
Proceeds from mineral exports, deposited in the planned sovereign wealth fund, will be "invested abroad and it will ease appreciation pressures we're seeing on our currency," Castilla said, adding that Chile and Norway could provide the model for a Peruvian sovereign fund.
Peru's central bank has been intervening in the currency market in recent months to ease the appreciation in the Peruvian nuevo sol (PEN) against the U.S. dollar. The central bank bought $151 million on Thursday at an average of 2.629 PEN, Dow Jones reported. The Peruvian sol has gained 4.12 percent against the greenback in the last 12 months.
—By CNBC's Sri Jegarajah | <urn:uuid:4ef724d0-a773-4c74-8a45-bc80d50ece42> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnbc.com/id/48171261?__source=RSS*tag*&par=RSS | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945307 | 533 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Die Mercurii, 5 die Julii.
PRAYERS, by Mr. Hickes.
Domini præsentes fuerunt:
Comes Manchester, Speaker.
Vote of the H. C. for the King to sign Three Propositions.
The Vote sent from the House of Commons, "That
the King do assent unto and sign the Three Propositions before the Treaty for Peace," was read.
And this House adhered to their former Vote, upon
Roper and Wiseman.
Ordered, That the Cause between Roper and Wiseman shall be heard on Wednesday next, in the Morning.
Petitions from the Common Council, &c.
This Day a Petition was presented, by the Sheriffs
and some of the Aldermen and Common Council-men
of the City of London, with a Petition annexed; and
being received, they were publicly read, as followeth.
(Here enter them.)
London to be the Place for Treaty with the King.
The Persons that presented the Petition withdrew;
and the House took the same into Consideration.
And the Debate was, "Whether London shall be the
Place where the Treaty with the King shall be?"
And for the better Consideration of it, the House
was adjourned into a Committee of the whole House.
The House was resumed.
And it was Resolved, upon the Question, That this
House thinks it fit that London be the Place where the
Personal Treaty shall be had with the King.
Militia of London, Westm, &c. to be associated.
Then the Clause in the Petition was read, "That
the Militia of London and Westm. Southwarke, and
the Hamlets, shall be joined together."
And the Question being put, "Whether that the
Militia of London, Westm. Southwarke, and
the Hamlets, shall be joined together, as they
desire in their Petition?"
It was Resolved in the Affirmative.
London Militia to raise Horse.
Next, the Desire of the City, for to have Power to
raise Horse, was read.
And it being put to the Question, "Whether to
agree to give Power to the Militia of London
to raise Horse, as they do desire?"
It was Resolved in the Affirmative.
Order for Gen. Skippon to raise Horse.
The Order brought from the House of Commons,
for giving Power to the Committee at Derby House to
grant Commission to Major General Skippon, to command, raise, and list a Regiment of Horse, was read
the Second Time.
And it was Resolved, upon the Question, To have
this Order respited.
Message to the H. C. with the foregoing Votes.
A Message was sent to the House of Commons, by
Mr. Hakewill and Mr. Page:
To deliver the Three Votes made upon the Petitions
this Day received from the City, and desire their Concurrence therein.
E. of Steamford, Leave to be absent.
Ordered, That the Earl of Stamford hath Leave to
Answer to the Petitions from the Common Council, &c.
The Sheriffs and others, that presented the Petitions
this Day from the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council, of the City of London, were called in
And this Answer following was delivered to them,
by the Speaker, by the Direction of the House:
"The Lords have commanded me to let you know,
That they have considered of the Particulars this
Day tendered by you unto them. They had of
themselves made some Progress in those Things mentioned therein; and they do now declare unto you,
that they have thought fit to grant your Desires in
all the Particulars contained in the Petitions, in
Confidence that the City of London will be careful
to make good their great Engagement now made,
for the preserving and securing of His Majesty's
Person and the Parliament from Tumults, Mutinies,
Insurrections, or other Disorders, that may interrupt
the Honour, Freedom, and Safety of the King or
Parliament. And they cannot doubt but that they
will still adhere to live and die in Defence of the
King and Parliament, according to their Covenant."
Ordered, That these Two Petitions, with this
Answer, shall be printed and published.
Members of The Trinity House, Petition.
A Petition of divers cordial and well-affected Mariners, being Commanders of Ships, and Members of The
Trynity House, was presented, and read. (Here enter it.)
And this Answer was returned by the Speaker;
Answer to them.
The Lords have commanded me to give you
Thanks, for your great Expressions of your Fidelity and good Affections to the Parliament. And
they desire you still to continue your Care and Endeavours for the reducing of the revolted Mariners
to their Obedience to the Parliament. And they
desire you to be confident, that their Lordships will
improve their utmost Endeavours, for the procuring
a safe and well-grounded Peace."
L. Stourton, a Pass.
That the Lord Stourton, his Lady and his Children,
shall have a Pass, to go into Wiltshire.
Message to the H. C. for the Committee for a Treaty to meet.
A Message was sent to the House of Commons, by
Mr. Eltonhead and
To desire them, that the Committee for Peace may
meet this Afternoon, at Four a Clock; and to have
Power to adjourn from Time to Time.
Heads for a Conference about the Vote for the King to sign Three Propositions.
Ordered, That these Lords following are appointed Committees, to draw up Reasons, to be given at a
Conference with the House of Commons, why this
House adheres to their Vote, that the Three Propositions shall not be insisted upon:
Any Three; to meet To-morrow Morning.
Pepys to be instituted to Arksdon.
Ordered, That Doctor Aylett give Institution and
Induction unto Robert Pepys Clerk, Master of Arts,
to the Vicarage of Arkesdon, in the County of Essex,
void by the Death of George Berdsale, the last Incumbent there; Salvo Jure cujuscunque: Richard Cutts
Cox. E. of Dover's Steward, to be released.
Ordered, That Charles Cox, Steward to the Earl of
Dover, who was on Wednesday last taken from Kingston,
being there upon the Employment of his Lordship, by
a Party of Horse under the Command of the Parliament, and is still detained in Custody, contrary to the
Privilege of Parliament, shall, upon Sight hereof, be
released and set at Liberty; and that his Horse, Money,
Ring, and other Things, shall be restored and delivered
unto him likewise, upon Sight of this Order, &c.
To the Governor of Windsor Castle, &c.
Members of The Trinity House Petition, declaring that they will faithfully assist, to reduce the Revolted Mariners, &c. to Obedience.
To the Right Honourable House of Lords
in Parliament assembled.
The humble Declaration, Tender, and Petition,
of divers cordial and well-affected Mariners,
whose Names are subscribed, being Commanders of Ships, and Members of The Trinity House;
That the present sad and fresh bleeding Condition
of this distressed Kingdom, the many Ways of Force
and Treachery which are continually attempted, to
bring to utter Ruin and Destruction this Parliament
and their Forces by Land and Sea, the late Defection of some Mariners trusted and employed by the
Parliament in divers Ships set forth for Safety of the
Kingdom, and the Proceedings thereupon, will not
suffer the Petitioners to be longer silent: And therefore, in Discharge of their Duty to Almighty God,
to the King, Parliament, and Kingdom, they do
humbly declare, That the Petitioners are most unfeignedly thankful for this Parliament's effectual endeavouring the Public Settlement; and for giving
Direction that, in order to Safety of the Kingdom,
the Encouragement and Preservation of Trade, and
the Reduction of the said Ships revolted, a convenient Fleet be provided and set to Sea, and manned with cordial and well-affected Mariners (all intimated by the Votes of the Honourable House of
Commons made the 17th; and by the Lord High
Admiral's Letter to the Masters, Wardens, and Assistants of The Trinity House, dated the 19th of June
last: That, although the Petitioners do most heartily
desire a right Understanding and happy Reconcilement betwixt the King and Parliament, yet it is far
from the Intention of the Petitioners (and they hope
of any others that have lately petitioned for a Personal Treaty), to make Use of the said Revolt, or
of any other Streights the Parliament are or may
be in, to precipitate their Counsels, or to destroy their
Forces, being (as they humbly conceive) contrary to
the Protestation taken in or about May, 1641, the
Vow taken in or about June, and the Covenant taken
in or about February, 1643; as it is also to necessitate the Parliament to that Treaty, before such a
Foundation of Security be laid as the Wisdom of
Parliament shall conceive (by the Blessing of Almighty God thereupon) to be fully sufficient for the
Preservation of themselves, and of all that have adhered to them, from Destruction in and after that
Treaty; and for the Reformation of Religion; and
for the Maintenance and Defence of Laws and Liberties, for all which so much Blood and Treasure
hath been spilt and spent: That the constant Valour
and Fidelity of English Mariners (Commanders and
others) have encouraged this and all other Nations
with whom we have any Commerce, as well Jewes,
Turkes, Heathens, as Christians, to put their Persons
and Estates into their Power and Possession, having
found them always valiant to defend both the one
and the other, and faithful in Discharge of their Trust
to those that employ them, whether Friends or Foes;
which hath much advanced the Wealth, Strength,
and Safety of this Kingdom: That the Valour and
Fidelity of English Mariners is of late much blemished,
by those that are revolted in the said Ships, and that
have encouraged them thereunto, and have neither
publicly expressed their utter Detestation thereof,
nor their Resolution with their Lives and Estates
(according to their Covenant) to endeavour the reducing those Revolters by such Ways and Means as
the Parliament and Lord High Admiral of England
shall in their Wisdom direct: That the Petitioners
(to take off those Blemishes, and preserve the Honour
of the English Nation) do disavow the having any
Hand in that Revolt; they do abhor and detest that
unparalleled Breach of Trust, as most destructive to
the Trade and Navigation of this Kingdom, and to
all the faithful Mariners and others who have their
Dependency thereupon: And the Petitioners do promise to use their utmost Endeavours, with their Lives
and Estates (according to their Covenant if they
shall be called thereunto), for the reducing of the
said Revolters to their Duty, in such a Way as the
Wisdom of Parliament and Lord High Admiral
shall direct; and doubt not (whatsoever have been
suggested to the contrary) but there are many other
Mariners in this Kingdom will be most ready and
willing to do the like.
The Petitioners therefore do humbly pray, That
the Vote of the Honourable House of Commons, made the 17th of June last, for the
providing as great a Fleet, manned with cordial and well-affected Men, as the Parliament
shall think fit, with all possible Expedition,
for the Safety of the Kingdom, and reducing the said Revolters, may be vigorously
And your Petitioners, as in Duty bound,
shall pray, &c.
Memorandum, That Fifty-two of the Subscribers are Commanders of Ships, Members
of The Trinity House."
Petition from the Common Council, with the following one.
To the Right Honourable the Lords in the
High Court of Parliament assembled.
The humble Petition of the Lord Mayor,
Aldermen, and Commons, of the City of
London, in Common Council assembled;
That your Petitioners, sitting in Common Council
upon the weighty Affairs of the City, had presented
unto them, by divers Field Officers, Captains, and
their Commission Officers, of the Trained Bands of
the City of London and Liberties thereof, the Petition hereunto annexed; which being openly read,
and seriously considered of, they apprehend that the
same is of great Concernment, worthy due Consideration, tending to the Honour and Safety of the
King, and Preservation of the Parliament, and the
Settlement of the Peace and Welfare of the City
and Kingdom: And they, concurring with the Petitioners therein, have thought fit to present the same
to this Honourable House.
And they humbly pray your Honours, to take
the same into your serious Consideration; and
do therein as in your grave Wisdoms you
shall see fit.
And they shall pray, &c.
Officers of the London Militia Petition, for the King to come to London; -to be associated with the Militia of Westm. &c.;-and to have Power to raise Horse.
To the Right Honourable the Lords assembled in Parliament.
The humble Petition of the Field Officers,
Captains, and their Commission Officers, of
the Trained Bands of the City of London and
That, out of the deep Sense of the sad Miseries
that lie upon these Kingdoms, the only visible Remedy whereof (under God) we conceive to be a Personal Treaty with His Majesty, which happy Work,
we hear, is like to be retarded, if not frustrated, by
Fears and Jealousies suggested, if it should be here
in London (which is so much desired), that, instead
of settling Peace, it might involve us all in Blood, by
Tumults that might be raised by Persons driving on
their own Designs and Interests: We think ourselves
bound in Duty, for promoting so desirable a Work
so much as in us lieth, to offer our Service, with our
Lives and Fortunes, to the utmost, (fn. *) to defend
His Majesty's Royal Person and this Parliament
from all Violence whatsoever, that they may meet
and treat with Freedom, Honour, and Safety, according to the ancient fundamental Constitution of
this Kingdom; and that whosoever shall, by Tumults,
Mutinies, Insurrections, or otherwise, interrupt or
force the Honour, Freedom, and Safety of King or
Parliament, we and all under our Commands shall
be ready, as One Man, to live and die in Defence of
the King and Parliament, according to our Covenant.
1. Wherefore we humbly pray, That, for our
Enablement thereunto, the Militia for the
City of London and adjacent Parts may be
settled in One Committee. And if in your
Wisdoms you shall think fit to join some Persons of the Parts adjacent to the Grand Committee, they may be such as have no Places
of Profit which depend upon the Continuance
of the War and our Troubles, or have
shewed themselves disaffected to the Ends
of the Covenant.
2. That the King may be brought to London,
with Freedom, Honour, and Safety, to treat
with His Parliament, for the settling of a
safe and well-grounded Peace.
3. That the Militia may have Power to raise
Horse, if Need be, for the Defence of the
King, Parliament, and City.
"And we shall pray, &c."
House adjourned till 10a cras. | <urn:uuid:cd4b1c31-b918-44bb-bfb1-9cf5a2a6b22c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=32850 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934383 | 3,508 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Author Joanna Rush says that is the trinity she tackles in her recently released book, “Asking For It: A Rockette’s Tale.” The fictionalized memoir is based on Rush’s long-running one-woman show, “Asking For It,”which details her journey from a cloistered Irish-Catholic upbringing to the mean streets of New York City, where the upstart chorus girl discovers cruel realities that threaten to squash her sense of faith and her hope. She deals with homelessness and heartache, loses friends to AIDS and endures horrific sexual violence. (The titles of the projects refer to the callous words of a police officer that discovered Rush after she was raped: “You were asking for it.”) Ultimately she triumphs, making her way to the bright lights of Broadway and beyond one resolute step – or rather, high-kick – at a time.
“Asking For It: A Rockette’s Tale” balances pathos with humor, translating the dark comedy ofRush’s stage show into print. Rush’s spiritedness isn’t confined to her performances with that sequin-covered dance company she pursues, with dogged earnestness, for a job. It is found in her resolute insistence on finding bright spots even in the darkest times. Whether marveling at this flame-haired spitfire’s I’m-Going-To-Make-It moxie, or admiring her perseverance through the turmoil of religious guilt and sexist shaming, readers discover an unconquerable character Broadway couldn’t invent.
That character resonates strongly with the LGBT community, says Rush, who has a strong gay following. “Asking For It” touches on certain issues with obvious parallels to the LGBT experience: overcoming gender-based bias and bucking against the dogmatic rigidity of organized religion, just to start. But Rush also paints the picture of a tender, loving relationship between Bernie and her gay best friend, Johnnie. It is based on Rush’s real relationship with her best friend John, a gay activist. Rush watched as John and his partner – along with many other actor friends – died in a time when NYC seemed to the ground zero for AIDS.
“It was an incredible time,” recalls Rush of the artistic energy that flourished in NYC’s Village in the ‘80s. Then the epidemic descended, stealing away friends – and chosen family. “It changed our lives,” she says. “It’s important to know that piece of history.” Today Rush is an interfaith reverend, and officiates many same-sex ceremonies – partly out of tribute to the marriages her loving friends could never have.
The issues in “Asking For It” are certainly relevant to the present-day, a world in which churches and politicians are working harder as hard as ever on anti-woman agendas. Every day, it seems a different horrific headline – whether reporting the recent brutal rape of a young woman in India by a gang of thugs, or of a teenage girl by an Ohio football team – underscores the value of Rush sharing her experience. “It as important as ever to speak out,” says Rush.
But her story already exists as a show. Why write a book now? “What am I going to do, sit around and crochet?” jokes Rush with typically deadpan humor. Rush debuted her one-woman show in 2006 and continues to perform it across the country – she has plans for a college campus tour next year – but opportunities for actresses become fewer as they get older. Plus the book allows Rush to expand on the story. It incorporates greater background – particularly about her devout Catholic childhood – and introduces new characters that couldn’t be contained in the stage show. (She already plays nine characters in it. Enough, already!)
“It’s a completely different creative process,” says Rush of writing the book. Whereas producing a show more quickly becomes a collaborative process, Rush says that writing the book was a more autonomous experience. There isn’t the opportunity to workshop the piece, or digest immediate audience feedback. That feels scary, but in a way strangely cathartic for such a deeply personal piece. “In many ways, writing the book was comforting,” says Rush. “I had the freedom to go deeper.”
Still, as with her show, Rush chose to filter her experiences through a fictitious lead character, Bernie O’Connell. It’s a thin veil, but one that Rush doesn’t want to remove. “A few years ago a writer friend told me, ‘You need to own it,’” explains Rush. “But I needed it to be a character. I needed to be able to step back.”
“I did write it in first-person,” says Rush. “Even that was a big step.” And coming from a former Rockette, that’s saying a lot.
For more information on the “Asking For It” show and book, visit askingforitonline.com. Rush next performs her show on Monday, February 11 and Tuesday, February 12 at The Players Loft in New York City. (115 MacDougal Street; for free reservations visit amasmusical.org.) She will also appear at the 2013 AWP Conference & Book Fair from March 6 – 9 at Hynes Convention Center & Sheraton Boston Hotel. (Visit awpwriter.org) | <urn:uuid:395826fc-630f-4f5b-9d28-5ba807b49fc3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.baywindows.com/The-Father-Son-and-Holy-Spirit-More-like-religion-rape-and-redemption | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966755 | 1,172 | 1.59375 | 2 |
WASHINGTON,D.C. (WUSA) - When federal agencies are forced to cut 9% out of their budgets, the Washington area alone will see 65,000 federal jobs lost. 97,000 federal contractor jobs will disappear. Add to that subcontractors and people who rely on all of that, and the total local jobs lost is nearly 500,000
"You can't cut back the federal government by 9% without finding some impact on every town, on every individual across the country," said George Mason economist Stephen Fuller. He believes that federal services and facilities could be shutdown or cut back. The National Zoo and Smithsonian could cut back hours. You might not get that passport renewed in time for your trip.
Meteorologists were able to track Hurricane Sandy using federal satellites. NOAA may not be able to spend what it needs to keep those satellites up to date. And, Fuller says, we could see slowdowns at some smaller airports where the FAA may implements cuts. He says everybody will be inconvenienced. But worse, Fuller says, "Just about everyone will see their taxes go up."
People who work will see their payroll taxes go up and people who itemize won't be able to deduct child care expenses because Congress hasn't continued those reductions. And small businesses will lose money because of changes in the inheritance tax.
"We basically lose the gains we've made, that we've achieved over the last three years that we've added and we're back to the depth of the recession again."
And when people have less money to spend, or have lost their jobs, they don't go out eat or get their nails done anymore, and those businesses will suffer.
"It will happen unless Congress acts to stop it. So they have to pass legislation that reverses this and the President sign it before the 1st of January," said Fuller.
The thinking is that the lame duck Congress will meet and decide to push the issue on to the next Congress. Fuller said that won't help the ongoing uncertainty which is not good for the economy, but at least it's better than going over the cliff. | <urn:uuid:082c57a3-a301-44a9-8253-b37d8ab94357> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wusa9.com/news/article/228739/187/Facing-The-Fiscal-Cliffs-Realities | 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 | 0.975272 | 429 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Our ‘Sea of Goodwill’ must sustain family members who carry on after the ultimate sacrifice
Memorial Day is the solemn occasion on which we respectfully remember those in uniform who have given their lives in service to our country. I can think of no better way to honor their memory than by recognizing and supporting the family members for whom they will forever be irreplaceable and those who served alongside them.
We have laid to rest 50,085 service members in less than 25 years. Bereavement experts estimate that for each military loss, there are 10 “surviving” family members, friends and relatives who deeply feel the loss. The military service Casualty Assistance Programs offer immediate help, and the Gold Star organizations, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors and others come alongside, almost simultaneously, with their mutual commitment to sustain one another long-term with an almost invincible resilience.
The families of those who survive a wound, illness or injury again receive immediate and long-term support. Military service Recovery Coordination Programs provide care coordinators and manage comprehensive care plans for thousands of service members, according to the Defense Department. Veterans Affairs maintains and builds on these individual recovery care plans with specialized programs such as the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service and stipends to help caregivers (usually a spouse or parent) provide personalized assistance for their severely injured loved one with training support by nonprofit organizations such as Easter Seals.
The exceptional bravery of the families of our surviving and wounded warriors is a most special and inspiring example of the overall dedication of our nation’s total force – the military/veteran/family community that affords us our freedoms. Groups such as the National Military Family Association have long recognized their service and advocated for their quality health care, access to good schools and career opportunities. Newer, complementary groups such as the Military Child Education Coalition and Blue Star Families, have added valuable networks that reinforce the visibility of issues including military dependent education and spouse employment. | <urn:uuid:6d23c413-0e36-4bf2-8f60-ff05f80d3572> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://junkscience.com/2012/05/28/lynda-davis-honoring-our-fallen-by-supporting-their-loved-ones/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9584 | 400 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Richard Branson Opens Farm to Fork Eco-Resort in NJ
Image via: Ninety Acres Culinary School
Richard Branson, known for supporting all types of wild and high profile schemes (renewable energy, carbon capture, alternative fuels for Virgin Airlines and even eco-resorts on his famous islands), now he's into something a little more mellow: funding a Farm to Fork project/eco-resort.The Farm at Natirar is a "farm-to-cooking-school-to-table resort enterprise located on a 100 year old estate in New Jersey. The school will be held in a building on the property known as the Carriage House, built in 1912. Students from both Sterling College and Rutgers University will be involved in working on the property to build a local, sustainable agricultural program, tied in with a resort-style restaurant open to the public.
The cooking school includes a working farm complete with livestock and gardens and is currently run by two Sterling College graduates. Students at Sterling College currently produce about twenty-five percent of the food that is eaten on campus, so it is a natural fit for their graduates to then become involved in a Farm to Fork program. For the opening ceremony event, Sir Richard Branson was on hand to kick-off the event. Besides riding tractors, Branson is the recent owner of the property (named after an area town - Raritan, NJ - spelled backwards) and was looking to create an eco-resort in the area. Hey, he's already conquered South Africa, Morocco, and Necker Island.
The Ninety-Acres Culinary Center is located at 2 Main Street, Peapack-Gladstone, NJ and will open for dinner, Sunday brunches and seasonal lunches. Natirar will soon launch "a hotel, spa and fitness center, function center, guest cottages, an outdoor swimming pool and cabanas, and a lawn sports pavilion." :Natirar :The Spa at NatirarMore on Local Food MovementsIf You Want Safe Food, Know Where It Comes From9 Must-Read Books on Eating WellTime Magazine: Is Local Food Going Mainstream?In Season Food App for Locavores iPhone | <urn:uuid:e7030720-b646-4114-ab56-6cdcd816759d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/richard-branson-opens-farm-to-fork-eco-resort-in-nj.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942454 | 459 | 1.507813 | 2 |
It is perhaps fitting that an immigrant from Taiwan who once ran the Peace Corps and United Way is tasked with helping improve the labor skills of the U.S. workforce. As overseer of America's retirees and 150 million workers, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, 52, spoke with TIME's Eric Roston about the impending pension crisis, the growing skills gap and life as half of a Washington power couple.
YOU SAID RECENTLY THAT UNLESS CONGRESS REFORMS TRADITIONAL PENSION PLANS SOON, THE CONSEQUENCES COULD BE "VERY BAD." IF I'M A WORKER APPROACHING RETIREMENT AT A TEETERING COMPANY, WHAT DOES "VERY BAD" MEAN? If your retirement dreams hinge upon a pension plan that's underfunded, that threat is real. That threat is huge. We have $450 billion in underfunded plans, and $100 billion of that is with financially ailing companies.
BUT PENSION PLANS HAVE BEEN UNDERFUNDED FOR YEARS. WHY IS REFORM SUDDENLY GAINING STEAM? Something has to be done. We now have legislation moving on the Hill, and I'm cautiously optimistic about the passage of the pension bill. Congress gave itself two years to come up with pension-reform proposals. We're now at the end of that period.
WHY DO WORKERS SAY THERE IS A JOB SHORTAGE YET EMPLOYERS SAY THEY CAN'T FIND ENOUGH WORKERS? Our country is facing a skills gap. About 4.5 million new jobs have been created since May 2003. The majority require higher skills and higher educational levels, and that means these are relatively well-paying jobs. Our job is to make sure that we provide training and work with the private sector to train the workforce.
YOU WERE IN LITTLE ROCK, ARK., LAST MONTH ANNOUNCING A $5.9 MILLION GRANT TO TRAIN PEOPLE FOR WORK IN THE AUTO AND "ADVANCED MANUFACTURING" INDUSTRIES. WHO ELSE NEEDS HELP? The construction industry in Louisiana can only find 65% of the skilled labor they need. Health care's another one. We need about a million nurses and 3.4 million health-care workers in the next eight years. About 90% of the fastest-growing jobs these days require added training post--high school.
YOU WENT TO THE GULF COAST AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA. WHAT IS YOUR MOST VIVID MEMORY FROM THE TRIP? No matter how many times you've seen it or been involved, the poignancy of human suffering is beyond human comprehension. We went to visit the Astrodome in Houston. I found it very inspiring that at this evacuee center, 45,000 people showed up to help 23,000 evacuees. I played with a 4-year-old girl who seemed so oblivious in so many ways to what was happening around her. She had her grandfather, and she had her mother. So in times like that, we're grateful for the true treasures of life: family and safety.
AFTER KATRINA, DID YOU TRY TO LOBBY THE PRESIDENT AGAINST SUSPENDING THE DAVIS-BACON WAGE LAW, WHICH REQUIRES FEDERAL CONTRACTORS TO PAY THE LOCAL PREVAILING WAGE? The President and the Administration were most concerned with helping this region recover as quickly as possible. So the Administration wanted to cut through the red tape and the bureaucracy that would impede assistance to this devastated region.
SO WAS BUSH CAPITULATING TO CRITICS WHEN HE REINSTATED THE LAW IN LATE OCTOBER? No. Two months later, things had begun to improve, conditions had begun to get better, and it was seen that it was no longer necessary. | <urn:uuid:f435920d-537e-48d9-9d10-9ffc5276e3c3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1139826,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942617 | 824 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The National Iraqi Youth Orchestra is set to showcase its talents a crowd in London on Tuesday night, following their performances over the past week in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
“The mission of this group is to show the real face of Iraq -- not which is shown by others,” Dr. Abdulrahman Dheyab, Director of the Iraqi Culture Center in the U.K. said.
“They want to tell the world that music can bring us all together and that ‘soft’ powers could play an essential role to build bridges among nations.”
The concert, part of the orchestra’s U.K. debut, also features a solo performance by Khyam Allami playing the Oud, the traditional Arab musical instrument that originated in Iraq.
The group is comprised of predominantly self-taught musicians from various backgrounds and various parts of Iraq. Some are Arabs, some are Kurds, some are Muslim and some are Christian -- a diversity that garners attention as a group seeking harmony through classical music.
“They have done an amazing show, I find it very inspiring,” Dr. Dheyab said. “And it shows that the music has deep roots in Iraq culture -- so those young Iraqi musicians reflect that in their performances.”
In its fourth year running, the idea of the orchestra dubbed the bravest in the world was founded by pianist Zuhal Sultan when she was 17, and has been backed by the British Council. Its first concert was in 2009, in the Iraqi Kurdish city of al-Suleiymaniah.
Every year, auditions are held via video submissions on social media platforms such as YouTube. Once selected, the orchestra’s members attend summer sessions conducted by Scottish conductor and musical director, Paul MacAlindin. They then go on to perform.
This year, the group was hosted by the Scottish government for three weeks, coinciding with the Einburgh Fringe Festival, and may tour Europe some more.
“They will go back to Iraq to do more training,” Dr. Dheyab said of the orchestra's plans after its U.K. shows. “They might have another performance in Paris,” he added.
One thing is certain: this young troupe of diverse Iraqi musicians are determined to continue spreading their message of peace through music. | <urn:uuid:19b509c0-b805-4fef-8b49-4d70e46520a8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/28/234768.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965943 | 489 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Commitment: What is a designated daughter?
D.G. Fulford: The universal symbol for a designated daughter is a woman with two purses over her shoulder, two coats on her lap, sitting in a doctor’s waiting room holding her mother’s hand. We are a secret society of women, instantly recognizable to each other. We define an enormous demographic: baby boomers accompanying an aging parent to the end of the line.
Commitment: Unlike some books that write about the hardships of caring for one's aging mother, you write in a way that shows the joy, purpose and sense of accomplishment that comes from being there when your mother needs you. How were you able to uproot the life you created in Nevada and move back to your hometown of Columbus, Ohio and take over the role left when your father died without feeling resentful or becoming burnt out?
D.G.: That’s easy. My mother is a ton of fun. I hadn’t spent any real time with her – and certainly not time alone with her, without my Dad -- in twenty years. My career is a portable one, so during one trip home, under the bright blue October sky, I decided Columbus, Ohio might be a pretty nice place to be.
Commitment: I love that you began your book with a quote from Walt Disney's Bambi, of how when the Bambi's mother heard the sound of the hunters, she cried, "Bambi!"..."the thicket!"..."and the two of them sprang toward the forest." Why this __quote? How do you see you and your Mom like Bambi and her mother in the forest?
D.G.: This movie taught me the most shocking lesson in life; that it is possible to lose your mother. I was so little when I saw it –like Bambi – and so sorrowful, I took to my bed for four days. Bambi’s moment in the woods with his mother is the moment of truth that we all have to face. They sprang toward the forest together, still seeking safety in each other. Trying to outrun the inevitable. Just like Mom and me.
Commitment: You write that in helping to care for your mother, you found your own strong space. What is the strong space you have found within you because of caring for your mother? What has caring for your mother taught you about yourself?
D.G.: I’ve learned the power and self-respect that comes from knowing I’m in the right place at the right time doing the right thing. There are not too many moments in a life that we find ourselves in such a space and I am grateful to be able to write about mine.
Commitment: After your father died and it was evident your mother needed you, you wrote, "It never felt like a decision. It was the only thing my soul would let me do." Can you explain why your soul felt it so important to return home to be with your mother? What values a nd beliefs about family did you have that gave you the strength to be there when you were needed, rather than trying to escape or place the job on someone else?
D.G.: I had already escaped! I was living in a crazy ghost town running a one-book bookstore! And someday, I may escape again. But I didn’t see coming home as a job, at all. I saw it as an opportunity, the obvious next step I was privileged enough to take.
Commitment: You refer to this time with your mother as "bonus years" or so beautifully put, "the last dip in the pool at the end of a late-summer day." What have these bonus years with your mother given you as a woman, and at the same time, how do you deal with knowing that perhaps this is the "last dip in the pool" for your time together?
D.G.: When my family moved to California in the early 80’s, we were introduced to the real estate term “bonus room.” This was a room with no pre-ordained purpose; the homeowner could make into an office, a playroom, a workout room, whatever.
Even though you were obviously paying for square footage, the term “bonus room” was enticing to me. It seemed like a happy surprise, a gift in a Cracker Jack box. A thing you never were expecting, but were so happy when you got it.
We don’t even like to think of our mothers’ waning years, and when we do, we never imagine that this can be a joyful segment of life. That wonderful last dip that helps you seal the memory of a beautiful day.
Commitment: What was the hardest, most challenging aspect of caring for your mother?
D.G.: The punching bag clown effect of health issues. My mother feels wonderful right now, as strong as ever, but the past year has been filled with more downs than ups. Each episode is its own tsunami of concern, lack of control, fear and anticipatory grief. That’s for me, not my mother! She is forever optimistic while I race from my house to her house, from her house back to mine, one big worried, caffeinated wreck.
Commitment: What advice do you have for other daughters who have taken on this role as their mother's caretaker?
D.G.: There is nothing in me that wants to offer advice. Each mother/daughter combo is its own intricate mechanism and each mother and each daughter is a full, strong woman herself. All I have to give is a friendly reminder. This time is temporary. Know what you have while you have it. Enough said.
Commitment: Even though you and your mother had different styles of, or as you said, "I can run a house, sort of, but not in the proper orderly manner of my parents. I am a lifetime of denim, while my mother is full-blooded Talbots" how did you manage to get along so well? How did you both not let these differences destroy the wonderful friendship you share?
D.G.: As my mother would say, “We just made up our minds.” She has her tics, I have mine, and I think we’ve proven to each other that our styles aren’t going to change. And neither is our substance, which is the part in each of us that knows we can always, always rely on one another. A raggedy pair of jeans means nothing compared to that.
Commitment: You became a grandmother while caring for your own mother, and thus became part of the sandwich generation who often has different generations needing them at the same time. How did you manage meeting the needs of your mother with the desire to help your own daughter and see your grandson?
D.G.: Not well. My daughter and her family –I have two grandsons now ! –live across the country. I am missing a lot and I know it. My daughter is understanding and adores her grandmother. Believe me, my mother and my situation is a gift, but no situation is perfect.
Commitment: You and your mother both published books and went on book tours at the same time. How did you both grow professionally during this time? What did it feel like to have the world of publishing as something you both have in common to discuss? Do you think it important that when possible mothers and daughters find a new joint project to work on together?
D.G.: It was a wonderful thing in many ways. Our life has been a joint experience seen from two perspectives and our book, our written work, was a joint project, as well. My whole career has been about the joy and resonance of sharing family history. As far as joint projects go, I can’t think of a better one.
A question for Phyllis Greene, co-author of “Designated Daughter: The Bonus Years With Mom”: How did you manage to create such a loving bond with your daughter? What advice do you have for mothers who dream of someday having daughters who are so devoted and like your daughter, actually enjoy their mother's company?
Phyllis Greene’s Answer: Dr. Benjamin Spock’s Baby and Child Care was published in 1946 and my first child had just been born. Dr. Spock immediately became the guru of the “greatest generation” mothers ; his message and my idea of parenting were a perfect fit.
Treat your children with as much respect as you would a guest in your home, he advised. The times were many when I broke the rules, as did the children/guests.
But, at heart (which is where such rules abide) I believed and believe still that from understanding and acceptance and even politeness come a loving and abiding relationship: a designated daughter and her mother who define these as bonus years, who never forget to say “thank you” for coming, thanks for the gift of yourself , thanks for staying with me.
D.G. Fulford is the bestselling author of several books, including Designated Daughter: The Bonus Years With Mom, written with her mother, Phyllis Greene, and the classic To Our Children’s Children : Preserving Family Histories For Generations To Come, written with her brother, Bob Greene. She is cofounder of TheRememberingSite which makes it easy for anyone to write, archive, share and publish their life story.
Phyllis Greene became a first-time author, at the age of eighty-two, with It Must Have Been Moonglow: Reflections on the First Years of Widowhood. She is the mother of three, the grandmother of eight, and the great grandmother of two children. Fulford and Greene live in Columbus, Ohio.
To purchase Designated Daughter click here. | <urn:uuid:9f2106cd-f84b-4d13-bc35-5f4fb4eefe29> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://commitmentnow.com/life-stages/age-power/features/caring-for-our-aging-parents/feature/bestselling-author-d.g.-fulford-shares-her-story-of-caring-for-her-aging-mother | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98159 | 2,071 | 1.648438 | 2 |
MICHIGAN MILITARY VETS DEFY UNJUST STATE LAW
September 1, 2010
Baraga American Legion refuses to surrender property rights
The Preamble to the Constitution of the American Legion states: “For God and Country we associate ourselves together for the following purposes: To uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America; to maintain law and order; to foster and perpetuate a one hundred percent Americanism; to preserve the memories and incidents of our associations in the Great Wars; to inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state and nation; to combat the autocracy of both the classes and the masses; to make right the master of might; to promote peace and good will on earth; to safeguard and transmit to Posterity the principles of justice, freedom and democracy; to consecrate and sanctify our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness.”
While one might think that upholding all state laws would fit with the American Legion purposes, that isn’t the case with Foucault-Funke Post 444 in Michigan’s tiny Upper Peninsula (U.P.) community of Baraga.
On May 1, 2010 a new state law went into effect outlawing smoking in all business places that serve food and/or hire help, including bars, restaurants, private clubs and establishments owned by veteran oganizations. It was then that the Baraga American Legion drew a line in the sand and let it be known that Post 444 would allow its patrons to light up indoors until ordered by a court not to do so.
The Western Upper Peninsula Health Department (WUPHD) is charged with enforcing the no-smoking law in a five-county area. Because Post 444 has openly defied the smoking ban, an Order to Cease Food Operation was issued by WUPHD Executive Director Guy St. Germaine on July 20. It cited the Post as creating a substantial hazard to public health.
Post 444 countered by filing a lawsuit in Baraga County Circuit Court on Aug. 6 to strike down as unconstitutional the law banning indoor smoking. Guy St. Germain and WUPHD are named as defendants.
First introduced in the Michigan House as HB 4163 on Jan. 30, 2007 by former Flint area Rep. Brenda Clack (D-Dist. 34), the bill was originally designed to prohibit all private business owners from choosing to allow smoking in their establisments.
Strong-armed by lobbyists, House and Senate members tweaked several substitutes and wrangled for many months over which businesses would be exempt and which wouldn’t. However, attempts by a few military-friendly legislators to exclude veteran organizations were unsucessful.
Finally, after almost three years of wrangling and tweaking, HB 4163 passed muster with both the House and Senate on Dec. 10, 2009 and was signed into law by Gov. Granholm eight days later.
The new “Smoke-Free Air Law” allows a smoker to light up on the gaming floors of Detroit’s three opulent and privately owned casinos. Cigar bars and tobacco shops already in business prior to the ban, home offices and vehicles are also exempt.
However, veterans and active duty military, which were and are willing to put their life on the line to preserve the constitutional rights and personal liberties of American citizens, didn’t fare as well. They no longer have the freedom to light up a smoke-producing tobacco product at any American Legion or other such fraternal military establishment in Michigan. Neither do non-military patrons when such premises are open to the public, as Post 444 is.
The Detroit casinos were purportedly exempted because lawmakers believed those non-tribal businesses would be competively disadvantaged by tribe-owned casinos, which are not subject to the smoking ban. The closest to Detroit, however, is about 130 miles away in Standish. On the other hand, Post 444, located on the L’Anse Federal Indian Reservation, is about a mile away from the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community’s Ojibwa Casino and its Press Box Sports Bar & Grill. Another bar and grill, also exempt from the smoking ban, is about one-tenth of a mile away.
The State of Michigan gets a hefty kick-back from the Detroit casinos in the form of a gaming tax, which in 2009 was a little over $320 million. Had the legislators allowed those casinos to become competively disadvantaged, they’d have been cutting off their collective nose to spite their collective face.
With eleven tribally licensed casinos in the Upper Peninsula’s fifteen counties and because of their location, virtually every veteran organization establishment in the U.P. has been placed at an economic disadvantage. In fact, Bill Hafeman, American Legion State Commander, notes that many legion posts throughout Michigan have reported decreased usage of their bars and restaurants, though he didn’t specifically say it was caused by the smoking ban.
Michigan legislators, however, were apparently more concerned with their own coffer than with the cash registers of veteran organizations all over the state now forced to compete with tribe-owned casinos.
Historically, the Baraga Legion, which organized in 1946, has allowed smoking on its premises ever since building its post “home” in 1950. Named for Baraga area resident Howard N. Foucault, who was killed in WWI and buried at a cemetary in France, and Albert Funke, the first Baraga Township casualty of WWII, Post 444 has a long history of community service.
Legion members, approximately a third of which are Native Americans and not subject to state law, were instrumental in the formation of the Baraga National Guard unit. In 1954, when it was short $7 thousand to build an amory, Post 444 mortgaged its new building and loaned the money to the local unit, interest free. Only a few years ago, the Post donated $3,400 toward an armory kitchen.
In 1958, when Pettibone Corporation’s Baraga-based Carry-Lift Division burned to the ground, the company considered moving the operation to New York. Post 444 came to the rescue by mortgaging its building again and giving $20 thousand to help the village build a new plant for Pettibone and its 225 local employees. Many more thousands of dollars were also given to the Village of Baraga after it fell on hard economic times in the early 60s.
When the Legion’s own building was destroyed by fire in 2001 and a new one was being built, Post 444 still donated $2 thousand to the local Little League Team. The Post has also given $10 thousand to the Baraga Fire Department for the purchase of new equipment.
But it doesn’t stop there. Post 444 also generously contributes annually to the U.S. Marine Corps’ Christmas Toys for Tots Program and to yearly efforts to bring the Shrine Circus to the local area. In fact, the Post just received another annual American Legion national award for outstanding achievement in its programs for children and youth.
Last year the National Headquarters of the American Legion presented Post 444 with the 2008-2009 Certificate of Distinguished Service award.
It was given to the Baraga Legion because it had been determined that the Post had conducted the most outstanding Americanism program in Michigan.
Over the years, Post 444 has mailed thousands of care packages to servicemen and women overseas and has even sent welding equipment to the military when needed. All these good deeds have been accomplished through money raised at monthly pancake breakfasts, other food sales, banquet hall rentals, bar revenue and outright donations.
Post 444 members are, however, perhaps most proud of their American Legion Honor Guard, which has performed special military services at many hundreds of veteran funerals over the years. The most taxing time for the voluntary Honor Guard is on Memorial Day weekend when two days are spent performing services at nine local area cemetaries.
The Post is the only Michigan veterans’ organization certified by the U.S. Department of Defense to conduct a military funeral. It is also the only one authorized to train Honor Guard members in the U.P., Northern Lower Peninsula and Northern Wisconsin.
It’s truly unfortunate that things have come to be such in Michigan that a veteran organization feels compelled to initiate a lawsuit against a government agency to preserve its property rights and freedom of choice. It’s also unfortunate that any profit made by Post 444 must now be put toward a legal defense fund instead of toward worthy causes the Post supports, particularly since it’s located in an extremely economically depressed county that leads Michigan with about a 25 percent unemployment rate.
According to, Joseph O’Leary, who is acting as the local Legion spokesman, the lawsuit isn’t about smoking, but about the right to choose to allow the use of a legal substance on private property owned by Post 444.
A press release issued by Post Commander Rick Geroux on Aug. 6 states in part: “For 200 years the American veteran has fought and died to protect the freedom and liberty we enjoy and that many Americans take for granted. We at Post 444 filed this lawsuit because we intend to oppose anyone who threatens the basic principles on which this great nation was founded, foreign enemy or domestic politicians alike.”
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Those who find tobacco smoke objectionable aren’t forced to work at the Baraga American Legion, nor are customers dragged in the door. Unless Americans are willing to replace the stars on Old Glory with a sickle, perhaps non-smokers and smokers alike should all stand united and defend their personal liberties and constitutional rights before they’re taken away altogether.
© 2010 Carole "C.J." Williams - All Rights Reserved | <urn:uuid:335d0cdd-f233-4edd-b84d-f4db260c266d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newswithviews.com/Williams/carole116.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969211 | 2,017 | 1.773438 | 2 |
i need an idea for a entry way to the basement from outside or garage for a cape cod stye house. the builder says the back is out of the question because of two wells behind the house any ideas???
I'm not sure if I'm understanding your question correctly, but I have seen this done around here (Michigan) in quite a lot of new construction. Wide concrete steps actually lead down to a concrete pad at basement floor level. This pad has a drain in it. A set of french doors (approx. 6 ft. wide), inswinging I assume, enter into the basement. This brings very nice light into the basement, as well as providing an excellent way to get large objects in and out. You could probably also cover this entrance with a greenhouse-type enclosure. Hope this helps. | <urn:uuid:22d98b0d-c513-4779-807f-d14207105ad1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bobvila.com/posts/35320-idea-for-basement-entry | 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 | 0.961302 | 165 | 1.523438 | 2 |
As long as your FPS is less than the refresh rate, you don't get tearing. If it's not an integer divisor of your framerate, you may get noticeable stutter however. Isn't Java2D supposed to respect your desktop's compositor anyway? That means on windows it should never tear, and on linux it always will.
False. You can get tearing at any FPS, but it's most noticeable at higher frame rates. Picture a road intersection. You just stated that we don't need traffic lights or stop signs as long as the road isn't completely full of cars. | <urn:uuid:e078e741-8649-4cd6-88f3-9ccd1b44bca9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.java-gaming.org/index.php?topic=26103.msg227555 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977068 | 122 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Originally Posted by English
You seem to think that ballistic gelatin is representative of human flesh. This is a remarkably naive concept for a scientist. It has been developed and adjusted to model just one aspect of human flesh. That is, it has been developed to provide approximately the same average resistance as flesh so that the depth of penetration of bullets can be measured in a repeatable way in a consistent test medium to give an approximatley one to one relationship to their penetration in real people. As it does this, it also produces a similar degree of bullet expansion.
If you try to extend the gel model beyond this, it fails. Its tensile strength is not the same and so its resistance to the expansion of the temporary cavity is not the same. The tears is the gelatin block cannot be the same as the tears in real flesh. Even the permanent cavity cannot be the same since part of the size of the permanent cavity in flesh is a result of the bursting of cells and gelatin has no cells to burst so the mode of disruption has to be different.
I meant to bring this up earlier. Well said.
Free Men Don't Need To Ask Permission To Bear Arms
The Glock 29 is the most versatile handgun yet produced. | <urn:uuid:aac626c8-be93-4bca-a943-e9484b30d95c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.glocktalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=14802584&postcount=531 | 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 | 0.948639 | 250 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Can homosexuality and Orthodox Judaism mix? In Jon Marans’ new Off-Broadway play, “A Strange and Separate People,” Jay (Jonathan Hammond) and Phyllis (Tricia Paoluccio), a Modern Orthodox couple on the Upper West Side, have their lives — and marriage — upended by a newly observant gay Jewish doctor, Stuart (Noah Weisberg). The play, which premiered in 2005 at a theater in upstate Stony Point, is running at Theatre Row – Studio Theater in Midtown. (410 W. 42nd St. For tickets, $18, call Telecharge at (212) 239-6200.)
Marans is best known as the author of “Old Wicked Songs,” a play about the relationship between a young Jewish pianist and his Viennese music teacher; it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1996 and has been produced throughout the world. Last year, Marans’ “The Temperamentals,” about gay activism in the 1950s, ran for more than eight months Off-Broadway and won a Lucille Lortel Award for Michael Urie’s performance as a gay Jewish costumer designer.
Directed by Jeff Calhoun, the new play takes its title from a comment attributed to England’s Queen Mother, who reportedly said of Jews that while she “liked them very much,” they were a “strange and separate people, keeping to themselves and their own ways.”
In an interview, Marans (who is gay and Jewish but not Orthodox) pointed out that, as in his previous works, the overriding theme of “A Strange and Separate People” is the effort to “discover who you really are and what you will really stand up for.” Seeing people in the Middle East rebel against their dictatorial rulers, Marans found a connection to the step taken by the New York State legislature last month in legalizing same-sex marriages; both were a sign of revolutionary change driven by courageous people who refused to settle for the status quo.
Asked how he thought Marans’ play would be received in the Orthodox community, Rabbi Steven Greenberg, the world’s first openly gay Orthodox rabbi, said that “the Orthodox community responds very much as any polity would when its dirty laundry is given a public viewing. It is likely to be a negative response, and while most organizations will probably ignore it, individuals will not.”
Rabbi Greenberg, who will lead a special “Talk Out” following the July 27 performance of “Strange and Separate People,” lives in Cincinnati with his partner, Steven Goldstein, and their 8-month-old daughter, Amalia. Rabbi Greenberg, who wrote “Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition” (Univ. of Wisconsin, 2004), is currently working with Eshel, a partnership of Jewish organizations that was formed last year to build community for gay Orthodox Jews, including encouraging Modern Orthodox congregations to accept the gay Jews in their midst. He told The Jewish Week that the presence of gays in Jewish life raises “deep questions about the meaning of pleasure, relationships, marriage and family.”
Unfortunately, he said, Orthodox Judaism tends to shy away from dealing with these questions. “Orthodoxy trusts the Torah more than it trusts human beings. Reform Judaism is the opposite; it trusts human beings more than the Torah. You need both in order to come up with a living contemporary theology.” Rabbi Greenberg pointed to the controversial 2009 forum at Yeshiva University on homosexuality and Orthodoxy, as evidence of the growing visibility of gays in Orthodox Judaism, as well as the continuing backlash from rabbis within the movement.
Gay Jews who are not comfortable within Modern Orthodoxy, the rabbi noted, can paradoxically find a warmer welcome within ultra-Orthodoxy — or, at least, Chabad. “My partner and I are honored with no problem with an aliyah at a Chabad service,” he said. “They call me to the Torah as HaRav Greenberg — Rabbi Greenberg. They know that the most important thing is to offer people, whatever their sexuality, a connection to God.”
About Marans’ play, the rabbi said, “It’s complicated when we are portrayed in the media. We love and hate it because, like seeing ourselves in the mirror, we’re totally enraptured and to varying degrees, nervous about whatever blemishes there might be.”
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The Jewish Week feels comments create a valuable conversation and wants to feature your thoughts on our website. To make everyone feel welcome, we won't publish comments that are profane, irrelevant, promotional or make personal attacks. | <urn:uuid:5f10f7b7-4428-41ab-92f1-707f8c694c06> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/short_takes/gay_and_orthodox_according_jon_marans | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965934 | 1,009 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Three Hour Graphic Design Introduction for £39 at The BKH Academy (87% Off)
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Limit 1 per person. May buy multiple as gifts. Booking recommended by 27 July 2012. Booking required via http://www.thebkhacademy.co.uk/GraphicReg.html. 48 hour cancellation policy. Customers advised to book as early as possible. Groupon customer discount for full 10 week course, enquire when booking. Valid Wed-Thu 6:30pm-9:30pm; Sat 10am-1pm.
See the rules that apply to all deals.
Although slideshows are known for their ability to illuminate complex theories, a static presentation can often keep some guests in the dark. Shine a light on your creativity with today’s Groupon: £39 for a three hour graphic design introduction at The BKH Academy.
Lead by industry insiders with national TV credits, The BKH Academy teaches graphic and web design to burgeoning media types. The creatively concocted digital content courses introduce the futuristic software and tools necessary to produce modern cyber masterpieces. Rolling out upcoming video production and animation workshops, the school aims to round up virtual innovation into one bustling, bespoke centre.
After elucidating the theoretical golden rules of spatial alignment, customers can expect to get their hands on the practical side of graphic design with an introduction to the Adobe creative software suite. During the three hour course, students can expect to get a taste of how to use Photoshop, for everything from creating vibrant logos to magazine covers and t-shirt design.
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If you write a scientific paper, you typically write it in English. In fact, English dominates the scientific publication world: all top ranked journals are in English (Science, Nature) and scientists simply do not have a choice other than to write in English. Actually, I cannot pinpoint to the exact reason of this, but my guess that has to do with historical developments. Now that science is dominated by countries like the US it is “natural” to use English for scientific publications. One argument for the use English is that it prevents from reinventing the wheel: papers published in different languages could end up unnoticed and uncited. This is perfectly true and maybe has helped us in the past from reinventing lots of wheels.
This brings me to my own episode with the English language. One of the reviewers of one of my last papers pointed out that my paper needs to be written better, a critique to which I fully agree. But what really surprised me that the reviewer went on with this critique and finished the paragraph with
There is a footnote in German!
as if THIS was a really bad thing to do. Actually, the footnote is the name of an App which is called “Wien wie es isst”. Granted, you need to look a bit closer and maybe google this and I could have added a iTunes Link to the footnote for emphasizing this even more. But I got the impression that the reviewer somehow wanted to make the point that I sloppily redacted the paper (there are grammar mistakes in my work which I’m not proud of) and that I didn’t even bother to TRANSLATE from German to English.
After reading this as a non English-native speaker, I somehow got the impression that there is a kind of “language arrogance” in science. Simply put: if you don’t write in English it does not count as much as an English text. I miss some open mindedness for having different languages in science and later translations (to English for example). After all, some of the most important scientific works were written in different languages than English, like “Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper”, which was only translated later. One could argue that translation is a tedious and long process that leads to a delay for scientific discoveries. This might be true, but in the case of “Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper”, the delay of the translation didn’t really matter, as far I can tell. After all, if the scientific discovery is really good, it will make it through translations as well .
your ikangai science team | <urn:uuid:a0fb78ce-54f5-43a9-8c09-36eafd487ad9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ikangai.com/tag/science/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958869 | 553 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
SECTION 1. Chapter 140 of the General Laws is hereby amended by striking out section 205A, as appearing in the 2000 Official Edition, and inserting in place thereof the following section:-
Section 205A. As used in this section, the words "amusement device" shall mean a mechanical ride or device constructed and designed to carry 1 or more persons for entertainment or amusement purposes and which is powered by means of internal combustion or electrical energy; provided, however, that the commissioner of public safety, hereinafter called the commissioner shall have the discretion to further define an amusement device operated under this section. No person shall, individually or through an agent, operate or cause to be operated a ferris wheel, carousel, inclined railway or similar amusement device unless such person has obtained a license from the commissioner. The commissioner, upon receipt of proof that a person has obtained liability insurance as required by this section and upon certification by the liability insurance carrier that an amusement device has met the safety standards of mechanical strength, rigidity and control established by the commissioner, shall issue a license for the operation of the amusement device. A certificate of examination by a person who possesses a certificate of competency to inspect amusement devices, issued under section 62 of chapter 146, and a certificate of liability insurance shall be furnished to the commissioner 10 days prior to the opening of the amusement device. The fee for a license under this section shall be determined annually by said commissioner of administration under section 3B of chapter 7 for the filing thereof. The license shall expire 1 year from the date of issuance, unless revoked for cause, and shall be valid throughout the commonwealth. A traveling carnival shall notify the commissioner at least 1 month in advance as to the location and dates that the carnival will be in the commonwealth.
If an injury requiring medical treatment has occurred on such an amusement device, reasonably due to a defect or malfunction in the amusement device, or if the amusement device constitutes a hazard to life, limb or property, as determined by the commissioner or his designee or by an agent of the insurance carrier, the amusement device shall be closed immediately and, within 48 hours, the owner or operator shall notify the commissioner or his designee in writing upon a form approved by the commissioner and the insurance carrier. The amusement device shall remain closed until all necessary repairs have been completed to the satisfaction of the commissioner or his designee and the insurance carrier. All such injuries shall be investigated by inspectors in the division of inspection. The licensee shall pay to the commissioner a fee, as determined under chapter 7, for each hour or fraction thereof spent by each inspector while engaged in an investigation.
If the insurance contract expires or is cancelled, notice shall be furnished by the insurance carrier to the commissioner at least 10 days prior to termination and the amusement device shall be closed not later than the date of termination and shall remain closed until insurance is obtained.
Every ferris wheel, carousel, inclined railway or similar amusement device shall have embossed on the control unit and prominently displayed on at least 3 areas of the amusement device procedures for braking and allowing the amusement device to come to a safe stop.
All insurance examiners authorized by this section to conduct examinations shall be certified by the department of public safety. An owner and an operator of an amusement park or amusement device shall each maintain and preserve a log of all regular maintenance schedules, service and repair reports, periodic inspections performed and any accident or injury which may have occurred on an amusement device, which shall be made available upon request to an inspector in the division of inspection. Amusement devices at an amusement park of a permanent nature shall be inspected annually by a certified inspector.
This section shall not apply to recreational tramways, as defined by section 71I of chapter 143, or manually operated amusement rides with coined devices. Owners of permanent or traveling amusement parks shall comply with the standards of the American Society for Testing Materials on amusement rides and devices and shall conduct daily inspections on amusement devices by both ride operators and trained maintenance personnel. Owners shall maintain permanent and extensive training, inspection and maintenance policies relative to routine and emergency safety and shall employ full-time emergency medical personnel and maintain ambulance services within the park. All amusement parks of a permanent or traveling nature shall have at least 1 individual on staff that is certified by the commissioner as qualified to oversee the operation, maintenance and inspection of amusement devices; provided, however, that no minor shall operate an amusement device. The operator of any such park or amusement device shall furnish to the commissioner proof that all amusement devices in the park are covered for an amount of at least $1,000,000 for combined single limit bodily injury and property damage and which meet the rules and regulations as established by the commissioner. Operational programs and policies relative to the training, inspection, maintenance and safety of amusement parks shall be subject to review and modification by the commissioner or his designee. Proof of coverage shall include, but not be limited to, proof of liability insurance issued by an insurance company approved to do business within the commonwealth, or a bond, security or other type of indemnity against liability providing substantially equivalent coverage.
The operator of a permanent or traveling amusement park shall annually certify to the commissioner that a policy has been established to prohibit and prevent the use of drugs and alcohol by park employees in the workplace, and such policy may include a random drug and alcohol testing program for those employees, which meets standards promulgated by the commissioner.
Whoever violates this section shall, for each such violation, be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000 or by imprisonment for not more than 1 year, or both.
SECTION 2. Section 60 of chapter 146 of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by adding the following sentence:- An individual, who is an employee of an amusement park or who performs or has performed inspections of amusement devices for the division shall be eligible for a certificate of competency to inspect amusement devices.
SECTION 3. The commissioner of public safety, in conjunction with members of the permanent amusement park industry and the American Society for Testing Materials, shall, within 6 months of the effective date of this act, promulgate rules and regulations regarding certification of state inspectors and other individuals certified for the amusement park industry. | <urn:uuid:edb01128-3d48-4823-bd62-f1abe58f30ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/SessionLaws/Acts/2002/Chapter44 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943786 | 1,293 | 1.78125 | 2 |
POSTED: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 - 8:18am
UPDATED: Thursday, June 3, 2010 - 11:57pm
It was a chilly columbus day for much of the country. From the northeast to the Rockies it's been unseasonably cold. A wintery mix of snow and rain caused a 60 car pile-up south of Denver, Colorado.
It's part of an early arctic blast that's gripping the nation's midsection.
To the north, portions of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula could see up to two inches of new snow. Areas of the high plains and Rocky Mountain west are setting records for cold temperatures and snowfall. The cold temperatures haven't swept across the entire country just yet, however. It still reached 95 degrees in southern Florida over the weekend. | <urn:uuid:0e9f84ea-62fb-4897-a59a-15bfde8ede74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbc33tv.com/print/node/794 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951669 | 169 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Smyrna, TN--While the United Auto Workers dueled General Motors this past summer, a fresh report surfaced showing that U.S. firms still lag Japanese car companies when it comes to factory productivity in North America.
The new research, released by Harbour and Associates (Troy, MI), found that Nissan's Smyrna, TN, plant took the fewest hours to assemble a vehicle--just 16.55 for the Altima and Sentra compact models. The plant also builds the Frontier small pickup--and led in that category as well, with 18.27 hours required to assemble the average vehicle. In comparison, the closest U.S. competitor in the compact car category was Ford's Kansas City plant, which takes 22.53 hours per car on the Contour and Mystique. In small trucks, Ford Twin Cities was the closest U.S. plant to Nissan, at 21.80 hours for the Ranger.
In company averages for hours needed to build a vehicle, Nissan also led the pack at 17.07 hours, followed by Toyota (21.31 hours), Honda (22.31 hours), Ford (22.85 hours), GM (30.32 hours), and Chrysler (32.15 hours).
The Harbour organization believes that hours per vehicle is the best standard for labor productivity because it captures additional performance factors, including worker overtime.
What's Nissan's secret? In an interview with Design News, Manufacturing VP Dan Gaudette cited three major reasons: a high degree of automation, a focus on design simplicity, and a motivated work force who play an active role in planning how a vehicle should be built.
Nissan maintains an army of some 600 robots at Smyrna on chores ranging from painting and welding to materials handling and parts installation. For example, five robots handle virtually the entire rear assembly on the Altima. Extensive use of scanners and bar code readers also ensures that parts and modules get assigned to the right vehicles. At the other extreme of automation, Smyrna relies heavily on a system of people movers--aka "Line-side limos"--that reduce worker fatigue, cut down on waiting time, and speed production.
Gaudette says that Nissan strongly encourages design for assembly among its supplier base. "A major goal is to achieve simplicity in design. We build three models at Smyrna, but they can share many of the same parts." He notes, for example, that the models once required some 30 different wiring harnesses. Now it's down to 3 or 4. Interior color options also have been reduced, and suppliers do more design and assembly work in instrument panels.
The Smyrna facility is more complex than most plants, with stamping, body lines, paint shop, and trim and chassis operations. Yet Nissan wants workers to learn a variety of tasks. "We do a lot of rotation in our shops," says Gaudette, "both for ergonomic reasons and to break up the day. It's very common for people to do four different jobs in the same day."
The result of all this is that Nissan Smyrna manages to build a car every 30 seconds. What's more, precious little time and space is given to "fix-up" chores. "We believe in building them right the first time," says Gaudette.
Workers are already involved in helping management plan the build sequence for a new sport utility vehicle soon to be assembled at Smyrna. Meanwhile, Nissan engineers at design studios in Detroit, California, and Japan are doing computer modeling to preview the assembly process and insure proper fit and finish for the new vehicle before actual production.
Says Gaudette: "We have an excellent record, but manufacturing productivity comes down to striving for continuous improvement. We take a fresh look at what we do every year." | <urn:uuid:cc79455a-70dc-496a-873a-11ff8b45d756> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=214445&piddl_msgorder=thrd | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938981 | 782 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Eric Lee is a self-taught abstract painter, born in Brooklyn, New York. Eric’s work includes back painted frameless glass paintings and functional art. He pioneered the process with an innovative method that seals the back of glass surfaces against damage from moisture and abrasion. The treatment has the additional benefit of creating an airtight backing.
According to the artist, he spent roughly twenty years as a technical consultant to some of the world's leading architectural design firms. He worked on a wide array of projects…including the Guggenheim Soho, Armand Hammer and Andy Warhol museums, among others. His involvement in numerous noteworthy “art related” architectural projects undoubtedly has had an impact on his evolution as an artist. Eric credits his career working within the design community as the source of his inspiration.
Eric says, “I feel I spent most of my adult life developing my aesthetic sensibility. Until now, the influences on my work have been largely from outside the art world. I also find myself being energized and challenged as I seek to find my path in art.... trying to stay true to the songs that sing to me.”
Eric is quoted from Art Business News as saying, “As my work evolves, I seek to explore that core concept – the effect of blending and transition from one color, form and even material to another. I suppose that in a broad sense, this is my world view as well: that the key to things is working between people of various genders, religions, national origins and sexual preferences...and colors, lies in our ability to see the beauty inherent in each. That allows us to be who we are and our willingness to see the beauty in the subtlety is what connects us.” | <urn:uuid:349582aa-e558-4f77-93a7-4f6f0cf26345> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.exposuresfineart.com/artist/Eric_Lee/biography/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977274 | 360 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Hundreds of apartments surround Lake Buchanan in Orlando, the site of a potentially toxic algae bloom.
The lake is near Holden Avenue and Rio Grande Avenue just off I-4.
People in the area told Local 6's Lisa Bell the smell Lake Buchanon is horrendous. Even worse, residents who live around the lake said they're also experiencing side effects of an apparent blue green algae bloom.
"I'm sneezing and my nose is running and my eyes are all watery like, or itchy," said Tasha Jones, who has a lakefront apartment.
The bloom is naturally occurring, but man-made factors like fertilizer and storm run-off can make it worse.
"Even people like walking along on the sidewalks, you'll see them coming by like, 'What's that smell?,'" said Jones.
"The algae bloom can last anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks," said Julie Bortles, a supervisor with Orange County's Environmental Protection Division.
On Friday, Bortles took water samples from the lake to figure out which type of blue green algae is in the lake. There are several types of blue green algae and some are toxic.
"The smell is probably not dangerous, but actual physical contact with the algae could be," said Bortles.
If the algae is toxic, drinking the water, or eating fish from the lake, could cause vomiting, diarrhea, and even damage to the liver, kidneys and nervous system.
The county should have the test results by the middle of next week. If the algae is toxic, they'll post signs warning people not to touch the water. | <urn:uuid:18dd5e67-a738-4415-b788-98975f481d7b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Potential-algae-bloom-blamed-for-itchy-eyes-sore-throats/-/1637132/17454472/-/3bnbyj/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963869 | 334 | 1.84375 | 2 |
According to the results of a comprehensive study conducted recently by the tourist industry (OK, it wasn't that exhaustive; they just spoke to a few people at an information center parking lot) most tourists come to Maine for three reasons: to visit a lighthouse, to eat a lobster and to photograph a moose.
It may sound simple to the rest of us, but those seemingly common things are the three "legs" that support the tourist industry's "milking stool."
Where was I?
Oh, yes, tourists. Try removing any one of those "legs" and Maine's entire billion-dollar tourist industry would come crashing down around our ears.
Fortunately, for the time being, Maine has more than enough lighthouses to go around. And because of enlightened policies on sustainability, there is no shortage of lobsters or moose.
In fact, depending on whom you ask, the number of moose in Maine has increased so rapidly over the years and the herd is so healthy that the state lets people enter a lottery to win a chance to shoot a moose.
"Is that any way to treat one of the foundations of the tourist industry?" I hear some asking. Considering all that moose have done for Maine, it doesn't seem fair to shoot them. But wildlife experts say the moose hunt is held – not for individual moose but for the good of the herd.
Anyway, if you find a tourist wandering along coastal Route 1 these days, it's a good bet they're looking for a place to get a perfect lobster roll. Others, along the same route, might be looking for a quaint lighthouse to photograph.
The reason Cape Elizabeth's famous Lobster Shack draws such crowds at this time of year is because tourists can experience two lighthouses while enjoying a great lobster roll at the same time.
Just be careful, because the experience can be overwhelming for some people.
Elsewhere, if you see tourist-types wandering around Maine with binoculars and a loaded camera, and they're more than 30 miles from the coast, it's not likely they're searching for lobsters or lighthouses. Chances are, he or she will be looking for moose. They may tell you they're going canoeing or bicycling or hiking or fishing, but don't believe any of it. They're using these activities as a thinly veiled excuse to go into the Maine wilderness to look for moose.
Why do these otherwise healthy, normal individuals use these pathetic excuses? Because they don't want to come right out and say: "The reason I burned over $100 in gas and drove all the way from Secaucus, N.J., the reason I'm willing to endure your black flies, your hordes of hungry mosquitoes and your seasonally adjusted prices is to see a live moose up close and try to get a picture of it to show my friends back home."
That's it. That's the reason — to see a Maine moose and get a good picture to show the folks back home.
It's pretty easy to figure out why people like to eat tasty lobster and why they seek out scenic lighthouses but why moose? Why are people attracted to this odd, ungainly mammal?
It's been said that if a camel is a horse designed by a committee, a moose must have been designed by a committee doing some heavy drinking.
That's one explanation for why the moose is considered the strangest looking member of the deer family. The other members — white tails, elk, reindeer — all look pretty normal. So what happened to the moose?
The moose looks so odd, so peculiar, that many people don't even know it's in the deer family. If they could talk, other deer wouldn't want to talk about it. But being tough old Mainers, moose endure the jokes and jibes and never complain. Did you ever hear a moose complain? No sir. And you never will.
Like I said, moose are tough. They have to be. They'll never ask for a "makeover" — as if it would help any — they just play the hand they were dealt and go on with their solitary lives. They pose for your pictures and move on.
I bring up the whole subject of moose because before long, the woods will be teeming with camera-toting tourists who'll be tramping around near our camp and everywhere else looking for the object of their affection — moose.
Maybe it's a good time to take a trip. They say Secaucus is nice this time of year. | <urn:uuid:192ce7d3-daa9-4447-b81f-3be2a284b6d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mainebiz.biz/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120625/CURRENTEDITION/306219990 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972648 | 952 | 1.757813 | 2 |
This rare cheese, made in the Italian province of Cuneo, is one of the more obvious reasons I am grateful for living in Philadelphia, the home of Di Bruno Bros. When I asked for something different, or less common, I was offered this ancient cheese. It was appearing as old as the process that has not changed in it's making. Reportedly, it's been made virtually the same way since 1277. It has a strong dry taste that is both sharp and salty. Few shops in the USA have this cheese and I felt like I was taking home a relic to create a portrait of a historic figure, or saint. I'm glad that this sample has evidence of some blue in its center. From what I've found so far, not all wheels develop that. | <urn:uuid:9e1040b5-9341-4efa-9b1e-9525e06f5f9f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mikegeno.com/cheese%20album/pages/138_Castlemagno.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989873 | 158 | 1.601563 | 2 |
I think we could put a note at the bottom of this page saying something to the effect of "This may be one of the spells used by Molly Weasley on Bellatrix Lestrange during their duel in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2." Bellatrix seems to visibly stiffen, like a statue, and her skin takes on a rocky appearance. Seems like an accurate representation of this spell. 188.8.131.52 20:45, August 20, 2011 (UTC)
Thanks to whoever found the Wonderbook source (I do belive credit goes to 1337star, though I am unsure). I could read parts of the text, and wondered if it was alright if I added what I could see as a quote:
"The Hardening Charm will turn an object into solid stone. This can be surprisingly handy in a tight spot. Of course, most students _____ (prefer?) to use this spell to sabotage their fellow workers' schoolbags or to turn a pumpkin _______ before someone bites into it." | <urn:uuid:15bd171c-e49a-4a5e-b03a-c8174faf5335> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Hardening_Charm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950797 | 214 | 1.625 | 2 |
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS
“As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (Jn 20:21)
On the occasion of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, at the beginning of a new millennium of the Christian era Venerable John Paul II forcefully reaffirmed the need to renew the commitment to bear the proclamation of the Gospel to everyone, sharing “the enthusiasm of the very first Christians” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, n. 58).
It is the most precious service that the Church can render to humanity and to all individuals who are seeking the profound reasons to live their life to the full. This same invitation therefore resonates every year during the celebration of World Mission Day. Continuous proclamation of the Gospel, in fact, also invigorates the Church, her fervour and her apostolic spirit. It renews her pastoral methods so that they may be ever better suited to the new situations — even those which require a new evangelization — and enlivened by missionary zeal: “missionary activity renews the Church, revitalizes faith and Christian identity, and offers fresh enthusiasm and new incentive. Faith is strengthened when it is given to others! It is in commitment to the Church's universal mission that the new evangelization of Christian peoples will find inspiration and support” (John Paul II, Encyclical Redemptoris Missio, n. 2).
Go and proclaim
This objective is continually revived by the celebration of the Liturgy, especially of the Eucharist which always concludes by re-echoing the mandate the Risen Jesus gave to the Apostles: “Go...” (Mt 28:19). The Liturgy is always a call “from the world” and a new missionary mandate “in the world” in order to witness to what has been experienced: the saving power of the word of God, the saving power of Christ’s Paschal Mystery.
All those who have encountered the Risen Lord have felt the need to proclaim the news of it to others, as did the two disciples of Emmaus. After recognizing the Lord in the breaking of the bread, “they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the Eleven gathered together” and reported what had happened to them on the road (Lk 24:33-34).
Pope John Paul II urged the faithful to be “watchful, ready to recognize his face and run to our brothers and sisters with the Good News: ‘We have seen the Lord!’” (Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte n. 59).
The proclamation of the Gospel is intended for all peoples. The Church is “by her very nature missionary since, according to the plan of the Father, she has her origin in the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity Ad Gentes, n. 2).
This is “the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize” (Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 14). Consequently she can never be closed in on herself. She is rooted in specific places in order to go beyond them. Her action, in adherence to Christ's word and under the influence of his grace and his charity, is fully and currently present to all people and all peoples, to lead them to faith in Christ, (cf. Ad Gentes, n. 5).
This task has lost none of its urgency. Indeed “The mission of Christ the Redeemer, which is entrusted to the Church, is still very far from completion... an overall view of the human race shows that this mission is still only beginning and that we must commit ourselves wholeheartedly to its service” (John Paul II, Encyclical Redemptoris Missio, n. 1). We cannot reconcile ourselves to the thought that after 2,000 years there are still people who do not know Christ and have never heard his Message of salvation.
And this is not all; an increasing number of people, although they have received the Gospel proclamation, have forgotten or abandoned it and no longer recognize that they belong to the Church; and in many contemporary contexts, even in traditionally Christian societies, people are averse to opening themselves to the word of faith. A cultural change nourished by globalization, by currents of thought and by the prevalent relativism, is taking place. This change is leading to a mindset and lifestyle that ignore the Gospel Message, as though God did not exist, and exalt the quest for well-being, easy earnings, a career and success as life’s purpose, even to the detriment of moral values.
The corresponsibility of all
The universal mission involves all, all things and always. The Gospel is not an exclusive possession of whoever has received it but a gift to share, good news to communicate. And this gift-commitment is not only entrusted to a few but on the contrary to all the baptized, who are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people” (1 Pt 2:9), so that they may declare his wonderful deeds.
All activities are involved in it. Attention to and cooperation in the Church's evangelizing work in the world cannot be limited to a few moments or special occasions nor can they be considered as one of the many pastoral activities: the Church’s missionary dimension is essential and must therefore always be borne in mind.
It is important that both individual baptized people and ecclesial communities be involved in the mission, not sporadically or occasionally but in a constant manner, as a form of Christian life. The World Mission Day itself is not an isolated moment in the course of the year but rather a valuable opportunity to pause and reflect on whether and how we respond to our missionary vocation; an essential response for the Church’s life.
Evangelization is a complex process and entails various elements. Among them missionary animation has always paid special attention to solidarity. This is also one of the objectives of World Mission Day which, through the Pontifical Mission Societies, requests aid in order to carry out the tasks of evangelization in mission territories. It is a matter of supporting institutions necessary for establishing and consolidating the Church through catechists, seminaries and priests, and of making one’s own contribution to improving the standard of living for people in countries where the phenomena of poverty, malnutrition — especially among children — disease, the lack of health care and education are the most serious.
This is also part of the Church’s mission and in proclaiming the Gospel, she takes human life to heart fully. The Servant of God Paul VI reaffirmed that in evangelization it is unacceptable to disregard areas that concern human advancement, justice and liberation from every kind of oppression, obviously with respect for the autonomy of the political sphere.
Lack of concern for the temporal problems of humanity “would be to forget the lesson which comes to us from the Gospel concerning love of our neighbour who is suffering and in need” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, nn. 31, 34). It would not be in harmony with the behaviour of Jesus who “went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity” (Mt 9:35).
Thus, through co-responsible participation in the Church’s mission, the Christian becomes a builder of the communion, peace and solidarity that Christ has given us, who cooperates in the implementation of God’s saving plan for all humanity. The challenges that this plan encounters calls all Christians to walk together and the mission is an integral part of this journey with everyone. In it – although in earthenware vessels – we bear our Christian vocation, the priceless treasure of the Gospel, the living witness of Jesus dead and Risen, encountered and believed in in the Church.
May World Mission Day revive in each one the desire to go and the joy of “going” to meet humanity, bringing Christ to all. In his name I impart the Apostolic Blessing to you and, in particular, to those who make the greatest efforts and suffer most for the Gospel.
From the Vatican, 6 January 2011, the Solemnity of the Epiphany.
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
© Copyright 2011 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana | <urn:uuid:e149c144-8e24-47f0-9af5-95c9dfb43ce2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/missions/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20110106_world-mission-day-2011_en.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952265 | 1,785 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Top international financial officials have wrapped up the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos warning that much needs to be done to stabilise the world economy.
Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund's managing director on Saturday told world leaders to "not relax", despite relief that the euro has remained intact and the US has so far managed to get through a crucial budget hurdle.
Lagarde said that the 17 European Union countries that use the euro have to follow through on steps to keep the troubles at banks from burdening governments.
She said US officials have to "indicate very promptly" how they're going to deal with their ongoing budget dispute between President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress.
Among the is global issues raised at the conference was "concern" about Tokyo's economic policies.
'Not without concern'
During the conference, concern had been raised about Tokyo's new economic policies. The new government in Tokyo, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has pushed the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to be more aggressive in its actions to battle nearly two decades of deflation and sluggish growth.
The BOJ on Tuesday unveiled a new inflation target of two percent and a massive programme of asset purchases to pump money into the economy, sparking accusations that central bank independence had been compromised.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the meeting on Thursday that she was "not without concern" about Japan's actions.
But on Saturday Japan's economy minister hit back, saying they did not call into question the independence of its central bank.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Akira Amari said the Bank of Japan had "voluntarily" decided with the government to introduce a new inflation target in a bid to boost the world's third-largest economy.
"As regards the new proposal, you might say that it might undermine the independence of the BOJ. In the case of Japan so far, there has not been any undertaking to share the inflationary targets with the central bank," Amari said.
The policy has also led to a steady decline in the value of the yen against other currencies, boosting exports, but other countries have expressed concern that Tokyo is pursuing a beggar-thy-neighbour approach.
The conference is also routinely marked by protest. Earlier in the Saturday, a trio of topless feminist activists set off pink flares and staged a noisy protest in the bitter cold outside the Davos forum.
The women, from the Ukrainian group Femen tried to break through a security fence before police guarding the World Economic Forum bundled them away.
The groups which has been staging protests at the Swiss meeting since 2010 say that the interests of women are not presented at the conference.
"Today Femen activists came to scream SOS in Davos, SOS from all women from all over the world ... all the time when they discuss women in economics it's a discussion about one thing, how to earn money more using women, because women are always treated as slaves," Inna Shevchenko, a protester said. | <urn:uuid:a07f3bf2-fa32-4d29-9ce9-aa07675e15dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/01/2013126163722186783.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960681 | 617 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The Orpheum invites you to revisit your childhood and to introduce your children to "The Secret of NIMH." Based on the Newberry Award winning novel, "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH," by Robert O'Brien, Don Bluth of "All Dogs Go to Heaven" and "An American Tail" fame directs this beautifully underrated animated feature.
Mrs. Frisby is a young widowed mouse with four children; she and her children have been struggling through the hard winter in a cinderblock located at the edge of a farmer's field. Timothy, her youngest, has been battling pneumonia all winter long and remains quite ill. An early spring arrives, and the farmer is going to plow his field weeks ahead of the usual schedule. Mrs. Frisby cannot move Timothy out of their house or he will surely die, so she sets on a quest to find help for herself and her family before the plow overturns their house. Mrs. Frisby is introduced a group of genetically altered rats who have escaped from the research laboratory of NIMH; these are not your average rats: they can read and write, produce electricity and food, and have built an entire community beneath the farmer's rosebush. The Rats of NIMH are Mrs. Frisby's only hope of saving her son and her family.
Join Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH on their adventure to save one small family from destruction. The heroic strength of Mrs. Frisby and her love for her children and willingness to do whatever it takes to keep them safe will move you during this charming tale that reinforces the idea of love and commitment to family and to community. You will not be disappointed!
Movie admission is $4 and concession prices are low - bring the whole family for a great value. For show times, call the movie hotline at 641-844-5007 or visit www.ivotc.com for more information and to view a film trailer. While you are visiting the Orpheum, don't forget to check out the gallery and exhibit hall that features Iowa stage and film memorabilia and information. The Orpheum Theater Center is owned and operated by the Iowa Valley Community College District. The Orpheum is a vital piece of the Marshalltown landscape that demonstrates IVCCD's vitality and commitment to partnering, educating and building our communities.
Laura Armstrong is an associate professor of English at Iowa Valley Grinnell. | <urn:uuid:240fc6fe-b890-4f2e-bad5-4013fb3a7adf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.timesrepublican.com/page/content.detail/id/558282/-The-Secret-of-NIMH--tells-charming-tale.html?nav=5003 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955681 | 509 | 1.59375 | 2 |
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