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Should we spend more to stimulate the economy? Or spend less because runaway debt is threatening our fiscal health? Ezra Klein comments:
Few economists, I think, would argue against the combination of short-term spending and longer-term deficit reduction if they believed the deficit reduction was certain. But the American political system has a lot of trouble making unpopular choices and some trouble sticking to those choices once they're made.
This is where you might expect a bloc of deficit hawks to step into the middle of the legislative debate with a proposal pairing spending in 2011 with savings beginning in 2014, but we've seen no such thing.
I think I'd put this differently: there is no bloc of deficit hawks. End of story. There are a few individuals here and there who are sincere about cutting the deficit, but a bloc? Not even close. They're almost all posers.
But Kevin, you say, how can you know this? Can you read the minds of men and women three thousand miles away? Actually, no — though it would be pretty cool if I could. But in this case I can do something almost as good: I can look at the public evidence. And that evidence is crystal clear: there are lots of members of Congress who are willing to talk endlessly about deficits, but there are very, very few who are willing to publicly support specific cuts. There are fewer still who are willing to publicly support cuts that might affect any of their own constituents. And there are fewer still who have shown any inclination to actually vote for serious cuts when they've had the power to do so. So: no bloc of deficit hawks.
Still not convinced? Well, Ezra is right that America's political system (like every other democracy's) has a lot of trouble making unpopular choices, but it's not entirely impossible to stick to spending cuts and tax increases once they've been made. It's true that anything one Congress does, another can undo. But the fact is that tax increases have been phased in over time in the past, and the phase-ins have taken effect. Likewise, entitlement cuts have been phased in over time, and those cuts have taken effect. Not always, but a lot of the time. If Congress actually had the will to legislate Medicare and Social Security cuts that phased in over ten years starting in, say, 2013, there's a very strong likelihood that the cuts would happen. The 1983 Social Security compromise, for example, gradually raised the retirement age over a span of two decades starting in 2003, and that has taken place exactly on schedule.
Really, the only serious issue is actually doing it, not having faith that the cuts will actually happen. Discretionary cuts are very difficult to promise credibly, but entitlements have always worked largely on autopilot once the rules are set. If there were genuinely a bloc of deficit hawks in Congress, they'd be willing to vote for both Medicare cuts and tax increases that phase in over a period of years. But almost none of the supposed deficit hawks are willing to do either of these things, let alone both. They're posers.
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| 0.974232 | 635 | 1.515625 | 2 |
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22 April 2012
A video is circulating of "Green Berets" in combat. The Soldiers are hammering away with a minigun and other weapons. An A-10 can be seen rolling in and shooting. Casualties are taken, and after the seven minute mark in the video, an apparent Special Forces Soldier can be seen directing that ammunition be brought in on a MEDEVAC bird.
Now, if the bird were marked with a Red Cross (or other approved symbol), ammo delivery would be a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
However, the bird lands and there are no markings such as Red Crosses. This is fine. No violations.
The bird looks like an HH-60G flown by Air Force Pedro.
Reader support is crucial to this mission. Weekly or monthly recurring ‘subscription’ based support is the best, though all are greatly appreciated. Recurring and one-time donations are available through PayPal or Authorize.net.
To send a check or money order:
P O Box 5553
Winter Haven, FL 33880-5553
I will continue to do my part in telling the stories that are not being told. Readers must also do their part by keeping the cash flowing. Cash is essential .
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| 0.95255 | 264 | 1.617188 | 2 |
First off, from Bob Herbert's excellent NYT Op-Ed, on Social Security, "Raising False Alarms" that begins with the line, "If there's a better government program than Social Security, I'd like to know what it is," there's this passage where CAF's Roger Hickey hits it out of the park:
"If we didn't have Social Security, we'd have to invent it right now," said Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future. "It's perfectly suited to the terrible times we're going through. Hardly anyone has pensions anymore. People's private savings have taken a huge hit, and home prices have been hit hard. So the private savings that so many seniors and soon-to-be seniors have counted on have just been wiped out.
"Social Security is still there, and it's still paying out retirement benefits indexed to wages. It's the one part of the retirement stool that is working."
Too much common sense all in one place for Obama to grasp, or else he'd say the exact same thing himself tonight.
Second, from Public Citizen"GUIDE TO SOTU ON EXPORTS, JOBS":
Whether trade creates U.S. jobs depends on net export gains and reducing the trade deficit, which our past policies have not done: The question is how to expand trade in a way that creates U.S. jobs. Under past trade policies and pacts, the U.S. has served as the target market for imports from around the world. This has resulted in a huge trade deficit - $810 billion before the economic crisis-related collapse in trade and now again rising....
As Paul Krugman wrote in a recent column "Trade Does Not Equal Jobs: "If you want a trade policy that helps employment, it has to be a policy that induces other countries to run bigger deficits or smaller surpluses. A countervailing duty on Chinese exports would be job-creating; a deal with South Korea, not."
U.S. export growth under past Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) has been less than half that to countries with which we do not have FTAs: President Barack Obama is expected to urge passage of more FTAs as a means to boost exports and create U.S. jobs. However, Public Citizen examined the relative U.S. export growth with the 17 countries with which we have FTAs to date and found, counterintuitively, that the FTAs are associated with an export growth penalty. 3 U.S. exports to FTA partners grew only half as fast as exports to countries with which the United States does not have FTAs (0.8 percent vs. 2.2 percent on an annual average)....
The U.S. International Trade Commission's official study of the Korea FTA that Obama will emphasize concluded that the deal would increase the U.S. trade deficit: The USITC, the independent federal body that analyzes likely effects of trade pacts for Congress and the executive branch, found that the Korea FTA would result in an increase in the total U.S. goods trade deficit of between $308 million and $416 million. I
Third: More evidence that Obama's callous disregard for homeowners has not been a good idea, from Clusterstock:
The Housing Double Dip Is Accelerating
This chart is pretty clear. From the just-released Case-Shiller, it's clear that the year-over-year decline accelerated in November.
If you assume that housing has to be part of a recovery, this obviously isn't good.
What about you? What are you thinking about, before, during and after?
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| 0.970972 | 754 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Dec 13, 2004 — Hundreds of soldiers from the north country are serving on the front lines in Iraq. Those units deal with local civilians every day. Often the encounters are tense, complicated by barriers of language and culture and fear. This week, in his latest Iraq Audio Diary, Major Eric Olsen talks with one of the local interpreters who serve as middle men between American soldiers and the people they're trying to protect. Major Eric Olsen is an Army chaplain from Saranac Lake. He's serving with the 2nd of the 108th, a New York National Guard unit.
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Tonkin of Nantucket brims with beautiful antique furniture, collectibles, and art, and most of the items have a story that is as captivating as the pieces themselves. Take the hefty marine paintings burnished with the deep patina of British history. Owner Robert Tonkin explains that in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Royal Navy had an artist on all its major ships. “The paintings were done on wood panels,” Tonkin says, “so if the ship sank hopefully the painting floated and they would know what happened.” Read more…
The historic quilt collection at the Atwood House Museum in Chatham holds a treasure-trove of stories in its folds. Study the quilts’ intricate patterns, deep colors, rich textures—and sometimes even handwritten messages—and a swirl of history passes by.
Consider Marjory Smith, who bought the material for her gorgeous red and green quilt in Boston, when she traveled there to shop for bridal clothes for her 1833 wedding to John Atwood. Or Mehitable Atwood, whose friends and relatives pieced a multicolored “friendship” quilt in honor of her 1848 marriage to Benjamin Boylston and wrote bits of wisdom on its back (“Remember me when night closes in on thee” and “True friendship is everlasting” are just two of many).
With their captivating visuals and messages that were sometimes inked or stitched onto the back, the quilts give a glimpse of Chatham life in the 1800s and early 1900s—life that is as profound as any history book.
Susan Branch clearly remembers her early, fairy tale impressions of Martha’s Vineyard. Wanting to heal her newly broken heart as far away from her native California as possible, Branch landed almost 3,000 miles away and found safety and solace watching the ocean defend the island like a moat protects a castle.
Slowly but surely, Branch found a new home, a new love, and a new career as a cookbook author and illustrator in which she celebrates what makes her happy—family, food, home, and nature. Now, almost 30 years later, Branch’s appreciation for life’s unassuming delights resonates with readers worldwide who cherish her lovely handwritten and watercolor-adorned cookbooks and calendars as well as a successful line of quilting fabrics and other charming products for the home.
We just love the 2012 Vineyard Seadogs Calendar, available here. Says calendar creator and wildlife photographer Lisa Vanderhoop:
“The cover dog this year is Ensign, an adorable little Border Terrier. He is owned by Ben and Maria Batsch who captain and run Maurice Templesman’s yacht the Relemar during the summer months here on the Vineyard. Maurice just adores Ensign and can be seen walking the little guy everyday during the summer in Menemsha.”
Buy calendars ($16) and other artwork at vineyardseadogs.com. Part of the proceeds from the calendars will go the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard!
Salley Mavor’s studio is an alternate universe in miniature: seedpods become sleek Tom Thumb-sized boats, acorns morph into tiny hats, and wooden coat toggles serve as bedposts. Inhabiting these magical wee worlds are elfin figures who play, work, and romp through nature, all crafted by Mavor, ultimately to become illustrations in her children’s books. “I create these worlds,” Mavor says.
Tessa Morgan first worked with clay to sooth her teenage angst and nurse the creativity her parents instilled in her when she was a little girl. In the 35 years since, that early work—tiny pots she made at a neighbor’s house in the Maryland countryside outside Washington, D.C.—has evolved into vases, lamps, bowls, and tiles that sing with Morgan’s spirited designs and gorgeous hand-mixed glazes. Read more…
Lorraine W. Trenholm is as restless as her two horses loping outside, on her 75-acre property perched on a Colorado mesa. Awake since 4:30 a.m., Trenholm’s morning has been chock-a-block with activity: feeding her Saluki hounds, teaching a pastels class in a nearby town, and, not least, talking about her prolific work. Her nature-inspired paintings are impressionistic celebrations—like the places she plants herself, laced with a powerful but subdued energy.
“I’m a restless spirit,” Trenholm says. “I have gotten the impression that I make some galleries crazy because I bounce around in subject matter and style.” She pauses, then adds with an apologetic smile in her voice, “I am my paintings.” She adheres to strict demands on herself. “The best paintings create a compelling image. You can do 25 images and only four will be compelling images.” Read more…
Painters render the subjects they are passionate about, and Frank Chike Anigbo finds his subjects far away from his Cape Cod home. Since 2005, he has visited Los Angeles and documented the lives of homeless men and women who walk the streets of the Skid Row neighborhood. Painting is his way of bringing these people out of anonymity and making them visible and distinct. In return, his subjects provide Anigbo with a rare honesty that appears on his canvases. “Most of us walk around with masks on to hide who we really are,” Anigbo says. “But with people with absolutely nothing, I find incredible sincerity. They have nothing left to hide. They lost it all already.” Read more…
Jhenn Watts has nothing against technology, but digital cameras are not her method of choice for photography as a historical record. “With digital, we can doctor, copy, change things,” Watts says. “We’ve kind of gotten away from the ‘proven photograph.’”
“Proven photographs”—testaments to fleeting moments—are especially meaningful in today’s world. As Watts says, “These images represent a slice in time, a memory.”
Watts’ current photography venture turns those records of real time into art. Armed with a heavy large-format camera with bellows, a black cloth draped over her head, she shoots on 4-inch by 5-inch transparency film, often assembling several pieces in one artwork. The finished photo art captures the Vineyard’s natural world—ocean, shoreline, cliffs, sky —in its raw magnificent form. Frames of exposed edges of film create a sculptural feel.
Watts began creating photographic art after graduating from Massachusetts College of Art, rendering images through an emulsion process, lifting an image off paper and transferring it to glass. When Polaroid stopped production of the film, she moved on to her large-format photography.
The results of Watts’ old-world equipment are up-to-the-minute creative. Her newest image, Cedar Tree Neck Triptych, is a dramatic composition of three photos depicting soft ocean swells against a rocky shoreline, shot on the Vineyard’s north shore. Watts cropped the photos in the camera, developed the film, trimmed the prints, and assembled the piece. Another work, Long Point Vista, with an almost monochromatic look, was taken on the Vineyard’s south shore. Composed of five images and measuring 25 by 53 inches, Long Point Vista is the largest piece Watts has made. The possibilities have given her a fresh excitement for art. “I haven’t been this excited about what I’m doing in 10 or 15 years,” Watts says.
Today, married to the jeweler Kenneth Pillsworth, Watts balances her photography with her duties as director of the Field Gallery, all in a place she has come to love. “I feel privileged to live on this island,” she says. “You can’t help but be awe-inspired by the beauty.”
At its core, Jen Villa’s medium is Cape Cod. Villa’s photography and collages are rife with iconic Cape images: ocean, dunes, and skylines, capturing a sentiment that both Villa and her clients embrace.
Villa, “a beach baby from day one,” as she describes herself, grew up summering in West Hyannisport. After graduating from Trinity College in Hartford, she traveled to California and graduated from the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. And then she experienced the wham of the heart that deep love inflicts: Villa knew she had to return to the Cape. “There’s always a lingering feeling of wanting to be back,” she says. She quickly discovered that her deep affection for this special place rang true with a wider audience.
The discovery led Villa, a Hyannisport resident, to open The Little Beach Gallery in Hyannis, where she shows the works of 40 artists, including her own. The art here reflects a common inspiration: the ocean. The concept of community is obvious, too. Villa thrives on bringing artists together, holding fundraisers, and practicing local environmentalism, including heading up the local chapter of Green Drinks
(www.greendrinks.org). It all fits seamlessly with Villa’s art. As she says, “My artwork is solely based on the beauty of this place. The environmental part goes hand in hand with it. It’s kind of a nice collaboration.”
The environment that Villa works to protect is on display in her collages, which she calls J’coupage. The photography and collages—artful arrangements of photos with short narratives and graphics—embody the Cape’s indefinable appeal. Villa’s clients often report back to her, no doubt to renew their connection in a mutual love. “People say ‘I look at the art every day; it takes me back to the Cape,’” Villa says.
In her collage The Waves of the Sea Help Me Get Back to Me, the words of writer Jill Davis are dropped over Villa’s sepia-toned image of a beach line and dunes, beach grass waving in the wind. “The photo collages incorporate inspirational words—words that remind you to stay present,” she says. The mood is subtle, peaceful. Villa says, “It’s the ocean, the magic, the serenity of finding yourself at the edge of the earth.”
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About Jordan Aviation
Jordan Aviation is an airline based in Amman Jordan. It operates scheduled and worldwide charter services flights, mainly to the Middle East, Europe and Africa. It also provides wet lease services to major airlines seeking additional capacity. Its main bases are Amman Civil Airport, Amman and King Hussein International Airport. While it is also an important provider of air transportation for UN peacekeeping forces, Jordan Aviation’s Boeing 767s are banned from flying into EU airspace. Jordan Aviation is a member of the Arab Air Carriers Organization.
The airline was established in 2000 and started operations in October 2000. It launched services from Amman as the first privately owned charter airline in Jordan. Jordan Aviation operates a varied route network with a worldwide AOC. UN Peacekeepers are carried extensively on the wide body Fleet and the company also is involved in “wet-leasing” aircraft to air carriers who need extra capacity.
Holiday Charter Flights are also operated from its bases in Amman. Scheduled services were operated for a period of time from Aqaba to the Persian Gulf region and North Africa which commenced in June 2006. The company has grown considerably, as the fleet listing below shows. Additional aircraft are planned to enter service and also expansion in to other market segments is in process.
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| 0.974563 | 264 | 1.5 | 2 |
Laws, Regulations & Annotations
Business Taxes Law Guide – Revision 2013
Alcoholic Beverage Tax Law
CHAPTER 6. DETERMINATIONS
Article 1 Returns and Payments
32251. Due date; contents of return. The tax is a direct obligation of the taxpayer and is due and payable monthly on or before the 15th day of each calendar month. Each taxpayer, on or before the 15th day of each month shall make out a tax return for the preceding calendar month, in the form as prescribed by the board, which may include, but not be limited to, electronic media, showing the amount of beer or wine or distilled spirits sold in this state, the amount of tax for the period covered by the return, and any other information as the board deems necessary. The taxpayer shall deliver the return, together with a remittance of the amount of tax due, to the office of the board on or before the 15th day of the month. Returns shall be authenticated in a form or pursuant to methods as may be prescribed by the board.
History.—Stats. 2002, Ch. 459 (AB 1936), in effect January 1, 2003, substituted "15th" for "fifteenth" after "before the" in the first, second and third sentences, substituted "in the form . . . electronic media" for "in such a form as is prescribed by the board," after "calendar month" substituted "state" for "State" in the second sentence, and added the fourth sentence.
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| 0.935621 | 308 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Insurance is a complicated business, and most people have very little knowledge on how it operates. Most of the time, you don’t even think much about your insurance until you receive your bill. Unfortunately, insurance is a fact of life, and you need to know your rights if you intend to get what you need after you get into an accident. The following are some key points to remember when incurring insurance.
The Right to Speed
By law, an insurance company must respond to your claim within a certain period of time. If the company doesn’t respond promptly by either paying or investigating your claim, they will be hit with a stiff fine. Even the best New York car accident attorney wouldn’t be able to stop the legal mess the company would make for itself if it were that negligent.
The Right to Payment
Receiving the benefit of your auto insurance is a right you enjoy because of the premiums you pay. You will be very likely to receive payment within a few days of filing your claim and having it examined by an adjuster. The fact of the matter is, despite the reputation many insurance companies have for delaying payments, they’re operating under strict legal guidelines. One of those guidelines is that they have limited time frame to deny your claim. If they do, you need to understand the very reason why it has been denied.
The Right to Understand
In most cases, your claim will be paid within a fairly short time period if you file it correctly. However, not all claims are going to be paid, such as if you were at liable for the accident. In a situation of that nature, you would receive a letter explaining the exact reason or reasons why your benefit won’t be paid. In some cases, you’ll still receive a partial payment, and this will also be explained.
The Right to Continuing Coverage
By law, there are very few situations under which an insurance company can summarily deny you continuing coverage. Since you are legally required to keep up a policy, it’s in the insurer’s best interests to allow your policy to continue. In many cases, auto insurance companies will even forgive an accident on your record after a set amount of time has passed. Ultimately, one claim won’t stain your record enough to make you untouchable to car insurance companies.
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| 0.971024 | 482 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Does Microsoft Really Need To Make Its Own Hardware?
Without some fundamental added value, Microsoft's hardware offerings are likely to go the way of the Zune.
Steve Ballmer says Microsoft is seriously considering making more of its own hardware. It seems that even with the old guard of IBM, Dell, Toshiba, Sony and HP, and the new guard of Samsung, Lenovo, LG and Asus, and all those white-box manufacturers, Microsoft just can't find a reliable design partner.
Have we come full circle to where we started 50 years ago, when hardware and software were inextricably intertwined and necessarily provided by the same company?
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Looking at the actions of some of the world's largest software houses, you could easily come to that conclusion. Microsoft now makes Surface, and it has made the Xbox for years. Google bought Motorola's phone division, probably for its patent portfolio but also to make the Droids it thinks people want. Google also makes the Chromebook. Even Oracle had to have its own hardware division, though the performance of Sun doesn't bear out the wisdom of that move. Its real play is purpose-built machines such as Exadata and Exalogic.
For the moment, put aside the question of whether the Oracles of the world are doing the right thing and focus on the trend as it relates to end users. Such moves start with Apple envy. After all, if Microsoft works with partners such as Intel or an ARM licensee to create reference designs, it would be hard to believe that manufacturers wouldn't help make prototypes.
Microsoft, Intel and system makers have collaborated to good effect in the past. Ultrabooks are a prime example: While they're not revolutionary, Ultrabooks address most every problem users have with laptops, from weight to battery life to processing power to boot time. They're a major improvement over last-generation notebooks and netbooks. Intel produced the reference designs, and a few months later systems showed up from a variety of manufacturers.
So what's Microsoft's problem with that model? The biggest problem is that it's not what Apple does, and Apple's share price has outperformed Microsoft's consistently.
It's not that Microsoft's products aren't good enough and that better hardware integration is the answer. The problem is that they're not good enough to displace entrenched products tied to an ecosystem investment, namely, Apple's iTunes and App Store. Without some fundamental added value, Microsoft's tablets are likely to go the way of the Zune. That's not because Zune wasn't a solid product; it might have been terrific, I never tried it. And the reason I never tried it is because I have an investment in iTunes and I know the iPod/iPad/ iPhone interface for playing music.
What's Microsoft's big value add? For businesses it might be compatibility with Office. For consumers I have no idea what it would be -- Xbox compatibility? This Apple-Microsoft dynamic reminds me of Ford's breakthrough with the Mustang. Chevy was a close follower with the Camaro, and both were big sellers. Dodge made the Dart and Charger, both technically great cars that never really caught on. Microsoft's third to market here. It had better have something more important than its Metro technology if it wants to compete, no matter who makes the hardware.
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| 0.958625 | 732 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Many of you might have gotten the Facebook question. I answered “NO” for 2 years until my oldest guy turned 13 years old. It was difficult for me to say yes, but I thought the only way for him to gain trust was to earn it. So I buckled
At fist I told him that he could have it and I did not have to be his friend, however I laid down some basic ground rules regarding the times that could be spent on it, and what was acceptable language and image postings.
- If anything could not be said in front of me, it was not acceptable to post of Facebook
- He could not be on while I am at work, all Facebook activities had to be done while I am at home and in the kitchen where the computer is.
- Lastly, I did not want to see him with any friends who were not in his age group
With those guidelines in mind, he was off and running; very excited to tell his friends that he had a Facebook page.
I checked in on Facebook frequently and within 1 month my little “angel” had a posting that I considered inappropriate, like I said, if it could not be said around me it was! He lost the privilege for two months, and when he got back on, I had to be in his friend list! He just hated that!
As working women, we have to be especially firm and specific with the rules of the computer and social media especially since we might not be around immediately after school to monitor the kids’ activities. You may or may not share my philosophies or agree with my methods or point of view, but whatever yours are, just make them so that your kids are protected, and also that they are not being the bullies on Facebook.
Bottom line, it’s up to you to decide when to give your kids that privilege. Make sure you consider their maturity level, and ability to handle the responsibility, and be vigilant!
Facebook is a very interesting and controversial topic, so leave your comments.
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Friday, September 19, 2008
SBA MIS Research Ranked among Top in Country
The faculty members who make up OU’s SBA Decision and Information Sciences department are dedicated to research, and together carry on an outstanding research tradition through exceptional productivity.
Independent organizations that identify and rank research work in the MIS field consistently recognize these contributions. In fact, the wealth of research projects and published findings completed by DIS faculty has led OU to be listed among the Top 100 business schools for MIS research by the University of Texas-Dallas School of Management for more than 15 years.
Thomas Lauer, DIS chair and MIS professor, knew DIS had a strong commitment to research, but it wasn’t until he saw the rankings that he realized the breadth and depth of how the DIS department’s work impacts OU’s rankings as compared to other universities.
“Since the 1980s, a tradition of quality research developed in the department. Now we find good researchers are interested in working here,” says Lauer.
In fact this year, Information Systems Research (ISR), one of two premier journals in the MIS area, named Professor Balaji Rajagopalan’s research paper, “Competition Among Virtual Communities and User Valuation: The Case of Investing-Related Communities,” Best Published Paper.
Another example is Associate Professor Kieren Mathieson’s 1991 article which is the fifth-most-cited article in the MIS field. “That is extraordinary,” says Lauer.
Also published in ISR, Mathieson’s article, “Predicting User Intentions: Comparing the Technology Acceptance Model with the Theory of Planned Behavior,” has been cited more than 200 times according to a 2007 article “Assessing Leading Institutions, Faculty, and Articles in Premier Information Systems Research Journals” in Communications of the Association for Information Systems (AIS).
This publication also lists OU as 25th in cumulative citation of articles published. Surprisingly, a number of highly prestigious universities have lower cumulative citations than OU.
OU’s significant contribution to MIS research is also highlighted in a 2007 issue of Information Management (IM), The International Journal of Information Systems Applications. An article that provides a profile of information systems research published in IM shows that OU is tied for 20th in publications in its journal for the period of 1992-2005. IM is the oldest MIS journal and is consistently ranked among the top 15 journals in the field, occasionally in the top five.
“Our faculty members have published ten articles in IM during that time period,” says Lauer. “This accomplishment is clearly due to the efforts of many in our department.”
The article also lists single individuals ranked by institution, however OU has no one single researcher, confirming Lauer’s view that this accomplishment it is truly a departmental effort.
One of the most telling signs of OU’s increasing strength in MIS research comes from a clever program offered by the University of Texas-Dallas School of Management.
Its Web site that ranks the Top 100 Business Schools based on research contributions (http://top100.utdallas.edu) lists OU as 72nd among North America’s more than 500 business schools based on research contributions from 1990-2008 for two prestigious publications, ISR and MIS Quarterly (MISQ). OU has consistently appeared in the top 100 since 1990: From 1990-2007, OU ranked 83rd and from 2005-2008, 84th.
“Most schools that rank above OU have a doctoral program in MIS,” says Lauer. “This puts us ahead of Big 10 schools like Iowa, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin and Ohio State for example as well as Wayne State.”
Article from SBA Insight Fall 2008
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Matthew - Chapter 17
5 He was still speaking when suddenly a bright cloud covered them with shadow, and suddenly from the cloud there came a voice which said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favour. Listen to him.'
7 But Jesus came up and touched them, saying, 'Stand up, do not be afraid.'
13 Then the disciples understood that he was speaking of John the Baptist.
14 As they were rejoining the crowd a man came up to him and went down on his knees before him.
17 In reply, Jesus said, 'Faithless and perverse generation! How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.'
20 He answered, 'Because you have so little faith. In truth I tell you, if your faith is the size of a mustard seed you will say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.'
25 'Yes,' he replied, and went into the house. But before he could speak, Jesus said, 'Simon, what is your opinion? From whom do earthly kings take toll or tribute? From their sons or from foreigners?'
26 And when he replied, 'From foreigners,' Jesus said, 'Well then, the sons are exempt.
27 However, so that we shall not be the downfall of others, go to the lake and cast a hook; take the first fish that rises, open its mouth and there you will find a shekel; take it and give it to them for me and for yourself.'
More on the Bible
The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.
Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.
Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.
Reading 1, Sirach 5:1-8: Do not put your confidence in your money or say, 'With this I am self-sufficient.' Do not be led ... Psalm, Psalms 1:1-2, 3-4, 6: How blessed is anyone who rejects the advice of the wicked and does not take a stand in the path ... Gospel, Mark 9:41-50: 'If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, then in truth I tell ... Read More
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Plan B Organic Farms – HOME DELIVERY
Say goodbye to summer shares and hello to fall shares! The fall shares from Plan B are honestly the ones I look forward to the most every year. This will be my third fall with Plan B. The boxes truly hold all that autumn harvest has to offer….
Each fall share contains:
Root Veggies – for example, local carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, & squash.
Fresh Veggies – for example, broccoli, celery, peppers, zucchini, leek, tomatoes, chard & kale.
Salad Greens – for example, local greenhouse grown lettuce, salad mix, arugula, & herbs.
Fruit – for example, local apples, oranges, banana, pears, avocadoes, mangos & lemons.
(Examples of 1 item are: 1 bunch broccoli, 2lbs potatoes, 5 pears, 1 bag salad mix, 1 bunch of basil etc.)
What is Plan B?
Plan B is a local, family run organic farm – Melanie, Alvaro and Rodrego and their children are passionate and honest about what they do. Their passion is contagious and their authenticity admirable. Years ago, people had to eat local, seasonal foods because that’s all that was available to them. But with today’s technology and ever growing grocery chains, we are eating strawberries in December (which scientists are now saying is not such a good thing after all). Things always seem to come full circle, don’t they? and we continually learn from our mistakes. Sadly, these lessons often come through illness or environmental concerns. Regardless things are changing….we are learning and we are becoming more aware of the effects that the foods we eat have on our bodies. More and more people are supporting our local farmers, eating organic and aiding in the overall health of our planet (and our bodies) YAY! It makes me giddy when someone tells me how much they love their Plan B Box because it means there is a greater understanding. An understanding of how beneficial eating local seasonal organic foods is to not only our health but also to our environment.
Here are some of the great reasons to order and enjoy Plan B produce all winter long!
- The best selection & value of local and imported certified organic produce – directly from farmer to farmer
- Keep your food budget on target – I’ve saved money ordering from Plan B!
- Plan B “puts local first” in the shares, with stored root crops, local greenhouse greens, and local apples all season long.
- The imported foods in your share are as fresh as you can get. They don’t sit out on a store shelf losing valuable nutrients, they go straight from the ground to the cooler to you.
- Supporting Plan B in their ongoing work of developing a local organic farm business helps your local farmers AND your environment!
- Best of all – opening your weekly Plan B box is like opening a gift from the earth.
I hope that many of you will choose to support Plan B through the fall, winter & spring instead of returning to the supermarket, for your fresh certified organic produce. This off season income is a crucial part of this family run farm business and is what makes it possible for them to keep farming year after year!
Mention this post when ordering and receive $5.oo off your first share!
For more information or to order your share, please visit:
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* Spain's top fashion show made international headlines this week not for the clothes on display but for the size of the women wearing them.
The Sept. 13 decision from the Madrid regional government to enforce a ban on underweight models for Madrid Fashion Week catwalks has sent shock waves through the global fashion industry and set off a chorus of calls to expand the ban and formulate a new industry standard. The government's decision is intended to promote a healthier body image.
The unprecedented move marked the first time organizers of a major fashion show imposed weight limits in line with World Health Organization guidelines for healthy height-to-weight ratios used to calculate a person's body mass index, which estimates the portion of fat in the body.
Over 30 percent of the models who appeared in Madrid shows last year were disqualified under the new guidelines that will likely prevent the participation of top models such as Brazil's Fabiana, Spain's Esther Canadas, Britain's Kate Moss and Estonia native Carmen Kass.
"This is a great call to ........
........ global action," says Lynn Grefe, chief executive officer of the Seattle-based National Eating Disorders Association.
"We worked hard to restrict advertising for alcohol and tobacco because of the potential dangers to our young people, and fashion is now the only major industry without health guidelines," Grefe said. "It is high time we ask for some responsibility from within the industry for the impact fashion has on potentially life-threatening eating disorders."
Reaction from the international fashion industry was varied, but many governments seem prepared to pick up Spain's cue, as the enforcement decision spread through news outlets around the world.
British Culture Minister Tessa Jowell publicly applauded the move to comply by the organizers of Pasarela Cibeles, Spain's premiere fashion event, while Letizia Moratti, the mayor of Milan, Italy, threatened a similar ban on too-thin models if the city could not negotiate voluntary terms with fashion designers and agencies.
India's Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said his country is also concerned with stick-thin models and their admirers, and hoped Madrid's move "makes young girls focus more on being healthy and lean rather than starving and skinny."
Edinburgh, Scotland, announced it would follow Madrid's lead, banning any model with a BMI of less than 18. A BMI of 18.5 or below is considered underweight by the World Health Organization, anything 25 or over is considered overweight. The average BMI for top models is 16.3, according to data from the National Eating Disorders Association. Top U.S. designer Michael Kors also jumped into the fray.
"Thin is fine but it has to be healthy," Kors said at a press conference last week. "When I see a model come in and I can tell this is not naturally how they're supposed to look, we won't book them."
Other Shows Stick to Status Quo
Madrid is considered a major player on the European fashion scene and is no stranger to controversial shows. But the city lacks the clout of fashion capitals like Paris, London and New York, where the topic has been hotly debated in the last two weeks. All three cities went ahead with plans for their fashion weeks without imposing any weight restrictions.
While some within the fashion world chafed at the industry being made a scapegoat for contributing to a rise in eating disorders, New York-based DNA Models' Chief Executive David Bonnouvrier said during New York's fashion week that the industry standard should focus on "beauty and luxury, not famished-looking people that look pale and sick."
Cathy Gould, North America director for New York agency Elite, told journalists the ban was "outrageous and discriminatory" to naturally super-slim models and designers though she appreciated the sentiment behind the move.
For decades health care professionals and eating disorder specialists have expressed concern over changes in the fashion, media and entertainment industries and their contribution to triggering eating disorders.
In 1965, models weighed an average of 8 percent less than the typical woman in the United States; the average model now weighs 23 percent less than the average woman, according to the National Eating Disorders Association.
"No one is saying fashion causes all eating disorders, but the industry does set the standard young girls are holding up as an ideal, and that can have a real effect on those who are vulnerable to eating disorders," says Grefe.
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China by Design
Fashion Week in Hong Kong is serious business.
Mar 26, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 27 • By SAMANTHA SAULT
Craig Lawrence on the runway
Fifteen years after the transfer of power to Beijing, Hong Kong is far from the utopia envisioned by Mao. On the contrary, as Hong Kong Fashion Week demonstrated recently, Hong Kong is the gateway to capitalism and consumerism in China, if not the world.
When Great Britain relinquished control of Hong Kong to China in 1997, thousands fled, expecting life to change for the worse: Goodbye free market, hello communism. But Beijing seems to have kept its promise of “one country, two systems,” and China’s first “Special Administrative Region” has flourished as Asia’s vibrant center of capitalism. Hong Kong, in fact, is one of the freest economies in the world, ranking first in the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom and second in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index (behind Singapore). Goodbye communism, hello consumerism.
Hong Kong is also Asia’s center of luxury shopping. The bustling streets are filled with shops selling ancient Chinese antiques and sleek minimalist furniture, stalls of fake designer handbags alongside red-and-gold paper lanterns for the Chinese New Year, even smoky storefronts hocking offal-on-a-stick.
Yet Hong Kong is making a name for itself no longer as the place to haggle for your fake Louis Vuitton handbag but the place to finally buy your real bag from one of the seven sparkling Louis Vuitton stores in greater Hong Kong. (Paris has just six.) And as I heard from numerous industry insiders, while many Hong Kongers cross the border to shop the deals in Shenzhen, many more mainland Chinese travel to Hong Kong to ensure they’re buying genuine luxury goods, lining up outside the stores, from Armani to Shanghai Tang, to shop without sales tax. In 2011, Hong Kong welcomed 28.1 million visitors from the mainland, four times the size of Hong Kong’s population, who contributed to total retail sales of $52.3 billion during the same year, according to the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department.
International brands are taking notice of the need to solidify their presence in Hong Kong and greater China, the second-largest market in the world for luxury goods and home to a million millionaires. (The American luxury-accessories brand Coach and the Italian fashion powerhouse Prada made headlines last year when they became the first companies from their respective countries to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.) And Hong Kong Fashion Week, held at the gargantuan Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, showcased the importance of Hong Kong to the growing consumer culture in China, and provided the opportunity for designers and brands from around the world to enter the Chinese market.
Hong Kong Fashion Week is Asia’s largest fashion event, featuring over 1,600 exhibitors of apparel, accessories, and other merchandise, alongside the Hong Kong World Boutique, which features high-end designers from around the world. “The fairs have again received great support from global fashion designers and brands, cementing Hong Kong’s status as Asia’s trendsetting hub,” according to Benjamin Chau of the Trade and Development Council. The participants represented over two dozen countries, with buyers from dozens more on missions to find the latest in fast fashion, denim, accessories, even couture. Fashion Week is an opportunity not just for Hong Kong-based designers to grow their brands but for international designers to gain exposure in Asia, especially China, as well. The flagship fashion show of the week, the Hong Kong Fashion Extravaganza, brought together four unique, rising-star designers from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Paris, and London.
Hidy Ng is one of Hong Kong’s better-known designers, and already sells her ready-to-wear in Harvey Nichols department stores in Hong Kong as well as international boutiques. Ng introduced her Fall/Winter 2012 line at the Extravaganza, and her chic, polished collection inspired by Parisian women could make her an even bigger name in the global fashion scene. For Craig Lawrence, a London-based designer whose avant-garde knitwear has been worn by Lady Gaga, the Extravaganza was an opportunity to solidify his existing relationships and expand his brand. “Asia has always been a really big support to Craig in terms of press and interest at the beginning of his career,” press rep Ella Dror told a small group of reporters. “It’s really important that he’s here in terms of picking up new stocklists.” Lawrence agreed: “The more people who see my work, the better.”
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Mike Huckabee, I have a question. If religion is such an impetus for good in your view, then why do you use it as a motivation for such evil?
According to an article in PilotOnlinee.com, For Republican Representative Newt Gingrich and Former Republican President Candidate Mike Huckabee gave speeches at an event in Virginia that aimed at promoting Christian participation in the political process. Ultimately, their aim was more specific – to promote the participation of an immoral subculture of Christianity that likes to attribute their immoral dispositions to a God in order to give them the illusion of legitimacy.
(See: PilotOnline Huckabee, Gingrich urge political engagement in Va. Beach)
Let us start with this quote:
Gingrich and Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, argued the rights of Americans stem from God and to ignore that connection is perilous.
For the sake of this posting I am not going to argue this point. It is false. However, ultimately, it does not matter where one's rights comes from, it matters what those rights are. If I have a right to freedom of speech, it may come from God, it may exist as relationship between a malleable desire and other desires. However, regardless of its origins, if I have a right to freedom of speech, then I have a right to freedom of speech.
Gingrich . . . said the ties to religion in American government date to the Declaration of Independence, when Thomas Jefferson wrote that men are endowed by God with certain inalienable rights.
We could dispute this. Jefferson said a lot of things, not all of which were true. One of the things he wrote was that men are created equal (and he did not at all have in mind the idea of 'mankind') in a context where the word ‘men’ did not include male blacks. We have, over time, recognized that some of the things written were mistaken. Even Gingrich would have to argue that they were mistaken, or he would paint himself into a moral corner he could not get out of.
Like Mike Huckabee did.
Huckabee told the audience he was disturbed to hear President Barack Obama say during his speech in Cairo, Egypt, on Thursday that one nation shouldn't be exalted over another. "The notion that we are just one of many among equals is nonsense," Huckabee said. The United States is a "blessed" nation, he said, calling American revolutionaries' defeat of the British empire "a miracle from God's hand."
This is an example of an immoral person assigning his immorality to God to give it an illusion of legitimacy.
Again, I have granted that people have certain rights. For the sake of argument I am not disputing the premise that those rights come from God as specified in the Declaration of Independence.
Did God give those rights only to Americans, or did he give them to 'all men' (meaning 'all human beings'). Jefferson wrote, 'All men are created equal.' Huckabee condemns the very idea of moral equality and instead professes a theory of moral classes, where those Christian Americans who support Huckabee are of a higher moral class than non-Americans.
Furthermore, Huckabee, rejecting the notions in the Declaration of Independence, holds that God himself is the author of these moral classes. God did not create all men equal. God created moral inequality, where Christian Americans who support Huckabee exist in a moral class above (and decidedly unequal to) that of the rest of the world.
In saying this, and in building his candidacy on this principle, Huckabee is practicing a time-honored tradition of promoting immorality and giving it an illusion of legitimacy by assigning it to God. To buy political favors, he tells his audience what effectively translates into a satement like, “You are God’s chosen people and God has given you the right to rule and the rest of the world the duty to obey.”
There are a lot of people who covet this type of message. It has been successful in the past. However, in doing so, Mike Huckabee is not be the first person to promote evil and assign that evil to God.
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can I call another action class from another action class?
action path = /search type = com.company.struts.searchaction
action path = /showdetails type = com.company.struts.showdetailaction
if(condition) call showdetailaction
Joined: Feb 15, 2005
Since an Action class is a regular Java class that has a constructor, there's nothing to prevent you from instantiating an Action class and calling one of its methods from another Action class.
I would consider this to be very bad form, however. If you find yourself needing to do this, it's a good indication that it's time to refactor. Extract the logic that needs to be performed by both actions into a method in either a utility class or a business layer class and call the method from both Action classes.
You can also "chain" the actions with a forward with a path to the action (with the .do at the end). I've used this some times and it works well for me. Then in that action return ActionFoward to the another action.
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Teaching About Childbirth in Uganda (Again)
Anne Katz-Jacobson served as a health volunteer for six weeks in spring 2006 with the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda. She used her expertise as a nurse, midwife and teacher to increase community knowledge of health issues, as well as to develop and sustain the health education through the development of community health workers and a school health associate. In addition to providing health education to teenagers, women, and health workers, she also met with providers of health care and teaching and used resources in the larger community of organizations such as Mbale Hospital and the AIDS Information Center.
Returning this April to the Abayudaya community was such an exciting experience because we knew each other so well already.
I met first with the leaders of the Abayudaya Health Committee, Samson Wamani and Rebecca Nantabo, to develop a plan that would utilize my skills as a midwife with the needs of the Abayudaya community.
We thus began a series of meetings with women in Nabugoye, Namonyonyi, Nasenyi and Namatumba to discuss family planning, HIV, pregnancy and birth, newborn problems, menopause, and other women’s health issues. These sessions were delightful as we shared our life experiences with each other.
We also met specifically with men in the villages to increase their knowledge about HIV prevention, testing, and treatment.
Last year I taught for the Foundation for the Development of Needy Communities (FDNC), a local NGO that trains community Health Outreach Workers, including some from the Abayudaya community. I held a discussion with the Health Workers themselves to review some of the difficulties they had encountered in the past year when teaching in the communities. This was a very exciting follow-up of the information we had studied together, particularly issues of teaching/learning. I was also able to help with some upgrading of skills for the nurses who are maintaining the FDNC Clinic.
The highlight of our program was the four-day Workshop in selected topics of Home Birth Life-Saving Skills, in which we trained village guides to assist families during pregnancy and birth emergencies. We were able to accomplish this with the assistance of the Abayudaya Women’s Association providing logistic support for this intense program. At the conclusion of the Workshop, Abayudaya leader Aaron Kintu Moses and I presented graduates with certificates.
We were also able to have several sessions with teachers from Semei Kakungulu High School to review issues related to family planning and HIV.
On my flight back to London I tried not to cry but couldn’t help myself. I would like to be helpful to the Abayudaya and FDNC communities—more if my skill will allow. There is much to think about to see where I am going with this involvement. Meanwhile, I look forward to being with my husband, who has been such a support. I need to get back into my life again as wife, mother and grandmother. I am incredibly grateful for this miracle of being able to go to Africa and do the work I have always dreamed about. I shall never forget the people who have made my experience so rewarding. The kindness and generosity of Africa is beyond description. Hopefully, I can continue to give back a bit in one way or another in the years ahead.
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Lake Zurich Parents Protest Random Drug Testing At High School
Lake Zurich High School's proposal to randomly test students for drug use has angered a group of parents, who showed up to voice their opposition at a community forum on the issue Wednesday evening.
Calling themselves 'Lake Zurich Parents of Kids Rights,' a group of 13 parents who have vocally opposed the proposed policy in previous discussions circulated a petition in advance of the 7 p.m. meeting, according to TribLocal.
“The program is unfair and unproven. So far, the board has carelessly not explained the merits of the program," said an email from the Lake Zurich Parents of Kids Rights group, according to TribLocal. "We ask that you come to this crucial meeting. Wear a little orange to show they have awakened us, the sleeping tigers. The most important thing you can do is bring a pointed question to the meeting and ask one of the trustees to answer it sincerely.”
About 100 people showed up, overwhelmingly opposed to the drug testing, the Daily Herald reports.
The debate over administering drug tests to Lake Zurich High School students at random has been going on for about three years, Lake Zurich Patch reports. The policy proposal has been discussed and revised several times, and the board requested that District 95 administrators provide an updated draft of procedures in June.
The policy would allow the school to test hair samples from randomly-selected students six times per year for illegal drugs including marijuana, cocaine, opiates and methamphetamine, TribLocal reports. Students who test positive would be suspended from athletics or extracurricular activities for half a year on their first offense, and for an entire year if they tested positive a second time.
Legally, the school can only test students involved in sports and extracurricular activities, and students with parking privileges on or near campus, according to Lake Zurich Patch.
A special meeting about the proposal was held in July, where five of the 20 people present were parents, Lake Zurich Patch reports.
"There is no other way to put a dent or slow down the drug problem," said Tom Habley, a chemical and drug dependency counselor at Stevenson High School, said at the July meeting.
“A drug-free environment should be the school's job,” parent Karen Abry said Wednesday night, according to the Daily Herald. “Drug-free students should be a parent's job.”
School officials are expected to vote on the policy by the end of the year.
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en
| 0.963562 | 510 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The Title VII Tug-of-War: Application of U.S. Employment Discrimination Law Extraterritorially
PDF · LaToya S. Brown · Aug-16-2012 · 40 VAND. J. TRANSNAT'L. L. 833 (2007)
Companies around the world increasingly are engaging in cross-border business transactions. Globalization is a must if companies want to continue to be competitive in the marketplace—indeed it is an inevitable reality. However, in the midst of this reality is another reality: the legal implications of establishing operations abroad. Transnational expansion introduces companies to an interesting game of tug-of-war in which companies may find themselves torn between compliance with U.S. law and compliance with the laws of the host country. This Note discusses this tug-of-war in the context of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Over 15 years ago, it was debatable whether Title VII applied extraterritorially, but Congress has since answered this question in the affirmative. However, one victory only created more hurdles. These hurdles, for purposes of this Note, are the “employee question” and the “law question.” With respect to the former, the basic question is: What is the proper scope of Title VII’s extraterritorial employee coverage? With respect to the latter, the question is: What constitutes a conflict of “law” sufficient to permit an employer to avoid compliance with Title VII? These are critical questions, the resolution of which is necessary in order to preserve Title VII’s effectiveness. This Note offers suggestions as to how each question should be resolved. Each resolution starts from the basic premise that Title VII can only go so far without sacrificing its effectiveness. The challenge is recognizing Title VII’s limitations and finding alternative resolutions for those situations to which Title VII realistically cannot apply, and this challenge is precisely the objective of the Note.
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<urn:uuid:95ee087c-cc71-40e9-9947-ba6946e906d9>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.vanderbilt.edu/jotl/2012/08/the-title-vii-tug-of-war-application-of-u-s-employment-discrimination-law-extraterritorially/
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en
| 0.938063 | 398 | 1.507813 | 2 |
The three best things in life: Books (0bviously), Biscuits and Music. Reading books is the best way to pass the time, eating biscuits is the best way to pass the time and survive without fading away, and music is like the cherry on top. Music turns an ordinary experience into an extraordinary experience. Imagine how dull a film would be without the soundtrack. Does your life have a good soundtrack? The simple way to add music to your life would be to turn the radio on or the CD player or maybe watch some c4. But, what is the most interesting way to add music to your life? MAKE MUSIC YOURSELF.
John Crossingham has created a book to help you. Learn to Speak Music shows you how to become a musician, and honestly, it’s not hard. This book walks you through each step from learning an instrument to putting on performances and promoting your band. There are chapters featuring: Making Music (choosing instruments, learning to play), Forming a Band (finding members, choosing a name), Writing Lyrics and Music (song patterns, inspiration), Playing Live (covering costs, what gear you need, keeping your cool), Recording Your Music (Hi Fi vs. Lo Fi, basic recording gear) and Spreading the Word (How to make Do-It-Yourself band T-shirts, eye-catching posters).
You may be thinking ‘isn’t this a bit much for a kid?’ no way! Don’t underestimate yourself. You don’t have to be an expert to make music and have fun performing it. Lots of famous bands started out with very young members. Have you heard of: Kings of Leon, The Jonas Brothers, Radiohead, Paramore, Hanson, The Go Go’s, Napalm Death, The Runaways, Def Leppard, The Jackson 5, Kate Bush, Lil Wayne, Shonen Knife? Or New Zealand bands Shihad, Bressa Creting Cake, Ladieswear Landscapi, Bandicoot, TFF, Die! Die! Die!? All these bands have or had members that were still at school and there are many, many more.
Another cool book that will help you get rolling towards rock stardom is The Girls Guide To Rocking by Jessica Hopper. I recommend this even if you are not a girl. It is really in-depth and has interesting appendices to inspire you. If you need some audio-visual motivation check out Girls Rock! Some of the girls on this DVD can really scream.
Now, one other thing, you must cross your heart promise that if you do start a band you will let me know. I will be your biggest fan and I will bring biscuits.
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http://www.wcl.govt.nz/blogs/kids/index.php/2010/07/30/learn-to-speak-music/
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| 0.941788 | 566 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Statement by Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell In Observance of Veterans Day
Washington, DC—Today, Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell (D-AL) issued the following statement in recognition of Veterans Day. The holiday will be observed on Sunday, November 11:
“On this Veterans Day, we pause to honor the devotion and sacrifice of all of our veterans who have served here at home and have traveled to distant battle fields around the world to protect our freedoms. We are greatly indebted to these brave service men and women who have answered the call to protect this great nation.
We must also take a moment to recognize our more than 2 million troops and reservists who currently serve in our armed forces. They continue to remain in our thoughts and prayers as they risk their lives for our safety and security here at home.
Now more than ever, we must renew our commitment to keep the promise of providing the support and aid to our 23 million veterans and their families, including 43,540 here in the 7th Congressional District. We must not forget our moral obligation to our veterans to keep the door of opportunity open for them, especially as they return from the Middle East. Our soldiers deserve opportunities for higher education, access to quality affordable healthcare, good paying jobs and assistance as they transition to civilian life. We will keep fighting to ensure our men and women in uniform get the care they deserve and the benefits they have earned.
As many of us gather with our families and loved ones on this Veterans Day weekend, let us pay special tribute and salute our men and women who have defended our democracy and protected our precious gift of freedom.”
Contact: Rob NeSmith; [email protected]; 202.225.2665
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://sewell.house.gov/press-release/statement-congresswoman-terri-sewell-observance-veterans-day-0
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According to the latest Pew Charitable Trusts report "Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race?, the US regained the lead in spending in 2011. China had invested the most in each of the prior two years, and will probably retake the top spot in 2012. Why? Much of the US investment was accelerated in advance of the expiration of critical incentives, particularly the Section 1603 program.
China's pause in clean energy investment growth was a re-consolidation, not a sign of a peak. While the U.S. was cutting incentives in 2011, China was adopting new ones. Not only did China increase a national target for solar deployment to 50 GW in 2010, but they adopted their first national feed-in tariff.
It looks like America is winning the Clean Energy race, but 2011 was just our year to be the hare to China's tortoise. Next year, look for the U.S. to take a nap along the side of the clean energy racecourse, while China resumes its purposeful ramp-up of clean energy investment.
The impact of Europe is somewhat downplayed in the country-by-country chart below. The economies of the US and Europe are of very similar size, but energy is much costlier for Europeans, and is a big driver in public support there for cleaner energy.
Here in the US we persist in the short-sighted notion that we must work to keep existing energy (especially fossil fuel) prices low. It's an effort that cannot be sustained. At length, we will need to much more fully embrace clean energy technology and its fuller realization in our overall economy.
Winning the race is not critical per se for anything other than national pride. However, we do need to at least be competitive in the marathon. Being dependent on other countries and their clean energy industries has implications for national security, national competitiveness and, top-of-mind in this election season, our national economic well-being.
If we act the hare, and awake late in the day to sprint to the finish line, what will be find? Probably that the Chinese and European tortoises arrived some time prior, have taken all the best rooms at the inn and own all the stores and eateries in town.
Do we want to be the consumers or the owners of the future?
Originally posted on the Chris B. Leyerle blog 5/24/12
Chris has grown startup companies in several sectors as an executive, investor, advisor and board member, most recently as co-founder and COO of Hydrovolts. He is currently the principal at Fingo Consulting assisting entrepreneurs and startup businesses in the cleantech, renewable energy, agriculture, entertainment, hardware, software, behavioral health and e-commerce fields. Chris is passionate about the criticality of cleantech to our energy future, and enjoys the outdoors, networking over chewy coffee, and solving puzzles, the harder the better. Follow Chris on his blog or on Twitter.
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http://www.nwcleantech.com/post/Hare-Brained-Trends-in-Cleantech-Funding.aspx
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| 0.96061 | 607 | 1.679688 | 2 |
- News and Events
- Contact Us
The counseling and human development department recently held its first annual Career Development Institute, entitled “Meeting the Needs of the Contemporary Workforce.” The institute highlighted the importance of career development programs and career practitioners in helping to solve the systemic issues associated with unemployment, underemployment, resiliency, and informed career decision-making.
The institute, held June 25 – 29, was geared toward career services professionals in higher education, K-12, one-stop career centers, military installations, and private practices. The weeklong institute focused on career development from the practitioner’s perspective, ensuring all professionals working in career services can provide the best resources and support the changing workforce in the U.S.
A wide range of dynamic professionals lectured during the week, including Dr. Ron Williams, senior vice president of the College Board Advocacy and Policy Center; Gabriel Benn, director of arts in education for Ballou High School in Washington, D.C.; Jenifer Fritz, Director of Government Solutions for CareerBuilder.com; Dr. Sandra Sessoms-Penny (GSEHD Alumnae), private career counselor working with veterans; and Patrice Gerideau, Learning and Leadership Officer for AARP.
Thomas Stowell, director of Career Services at GSEHD and lecturer in counseling, led the creation of the institute and served as its director. “Today’s workplace is a complex and dynamic environment. I’m pleased that we were able to spend the week discussing the challenges and opportunities our workforce faces in today’s global economy,” Stowell said. “As we look beyond the traditional definitions of work, I look forward to using the our discussions as a springboard to broader conversations about how to best help today’s workers succeed and thrive in work and life.”
Tamara Schaps, a master’s student in higher education administration, said she enjoyed the comprehensive nature of the institute. “It was helpful to hear from a diverse array of speakers on topics that covered the career needs of a broad potential client base – from veterans to students with special needs to the elderly,” she said. “Throughout the week, my assumptions were challenged and the content of the institute was meaningful and inspiring.”
Suzy Wise, a counseling EdS student, also enjoyed the experience. “The institute refreshed my knowledge and experience in career counseling,” she said. “The speakers were engaging and informative. I came away from the week with welcome challenges ahead in the world of work."
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http://gsehd.gwu.edu/newsevents/news/612-career-development-institute
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| 0.957909 | 539 | 1.6875 | 2 |
For several years I have been taking atenolol for my blood pressure, Zoloft for depression and Prevacid for acid reflux. During this time, my breathing has gradually gotten worse, and now I can't walk more than 20 or 30 feet without stopping to catch my breath. Up to a couple of years ago, I walked four to five miles a day at a fast pace. Could this change have anything to do with my medicines?
Atenolol (Tenormin) is a possible candidate. This beta blocker can affect the lungs and cause fatigue. Susceptible people may experience asthma and have trouble catching their breath.
I was amused to hear that scientists have finally figured out that birth-control pills reduce a woman's sexual desire. I've known that for years.
When I was younger, the effect wasn't as obvious, but in my 20s and 30s I knew that the pills really reduced my sex drive. I suspect that the pharmaceutical industry has no interest in broadcasting this message.
A new study of 124 women in the Journal of Sexual Medicine (January 2006) reveals how oral contraceptives might diminish sexual desire.
The estrogen in these pills apparently increases production of a protein that binds to testosterone. Less testosterone in the bloodstream may account for lowered libido. The effect might persist after the pills are discontinued.
Joe Graedon, a pharmacologist, and Teresa Graedon, an expert in medical anthropology and nutrition, can be reached at http://www.peoplespharmacy.com or care of this newspaper.
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http://www.kansascw.com/kscw/thecrew/green/la-he-pharmacy16jan16,0,2994178.column
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en
| 0.956946 | 318 | 1.8125 | 2 |
In 1997, I lost my grandpa Carlton to leukemia. Since my aunts, uncles and grandma on my dad’s side keep telling me that I am his spitting image, I guess I have a special bond to him. In honor of tomorrow (June 3) being National Cancer Survivors Day, I wanted to write this post to honor him.
It wasn’t until two years ago when I dove head first into a history project for my grandpa. He was a B-24 co-pilot based in Cerignola, Italy with the 459th Bomb Group. During his 10th mission, his plane was damaged near Munich, Germany, and they tried to land in Switzerland. However, a dummy runway setup by the Germans served it’s purpose and their plane, the Cherry II, landed on the wrong side of the border. He and his crew were taken POWs.
His story is one that I am honored to have researched. His personality and attitude toward his very hard circumstances, I feel, are what got him through this fight with cancer. Thought he lost his war in the end, he fought numerous battles – won a few and lost a few.
I write this post in honor of him, and all other cancer survivors. If you, or someone you know is a cancer survivor, click here and take a moment to honor all cancer survivors by writing your (or their) story. This Facebook app allows you to read the stories, share your own, and find hope. You won’t regret it.
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http://carltonaut.com/tag/leukemia/
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en
| 0.985666 | 317 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Australia bans sleeping pills at Olympics, report officials.
Australian Olympic Committee chief John Coates said prescription medications such as the powerful sleeping pill Stilnox would be banned for the first time at London after Hackett said he had developed a "heavy reliance" on the drug.
The AOC on Monday decided to amend its team medical manual "to make it absolutely unequivocal that we do not condone and indeed we prohibit the use of Stilnox by our athletes", Coates said Tuesday.
In North America the drug is marketed as Ambien.
Team doctors are being advised about the changes, which will also emphasise potential problems with caffeine use, and each discipline's squad will be briefed as they enter the Olympic village, Coates added.
"We are very worried about the vicious cycle of athletes taking caffeine as a performance enhancer and then needing to take drugs such as Stilnox to get to sleep," he told reporters in Sydney.
"We've done this because our primary obligation, our overriding obligation, is to protect the health of our athletes."
Coates said the changes were triggered by revelations from Hackett, dual gold medallist in the 1500m freestyle, that by the end of his career he had a "heavy reliance" on Stilnox prescribed by team doctors.
"I do not know the extent of it across the other sports and we're not going to conduct some sort of witch-hunt over this," the Australian official said.
But he said evidence about the possible risks of the drug justified the stance the committee was taking.
Coates said Hackett told him he was first prescribed Stilnox at the 2003 World Swimming Championships in Barcelona, and that it was doled out to swimmers as "normal practice" at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Australian team doctors stopped prescribing the drug in 2007 after becoming aware of its sometimes dangerous side-effects, which can include walking and driving cars while asleep.
But Coates said that Hackett had told him there was "widespread use" of Stilnox even at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Hackett has said he stopped taking the drug when his career ended after the Beijing Games.
The AOC chief said athletes would be encouraged to practise meditation and other relaxation techniques in London.
If "in extreme circumstances" they still needed prescription sedatives, the short-acting and less addictive agent temazepam would be used, Coates said.
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<urn:uuid:cbb9442a-ab96-4c9a-aab1-58204b7e5631>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.medindia.net/news/australian-olympic-athletes-banned-from-using-sleeping-pills-103559-1.htm
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| 0.975684 | 499 | 1.625 | 2 |
How do we change the national conversation about war and peace? Also: Update on health care reform legislation
Seven months into a new administration and the nation still finds itself embroiled in two Asian wars. Many Americans would have difficulty explaining how the Obama administration's conduct of these wars differs from the last administration's. They're certainly not being helped by policymakers and pundits who are working overtime to marginalize arguments for American withdrawal from the region. With the economy now people's foremost concern, how does the peace movement change the national conversation about war and peace?
Jo Ann and Dave talk with Tom Hastings, Director of the Oregon Peace Institute's Peace Voice Program. On August 1, the program will host the Peace Voice Conference, bringing together activists, academics and others to explore new ways to bring together diverse communities in order to refocus the public discourse on the possibilities of peace and the inadvisibility of war.
Also this Thursday: Jo Ann and Dave talk with Betsy Dillard, Director of Health Care for America Now, about the current status of health care reform bills currently making their way through Congress.
The conversation doesn't end when the program does. You can join in additional discussion of the week's issue on our blog at kboo.fm/voicesfromtheedge (click on the "blog" tab). You'll find additional information, important links, comments from other listeners and commentary from Jo Ann and Dave. Have a question for our guests, but can't call in during the program?
- Artist: Dave Mazza
- Title: How do we change the national conversation about war and peace?
- Album: Voices from the Edge
- Length: 56:58 minutes (45.64 MB)
- Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 112Kbps (CBR)
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<urn:uuid:b8e71d14-e3b9-4408-be85-6aa2c606f856>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.kboo.org/node/15513
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en
| 0.934013 | 364 | 1.710938 | 2 |
I have decrypted a letter dated 1 Oct 1880 written by William Albert Calhoon on the Keokuk Northern Line letterhead .
Ltr WA Coalhoon to Parthenia Calhoon 1 Oct 1880 (Anna L and John F Nash Collection)
La Crosse Oct 1st 1880
I arrived here
on the Red Wing last
Tuesday to go on the Charlie
Cheever with Tom we will
leave here this evening for St
Paul and will be back about
Oct 5th or 6th Joe left here for
St Louis last Sunday evening
on the Str Annie had one of
Joes girls up on the Red Wing
From Dubuque to McGregor I
had a splendid time oh how
I wished you had been along
She is going up to Minneapolis
with us next trip, will close these
few lines will write from St Paul
with much love from all Wm A Calhoon
“Dear Sister” is Parthenia Parr Calhoon (b 16 May 1855 in Georgetown, PA d 10 Jan 1946). She had a twin brother named Joseph MC Calhoon – yes that was his middle name. Joseph never married so I do not know who “one of Joe’s girls” would be mentioned in this letter. The “ Tom” in the letter was an older brother Thomas Franklin Calhoon. Their father Joseph MC Calhoon (b 1823 d 21 Apr 1855) was a steamboat owner and captain who died of cholera while near St Louis. The story of his death and the return of his body to Georgetown, PA is told in the Georgetown tale – The Body.
In 1866 Parthenia Parr Calhoon, the wife of Joseph MC Calhoon, died. Five young children were orphaned. Capt George Washington Ebert , half brother of Parthenia Parr, was appointed guardian of the five Calhoon children. The Calhoon twins, Parthenia and Joseph, were reared in “The Poe House” by Mrs Jacob Poe (Mary Ann (Ebert) Poe, the sister of George W Ebert and half sister of Parthenia Parr). From the 1870 Census Report, I assume the three older boys lived with Capt George W Ebert.
Parthenia Parr Calhoon (b 1855) spent her entire life with her aunt and the Poe family in “The Poe House”. After Jacob Poe and his wife died, Parthenia continued to live in “The Poe House” with Charles Edgar Poe and his daughter Lillian May. George WE Poe and his wife also lived in “The Poe House” at that time. After Charley Poe died, Parthenia lived with her niece Lillian May and Lillian’s uncle, George WE Poe.
It is quite confusing, but important when you think of the names associated with Aunt Parthenia. Calhoon, Parr, Ebert, Poe - major names in Ohio River steamboat history.
The author of the letter, “Wm A”, was an older brother of Aunt Parthenia (William Albert Calhoon (b 13 Jan 1852 d 25 Oct 1889 unmarried)) . He died of “consumption” after spending some time in a hospital in Cairo, IL in Jul 1889. I have two letters dated 5 Jul 1889 written by William Albert to sister Parthenia Parr Calhoon and brother Thomas Franklin Calhoon. These two letters were written on Cherokee Packet Company letterhead four months before his death.
In the Keokuk letter to Parthenia Parr Calhoon, William Albert mentioned several steamers. The construction of the steamer Red Wing was supervised by Jacob Poe according to Capt Way’s Packet Directory. The str Charlie Cheever (officially named Charles Cheever ) was a sternwheeler built in Brownsville, PA where many Poe boats were constructed, but I do not know its owner nor master. The Annie was a sternwheeler built in 1877 for the Keokuk Line. I have found no historical data on her owner or master.
I do not know why William Albert Calhoon was traveling on the upper Mississippi at that time. Whether the Poes and/or Calhoons had any interest in the Keokuk Packet Line or the Keokuk Northern Packet Line is unknown at this time. More research and some luck is required to break through this mystery.
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<urn:uuid:31fed3c2-5ab8-4f9b-a963-71755ffab500>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://georgetownsteamboats.com/gs/tag/george-we-poe/
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en
| 0.971967 | 938 | 1.523438 | 2 |
By Zhang Huanyu and Huo Kan
BEIJING (Caixin Online) — Shortly after the central bank announced an addition to its regulatory tool kit, the Short-term Liquidity Operation (SLO), analysts started wondering if this meant small-scale quantitative easing.
There is debate over that issue, but most analysts agreed that the new tool will have a significant impact on current principal regulatory instruments: banks’ reserve-requirement ratio (RRR) and deposit and lending interest rates.
In its announcement on Jan. 18, the central bank said the new operation would mostly use repurchase agreements or reverse repurchase agreements that mature in seven days or less to supplement existing open market operation tools, which comprise central bills, repos and reverse repos.
The goal is to smooth out sharp liquidity fluctuations and stabilize short-term interest rates, the bank said.
Twelve banks, including the Big Four state-owned banks, have been named as participants in the SLO scheme. Read blog on Chinese central bank’s introduction of short-term liquidity operations.
The move is very likely to create a situation where the central bank lends generously at low cost to commercial banks, which in turn can pump the market with liquidity, Xu Hanfei, Guangfa Securities’ chief analyst, wrote in a commentary.
He wasn’t alone in predicting a loosening credit environment. Across the financial and business community, mini QE, a reference to the predicted impact of SLOs, has become a buzzword.
A five-day work week
Analysts pointed to the fact that the central bank had been using reverse repos to flush the inter-bank market with liquidity in the past several months. It was possible it would continue doing so with the new tool, they said.
However, a source close to the central bank said they were drawing a conclusion too soon. A key difference between QE and SLO, he argued, is that the former is engineered to increase credit supply, while the latter can either tighten or relax liquidity.
Indeed, SLO is a two-way valve. The central bank can choose either to conduct repos to mop up liquidity in the market or have it the other way round with reverse repos, the source said.
A state-owned bank’s capital trader also said comparing SLOs to QE overstretched the point, saying that the new tool was only designed to strengthen the central bank’s ability to prevent sharp liquidity fluctuations and stabilize short-term interest rates.
Israel strikes Syria-Lebanon border
Israel launched an airstrike against a convoy of trucks moving near the Lebanon-Syria border Tuesday, a senior U.S. official and a Lebanese security official said.
Like central bills, SLOs are scheduled on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The central bank can determine whether to take the action and its size and maturity.
The timing of SLOs complements that for repos and reverse repos, which are on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
That is important because now the bank can regulate money supply with short-term tools on all weekdays, the source close to the central bank said.
Tools on the trade
Calls have been raised for such new tools because traditional regulatory instruments have failed to catch up with the changing environment.
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<urn:uuid:1b065a87-b107-40c2-a3b7-9de6be6d9a3b>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.marketwatch.com/story/debate-over-chinas-newest-monetary-tool-2013-01-30?siteid=rss
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|
en
| 0.952932 | 684 | 1.578125 | 2 |
by Katie Armstrong
The Cal Young neighborhood hosts a varietal sampling of special cuisine attractions. From the 50s diner off of Coburg to the student club at Sheldon that bakes cupcakes for charity, Cal Young does not lack for unique and interesting food options.
Here is an in-depth look at some of the unique food places in Cal Young Neighborhood and some of the people behind the dishes.
Cupcakes for a Cause
“Rhonda made some cupcakes for a test batch today,” Natalie Mertz says, indicating a tray of mini-cupcakes. This week the cupcakes are carrot with a cream cheese frosting.
Mertz is the president of The Cupcake Club at Sheldon High School. It is a nonprofit club
that raises money for local charities by creating cupcakes from scratch and selling them after school on Tuesdays and at special events.
Before a member can begin making cupcakes to be sold for the club they have to make a test batch, sampled by all of the members.
Herbert Hahn, the faculty adviser of the club, takes part in testing the batch as well. He says that The Cupcake Club is a unique organization that was founded three years ago by Lily Bussel. Hahn says, “It was her vision. It was a great idea.”
Bussel loved baking and wanted to make a difference in the community. She said that her high school “lacked clubs that were geared towards combining students’ talents with community service,” Bussel continued, “I wanted to begin a club that combined students’ interest in baking with a passion for community service.”
Hahn says that their delicious cupcakes rival cupcakes sold at fancy shops. “They sell a cupcake for eight bucks, my god!” The Cupcake Club’s delicious cupcakes are sold for an even more delicious $1.50.
The simple idea has created a lot of sweet buzz. The Register Guard has written about them and the charities in the area have benefited from their donations. Bussel says that she wanted to focus on local charities. “Baking cupcakes to raise money for local charities was more rewarding for me than sending money in an envelope to the other side of the world.”
They recently donated $250 to the Miracle Network. They have donated to numerous local charities in the past including Food For Lane County, Greenhill Humane Society, Birth to Three, CASA of Lane County, and Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.
Mertz became involved in the club because of her sister. Her sister was president and last year she handed the cupcake reins to Mertz. “I liked what it does for the community,” said Mertz. Mertz is also involved in the National Honor Society, which puts an emphasis on service.
Each member of The Cupcake Club, along with Hahn, tested Rhonda’s cupcakes. They were delicious and they passed the test unanimously.
A Flavorful Experience
Eight years ago Jeanie Loomis, a former legal secretary, was renting a table out of another caterer’s kitchen. She and a friend wanted to start their own catering business.
Now Flavors Catering is a full-fledged event coordination company operating out of its own kitchen near Oakway Golf Course. Loomis is the manager and owner. It was her vision, and she devotes herself to it full-time.
Loomis was a server at Black Angus Steakhouse while she studied legal office administration. She worked as a legal secretary for one month before returning to what she loved: food.
She became the catering director of The Town Club of Eugene and then worked at Cravings as the assistant. Next she managed West Brothers Catering for five years. (West Brothers went on to start restaurants such as Mucho Gusto and Dickie Jo’s.)
Using her years of experience in food, in both cooking and administration, Loomis decided that it was time she started her own catering company. “I know all aspects of this business,” said Loomis. “If you work here you learn all aspects eventually.”
The employees at Flavors Catering work inconsistent hours, as it is with any catering business. Loomis said, “That’s catering. You can have a $50,000 week and then a week with nothing.” They tend to have different jobs. “I’m an income supplement,” Loomis said.
Flavors serves dishes such as flank steak, hazelnut salmon, and Mexican Caesar salad. They cater to all kinds of events; weddings, Christmas parties, Phil Knight’s Skybox.
Loomis’ personal favorite events to serve are intimate home dinner parties. She likes the interaction with the guests. Taking care of the guests and providing top service reminds her of when she was a server.
Loomis loves the creativity that comes with this job. “This is an art. It’s not painting or anything but we work odd hours. You have to be a little crazy to do this.”
Burger, Breakfast, and a Smile
It’s the cute, quaint, bustling diner joint on Coburg Road. It’s the restaurant that has décor that keeps you as captivated as its burgers do.
It’s the best way to describe Buddy’s Diner. Just ask two of its regulars, Jim and Lonnie Roberts. They have been dining here a couple times a week for about 5 years. Jim also meets his fishing buddy Roger at Buddy’s every week.
The Buddy Holly namesake restaurant started 20 years ago. Back then it was called “Chubby’s.” Tami Carpenter is the manager now.
Carpenter’s first food job was at the Snack Shack. She and her friend Lori Holloway ran the entire operation. After her parents sold the place, Holloway and Carpenter moved to Buddy’s, which is a much bigger restaurant than the Snack Shack. “We laugh, we joke, we say we ‘graduated.’” Holloway cooks and Carpenter manages.
Buddy’s Diner continues to grow and people of all ages frequent the door. New customers or regulars, the mellow atmosphere and quirky decorations draw in customers.
For a little while last year, the restaurant struggled with visibility due to the new protocol of stores being built right up to the sidewalk. So last spring they painted the exterior from white to red. “It made all the difference in the world,” said Carpenter.
Although the outward appearance may change, and customers may fluctuate, the 50s decorations are there to stay. Most of the décor was there since Carpenter began five years ago. She says that sometimes customers donate decorations to put up.
The positive rapport with customers is part of the draw of Buddy’s. “When you’re here long enough you get to know everybody,” said Carpenter.
For her, she says that making customers happy is the most rewarding part of the job. As she puts it, the best part is “seeing people go ‘ooooooohhh that was good, we’ll be back.’”
Smokestack Catering: Family Fun Business
Wood-fired meat. Hearty side dishes. Hand-crafted sauces. The smell alone could cause a mouth to water.
Barbecue catering businesses are becoming increasingly popular. One such catering business has been smoking meat for over 30 years. When Angelia Peterson, the current owner and manager of Smokestack Catering, was 11 years old her father fell in love with smoked meat.
Peterson said, “The first time we made smoked food it was so bad even our dogs couldn’t eat it.” But soon after that they catered a small tractor show at Willamette Christian School. It was like magic. The rest is history. Smokestack Catering now has catered to crowds of up to 500 people.
The business was called Smokey’s BBQ for awhile while Peterson’s parents ran a restaurant. They closed the restaurant in 2003 and Peterson has ran the catering business ever since.
Peterson’s parents are still very involved. She employs social relatives to be servers at events and she says her dad could not stay away because this is his major love.
Peterson could be described as someone with a broad range of interests. She says that she was interested in fashion and fitness when she was younger. Now in addition to single-handedly running Smokestack Catering, she is a professional photographer and runs a quilt company with her mother.
For Peterson, the catering business is a social outlet. She enjoys interacting with customers. “I like meeting people,” she said.
Peterson says that making the client happy is far more important than money. She enjoys what she does and would not continue to smoke food if it she did not like it. “I do it to play with food and have fun,” Peterson said.
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- B+ Community Grade
- Director: Steve James
- Cast: Documentary
- Rated: Not Rated
- Running time: 125 minutes
Unlike many other socially engaged documentaries, the films of Steve James (Hoop Dreams) are more descriptive than prescriptive, exposing deep, intractable problems that may not have solutions, in spite of the best efforts of those concerned. James’ heartbreaking 2002 documentary Stevie relayed his own challenges and shortcomings as a Big Brother to a violent, erratic young man in rural Illinois. Produced in collaboration with Alex Kotlowitz, a journalist who wrote a 2008 New York Times piece on the effort to curb violence in Chicago, James’ powerful new film The Interrupters offers the lessons of Stevie writ large, as local activists commit, with varied results, to halting a tragic epidemic. It’s a job fraught with volatility and peril, taken with the understanding that some cases may ultimately end in failure.
Filmed over the course of a year that saw more killings on the streets of Chicago than among American soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Interrupters embeds with CeaseFire, an organization devoted to violence prevention. Founded by Gary Slutkin, an epidemiologist who likens the violence to the spread of infectious diseases, CeaseFire employs mediators whose credibility often lies in the tragic lessons of their own criminal histories. James follows three of them: Ameena Matthews, the daughter of notorious gang leader Jeff Fort, who’s shown counseling a 19-year-old girl with immense reserves of anger; Cobe Williams, whose disarming charisma helps tame a young parolee who served an armed-robbery stint and a squatter who constantly threatens to use the pistol tucked in his jeans; and Eddie Bocanegra, a former Latino gang member trying to atone for a murder he committed at age 17.
The Interrupters was shot at a time when violence in Chicago became national news, spurred on by the case of Derrion Albert, a 16-year-old honor student whose death in a South Side mêlée was captured on videotape. Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan both swung by the city for press conferences, and there was talk of National Guardsmen being deployed in “war zones” like Englewood and Roseland. But after the media spotlight fades, CeaseFire remains present to do the tricky work of putting itself in the middle of conflicts, which takes enormous courage on several fronts simultaneously. CeaseFire members aren’t in the business of stopping criminal activity or serving as informants, which occasionally puts the group at odds with the police, and its mediators routinely throw themselves into dangerous situations where they stand between warring parties.
James’ camera is present for moments of extraordinary tension: A contrite ex-con apologizing to the family he terrorized in a barbershop robbery; a street fight that escalates with a butcher knife and a hunk of concrete; a pair of brothers so hostile that they come to blows whenever they see each other. Witnessing outreach workers intervening in these situations is inspiring enough, but their subtlety and nuance in neutralizing people of different backgrounds and temperaments is especially impressive. Given such a wealth of material, James has trouble wrangling it all: Different cuts have been screened at 164 minutes and 145 minutes, and the current 125-minute version feels rushed, with a uncharacteristically pat postscript. If there’s one lesson to be learned from violence interrupters, it’s that their work is never done.
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Imagine a gallery where the works hung on the walls aren't that of Picasso, Matisse and Gauguin, but instead by Pigcasso, Tillamook and Kooba. (True, Picasso was often referred to as an 'animal', but in this case, I'm talking about an actual animal).
The following video is pretty unbelievable (but is real and unaltered). If you can, watch it through to the end to see the finished painting.
Don't believe it? It's true.
Here's are 2 examples of finished pieces by the same elephant, Hong, in the video above, that recently sold for $500.00 a piece:
A bit more about the artist, Hong:
LOCATION: Chiang Mai, THAILAND
CAMP: Maetaman Elephant Camp
ART TEACHER: Khun Tossapol Petcharattanakool
MAHOUT: Mr. Noi Rakchang
HONG'S BIO: At six years old, Hong has a very curious nature. She loves to investigate everything and once managed to use her trunk to open the door of a truck. This kind of curiosity made Hong a natural candidate for artistic instruction. Two years ago, Hong began painting with her mahout, Noi Rakchang, and has steadily developed her skills. After learning how to paint flowers, she moved on to more advanced paintings. She now has two specialties. One is an elephant holding flowers with her trunk, and the other is the Thai flag. An elephant with so much control and dexterity is capable of amazing work. Just for clarification, with these realistic figural works, the elephant is still the only one making the marks on the paper but the paintings are learned series of brushstrokes not Hong painting a still life on her own.
If you want to see a gallery of elephant paintings and even purchase one, go here.
By the way, elephants aren't the only animals whose paintings are hung in galleries. There are several other four legged painters.
Above: A jack russell terrier named Tillie, with an impressive gallery of work, a schedule of showings and even a gift shop. (photos by Brooke Jacobs) See her whole site here
Above: Sammy, a foxhound mix, uses a paintbrush attached to a rubber bone to paint a canvas on June 12, 2007, at a gallery at Salisbury University in Salisbury, Md. Mary Stadelbacher, owner of Shore Service Dogs, has a collection of abstract paintings daubed by her three service dogs in training. (Photo: AP Photo/Matthew S. Gunby)
Above: Pinto, an accomplished painter for a Yucatan miniature pig, gets his snout into an original work of art on Feb. 23, 2006, at Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield, Ill. Using a selection of non-toxic primary colors, Pinto mixes them in innovative ways (hooves, snout, objects and sometimes food items) to create his one-of-a-kind masterpieces. (Photo: AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
Above: Koopa, a Gulf Coast box turtle, creates a summer-themed custom ordered painting for a buyer in Australia at the home of his owner, Kira Varszegi in Hartford, Conn., on Aug. 24, 2004. Koopa's paintings sold on eBay for hundreds of dollars, and his pieces hang in 35 of the 50 states. (Photo: AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Press And Advertising
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The images, text and information by laura sweet on this site are licensed and protected under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. If you reproduce or re-purpose, be sure to credit this blog and link back to the post. Thanks.
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A novel tRNA-associated locus (trl) from Helicobacter pylori is co-transcribed with tRNA(Gly) and reveals genetic diversity.
To date several genes have been identified in Helicobacter pylori that are expressed in only a proportion of strains, some of which are correlated with the pathogenicity of the bacterium. With this in mind, the present study was undertaken to identify other genes that are not expressed in all clinical isolates of H. pylori. Using arbitrarily primed PCR of RNA, a cDNA fragment of 187 bp (designated trl for transfer RNA-associated locus) was identified that was expressed in only one of two clinical isolates being tested. The fragment was purified, cloned and sequenced. A search of public databases prior to the release of the complete genome sequence of H. pylori strain 26695 showed no similarity with any other known genes or gene products. Inverse PCR was used to obtain further nucleotide sequence information surrounding the trl locus. A DNA probe derived from the trl locus hybridized with 32 (50%) of 64 clinical H. pylori isolates tested. Comparison of the nucleotide sequences of a trl-positive and trl-negative isolate showed that the locus is situated between two tRNA genes, tRNA(Gly) and tRNA(Leu), in H. pylori. Primer extension analysis showed that the trl locus is co-transcribed with tRNA(Gly). Analysis of the region between tRNA(Gly) and tRNA(Leu) in trl-negative isolates revealed additional genetic diversity among these isolates.
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U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday launched what some analysts say could be his last major push to get a health care reform bill through Congress. At a nationally televised meeting with top lawmakers, the president urged Republicans and Democrats to seek common ground.
They met for roughly six hours in a packed room at Blair House - the gracious old mansion near the White House that usually hosts visiting heads of state.
As television cameras captured the event, the president appealed for unity.
"We all know this is urgent," said President Obama.
He spoke of the long hours of discussion and deliberations that have already taken place on Capitol Hill, and of the bitterness and controversy that have become part of the health care debate.
"This became a very ideological battle," said Mr. Obama. "It became a very partisan battle and politics, I think, ended up trumping practical common sense."
President Obama said the tone of the debate needs to change. He said it is time to put politics aside.
"I hope that this isn't political theater where we are just playing to the cameras and criticizing each other, but instead we are actually trying to solve the problem," said President Obama.
But it did not take long for the health care summit to turn contentious.
Republicans, like Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, said they were ignored by majority Democrats in drafting the legislation to reform the American health care system - a system where most people use private insurance to help pay their medical bills.
Democrats want greater government involvement to make sure that all Americans have access to affordable health care - including the roughly 30 million uninsured. But Alexander stressed his party believes in a step-by-step approach to cutting costs - an approach he said would be more fiscally responsible at a time of rising federal deficits.
He told the summit that the legislation drafted by Democrats must be tossed out, and that lawmakers should start the process all over again.
"So our view, with all respect, is that this is a car that can't be recalled and fixed, and that we ought to start over," said Lamar Alexander.
And so it went, hour after hour. As time passed, it sounded less and less like a meeting, and more and more like a Congressional debate.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the Democrats would not start the legislative process all over again. She told those around the table at Blair House to remember all of the American families that are struggling to pay for medical care.
"What we do here must be relevant to their lives," said Nancy Pelosi. "And for them, they don't have time for us to start over."
But Eric Cantor of Virginia - the number two Republican in the House of Representatives - stressed that the bill put forward by Democrats is too costly and will explode the national debt.
"We just can't afford this," said Eric Cantor. "That is the ultimate problem here - in a perfect world, everyone would have everything they want. This government can't afford it. Businesses can't afford it."
When the long hours of discussion concluded, it appeared that no minds had been changed, but at least a dialogue had begun.
Both sides are now expected to regroup and assess the summit results. Democratic congressional leaders say they are hopeful something will come out of the meeting. But they also make clear that they are willing to go it alone, if necessary, to get health care reform through Congress.
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| 0.979849 | 696 | 1.53125 | 2 |
The Queen of Stylish Green
Andrea Kantelberg’s interior design studio is pure white. White walls, white table, white chairs. The headquarters of Kantelberg Design is more like a canvass than an office, a space where Canada’s doyenne of green design can create in the high style meets healthy design aesthetic for which she’s now known.
Kantelberg has made a name for herself as a designer of chic condominium interiors. She works for high-end developers in downtown Toronto, designing elegant lobbies and inspiring model suites, as well as coming up with the finishes that buyers will choose from for cabinets and flooring. Now she’s using her success to spread the word about healthy design, attempting to make environmental consciousness part of everyone’s furnishing equation.
Kantelberg incorporates the principles of green design into every project, so the spaces she creates can be healthy, beautiful places to live for those with – and without – asthma and environmental sensitivities. “It’s important for me to make sure people are buying a suite without chemicals,” she says. Without any compromise on the style front, of course.
Kantelberg didn’t set out with a grand plan to become Canada’s ultimate eco-interior designer. Arriving there has been, one might say, an organic process. She’s the daughter of two eco-minded parents who taught her to be cognizant of her impact on Mother Earth.
Ever since she was a child, Kantelberg has also suffered with environmental sensitivities – severe enough that her mother used to bring along sheets for her daughter wherever they travelled. Today, she still can’t wear synthetic fabrics and becomes unwell in an air-conditioned environment. She can get sick even staying one night in a hotel with poor air quality. “It has helped me as a designer because I am aware of how these things affect people.”
Kantelberg enrolled in design school at 27, graduating in 1994, and opening her own studio specializing in luxury interiors by 1997. Nine years later, Tridel asked her to design what it dubbed its “Eco Suite,” an educational condominium the company was creating to demonstrate sustainable living.
Intrigued, Kantelberg went all-out to create the ultimate green space. She brought in recycled drywall and non-toxic, water-based stains and glues. She made sure linens were organic, paints emitted the least amount of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) possible and fixtures conserved energy and water.
In older condo buildings, air is circulated among the units (so if your neighbour down the hall smokes, you’ll end up breathing it). To avoid this, Kantelberg had an Energy Recovery Ventilation (ERV) system installed to filter the Eco Suite’s air. The project awakened her inner environmentalist. In every job since, she has incorporated elements of green design.
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| 0.957503 | 630 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Priority Club® Rewards, the loyalty program for IHG, InterContinental® Hotels Group, and its Family of Brands, is changing its name to IHG® Rewards Club. You'll still receive the same great benefits you have today, plus new ones like free Internet for members globally in 2014, starting with Elite members in July 2013.
Corporate Responsibility Report
Our carbon footprint
In 2012 we commissioned carbon footprint specialists Best Foot Forward to give us an up-to-date picture of IHG’s carbon footprint. Known as the experts’ expert, Best Foot Forward measures footprints for some of the world’s best known companies and has helped develop global carbon footprint standards.
The study used our most comprehensive set of hotel data yet. Thanks to Green Engage we were able to collect data from over 1,200 hotels worldwide, providing information on carbon emissions across regions and brands. We decided to focus on Scope 1 and 2 emissions as these are the areas where we can have greater influence over our hotels. Scope 1 covers emissions from sources that are owned or directly controlled by the hotel, such as natural gas for heating or diesel for a guest bus. Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions and include those from purchased electricity, steam and heat with emissions occurring at the facility where they are generated.
The results are encouraging, particularly in our owned and managed estate where our hotels have been using Green Engage for three years. Here we’ve seen a 15% reduction in total carbon footprint between 2010 and 2011. The reduction per occupied room in our owned and managed hotels for the same period is 19%. For our global estate, both owned and managed and franchised, we have reduced our global carbon footprint by 76,000tCO2e. Let’s put some of those figures into context:
- By reducing our total global carbon footprint in our owned and managed estate by 15%, is the equivalent of filling 2010 Empire State Buildings
- We have reduced our global carbon footprint by 76,000tCO2e which would fill over 1,600 Sydney Opera Houses.
IHG's total carbon footprint
Direct and indirect emissions in our owned and managed estate for 2011
Direct and indirect emissions in our franchised estate for 2011
Direct and indirect emissions explained
|Emissions produced from|
|Direct (Scope 1)||gases
diesel and petrol
|Energy indirect (Scope 2)||purchased electricity
hot and chilled water
Thanks to a new carbon calculator in Green Engage our hotels are now able to report on the carbon footprint of a night's stay or on a meeting held by a client, giving us a more accurate picture of the progress we are making to reduce our carbon footprint. It also provides carbon insight to the growing number of guests and corporate clients who want to book greener hotel rooms.
The calculator is based on the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI), a standardised approach to measuring carbon footprints in our industry. We took a lead role in developing the standard, working with the International Tourism Partnership (ITP), the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and other leading hotel companies.
The average IHG hotel's carbon footprint is 32kg per occupied room.
IHG's carbon footprint is approximately 4.6 million metric tonnes (based on Scope 1 and 2).
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| 0.949862 | 687 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Today’s hearing provides an important and timely opportunity to shed light on the role some countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have played and may be playing in arming rogue regimes. While the issue of such arms transfers has been raised in the context of other Commission hearings, the experts assembled today will be able to provide a comprehensive analysis of a topic with direct implications for the security interests of the United States. Additionally, the murky world of arms brokers is linked to corruption and international crime.
During my service on the Helsinki Commission I have repeatedly urged the State Department to raise the issues of corruption and international crime within the OSCE. While we have made some modest inroads, the scope of the threats requires much more attention. At a time when the OSCE is assessing “new threats” to security, it would be foolhardy to overlook the multidimensional threats posed by corruption and international crime. The United States should take the lead in pressing the subject of this hearing at the first Annual Security Review Conference to be convened in Vienna later this month.
It is no coincidence that many of the countries to be discussed at today’s hearing have fallen short of their commitments to build open and democratic societies. At the extreme is Belarus, Europe’s holdout dictatorship. The Belarus Democracy Act, which I sponsored in the Senate, is an attempt to support democracy, human rights and the rule of law in that country. As the Belarusian economy has spiraled downward, sales to rouge states have likely taken on even greater importance, though the closed nature of the regime makes it difficult to fully assess.
In Ukraine, we have President Kuchma on tape authorizing the sale of sophisticated radars to Iraq. An isolated incident? Doubtful. Kuchma’s reckless action renders him an unreliable partner and casts a shadow over relations with Ukraine as long as he is in power. I am particularly disturbed that some officials in Washington have been ready to gloss over this whole affair. What message does it send to others if the United States is prepared to let him off the hook on such a grave matter?
The role of the Russian Federation is of deep concern given the evidence of past transfers as well as the potential for future deals. With arms merchants crisscrossing the country, it is hard to imagine that Putin, the KGB chief turned president is not informed. It is also worth noting that revelations of illicit arms trading in Russia have failed to lead to even a single conviction.
While some may claim a lack of technical know-how impedes their ability to track arms transfers, we must not lose sight of the important element of political will. We cannot afford to turn to a blind eye with respect to the complicity of senior civilian and military leaders in transfers that violate international commitments or are otherwise detrimental to the security interests of the United States.
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So, quick survey – how many of you are reading this wondering how I will relate this to family history!?!?
I’ve been putting together a book of stories from when my sister’s children were young. We call it “The Mouser Family Absolutely True Stories.” I wrote down many of these stories back before there were so many cool ways to put words and pictures in books to share. These are just all in a word document. So, now I am gathering pictures and trying to make them into something to share.
This is the story I am working on today and I just couldn’t resist blogging it as well.
When my sister’s two girls were about 3 and 5, the older one could torment the life out of the younger one just by what she said. One of Kyli's favorite times to tease her little sister was when they were in the car. I guess sitting there in those car seats had to be pretty boring because before too long, Kyli would look over at her sister and say (very quietly), “You have a swan on your head.” Codi would immediately wail, “Mommy, Kyli says I have a swan on my head. I don’t waaaaaannnt a swan on my head!!!” Very often actual tears would ensue. My sister could try to reason with Codi but it didn’t really matter because Kyli SAID the swan was there. Of course Kyli would just sit there with an angelic look on her face. Sometime it would be a dinosaur or even an inanimate object that would be “on” Codi’s head. The results were always the same however. Over the years as we’ve re-told the story – as family’s will – it’s always the swan we use to tell the tale.
As adults, we laugh at how gullible poor little Codi was to fall for something so silly. How could something her big sister said override the obvious fact that there WAS NO SWAN? Yet as adults we do the same thing all our lives – we believe that one bad thing someone else says no matter how many others tell us it isn’t so. We even spend time worrying about that stupid swan and refuse to listen to those we know are “older and wiser” who tell us that really, we do NOT have a swan on our head!
It’s become something of a proverb in our family now, “Don’t let someone else put a swan on your head.”
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September 27, 2010
As a childcare provider, it can be challenging to obtain established and productive relationships with parents of the young children I care for. My goal as the childcare provider is to have the best relationship with these children’s parents as possible, because good and positive relationships lead to success. I have strategized a plan to obtain my goal. What I plan to do is offer the parents all the information and knowledge about myself and my teaching to them. I will strongly advise my parents to ask questions and give them honest and factual answers. I will provide a loving, nurturing, educational environment, caring for their child to the best of my abilities. I will keep communication open, communication probably the most important way to have that positive relationship with a parent. Some ways that I will communicate with parents are daily reports that are sent home with the child, conferences weather over the phone or in classroom, and by planning family activities, opening more opportunities’ for communication. Second, will build positive and productive relationships with parents is by providing the parents with resources. Along with the resources, I will support and help the parents gain the necessities needed to cope with the stresses they may face. I will earn their trust by providing confidentiality for those parents experiencing hardships. Third, I will invite the parents to contribute in the program. Encouraging parents and relatives to participate on occasions when their job skills, hobbies, or other special expertise can be beneficial to the children. For example, a father of one of the children is a firefighter; he could visit and teach the children fire safety or urging parents to get involved in the construction and maintenance part of program, for instance constructing a play gym/ playground. This allowing all involved with their children, an opportunity to be a positive role model... [continues]
Cite This Essay
(2010, 10). Family Relationships. StudyMode.com. Retrieved 10, 2010, from http://www.studymode.com/essays/Family-Relationships-453537.html
"Family Relationships" StudyMode.com. 10 2010. 10 2010 <http://www.studymode.com/essays/Family-Relationships-453537.html>.
"Family Relationships." StudyMode.com. 10, 2010. Accessed 10, 2010. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Family-Relationships-453537.html.
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I've been absent for awhile as the press push for Not Quite Adults kicks into high gear. But I'm back... NQA launched itself into adulthood on Dec 28. I was thrilled yesterday to get a shout-out from the New Yorker's Book Bench. I can die a happy woman now. My coauthor and I discussed the book on Leonard Lopate show and I was on the venerable Milt Rosenberg show, Extension 720 on WGN in Chicago. More to come...
If we had one goal with this book it was to change the conversation we have with our kids and them with us. But I fear that our book pales in comparison to the effect the recession will have (has had) on this conversation. The hard economic times and the truly bleak job market for young adults has done more than we could have ever managed with our small book to make people realize that this generation is facing a vastly different world than any of us older folks did.
The unemployment rate for young people under age 25 is a whopping 15.9%--and rising. It's been going up since October while the national rate has fallen slightly. For men of this age, it's a stunning 18.2%. It gets a little better the older you are, but not much. For those age 25-34, 10.4% are out of work.
Being out of work, or in the case of young people, unable to find that first job makes it hard to plan for a future. For us Americans, jobs define us. They support us. They make everything else run smoothly.
Young adults are stalled. Job fairs are packed. The pickings are slim and the competition is tight. One young woman told us in our interviews for the Generation R book that she was putting off moving in with her boyfriend because she didn't want to be a burden to him--she has college debt and no solid job leads. I'm sure many more young people are thinking the same thing. Although some economists say the economy is lifting, I think they need to get out on the street more often. It certainly isn't lifting for these young people.
We've been here before of course. Recessions in the early 1980s were bad, and of course there's the Great Depression. It's interesting that the trends in living at home longer began to rise during the 1980s recession. In fact, about the same share of young adults aged 18-24 were living at home in 1982-3 as are doing so now. What's different now, however, is how many 25-34 year olds are living at home--up about 50% since the 1980s. In the Depression, we also saw many more young people living at home. Nearly 70% of young white men age 20 were living at home in 1939, while about 30% were still living at home by age 25. Marriage rates also dropped.
Economists worry that this recession will not only last longer, but its reverberations will be felt for many years to come. We're just not as prepared to bounce back as we were before. So many more people have been out of work for more than a year this time around. Being out of the workforce that long really sets you back. On top of that, our education ranking is dismal. We're just not well-positioned to rally as quickly or as convincingly as we once were.
A new report by researchers at Rutgers on the recession finds a deep vein of pessimism running through our collective psyche right now. The report's title says it all: "The Shattered American Dream: Unemployed Workers Lose Ground, Hope, and Faith in Their Futures."
One of the authors told Bob Herbert in the New York Times that he was struck by how pessimistic some respondents have become, "not just about their own situation but about the nation's future. 'They're losing the idea that if you are determined and work hard, you can get ahead,' Van Horn said. 'They don't think they or their children are going to fare particularly well.'"
Frank Rich in Sunday's Times added another layer to this story. In "Who Killed the Disneyland Dream," he takes us along on a trip to Disneyland that the Barstows--a typical can-do family in the 1950s-- took after winning a slogan contest for 3M's Scotch Tape.
The difference between then and now is palpable. While the Barstows marveled at the innovations before them in Disneyland, our government's R&D budget is slashed. Their optimism in America and their ability carve out a simple, but comfortable life in the suburbs sustained them. They also were comforted by the fact that most Americans were like them--middle class. (Not all mind you--black Americans were still at the back of the bus.) But there was not the huge divide between the wealthy and the rest of us. There was also no striving for out-of-reach material goods like huge houses and multiple cars that occurs when you try to keep up to the Joneses when the Joneses are rich and setting the bar so high (Robert Frank talks more about this in his many books).
And it is this difference--this changed world, this rise of a high-stakes competitive "game" that demands a resume in high school, this demise of employers who believed that what was good for their workers was good for their bottom line, and the rise of a winner-take-all society--that we try to capture in NQA. For those still trying to play by the old rules, trying to bolt out the door to a fast adulthood, it is this changed game that puts them on a high-risk collision course between their aspirations and their reality.
It is also this changed world that young adults find themselves inheriting. Yet unlike the Barstows, their shot at the middle class has withered.
As Rich puts it:
How many middle-class Americans now believe that the sky is the limit if they work hard enough? How many trust capitalism to give them a fair shake? Middle-class income started to flatten in the 1970s and has stagnated ever since. While 3M has continued to prosper, many other companies that actually make things (and at times innovative things) have been devalued, looted or destroyed by a financial industry whose biggest innovation in 20 years, in the verdict of the former Fed chairman Paul Volcker, has been the cash machine.
It's a measure of how rapidly our economic order has shifted that nearly a quarter of the 400 wealthiest people in America on this year's Forbes list make their fortunes from financial services, more than three times as many as in the first Forbes 400 in 1982. Many of America's best young minds now invent derivatives, not Disneylands, because that's where the action has been, and still is, two years after the crash. In 2010, our system incentivizes high-stakes gambling - "this business of securitizing things that didn't even exist in the first place," as Calvin Trillin memorably wrote last year - rather than the rebooting and rebuilding of America.
In last week's exultant preholiday press conference, Obama called for a "thriving, booming middle class, where everybody's got a shot at the American dream." But it will take much more than rhetorical Scotch tape to bring that back. The Barstows of 1956 could not have fathomed the outrageous gap between this country's upper class and the rest of us. America can't move forward until we once again believe, as they did, that everyone can enter Frontierland if they try hard enough, and that no one will be denied a dream because a private party has rented out Tomorrowland.
It is this new order that we try to capture in NQA. It is this narrowing of the possibilities, the questioning of the fair shake--along with many other equally fundamental changes--that have affected the path to adulthood. And because the stakes are higher, and because young people need to position themselves so much more carefully if they are to compete, their embrace of "adulthood" is going to take time.
We no longer live in the world that allowed a fast start. Young people need more education (which comes with a high price-tag), they need more credentials, they must be more strategic in that first job choice. In turn, they should hold off on children and marriage until they're ready and able to commit to a family. All this was true before the recession, and it's even more critical now. That's why we hope to have a different conversation than the one we hear so frequently--"kids are coddled," or "kick them out and let them grow up." A slower path to adulthood is a better path because it ensures a more secure future in this increasingly unstable, unpredictable world.
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One week from now, athletes from around the world will march in the opening ceremonies for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Tens of thousands will be in attendance while roughly a billion more will watch the festivities on television sets around the globe.
One of those who will be glued to the tube is 24-year-old Cloverdale realtor Brittany Reimer, who will be experiencing a major case of déjà vu as the fortnight in London unfolds.
Eight years ago, at the tender age of 16, Reimer was one those athletes competing for Canada at the 2004 Games in the birthplace of the Olympic movement, Athens, Greece. Reimer acknowledges the latest edition of the Games will bring back a flood of memories
She was the youngest member of the Canadian swim team in Athens by three years, a young phenom competing against the best swimmers in the world. She swam in the 200-metre, 400m, and 800m freestyle events as well as the 4x100m medley relay. She did not reach the finals in any of her events and remembers being disappointed with her results.
"The Olympics only happen every four years and you have to try to be at your best in that year and at that time," she recalls.
"It's so hard to time that peak and for those who can do it, that's amazing. If I had the year I had in 2005 a year earlier, the times I had at the (2005) world championships would have medaled in Athens. It's a timing thing and you never know when that timing is right until the day of the race."
As the biggest sporting spectacle on the planet, the Olympics are much more than just a sporting event. In addition to the racing, Reimer's memories include things that escaped the attention of most broadcast crews, such as:
- Athletes from Third World nations lined up for McDonalds - a restaurant unavailable to them in their homelands - in the massive Olympic Village complex.
- A sandstorm that swept through Athens one night just before she was about to race, causing the overhead cameras to sway in the breeze.
- Eating in the cafeteria next to such stars as Michael Phelps, Ryan Thorpe, Andy Roddick and Yao Ming.
- Dressed in her track suit and swim cap and waiting in the stuffy, overheated ready room - a tunnel beneath the stands - with sweat pouring off of her.
- A little stray dog that was adopted by the Canadian swimmers during a two-week pre-Olympic training camp on the Greek island of Kos prior to the games.
The year after Athens, Reimer had a breakout summer highlighted by a memorable showing at the 2005 World Aquatics Championships Montreal. In front of Canadian fans, Reimer won a silver medal in the 800m freestyle and a bronze in the 1,500m freestyle events. She also placed placed fourth in the women's 400m freestyle final and broke three Canadian records.
The following year at the 2006 Commonwealth games in Australia, Reimer won a bronze medal in the women's 800m freestyle.
And that was it. With the 2008 Olympic Games in China looming, Reimer decided the fire was no longer burning strong enough inside her to continue to train and compete at an elite level.
"I retired right before 2008 and I was ready to retire and move on to the next chapter in my life," she says. "Everyone told me I could have kept going but it's a big commitment. I loved the life of an athlete but I started my athletic life so young, at age six.
- "I made my first national team when I was 15 and most people don't do that until they're in their 20s. I started young and I was fortunate enough to win medals at the world championships and the Commonwealth Games and I swam in the Olympics. I had experienced everything I thought I needed to experience in that world and I was just ready to move on with my life."
While she no longer hits the pool every day, she is still involved in the sport. As an Olympian, she understands the exclusive club she belongs to and what it means to youngsters. She volunteers with her former clubs, the Cloverdale Tritons and Surrey Knights, as well as Holyburn in West Vancouver. When she meets with kids, she brings her medals as a source of inspiration for the next generation of Canadian swimmers, recalling her first brush with Olympic stardom when she met Canadian Olympian Jessica Deglau at a swim meet at UBC at the age of 12. She later learned Deglau had a similar experience with another Canadian swim star when she was a young girl.
"It's funny how the cycle goes," Reimer says. "For me, I meet so many young kids in swim clubs and at least one of those kids has to keep that cycle going. It has to happen and I never know which kid will be the one who goes on to be an Olympian. When I talk to kids, I always tell them that they can do it. I'm just like every other kid and I did it so you can do it."
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So once again, I reached out to the Lit Community to find out exactly why other deviants failed at NaNo, or what they found to NOT work for them and compiled it all together in a pretty little list like last time.
What Not to Do
Don't get sucked in Wikipedia, TVtropes or any other sites like that. In fact turn off your WiFi so the internet isn't a distraction. All your research should be done before NaNo, so this shouldn't be an issue. If you REALLY need to use the internet, have one specific task in mind and as soon as you're done with that, close the browser window.
Don't stress if you miss a day. Just tack a little extra onto the next four days' goals and you'll be back on track. If you miss a week, you may be in trouble. This is where having a schedule comes in handy. No not a schedule of what time you're going to write, but knowing days you will definitely be writing and what days you'll be unable to due to prior engagements.
Don't edit as you go. Write what you write and leave it at that. There'll be plenty of time later to edit. But during November, DO NOT edit anything that you write. You'll get stuck editing and not writing.
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT backspace! Well, alright you can do it a
little, but only here and there. Don't doubt your writing and leave the
editing/changes for later.
Don't worry about the quality of the writing. The goal is to get 50k words down. Editing word choice and grammar will come later.
Don't be discouraged after the first week when the words aren't flowing as smoothly as they were at the start. Just stick to it and push yourself through. Consider jumping a couple scenes ahead if need be.
Don't be lazy. Keep at it. Join a group (either local to your area or online) that will push you. Because people you know that aren't writers won't push like your writer friends will.
Don't do NaNo instead of homework. That's just asking for trouble.
Avoid becoming sick or getting in car accidents. They will kill your word count quickly.
Don't let excuses get in the way. There's a REASON they put NaNo in November, with all the holiday chaos and while people are still in school. There will always be a reason you're TOO BUSY, but you have to push these reasons aside and make time to write anyway.
Have a baby due on November 8th [Thank you ^Beccalicious]
I'm Stuck! What do I do?!
Your brain has been attacked by the evilness that is writers' block or brain freeze. Obviously, this isn't a good thing during NaNo, so you're just gonna have to work yourself through it. I'm a firm believer in just sitting there and writing whatever comes to mind until you get back into the groove, but here are a couple ideas that come from other deviants on how to get out of that rut your brain just fell into.
Death by Shovel. Take a character (any one will do) and kill them with a shovel. That should get things moving along.
Natural disaster. Mother Nature is a bitch. Let her wreak havoc on your characters. Storm of the century style!
Step back and write a quickie flash fiction scene of something that's been floating around in your head. Get that out and then get back to work. Even if these scenes aren't used in your final product or even toward your NaNo word count. They're great ways to get your creative juices flowing and those words flowing on to the screen.
Change your location. Not your story location. Your ACTUAL location. Go somewhere else. If you usually write indoors, try going outside. If staying at home isn't an option, go to a local park, your public library, a coffee house. A different place will spark fresh ideas simply because you're in new surroundings.
Once Again a HUGE Thank You to All the Deviants that Made this Feature Possible
*TarienCole, ~WTFgirl, ~AzeeraTheNinja, *kittykittyhunter, ~forbiddenhero, ~Thy-Robocop, ~damina, ~AeternusVotum, ~TMCanada, ~evil83angel, *MeganLawler94, =Loza-Muse, `thorns, =TheSkaBoss, ~SkysongMA, `PinkyMcCoversong, ~Nekolai, ~ozzla, =BloodrainFireDawn, *The-Monoblos and ~AspiredWriter
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MHP: American vs. Chinese Efforts in Africa
Coinciding with the opening of the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry and her guests grappled with the effects of HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the United Nations research listed during the show, 22.5 million people in that region are suffering from the disease, and 70 percent of America's aid to Africa is earmarked for health care.
Elsewhere, China, according to the New York Times, has announced a $20 billion loan to leaders on the continent, solidifying the Asian country's business connections in that area.
Watch Melissa Harris-Perry and her guests tackle this political subject below:
Watch more at MSNBC.
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Leadership Circles of Giving
Leadership gifts play a critical role in sustaining the Academy's scientific research programs, which explore today's most significant questions in environmental science, biodiversity, and evolution.
Leadership donors also ensure the conservation of the Academy's priceless collections of more than 18 million specimens—including such treasures as John James Audubon's birds and Thomas Jefferson's fossil collection—and sustain the Academy's programs of education, exhibits, and public discourse around the most important environmental topics of our time.
In recognition of their exceptional generosity, Leadership donors have special access to all the Academy has to offer, including opportunities to meet with Academy scientists and curators to learn firsthand about the Academy's outstanding collections and research, exclusive invitations to special receptions and exhibit previews, behind-the-scenes tours, and much more.
$1,000 President's Circle
President's Circle membership provides you with all the benefits of general Academy membership, plus these additional benefits reserved for Leadership Circle donors only:
- An exclusive invitation to the annual Academy Trustees' Cocktail Reception.
- An invitation to an Academy President's Dinner, hosted by the Academy's President & CEO and featuring intimate access to the Academy's collections and opportunities to meet Academy researchers and curators.
- Free daytime parking at a nearby parking facility when you visit the Academy (up to four visits per year).
- A special family welcome packet on request with family activities, visit plans, and more for your children or grandchildren.
$2,500 Lewis and Clark Circle
Among the Academy's most treasured specimens are those collected by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their fabled 1804–1806 expedition to the American West. As a member of the Lewis and Clark Circle, you receive all the benefits of President's Circle membership, plus:
- An exclusive invitation to the Academy's Spring Champagne Brunch in Butterflies!
- Recognition on the Academy's Donor Wall.
- Ability to extend invitations to two additional guests for select Academy receptions and events.
$5,000 Leidy Circle
Dr. Joseph Leidy is one of the giants of Academy history; as the Academy curator in the mid-19th century, he pioneered the growth of paleontology as a scientific discipline and is known today as the father of American vertebrate paleontology. As a member of the Leidy Circle, you receive all the benefits of Lewis and Clark Circle membership, plus:
- A private luncheon with the Academy's President & CEO for four people, followed by a customized behind-the-scenes tour of the Academy with an Academy curator.
- Free daytime parking at a nearby parking facility when you visit the Academy (up to six visits per year).
- $25 gift card to the Academy Shop.
$10,000 Darwin Circle
Charles Darwin became a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences in 1860. The Academy was the first American institution to formally recognize Darwin's scientific contributions by electing him to membership. As a member of the Darwin Circle, you receive all the benefits of Leidy Circle membership, plus:
- A private cocktail reception at the Academy for up to six people, followed by a customized behind-the-scenes tour with an Academy curator.
- Free daytime parking at a nearby parking facility when you visit the Academy (up to eight visits per year).
$25,000 Jefferson Circle
The Jefferson Circle honors President Thomas Jefferson, whose fossil collection is housed in the Academy's Paleontology Department. Thomas Jefferson was elected as a member of the Academy in 1818. Jefferson Circle members play a leadership role in supporting the Academy's mission, and enjoy a close relationship with Academy scientists and curators. If you are interested in joining the Jefferson Circle, we would be delighted to arrange a private consultation to assist you in planning a gift that meets your philanthropic goals. As a member of the Jefferson Circle, you receive all the benefits of Darwin Circle membership, plus:
- A private dinner for up to eight people in an Academy gallery of your choice, followed by a customized behind-the-scenes tour of the Academy with an Academy curator.
- A natural history publication, selected each year by the Academy Senior Fellow for Jefferson Circle members.
- Invitation to the annual Jefferson Circle dinner, hosted at the private home of an Academy Trustee.
- Free daytime parking at a nearby parking facility when you visit the Academy (up to 12 visits per year).
How to Join our Leadership Circles of Giving
There are many ways to show your Leadership level support for the Academy. You can join today by making your Leadership gift:
Can we help you?
We would be delighted to share more information about the Academy's Leadership Circles of Giving program with you. To learn more about giving at the Leadership Circles level, please contact our Office of Institutional Advancement at 215-299-1122 or [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the Academy!
The official registration and financial information of the Academy of Natural Sciences may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll-free, within Pennsylvania, 1-800-732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement.
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Bastion of Free Speech
By and large, oratory in American politics is a lost art. Television and its sound bite, coupled with a general apathy to social and political realities, have all combined to run this most delectable skill to near extinction in our political sphere. It is, therefore, a rare treat these days, to hear a genuine orator speak.
When the retired Senator Dale Bumpers of Arkansas addressed the Senate in defense of President Clinton, during the impeachment trial a few years back, it was wonderful to watch an old-time, pre-TV, politician at his best, putting forward ideas, defending them, arguing to and with the public. Jeff Greenfield, the TV commentator, remarked then he hoped young people were watching Bumpers' performance, for it was a glimpse into a now-defunct world, one with the cut and thrust of thought-provoking debate and verbal jousting.
Mario Cuomo is an orator, no doubt, but one rarely gets to hear him - no one is allowed more than a minute at a time on television. His last hurrah was during the 1984 Democratic Convention, when he held the crowd spellbound. Recall that this was before everything was so stage-managed, while a convention speaker still had some latitude to say something intelligent.
Jesse Jackson too is an orator of sorts,
In recent times, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were decent speakers, though Clinton is the better orator by far. Reagan had the knack of delivering a written speech well, hitting the punchline with exquisite timing, but one never heard him express a great deal of thought (which is really the stuff of oratory). Add to this Reagan's usual confusion about the facts, and the efforts of his handlers to keep him from making any major gaffes. When he spoke of themes he had thought about, though, he was a master entertainer - something you could not say about his successor, George Bush Sr. who was, even on a good day, excruciating.
Bill Clinton is capable of great speechmaking. He is also highly intelligent, not to mention well-read. There was that famous five-minute off-the-cuff speech he gave on NAFTA, in the presence of all his predecessors, completely unrehearsed, cogent and strong on facts, which prompted George Bush Sr. to remark, "I just learned why he is inside (the White House) looking out, and I'm outside, looking in." Clinton had even succeeded in sparking an reed of eloquence in Bush!
Clinton has given some great speeches, but unfortunately most of them were in the aftermath of his Lewinsky scandal. One was at a prayer breakfast in DC, the other at a Black gathering in New England. As they addressed no more than self-serving themes, they had the usual quota of intelligence and congency, but lacked any greater purpose.
When the two contenders for President ran in 2000, the bar for oratory was lowered several notches. People were ecstatic when a candidate spoke a complete sentence well. One aide is quoted as remarking you always feared what might happen if the piece of paper before George W. Bush blew away in the wind. Al Gore spoke when he didn't have to (all those charges of exaggeration), and remained silent when should have spoken out (at all the Bush giveaways). The silence was more eloquent than his speech.
No - unfortunately for us, the great orators of our times all live outside of America. Fidel Castro is deemed to be magnificent. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was supposed to be exceptional, but some thought him a demagogue more than an orator. Blair is widely regarded as a great orator. India's Vajpayee is good, but he is more Jesse Jackson than anything approaching Lincoln - full of clever words but little mental cargo.
And so it was that when I happened upon Louis Farrakhan speaking on one of the public access TV channels earlier this week, I was transfixed where I stood. Here was a genuine orator. Farrakhan speaks fluently, thoughtfully, cleverly, using words well, everything an great orator needs. He can argue and alliterate, unlike Jackson who can do only the latter. He is an intelligent speaker, and a bold one. Of course, he speaks with all the trappings of a fascist cult leader - cued applause, a large, fawning, uniformed body of factotums on the dais. I remember listening to an excerpt from him during the Lewinsky scandal - when an interviewer asked him about Clinton's demeaning the Oval Office, he flung the question back, "Are you suggesting that's the worst that has ever happened in that office? It is a place from which assassinations have been ordered! Agree with him or not, he is one of the few politicians who has a mind of his own and willing to speak it. It helps, no doubt, that he is not planning to run for any public office - he is dictator for life in his own organization.
In any event, he made the comparison between the Islamic fundamentalists and the American Revolutionaries, both opposed to the Establishment of their times, seeking to overthrow it. Farrakhan quoted and read extensively from the Declaration of Independence. The people we called terrorists, he said, were merely asserting their rights, and regarded themselves as martyrs. Farrakhan probably didn't realize he wasn't being particularly original in comparing the jehadis with America's Founders. Ronald Reagan was on to this theme two decades ahead of him, hailing the jehadis as the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.
Despite the chasm which separates the lofty idealism of a Thomas Jefferson with the blinkered mind of a Muttawakil, the yawning gulf between the benign wisdom of a Benjamin Franklin and the cruel rantings of a Mullah Omar, Farrakhan and Reagan are correct in identifying their similarity - that both the American colonists and the Taliban have stood up to the mightiest powers of their day. But the similarity ends there. The American revolution was fought and defended in the name of universal freedoms, not universal restrictions. It was waged not to gain powers for one race or religion, or to exclude some group of people. Yes, we all know that blacks and women and Indians did not have full rights. But the spirit of the revolution, and the Declaration of Independence, did not enshrine these limitations. Rather, they spoke of the rights of all human beings. Over time, the spirit of the Constitution and the Declaration overcame the ground realities.
The Taliban and its cohorts are quite the opposite. They want all non-muslims to get out of Saudi Arabia. While they are happy to see the spread of Islam all over the world, they have arrested Christian missionaries trying to spread Christianity in Afghanistan. If this seems unfair, the noted Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis has an explanation. (The Taliban) see their religion as the correct one and others as inferior, and see it as only proper that they should promote their cause while preventing others from spreading theirs. They do not see their religion as one among many equals. Before we get all agog over this, let us remember that this is not so unusual an attitude. The mindset of certitude is not exclusive to the Taliban. Neither is proselytization, which Christians do with no small measure of glee. Nor is monotheism exclusive to religion. American companies have not hesitated to overthrow governments abroad to promote their products and to spread free markets - a cause somewhat less altruistic, let us admit, than the saving of souls. Winston Churchill once remarked that he refused to remain neutral between the fire and the fire brigade. The Taliban attitude is that they are the fire brigade. There is one small problem, though. As an Afghan resident was quoted in New York Times in the aftermath of the mayhem in Afghanistan following the fall of the Najibullah government, "If this is Islam, give us the Infidels". Many people would identify the Taliban with the fire, not the fire brigade.America is not perfect. Its policies abroad are anti-democratic, violent, anti-people and arrogant. But its people are a different matter. Some one hundered and fifty years ago, deToqueville wrote that America was great because its people were good. America is also great because it is the only country ever founded on an idea (or perhaps more properly, ideals) , not some narrow notion of geography or ethnicity or religion.
But, I hear you say, What is the use of all the ideals in the world if it is accompanied by the complete opposite on the ground - death squads, arms-dealing, overthrow of popular governments, the works? It is not an easy answer. But given a choice between narrow ideals & faithful implementation (Taliban), vs. high ideals and poor implementation (America) we should recall the words of Churchill (now that was an orator) to a lady who hissed at him that he was drunk, "And madam, you're ugly. But I'll be sober tomorrow." That may well be, but we had better sober up quick.
Copyright(c) SWARAJYA.COM, 2001. All rights reserved.
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In another discussion recently, Eric Chan mentioned that LR could handle 32 bit TIFF and DNG files
. The DNG mention piqued my curiosity. I followed up and asked Eric how 32 bit DNGs could be created because it wasn't an option when saving out a 32 bit file in PS (or PM). I don't believe Eric had responded. But it's true. Adobe has announced a new DNG spec
and 32 bit floating point is part of it. So I'm still curious how 32 bit DNGs can be created. Thoughts? 32 bit TIFF files are huge in size compared to EXR or HDR files. If 32 bit DNGs are smaller and closer in size to other 32 bit file formats, it may make LR a truly viable option for tonemapping those images.
But another little trick that is part of the spec is a crop undo. Some cameras offer crops that aren't in the native aspect ratio of the sensor. For example, the D800 offers a 4:5 in addition to the native 3:2. As part of the new DNG 1.4 spec, Adobe has given users the ability to recover that crop and get back the entire sensor with a new LR plugin
Speculation from my side but perhaps a future LR version will be able to merge HDR to the new DNG format?
It also seems the new DNG version can handle 16-bit floating point. Hopefully the "Merge to 32-bit HDR Plug-in for Lightroom" also will handle this format. It save a TIFF file with 16-bit floating point but without compression:
"Floating Point (HDR)
HDR images have a high dynamic range that will not fit into a 16-bit linear integer encoding. Floating point storage of information allows for a larger amount of dynamic range to be stored within a file:
16-bit integer data can only store 16 f-stops of image detail.
16-bit floating point data can store over 30 f-stops of image detail.
32-bit floating point data can store hundreds of f-stops of image detail."
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Todd Akin Sought to Narrow the Definition of Child Abuse
Many seem to think that Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” remarks placed him on the fringe of the Republican Party. In reality, he’s spent most of his career there.
It’s now widely known that Akin teamed up with Paul Ryan in 2011 to try to narrow the definition of rape – i.e. “forcible rape.” This is no anomaly. Early in his career as a state legislator, Akin even tried to narrow the definition of child abuse.
Back in May of 1991, the Missouri House debated a bill to “outlaw rape and sexual abuse in marriage.” “Rape is rape,” said Rep. Jo Ann Karll shortly before the bill was overwhelmingly passed. “Missouri is finally moving into the 20th century,” said Colleen Coble, executive director of the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
But not everyone was celebrating. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on 5/1/91 that Akin voted for the bill but “questioned whether a marital rape law might be misused ‘in a real messy divorce as a tool and a legal weapon to beat up on the husband.’”
Just about any law can be abused, and lawmakers must always be cognizant of this. But Akin seems to be preoccupied with the potential for abuse of the law whenever it relates to the government preventing abuse in the household.
Akin and his supporters believe that the husband is head of the household, and they’re loathe to regulate what he can and cannot do to his wife and children. In fact, prominent Akin supporter Phyllis Schlafly denies the very possibility of marital rape: “By getting married, the woman has consented to sex, and I don't think you can call it rape.”
And so in March of 1992, Akin fought for a narrower definition of child abuse. The Missouri House was considering a bill to create a “statewide child abuse review board” and tighten the standard for proving child abuse from “reason to suspect” to “credible evidence.”
The bill’s sponsor said the definition change was necessary to ensure that “all cases of child abuse can be covered.” Akin, however, was suspicious. He argued that the bill “needed a more restrictive definition of abuse” because of the potential for abuse of the child abuse law. The Post-Dispatch reported on 3/5/92:
Akin said he was concerned that ‘the department could come into your home and if your kid had just fallen off his bike and skinned his knee…take your kid away.’ Akin also said that with a loose definition of abuse, neighbors might use child-abuse reports ‘as a tool to harass, a way to get even with’ someone they dislike.
This is how Akin’s mind works. You need to worry about vengeful soon-to-be ex-wives claiming rape to get back at their husbands. You need to make sure that non-forcibly raped women aren’t getting government-funded medical care. And you can’t let neighbors harass one another by falsely claiming child abuse to the overbearing nanny state enforcers who will take kids away for having a scraped knee.
Akin’s efforts earned him a rebuke from the Post-Dispatch editorial board, which singled him as an alarmist who supports an “excessively restrictive child-mistreatment law” and resorts to “extreme and unlikely examples to bolster his case.” It seems like they had him pegged way back then.
Here is the full 3/10/92 editorial, entitled “Abuse Law Fair to the Accused, Children”:
The Missouri House is moving ahead in setting up a state board that would arbitrate disputes between people accused of child abuse and the Division of Family Services. The House gave initial approval to this proposal on Wednesday. It shouldn't allow critics to prevent it from passing the bill, sponsored by Rep. Kaye Steinmetz of Florissant.Missouri's child-abuse law is basically a good one, but it needed to be revised. The bill would restrict the standard the state would use in proving child abuse. The old standard called for ‘reason to suspect.’ The new standard would require ‘credible evidence.’Clearly, the change is aimed at protecting people from being recklessly and falsely accused of abusing children. Some critics say the definition should be even more restrictive, but they should give this proposal the benefit of the doubt. Nevertheless, more restrictions will be added to the law if critics, like Republican Rep. Todd Akin of St. Charles, get their way. Mr. Akin resorts to extreme and unlikely examples to bolster his case.The bill, he argues, would permit child-abuse investigators to ‘come into your home and if your kid had just fallen off his bike and skinned his knee…take your kid away.’ In fact, the more restrictive the law, the more it ties the hands of child-abuse investigators and the more likely serious cases of child mistreatment might go undetected.Mr. Akin does raise a real concern, however, when he says a disgruntled person might try to use the child-abuse law to harass a neighbor. But the way to address that issue is through better trained child-abuse investigators. The bill would mandate improved training, which should make the workers more proficient in investigating cases while protecting people from being falsely accused.The statewide child abuse review board would be appointed by the governor and would require Senate confirmation. The Legislature should see the benefits in passing the bill in its existing form rather than weakening it to appease alarmists who favor an excessively restrictive child-mistreatment law.
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By Nate | July 18, 2011
Nobody knows warm fuzzies like Vermont Teddy Bear. Our Teddy Bears are delightfully warm and fuzzy all over (especially our huggably-soft Snow, Maple, and Espresso fur Bears in 15″, 22″, 36″ sizes), and nothing beats the warm and fuzzy feeling you get once your loved one has received his or her new Vermont Teddy Bear.
But there’s a different kind of warm fuzzy, and it’s the kind you feel when you know that you’ve made a difference in someone’s life, especially when that someone is coming from an impoverished background. That’s part of the motivation behind Hope for Women, a Vermont-based distributor of “handcrafted, fair trade, eco-friendly products made by economically disadvantaged women worldwide” (per their website). They work with women-owned businesses and artisans in order to connect their products with the American market, where they have a better chance at making significantly more than their home country’s minimum wage (3-5 times more, per Hope for Women’s FAQ page).
We’re happy to be part of the Hope for Women story by offering the Bear Head Tagua Bracelet, a natural and organic ornament for your wrist. It’s made from the seed of a Colombian rainforest tree, the tagua palm, which is only harvested once the seed’s fallen to the ground, so it’s a very sustainable practice. Tagua is so much like ivory that it’s called the “ivory of the rainforest”, so it’s a wonderful medium for artisans to work with for carving.
Our Bear Head Tagua Bracelet is etched with our signature Bear Head logo, so by wearing one, you can let the world know that you’re Being Bear in all the best ways: spreading goodness and support and connecting with people who traditionally have not been able to benefit from their work. That’s a warm fuzzy that lasts all year ’round.
(Cheers to the Hope for Women blog for the recent, kind write-up.)
An how about you? Have you had any experience with fair trade products?
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The Holy Myrrhbearers Women’s Choir, under the direction of Eugenia Temidis, is a rare phenomenon in the Russian diaspora. Women’s choirs usually form in convents; a lay women’s choir has never existed in the Russian emigration.
The founder and musical director of this choir is Eugenia Temidis. Since childhood, she listened to the choir led by her grandfather, Georgii Ivanovich Samoilovich, learning Church Slavonic, reading and singing on the kliros in her parish in Nyack, NY, and participated in school choruses. She sang in her university choir under the direction of organist Lester Berenbroick.
For over 10 years, she sang with the Russian Choral Society first under Vladimir Roudenko, later Alexander Ledkovsky, Vladimir Morosan and Nikolai Kachanov, which performed in New York’s finest venues: Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and the New York Philharmonic.
Eugenia now sings in the Synodal Cathedral Choir, directs the Myrrhbearer’s Choir, teaches young singers (including her own five children) and continues studying her craft in a conservatory.
— Eugenia, what gave you the idea of forming a women’s choir?
— Twelve years ago it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to gather female singers to sing the divine services on the feast day of the Holy Myrrhbearing Women at Holy Virgin Protection Church in Nyack. At first we only sang selected prayers, and invited women singers from other parishes. Seven years later we sang the entire service to the Protectresses of the parish sisterhood, and began giving concerts during parish celebrations: weddings, baptisms…
In 2001, we had the honor of performing at the banquet honoring the newly-elected First Hierarch of the Church Abroad, Metropolitan Laurus. At that time we received a blessing to be a diocesan ensemble of the Diocese of Eastern America and New York of ROCOR.
This year we sang all-night vigil and Divine Liturgy at Our Lady of Kazan Church in Newark, at which His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, First Hierarch of ROCOR, officiated.
— Who sings in your choir?
— The choir was formed by women for women, not by professionals but by amateur singers of liturgical music. Among the singers are university professors, financiers, teachers, a doctor, four church choir directors… Mainly they are from New York State, some live in New Jersey, Philadelphia, PA, and Connecticut.
Generally they are Russian Americans. There are English-language singers from the Orthodox Church in America who are interested in singing Church-Slavonic music. The youngest singer in my group is one of my daughters.
The roster of singers changes from time to time: young people go away to college, others leave to tend to their children or aging parents, and then return to sing with us again, and new singers join. The core of the choir consists of 12 singers which have been dedicated singers from its birth to this day.
— What does your repertory consist of?
— First of all, we don’t sing folk songs or lay music. Included in our work are the ancient monastic compositions of Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra, Pochaev Lavra, Holy Trinity-St Sergius Lavra, and we sing the works of such famous composers as Chesnokov, Gardner, Trubachev, Ledkovsky and Kedrov.
Our choir’s rich repertory also includes little-known spiritual chants and carols of the 17th and 18th centuries. A concert we gave at the Synodal Cathedral in New York included the first rendering of unknown spiritual songs of St Dimitry of Rostov. Twelve years ago, when we first began, there were no existing repertories for women’s choirs, and almost prepared almost all the arrangements myself. With the resurrection of the art of spiritual music in Russia and the spread of the internet, we can use arrangements from convents in Russia, the Holy Land and other countries. Still, we want to establish personal connections with convents throughout the world.
— Have you tried to sing for American audiences, too?
— Yes, we give concerts both in Orthodox churches and for Russian and American lay audiences. We performed in the renowned West Point Military Academy, New Jersey Cultural Center, at benefit concerts in various cities, and always try to accommodate those who are interested in liturgical choral music no matter what nationality they are.
For non-Orthodox or non-churchgoing audiences, these are not simply concerts but a form of missionary work. We prepare commentaries for our programs, and include translations of texts into English, explaining the various prayers and liturgical actions to which they relate, and give biographies of composers. So listeners not only gain pleasure from the singing itself but they also learn the basics of Orthodoxy.
— Does it matter to you what kind of church you sing in?
— Of course, good acoustics are very important. It makes it easier to sing, and the voices sound better. I remember how graciously the Serbs greeted us at St Savva Cathedral. At one time the church was Protestant, and it was built according to different canons, and the floor was cold, so we stood on rugs, but the acoustics in the church are stunning.
In West Point, too, we sang in a Protestant chapel with phenomenal acoustics. But we are accustomed to singing in small churches. The main thing is for people to enjoy listening to our music.
— Are there places you would still like to sing in?
— We would like to sing in St John of Shanghai’s cathedral in San Francisco, the Montreal cathedral, St Nicholas Cathedral in Manhattan, the main church of Moscow in New York, in the Holy Land and in one of the convents of Russia, though I don’t yet know which. I don’t want to guess…
The singing of the Myrrhbearers Choir can be heard on the Orthodox internet radio station www.ancientfaithradio.com
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Panaji, Aug 1 (IANS): Goa officials are taking photos and making videos of an under-construction dam in Karnataka over fears that it may cut off water supply to the state, said a minister Wednesday.
The controversial dam is being erected on the Mhadei river in the Kalsa area of Karnataka's Belgaum district.
In a written reply tabled in the Goa legislative assembly, Water Resources Minister Dayanand Mandrekar said the inter-state dispute between Goa and Karnataka over Mhadei river's water was already pending before a central government-appointed tribunal.
"The ongoing works of the state of Karnataka of constructing an interconnecting channel between the Kalsa Nallah and Malaprabha river being against the interests of Goa, the same are being regularly monitored by the officers of WR (Water Resources) Department, Goa, by site visits, photographing and video recording the activities etc., to know the consequential effects of the ongoing works to Goa," he said.
Mandrekar said the hearings at the Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal had not started because the tribunal, chaired by retired Supreme court judge, Justice J.M. Panchal, was facing logistical difficulties.
"The tribunal could not take up the application of Goa as the office accommodation for the tribunal members, staffing for the tribunal etc., are still not in place," Mandrekar said.
The Mhadei river (called Mandovi in Goa) originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea in Panaji in Goa. While the river travels 28.8 km in Karnataka, it is 81.2 km long in Goa.
Karnataka plans to construct seven dams on the river, aimed at diverting the waters into its water-starved Malaprabha basin.
Both the Goa government and civil society groups in the state have said that diverting the waters of the river would sound a death knell to the northern areas of the state, which are dependent on the river for fishing, irrigation and potable water supply.
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Brett lists several examples of who would be considered a natural born American. In short, people like Marco Rubio or Bobby Jindal can breathe a sigh of relief. They are good to go.
All the law requires is that the mother be an American citizen who has lived in the U.S. for five years or more, at least two of those years after the age of 14. If the mother fits those criteria, the child is a U.S. citizen at birth, regardless of the father's nationality.
Please go back and check this thread - There IS a difference between "citizen by birth" (born in the country) and "Natural Born Citizen" (born in the contry of two citizen parents). The intent of the Founders was to have a President and Commander in Chief with NO divided loyalty because either of the parents were not citizens of this country alone and therefore loyal only to this country. The idea that loyalty to another nation could pass from parent to child was why that eligibility was put in The Constitution and they grandfathered themselves in.
It has still not been PROVEN with verifiable documents that BO was born in Hawaii, There is no certified document that has been found or provided that proves Where, When, How, and Who the father actually is. If we can believe BO, his father is BHO senior, but that has not been PROVEN. If his sather is BHO senior, then because his father was never a US citizen BO does not have two citizen parents and his birth place is not enough to make him eligible.
Please do yourself a favor.... review the links on this topic and the enormous amount of information found in this thread alone.
You will find there is only ONE SCOTUS definition of Natural Born Citizen; that being a US Citizen born of Citizen Parent(s) at time of Birth.
There exists at least three (3) classes of Citizens
1. NATURAL BORN (Constitutional Requirement for POTUS and VPOTUS)
2. NATIVE BORN
The current occupant in his own words definitely does NOT QUALIFY for number 1 and there exists a huge and growing amount of evidence he DOES NOT meet the qualifications of any of the three.
THANK YOU !
NO NEED for Thanks and Definitely do NOT want to appear that we are ganging up on Sammy or anyone else. FACTS ARE FACTS and the current administration has been playing TOO FAST AND TOO LOOSE with the facts while employing Every distraction in sight.
As a Former Member of the Armed Forces I was FBI background checked including interviews with my former classmates and professors to insure I was "qualified" and cleared to hold a Top Secret Military Clearance. The Current Occupant of OUR WHITE HOUSE has not only NEVER HAD THAT LEVEL OF INVESTIGATION PERFORMED or we would all know that he cannot qualify to hold the KEYS TO OUR NUCLEAR ARSENAL!!
The time to correct the problem is (NOW) when we we can reasonably win on the political front with little or no loss of life and the freedoms my family fought and died for....... as opposed to waiting.... doing nothing now and forced to fight a real war to regain them when those chances of success are reduced to ......... slim to none!!
"When the People Fear the Government, there is Tyranny... but when the Government Fears the People there is Liberty".... Thomas Jefferson
I Want The Government to Fear We Are Coming To..... Have that Conversation......
I guess that it should not surprise me at this point, but I am still amazed that there are so many that either can not or will not see the truth of what has happened and is still going on.
It sickens me to see BO at a rally and see all the grinning followers who do not have a clue.
I hope and pray that there are enough Oath Keepers who are awake and willing to refuse illegal orders from anyone to turn on Citizens.
Every human being born within the jurisdiction of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty is, in the language of your Constitution itself, a natural-born citizen.
Emerich de Vattel's 1758 treatise The Law of Nations (original French title: Le Droit du gens), stating that "The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country of parents who are citizens,"
If it was intended that anybody who was a citizen by birth should be eligible, it would only have been necessary to say, “no person, except a native-born citizen”; but the framers thought it wise, in view of the probable influx of European immigration, to provide that the president should at least be the child of citizens owing allegiance to the United States at the time of his birth.
New York Tribune 1896: Those born of non-citizen parents may not be eligible for POTUS. The Boston Globe: Native born does not equal Natural born for Presi... The House of Representatives Definition of Natural Born Citizen = Born of citizen Parents in the US.
The House of Representatives Definition of “Natural Born Citizen” = Born of citizen “parents” in the US.
I do not believe everything I see in Wikipedia - --- "most cogent" is not necessarily in line with what The Founders intended ! I look to what was understood at that time and why this was included as an eligibility requirement.
I think that Wikipedia can be changed by anyone. Just give me a few minutes and it will say 'natural born Citizen is anyone who owns a purebred dog'.
I don't look to Wikipedia, Snopes, or Factcheck for anything factual. Check into who owns them and how they are run.
All of these so called 'anchor babies' that have been born here, but their parents are most deffinately illegal aliens, they have been running around protesting not getting everything they want, putting the mexican flag ABOVE the American flag at schools. They have made it VERY clear that they LOVE their country....mexico. The problem is that they can't get what they NEED in mexico. Their parents have absolutely NO loyalty to America, therefore, THEY have absolutely NO loyalty to America. By your understanding, one of them could come in here one day and decide to become president. At the rate things are going, they won't get the chance, but if it ever got to that point, with the amount of mexicans, they could very well get them in and take over, just as obama has done. Children are taught by their parents, so they generally have the same beliefs. THAT is why ya need to have someone who is American w/TWO American or naturalized at the time of birth parents.
The "anchor baby" law was not intended to allow illegal border crossings and birth to give the child US citizenship - the intent was to make the children of slaves citizens so they could not be deported.
It has NOW become a way for anyone to enter the country illegally (breaking the law) and have a child who becomes a US citizen, but their loyalty is OFTEN to the country of the parent's birth and NOT to the US.
Thanks Michelle !
Michelle you hit on something very important, NO LOYALTY TO THE UNITED STATES. We are merely the goose that lays the golden eggs.
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LAHORE, Pakistan — Thousands of hard-line Islamists streamed toward Pakistan’s capital in a massive convoy of vehicles Sunday to protest the government’s decision to allow the U.S. and other NATO countries to resume shipping troop supplies through the country to Afghanistan.
The demonstration, which started in the eastern city of Lahore, was organized by the Difah-e-Pakistan Council (Defense of Pakistan Council), a group of politicians and religious leaders who have been the most vocal opponents of the supply line.
Pakistan closed the route in November in retaliation for American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani troops. After months of negotiations, Islamabad finally agreed to reopen the route last week after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized for the deaths.
Mrs. Clinton met Sunday with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar for the first time since the apology on the sidelines of an Afghan aid conference in Tokyo, and expressed hope that resolution of the supply-line conflict would lead to better relations between the troubled allies.
One of the reasons Pakistan waited so long to resolve the conflict is that the government was worried about domestic backlash in a country where anti-American sentiment is rampant despite billions of dollars in U.S. aid over the last decade.
The protest started Sunday in the center of Lahore, where several thousand people assembled with scores of buses, cars and motorbikes. They linked up with thousands more supporters waiting on the city’s edge and drove toward Islamabad in a so-called “long march” against the supply line.
The convoy included about 200 vehicles carrying some 8,000 people when it left Lahore, said police official Babar Bakht.
After completing the four-hour journey to Islamabad, they plan to hold a protest in front of the parliament building Monday.
“By coming out on the streets, the Pakistani nation has shown its hatred for America,” one of the Difah-e-Pakistan leaders, Maulana Samiul Haq, known as the father of the Taliban, said in a speech on the outskirts of Lahore.
Supporters showered Mr. Haq with rose petals as he rode through Lahore in the back of a truck with other Difah-e-Pakistan leaders, including Hafiz Saeed, founder of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group; Hamid Gul, a retired Pakistani intelligence chief with a long history of militant support; and Syed Munawar Hasan, leader of Pakistan’s most powerful Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami.
The crowd was dominated by members of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, widely believed to be a front group for Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is blamed for the attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008 that killed more than 160 people. Jamaat-ud-Dawa is led by the group’s founder, Mr. Saeed.
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Entertainment News and Reviews from Washington, D.C. and beyond.
A carefully guided tour through the confusing world of modern bookselling and publishing.
Empowering mind/body/spirit and health dialogue along with cutting-edge, conscious social, political, and world commentary with Adam Omkara. Join the Evolution!
A politically conservative and morally liberal Hebrew alpha male hunts left-wing viper
World's Ugliest Dog Contest
Spelling Bee finale
Marines train Afghan soldiers
Rolling Thunder 2013
Benghazi: The anatomy of a scandal
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Sunday, November 02, 2008
the elusive butterfly
This whole Proposition 8 thing has me thinking about same-sex marriage pretty much all the time. Videos of protesters screaming at each other on street corners in Oakland circulate on gay internet blogs. People I went to high school or college with, and who now live in California, have become my Facebook friends, and their status updates grow more passionate every day. Some have reported seeing their formerly-conservative neighborhoods littered with Obama and No on 8 signs. Others are volunteering their weekends to try to defeat the measure.
In a stroke of great (unplanned) timing, this Monday in my LGBT politics and social change class we are reading about gay marriage. I enjoy teaching this class even though I am only doing it because I am desperate for cash. It takes up too many hours of my week, but the students are extremely committed to discussing the reading. This week we are going to talk about George Chauncey's "Why Marriage?" and look at the First Interim Report of the New Jersey Civil Union Commission. After that we will watch the documentary "Freeheld," about the fight of a dying lesbian police officer in New Jersey to give her partner her pension benefits.
As you probably know, Chauncey's book argues, among other things, that the LGBT community got really interested in marriage as a result of the AIDS crisis, when it became apparent how precarious the legal status of gay relationships and gay families are with respect to hospital visitation, funeral planning, inheritance rights, pensions, lease agreements, and child custody and visitation. The NJ First Interim Report concludes that establishing civil unions as a alternative to marriage fails to grant the same rights to same sex couples that their heterosexual neighbors get when they marry. "Freeheld," which won an Oscar for best documentary, shows a conservative community coming to terms with the injustice of denying a same-sex couple the survivor benefits that give financial security to heterosexual families when one partner dies.
As I watch Yes on 8 supporters railing against gay marriage because it means children will learn about gays in grade school, it is hard not to make the parallel to Anita Bryant's "Save the Children" campaign. Why does the right's fear of changing gender roles and anger towards the demise of patriarchal marriages have to take the form of campaigns to save children? From what? One white Massachusetts woman in a Yes on 8 film maintained that childhood should be a time of innocence, and that kids should wait to learn about gays until they are older. She and her husband are outraged that grade-schoolers went on a field trip to surprise one of their teachers at her lesbian wedding. They feel that being exposed to such things damages the carefree world every child is entitled to have in grade school. They feel that children exposed to such things--love, I guess--are somehow unprotected.
Watching them, I think about nineteenth-century ideologies of children as asexual angels, and I wonder if these parents also think their children should be protected from other kinds of difference. Surely going to school with children of color will only mar the innocence of white children, who deserve to grow up in an environment free from the knowledge of this country's legacy of racial violence. Ditto for children of immigrants, especially undocumented ones, whose parents will be hauled away by INS some fall afternoon. White children who are citizens should be protected from sadness like that. How about class difference? Middle-class children should definitely be protected from knowledge of poverty, since it will only make them feel sad and helpless to know how many of their peers go to school hungry each day.
These parents don't assume that their children are already going to school with the children of lesbian or gay parents, or with children who may identify as lesbian, gay, or transgender. These parents assume they can keep difference out--at least for now. It is the same logic that assumes there are no gay people next door, or in the schools already, or in your own family. It assumes that learning about difference is bad, and filthy, and traumatic. These parents never talk about why male-female relationships allow children to keep their "innocence," while female-female relationships appear somehow to be overtly sexual, even to toddlers.
Meanwhile, this Sunday's New York Times Styles section is filled with gay marriages, and the "Vows" story that serves as its centerpiece is, rarest of rarities, a gay couple with twin daughters. I think about these children, so wanted that their fathers spent upwards of 100K trying to get them. These little girls surely should be saved from such love, such difference, and their parents should never be allowed to marry and give them anything--not property, health care, financial security, respectability, love. Other children definitely need to be protected from these two little girls, who will grow up confident, secure, and "spoiled"--but not spoiled at all--from being showered with love by two doting, powerful, successful gay men.
My daughter-not powerful, certainly, but very beautiful nonetheless-- is asleep in the next room. One of her favorite toys is a big multicolored butterfly (ok, it's really a firefly, I guess) that lights up and plays songs when you pinch it, or bite it, as the case may be. My partner, who I cannot marry because it is not legal here, calls this toy the Elusive Butterfly, after the 60s song about the butterfly of love, which I taught her because when I was a very little girl I thought that song was so beautiful I would practically faint with joy when it came on the radio. I think there was something about the combination of butterfly and love that was almost too great for my soul to bear. I'm sure I learned that love in my family, especially from my mother, who was fascinated by each one of her children, and who took pains to cultivate in each of us strong sense of social justice and lifelong horror (she came from the South) of racism, snobbery, and all forms of prejudice.
My hope for my daughter is that the love she experiences with us will teach her to love other children in spite of and because of their differences, and that the deep and formative happiness of her childhood is not based on some fake innocence, but on something better than that--some kind of love of beauty and joy in the world that feels so big in her heart, it makes her want to faint with happiness. I don't want to protect her from love, or from emotion. I hope I can fill her with feeling, and compassion, and empathy, and a keen ability to perceive her fellow human beings, the generation she will spend her life traveling with. I hope her only innocence is optimism about her own ability to defeat evil, hate, bigotry, and despair.
Which we, as the generation before her, can address right now. Stop the hate. In any way that you can today, stop Proposition 8.
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While the river fishing has been fair, that was before this latest storm hit the region. Anglers should check flows before they head out because many rivers have become very high. The Hoh River, for example, normally runs about 3,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) this time of year. Tuesday morning, flows were measured at 10,200 cfs.
Cowlitz: Anglers are catching some steelhead — a mix of summer and winter runs — around the trout hatchery. Last week, Tacoma Power recovered 421 coho adults, 69 jacks, 63 winter-run steelhead, 37 cutthroat trout, 16 summer-run steelhead, three fall chinook adults and one jack during five days of operations at the Cowlitz Salmon Hatchery.
Lewis: North Fork bank anglers are catching some steelhead, while boat anglers are catching some chinook. Flows below Lake Merwin are high, about 150 percent higher than the long-term mean for this time of year.
Minter: There are still plenty of chum salmon in the creek, but the vast majority are very dark. Despite high and dirty water, people are using green jigs under a bobber to catch fish.
Nisqually: There are mixed reports coming in, with some people saying they’re catching some chum and even a few coho. But other people are going home empty-handed. Pink jigs or green corkies and yarn are producing some fish.
Puyallup: A few people have been catching some chum using green corkies and yarn or casting a green spinner.
Skykomish: The Reiter Ponds section was fishing fairly good early this week. Some people are catching their limits of steelhead. Jigs fished under a float have been most effective.
Tilton: A total of 173 coho adults, 24 jacks, three fall chinook adults, 12 cutthroat trout, and one winter-run steelhead were released into the river at Gust Backstrom Park last week.
Yakima: Swinging streamers, like a small olive Sculpzilla or an olive-and-brown bunny leech, on a sinking tip line is effective in the morning. As the day warms up, switch to nymphs such as a Brassie or a red midge with a black beard in sizes 16 and 18.
North Sound: Despite the poor weather, fishing off the beaches on the west side of Whidbey Island is showing signs of improvement. People are catching steelhead, including some bright hatchery fish.
South Sound: The salmon fishing in the Tacoma area has been very slow as few people have been willing to fight the weather. The chum fishing in the Olympia area also has been slow.
American: People are catching rainbow trout, including a report of a 6-pound fish landed. Yellow Power Bait seems to be the go-to bait, fished on a leader about 4 feet long.
Rattlesnake: The trout fishing has been on the slow side. People are catching some rainbows on chironomids.
Washington: The cutthroat trout action has been fair in recent days. Trolling Rapalas 40-60 feet deep has been effective. A few kokanee also are being caught, but down around 30 feet.Jeffrey P. Mayor: 253-5978640 [email protected] blog.thenewstribune.com/adventure Contributing to this report: Mike Chamberlain at Ted’s Sports Center, state Department of Fish and Wildlife, gamefishin.com, Joe Rotter at Red’s Fly Shop, washingtonlakes.com, washingtonflyfishing.com
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As Hurricane Irene struck New Jersey, hundreds of thousands of residents lost electrical power. While the loss of power was a significant inconvenience for all, it represented a more significant threat to property for some. I fell into that latter category.
At the outset, I’ll admit that I did not take the forecasts and media barrage about the Hurricane seriously enough. I believed that its impact would be primarily felt in shore areas, with significantly less impact to inland residents of New Jersey and other Eastern Seaboard states.
As the Hurricane made its ascent up the East Coast, Central Jerseyans began to feel its effects on Saturday afternoon. As afternoon wore into evening, bands of rain – often torrential – blanketed the area. Winds, although nowhere near hurricane force, picked up and frequently gusted to tropical storm force.
Living in a heavily wooded area, I knew that toppled trees and limbs were likely to disrupt power due to downed lines. What I did not count on was the number of uprooted and fallen trees and the widespread nature of the damage, even in significantly less heavily wooded areas.
Here’s where my story begins. I made dinner, relaxed Saturday evening, and went to bed about midnight. At 1:30 AM, I was awakened by what appeared to me as a popping sound. Sure enough, power had ceased in my neighborhood.
Grabbing a flashlight (the height of my preparation for the storm), I looked around the house and peered outside to see if any trees had fallen on my property. Everything seemed to be alright until I got to the basement. There, I found that water was already beginning to rise in the area of my sump pump. Now, I should mention that I do not have battery backup on my pump, nor do I own a generator. In either of those cases, my concern would have abated.
I immediately began bailing water into a utility sink in my basement. After thirty minutes, I could see that this would be a long night of bailing and also that bailing alone would not stem the tide of the rising water. My washer and dryer are elevated on blocks and my furnace and water heater are at the highest point of my basement. So, I reasoned if I could keep the water level to less than six inches in the area of the pump, I would survive the storm with relatively little damage in the basement area.
Fifteen minutes later, I headed upstairs for a short break, when I noticed headlights outside my next-door neighbor’s home. Looking out the door, I could see that it was municipal truck and that my neighbor (a municipal employee) was pulling something from the truck into his garage. A short time later, I heard the sound of a generator coming from the garage.
Hoping that I might enlist some assistance with my basement water problems, I made the 100 foot trek toward my neighbor and his municipal truck. Not prepared to ask pointblank for assistance, I asked him if, in his travel through the town, he had seen any power company (JCP&L) trucks in the area and casually mentioned that my basement was beginning to fill with water. He indicated that he hadn’t and that his basement already had six inches of water.
I returned home and bailed until about 11:30 AM (with a couple of bathroom breaks and about a 45 minute nap thrown in). At the point of exhaustion and still listening to the droning of that generator sitting just 100 feet from my dormant sump pump, I summoned the gumption to walk over, knock on the door, and pop the question (no, not that one, the other one).
He informed me that the generator (which I believe to be township property) had just three sockets and just enough juice to power his sump pump, refrigerator, and freezer. I suggested that if I could just plug in for 15 minutes, I could probably dramatically reduce the amount of water in my basement. Unfazed, he indicated that he had to go to handle some municipal business.
Returning to my home with the prospect of destruction of the entire contents of my basement including furnace, water heater, washer, dryer, and other items, I thought of Jesus’ proclamation in the book of Matthew. When asked the greatest commandment, He answered:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
But, what does it truly mean to love thy neighbor? I have always considered my neighbor to have been good to me. He has never refused to lend a hand when asked. This refusal, when I was in the most desperate of circumstances, seemed to me to be out of character. Or, was it that these unusual circumstances brought out my neighbor’s true character?
I had plenty of time to ponder these issues as I continued bailing water from my basement. As the afternoon wound down, I noticed that I was actually making some headway in my efforts. Apparently, God had intervened in my favor and the addition of new water had stopped or slowed to a trickle. Taking a much needed nap for over an hour, I returned to find that not much had changed. And, that was good news!
Still intent on finding a way to get my sump pump working if only for a short while, I was on my driveway when my neighbor pulled up in the municipal truck and jumped out – this time wearing waders. He apologized for his demeanor of earlier in the day and indicated that he had been under enormous pressure, what with the water rising in his basement and his need to save the food in his refrigerator and freezer. Having said that, he left to attend to municipal business with still no offer of assistance.
I have to admit that I thought to myself how hollow his words appeared to me. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I thought that unplugging the freezer for 30 or 40 minutes and permitting me to plug in my sump pump would have had absolutely no impact on my neighbor, but done a world of good for me.
At this point, that’s all water under the bridge (all puns intended). Today, I’m working and when I return home expect that my basement will have no more water than it had this morning. And, if the power ever returns (I truly don’t understand the lethargic emergency response of my municipality and power company – an article for another day), I’ll be able to dry and clean out my basement.
But, I’m still plagued by what it means to love one’s neighbor as yourself. Did I expect too much of my neighbor? What kind of a neighbor have I been to others? (Remember, the Bible defines your neighbor as virtually anyone).
Perhaps someday, Jesus will explain it to me face-to-face.
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HOLLYWOOD — Beneath the pomp and pageantry of the Academy Awards hides a world of crushing complexity. Every detail of the production — from the precise camera placement to the deployment and construction of moving stage pieces — requires meticulous planning, fastidious engineering and heaps of tech savvy.
Long before the stars hit the red carpet, a group of highly skilled engineers, production designers, producers and the show's director meet to answer a deceptively simple question: "How can we fill the Kodak Theatre with everything necessary to pull this off?"
The 40 million or so viewers at home may think an awards show of this scale is business as usual (especially one entering its 83rd year). As it turns out, an overwhelming number of new stage elements, mechanics, display systems and design concepts are rolled out every year.
To get an idea of scope, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's head engineer, Tad Scripter, walked Wired.com through some of the logistical and technical wizardry needed to pull off the 83rd annual Oscars telecast, which airs live Sunday at 5 p.m. Pacific on ABC.
Terrence Russell is a contributing writer for Wired.com and Wired magazine. When he's not trolling multiplexes and film houses for new flicks, he's poking around behind the scenes, exploring the geekery of movie magic.
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How the Church of Scientology tried (and failed) to suppress
Russell Miller started work on Bare-Faced Messiah in 1985, not long
before L. Ron Hubbard's death. He was well aware that he would face problems.
Every author who had written 'unsanctioned' books about the Church of
Scientology, and many journalists as well, had been threatened with legal and
sometimes physical reprisals; many had been harassed and defamed as well. He
knew that the Church could go to extreme lengths to suppress critical comment
- in the 1970s, New York journalist Paulette Cooper very nearly went to prison
for alleged terroristic activities before the FBI found that the Church
leadership was responsible for framing her.
Given this background, it's to Miller's credit that he persevered. The
threats were not long in coming. When the Church learned of his project,
"[it] did its best to dissuade people who knew Hubbard from speaking to me and
constantly threatened litigation. Scientology lawyers in New York and Los
Angeles made it clear in frequent letters that they expected me to libel and
defame L. Ron Hubbard. When I protested that in thirty years as a journalist
and writer I had never been accused of libel, I was apparently investigated
and a letter was written to my publishers in New York alleging that my claim
was 'simply not accurate'. It was, and is." (Bare-Faced Messiah, page ix)
The death of Hubbard in January 1986 reduced the Church's hand in dealing with
Miller - the dead cannot be libelled or defamed (at least in the eyes of the
law). Even so, it soon became apparent that the Church's 'secret police' - the
Office of Special Affairs (OSA) - regarded Miller's work as being a major
threat. As publication day (October 1987) moved closer, the Church's efforts
to suppress the book became increasingly desperate - and vicious.
- 1986: Miller visits US to interview witnesses, several of whom
are apparently 'spoken to' by the OSA. Constantly followed by private
detectives and OSA agents. Receives numerous legal threats and is defamed.
- 5 August 1987: Proof copies of Bare-Faced Messiah
circulated within a limited circle.
- xx Sept 1987: Female Scientologist is arrested in a
reprographics shop in East Grinstead, where the Church has its UK
headquarters, making seven illegal photocopies of a proof version of
Bare-Faced Messiah. Lack of evidence prevents prosecution for theft of
Copies of cult book puzzle publisher -
The Times, xx Sept 1987
- 29 Sept 1987: Church of Scientology serves writ alleging
breaches of copyright, confidence and Californian sealing orders, and requests
injunction to prevent publication of Bare-Faced Messiah on October 26.
- 9 Oct 1987: Mr. Justice Vinelott rejects injunction request,
calling it "mischievous and misconceived". Church appeals.
Public interest outweighs private duty -
The Times, 15 Oct 1987
Judgment of the High Court, London
- xx Oct 1987: The Sunday Times is threatened by
Scientologists over its plans to serialise extracts from Bare-Faced
Messiah. Notorious Scientologist private detective Eugene Ingram gets into
Sunday Times offices under false pretences in failed attempt to
discredit Miller's sources.
Scientologists in dirty campaign to stop
book - The Times, xx Oct 1987
- 22 Oct 1987: Court of Appeal rejects Church arguments, stating
that public interest in publication "far outweighed any duty of confidence
owed by the author to the founder".
Church appeal to ban book fails - The
Times, 22 Oct 1987
Judgment of the Court of Appeal, London
- 29 Oct 1987: Bare-Faced Messiah is published.
- 1 Nov 1987: The Sunday Times begins serialising extracts
from the book over three weekends. A Bristol-based private detective in the
pay of the Church is exposed trying to smear Miller and link him to the CIA,
and retaliates by attacking the reporter with a .357 pistol.
Cult's private detective fires at
journalists - The Times, xx Nov 1987
- 2 Dec 1987: Canadian court refuses to block publication in
Canada: 'The publisher should not be tarnished with the avowed determination
of the Church to "use" the Courts or harass one in Court.'
Order of the Federal Court of Canada
- Spring 1988: 12,000 copies of the U.S. Edition of Bare-Faced
Messiah are printed. The publisher has amended the manuscript in a futile
attempt to avoid threatened lawsuits.
The Amended U.S. Edition
- 4 May 1988: Scientology sues the U.S. publisher in New York,
alleging 211 instances of copyright infringement, and asks for a temporary
restraining order to block publication. The TRO is denied on a technicality
(laches). However, a second printing of 10,000 copies is delayed, and 44
quotes are found to be slightly infringing (37 from the teenaged Hubbard's
1927 "Asia Diaries").
Summary of New Era v. Holt - by
David R. Tucker
Opinion and Order of the U.S. District Court
- 19 Apr 1989: The U.S. Court of Appeals upholds the ruling of the
lower court, but on narrow technical grounds. The opinion casts "in concrete"
a doctrine that gives unpublished writings nearly total protection from
fair use quotation.
'Salinger' Haunts Ruling on Hubbard
Biography - Publishers Weekly, 12 May 1989
Opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals
In 1988, Miller wrote a rueful article for The Listener magazine on
the bizarre experiences which he had had in writing Bare-Faced Messiah.
The nadir was probably the attempt by persons unknown to frame him for an axe
murder in South London. Things could only get better after that...
See You In Court - Punch, 19 February 1988
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“…in late February 2012, the NLRB filed a complaint against a group of Hyatt Hotels alleging, among other things, that the restrictions placed on the use of social media, such as admonitions not to comment on hotel properties or locations, or to use the Hyatt brand/logo or photos of the properties, were overboard and discriminatory…”
The NLRB reports expressed concerns regarding attempts by an employer to block — for example — employees from using a company’s trademarked logo in social media. That was considered, generally, to be in violation of an employee’s Section 7 rights.
“Interests protected by trademark laws — such as the trademark holder’s interests in protecting the good reputation associated with the mark from the possibility of being tarnished by inferior merchandise sold by another entity using the trademark and in being able to enter a related commercial field and use its well-established trademark, and the public’s interest in not being misled as to the source of products using confusingly similar marks — are not remotely implicated by employees’ non-commercial use of a name, logo, or other trademark to identify the Employer in the course of engaging in Section 7 activity” (2012 Report).
Yet, such disclaimers are sometimes required by the Federal Trade Commission. In fact, under the revised regulations published by the FTC in 2009, if anyone other than a company or the brand owner itself advertises or talks about the company’s product or service, the FTC requires the disclosure of the relationship between the “talkee” and the “brand,” so that potential consumers understand that the recommendation or information contained in the social-media posting could be biased (See generally 16 C.F.R. §255.)
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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MIAMI SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — Seniors in Miami-Dade County can get their flu immunizations for free.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Rebeca Sosa is partnering with the Miami-Dade County Health Department to offer free flu immunizations for residents who are 65 and older. The immunizations will be administered Thursday at the Miami Springs Recreation Center.
A county news release says the event is open to everyone. Children can also receive the immunization at no cost, but adults will have to pay $25.
Health officials say the flu can cause mild to severe respiratory illness. They recommend getting vaccinated every year.
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http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/apexchange/2012/10/18/fl--flu-immunizations.html
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| 0.948534 | 133 | 1.632813 | 2 |
|"Too Cool To Be Forgotten"|
In Alex Robinson's "Too Cool to be Forgotten," shipping in July from Top Shelf, a hypnotherapy session intended to help middle-aged Andy Wicks quit smoking instead sends him back to his sophomore year in high school. Without any clear route back to the present, Andy must navigate the strange but familiar environment of teenage existence, with all the wisdom of hindsight yet fearful of endangering his established adult life. CBR News spoke with Robinson, who both wrote and illustrated the book, about the mechanics of time travel and his own less-than-reckless youth.
"I'm a sucker for time travel stories, and I graduated in high school in 1987, so I thought it might be interested to try something in honor of the twentieth anniversary," Robinson told CBR. "My hope was to have the book released in time for my reunion, but it took longer than I thought, obviously."
Coming of age in the '80s, the "Too Cool" creator could rely largely on his own perspective and personal artifacts in recreating the era. "My biggest reference was my high school yearbook, and my wife has some as well, so they came in handy for getting stuff like hairstyles, clothes, etc," Robinson said. "One thing a lot of movies and TV shows set in the eighties tend to do is really caricature things, so you'll have everyone walking around looking like they're fresh out of a Duran Duran or Madonna video when that really wasn't the case--at least not in the east coast suburban school I went to. I guess it makes for more interesting visuals, but I really wanted to make it as accurate as I could.
|Page 5||Page 6|
"It's interesting because I had to make Andy's life a little more 'typical' since I spent all my free time in school drawing comics and not having a social life. In some ways I tried to make Andy's life as close to mine as I could, but I had to change a few things. It's strange, to me, that I spent all of high school hidden away in my room so that one day I could do a graphic novel about what it was like to be a normal high school kid."
Spending all of his time drawing may have paid off for Robinson when art finally imitated life. In "Too Cool to be Forgotten," it is clear the cartoonist never takes page layout for granted. In addition to some clever yet easy to follow panel arrangement, the artist also makes the most of black-and-white space to create larger images from individual panels on several pages. Asked what sort of thought goes into designing a comic book page, Robinson said that it was "mostly instinctual" and that his main criteria was that the art should serve the story. "I mostly think of myself as a writer first, so the story will always take precedence," he said. "Am I conveying what I need to so that the reader knows what's going on? With this book, I used a lot of thought balloons, probably as much as all my other books combined, so that probably gave me more freedom to play around. Since there were a few internal monologues in which Andy was lost in thought I could let the artist part of my brain off the leash a little bit and try to come up with some interesting visuals."
|Page 7||Page 8|
Unlike some other stories in which an adult goes back to his teenage years, there's never really a sense in "Too Cool" that Andy sees this as an opportunity to do all the things he wishes he would have done back then -- he's actually very keen to get back to his real life as a bald, forty-year old man. "I have Andy refer to having watched enough 'Star Trek' to know that he should try to limit his tampering with the past, at least if he wants to return to the life he had," Robinson laughed. "I think that's an angle that's overlooked in many time travel fantasies: if you like your life in the present you have to accept the good with the miserable when it comes to your past. I lived out my fantasies of trying to ask out all the girls I had secret crushes on instead of living a monastic existence drawing comic books we probably wouldn't be having this conversation. I think the more you have in your present life the more you would have to resist the chance to change the past. Andy has two kids, so tinkering around in the past could literally make them not come to exist."
Andy also finds himself dealing with other aspects of teenage life that he--and possibly many readers--has forgotten about, such as having to ask permission to use the toilet in school. "I think part of the reason high school is such a seductive place in terms of memories is that it's really your first taste of adulthood--stuff like jobs, social status and sex, things that you'll be dealing with more or less for the rest of your life," Robinson said. "But you also have the intense restrictions hanging on from childhood--you're stuck interacting with the same people day after day, like it or not. So the temptation is to think about the first part without considering the latter. I think a lot of fantasies people have about changing their past would be almost as difficult even if they could go back, or would at least be a lot more trouble then you daydream about.
|Page 9||Page 10|
"One of the toughest challenges for me was trying to create realistic teenagers. Like with the fashions I wanted to avoid a lot of the usual cliches. I think most teenagers in pop culture are wish fulfillment on the part of screenwriters. They're writing teenagers the way they either wish they were or think they remember them: funnier, more confident, smarter, whatever. I tried to avoid that and depict them as honestly I could, which really painted myself in a corner. I think honestly written teenagers come across as bad writing! I think the hallmark of teenagers is inconsistency and extremes, which makes sense since they're sort of trying out adulthood, figuring out the best way to handle what's going on and who they're becoming, but it's really hard to write!"
Though the purpose of Andy's time warp is ostensibly to quit smoking, as the story progresses it becomes clear that something else is bubbling below the surface--something that Andy struggles to face even with a grown-up perspective. Robinson said that in regards to this crisis, Andy's adult self and teenage self are "more or less the same, since he hasn't really dealt with any of the issues involved since they happened." "This explains why he appears mostly as a teenager in the book, but when it comes time to face facts, he more or less flickers between his adult and younger self," he said.
"In many ways, the book is a metaphor for psychology and the therapy process, delving into the past to get to the root of some problem or another. Another incentive I had for doing the book was trying to get to the root of some of my own neuroses," the writer explained. "High school looms large in my legend, and I'm not sure all of it is healthy!"
Now discuss this story in CBR's Indie Comics forum.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16538
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National Library Week is just around the corner, April 14-20, 2013. This year's theme is Communities Matter -- which is so true! Check out Hoover Public Library's official mission: The overall purpose of the Hoover Public Library is to serve all the citizens of Hoover by offering the services, resources, and facilities to fulfill their informational, educational, cultural, and recreational needs and interests. The term "citizens" encompasses individuals and groups of every age, education, philosophy, occupation, economic level, ethnic origin, and human condition. In other words, you matter! Stop by the library and let us show you how much!
Other NLW "stuff" you probably want to know:
* Use this coupon to make a payment on your overdue fines during National Library Week.
* 2013 is the Hoover Public Library's 30th anniversary.
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http://www.hooverlibrary.org/index.php?q=kidzone&page=5
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Wild Water Racing in London and the UK
This is a bit like downhill skiing, but in a kayak. Wild Water Racing takes place on Grade Two to Grade Four white water, usually in specialised racing kayaks. The best known racing kayaks are called Wavehoppers. Competitors race against the clock, not each other.
Wild Water Racing kayaks are designed to be both fast and tough, as the courses are often rocky. The kayaks initially feel very wobbly, but are surprisingly stable once you get used to them.
There is a national Wild Water Racing championship with paddlers starting in Division B, before gaining promotion to the harder Division A. Wild Water Races can take ten to 25 minutes to complete, although there are also two minute Sprint events.
The Sharks is an active Wild Water Racing London club. Many clubs will own a Wavehopper or two, which can be used by members.
For more information on Wild Water Racing see:
Wild Water Racing: useful links
Image courtesy of The Sharks. Photograph taken by Kaycee Underwood at Llangollen on the River Dee.
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http://canoelondon.com/wild_water_racing/
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| 0.942245 | 229 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak to an amazing group of 12 to 14 year old adolescents--these kids are Montessori school students who came together to talk about ways to make the food system more just and environmentally sustainable.
Family farmers have been and will always continue to be critical to national and global food security. Food Tank will be featuring posts focused on the issues and innovations critical to family farmers around the world, as well as actions everyone can take to support them.
South Beach has been long known for a year-long spring break vibe, and less known, until recently, for great cooking. But Miami's food boom has been gaining attention for a few years, and now the buzz has been turned up.
When I began to cook in the 1960s while getting my Ph.D., I was conscious of doing so in a way that would define me as different from my mother and my mother's life. She cooked Midwestern. I deliberately chose French. She baked apple pies. I composed Tarte Normande aux Pommes.
For 25 years, Leslie Cerier, aka The Organic Gourmet, has been teaching the art of healthy cooking at some of the finest eco-lifestyle centers and spas in the world. I sat down with Leslie recently to find out her latest advice on eating for sustenance and sustainability.
Slow food in the favelas may seem like a contradiction in terms -- but such disruptive innovations, not the bland, frothy platitudes of the official Rio + 20 declaration, are in fact "the Future We Want."
Last spring, right on the heels of one of the biggest events in his life, his son's wedding -- and with the eyes of the world upon his family -- Prince Charles came to the United States to deliver a speech at Georgetown University about the future of food.
The organic food movement is a great cause and it has become big business. Now the question is whether we will allow this well-intentioned movement, started by farmers who strived to be stewards of the land, to completely degenerate into a meaningless food trend.
As I gathered and shelled acorns under our tree, it was easy to imagine Maidu women in the same place, doing the same thing many years ago. It gave me a great feeling of kinship with the Native Americans.
You're probably tired of hearing people preach about how a product is sourced at its freshest when grown nearby. But for me, although counterintuitive, an import hundreds of miles away can be good for local food, too.
Discovering Hermitage Bay in Antigua shattered a few preconceived notions I held about the slow food movement. I assumed it primarily preached in our little urban bubbles. I'm happy to say, I was dead wrong.
That food can root us in the past while offering hope for the future seems proof of its power to transform. Most of us have experienced the bliss of biting into a dish so divine it thrills alive the soul as well as the body.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/slow-food-movement
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06/20/11 The Indiana State Fire Marshal is reminding everyone who purchases fireworks in Indiana to make sure they only patronize those retailers that have a certificate of compliance from the state indicating that they are authorized to sell consumer fireworks and that the facility has been inspected for safety.
The Indiana State Fire Marshal’s office is a division of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security (IDHS).
“Inspectors work very hard this time of year to make sure Indiana fireworks vendors are in compliance with all state laws and that their facilities are safe for the customers who patronize them,” said Indiana State Fire Marshal Jim Greeson. “While most fireworks retailers in Indiana are reputable and operate their businesses in accordance with state laws, every year there are a few vendors who try to operate outside the law. That’s where we need the public’s help to let us know if they encounter a vendor who doesn’t have the proper documentation.”
Vendors may sell fireworks in Indiana from a variety of different structures including buildings, tents and stands, but each of these establishments should have a prominently displayed certificate of compliance that includes an IDHS logo.
If the certificate is not displayed, patrons should ask the owner to produce it. If the vendor can’t, Greeson advises consumers to leave the establishment and report the lack of certificate to the State Fire Marshal’s office by calling 317.232.1407.
When buying fireworks, it’s also important to remember that only 1.4G fireworks are approved for sale to the average consumer in Indiana. These fireworks will have “1.4G” printed on the package. If you believe a fireworks distributor is selling any type of fireworks other than 1.4G, notify the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s Office right away by calling 317.232.1407. These fireworks may be dangerously more powerful or less stable than the approved 1.4G fireworks.
For more information about buying and using fireworks responsibly, visit GetPrepared.IN.gov and click on the link that says “Fireworks Safety.”
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http://am1050.com/2011/hoosiers-reminded-to-buy-fireworks-from-certified-vendors-only/
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en
| 0.943602 | 441 | 1.765625 | 2 |
For 44 years, James Lynch lay in Tauranga Hospital, unable to move or utter more than a few words at a time. Given this, it doesn't sound as if Lynch's life would make great material for a play, but his is a remarkable story which proves that old chestnut "life is what you make it".
From his hospital bed, Lynch befriended All Blacks, charmed politicians, including Prime Minister Helen Clark, played hospital matchmaker and inspired dozens of others who marvelled at his serenity, humour and zest for life.
Now theatre newcomer Pauline Grogan brings his story to the stage in 500 Letters.
Interwoven with her own equally astonishing life story, 500 Letters is a one-woman show which combines music and song, drama and comedy, shadow puppetry and old-fashioned story-telling.
It started life as a book called A View from Within, based on the hundreds of letters Grogan, a long-time friend of James Lynch, received after his death in 2001.
The letters followed a newspaper advertisement she placed asking if anyone knew Lynch.
Grogan was amazed at the ways he made his mark on the lives of so many.
"James Lynch was a remarkable man who never seemed bitter about what had happened to him and never, ever complained," Grogan says.
He had been completely immobile since the early 1930s following a mysterious accident on board the naval ship HMS Veronica. The story goes that Lynch, who was on a school trip, suffered extensive nerve damage after trying to help a sailor who had been electrocuted.
Grogan has been unable to verify the incident but in any event, the then 14-year-old was bedridden for life. Initially Lynch lived at home before his ageing family admitted him to hospital.
"He had an attitude of thankfulness about him and managed to make sense of total disability and incapacity and turned it into a life of reaching out and touching other people's lives."
She recalls he played matchmaker for some of the hospital staff who, after the wedding ceremonies and before the reception, made a point of visiting and thanking Lynch. When their children were born, they brought the new babies in to lie on his stomach so he could meet them.
"James loved rugby and always watched the All Blacks, so more than a few players popped in to see him during his time in hospital. He met Helen Clark, who remembered him years after they met.
"I approached her at a book signing after his death and said, 'Excuse me, do you remember the man who had been in Tauranga Hospital for 44 years?' and she instantly replied, 'You're talking about James Lynch'."
Grogan met Lynch in 1986 after her then 10-year-old daughter collapsed at school following a stroke and became an outpatient at Tauranga Hospital. A friend asked Grogan to visit Lynch who had been hospitalised since 1957.
It was a turning point for Grogan who marvelled at Lynch's ability to listen and offer sage advice. He quickly became a mentor for Grogan, who has had a life as active as her friend's was still.
She grew up in a large but sheltered Catholic family and entered a convent when she was 17. Twelve years later, Grogan was at the centre of a scandal involving a priest and was expelled from the convent with a handful of belongings and nowhere to go. A teacher, she married a year later and had four children in as many years.
Lynch inspired Grogan to return to university and write her 1996 autobiography Beyond the Veil about her convent experiences. The book was the subject of a TVNZ documentary.
He continues to inspire her from beyond the grave. Grogan says his memory has given her the courage - at age 60 - to take to the stage for the first time.
Just as Lynch was a good teacher, she has found another mentor whom she originally inspired. 500 Letters is directed by Margaret-Mary Hollins, who Grogan taught at intermediate.
"I have had two great teachers in my life and Pauline was one of them," says Hollins. "She made learning fun and you just wanted to go to school because of her. She was such a creative teacher who sang to us and read to us."
"But we did do the curriculum," Grogan reassures, "just along with everything else ... "
* 500 Letters at the Herald Theatre, Oct 20-30By Dionne Christian
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10351089
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en
| 0.990762 | 921 | 1.523438 | 2 |
For months, rumor has had it that Google was working on some big social project called +1. Now it’s not a rumor: Google has officially announced it as an “experiment” which it’s rolling out slowly and explained how to try it out. And it turns out that +1 is very much like Facebook’s Like button–a one-click method of expressing your approval of something on the Web in a way that’s relayed both to your friends and to the Internet at large. It’s launching on Google search results–and the ads on Google search results–and will apparently pop up on other Google products and other sites in the months to come. Just like the Like button.
I just gave a +1 to a site I like:
In principle, I like the idea of +1–especially if it’s spamproof, and especially if Google starts to use +1 ratings to rejigger search results in a useful way, something which I assume it’ll do sooner or later.
But one thing about +1 remains fundamentally confusing: Just who are the friends whose +1 recommendations I’ll see? Google’s blog post addresses this, but doesn’t clarify things all that much:
So how do we know which +1’s to show you? Like social search, we use many signals to identify the most useful recommendations, including things like the people you are already connected to through Google (your chat buddies and contacts, for example). Soon we may also incorporate other signals, such as your connections on sites like Twitter, to ensure your recommendations are as relevant as possible. If you want to know who you’re connected to, and how, visit the “Social Circle and Content” section of the Google Dashboard.
Social Circle and Content section of Google Dashboard? I didn’t know such a thing existed. So I visited it–and its explanation of who I’m connected to, and why, is pretty murky.
By contrast, relationships on Facebook are easy to understand, and it’s easy to understand why I have them: because I accepted someone’s friend request. That, as much as anything else, is what makes the Like button appealing.
Google’s post makes reference to a “slalom-skiing aunt” and “culinary genius college roommate” who can use +1 to recommend relevant content. On Facebook, that aunt and roommate can celebrate their interests in a way that’s obvious, but Google doesn’t yet have those tools. (I know there’s such a thing as Google Profiles–here’s mine–but compared to Facbeook, their richness-and-mindshare quotient is approximately zilch.)
I assume that Google understands that people don’t yet think of themselves as having “Google friends,” and that it knows, from painful experience, that assuming that it can treat people I contact via Google services as social-networking pals is risky business. For +1 to take off, it needs to dovetail with an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand system for managing friendships via Google. So I imagine that the company is furiously at work on something along those lines–and that its absence might help explain why +1′s rollout feels tentative and incomplete.
Anyhow, here’s Google’s own video explaining +1:
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://technologizer.com/2011/03/30/google-has-an-answer-to-facebooks-like-button-now-all-it-needs-is-an-answer-to-facebook/
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en
| 0.951201 | 733 | 1.59375 | 2 |
I have found a wonderful way to file all my papers. It really cuts down on time and desk clutter and anybody can do it. Assign each subject a color. For example, red for reading, yellow for math, green for science, etc. Buy (I hate that word too, but they are not expensive), or get a parent to donate, file folders of each color for each subject. I started out with at least 5 of each color. Then file and label the various topics for each subject in the corresponding color. This way if you need a worksheet on clocks, you know that all the math files are yellow and you go to the yellow folder labled time. If you need a reading comprehension test sheet, you would look in the red folder labled comprehension tests. It is also an ideal system to use for memos from the office and order forms from various companies. I hope it works for you as well as it has for me!
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/pages/1784.shtml
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| 0.966015 | 193 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Here are several after action report of games played during the french show Petites Guerres 2012 near Paris last weekend.
The campaign was the conquest of the county of Auvergne by the king of France, Philippe Augustus in 1210-1213. In 1210, count Guy d'Auvergne plundered the Abbaye of Mozac near Riom and captured his own brother, Robert, Bishop of Clermont (who prefered the king of France). Philippe Augustus took the opportunity to send an army to Auvergne and free the bishop.
The royal army was under command of two loyal subjects of Philippe, Guy de Dampierre, Lord of Bourbon (just north of Auvergne) and Lambert Cadoc, a mercenary captain who have been hired by the king for a long time.
The last supplies train : The french vanguard has to stop a last supplies train before it reaches the castle.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.warlordgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&p=49366
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en
| 0.949073 | 194 | 1.671875 | 2 |
In 1957, Arthur Frommer published a groundbreaking guidebook called “Europe on Five Dollars a Day.” Today, that tome seems as quaint as the 10-cent pay phone call. More than a half-century after its appearance, travel budgeteer Doug Mack attempted to follow Frommer’s trail of dollar signs through 11 cities in eight countries — inflation duly noted. He relates his challenges and adventures in the book “Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day” (Perigee Trade Paperback Original, April 3). From his home in Minneapolis, Mack recently spoke by phone with Travel staffer Andrea Sachs. Some edited excerpts from their conversation, free of charge:
What’s the back story to your book?
A few years ago, I was at a book festival in downtown Minneapolis with my mom, and we were looking at a table of secondhand books. I found one called “Europe on Five Dollars a Day” that I thought was particularly absurd and hilarious. I bought it for 10 cents, initially out of ironic hilarity, a cheap conversation piece. I showed it to my mom, who thought that I’d bought it for her because she had used that guidebook in 1957. She also mentioned that she had all the letters that she and my father had exchanged while she was on that trip. I hadn’t heard about the book or the letters before.
How did the idea of your book take shape?
At first I was interested in the personal history, but as I started to look at my mother’s letters and the book, I got really intrigued by the broader social history of tourism — how things had changed, how they hadn’t changed. I wondered if I could go back to Europe with these materials and see how far I could get.
Did you use Frommer’s book to plan your trips [two weeks in 2008 and six weeks in 2009]?
I tried to use the guidebook as much as possible. Obviously, things like the train tables are going to be out of date. I wasn’t going to take a ship across, as he recommended. I made some concessions to modernity. But for the most part, that was my primary planning manual in terms of day-to-day activities and where I was going to stay, what I was going to do and where I was going to eat. When I got lost, I would rely on serendipity to be my guide.
How did people react to the book?
I usually got looks of confusion or incredulity. But there were times when I showed the book and someone said, “Oh, I remember this.” A prime example was at the Hotel Texas in Rome. The clerk’s eyes lit up. He pulled out a brochure from that era with quotes from all kinds of publications. The quotes from “Europe on Five Dollars a Day” talked about what a magnificent, grand place this was, yet still very affordable. Now the hotel is an example of deteriorated grandeur. It’s a shadow of its former self. But the clerk was more than happy to reminisce about the past.
Could you find anything close to $5 (about $37 today)?
There was a hostel in Vienna that Frommer describes as a fourth-class category. You can read between the lines. The gist of it is: If you’re really desperate, this is the place of last resort. I stayed at that same hostel and it was still affordable. I think it was about 25 euros [about $31] a day. The conditions were about the same, too. It was sort of miserable.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/europe-on-5-a-day-more-than-a-half-century-later/2012/06/14/gJQAD1yreV_story.html
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Sony Pictures and David Gordon Green have tentative plans to bring Laura Ingalls Wilder's classic book series to the big screen in a feature film version of Little House on the Prairie, Deadline reports.
The nine-book story first began in 1932 with the publication of "Little House in the Big Woods," recalling Wilder's own recollections of growing up with her family in a log cabin in 1871. The second book was titled "Little House on the Prairie" and its title became associated with the overall series.
The property is also well-known for its adaptation into a long-running television series, first aired between 1974 and 1984.
Green, who most recently directed The Sitter, would direct with a script by Abi Morgan (Shame, The Iron Lady).
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“The students have to be a aware that a work of art is an argument, a proposition, a proposal to the world..”
This is a really interesting and even handed documentary following a graduating year of Goldsmith’s students. Amongst the often cringeworthy navel gazing, and the very telling statement by one of the student that ‘it’s all about confidence’, there is also the genuine desire to investigate, uncover, challenge and provoke.
This is basically the same course that I did (but in Glasgow) and the documentary perfectly illustrates all the reasons I have such a love/hate relationship with conceptual art and the sometimes surprising narrowness that infinite possibility can bring. I find it fascinating how an area of the art world that professes to be boundary-less still manages to corral it’s artists into such similar visual patterns.
It’s impossible for me to dismiss the purity of art for arts sake and the thought process involved in conceptual art but the sheer lack of interest in the visual component of this branch of ‘visual art’ often leaves me cold.
The most difficult parts for me though were watching the group crits - a process I always found excruciating both as artist and critic. The struggle on both sides to say something profound and the futile emphasis on being able to talk the talk. As much as I would love the opportunity to engage with art again more fully as an adult I don’t envy the less articulate students making their way through that particular process. A process which, as one tutor admits, the success of often ultimately hinges on the social skills of the artist rather than the work itself.
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Thank you, Alejandro, for your introduction, and for allowing me to be here with you today.
Attorney General Eric Holder was unable to attend today’s ceremony because he is attending a funeral, and he sends his sincere regrets. I am honored to represent him here today, and to bear witness this remarkable occasion.
Any time I have the opportunity to be with new Americans, I am reminded of my parents. They both came to this country seeking refuge from a repressive regime in the Dominican Republic.
My mother arrived in the ‘30s when her father was appointed Ambassador to the U.S. After my grandfather spoke out against the dictator following the brutal massacre of thousands of Haitians, he was declared “persona non grata.”
My father fled the same brutal regime later, and showed his gratitude for the refuge he found here by serving with distinction as a physician in the United States Army. His service to the country led to a lifelong medical career dedicated to serving veterans. My parents settled in Buffalo, New York, and raised me and my four siblings to have great respect for this nation, and a great responsibility to it. Both of my parents naturalized when they became eligible. My uncles served in the armed forces and naturalized under an expedited program for service members.
My family, like so many before them, and like all of you, sought the great privileges and responsibilities that come with American citizenship.
For the entirety of our nation’s history, immigrants have come here seeking prosperity, opportunity, liberty and equality. Despite often heated battles over immigration policy, we are a nation of immigrants; our diversity has always been our greatest strength. The vast majority of Americans have a story, somewhere in their rich history, of immigration to America. Some of those stories are painful and remind us of a dark time in our history. Others are stories of hope for a brighter future. But the stories are what bind us to each other, for all of our differences, the stories are what make us one.
You are about to become our newest citizens. Hailing from 24 different countries, each of you represents a different culture, a different language, a different way of dress. But you will each now be American.
Now, this doesn’t mean that you give up what sets you apart. Our differences are what make our nation’s diversity so valuable, as we learn from each other, bringing the best of each culture together to make one unique, American culture.
And this is what makes this country so special. Because what makes you an American isn’t the color of your skin, or the religion you practice, or the food you eat, or the language you speak.
Rather, what makes you an American is that you uphold the principles of equality, freedom and democracy. These are the foundations of our country. They are written into our founding documents, and they are what have long called to people from all over the world, drawing them to our borders and our shores.
The late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said "the only title in our democracy superior to that of President is the title of citizen."
Indeed, the power of an American citizen is great. But with that power comes great responsibility.
As you take your oath today, you will be taking on much more than a new passport and the requirement to serve jury duty. It is not just a privilege, but a grave responsibility to be an American citizen, and to make your voice heard.
Your participation in our democracy is essential to making it work. The right to participate actively in our democracy is one for which men and women have fought, and even given their lives. We owe it to them, as well as to ourselves and to our children, to stay actively engaged, and to vote.
Congratulations on becoming our nation’s newest citizens. I hope you will you will use your new status to become active participants in your communities, and to help make our country even better for the next generation.
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This week's Fab Five of Pinterests are sewing related and feature some excellent tips and projects!
If you're new to sewing, here's a great place to get some newbie info and tips on how to work your machine:
If you have a sewing machine but aren't familiar with how to set all those different tension and thread dials, you may find this tutorial helpful:
Now that you know how to work your machine, why not do some sewing? I like to recycle stuff, and we like to bring our own grocery bags to the store, but the cheap cloth ones fall apart rather easily, and we actually had a Kroger manager tell us we couldn't bring in our blue Walmart bags anymore! So I think we're going to be making our own from now on, and this is what I hope to make by transforming old jeans into a bag! There isn't a tutorial, but if this turns out for me, I'll make a tutorial and share.
If you've ever had an issue with your jeans being too long, (and who hasn't?) this tutorial is excellent for showing you a very easy and quick way to not only alter their length but keep the original hem!!! ("No, way!" you say? "Waaaaay!" I say!)
And speaking of hemming, this is such a ridiculously easy way to make a crisp and even hem line:
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any harm or injury that may come to anyone's person or property as a result of trying any of the ideas relayed here. I'm just sharing some cool things I liked on Pinterest - try at your own risk and use your best judgment.
Thanks for stopping and have a blessed day!
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DETROIT • You have to wonder where this green revolution is. It has to be out there somewhere. After all, the media is reporting it’s burgeoning, the tree huggers are proselytizing an uprising and the automakers are marketing environmentalism with an incredible fervour. But actually finding said revolution? That’s proving elusive.
The most recent U.S. automobile sales number are in and, in top place among all light vehicles, the best-seller is — it’s no surprise as it’s still the perennial leader — Ford’s F-Series. What you might find surprising is that sales of the big pickup grew by a whopping 27.7% last year. Ditto for Chevy’s Silverado almost-as-whopping 16.9% uptick. Toyota’s environment-loving Prius? Well, it’s stuck way down in 15th spot and sales increased but a paltry 0.9 % over a dismal 2009.
But, wait, the news gets worse. The Prius is the only “green” vehicle that made the list (heck, even the lowly Jeep Grand Cherokee made it, increasing its volume by a humungous 68.2% thanks to its recent redesign). Indeed, since the Prius entails the lion’s share of hybrid sales in North America (Honda’s hybrids seem so anchored to their dealers’ lots that one has to wonder if their tires are cemented right into their parking spaces), it means that hybrid sales as a percentage of total vehicles sales declined in 2010.
Yet, here on the floor of the North American International Auto Show, the “revolution” continues, seemingly unconcerned that no one outside the hallowed doors of Detroit’s Cobo Hall gives a damn.
Toyota is, for instance, launching an entire line of Prius-branded products. You can’t blame it; the Prius, despite its recent tepid sales, is the one shining success of the green revolution. But one can’t help but wonder how much of its popularity rests in its actual ability to reduce emissions and how much is just
Toyota’s powerful Prius — now “Prius Gone Plural” — marketing machine. After all, Camry Hybrids are rare beasts indeed.
Meanwhile, over in the Lexus booth, the message is “the darker side of green” — only that darker side is a CT200h runabout that boasts 134 horsepower and a zero-to-100-kilometres acceleration time that barely beats 10 seconds. And its U.S. price tag of $29,120 suggests a Canadian price well north of 30-large.
Though it is launching a new 6 Series convertible and a 1 Series M Coupe (yeah!), BMW’s show booth is fronted by a pair of ActiveHybrids (X6 and 7 Series).
Meanwhile, over at the Porsche exhibit, holding centre court is the 918 RSR Hybrid. Never mind that that its flywheel-based Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) is the ideal solution for racing — there is currently no series for the car in which to race. And such flywheel-based systems will never be used on the street, though Porsche has another, battery-based hybrid system in the works for production-based cars.
Then, of course, we have the true believers, such as Tesla proudly displaying CEO Elon Musk’s “We will not stop until every car on the road is electric” proclamation along the walls of its exhibit. Right across the aisle, there’s an outsized (for a mini car at least) display of Smart’s electric car and scooter program. Next door is China’s BYD, with seemingly its entire booth devoted to its Green City Solution and its electric sedans, SUVs and minivans. Meanwhile, back in the real world — at least the North American version of it — 2010 marks the first time in Canadian history that trucks outsold cars — 54% versus 46% — with Ford being particularly blessed with its F-150 selling more than 97,000 units last year.
Meanwhile, over at the General Motors booth, the Chevrolet Volt — the EV that bills itself as “more car than electric — holds centre stage. As much as I admire the technology, one has to wonder exactly many of them GM will be able to flog at US$41,000 a pop. The key display at GM’s cross-town rival Ford is an electric Transit Van scurrying — emissions-free, so it’s safe to do indoors — round a tiny raised oval leading a charge of electric vehicles, plug-ins and hybrids that will see the Blue Oval’s family of electric vehicles rival Toyota’s burgeoning Prius family.
It’s quite a dichotomy. No matter where you look, consumers are eschewing environmentally conscious cars in droves while manufacturers become ever more strident in their marketing of the greenness of their new electric vehicles. Is it because they think the environmental lobby so powerful it will eventually overcome consumer resistance? Or is it, as someone more skeptical might posit (Qui? Moi?) that the environmental lobby is too powerful to tell to go away. Whatever the case, what will car companies do when all the monies they are pumping into these green cars fail to generate sales? How will shareholders react to a company pumping $20-billion into programs for which there are no customers?
Or as I said before, where is the green revolution?
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Funds and Games
By PAUL KRUGMAN
You're selling your house, and your real estate agent claims that he's representing your interests. But he sells the property at less than fair value to a friend, who resells it at a substantial profit, on which the agent receives a kickback. You complain to the county attorney. But he gets big campaign contributions from the agent, so he pays no attention.
That, in essence, is the story of the growing mutual fund scandal. On any given day, the losses to each individual investor were small — which is why the scandal took so long to become visible. But if you steal a little bit of money every day from 95 million investors, the sums add up. Arthur Levitt, the former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, calls the mutual fund story "the worst scandal we've seen in 50 years" — and no, he's not excluding Enron and WorldCom. Meanwhile, federal regulators, having allowed the scandal to fester, are doing their best to let the villains get off lightly.
Unlike the cheating real estate agent, mutual funds can't set prices arbitrarily. Once a day, just after U.S. markets close, they must set the prices of their shares based on the market prices of the stocks they own. But this, it turns out, still leaves plenty of room for cheating.
One method is the illegal practice of late trading: managers let favored clients buy shares after hours. The trick is that on some days, late-breaking news clearly points to higher share prices tomorrow. Someone who is allowed to buy on that news, at prices set earlier in the day, is pretty much assured of a profit. This profit comes at the expense of ordinary investors, who have in effect had part of their assets sold off at bargain prices.
Another practice takes advantage of "stale prices" on foreign stocks. Suppose that a mutual fund owns Japanese stocks. When it values its own shares at 4 p.m., it uses the closing prices from Tokyo, 14 hours earlier. Yet a lot may have happened since then. If the news is favorable for Japanese stocks, a mutual fund that holds a lot of those stocks will be underpriced, offering a quick profit opportunity for someone who buys shares in the fund today and unloads those shares tomorrow. This isn't illegal, but a mutual fund that cared about protecting its investors would have rules against such rapid-fire deals. Indeed, many funds do have such rules — but they have been enforced only for the little people....Article Continued
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Krugman & Fraud Clarity
Thanks to Paul Krugman we have simple clarity to the complexity of the mutural funds scandal. Check out his video archives, above, for many great insights. Keep on kicking em Paul.
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Last week, President Obama joked to guests at the Alfred E. Smith Dinner in New York about the upcoming foreign policy debate: “Spoiler Alert: We got [Osama] bin Laden.”
While this is indeed the highlight of the Administration’s foreign policy endeavors, President Obama’s failure to take a comprehensive approach to international terrorism has facilitated the resurgence of the global transnational threat.
The “Arab Spring” had a lot to do with this. As populations rose up against autocracy and overthrew their dictators, countries ended up with weak and/or Islamist governments. This has resulted in a number of unintended consequences for the region.
Since last month’s terrorist attack against the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans, the Obama Administration is still trying to get its message right on who is responsible and what happened. What is obvious, however, is Libya’s gaping security vacuum.
Libya’s fledgling government has been unable to disband Islamist militias responsible for numerous attacks against U.S. and British diplomatic personnel. With such a long history of terrorist activity, it is not surprising that Islamists have taken the opportunity to increase their influence. However, it is shocking that the Obama Administration was not prepared to manage or respond to such security threats.
The fall of the Muammar Qadhafi regime also impacted Africa’s Sahel region. Terrorists and their affiliates have occupied northern Mali, and the interim government in Bamako (Mali experienced a coup last March) is too weak to do anything about it independently. Planning for military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is already underway.
The Obama Administration’s response is conflicting. At first, it supported the reinstatement of a central government before any incursion takes place, but in September, Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Johnnie Carson stated that Mali “should accept the support…of other ECOWAS states.”
The revolution in Syria also provided Islamist extremists with an opportunity to connect with opposition groups desperately in need of arms and resources to topple the Assad regime. As the U.S. and the international community have sat on their hands throughout the crisis, desperation on the part of the opposition has led rebels to partner with nefarious actors, many of whom are foreign fighters. The Administration’s opportunity to influence the opposition has long passed, and if the regime falls, the government that replaces Assad will remember Washington’s indifference.
Apart from the countries affected by the “Arab Spring,” Iraq is also experiencing an al-Qaeda comeback. When President Obama’s election promise came to fruition and U.S. troops withdrew last December, al-Qaeda in Iraq’s (AQI) return was easily anticipated. Since the withdrawal, Department of Defense data show that AQI has more than doubled its number of fighters since 2011.
Furthermore, according to the Associated Press, AQI attacks have also increased to roughly 140 times per month, up from 75 times last year. And last summer, AQI leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi even went as far to threaten the U.S. homeland, stating, “You will soon witness how attacks will resound in the heart of your land, because our war with you has now started.”
While the Obama Administration cannot control the outcomes of revolutions or government transitions, it can respond proactively by the shaping U.S. relations with new leaders. The Administration can also influence the ways in which these governments respond to American interests, such as terrorism. In the absence of strong international leadership, the U.S. puts American security and allies at risk.
For more information, see A Counterterrorism Strategy for the “Next Wave.”
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Parents Warned Against New Vaccination Guidelines
By Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com, September 16, 2011
Straight to the Source
The state of California has just passed bill AB499, which will permit minor children as young as 12 years old to be vaccinated with sexually transmitted disease vaccines like Gardasil without parental knowledge or parental consent. This means that if you live in California, school or medical personnel would be allowed to vaccinate your child against an STD without your ever knowing it.
At issue, of course, is whether 12-year-olds are mature enough to fully analyze the benefits versus risks of vaccination (or any medical treatment for that matter), or recognize the alternatives to STD prevention, such as abstinence. Meanwhile, a child could suffer a vaccine reaction and the parent, not knowing the child had been vaccinated, could mistake it for the flu or another condition, delaying getting help until it is too late.
But, perhaps the greatest issue of all is whether this law violates your basic right to be involved in important decisions regarding your child's health.
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The Hawkeye Initiative: Special Guest Edition: The Hawkeye Initiative IRL! -
I recently received an email from an anonymous fan sharing how she pulled a Hawkeye Initiative themed prank on her CEO to illustrate a problem with some artwork.
My personal compliments to her and her accomplice on a mission well done; they perfectly took they perfectly took the concept of The…
I believe that there are a small group of women who hate men just for being men. I believe that the textbook definition of the word misandry fits that description. I believe there are bad things that happen to men. I believe those issues should be addressed. I do not believe that a fringe group of women who hate men can be blamed for those issues.
Misandry was a dead word until recently. A group of men who feared the progress of feminism revived the word and used it to undercut the movement. They like having the power being a man provides and they don’t want to lose that. So they created a movement, found a bunch of legitimate issues that affect men, and tried to blame women for those issues. They called this misandry. It’s like conservatives using buzzwords like “death panels” to make people fear health care. They let people assume it meant Obama wanted to kill your grandma. They let their cute little phrase infect the minds of good people and convince them of falsehoods.
People are telling me that men cannot report rape without getting laughed at. They say this is misandry. It is the fault of women who hate men. But that just doesn’t make any sense to me. When I seek a logical explanation, it seems more likely that this is because men are supposed to be strong and women are supposed to be weak. And rape has been viewed as something that happens mostly to women. So if it does happen to a man, they must be weak. How did this idea of men=strong and women=weak start? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t because of misandry. It is an ancient patriarchy collapsing in on itself.
True feminism is about fighting inequality. It’s about erasing that strong/weak perception ingrained into our society. Misandry, as the term is often used today, is about trying to blame women for anything bad that happens to men.
If you want to fight to fix issues that affect men, go for it. But I would really consider distancing yourself from this term. It is used to evangelize folks into a movement that is very problematic. A group that can’t handle scrutiny of their comic books and video games, so they send death and rape threats. A group that calls women sluts and think they ask for rape if they show too much cleavage. Those are the people who coined this term, and you should want nothing to do with them or their language.
Do-Ho Suh, Karma, (2003).
I want to go to there.
The Quietest Place on Earth
This is the quietest place on Earth. It’s so quiet that you can hear the sounds of your own heart and stomach. The average person can only spend about 30 minutes in this room before they start hallucinating.
According to Guinness World Records, 2005, Orfield Laboratory’s anechoic chamber (pictured above) is “The quietest place on Earth” measured at −9.4 decibels. However, the University of Salford has a number of anechoic chambers, one of which is unofficially the quietest in the world having a measurement of −12.4 decibels.
The purpose of an anechoic chamber is for testing the response of loudspeakers or microphones because the room doesn’t affect the acoustic measurements. It is also the best place for virtual acoustics - generating auralizations of concert halls, city streets and other spaces.
Iron Manatee: I drew a thing. Did it make you happy? Would you like to make me happy too? Please donate to my wife’s MS Walk for the Cure! http://tinyurl.com/brwjrcf
Malvin and Cobbes v2 by Karen Hallion [tumblr | redbubble | etsy]
After learning my flight was detained 4 hours,
I heard the announcement:
If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic,
Please come to the gate immediately.
Well—one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there.
An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress,
Just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly.
Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her
Problem? we told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she
I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly.
Shu dow-a, shu- biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick,
Sho bit se-wee?
The minute she heard any words she knew—however poorly used—
She stopped crying.
She thought our flight had been canceled entirely.
She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the
Following day. I said no, no, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just late,
Who is picking you up? Let’s call him and tell him.
We called her son and I spoke with him in English.
I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and
Would ride next to her—Southwest.
She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it.
Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and
Found out of course they had ten shared friends.
Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian
Poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours.
She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering
She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies—little powdered
Sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts—out of her bag—
And was offering them to all the women at the gate.
To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a
Sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California,
The lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same
Powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies.
And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers—
Non-alcoholic—and the two little girls for our flight, one African
American, one Mexican American—ran around serving us all apple juice
And lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar too.
And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands—
Had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing,
With green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always
Carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.
And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought,
This is the world I want to live in. The shared world.
Not a single person in this gate—once the crying of confusion stopped
—has seemed apprehensive about any other person.
They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women too.
This can still happen anywhere.
Not everything is lost. — Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952), “Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal.” I think this poem may be making the rounds, this week, but that’s as it should be. (via oliviacirce)
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June 24th, 2007
Help available covering diversity stories in court
By Leo Laurence
When you realize that most of those in jail in our major cities are ethnic minorities and Gays, reporters doing investigative stories on those cases may need some help with access to the courts.
Many states – but not all – provide electronic access to their court records, making research on a story easier from your newsroom.
“Each state, and quite often each county within each state, has different systems and policies with regards to electronic access to court records,” according to the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press in its current Spring 2007 issue of The News Media and The Law.
In the vast majority of states, their Supreme Court and lower appellate courts, put their opinions online. Electronic access to appellate briefs, however, is somewhat limited, though it is available online in California. At the trial court level, case information is less likely to be available online.
The current issue of The News Media and The Law has a survey with detailed information for each state, including who you can contact to get information online. The guide was compiled by McCormick Tribune Legal Fellow Catherine Spratt and was funded by the McCormick Tribune Foundation.
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EU Sanctions Iran Oil, Gold
Iran continues to refuse to comply with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the EU in its conclusions.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed further sanctions on Iran after relations between the two countries worsened on fears that Tehran is developing a nuclear weapons industry. The US and UK were the main driving force behind the new round of sanctions:
"Iran's recent decision to commence 20% enrichment at its underground site at Qom shows that it continues to choose a path of provocation," said Hague.
Iran has responded with threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world's oil supply passes and accused the West of 'psychological warfare'.
In December, Iran's Parliament voted to expel British Ambassador Dominick John Chilcott after the UK cut off banking ties with the country over concerns that its nuclear programme may have military dimensions.
This followed the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) latest report on Iran, which highlights fresh concerns about the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear programme. It is the first time that the UK has used these powers to cut an entire country’s banking sector off from its financial sector.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said:
“The IAEA's report last week provided further credible and detailed evidence about the possible military dimensions of the Iranian nuclear programme. Today we have responded resolutely by introducing a set of new sanctions that prohibit all business with Iranian banks.
“We have consistently made clear that until Iran engages meaningfully, it will find itself under increasing pressure from the international community. The swift and decisive action today coordinated with key international partners is a strong signal of determination to intensify this pressure.”
From Monday 21 November 2011, all UK credit and financial institutions were required to cease business relationships and transactions with all Iranian banks, including the Central Bank of Iran, and their branches and subsidiaries.
To make and read comments, become a full member of your news community, click here.
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Leaders of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Los Angeles stood side-by-side on the steps of City Hall with the city’s Muslim leaders Monday as violent protests continued to rage across the Middle East and North Africa apparently sparked by a video mocking the Prophet Mohammed and believed to be created by a self-described Coptic Christian. The group denounced the film and those responsible for it during the unprecedented meeting. Ted Chen reports from West LA for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Sept. 17, 2012.
Muslim and Coptic Christian leaders stood shoulder to shoulder on Monday to publicly condemn the violence -- including the deadly siege of the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi -- that was sparked by a film associated with a self-described Coptic Christian that denigrates the Prophet Muhammad.
Dr. Maher Hathout, an Egyptian born physician and senior adviser to the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and Bishop Serapion, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Los Angeles, denounced the film, "Innocence of Muslims" at a press at Los Angeles City Hall.
"There should have been no bloodshed. In fact, there should have been no reaction to such an insignificant production," said Hathout.
Southern California is home to some 14,000 Coptic Christians families. Once the majority in Egypt, many of them fled to the U.S. after harassment and violence from Muslim extremists.
"We strongly condemn any and all violent actions and the loss of any innocent lives," said Serapion. "Along with our organization, we mourn the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and his staff and offer our heartfelt condolences to their families."
Muslims leaders said the violent protests do not represent the majority of those who practice Islam, a faith that, like Christianity, teaches forgiveness.
"When an ignorant person targets you, say peace and leave," Hathout said. "These are the teachers that will be more honoring, if you follow, to the name of the Prophet Muhammad rather than getting into a frenzy."
The leaders pointed out that the frenzy does not exist in the U.S., where any tensions between Christians and Muslims is worked out through dialogue.
"The fact that two men from Egypt -- one Coptic Christian, one Muslim -- came together to speak together in unison speaks wonderfully about America because no religion is repressing another religion in America. We're all free," said Salam Al-Marayati with the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
The news conference came as the Cerritos-based filmmaker behind the anti-Muslim film called "Innocence of Muslims" that sparked deadly riots in Libya and set off a wave of violent anti-American protests across the Middle East went into hiding with his family this week.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, a convicted bank fraudster, left after being questioned by his federal parole officer at a sheriff’s station. He is a self-described Coptic Christian.
Nakoula, who has been identified as one of the makers of the film, was escorted from his home just after midnight on Saturday by deputies who took him to the Cerritos Station for questioning by his probation officer, sheriff's officials said.
Bishop Serapion of the Coptic Orthodox Christian Diocese of Los Angeles says Nakoula called him, insisting it wasn’t his fault.
“He said, ‘I called to assure you that I am not behind this’,” Bishop Serapion said at today’s news conference.
Federal probation officials in Los Angeles are investigating if Nakoula violated his probation stemming from a bank fraud conviction, authorities said Friday.
The 13-minute “Innocence of Muslims” video, which was posted on YouTube, portrays the Muslim Prophet Muhammad engaged in apparently crude behavior. Such depictions of the prophet are considered blasphemous by many Muslims.
Protests played a role in mob violence in Libya in which U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, including two former Navy SEALS from San Diego County, were killed on the anniversary of 9/11.
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How Dreams Really Do Come True
JUDITH ACOSTA | HUFFINGTONPOST.COM
I’VE dreamt about farming all my life. You wouldn’t know it by the way I live, but it’s true. Somehow over all these years, my dreams and my realities have been separate by an inexplicable chasm.
I think for most people it is the same, or at least similar in essence. We dream or plan or talk more than we do. We blame our unrealized dreams on circumstance, other people, lack of support, money. Sometimes we call it luck — good or bad. And I think some of you already know that I think luck (however we define that) is a bigger factor than most of us care to admit.
But the other day I met a woman who really did it — who turned a whimsical idea into a reality in a big way and it made me start to wonder a bit about what really kept me from doing what she did. It wasn’t for lack of capacity or cognitive muscle. I could “visualize” as well as anyone. So, what was it? I met her via the Internet. We just moved into a rural area and we were looking for someone local to supply grass-fed beef. We found a few local people, but were most attracted to a small place called Brykill Farm.
After a few rounds of phone tag, I finally got to talk to the owner and manager of the farm, Susan. “Come on down,” she said as if she were inviting us for a picnic.
We turned onto her road, a winding dirt and gravel mix that crossed over a small river and led us through a dark thicket of oak, maple and birch after which it burst open onto pastures as broad and green as Ireland itself, each hill studded with what had to be the happiest cows on the planet. In a whispering huddle to the side were three or four iconic stone buildings from the 1700s.
We wandered around with a cattle dog trailing behind us for a few minutes, unsure which door to knock on when a woman came out, barefoot, smiling, a youngster trailing behind her. She looked to be in her 40s, but her manner was youthful and energetic.
We were escorted inside to a kitchen that was clearly the heart of the house, filled with books, cups and flowers. We chit-chatted a bit until I couldn’t resist and asked her, “Who started this?” She said, as matter of fact as telling me the time, “I did.” I looked at her. Her hands were of average size, her face still unlined, her posture relaxed but straight. A cattle farmer? I had to know more. She was living the life I had told myself I always wanted to live, but this, that and the other thing had stopped me somehow.
She was born in Connecticut and in her 20s, around the time that my friends and I were consumed with going out dancing, she invested in land. It was her idea. She was not married. She had no backers. She had no training.
Then she bought a couple of cows. Her friends thought it was “cool” and she eventually slaughtered those cows and bought more. Then she got a bull and the farm began in earnest.
How did that happen? How did she do what seemed so insurmountable to me? It wasn’t some outrageous fortune, no Mega-Lotto win. I don’t believe it had anything to do with any universal “secrets.” It wasn’t the forceful hand of fate... she hadn’t inherited a farm she didn’t want or become indentured through familial obligation.
It seemed to be as simple as a decision. To be more accurate, a series of small, but decisive ones.
The power of thought or the punch of will? In recent years, Descartes’ axiom — I think therefore I am — has been transposed, sharpened to an unprecedented perversion: I think therefore I have. Or the newest interpretation of the American Gospel: I think therefore I deserve to have.
Our lives can be perfect, abundant, sublime..
if only we think it so.
Was this what had taken place for Susan? Was it only a matter of thought? Was her belief what propelled her? There was no denying that some of her thinking predisposed her to the choices she made, but as she described it to me, this was a case of will leading the way. How else does a divorcee from Chicago wind up running a 300-year-old restoration and beef farm? It started with one book that resonated with her, “Chicken Tractor” by Joel Saladin, in which she was exposed to the idea of homesteading. (As I see it, this is the first piece of evidence that will is at work: unexpected and unconscious resonance.) As the ideas fomented in her, she stumbled onto the Brykill estate, which also appealed to her.
What was it, I asked, that was so appealing? “It was going to take a tremendous amount of work to rehabilitate it and I would be able to just plunge into a project.”
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pamscasa52 saysLamb soupwe make the same soup lamb broth with egg and grated cheese stir in My grandmother brought the recipe with her from Naples Italy We call it Spitsauda that is just sounded out i have no idea of the spelling :)posted in Learn From Lidialast discussed by pamscasa52 on 01.03.13 0
jlucich saysdessert recently on TVadd your replyI sam Lydia do a fried dough desert that I remember. Little dough balls coated with honey, stacked and dusted with multicolored sprinkles. My grandmother made this for Christmas and I am lookling for the recipe. PLEASE HELPposted in Learn From Lidialast discussed by LadyB on 03.30.13 3
ELIZABETH19 sayslamb soupmy sister makes a soup, which we call Easter soup - it is made with lamb, and broth, then eggs are scrambled in at the end. We do not where this comes from or what it is called. It was passed on from our Mama and Grandma - did you ever hear ot this? thank you.posted in Learn From Lidialast discussed by pamscasa52 on 01.03.13 2
whatadish saysCan't find :(A month ago or so, my local station aired one of Lidia's show with her mother...Lidia made stuffed escarole...I would LOVE to make this for my family. posted in Learn From Lidialast discussed by Gambit on 03.23.12 1
berniebrown saysI want to know the difference between corn meal and polenta. Can I use regular corn meal to make it?posted in Learn From Lidialast discussed by berniebrown on 01.31.12 0
moonunit23 saysCornbreadI recently made cornbread for the first time and my husband loved the flavor.However the result was very dry and crumbly. It was diffucult to spread anything on it because it fell apart. How do I make it moister so it will hold together? The ingredients are cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, eggs, sour cream and oil.posted in Learn From Lidialast discussed by Martha1 on 05.08.12 1
jross saysFeatured wine on program segmentsI always try to see the name of the wines Lidia pairs with her food and never seem to have enough time to jot down names of varietals or wineries that produce them. Would like to know how to buy them. Love the program.posted in Learn From Lidialast discussed by jross on 12.04.11 0
jimmymcardle saysHow to freeze BasilI have an abundance of Basil and would like to freeze it. Last time I froze it I found it to be black when I was ready to use it. Can you help me?
JimMposted in Learn From Lidialast discussed by tmp24 on 11.01.11 1
mdiscepo saysBest places in Naples for pizzaHi Lidia, I took your cooking class on Sept. 8th and after the class I asked you if you could recommend places in Naples to try the pizza. You couldn't think of it then but I'm hoping you can give me some info since I will be going there in October, specifically to try the pizza.
I loved the cooking class that you gave and the food was great! So was the wine...
Thank you Lidia!!
MaryAnnposted in Learn From Lidialast discussed by mdiscepo on 09.15.11 0
spiderhunters saysKanoodle "german gnocchi"I caught an episode of Lidia's show where she was making a "german gnocchi" or kanoodle as she called it. It was using bread instead of potatoes and looked absolutely scrumptuous. But I cannot find the recipe on the website.
Vivekposted in Learn From Lidialast discussed by spiderhunters on 08.27.11 0
misaklappie saysWheat & Gluten free pizza's & SpaghettiHi Lidia
Do you know any wheat and gluten free pizzas, cakes and spaghetti .
posted in Learn From Lidialast discussed by misaklappie on 08.01.11 0
fg1cdmg saysmeasurement conversionsI love baking your recipes but am having a hard time converting our measures to American measures eg: how much is a stick of butter in grams. I live in Australiaposted in Learn From Lidialast discussed by Fiona on 07.10.11 1
Lidia's Favorite RecipesLidia brings viewers on a road trip into the heart of Italian-American cooking.buy now › read more ›
LIDIA'SEnjoy Lidia's pastas and sauces!buy now ›
Lidia's Stoneware Collectionbuy now ›
Copyright ©2012 Tavola Productions, LLC.
Website by FOUR32C
select a discussions category
Best Pasta DishesCommit With Lidia This New YearFall FavoritesFavorite Italian DishesFresh IngredientsFried Italian FavoritesFrom the Sea to Your KitchenGet PwnedHome CookingLearn From LidiaLight and RefreshingNew DimensionNonna's SauceTop 5 Italian Restaurants in your CityWhat's For DinnerWhat's in Your GardenWhat's in Your OvenWine and DineYour Local FavoriteYour Pasta Tips
add your reply
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Food for fundraisers and fetes
Turn any fundraiser into an instant success by selling these favourite treats. From toffee apples and coconut ice, to rocky road and cupcakes, this selection of recipes will make any fundraiser a hit.
Successful fundraiser tips
Food is a popular fundraising item, but if you're new to setting up a cake stall these tips will set you on the right path:
- Don't neglect presentation: food that looks nice always sells well. Package things in cellophane bags tied with ribbon, pipe your icing onto your cupcakes, and tidy up the sides of your cakes. Don't forget to plan the look of your stall either - cover the table with a cloth or sheet and place all your goodies on cake stands and in baskets.
- Sell by the slice: if you choose to make whole cakes, plan to sell at least one by the slice. Not only can this make you more money, but it can encourage people who like the cake to come back and buy a whole one later.
- List the ingredients: we live in an era where a lot people suffer from food allergies, so make sure you're aware of all the ingredients, especially those that contain nuts and eggs.
- Make something for everyone: remember that a lot of people are gluten and lactose intolerant, and suffer from nut allergies, so try to ensure there's something to sell to everyone. Toffees, chocolates and coconut ice are all great for those with allergies.
- Make old favourites: no matter how fancy the venue, or how much macarons may now be in fashion, it is guaranteed that old favourites such as honey joys, chocolate crackles and coconut ice will be first to go. There's something nostalgic about a cake sale, and people love buying all their old childhood favourites first.
- Package them up: sell small bags of slices, biscuits and chocolate crackles, so that they're easy to share around.
- Sell it all: if you have anything left at the end of the day, drop your prices to ensure they sell. Every dollar counts so don't be afraid to bargain to ensure you get rid of it all.
Made with a mix of childhood favourite ingredients: marshmallows, snakes, peanuts and chocolate, there's little wonder why this one's so popular. For a bit of variety, try making two different types - one with milk chocolate and one with white. And if you're after an easy way of dividing it into portions, think about making it in a muffin tin.
Toffees and toffee apples
Toffees, caramels and toffee apples all look irresistible when glistening in their cellophane bags. These fundraiser favourites are cheap to make and always sell well, just remember to take care when making caramel as it can easily splatter and cause burns. If you always struggle making caramel, you can find all the tips to success here:
And then, once you've mastered the basics, you can showcase your skills with these fundraiser favourites:
Make any one of these delicious slices and cut into individual serves to sell on the day. You can also place a number of small squares on a plate to sell so that people have some to take home later.
Chocolate Crackles and Honey Joys
These two fundraiser classics are popular with everyone. If you're planning a fundraiser for children, let your little ones help out with the mixing and pouring. And for something a little more fancy, try making the chocolate crackles with a high quality dark chocolate or swap out your normal supermarket honey to make the honey joys with a floral version. These little touches put an adult spin on a childhood favourite without losing the essence of what makes them so popular.
From decadent dark chocolate truffles to pretty rolled white truffle balls, these handmade chocolate treats are always popular items. Make a few different varieties and package them up into small cellophane bags to sell on the day.
There are few people that can resist fudge, so don't go past this one to sell at your next fundraiser. Fudge is a great item to either sell by the square, or in a small slab. Alternatively, make a mixed plate of a few types that people can take home for later.
Cupcakes, lamingtons and butterfly cakes are a fundraiser dream come true. These little cakes are easy to make, come in perfect individual portions and are loved by young and old alike. However for an absolute show-stopper, try making a few larger cakes and sell them by the slice. Sponges, carrot cakes and multilayer cakes are all great options that people love to enjoy on the day while strolling among the wares.
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25 September 2009 - Members of the NATO PA Defence and Security Committee visited Canada
A delegation of 25 members of Parliament from 11 NATO member states and Sweden travelled to Canada on 8-11 September for a fact-finding mission hosted and chaired by Canadian Senator Joseph A. Day. The visit took place in the context of Canadian public and media attention being focussed on the repatriation of the remains of two Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
This visit of the NATO PA’s Sub-Committee on Transatlantic Defence and Security Co-operation aimed to better understand Canadian operational commitments, ongoing developments in the defence sector, and the force generation of its military. The Delegation also sought Canadian views on issues of increasing importance to NATO, including cyber security and the High North.
The Canadians notably pointed out that the country has made major contributions to the international engagement in
The meetings were held in Ottawa with senior government and military officials, and the delegation also had the opportunity to visit several important Canadian defence facilities, including the Royal Military College, which included a lively discussion with senior cadets; the Land Force Doctrine and Training System’s Peace Support Training Centre; 8 Wing, Canadian Forces Base Trenton, where the Delegation inspected aircraft including a CC-130 Hercules, CC-150 Polaris and CC-177 Globemaster; and Land Force Central Area/Joint Task Force Central Headquarters.
For further information, please see full report of the visit
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Our big Advent activity in the Vicarage is always the Jesse Tree – a bare twig we cover in decorations that take us through the salvation story to Jesus. We don’t always manage to get all the way through the readings and the decorating, but we make an attempt each year and cover at least some of it.
If you’re thinking of following God’s story from creation to the birth of Christ with a Jesse Tree for the first time this Advent, an excellently easy way to get your kit together would be to use free printables. These colour-in ones over at Life Your Way look great – there are lots of others all over the internet if you don’t fancy the colouring in, or if you want different bible stories. You don’t even have to use a twig – an outline of a tree drawn on a poster would work just as well (and not take up as much space in the kitchen). In the next couple of days we’ll be digging out our battered Celebrations tin and hunting round for the decorations that went astray when we packed up last year.
Another great Advent activity, especially good for holiday clubs or the like, or if school breaks up way before Christmas, is making a Nativity set. You could use this gorgeous cut up and colour set by Dutch designer Marloes de Vries or buy a set of Nativity Shrinkles, which my kids had lots of fun with last year. My goddaughters have each been sent a set this year. Our schools break up on the Friday before Christmas, so we may not have time for colouring activities this year, but I shall keep the Marloes de Vries colouring to hand, just in case the kids need occupying. We may end up with a house full of nativity sets!
I’ve linked this post up with one of Tanya’s – she’s posting some Advent reflections over the next four weeks.
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For every reasonable and responsible solution America comes up with to solve a problem, the frackin' Democrats have to come up with a hysterical response to stop it. Take hydraulic fracturing...
CatFish John wrote: 50 years from now water is going to be more precious than both oil and gas but you know who cares about our children and our children's children. - in response to Scientists Discover Gassy Liberal Pseudo-Science
Dear Comrade CatFish,
Water is always more precious than oil and gas. But we’ve been using oil and gas for over a century and we still have clean water here in the US. It wasn’t oil and gas that killed the Chesapeake Bay.
Liberals always have to act like the sky is falling, because they can’t rely on facts to back them up.
I don’t think we’ll run out of water, any more than the world will deflate from drilling for oil and gas or Guam will tip over from too many people.
Mark Twain once said that he felt about one of his books probably the same way that the Almighty felt about the world: “The fact is, there is a trifle too much water in both.”
Sons of Liberty wrote: The only poll I trust is the one that will be conducted on Nov. 6, 2012. And from past experience working the elections I'm not too optimistic that this President will be voted out of office. I've worked the elections for 6 years now and since then I have wondered if this republic can ever be saved. Example: out of more than
700 registered voters in my district only 100 to 150 voters show up to vote EVERY election cycle, from local to national elections. - in response to With Keystone XL, Obama Mask Slips on Jobs, Energy
Six years isn’t that many election cycles.
I would say that it’s about the normal amount of time it takes the average voter to get completely disgusted with the party in power.
In this case that means disgust with the Democrats.
In 2008, voter turnout was the highest it’s been since 1968 at 56.8 percent of the population.
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Folk are still talking about the release of the 1911 Census north of the border. Apart from what I have already mentioned, you can find find several items of interest on the BBC's WDYTYA? Magazine website - including a chance to win a 'Scottish reference guide package worth £70'.
Audrey Collins has also written a lengthy post on the subject, here, which covers not only the Scottish returns but those from England and Wales, too.
Devon researchers may wish to participate in the following survey:-
Coincidentally, there are some important developments nearby concerning the Plymouth & West Devon Record Office set-up, here.
The aforementioned Audrey Collins has provided a useful list of mapping websites, here.
FindMyPast have posted the first of a series of articles on understanding and interpreting old family photographs, here. I think I must be one of the few genealogists who don't have any pre-WWI family images - but the write-ups are sure to be very interesting all the same!
The excellent Parish Chest have posted their latest update, here. Towards the very end of the newsletter there is mention of a new mystery website, thus:
I was surprised recently to see that someone else has launched a web site called British Genealogy. Well, they do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
Do they mean BI-Gen, I wonder? Can't be sure, because the website title doesn't quite match up.
ON THIS DAY
1830: Mormon Movement founded in the USA by Joseph Smith;
1896: Modern Olympic Games revived in Athens;
1909: American Robert Peary claims to have become the first man to reach the North Pole.
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by Larry MacPhee, Associate Director
When I went to college, back in the 1980s, each of my new hardcover textbooks weighed over 5 pounds and cost over $100.00. Cheaper used and softcover texts weren’t yet readily available. Since that time, increasing numbers of students have been selling their textbooks back to the bookstore or other re-sellers in order to get a wad of cash to fund a keg-party or the next semester’s textbook purchases. The increased availability of used textbooks has driven publishers, they argue, to raise the prices of their new texts and, at least to my skeptical eye, to make numerous small changes to each edition and release these new editions at ever shorter intervals to try to reduce the usefulness of old editions. So, for decades, students and publishers have been locked in an “arms race” that hasn’t been particularly good for either side. That’s about to change.
Enter Amazon.com, the model for a disruptive new relationship between students and textbook publishers. Amazon is the world’s largest bookseller and they now sell more eBooks than paper books. They deliver their eBooks via the Kindle, but also through the free Kindle reader app for Android phones, iPhones, and iPads because Amazon only cares that you buy their content; not what you read it on. I bet not too many college students own Kindles, but they sure like their smartphones! I recently asked a fairly typical group of over 100 university students how many of them owned “smartphones.” Almost every hand in the audience went up, so most students already have a mobile device capable of reading eTextbooks. I also asked them how many were currently using electronic textbooks. Not a single hand went up. In the business world, this is what people call an “opportunity.”
The big academic publishers in K-12 and higher-ed, including Wiley, Pearson, Cengage, Benjamin Cummings, Houghton Mifflin, MacMillan and all the rest, are ready to get into the game. They’ve been watching Amazon long enough now to see that it’s a winning strategy. According to the publishers, and I don’t doubt their numbers, about one third of textbooks purchased annually are used, not new. Each of those re-sales is lost profit for the publishers. But because of something called DRM, or “digital rights management,” students won’t be able to re-sell their eTexts. While there are plenty of ways in which eBooks might be superior to paper books, the big one for the publishers is DRM. With eBooks, the used textbook market is dead. It’s also possible that the publishers will profit from not having to print and distribute physical books, but at least some of those profits will be offset by the need to publish online editions, and maintain servers and a larger IT infrastructure. Publishers will tell you that students are going to love eTexts for the mobility, reduced weight, the ability to get corrections, updated content, and for the multimedia elements that make the eBook a richer learning experience. While both paper and electronic editions exist side by side, you can even expect the eText to be cheaper to drive customers into the new market. So students will like eContent, and publishers will profit from it. But convincing faculty, most of whom don’t particularly like technology or change, that eTextbooks are worth the effort will be a challenge.
Faculty control the textbook adoption process, and they remain somewhat skeptical that moving to eTexts is worth the effort. Publishers could try to pressure them by eliminating the paper edition, but that might drive an instructor to select a competitor’s product. They could use student demand, by making the eText cheaper than, and different from, the paper edition. They might even try to convince faculty with incentives like a free iPad, or by encouraging faculty to “build your own book” by assembling chapters of pre-built content. In the days of the printed text, especially in the K-12 market where California and Texas heavily influence content decisions, the publisher sometimes faced the challenge of trying to satisfy diverse customers with the same content. Now the “controversial” chapter on Evolution or Global Warming or the Big Bang or Birth Control Methods can be easily deleted or replaced, because the customer is always right! In higher ed, the ability to easily mix and match digital content may also appeal to instructors who want to customize their courses. Apple hopes faculty will start writing their own eBooks for iPad using their free tools. I don’t think the faculty will go willingly into this brave new world, but it’s probably going to happen whether they like it or not.
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Well ; anyone else inspired by the WB article on metal cutting circular saw blades ? I was vaguely aware of them , but this prompted me to take action . No need for a 10 inch I decided , depth of cut is not an issue .So I went with a 7 ¼ inch Lenox blade that can also cut steel .
I’ve been wanting a 2 lb. sounding weight for use inshore .Davey & Co. used to have them but no more . I’ve got a stash of Naval Brass , originally meant for an architectural detail that never got built . A blade that can cleanly rip and crosscut the material seemed to be the missing link between the two .
I made up a simple 2 piece bed so I could do the crosscuts with my 10 in. slide miter box . This produced incredibly smooth and easy cuts in my 3/8ths by 1 in. Brass stock . I tightly locked the slide feature so if the blade did bind the material wouldn’t be thrown up into my hand .The ripping was done on my table saw with finger boards holding the piece in and down . I tried a full thickness cut at 45 deg. which the saw handled perfectly .
I’ve been impressed by the metal working posts here ,the most recent a video from Eye In Hand showing his construction of rudder hardware for his two Mellonseeds . http://www.eyeinhand.com/Marginalia/...brazing-brass/ After watching this a number of times I was ready to move up to Mapp Gas and try my luck .
My sounding weight consists of 3 pre-shaped pieces stacked and soldered together . Because of the low stress on and large surface area of these joints I could use hardware store plumbing solder . I tried heating with propane as an experiment and might have gotten this pile up to temp with it eventually but I ran out of patience and gladly switched to the Mapp gas . The same torch works for both. Everything was bought at Lowe’s but the brass.
My stock dimensions didn’t lend themselves to producing a regular polygon ,nor did I care about that : just every edge chamfered or eased a little . The ripping had left a few small marks so I ground the sawn surfaces with my belt sander clamped to the bench : first using 80 grit ,then 120.
Now I’m thinking of trying a pair of candlesticks . If they don’t work out they can always be repurposed as presentational sounding weights.
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This article, titled "Beautiful women can be bad for your health," would be better if it read: "Men stressed after being left alone with 'attractive' woman while playing Sudoku." Because that's the real problem here. Seriously.
The study examined 84 young men from the University of Valencia. They asked the students to try to complete a Sudoku (a stressful event in and of itself) while sitting in a room with two strangers, one male and one female. When the woman left the room, leaving the two men alone, stress levels remained the same. When the man left, stress levels rose.
In this study we considered that for most men the presence of an attractive woman may induce the perception that there is an opportunity for courtship... While some men might avoid attractive women since they think they are 'out of their league', the majority would respond with apprehension and a concurrent hormonal response.
They go on to add that stress hormones can "can have adverse effects on health as it worsens various disorders, such as myopathy, adult-onset diabetes, hypertension and impotency." Hear that, ladies? You're killing men by stressing them out. Stop being so pretty — or "out of their league," whatever that really means - and all their problems will be solved.
But in all seriousness, the thing that irks me about this news is not really the study itself, nor the somewhat misleading and hysterical headlines. It's the fact that Angelina Jolie is the Telegraph's chosen image. I am not sure when Jolie became shorthand for "most beautiful woman" (and Meghan Fox became the go-to "hot girl") but I'm getting sick of her reign of beauty. Surely there are other attractive women we can use to represent our (still unfortunately rigid) standards of attractiveness? For today, I nominate Kerry Washington, but if another study comes out tomorrow, I fully intend to mix it up. Maybe Maggie Gyllenhaal. Or Mindy Kaling.
Beautiful Women Can Be Bad For Your Health, According To Scientists [Telegraph]
Just Five Minutes With A Beautiful Stranger Can Be Bad For The Heart [News.com.au]
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Both Linda McMahon and Chris Murphy send out scathing press releases and statements at a regular clip. However on Sept. 11, both campaigns took a moment to reflect on Sept. 11 by issuing statements about the 11th anniversary of the attacks.
Eleven years ago, we were confronted by the most horrific act of violence our country has ever experienced. Though that day will live in infamy, the response of the American people, in the days, weeks, and years following, represents the best of the American spirit. Family, friends, neighbors, and strangers came together in a time of uncertainty to lift each other up, stand against hatred and show the strength and resilience of our nation's character.
Despite the years that have passed, September 11th is forever etched in our memories. Just like so many Connecticut residents, I lost friends that day, and we will never forget those that perished. And to the men and women who risked their lives that earth-shattering day, we are forever indebted to you.
Today we remember the day that forever changed our nation – a day that claimed thousands of lives, tore at our soul, and united us as Americans.
My thoughts today are particularly with the many families in Connecticut who lost loved ones eleven years ago today. For them, the nation’s tragedy bears a personal scar, one that the passage of time will never erase.
I also extend my sincerest gratitude to the firefighters, EMTs, and other first responders who ran toward the towers while everyone else was running from them. Their heroism and sacrifices are an inspiration.
This somber anniversary is a reminder of why we must make sure our nation’s defenses remain strong. We are proud to have the best military in the world, and we must make sure the men and women who serve our country have the tools necessary to both deter future attacks and to respond decisively to those who seek to do us harm.
Rosa DeLauro (D) and the rest of Connecticut’s Congressional delegation celebrated Military Service Academy Day this past weekend in Hartford.
Wayne Winsley (R) posted a remembrance of Sept. 11 on his personal blog.
All those among us who lost family that day - and during the necessary conflicts that followed - still grieve the deep personal loss. Our hearts and our condolences are extended to every member of every family.
To those men and women who so courageously responded as events unfolded on that horrific day; and, to all of the men and women in uniform who have so honorably served our country as well as those in uniform who continue to serve our nation, please accept our sincere thanks and heartfelt appreciation for all you do to protect and defend us.
Jim Himes (D) looked back, in a statement, to Sept. 11, 2001 and remembered the mood in New York City after the terrorist attacks.
9/11 is still very much alive for me, as it is for you. I remember walking the streets of lower Manhattan feeling the anger, the confusion and the fear. But we are Americans, and we don't do fear very well, or for very long. So what I remember most about that day was the instinct that followed close on the heels of the fear: the instinct to help. We all felt it: my country, my people, my brothers and sisters have been attacked, what can I do to help?
Steve Obsitnik (R) is getting ready for the fast-approaching election. The candidate announced four new volunteer centers in Monroe, Ridgefield, Westport and Fairfield. The exact locations can be found on
The Register Citizen breaks down the ways that Elizabeth Esty and Andrew Roraback differ – and agree – on various issues. There are several similarities between the candidates based on their record as legislators in Hartford.
Joe Courtney (D) issued a statement on his Facebook page on the 11th anniversary of 9/11: "On the 11th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, we remember the fallen and the first responders who rushed in to help those in danger. We also pay tribute to the men and women who volunteered to serve, both at Ground Zero and in our armed forces in the days and months immediately after."
Paul Formica (R) issued a statement about 9/11 that read in part: "On 9/11/2001 our great Nation was propelled into a harsh new reality and changed forever with the cowardly attacks on the innocent victims in NYC, Washington DC and in the air over Pennsylvania. Our country, forever free, shall never forget nor forgive and should remember always those innocent lives lost and families forever altered by that horrible event." Formica's was married to his late wife, Donna, on Sept. 11, 1982.
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Opinion: Clinton's rhetoric in China raises questions about how the Obama administration will deal with its competing priorities.
Many chickens returned to roost over the past week at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, fowl born of promises and high-flown rhetoric during the campaign season that always looked unlikely to survive first contact with the enemy — that is, reality.
The first of these problems surfaced during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to China last week. She insisted that Washington would continue to speak out about China's repression of free speech and religious groups and its harsh treatment of ethnic minorities in the Muslim Xinjiang region and Tibet. Indeed, the State Department on Wednesday released itsannual human rights report, and the section on China is filled with chapter and verse on just such abuses.
The second problem, long-predicted, is a retreat on President Barack Obama's promise to be out of Iraq 16 months after taking office. This always looked hollow whether or not you think withdrawal is a good idea. The new number — 19 months — is hardly a major retrenchment. But, along with the caveats reported in today's New York Times about troops who will remain in Iraq well after that 19-month period, it is yet another reminder that words and deeds are different things.
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised not to let ideology prevent the United States from holding talks with its rivals and enemies abroad. But the move away from the Bush administration's embargo on such talks, while sensible, will run up against other promises, especially with regard to human rights.
In both of these cases, China and Iraq, and in several areas of foreign policy, the practical adjustments to policy being made by Obama and his advisors will anger and possibly even alienate some of his base. Democrats who railed at the ideological "democracy promotion" agenda of the Bush administration and demanded a return to "realpolitik" are getting just that: In Iraq, a realistic deadline based on what the military can do, not what it would like to do. In China, an unadulterated statement of U.S. interests in China, neatly prioritizing the economy, climate change and North Korea as numbers one, two and three on the table.
Those "surprised" by this either are either naive or simply putting on a show for the sake of principle. The annual berating of China by the State Department, for instance, has never prevented past administrations, Democratic or Republican, from sidestepping such issues in favor of issues deemed of greater importance to national security. And so, in keeping with that tradition, as the new Secretary of State put it in China, pressing on those issues can't interfere with the "global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis."
She insisted that Washington would continue to speak out about China's repression of free speech and religious groups and its harsh treatment of ethnic minorities in the Muslim Xinjiang region and Tibet, but said that pressing on those issues can't interfere with the "global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis."
Diplomats rarely speak so plainly, without nuance, about such issues, particularly when dealing with governments, like China, that are eager to view human rights issues as mere "distractions" from the larger geo-economic relationship Beijing wants to protect. And, I'd argue, there is nothing wrong with viewing the world that way. After all, this is a defensible approach to China policy given the enormous potential disasters involved in getting those top three priorities wrong: a) global depression, b) global environmental catastrophe, c) nuclear blackmail by the maniacal regime in Pyongyang.
But do you say it out loud?
Many who wished both the Obama and Clinton campaigns well during the presidential election claim to be aghast.
"Secretary Clinton's remarks point to a diplomatic strategy that has worked well for the Chinese government — segregating human rights issues into a dead-end 'dialogue of the deaf,'" said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "A new approach is needed, one in which the U.S. engages China on the critical importance of human rights to a wide range of mutual security interests."
The conflict between what many Democrats see as the right thing to do and the desire to implement effective policies will be a constant companion to Obama administration policymakers. Setting aside the sniping from the left about personnel decisions — keeping Robert Gates on as defense secretary, appointing Lawrence Summers, the bete noir of Harvard feminism, as a top economic adviser — these dilemmas show that in some cases retaining Democratic support may be as difficult as courting Republicans.
For instance, the bold announcement to close Guantanamo Bay came along with an equally honest assessment estimating it would be at least a year before such a thing might happen. The ACLU's director, Anthony Romero, proclaimed his disappointment that Obama's Justice Department refused to end the use of the so-called "official secrets" tactic that prevents attorneys for Gitmo detainees from seeing the evidence against them.
On Russia policy, the olive branches being exchanged by Washington and Moscow also require a bit of nose holding. Vice President Joseph Biden's offer to "push the reset button" on U.S.-Russia ties requires swallowing a Russian veto on Georgian and Ukrainian NATO membership, as well as the drastic slippage in political rights domestically which has, by and large, turned Russia into a virtual one-party state once again.
These disappointments come with the territory, of course. Bill Clinton famously chided George H.W. Bush for "coddling dictators" in China, then went on to forge the closest ties of the post-World War II era between Washington and Beijing.
But the overwhelming catastrophe of the global economic crisis has made catering to single-interest groups even more difficult for this new administration. Things just need to get done. So, if during Obama's visit to Canada last week, his avoidance of previous calls to "renegotiate NAFTA" brought anger from labor unions, so be it. If his level-headed decision to push European NATO forces aside in Afghanistan in favor of American troops unencumbered by limitations on their combat capabilities angered his party's Europhiles, that's life. And if his decision to step up air strikes inside Pakistan (which, to be fair, candidate Obama insisted he would do), has the anti-war movement crying foul, let them cry. If Afghanistan is winnable, and that is certainly up for debate, it is only winnable by denying the sanctuary of Pakistan to Al Qaeda and the Taliban. (For more on this, see: Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh trail).
It was never going to be easy to be the second elected American president of the 21st century. But there is, at least, evidence that this crowd knew what it was getting into. Said Biden last year during his dark horse candidacy for the Democratic nomination: "There is often a short-term conflcit between democracy promotion and our vital security interests."
Now that's truth to power.
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Windows 7: Real advance or just Vista-plus?
OS has same annoyances, few improvements
A new Microsoft Windows operating system is always big news, especially for the federal government, which overwhelmingly relies on Windows of one stripe or another to run just about everything. The last reliably stable operating system to find widespread acceptance was Windows XP. Vista added a lot of user-friendly options but was more or less branded as a consumer product that is not suitable for business.
And now we have Windows 7, which is attempting to keep most of the niceties of Vista while maintaining the businesslike status that XP enjoyed.
After Windows 7 booted up, we gazed at the new desktop and saw — Windows Vista. What? Here’s the dirty little secret that Microsoft is definitely not telling anyone: If you hated Vista because of the interface, you will hate Windows 7, too. Vista totally changed the look and feel of Windows from XP, but W7 only marginally changes the look and feel from Vista. Going on just the look and general behavior, W7 is little more than what Microsoft could have delivered in a free service pack to the Vista operating system.
Most of Vista’s annoyances have remained intact. You are still bombarded with constant “Are you sure you want this program to run?” questions, even if W7 is running an internal process. Performance is also unchanged overall on a system running Vista compared with W7. Going from XP to W7 resulted in a slight performance decrease, much like when going from XP to Vista.
Of course, not everything is the same. Several of the improvements are good. For one, users don’t get fooled when trying to shut down the PC. Under Vista, clicking the button with the international symbol for power throws it into hibernate mode. In W7, the power button actually says Shut Down and turns the system off.
Computers that go to sleep now do so extremely quickly. Even our most modest test systems were able to snooze in seconds. More impressively, they came back out of sleep mode in just a few seconds, too, even going so far as to automatically reconnect with our wireless network.
USB devices have become the cornerstone of PC use these days, be it in the form of portable hard drives, USB mice, digital cameras or even music players. With W7, those devices are almost instantly ready to use. The first time you plug in a portable hard drive to a system running W7, it will be ready to go in a few seconds. And any other time, there is almost no delay at all.
Windows 7 is a good operating system with a lot going for it. And it’s stable. But it’s not anything new. We hate to be the reviewers who say that the emperor has no clothes, but there’s so much hype surrounding W7 that most people are probably expecting an entirely new operating system. What they will find is an improved version of Vista, with the same warts and flaws and a few improvements. That’s really it.
John Breeden II directs the GCN Lab. Follow him on Twitter: @GCNLabGuys.
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The Council of the American Physical Society has overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to replace the Society’s 2007 Statement on Climate Change with a version that raised doubts about global warming. The Council’s vote came after it received a report from a committee of eminent scientists who reviewed the existing statement in response to a petition submitted by a group of APS members.
The petition had requested that APS remove and replace the Society’s current statement. The committee recommended that the Council reject the petition. The committee also recommended that the current APS statement be allowed to stand, but it requested that the Society’s Panel on Public Affairs (POPA) examine the statement for possible improvements in clarity and tone. POPA regularly reviews all APS statements to ensure that they are relevant and up-to-date regarding new scientific findings.
Appointed by APS President Cherry Murray and chaired by MIT Physicist Daniel Kleppner, the committee examined the statement during the past four months. Dr. Kleppner’s committee reached its conclusion based upon a serious review of existing compilations of scientific research. APS members were also given an opportunity to advise the Council on the matter. On Nov. 8, the Council voted, accepting the committee’s recommendation to reject the proposed statement and refer the original statement to POPA for review. As a membership organization of more than 47,000 physicists, APS adheres to rigorous scientific standards in developing its statements. The Society is always open to review of its statements when significant numbers of its members request it to do so.
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The Turkish Aegean is a beautiful sailing area with a long season and ideal weather conditions.
The Turkish coast is a simple sailing area. Navigationally, there are no challenges for sailors. The waters are protected, the visibility is good and the distances between the bays are small. Inexperienced yacht charter crews will find this district no problem as it is easy to navigate and well protected. In the summer there are ideal wind conditions for sailing. The Meltemi blows at 3 to 4 Bft and comes mainly from the north. The wind brings cool air with low humidity, ensuring good visibility and clear skies. Nevertheless, one should not underestimate the Meltemi outside the Gulf in July and August. Depending on the shape of the coastline, different local wind conditions can develop around Turkey. If sailing in spring or autumn, expect dangerous southeast winds (Lodos). In the otherwise quiet bays, it can sometimes become uncomfortable. It is well-advised to keep an eye on the barometer. If a south storm is announced, find a safe harbor. In addition, one should listen to the weather and wind forecasts regularly in transitional periods.
Have a delightful sailing holiday in Turkey, discover ancient cities, islands and golden beaches by boat. Begin your trip in the exciting city of Bodrum, the marina here has excellent facilities and the waterfront has some elegant restaurants and cafes. The Castle of St Peter overlooks the sea, and families may be interested in visiting the Museum of Underwater Archaeology. Kara Ada Island is only six kilometers from Bodrum... more
The Turkish Aegean Sea has ideal weather conditions and a long sailing season. There is a typical Mediterranean climate and spring and autumn are warm. The sailing season begins in April and lasts until the end of October/ beginning of November. Summers are long and hot with little rainfall. Usually it is consistently sunny with daytime temperatures between 27 and 33 °C. The weather is ideal for sailing and on the water one can escape the heat. Even in November you can go swimming as the water is around 20 °C. The winter months are very mild, with average temperatures of 12 to 17 °C.
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| 0.949057 | 437 | 1.703125 | 2 |
More Disturbing Audio
Due to the enormous amount of inappropriate conversations on February 17th, 2012, I was unable to include more than a small selection of instances in the YouTube video I created.
With this web page I will expand on what you heard in the video and show you other examples of the contemptible treatment my son received at the hands of his teacher and aides, and further examplesof the inappropriate conversations the staff had, while ignoring the students in the class.
In order to protect the other children in the class, I have tried to avoid using any audio where you can identify them as individuals. Because of that, there are a number of clips I have decided not to use.
• A Woman Calls a Student “Not Very Bright,”Akian is yelled at.
The first part of this conversation has been edited out. It may provide clues identifying which student it was that the staff was talking about.
• Speaking Angrily to Children.
• Subverting our IEP Meeting Part 1
I am only playing the first part of this conversation. As time went on you could clearly hear other children. In this clip the school social worker walks into the room and talks to the teacher about an email I sent asking for an emergency IEP meeting. This is an inappropriate and unprofessional conversation to have in front of the class.The teacher continues to talk negatively about me and discuss Akian’s behaviors while Akian is present. The conversation continued for nearly 7 minutes.
• Subverting our IEP Meeting Part 2
Unfortunately, due to numerous students talking, I am unable to post audio of this part. However, it is important outline this story, demonstrating how the teacher was attempting to fix our IEP meeting by colluding with staff.
Here’s what happened: The Occupational Therapist (OT) walked into the room and the teacher, still upset that I asked for an IEP meeting to discuss Akian’s behaviors, talked to the OT negatively about me.
The two of them went on for approximately eight minutes talking about Akian, the IEP meeting and myself. The OT says at one point “I said to the District have this meeting, because I am going to say ‘it’s you at home, end of story.’”
Here you have the school social worker, the teacher and the OT, all of whom are part of the IEP team, colluding with each other to walk into the IEP meeting that I requested and blame Akian’s behaviors on me. This is unprofessional behavior and a clear violation of New Jersey’s Professional Standards for Educators and School Leaders. That IEP meeting was a trap. If not for this audio, I would have walked right into it.
• Angry at Akian Right Off the Bus
• Inappropriate Conversation 1
The aide is working with a student when another staff member says: “If you’ve been on weight watchers for four or five years, wouldn’t you be skinny now?” They then proceed to talk about a woman and her boyfriend, how upset they are with her. They use the word “Crap.” The full name of the woman they were talking about was edited out, ensuring her confidentality.
This is an example of how the staff conducted inappropriate, personal conversations, while working with the students. They go from working with a student right into apparently making fun of a woman for being overweight, then back into working with the student, as if nothing had just happened.
• Inappropriate Conversation 2
Another clip of staff talking about personal issues (in this case someone complaining about her husband) and then getting mad at a student who interrupts her.
• Field Day and Lying to Parents
In this extended clip, you hear staff talk about lying to parents and complaining about a parent, me, in front of my own child. I have left this long stretch of time mostly intact (I edited out multiple sections and some smaller parts because of the names used) to demonstrate how they ignored the children and conducted inappropriate conversations.
They are talking about Field Day and how the teacher wanted to go on vacation with her husband instead of working. You can hear the kids, left by themselves, “stimming” on toys in the background. One electronic toy is played over and over again throughout the day.
At 00:46 the teacher says, “Our parents don’t come [to Field Day].” And “Last year this one came.”
Akian must have been right there, as I was the “this one” she referenced – the parent who volunteered to help at Field Day the previous year. Once again, they talk negatively about me in front of my son and the other students.
At 1:12 the teacher discusses lying about her attending Field Day. “We could probably hide the fact that I’m not here much more by saying ‘no, she had to run over here, or she had to run over here.’”
At 3:55 the teacher mentions me by name and how to lie if I ask for her on Field Day: “So if Stu says ‘where’s Kelly?’ Oh she has to take care of some work.” the aidi interjects “She’s inside, she’s inside!”
They then immediately talk about not wanting me to volunteer for Field Day, again speaking negatively about Akian and me. They state that Akian would “self-destruct” if I were there.
At 4:42, in the middle of further complaining about me, you hear Akian softly say, “Hi,” meaning he had just heard everything they were saying about him and me.
The teacher realizes that Akian shouldn’t be hearing their conversation and said, “Maybe he should not, maybe he shouldn’t…” and the aide said, “Oh Akian, I completely forgot, can you come sit down, you were doing your book and I got sidetracked.”
Even though they just got caught having an inappropriate conversation, they focus on work for only a few seconds before going right back to talking about Field Day.
I should say that Field Day last year was a great experience; nothing went wrong. I had no idea they held anger toward me, and were conspiring to keep me away this year, or lie to me if I did show up to help.
• Pregnancy and Sterilization
This final clip happened right at the end of the day. They discussed not wanting to become pregnant and how their husbands want them to be sterilized, while they want their husbands to be sterilized.
So they started the day with Jodi talking about her use of alcohol; they end the day talking about sex.
|
<urn:uuid:5e68f4c9-8841-4c43-a03c-ce5d93e3c17d>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://hnva.net/teacherbully/
|
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
| 0.97626 | 1,436 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Next Speakeasy: Early 2013, date to be confirmed. Please contact us to be notified of the date
What is Speakeasy?
Speak Easy is a support group for people who stutter, their family members and friends. Meetings are used to discuss issues around stuttering, to share new ideas and experiences, discuss feelings and to practice one's speech techniques.
Speakeasy was started by a group of people who stutter, their parents and speech therapists to address the issue of prevention and treatment of stuttering in South Africa through:
- Self-help groups
- Enhance the training and skills of Speech Therapists
Speakeasy has been running for approximately 15 years in Johannesburg. New branches of Speakeasy have been re-established in Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth
when speaking to PWS (people who stutter)
- The PWS should be listened to patiently, not be hurried and not interrupted
- NEVER finish a PWS word unless asked to by the PWS
- Don’t fill in words or supply answers
- Don’t look pained, pitying or impatient
- Do not withdraw eye contact, glance nervously at the PWS or stare vacantly into space
- Speak naturally
- Maintain an unhurried, calm and interested manner
- No upcoming events available
|
<urn:uuid:2f23d5a8-d64d-4e3f-b289-f8d9a4b172a9>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://www.speakeasy.org.za/
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
en
| 0.944022 | 279 | 1.617188 | 2 |
59. Lieut.-Colonel Clifton-Brown
asked the Minister of Agriculture what arrangements have been made for hiring, loaning or otherwise securing dredging and drain-digging equipment for the Ouse Catchment Board, Fen Drainage Commissioners and Fen farmers to hasten the clearance of drains before the coming winter.
§ Mr. T. Williams
Excavators suitable for clearing blocked drains and farmers' ditches are in the hands of war agricultural executive committees and they will be loaned when necessary to drainage boards. The demands of the River Great Ouse Catchment Board and other boards for additional medium sized excavators will be met from a number on loan from the Army in Germany which are being brought to this country for flood rehabilitation work. The Ministry of Works is arranging to supply other forms of earth-moving equipment.
|
<urn:uuid:657cd0c2-676d-4c41-a594-ffcd8bb555e3>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1947/jun/30/dredging-and-draining-equipment
|
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
| 0.934321 | 170 | 1.59375 | 2 |
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