text
stringlengths 211
22.9k
| id
stringlengths 47
47
| dump
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 14
371
| file_path
stringlengths 138
138
| language
stringclasses 1
value | language_score
float64 0.93
1
| token_count
int64 54
4.1k
| score
float64 1.5
1.84
| int_score
int64 2
2
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
I wonder if this will be on the test;
The wooden horse we buried in the sand.
We left his head out so he could see: is that answer a, b, c, or d?
Should we be worried if it's none of the above?
Or that we didn't show our work?
Or that our percentile is too low or high?
How about extra points for the times we failed although we really, really tried?
For this we didn't need a strategy -- making a wooden horse into an island.
A friend just stood at the top and pumped.
And water played it's game down to us; we dug and dug and dug.
We took turns, and helped, and made some plans;
We filled one another's heads with games and names;
We repaired and prodded as what we did became something else,
And yet something else again.
We did what we did, and we gave it our best.
Why isn't that ever on the test? | <urn:uuid:fab3f4f3-c667-4dcd-a9f8-3c120d33c6ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/will-that-be-on-test.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981783 | 212 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Remembering Sophia Hayden Bennett, Part 2
Back to Sophia’s story
After an unusual childhood (Part 1), a determined Sophia Hayden was among the first women admitted to the Architecture Program at MIT in 1886. She was one of two women in the program. An 1888 photograph of all (about 25) MIT female students – each holding an implement appropriate to her studies – shows her looking taciturn and perhaps bored with the picture taking. She was reportedly a quiet, serious and intelligent student. She completed the four year program with honors and graduated in 1890.
Doing some research
I made my first visit to an academic archive. The MIT Museum holds some pictures, articles, and the thesis drawing submitted by Sophia. I made an appointment and a kind archivist welcomed me there. The folder of papers that I examined held the suggestion of a letter and biographical sketch from Sophia’s stepdaughter Jennie May, whose married name and 1950′s address were noted, however those documents were not among the holdings. A visit to the School of Architecture and Planning’s Archives brought nothing else of significance although I did have the thrill of meeting an archivist who easily recognized Sophia’s name.
In an effort to present all facts, and not ignore those that I can’t fathom, I should add that one 1991 letter in the Museum archive mentioned that Mrs. Elihu Root III (Mary “Molly” Bidwell Root, 1917 – 2004) was the niece of Sophia. Sophia did have three brothers and a sister, however, based on what I can quickly glean of Molly’s parents I see no way that she can be a niece or great-niece. A mystery.
The MIT Museum holds Sophia’s thesis project, a large watercolor rendering of a Fine Arts Museum plan in the Beaux-Arts style. The picture, below, does no justice to the project. The original is one of the loveliest things I’ve ever seen. The proportions, the exquisite detail and the subtle colorings show that Sophia was a natural artist.
After graduation, Sophia accepted a position teaching mechanical drawing. The reasons for not moving into an architectural firm at an apprentice level are not clear, although doubtless she felt she was unable to obtain that position. Her female classmate did, however, obtain such a position.
In 1891 Sophia saw an advertisement for an architectural competition. She entered and won.
Next time (Part 3), the story of Sophia’s amazing architectural achievement and the reason why there are no existing buildings designed by her. | <urn:uuid:4335c86f-16d4-46a5-841c-bd10f8b607c4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://onerhodeislandfamily.com/category/hayden/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966271 | 532 | 1.8125 | 2 |
America and the Two Pakistans
By Stephen P. Cohen and Moeed Yusuf,
New York Times, June 20, 2012
In the past few years, multiple power centers have begun to emerge slowly in Pakistan, as evidenced again this week with the historically pliant Supreme Court dismissing the Pakistani prime minister, Yousuf Reza Gilani, from office. For much of the country’s history, however, Pakistan’s military and security apparatus has wielded unchallenged domestic clout. Consequently, throughout the six decade-long U.S.-Pakistan relationship, Pakistan’s army has been the principal interlocutor with America, both because of its domestic heft and because military rulers were at the helm in periods when the United States needed Pakistan most.
Today, Pakistan’s army is seen in the United States — especially in Congress — as an adversary, above all because it resists targeting Afghan militants who take refuge on Pakistani soil. The resentment is so deep that even American conservatives, historically pro-Pakistan, call for a strategy that punishes the country.
There are those who would advocate “containment,” a central element of which is boxing in the military by treating presumably more liberal civilians as pre-eminent partners, or even labeling specific members of the military and its spy agency, the ISI, as “terrorists.”
The premise for these views is correct: that the Pakistani military and intelligence apparatus undermines American interests in Afghanistan and keep civilians from changing Pakistan’s assertive role in Afghanistan — now exercised via the Afghan insurgents fighting U.S. and NATO forces.
Unfortunately, the proposed remedy is as misplaced as was past support for Pakistan’s military dictators, which came at the cost of the country’s democratic evolution. Those who would force changes by playing a divide-and-rule game grossly exaggerate America’s capacity to influence Pakistani politics.
American attempts to actively exploit Pakistan’s civil-military disconnect are likely to end up strengthening right-wing rhetoric in Pakistan, create even more space for security-centric policies, and further alienate the Pakistani people from the United States.
Washington should view engagement with Islamabad as a long-term project. Pakistan’s nuclear weapons will be around long after Afghanistan is forgotten. As much as possible, America should work directly with the civilian leadership on all issues, including security, and lower the profile of military-to-military meetings. Washington should also make clear that the United States will not tolerate any extra-constitutional measures by the military that short-circuit the democratic process. Moreover, Washington needs to quietly encourage the spectacular progress in India-Pakistan normalization. India is what drives Pakistan; America should take advantage of its relationship with New Delhi to allow Pakistan greater space for accelerating its internal political reforms.
We must patiently try to turn Pakistan from an ally that is no friend into a state that seeks normal relations with America and its neighbors. Short cuts are unlikely to work.
Stephen P. Cohen is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Moeed Yusuf is South Asia adviser at the U.S. Institute of Peace. | <urn:uuid:461b46d1-3a9b-4b0c-b6ca-3e909d548382> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://watandost.blogspot.com/2012/06/us-pakistan-relations-nosediving.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952045 | 646 | 1.835938 | 2 |
In case you missed it, my WTOP colleague Michelle Basch, reported on the proposal to get motorists to slow down on DC streets.
It's not just a DC thing, it's global. The European Cyclist's Federation succeeded in getting the European Parliament to pass a resolution calling for a 30 km/h speed limit on residential roadways, and on single lane roads in urban areas that don't have cycle tracks.
Regionally, there have been efforts to get us all to slow down, to stick to the speed limit. Here's a video that provides an easy-to-understand demonstration of how speeds and braking distance really matter. | <urn:uuid:aa9367fd-640e-4c67-9925-a6690df11044> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kateryanreports.blogspot.com/2011/11/slow-motion.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946769 | 132 | 1.625 | 2 |
Jump to content
Have you read the email archives of the WHAT-WG mailing list? If not, there are over six months’ worth of evidence showing that the WHAT-WG’s definition of <cite> has everything to do with styling. If you’re curious, the discussion seems to have started on June 3.
The usage Jeremy, others, and I advocate is not to use <cite> as one would use <blockquote> or <q> but to attribute a quote to its source (be it a person or whatever strikes your fancy) in a semantically meaningful way. I was in academia long enough to understand the difference between a quotation and a citation, thank you very much. | <urn:uuid:26b3b5e3-869d-4d53-a4e9-cf1c3482cfdb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://24ways.org/vote/down/c2587/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962829 | 150 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Jim Sanfilippo: Video & Presentation
Energy Efficiency for Hollywood
Get the Flash Player to see this video.
LED sources are attractive to Hollywood due to their durability, portability, and low energy use. LED lighting setups are ideal for mobile scenes light car chases since they can be mounted on a car hood and take very little energy to shoot all day. Hollywood uses a huge amount of energy in space lighting setting, allowing for huge energy savings. LED lighting setups can be installed above sets and shot through filters to appear to be fluorescent tube lighting, saving lots of energy. | <urn:uuid:74875b5d-cf90-4a0c-b3f7-2565eaa32e0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://iee.ucsb.edu/content/jim-sanfilippo-video-presentation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934971 | 119 | 1.632813 | 2 |
June 14, 2012
Later today, President Barack Obama will deliver a widely-anticipated speech in Ohio in an attempt to “reframe” the debate over the economy. Insiders have told the media that Obama will not offer any new economic initiatives in the address – and in fact, that’s the entire point. The President will argue, much like another President did 30 years earlier, that the nation doesn’t need a change in direction, but simply to stay the course.
If that seems like a far cry from “Change,” one of Obama’s campaign slogans from four years ago, that’s because Obama still sees this argument as change from what preceded him. In the last few days, Obama has returned to the 2008 strategy of running against George W. Bush and painting his opponent as Bush’s doppleganger. That worked for Obama four years ago when he ran against John McCain in an era of Bush-fatigue and economic crisis. Now that Obama has to run with an economic record of his own, he and his campaign have come to the conclusion that the only way to “reframe” his economic policies is to cast them as a long crusade against Bush economics.
Obama Takes Aim at GOP, Europe as Economy Sputters
Can Obama succeed in arguing that voters need to allow him more time for his policies to succeed? The contrasts between the two “stay the course” arguments might be instructive.
Ronald Reagan actually used the phrase “stay the course” during his first midterm elections in 1982. Hammered by a double-dip recession and skyrocketing unemployment figures in his first year as President, Reagan had to play defense on his economic policies. The jobless rate rose more than three full points between Reagan’s inauguration and the midterms from 7.4 percent to 10.8 percent, peaking exactly at the worst time for Republicans.
Democrats hit the campaign trail with the message that Reaganomics had failed, openly ridiculing “stay the course” as an absurdity. Reagan pushed back in much the same manner Obama will today, arguing that his policies had not had enough time to work, and that staying the course would bring economic prosperity. Reagan’s efforts led to mixed results; Democrats picked up 27 seats in the House to extend their majority to 103, but failed to wrest control of the Senate away from Republicans, who actually picked up a seat and extended their upper-chamber majority to eight. Faced with a status-quo result, Reagan continued his policies – and two years later, with unemployment falling dramatically and the American economy booming, he won a historic landslide victory for a second term in office.
Clearly, Obama will adopt Reagan’s strategy with the hope of duplicating Reagan’s success. However, there are clear differences between the two situations. Let’s start with the timeframe. Reagan had been in office less than two years when he made the “stay the course” argument. Democrats argued that Reagan had been given enough time for his policies to succeed, but didn’t convince enough voters. By the time Reagan got to his re-election campaign, he had already won the argument – and Obama has lost it.
Obama has had nearly four years for his policies to work, and they haven’t produced significant job creation, nor economic prosperity. By this time in the Reagan presidency, the US had produced five straight quarters of GDP growth of 6 percent or more, including three quarters above 8 percent. In contrast, Obama’s policies haven’t produced a quarter of growth of even 4 percent in his entire term, and the highest-performing quarter for Obama in the past two years barely hit 3 percent.
RELATED: The Game Plan that Lets Romney Beat Obama
Even the President that Obama wants to use as his rhetorical whipping post managed to do better when recovering from the 2000-2001 trough, which never went anywhere near as deep as the 1980-81 double-dip recession or the 2007-9 Great Recession. The GDP growth rate hit 6.7 percent in the third quarter of 2003 after the second round of tax cuts took effect, and even three years later managed to get up to 5.1 percent before the economy significantly slowed.
Even on the jobless rate, the context between Reagan, Bush, and Obama diverge – and not to Obama’s favor. While unemployment spiked dramatically under Reagan, it didn’t result in an outflow of workers from the workforce. The civilian population participation rate actually went up from 63.9 percent at the start of Reagan’s term to 64.2 percent at the midterms. By the election in 1984, it rose to 64.5 percent, and rose rapidly to 66.2 percent by the end of Reagan’s second term. In Bush’s first term, the rate went from 67.2 percent -- nearly its historical peak – to 65.8 percent, and ended in his second term at 65.7 percent, when Obama took the reins.
In contrast, Obama’s policies have resulted in a historic exodus from the workforce. By the time of the recovery, four months after the passage of Obama’s stimulus bill, the unemployment rate was 9.5 percent and the participation rate still at 65.7 percent.
Three years later, the unemployment rate has dipped to 8.2 percent, but the participation rate has actually dropped below the level seen during Reagan’s “stay the course” argument to 63.8 percent. That actually represents an improvement from the previous month, which hit a 30-year low at 63.6 percent. The only reason the unemployment rate isn’t in double digits is because millions of former workers have despaired of finding work to the point where they no longer count in the statistics.
That’s the greatest contrast between Reagan and Obama. While Obama ran in 2008 as the figure of “hope and change,” his reframing speech today will solidify his standing in 2012 as the candidate of inertia and despair. Reagan’s policies of economic freedom may have needed more than two years to fully transform the American economy, but voters in 1982 could see light at the end of the tunnel. Americans had actual hope for real change. That’s the reason that “stay the course” worked for Reagan, and why it won’t for Obama. | <urn:uuid:4cc28479-36a1-49af-99e8-f7a93f17a434> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2012/06/14/Obama-Stays-the-Course-and-Runs-against-Bush.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97492 | 1,337 | 1.679688 | 2 |
When you started using your first USB flash drive, someone must have told you to always use the “Safely Remove Hardware” option before pulling out of your computer. Earlier operating systems did have this requirement in order to avoid corruption of your flash memory. However, the operating systems have evolved with time, and the “Safely Remove Hardware” option is now there as more of a formality. Until and unless you pull the USB flash drive out during data transfer, there is really no harm in disconnecting it out without using the aforementioned remove dialog box. The modern Windows operating system even allows you to enable quick removal of USB devices. In this article, we will show you how to enable it.
The details of the process are listed in the following 3 steps allowing users to easily follow them without getting confused about what to do. In addition, we have included screenshots to aid the users in knowing if they are following the stated steps in the correct way or not.
Step 1: Open Device Manager
To open the device manager, enter “device manager” in the Start Menu search field and click the first option from the available results.
Step 2: Look For USB Devices
Once the Device Manager window is open, click the Disk drives option in order to expand it. All your internal and external drives will be listed under the Disk drives menu. You can easily identify the hard drives from the USB devices. All the USB devices will always have “USB” included in their names.
Step 3: Change Policy
Select the device for which you want to disable the Safely Remove Hardware requirement. Double-click it to open the device properties and navigate over to the Policies tab available at the top. In the Removal Policy section, you will have Quick Removal and Better Performance as the two stated policies. If Better Performance is selected, you will have to use the Safely Remove Hardware option every time you want to disconnect the drive. Select Quick Removal and click OK.
Now, you can pull out the USB flash drive without having to go through the Safely Remove Hardware process. The guys at 7tutorials have been kind enough to benchmark the performance of a USB flash drive under both policies. You can check out the detailed results (USB read/write speeds) under both policies by heading to the source link below. | <urn:uuid:8a868b9d-fa85-4ede-b3b8-92dfb96958fd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/disconnect-usb-devices-without-using-safely-remove-hardware-option/?wpmp_switcher=mobile | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930598 | 476 | 1.734375 | 2 |
November 15, 2010
Long weekends aren't what they used to be
First, Moe picked up a harmonica and started playing it. This in itself is a big deal because he didn't used to be able to blow in a directed way like that. He played a little bit, clearly excited that he could make the sounds. Then, he handed the harmonica to me for me to play. I played a little, then handed it back, and he played it some more. This happened twice: an actual back and forth exchange with eye contact. And let me tell you, when Moe looks you in the eye, everything else disappears.
Later in the weekend, Moe was playing in his room. He came to the living room, grabbed me by the hand and brought me to his room. He then held my hands up toward his light switch. It was very clear that he wanted me to turn off the light. (He has been wanting to be in his crib, door closed, lights off. Sensory overload, anyone?) He didn't get frustrated and scream. He came to me for help. I held him up and said "off." I waited until he said kind of an "o" sound and then I turned off the light. In the future, I'd like to have some more eye contact or better words, but it was a good interaction.
If you don't have a child with autism, these may seem like such normal, run of the mill interactions, hardly worthy of a mention to a friend let alone a blog post. In fact, I remember being told during an assessment that typical children will interact with their parents in this way hundreds of times a day. Until I had a typical child myself, I didn't believe it. But now that Jelly is bringing me things all day long, with shrieks of "open!" "help!" and "thank you!" I know clearly what they meant.
Many people have commented on this blog in the past that periods of poor sleep or sensory regulation have been precursors to some developmental leaps. I hope that is the case here. Perhaps Moe is becoming more aware of things around him, including his own wants. He needs to learn to process all this new information without becoming overwhelmed. I feel the same way. With every new challenge we face, I also need to learn to adapt and resist the temptation to turn off the lights and hide under the covers. | <urn:uuid:90ad8441-58d0-4b93-b81d-059ed30c9ede> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wantapeanut.com/2010/11/long-weekends-arent-what-they-used-to.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.992086 | 493 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Get in touch: send your photos, videos, news & views by texting YORK to 80360 or send an email»
Average water reservoir levels up to 98%
IT may have ruined holiday breaks, early season cricket matches and crops – but the wettest April on record has had at least one positive effect in Yorkshire.
Reservoir stocks in the region have been boosted to the tune of an extra 12 billion litres, says Yorkshire Water.
Average reservoir levels in Yorkshire, which stood at about 91 per cent before the April rain, now stand at an average of 98 per cent, with many full to overflowing.
However, levels of water in the county’s boreholes have not yet recovered in the same way after the driest 20-month period since records began, and will need many more weeks of sustained rainfall before they get back to healthy levels, said a company spokesman.
Ian Stevens, water resources manager, said: “We’re continuing to work hard to manage and balance stocks across the region, with our message to customers remaining the same as ever, Only use what you need, and be sensible about how you use what is a very precious resource.”
The company is going out on the road to offer free water-saving gadgets and to encourage customers to continue to play their part by conserving water where possible.
Staff will be outside Poundland in Scarborough, on June 1 and 2, in Prospect Crescent, Harrogate, on June 15 and June 16, and at the Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate on July 10, 11 and 12.
Meanwhile, the wet April has caused misery for farmers, with one landowner at Gateforth, near Selby, claiming that waterlogging to his land will cost him £100,000 in damage to his crops.
Hayfever experts have also warned that sufferers of the condition should expect a summer of misery after the wet April created perfect conditions for grass, allowing for vast clouds of pollen to be unleashed into the air.
Meanwhile, the Council of Mortgage Lenders has warned that a lack of affordable flood insurance in coming months could trigger a further slowdown in the housing market, and has pressed the Government for “urgent talks” about a new safety net agreement to ensure householders at a higher flooding risk can continue to take out insurance at a reasonable cost. | <urn:uuid:b2499349-bb5e-402a-8bbb-0e294e0105a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/ryedale/9688776.Average_water_reservoir_levels_up_to_98_/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965155 | 485 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Rigorous curricula for the top-ranked programs at Case Western Reserve University's schools, college and interdisciplinary centers challenge students to become leaders and problem-solvers who imagine and influence the future. ›Find your program.
Renowned faculty experts, breadth of degrees and majors, the stimulating academic climate and nationally recognized undergraduate SAGES curriculum make a Case Western Reserve education about much more than science and technology.
Case Western Reserve accepts undergraduates to the university as a whole and encourages students to explore disciplines across the board. Intimate classes —from engineering courses to dance workshops — offer a 9:1 student-to-faculty ratio, ensuring one-on-one attention from professors, as well as vigorous class discussions that challenge perspectives and nurture new understandings.
Classrooms here have walls, but possibilities at Case Western Reserve are boundless. The university provides the highest tech computing, abundant library resources and a bookstore stocked with more than just reading material. Meanwhile, educational services — like tutoring, TA-training, time management strategies and writing help — are available to keep you at the head of your class.
Our campus, nestled in Cleveland's University Circle, pulses intellectual energy, laying out more than 50 cultural, historical, religious and medical institutions within short walking distance. Students can take art history courses at the Cleveland Museum of Art, attend recitals at the Cleveland Institute of Music or pursue joint-programs with one of our partner schools.
What education would be complete without experience? Many Case Western Reserve students graduate with a respected degree and a year's worth of hands-on experience. From study abroad and service learning to undergraduate research, co-ops and internships (with some of the world's top organizations), our graduates are worldly wise, well connected and experienced.
Learn about academics, degrees and programs: | <urn:uuid:4234a085-6541-41d2-a8ad-8f1aea903da1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://case.edu/stage/education/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931843 | 371 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Quite a few folks in the UK as effectively as abroad take pleasure in the active Life-style, these folks tend to be often on the go regardless of whether it be mountain biking or rock climbing. The thrill of these sports and activities tends to have excellent rewards regardless of whether that is attaining fitness or achieving the best for a gorgeous view more than the landscape at the end.
In order to be in a position to carry out some of the impressive feats these activities demand you will usually want to locate some clothes that is in a position to carry out as effectively as you do to assure that you arent hindered or uncomfortable. Most sports such as rock climbing will want light airy Garments specifically if you are climbing in the summer time when you are exposed to serious heat and could be prone to fatigue.
T shirts and shorts are usually worn but only in circumstances exactly where you are certain at the sport as you dont require to forget about protection also. Sports exactly where sharp objects could reduce or graze you must be completed wearing tough trousers and lengthy sleeve jumpers or coats, specifically in the winter or poor weather. With the British weather we frequently get youll want to be sure that you wear waterproof clothes to make certain that you dont get cold and wet as this can make your clothes uncomfortable and you could catch a cold.
Several outdoor clothes can be ethical clothes and quite a few folks involved in the sports and activities are interested in promoting the movement of organic clothes created from ethically sourced components like cotton and wool but too fair trade clothes also. Fair trade clothes has been a different initiative that has been incredibly preferred in current years generating sure that all of the farmers and other workers linked with the clothes sector get fair remedy and spend.
Traditionally these folks have been exploited as important style brands attempt to spend their sources and workers as tiny as doable to attempt and reduce charges. This has traditionally led to workers obtaining poor spend and as a consequence they have poor living situations and facilities. Fairtrade initiatives aims to not only assure a fair wage but too enhancing the communities that the workers are a aspect of such as churches, health-related centres and colleges. So when deciding upon your clothes for active sports and activities assure you opt for proper clothes and help fairtrade initiatives if you can.
There are quite a few fairtrade clothes retailers now readily available and incredibly usually they will obviously show which things are fairtrade or ethical style to show that they have been ethically sourced, | <urn:uuid:a1f0d10c-db1c-449c-93b8-b5bc20f41a91> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.strayform.com/2012/08/13/outdoor-adventure-garments-that-fit-your-life-style/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97177 | 499 | 1.75 | 2 |
Pediatric Vision Group
In November 2008, ten physician leaders representing the private, safety net and tertiary pediatric settings in Santa Cruz County came together to work toward a more collaborative, integrated and inclusive system of pediatric care in Santa Cruz county. The group took the name Pediatric Vision Group (PVG) to communicate an approach that begins by defining a common vision and then looks for collaborative opportunities to achieve its vision.
In January 2009, PVG agreed on four principles to guide its improvement work:
robust preventative health programs;
universal access to comprehensive care;
medical homes to integrate care; and
- expanded local access to subspecialty care.
Under the umbrella of the Health Improvement Partnership, and with the sponsorship of First5 and HIP member organizations, the Pediatric Vision Group met eight times between 2008 and 2010. The group expanded to include local health plan medical directors, public health and broader representation from the public sector. PVG learned the importance of dialogue to building relationships and a culture of collaboration and have worked collaboratively in several areas including childhood immunizations and subspecialty care.
In October 2010, the Pediatric Vision Group invited mental health providers from the public and private sectors to join the group and attend meetings.
In 2011, the Pediatric Vision Group focused on improving the integration of mental health services into pediatric primary care. PVG hosted a Pediatric Mental Health Mixer for community pediatric providers and mental health professionals on July 26, 2011 in an effort to foster better relationships and collaboration between these providers.
PVG continues to work to improve the integration of mental health services and pediatric primary care in 2012. In collaboration with HIP, Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency and community leaders, PVG has developed a directory of pediatric mental health providers in Santa Cruz County as a resource for local pediatric providers. PVG also hosted the second annual Pediatric Mental Health Mixer on June 26, 2012 during which Pediatric Mental Health directories were distributed. | <urn:uuid:e42737b6-f3a3-4079-97fd-21b1c7fa8f83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hipscc.org/programs/pediatric-vision-group | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949769 | 397 | 1.6875 | 2 |
In my diet blog I’ve been working through a book (received for Christmas).
It’s not something I’d usually do and most books don’t warrant a blog post per chapter, but… I started writing about Domonique Bertolucci’s The Happiness Code and her ten keys to happiness, and figured I might as well keep going. One key at a time. (Although I am on
summer break hiatus this week for reasons unknown to anyone and everyone. Including myself.
Anyhoo, I’ve been thinking about something she mentions early in the book, in a chapter about choices.
She reminds us that even the most informed decisions (made after weighing consequences) will result in both positive and negative repercussions; and recommends we learn to accept the negatives along with the positives. She also suggests that any choice we make should be consistent with our values and support us to achieve what it is that we want from life.
Cue eye-roll. Not because her point doesn’t make sense, or is stating the obvious (which it kinda is); but also because many people – including myself have no friggin’ idea what makes us happy.
Oh sure, I know the little things… corn chips, champagne, books, baths. good TV shows and Richard Armitage but as for ‘What I want from life?’ Even the minds behind Monty Python* didn’t work that one out.
However… fortunately Bertolucci recognises that many of us struggle with this and suggests that we approach it through a process of elimination.
A great idea and I have no bloody idea why I’ve never thought of a “What I really DON’T want to do” list. Her examples in the book include reference to our working life in particular: whether we want to work in an office or not and so forth.
As we identify what we really don’t like or want, we get closer to living in a way that is consistent with our dreams and values, Bertolucci suggests. And, I guess… even if we never achieve self-actualisation (yes, I did study undergraduate psychology!) or find ourselves living in some sort of utopia; we are surely (perhaps slowly and steadily) ridding ourselves of things that drag us down… and living a more authentic life.
As I ponder on the ingeniousness of this idea, I realise I’ve done this unconsciously over the years. Unlike my parents’ generation I’ve changed jobs and careers more often than I’ve changed food fads (which I’ve done A LOT!). I’ve left professions, towns and even countries because I recognised that I wasn’t happy and needed to do something about it. (Which is bizarre cos I think of myself as someone who sits around and whines while playing ‘the victim’!)
I became an overseas volunteer in Africa in my mid-late 20s because I figured there had to be something more to life than a 9-5 existence and saving for a mortgage. Years later I resigned from the Federal Government (after an overseas posting) because it meant returning to our country’s capital (Canberra, where I couldn’t envisage myself settling down). I was approaching my mid thirties and wanted to start ‘nesting’ for the first time in my life.
I left the private sector because the strong focus on cash flow stressed me out and I found some of my contractors’ obsession with money and allowances somewhat distasteful (when in the same breath they acted ‘holier than thou’ for working in developing countries!).
I’ve left jobs where I didn’t feel valued and stayed in others – when I might not have been fulfilled in a professional sense – because I liked the workplace and the people.
And… when recently ‘offered’, I took a payout to leave government because, well…. life’s short and I was not happy. (By far the most momentous decision I’ve made in my life!)
My life hasn’t worked out like I thought it was going to. No husband or children. No fulfilment through family. But… on the flip side, (to date) I’ve had many careers and many – and varied – life experiences.
I remain a bit stressed at the lack of certainty as I commence this next phase of my life, but my newfound freedom and I are coming to something of an amicable impasse.
And while I’m still following the yellow brick road in search of whatever I hope to find (or discover about myself!), I realise I’m not yet done eliminating the bad stuff.
However, over the past few days I’ve sat on my verandah looking out at the gorgeous vista before me and realise that… if THIS is my life; if I can support myself sufficiently allowing me time to watch the world go by, then I’ll be happy. Anything else is icing on the cake.
Do you know what it is you want from life?
Would the process of elimination work for you?
* obscure reference to the 1983 movie, The Meaning of Life, in case you didn’t get it! | <urn:uuid:882aa9d2-ce2c-46cb-b524-12ec56668d8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.debbish.com/other-stuff/process-of-elimination/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95612 | 1,111 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Michael Bianco from January 2001by: Wanda de Liefde
I remember sitting at Alligator Alley, in Sunrise Florida, watching one act after another take the stage. Nothing moved me. I sat there for quite a while having a drink and pleasant conversation. Suddenly from the stage closest to where I was sitting, beautiful sounds erupted. The man behind the sounds Michael Bianco known for playing two guitars simultaneously and also known for playing that unusual instrument called the stick.
Wanda: Tell me what inspired you to play two instruments at the same time?
Michael: Back in the early days of playing at the Now Art Café, in Hollywood, I was doing a lot of experimenting. That's when I put up a second guitar. It never left the Café for five years.
Wanda: Can you briefly describe the technique that is involved when playing two guitars?
Michael: The technique involves tapping the strings against the freeboard of the guitar (or both guitars). Different degrees of sustain can be achieved by how long the fingers are pressed against the strings.
Wanda: How do you create all the additional sounds that accompany your performance?
Michael: Lots of guitar effects (no synths yet). All the music is basically in real time, with nothing prerecorded except drums and percussion.
Wanda: Tell me about the stick. What exactly is a stick? How does it work?
Michael: The stick was invented by Emmett Chapman in 1972. It was designed specifically for the tapping technique. Mine has ten strings (5 bass and 5 melody). Unlike the guitar, the lowest string on the stick is in the middle so it takes a little getting used to in the beginning.
Wanda: Playing two guitars simultaneously and playing the stick, are these things you enjoy doing to entertain an audience or is there a little part of you that is the type of person that enjoys a challenge?
Michael: For me it is more for the challenge. There is still a lot of "unexplored" guitar territory out there, and the tapping technique is just one of the many roads one can take.
Wanda: When you started to play two guitars and the stick, was there anybody "out there" you could emulate?
Michael: In LA around 1985 I saw Stanley Jordan doing a rare performance using two guitars. Back then I had no vision of ever doing that myself. By the time I started to do it there was no one to emulate; however, there were a lot of stick players out there to be seen and heard, especially via the Internet. I like Bob Culbertson (world class stick player from San Jose, CA) a lot. He has been a major stick influence for me.
Wanda: How do people react when they first see you?
Michael: That depends on the audience. Most people have never seen a stick performance. The most common reaction is "did you make that yourself/"
Wanda: I know you do many local performances, where do these usually take place?
Michael: I have been staying fairly local lately. I post all my gigs on my web site (www.michaelbianco.com). I never really went on tour per se, but my favorite opening act was with Tuck and Patty a few years back.
Wanda: How did you ever get in touch with Jeff Beck?
Michael: That was through Jennifer Batten, actually. She has been on tour with him for a while, and for anyone who has never heard her play, "wow!" You can check her out at www.batten.com.
Wanda: That must have been a dream come true. Did Jeff Beck have an impact on your style?
Michael: Jeff Beck was definitely a major influence on my playing back in the beginning and still every time I see him perform live. He is still as incredible as ever.
Wanda: What about the other celebrities you performed with. Have they inspired you?
Michael: I have always been a fan of Steve Vai and got to play for him (not with him) a while back. His technique and use of effects are pretty amazing. I have also played with his current bass player, Philip Bynoe.
Wanda: I understand that you have released a few CDs? What are they called and how would you define the music they reveal?
Michael: My first release was "Virtual Reality" (solo 7 string guitar), which is no longer available. My second self-titled "Bianco" is a live performance using two guitars. It is more New Age. I also have a Christmas album available, which is played entirely on the Chapman Stick. For those who like "recognizable melodies" I just released a CD full of classics ranging from Beethoven to Mr. Bojangles.
Wanda: Where can we get a copy of them?
Michael: All my CDs are available at gigs or www.michaelbianco.com.
Wanda: Are you currently working on any new releases?
Michael: I am working on something that really is different from all my other CDs. It is going to be more of a techno/ambient sort of thing.
Wanda: In your experience, what do you feel grabs the initial attention of the audience; your act, the music itself or do you feel it is a combination of both?
Michael: It really takes a lot to impress today's audiences with all the diversity out there. I think it is a combination of both. An act is just what it says, it is an act. I try to make the music as real as possible. I think keeping a good balance between the two helps to achieve that total package.
Wanda: You have performed locally, released your own CDs. Where does Michael Bianco go from here? Will he learn to play yet another demanding instrument? Will he pursue a record deal? Which direction would you like your career to take?
Michael: I don't think there are any record "deals" anymore. I am not talking about the teen idol thing. Times have changed. I think the Internet is a big part of that change. Musicians can now really put their stuff "out there" without a record deal. As far as what I will be doing in the future? I hope to continue sharing my music with as many people as possible and to complete my instructional book and video.
Best New Age Artist
In 1988, the guitarist Michael Bianco found a copy of the seven-string Ibanez guitar designed by Steve Vai. The extra string (a low B for the curious) adds a depth and texture to his sound that isnt duplicated elsewhere in these parts. Bianco combines finger-tapping, hammer-ons and hammer-offs, and a touch of slap bass (plus a few electronic sound effects, most noticeably delay and reverb) to create the sound the New Age crowd needs to survive. He tosses a bit of Hendrix and a bit of Thelonius Monk to keep the sound interesting. The Boston native spent a few years on New Orleans Bourbon Street before moving to South Florida seven years ago.
If you think Stanley Jordan is the coolest thing in guitarists since sliced bread, rush out and buy this album. Like Jordan, South Florida based Michael Bianco utilizes the two-handed tapping technique, enabling him to play impossibly complex figures and lines. However Bianco avoids the problem Jordan had with his early work, in that he doesnt hesitate to use effects to change the texture of the guitar sound. Theres also evidence here of more creativity and musical inventiveness in the songwriting than we saw with Jordan.
According to the liner notes, the album was recorded with no overdubs, so what you hear is what you get .If thats true, musicians-and especially guitarists-will laud Bianco with critical raves for years to come.
By: Robert Archer
Jam Indies Reviews
Michael Bianco is a local guitar legend and rightly so. His self-released CD simply entitled Bianco is nothing short of spectacular, to say the least.
His guitar playing is mesmerizing and hypnotic. It takes you to other worlds beyond our daily realm.
These instrumental tunes are masterpieces that not only exhibit his prowess and advanced musical skills, but also demonstrate his keen ability and talent at songwriting.
He makes the music flow forth as if from a magical fountain with such inspiring songs like "First Flight," "Mystic Journey," "Rain Forest" and "Windsong."
This CD will delight the musician as well as the average music lover. But live he demonstrates his amazing abilities even more by playing a 7 string Ibanez, and 6 string Fender guitar simultaneously on most of his songs making it sound like three guitars! He even has mastered the ever-so-complex Chapman stick.
Every music piece Bianco plays is layered with effects and sounds that make the Michael Bianco trademark.
This site maintained by Robert Heale Mason
e-mail Robert Mason to trade links etc
Copyright Robert H Mason 1999 All rights reserved | <urn:uuid:9a6e9d2a-79a7-4cd8-a671-d2c463f03f63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://michaelbianco.com/ArticlesBianco.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97249 | 1,869 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Everyone's Irish Story, by O'shea, Theresa
- ISBN: 9780595478866 | 0595478867
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 11/29/2007
Sorry, this item is currently not available.
Set in 2004, Theresa, the daughter of Irish parents, takes a memoir writing class to write about her brother and his struggles with alcoholism. She begins his story with her parents’ early beginnings in Ireland. The memoir class members want to hear more details about her parents and not the abbreviated version Theresa began her brother’s memoir with. When told about her daughters’ subject matter by phone, her mother, Noreen, is very embarrassed. She states, This is everyone’s Irish story”. The following week, Theresa again phones her retired mother for more details regarding her life in Ireland. Unbeknownst to Theresa, Noreen has been staying up nights to write pages and pages about her life. Theresa decides rather than edit her mother’s story herself, she would tell Noreen’s story based on Noreen’s personal writings and leave the nuances of the story exactly the same, as written by her mother. | <urn:uuid:a7cc53ec-7104-4bbe-bbe4-7c230c23cda9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biggerbooks.com/everyones-irish-story-oshea-theresa/bk/9780595478866 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961196 | 253 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Artalk is a forum in which artists from around the world engage in dialogue and connect with audiences in multiple locations. The series examines the creative process and practices of artists as they develop new work within a rapidly changing digital context. The techniques individual artists implement to realize their vision are valuable learning tools that we document and share live online and archive for future viewing.
CultureHub Artalk Series / Wafaa Bilal
November 30 / 8PM
Iraqi born artist, Wafaa Bilal, assistant arts professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, specializes in on-line performative and interactive works. His current project, the 3rdi, features a camera surgically implaned on the back of his head, transmitting images to the web. In his 2010 work "...And Counting" Bilal had his back tattooed with a map of Iraq and dots representing casualties. For 2007's "Domestic Tension", Bilal spent a month in a gallery with a paintball gun that people could shoot at him over the internet - a statement on the Iraq war. Bilal fled Iraq in 1991 and came to the U.S. after two years in refugee camps.
This Artalk was shared with an audience at the Seoul Institute of the Arts and live-streamed.
CultureHub / New York Feed | <urn:uuid:f9bb4efc-660a-48b5-a5f2-5ea6f5442b04> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.culturehub.org/artalk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946314 | 273 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, 2010
“Attending Ashford has made my life more fulfilling and given me a higher self-esteem."
For Sommer Livingstone, 26, of Crescent City, California, school was never easy. “I have dealt with social anxiety, depression, ADHD, and many other speed bumps. Then, when I was 15, they discovered I had severe bilateral epilepsy with grand mal seizures. I was never able to focus and always got bad grades.” Because of her epilepsy, Sommer was removed from the public school system mid-way through her sophomore year. In a fortunate turn of events, Sommer found the “home-hospital” school environment suited her learning style much better - she found it easier to focus, and was soon enjoying her studies. “From that moment, I decided to devote my life to my education and my grades.”
Today, Sommer holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Ashford University - and she graduated magna cum laude (with high honors). When we spoke to her, she had not yet graduated. She raved, “I find that the online layout and the back-to-back classes benefit me in the most efficient and enjoyable way.
For Sommer, the online environment was preferable to the traditional classroom because it matches her learning style and allowed her to flourish. And it’s not just about being able to focus - Sommer also found a great social network through her online courses. “The online classroom is not just an environment for work; it can be a great place to meet new friends. I have discovered the joy of having a friendly debate - it is stimulating, fun, and empowering. I have also discovered something that I am very proud of: I have the high level of self-discipline required to complete these online courses and earn good grades. Attending Ashford has made my life more fulfilling and given me a higher self-esteem. I am proud of myself!”
Most importantly, her experience at Ashford University is helping Sommer achieve her personal and professional ambition: combining community service with project management. “I love volunteering. I am currently working with a non-profit organization through my local county library, which offers free and confidential programs that assist adult literacy. For example, if someone wanted to earn a GED, he or she could come to this organization and get tutoring. We also help adults write resumes and cover letters, as well as prepare for job interviews.” Sommer has also done quite a bit of volunteer work with a local non-profit LGBTQ Pride organization, including an advice column called “Just Ask Sommer.” Much of her volunteer work involves event or project planning; most notably, Sommer helped plan the 2009 Humboldt Pride Festival. “The festival has been wildly successful,” Sommer says, “bringing in thousands in unexpected revenue, which has helped to create, sustain, and maintain programs and projects within the organization. The volunteer coordinators actually seek me out!”
Sommer’s accomplishments are a true testament to the unique benefits of online learning, and we look forward to hearing about her future achievements! | <urn:uuid:4642586d-0274-4da5-9598-797a5eaa19b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ashford.edu/community/5014.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969694 | 665 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Your Opinion: Fair Tax unfairly favors wealthy
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The so-called Fair Tax is one of the biggest frauds to come down the pike in a long time. The proposed new tax scheme is not fair and to so label it is simply an attempt to garner unwitting support.
Constitutional amendments now being proposed for placement on the 2012 ballot would eliminate Missouri income taxes on both individuals and corporations and replace these taxes with a large and widespread sales tax.
The new sales tax would take the current state sale tax up from 4.225 percent to 7 percent. The state sales tax on a $20,000 car, for example, would now be $845. Under a 7 percent sales tax that would go to $1,400. To millionaires that extra $555 may mean nothing, but to most people it is important.
The current tax applies only to “goods” but the new tax would apply to both goods and services, e.g. to payments to doctors, hairdressers, lawyers, etc.
The effect of the new scheme is to relieve millionaires of taxes paid on income where they pay more than most people and to shift the burden to the middle class who will pay more of their money in taxes than they do now.
One way to put some fairness into the fair tax would be to impose the 7 percent sales tax on intangible goods, things like stocks and bonds, as well as on tangible goods, things like cars, televisions, clothes and computers. But the fair tax doesn’t do that. It is limited to tangible goods. The things that millionaires buy disproportionately like stocks and bonds are excluded from the tax. That is not fair. | <urn:uuid:34a56a1f-ec64-4113-a73e-8d975be7f396> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.newstribune.com/news/2011/feb/24/your-opinion-fair-tax-unfairly-favors-wealthy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974757 | 350 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Faculty Reading Recommendations
Joel Kaminsky, Professor of Religion
Joel Kaminsky teaches courses on the Hebrew Bible and on ancient Jewish religion and literature. His research interests include narrative and theological work on the Hebrew Bible and Rabbinic Judaism. He received his doctorate in 1993 from the University of Chicago and came to Smith in 1997 after previously teaching at a number of other institutions, including St. Olaf College, Muhlenberg College and Loyola University of Chicago. He is the author of Yet I Loved Jacob: Reclaiming the Biblical Concept of Election (Nashville: Abingdon, 2007), Jews, Christians, and the Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures, co-edited by Alice Bellis and Joel S. Kaminsky (SBL Symposium Series, 8; Atlanta: SBL, 2000) and Corporate Responsibility in the Hebrew Bible, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series, 196; (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995).
Here are a few good scholarly but very readable books on the Hebrew Bible
- Richard E. Friedman’s Who Wrote the Bible? This book reads like a detective novel and lays out the closest thing to a consensus view of how the first 11 books of the Bible reached their current form.
- Robert Alter’s, The Art of Biblical Narrative examines the literary artistry of the Hebrew Bible and challenges certain assumptions of older source critics who often assumed that any unevenness in the text was simply a sign that a clumsy editor had poorly merged two variant accounts.
- Bruce Zuckerman’s Job the Silent: A Study in Historical Counterpoint traces the way in which a Yiddish story was interpreted before and after the Holocaust in order to shed light on how the Book of Job may have been reshaped by certain tragic events in ancient Israel’s history.
- Jon D. Levenson’s, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son masterfully demonstrates that Judaism and Christianity share a related set of powerful myths and rituals that have their roots in the archaic practice of child sacrifice but are transformed in unique and highly sophisticated ways by each tradition. Levenson’s work is a bit complex and if one wants a related but more accessible work on aspects of this subject, I would toot my own horn and suggest reading my recent book, Yet I Loved Jacob. My book examines the idea of chosenness within the Hebrew Bible as well as exploring the distinct manner in which Rabbinic Judaism and New Testament Christianity each appropriated this central idea. | <urn:uuid:cbff47d2-a842-482c-b8e4-c3595c74e288> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://smith.edu/libraries/friends/events/reading/faculty/jkaminsky | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936696 | 524 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Reverse & melt away Heart Disease
Yes melt away and dissolve the plaque built up in our arteries from years of eating wheat, grains & trans fats.
I was EXTREMELY skeptical that this was possible when I first discovered Cardiologist Dr. Davis blog:
He promotes his "Track Your Plaque" program to measure, track & eliminate heart disease. Was this just more Internet Bullsh*t? Or was it real? I had no confirming evidence for nearly 3 months, until today.
Today, on the TV Show, "The Doctors," there was a short clip on Bill Clinton's extensive heart disease. It was said that Bill had naturally melted away and dissolved his artery blocking plaque by diet alone. Yes eliminating the Conventional Wisdom High Carb, Low Fat diet has reversed Clinton' extensive heart disease. They rushed through the details of his diet, so not much else was said. Here are the details of Bill's diet:
This was good enough evidence for me to help confirm the Dr. Davis "Track Your Plaque" program, that it really is possible to reverse heart disease, even though Clinton's diet & the Dr. Davis diet aren't the same. Both diets share a focus on fruits & veggies, where Clinton eliminates ALL fats, goes Vegan, and Dr. Davis only eliminates the unhealthy fats.
The Dr. Davis program is basically the Primal Diet with a focus on losing weight, especially abdominal fat, and some sophisticated blood testing programs.
I'll keep this thread updated with any further REPUTABLE confirming evidence that I find.
Best of health to all,
Last edited by Grizz; 10-24-2010 at 05:26 AM.
Ummm... Clinton follows a low fat, primarily vegetarian diet which includes lots of grains, legumes, fruit, vegetables, no meat, no dairy.
Last edited by JEL62; 10-24-2010 at 05:15 AM.
You are correct. Clinton became a Vegan. However the point is that he reversed his heart disease, and dissolved away his artery clogging plaque by diet, which in itself is inspiring.
This proves it is possible to dissolve plaque by diet, and Dr. Davis says that our PB Diet does the same, with his own confirming programs.
Best of health to all,
Dr. Davis also recommends against dairy, especially butter. Seems it is high in AGE's, and causes higher triclycerides.
I did some reading regarding the calcium score. Seems like it is used in some research. I have read though that it doesn't really tell whether the plaque is stable or not, though the score is certainly more accurate than your blood cholesterol levels or Framingham risk scores at identifying risk.
There is something called a "pericardial fat pad", that ties very closely to the calcium score, and is also considered a risk factor. Apparently this fat causes higher inflammation in the heart tissues, leading to buildup of plaque. It's more significant than visceral fat.
I'll have to watch that Doctors show about Clinton online. I like to watch the Doctors when I stay home sick, which fortunately has not been very often lately, even though they are constantly shilling for cosmetic surgery and liposuction.
How is Bill Clinton eating a vegan diet almost the exact opposite of the diet people on here eat evidence the "Track Your Plaque" diet works? Do you work for Dr. Davis by chance? You really seem to promote him. I agree with much of what he says myself for what it's worth.
No, I don't have anything to do with Dr. Davis. IMO, he has got it all right, and is willing to talk, even going against the FDA, & ADA ! He also promotes the Primal style diet. [No grains, Sugars, Legumes]
More evidence here:
Stunning reversal of Heart Disease:
If you have doubts about what we are doing, see this thread:
Best to you,
Originally Posted by leonardotmnt
Are you kidding??? The wife & I were among those laughing & rolling our eyes at the thought of the Cave Man Diet. Give up BREAD? Give up my "Heart Healthy OATMEAL???? Give up BEANS ?????? Those Cave Man Diet people were definitely CRAZY. Bread & Oatmeal were as American as MOTHER & APPLE PIE.
We would not be at Marks Daily Apple without Dr. Davis exposing the horrible health impacts from grains & sugars. Dr. Davis literally changed our lives by posting the TRUTH on his blog. Against all odds, he is fighting back against the AMA, the ADA and the FDA, risking the loss of his medical license. And you stand there and make WISE CRACKS like that? BITE YOU LIP, my friend.
If you had bothered to look, the majority of Dr. Davis plan to reverse heart disease is simply a change in diet.
1) He tells his patients to give up bread, grains, sugars & legumes.
2) Then he prescribes essential vitamins beginning with Vitamin D.
Does any of this sound familiar? OF COURSE, he is ordering his patients to go on the Primal Blueprint diet without actually saying it. Then he recommends the Robb Wolf book, the Paleo Solution.
Instead of being skeptical of Dr. Davis, please help me spread the word about his blog:
Together we might be able to convince others who are "Rolling Their Eyes" to go Primal.
Then look at Dr. Davis record setting heart disease reversal:
Best to you,
OK, perhaps that answers question #2, but that still doesn't answer the first question which is the more interesting/puzzling one. How is Bill's vegan diet evidence that this completely different "Track Your Plaque" diet works?
Don't get me wrong, it doesn't surprise me that diet can reduce or eliminate plaques. But I have to point out that your "are you kidding??" post doesn't answer Leon's first question.
He also recommends to go on statins, eat soy and healthy oils like canola and flaxseed. In fact the only real primal fat I can have is olive oil. He says to limit saturated fat, instead eating lean meats.
I joined the TYP program. Not sure I will stay with it.
Dr Davis seems to be primal-ish, that is it. He does not promote PB.
The answer is simple. Can diet reverse heart disease?
Originally Posted by Jenny
1) Clinton says YES
2) Dr. Davis says YES.
Where Clinton admits he is experimenting and Dr. Davis has a proven track record.
Any other questions? | <urn:uuid:61bf5770-1c92-4ead-8125-acb7968c6802> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread17311.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965108 | 1,380 | 1.585938 | 2 |
MISCELLANEOUS AND GENERAL PROVISIONS
101. In all legal proceedings relating to a registered trade mark or any right thereunder (including proceedings for rectification of the register) —
the register shall be prima facie evidence of anything contained therein;
the registration of the prescribed particulars of any registrable transaction under section 39 shall be prima facie evidence of the transaction; and
the registration of a person as proprietor of a registered trade mark shall be prima facie evidence of —
the validity of the original registration; and
any subsequent assignment or other transmission of the registration.
—(1) If in proceedings before the Court the validity of the registration of a trade mark is contested and it is found by the Court that the trade mark is validly registered, the Court may give a certificate to that effect.
(2) If the Court gives such a certificate and in subsequent proceedings —
the validity of the registration is again questioned; and
the proprietor obtains a final order or judgment in his favour,
he is entitled to his costs as between solicitor and client unless the Court directs otherwise.
(3) Subsection (2) does not extend to the costs of an appeal in any such proceedings.
[UK Trade Marks Act 1994, s. 73]
103. A certificate purporting to be under the hand of the Registrar as to any entry, matter or thing which he is authorised to make or do under this Act, shall be prima facie evidence of the entry having been made, and of the contents thereof, and of the matter or thing having been done or not done.
[Trade Marks 1992 Ed., s. 59]
104. In all proceedings before the Court under this Act, the Court may award to any party (including the Registrar) such costs as it may consider reasonable, but the Registrar shall not be ordered to pay the costs of any other of the parties.
[Trade Marks 1992 Ed., s. 56]
105. If in any civil proceedings under this Act a question arises as to the use to which a registered trade mark has been put, it is for the proprietor to show what use has been made of it.
[UK Trade Marks Act 1994, s. 100]
—(1) The Registrar or any person authorised by him in writing may, in his discretion, compound any offence under this Act which is prescribed as a compoundable offence by collecting from a person reasonably suspected of having committed the offence a sum of money not exceeding $2,000.
(2) The Office may, with the approval of the Minister, make regulations to prescribe the offences which may be compounded.
(3) On payment of such sum of money, no further proceedings shall be taken against such person in respect of the offence.
(4) All sums collected under this section shall be paid into the funds of the Office.
106. A District Court or a Magistrate’s Court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine all offences under this Act and, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 68), shall have power to impose the full penalty or punishment in respect of any such offence.
[Trade Marks 1992 Ed., s. 73D]
—(1) Proceedings for an offence under this Act alleged to have been committed by a partnership shall be brought against the partnership in the name of the firm and not in that of the partners; but without prejudice to any liability of the partners under subsection (3).
(2) A fine imposed on a partnership on its conviction in such proceedings shall be paid out of the partnership assets.
(3) Where a partnership is guilty of an offence under this Act, every partner, other than a partner who is proved to have been ignorant of or to have attempted to prevent the commission of the offence, is also guilty of the offence and liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
(4) Where an offence under this Act committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body, or a person purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate is guilty of the offence and liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
[UK Trade Marks Act 1994, s. 101]
—(1) The Minister may make rules —
for any purpose for which rules are authorised or required to be made under this Act;
for prescribing matters authorised or required by this Act to be prescribed;
for prescribing matters necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Act;
for prescribing matters necessary or convenient to be prescribed for the conduct of any proceedings or other matter before the Registrar.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the rules may make provision —
as to the practice and procedure of any proceedings or other matter before the Registrar;
as to the manner of filing of applications or other documents;
requiring persons to make such statutory declarations as may be prescribed in support of any application, notice or request;
requiring and regulating the translation of documents and the filing and authentication of any translation;
as to the service of documents;
authorising the rectification of irregularities of procedure;
prescribing time limits for anything required to be done in connection with any proceedings under this Act;
for the extension of any time limit which has been prescribed, or which the Registrar has specified, and which has not expired;
as to the giving of evidence in proceedings before the Registrar under this Act by affidavit or statutory declaration; and
for the reinstatement of —
any application which is treated as withdrawn; or
any right which has been abrogated, or thing which has ceased to be in force or to exist, by reason of a failure to comply with any time limit which has been prescribed or which the Registrar has specified,
and the conditions for such reinstatement.
[UK Trade Marks Act 1994, s. 78] | <urn:uuid:02a3d65e-7598-4bf3-96ef-459ebaf2f73c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/aol/search/display/view.w3p;ident=b0f1ed0a-4324-4153-811f-0b18bb803299;page=0;query=Id%3A%227ea3aeca-259c-47bd-855a-f74afb340f2e%22%20Status%3Ainforce;rec=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934426 | 1,245 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Regulars at Nauset Beach in Cape Cod had never seen a shark until this past weekend, according to Discovery.
Then out of the blue a 12-14 foot great white shark was spotted dangerously close to a kayaker.
WHDH in Boston was able to get the footage of this nearly fatal encounter.
That kayaker, Walter Szulc Jr., was within 10 feet of the shark and told WHDH that he was only able to see the shark's menacing fin. The station said that people on the beach started to scream and panic. Incredibly, it was Szulc's first time kayaking, he said, and he just barely lived to tell the tale.
Local officials told WHDH that this sudden appearance of sharks is likely due to the growing seal population in the Cape Cod area. The beach immediately barred swimming in the water, but some daring individuals decided to tempt fate anyway. Look how close to the beach this great white gets.
The WHDH news report said that they found seal killed by a shark that day, which means the beach-goers of Cape Cod could be seeing many more dangerous situations in the future. | <urn:uuid:5e8ea490-ca7e-4712-94bf-00ae468d7639> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.businessinsider.com/cape-cod-kayaker-has-close-encounter-with-a-great-white-shark-2012-7 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982909 | 235 | 1.773438 | 2 |
|Restoring More, So Claims Cost Less
with the Industry's Only Patented Process
CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT A CLAIM
OR CALL TOLL-FREE 24/7/365 866.93.EVANS (933.8267)
ADJUSTERS | RESTORERS | VIRTUAL TOUR
Successfully Restore 95% of Soft Goods with Evans: The Soft Goods Innovators!
Replacing soft goods (shoes, belts and purses) instead of restoring them can take up an astonishingly large amount insurance policy limits.
Due to major advancements in soft goods restoration, items that only a short while ago would have been classified as beyond repair can be restored for far less than an outright replacement would cost. In fact, up to 95% of soft goods brought in for restoration can be returned to like-new condition.
The use of ozone as a deodorizer in the field of garment restoration is not a new advancement, but doing so in water that is highly saturated with ozone as opposed to in an air chamber greatly lessens the chance of further damage or adverse effects on the item to be restored. It also dramatically reduces the time investment, as air ozone treatments sometimes can take days to complete while high-saturation ozone washing removes even heavy smoke odor in minutes.
The type of detergent used in the process is also extremely important when restoring leather soft goods. During the tanning process, all leathers have natural oils removed, which are then replaced by synthetic oils to create a wearable product. It has been proven that modified textile detergents cannot successfully clean soft goods because such detergents do not replace oils lost either as a result of the original damage or in the cleaning process.
Washing soft goods in the cold water, ozone and detergent mixture accomplishes three things. First, the combination of the three elements ensures that any odors will be completely removed. Second, any soot or soil that is on the leather is loosened and suspended. Lastly, the special detergent formula imbues synthetic oils and moisture back into the leather.
This third and final point is crucial, as many in the industry have often been under the impression that soft goods made from animals just could not be restored properly. The methods that are being used now have been carefully formulated to deal with such obstacles.
After the items are cleaned using the above process, they are carefully dried and thoroughly inspected. Any remaining damage from smoke or water as well as lingering odors are detected and corrected. After inspection, the items are sprayed with a special finish. The spray process can also involve the addition of dyes and special treatments if necessary to do the very best in returning the leather to its original state.
This is what makes restored soft goods look so close to new, as this chemical finish is the same product that is used by many of the world’s leading shoe companies, which is applied to leather goods when they are manufactured.
The items are then closely inspected for a second time, stuffed with tissue and wrapped separately before being boxed to return to the policyholder in the most pristine condition possible.
The finishing process is the critical element in successful restoration of soft goods. Cleaning alone is simply unable to return soft goods to pre-loss condition (or better!)
|© 2013 Evans Garment Restoration. All Rights Reserved.
1-866-93EVANS (933-8267) or email us
Site by Business Development Associates, Inc.
|Mobile | Main | Members | The Patented Process | Types of Damage | Emergency Clothes | Ozone Washing | Soft Goods | Events/News | Quality/Results | Links| | <urn:uuid:18c669d4-c9ac-49e2-b30a-ccaccddd19ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://evansgr.com/soft-goods.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947201 | 750 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Mutual funds monthly income plans (MIP) assets fall 26% despite robust returns
The fixed income head added that duration products enjoy a cost advantage of 70-80 basis points over MIP schemes on a weighted average basis, which could have also influenced investors' decision. Short-term income funds typically charge between 0.5-1% as expense ratio, long term income funds charge 1.1-1.7% as expenses, while MIP schemes charge more than 2%.
Investors also moved their money into fixed deposits, tax-free bonds, company deposits, and retail NCDs which were giving returns of between 10-12% in 2012, according to experts.
Stocks More on | <urn:uuid:224e601e-b006-4cea-adfc-2d0f50ae5a50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.financialexpress.com/news/mutual-funds-monthly-income-plans-(mip)-assets-fall-26-despite-robust-returns/1077483/2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972918 | 144 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Gait pours heart into lacrosse, moves sport forward
By Vicki Michaelis, USA TODAY
DENVER While playing lacrosse the past three decades, Gary Gait won every championship in the sport.
He collected a passel of scoring titles and MVP awards. He authored the sport's most famous move, the "Air Gait." He scored too many dramatic goals to recount.
Through it all, Gait stayed as even-keeled as an assembly-line worker toting a lunchbox and punching a clock. No fist pumps. No whoops. No hollers. Nary a chest tap.
Gait's seeming nonchalance belied his daring brand of play, exasperated opponents and calmed teammates.
"I'm very competitive," Gait says. "I may not show it or react, but deep down I am. I don't believe in the celebration or the big disappointment."
The hiccup came this summer.
In July, Canada won its first world lacrosse title in 28 years, beating the USA 15-10 with Gait, a native of Victoria, British Columbia, on the team.
After the second of his four goals in the final, Gait, 39, broke out a high-step hop and an ear-to-ear grin. His kids tugged on their mom, saying, "Look, Dad's dancing!" His friends watched it on tape just to be sure they saw what they thought they saw.
"There were a lot of people who said, 'I've never seen that before,' " says Steve Govett, who has known Gait since they were kids and has competed with and against him ever since. "I've seen it in bits and pieces, but I've never seen him smile that much. But it was a fleeting moment for him because as soon as it was there, it was gone.
"He's right back to being Gary Gait, the humble, unassuming guy."
'Calm, cool under pressure'
In Gait's world, the measure of a man isn't what he's done but what he's doing.
What Gait has done is establish himself as lacrosse's icon. What he's doing is trying to establish lacrosse as a national, top-tier sport that draws talented athletes, deep-pocketed sponsors and a large following.
As he contemplates calling time on his playing career, he stays in forward motion with coaching the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth, a team that helped transport the sport west of the Mississippi and brand Denver as a new hotbed for lacrosse.
He also is president of the National Development Program Lacrosse, a venture he helped form that hosts national tournaments and facilitates college recruiting.
"He realized he was so fortunate," his wife, Nicole, says. "Now he just wants to grow the sport and give other kids the chance to do the same thing he did."
Gait did, and does, what many kids dream of doing. His sport is his lifelong pursuit. He began playing at age 4, when he and his twin brother, Paul, followed the lead of another set of twins who lived down the street in their middle-class neighborhood.
By 12, Gait had won his first age-group national championship. By the end of his Syracuse career, during which he played with Paul, he had three NCAA titles and endorsement offers, at the time a novelty in lacrosse.
Gary's 15-year professional indoor lacrosse career began in 1991 in Detroit, where he was rookie of the year and won the league championship. He won two more indoor titles as a player before retiring in 2005.
In outdoor lacrosse, he led the Baltimore Bayhawks to the 2002 and 2005 Major League Lacrosse titles as a player/coach. Last year, with Gait as its rookie coach, the Mammoth overcame a middling start to win the indoor title.
"When you look at some of the greats, they have this fire or almost like a borderline insanity that they want to win," says Mammoth player Jay Jalbert, who played against Gait as a member of the U.S. team this summer at the world championships. "You don't really see that in Gary, but I think that works to his advantage.
"He's so calm and cool, especially under pressure situations, even as a coach, that it rubs off on his teammates and players. It helps lead to championships."
His other half
Gait attributes his unruffled demeanor to growing up with a soul mate and athletic equal in Paul, to his early success in lacrosse and to his coaching experience at a young age. He was an assistant coach for the Maryland women's team from 1994 to 2002.
"He would constantly evaluate himself," Paul says. "That's the way we approach all challenges. It's more from a logical sense than an emotional sense, which is why it's not evident that he's super-competitive."
During Syracuse's 1988 season, the Orange played a close game with Pennsylvania, needing a fourth-quarter comeback to win. The Gait brothers started evaluating how to beat Penn's zone defense on the bus ride home.
"We figured out they do not defend behind their goal," Paul says. "That started a process of 'OK, how the heck can you score from behind the goal?' We kind of broke it down and said, 'OK, would this work? Would this work?' All these different scenarios ran through our conversation until we ultimately ended up saying, 'Well, what if you can stuff it in from behind?' "
The "Air Gait" was born.
In an NCAA semifinal against Penn that year, Gary leaped from behind the goal, extended his stick and jammed the ball into the net. The move spawned rules changes and a generation of high-flying, inventive lacrosse players, many of whom now have teamed with Gait or played for him.
"He could be double- and triple-teamed and for some reason, when he has the ball in his stick, it's almost like he turns from a mere mortal to Superman," says Mammoth captain Gavin Prout, who also was on Canada's victorious team at worlds.
Most of the time, Gait walks away after scoring a goal, done with this moment and into the next. Except for the flash of Flashdance he let slip at worlds.
"There was some emotion there that people were surprised by," Gait says. "I think I caught myself by surprise as well. That really came from the amount of time and effort over all the years of trying to win that championship."
The doing had taken so long, he had something to release when it was done.
"It finally came out," his wife says. | <urn:uuid:bded339f-00d9-4d60-913f-fd1c760d9c6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/soac/2006-10-16-gait_x.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989628 | 1,406 | 1.539063 | 2 |
I once postulated that Western society was stuck in a cycle of post traumatic stress disorder-induced abuse dating back to at least World War One. Nearly a whole generation of European men were either killed or injured in that four year period. My father's father was a medic in the British army and in 1917 was caught in a mustard gas attack. As a medic, he would have had to retrieve the dead and dying from the battle field and seen horrors enough to freeze a soul. After the war he drifted around the world for ten years before settling in Brazil where he met my grandmother and my father was born. They immigrated to Canada in 1931, and my grandfather never worked another day from then until his death in 1978.
He physically and emotionally abused my father, and in turn my father physically and sexually abused me. I was a drug addict and alcoholic by the time I was thirteen and didn't stop until I was thirty-three. It was then that I started to recover the memories of being abused as a young child and began the long process of recovery. I'm still in therapy, digging out the deep planted seeds abuse planted that governed my behaviour for most of my life. One way or another though, the cycle of abuse in my family has stopped with me.
On June 11th 2008, the Prime Minister of Canada, Steven Harper, is going to stand up in the House of Commons to officially apologize to Native Canadians for the residential school system. For close to a hundred years, the government of Canada sponsored church run schools that stole Native children away from their parents. Aside from the shock of being stolen from their parents, they were also forbidden to speak their own languages, and taught that all they believed in was evil. If that wasn't bad enough, at a minimum, 50% of all children who attended these schools were either sexually or physically abused, if not both, by the staff.
What I'm most interested in knowing is who exactly the Prime Minister is going to be apologizing to and what he is going to be apologizing for? With the first residential school opening in the 1870s and the last one closing in the 1970s we can be sure that not everybody who went to one is still alive. Is he going to stand up in the House of Commons and say on behalf of the Canadian government we're sorry that previous governments oversaw attempted cultural genocide, allowed hundreds of thousands of children to be sexually and physically abused, and successfully tore the heart out of Native communities across Canada for subsequent generations? | <urn:uuid:4f0be367-28ae-490a-b68b-44d1245c09e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/native-residential-schools-the-legacy-lingers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986485 | 506 | 1.78125 | 2 |
At the beginning of each summer vacation, Drew, I like to buy a stack of books, set the books on top of the dining room table, and then command my children to start reading. ("Command?" That's the way I'd like it to happen. The truer words would be "cajole" and "beg.") May I ask your advice? My oldest, home from her first year in college, will be reading for courses she'll be taking next fall, while my youngest, only eight, will devote her time to children's books. That leaves the three teenaged boys in the middle.
All three of the boys have already read--devoured, actually--your first book for young adults, The Last Thing I Remember, making it more or less mandatory for me to begin my summer book purchases with your second book in the series, The Long Way Home. But where do I go from there? Ideally, I figure, I'd give the boys half a dozen or ten books, including, perhaps, a work or two of American history, a work or two of good sports writing, and maybe a brief volume of good science writing. What would you recommend?
"The Andrew Klavan Summer Reading List for Teenaged American Boys." That's what I'm after. | <urn:uuid:664c14f3-8d52-4f07-8259-2aa783d3403a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ricochet.com/main-feed/Calling-Andrew-Klavan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957529 | 263 | 1.625 | 2 |
Settlement may forming in BP trial
NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- A settlement is beginning to form as the trial against BP gets under way in New Orleans, a source told The New York Times.
The trial resulting from the 2010 explosion of a Gulf of Mexico drilling rig began Monday morning.
The possible $16 billion settlement would limit Clean Water Act fines paid by BP to $6 billion, a source briefed on the deal told the Times.
In addition, BP would pay $9 billion to cover damages to natural resources and restoration, and another $1 billion would be put in a fund to offset unanticipated environmental damages related to the spill developed.
The Times said officials at BP, the Justice Department or the states commented on any settlement, but several lawyers briefed on the negotiations said a $16 billion settlement proposal had been offered.
States that would be affected by any settlement are Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, though only Alabama and Louisiana are participating in the trial, the Times said.
Meanwhile, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said in his opening statement BP's actions concerning the gulf spill were driven by greed.
"At BP, money mattered most," Strange said.
Saying the spill was predictable and preventable, Strange said the oil giant's "culture of callousness" caused it to happen.
"Money mattered more to BP than the gulf. A lot more," Strange said. "Your honor, the evidence will be clear and unmistakable: Greed devastated the gulf."
N.Y. lawmaker under fire for blackface
NEW YORK, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Jewish New York state lawmaker Dov Hikind, criticized for his blackface basketball player costume for a Purim party, said Monday he's not prejudiced.
Politicker.com reported the 62-year-old Democrat, who represents the New York City borough of Brooklyn, said he had a professional makeup artist apply brown face paint to go with his Afro wig, sunglasses and orange jersey and brown face paint. The costume was for a party at his home Sunday marking the Jewish holiday of Purim.
"I was just, I think, I was trying to emulate, you know, maybe some of these basketball players," Hikind told the webblog Politicker.com. "I can't imagine anyone getting offended.
"No one is laughing, no one is mocking."
Word of his costume didn't sit well with some, however. Assemblyman Karim Camara, another Brooklyn Democrat who is chairman of the state Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, said Hikind just doesn't get it.
"I am deeply shocked and outraged by the insensitive actions of Assemblyman Hikind," Camara said.
"The history of the blackface minstrel show is something deeply painful in the African-American community. The stereotypes embodied in blackface minstrels have played a significant role in cementing and proliferating racist images."
Hikind called such criticism "political correctness to the absurd."
"There is not a prejudiced bone in my body," he said.
CPAC snubs Christie
WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Conservative Political Action Conference leaders have not invited New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to speak at next month's gathering, Politico reported Monday.
The Washington publication cited a source it described as familiar with the decision in reporting one of the Republican Party's top prospects for the 2016 presidential race was not asked to address the March event. The CPAC's list of speakers includes Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
Christie has found himself on the wrong side of some Republicans for his expressions of appreciation for President Barack Obama's efforts to get aid to New Jersey and other states hit by Hurricane Sand, Politico noted. Christie also rankled Republicans with his criticism of U.S. House Speaker John Boehner for tabling a storm aid bill.
Explosives found in pickup in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Eight suspicious devices found in an abandoned pickup truck in New Orleans Monday contained a chemical compound that could have exploded, city police said.
Police officer Frank Robertson III told The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune an officer sent to check out the Ford F-150, which had been sitting in a Whitney Bank parking lot all weekend, spotted what appeared to be incendiary devices sizzling and smoking in the truck.
Police robots detected three devices in the truck and the city bomb squad ultimately located five more, the newspaper said. One device had a timer and fuse.
The bank, other businesses and homes within a 2-block radius were evacuated, and streets in the vicinity were closed.
Robertson said the devices were taken to a laboratory for analysis and the investigation was being headed up by the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, the newspaper said.
Robertson said police tried to reach the truck's owner.
|Additional U.S. News Stories|
OKLAHOMA CITY, May 20 (UPI) --A huge tornado cut a devastating path through the Oklahoma City area Monday afternoon, destroying schools, a hospital and other structures.
LAS VEGAS, May 20 (UPI) --Teen pop star Justin Bieber was greeted by both cheers and jeers when he picked up the Milestone Award at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas.
SAN ANTONIO, May 20 (UPI) --BP has take "a significant step" toward selling a California oil refinery and regional retail networks to Tesoro Corp. after getting U.S. federal approval.
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, May 20 (UPI) --A Canadian jazz singer apologized for botching the U.S. national anthem at the Memorial Cup junior ice hockey game in Saskatchewan. | <urn:uuid:137cb8e8-73e9-4ef5-9ce5-a034b5ae4744> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/02/25/UPI-NewsTrack-TopNews/UPI-71071361848208/?pvn=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966265 | 1,215 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The 28-year-old student, whose name is not known immediately, was attacked by the men after he got down from a bus at Keilor Plains train station on Tuesday.
He has been left with 20 stitches in his head after an "unprovoked" attack in Melbourne's north-west, the 'Age' newspaper reported.
"The victim got off a bus at Keilor Plains train station at 12.15am on September 29 and was walking down Power Street when he was approached by two men," police said.
They asked him for a cigarette and he gave one to both of them. As he turned to walk away, the man was hit over the head at least six times with what he believes was a "plank of wood or a baseball bat", they said.
He was knocked unconscious and the offenders made off with his backpack, police were quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Around 30 Indian students were attacked in various cities from June to August. Last month, three Indians were "brutally bashed" by a group of around 70 youth while playing
Melbourne: After a brief lull in attacks on Indians in Australia, a student from the community was attacked with a "plank of wood or a baseball bat" by two men which left him with 20 stitches in his head.
First Published: Friday, October 02, 2009, 16:57 | <urn:uuid:20825e9b-bf68-4759-8690-e9aa2b5429ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/racial-attacks-indian-student-assaulted-in-australia_567829.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.995562 | 284 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Our country spent $6 billion over the last six months on the campaign. Many Americans placed their hopes in a new president or a shift in control of the Senate that could bring lower taxes and reduced spending. Since that didn't happen, let's focus on what America has coming.
It looks like we may just fall right off the fiscal cliff, since we have not seen a significant shift in the Senate or House. So be prepared for tax increases early in the New Year.
Don't put off making adjustments to your financial planning strategy as a result of this one. Once it is here, it may be hard to make changes. Many economists have predicted this tax change could result in a 4-5 percent impact on the GDP. Over the last few months, I’ve written a lot about things you can do to minimize the effect that these tax increases can have on your retirement planning.
Ben Bernanke's position is pretty well locked in if he wants it. Quantitative easing (QE3) will most likely continue, meaning that the Fed will continue to spend up to $40 billion per month on longer-term bonds in hopes of driving interest rates down further. What scares me is the open-ended nature of the plan, where spending is scheduled to continue until things get better.
If they don't, they will just continue to throw money at the problem. But expect interest rates to stay very low for the foreseeable future in any event.
While many believe the 300-point decline in the stock market the day after the election is the result of Wall Street showing its unhappiness with the results, I believe that what’s happening in Europe may be contributing as well.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi reported that economic activity will remain weak, and the slowdown may now have reached Germany (the one European country that until now was surviving the euro crisis fairly well). It seems that few, if any, countries in the eurozone will be invulnerable to an economic downturn similar to the one we are experiencing at home.
Now is the time to look inward. Turn off the TV and open up your retirement statements. Look at your 1040. Educate yourself on the changes that are coming. Sit down with your CPA or financial adviser. Ask hard questions, and don't settle for the same story you have been hearing for years.
It is up to you to make sure that you are protected. This is a yo-yo (“you’re on your own”) economy. Go get some help.
Joe Wirbick is the president of Lancaster financial services firm Sequinox. Joe specializes in retirement planning and distribution. This allows him to concentrate on developing strategies that help address the unique issues that confront retirees and those approaching retirement.
Tax information is provided for informational purposes only, changes in tax laws may occur at any time and could have a substantial impact upon each person’s situation.. Tax returns should be completed in conjunction with a qualified tax professional. While we are familiar with the tax provisions of the issues presented herein, Sequinox Financial and JWC/JWCA do not offer tax advice and are not affiliated. Mr. Wirbick is an Investment Advisor Representative offering advisory services through J.W. Cole Financial Advisors, Inc.. (JWCA) and securities through J.W. Cole Financial, Inc. (JWC) Member FINRA/SIPC. The opinions expressed are those of Mr. Wirbick and based on information believed to be reliable but not guaranteed and subject to change and do not necessarily reflect the position of JWC/JWCA.JWC/JWCA and Sequinox are unaffiliated independent entities. | <urn:uuid:68f7afdf-986e-4588-b856-d729c900786f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/article/20121112/WEALTH/121119979/0/Nonprofit-registration&template=wealth | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955893 | 761 | 1.546875 | 2 |
For further information:
T: +43(0)2243-370 50 EXT 270
|Tue - Thu ||10 a.m. – 6 p.m.|
|Sun||1 p.m. - 3 p.m.|
1st Wednesday of every month till 9.p.m.
The Library of the Essl Museum was founded when the new museum was opened in November
1999. At that time it already held more than 5,000 titles, consistently collected
by Agnes and Karlheinz Essl since 1973. As of 1987, the surge of exhibitions at
the Schömer Haus and especially at the Essl Museum brought a wealth of new
Currently, holdings comprise approximately 20,000 media featuring the art scene
of the 20th and 21st centuries, in particular books, exhibition catalogues, auction
catalogues, art magazines and modern information tools, such as videos, CDs and
DVDs. Every year we receive approximately 2000 volumes by library exchange, donations
Monographs (over 10,000 catalogues) constitute the core of the Library, and
we seek to give precedence to literature on artists whose works are part of the
Essl Collection. Moreover, works on contemporary Austrian art since 1945, as well
as books and catalogues on Australian aboriginal art, figure prominently among
the Library’s holdings.
Our Library was conceived as a reference library; in other words, books cannot
be borrowed by visitors, but we do provide copying services. We also make available
study material on ongoing exhibitions on closed reserve. The library of the Essl
Museum is equally open to users not visiting the museum, who are requested to
contact staff at the reception. | <urn:uuid:d7dcc531-a2d9-4dae-8d13-e99fb66bbc86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sammlung-essl.at/english/museum/library.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935789 | 359 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Retired teacher Jerry Goolsby said Tuesday that the state of Michigan was built on unions.
That’s why he doesn’t agree with the right-to-work legislation that’s in the making this week in Lansing.
The Rochester Hills man thinks the state should continue on the path it’s on.
Just last month, Michigan voted against Proposal 2, essentially a would-be amendment to the Michigan constitution that would protect collective bargaining rights and ban right-to-work legislation.
With Proposal 2’s November defeat, proponents of right-to-work laws are getting behind the effort to lobby for a bill which could be signed by Governor Rick Snyder.
On Monday, The Michigan Chamber of Commerce announced its support for the legislation.
With Michigan’s known ties to labor unions — being an extremely unionized workforce with the auto industry — many local residents have strong opinions on the topic.
Out of six people asked at the Rochester Hills Public Library Tuesday, more than half seemed to be for right-to-work laws.
Those in support of the laws operate on the notion that there should be a choice; that workers should not be forced to pay union dues if they don’t want to join the union. Continued...
Those against give examples of unions’ strong prominence in Michigan.
Jim Welte of Rochester Hills, who’s wife is a retired teacher, said he certainly believes there should be right-to-work laws.
“I don’t believe you should have to join a union to have a job,” said Welte.
Oakland Township’s Pat Matejek had two sides to her opinion. In fact, she came back a second time to voice her slightly-fenced opinion.
“The unions have done a tremendous amount of good in our country,” she said. “They helped create the middle class.”
Matejek said she doesn’t want things to get to a point where there are only a few union members who are standing up for the rights of all the workers while the others say: “I’m not paying union dues,” and taking advantage of it.
“On the other hand,” she added, “it should be a person’s individual right to decide whether of not they want to belong to a union.”
A Rochester Hills woman who preferred to remain anonymous, said she feels unions are good.
The anonymous woman — a mother of six — was a General Motors employee for 20 years, while her husband was a Ford employee, she said.
Finance executive Ed Dallwein said he people should be forced to join any kind of organization. Continued...
Dallwein, a Rochester man, said he doesn’t like the idea of anyone being forced to join a union.
Sandy Baker, a former healthcare worker, said to her, when the legislation is dealing with a personal choice, it starts getting into invasion of privacy.
She said she has never really been pro-union and her neighbor — a union member — was recently laid off.
She added, however, that the issue of whether to join a union has never really been put in front of her.
“The union’s not an easy thing to deal with from what I understand,” said Baker.
Some think that unions have exerted too much power and unevened the scale.
Brian Hassler said he works in an area that’s not unionized, so he doesn’t have a direct benefit either way.
“But I voted against Proposal 2; I think it gave too much rights away from the intended use of it,” Hassler said.
While a personal choice issue versus a deep-rooted Michigan connection issue remains a buzzed about topic throughout the state, Michigan lawmakers have been meeting this week on the issue and will continue to do so.
Brian Pannebecker, who was in Lansing Tuesday lobbying for the conservative legislation, said if the bill — which still needed to be introduced to the state congress — reaches Snyder’s desk, he’d sign it. Continued...
See wrong or incorrect information in a story. Tell us here
Location, ST | website.com
National News Videos
- PAT CAPUTO: Detroit Lions, NFL Draft, Martin Mayhew, Jim Schwartz - what it reveals (968)
- Tips sought in fatal I-75 shooting of Sterling Heights woman (783)
- VETERAN’S CAPTOR: ‘FOR YOU, THE WAR IS OVER’ (738)
- Retired Troy doctor killed in Brandon Township crash (646)
- John Fogerty is back with new CD "Wrote A Song For Everyone" (587)
- PAT CAPUTO: Detroit Red Wings get expected dose of reality from Blackhawks (517)
- Troy businessman named to FBI Citizen’s Academy (467)
- Troy businessman named to FBI Citizen’s Academy (4)
- VETERAN’S CAPTOR: ‘FOR YOU, THE WAR IS OVER’ (4)
- Area champ to compete for national spelling bee title on second try (2)
- New backcourt leads Lathrup over Dragons (1)
- Family of missing Michigan man releases new details (1)
- Measuring the loss of WWII generation in 7 days (1)
- West Virginia town transfixed by teen girl’s murder plot (1)
Recent Activity on Facebook
Stephen Frye has covered the police beat and courts for The Oakland Press and now serves as online editor for www.theoaklandpress.com.
Informs on and discusses current matters of legal interest to readers of The Oakland Press and to consumers of legal services in the community.
Caren Gittleman likes talking cats. She'll discuss everything about them. Share your stories and ask her questions about your favorite feline.
Roger Beukema shares news from Lansing that impacts sportsmen (this means ladies as well) and talks about things he finds when he goes overseas to visit his children, and adding your comments into the mix.
Join Jonathan Schechter as he shares thoughts on our natural world in Oakland County and beyond. | <urn:uuid:c24a2e56-2972-4854-97e7-a21fb8deaedb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles/2012/12/04/news/state/doc50be8e5da5f71632355184.txt | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954983 | 1,323 | 1.648438 | 2 |
There are special requirements for retaining a car that was purchased within 910 days (2.49 years) prior to filing for bankruptcy protection. If your car is secured by a loan to a creditor and purchased within 910 days of filing, your plan must pay the creditor the full amount of the debt against the car, plus interest, in equal monthly payments. In most jurisdictions, if the equal monthly payments do not begin in month one (1) of your plan, you must pay the creditor special payments called “adequate protection” until regular payments begin, so the creditor receives an amount of its secured claim in the beginning of your bankruptcy. Consult your attorney if the interest rate on your automobile loan is very high. It may be adjusted in some Chapter 13 plans.
If the car was purchased more than 910 days prior to filing for bankruptcy protection, you will be expected to pay an amount to the creditor at least equal to the value of the automobile at the time you file your Chapter 13 plan. Any amount due to the creditor over the value of the car will be paid as an unsecured debt. You must maintain property insurance on the vehicle if you owe money on it. | <urn:uuid:0537e88c-8612-4045-be26-9b60187ab1b8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thecooklaw.com/vehicle-seizure | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96333 | 241 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Mayor Celebrates EMS Week and Nottingham Ambulance Squad's 30 years of service
(Hamilton) -- National Emergency Medical Services Week, celebrated this year during the week of May 16th through May 22nd, publicizes the importance of medical safety and recognizes the medical personnel whose dedication helps to provide the day-to-day, "front line” lifesaving services of the medical profession. Today, Hamilton Township Mayor John Bencivengo joined with Nottingham Ambulance Squad to help kick off National EMS Week at the ambulance squad’s annual EMS day.
This year also marks the 30th year that Nottingham Ambulance Squad has served Hamilton residents. While ambulance services date back to the 1950’s as part of the Nottingham Fire Company, the squad’s rapid growth led to their decision to relocate to a separate facility to better serve Hamilton residents. In 1980, the squad officially changed its name to the Nottingham Ambulance Squad, Inc. and broke ground on a new facility on Paxson Avenue Extension, which thirty years later still remains their home.
Nottingham Ambulance Squad is one of a few 100% all volunteer squads left in the Mercer County area. Last year, its volunteer members provided in excess of 7,500 hours of service Hamilton residents, responding to 815 calls for assistance and 65 scramble calls.
This morning, Mayor Bencivengo presented Nottingham Ambulance Squad with a proclamation officially declaring this upcoming week, National EMS Week in Hamilton Township, and presented Nottingham Ambulance Squad Chief Steve Hernandez, with a special proclamation commemorating the squad’s 30 years of dedicated volunteer service to the community
(attached photograph, courtesy of Hamilton Township). | <urn:uuid:a00f54bc-572b-425e-ac6a-3db6445629ef> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hamiltonnj.com/controls/NewsFeed.aspx?FeedID=161 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938144 | 346 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Be a Volunteer
Change lives, including your own
Becoming a volunteer is one of the greatest things one can do, and Special Olympics Canada is a great place to do just that. Focusing on enriching the lives of both those involved in the program, as well as those overseeing it, the experience of donating your time with us is full of rewards and moments that make it more than worth it.
“A volunteer is a person who believes people can make a difference – and is willing to prove it.”
Volunteers are the backbone of our organization. Quite simply, without them, we could not deliver on our promise to enrich the lives of children, youth, and adults with an intellectual disability.
Volunteer Coaches 12,209 + Operational Volunteers 4,243 = Total volunteers 16,452
Each brings their skills and talents to the table, and by giving them the tools they need to succeed, we guarantee them an experience they won’t soon forget.
Consider joining this amazing movement that enriches lives, changes attitudes and builds stronger communities. You will make meaningful and lasting changes in someone’s life, as well as your own, all while building many friendships.
Each year, through the Special Olympics Canada Awards, we turn the spotlight on our stellar volunteers; Canadians from all walks of life who, through selfless commitment, have contributed so much to the growth of this amazing movement here in Canada.
At this annual recognition event, we salute these men and women who, in their own communities, educate and communicate the value of people with an intellectual disability, giving them the opportunity to showcase their abilities and talents through mentorship and friendship.
The 25th annual Special Olympics Canada Awards will be celebrated in Toronto, date is TBD. | <urn:uuid:d8d66eb6-9069-4611-9e99-c37a98785749> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.specialolympics.ca/be-involved/be-a-volunteer/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957965 | 364 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Earlier this year, Congress passed and the President signed landmark health insurance reform legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148) and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (P.L. 111-152), and Americans are already experiencing the benefits. These two laws, together referred to as the Affordable Care Act, put control over health care decisions in the hands of the American people, not insurance companies. Senate Democrats are committed to implementing health reform that holds insurance companies accountable, brings costs down for everyone, and provides Americans with the insurance security and choices they deserve. This fact sheet provides an overview of recent health reform implementation activity. Previous updates on health reform implementation and other information are available from the DPC. [DPC]
Providing Prescription Drug Help for One Million Seniors
One of the most valuable benefits of the Affordable Care Act for Medicare beneficiaries is closing the prescription drug “donut hole.” [H.R.3590enr.txt.pdf" target="_blank">P.L. 111-148; H.R.4872enr.txt.pdf" target="_blank">P.L. 111-152] The new health reform law provides a $250 rebate check to seniors who don’t receive extra help with their prescription drug costs when they hit the “donut hole” (or coverage gap) in their prescription drug plan this year. The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that one million seniors have received these checks already this year. [HHS, 8/30/10] Medicare officials anticipate that four million seniors will receive checks by the end of the year.
Beginning next year, Medicare beneficiaries who do not receive Medicare Extra Help will receive a 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs and biologics they purchase when they are in the coverage gap. Coverage in the “donut hole” will increase until 2020, when 75 percent coverage on all drugs purchased in the gap will completely fill in the “donut hole.”
The Affordable Care Act enables creation of a new website to facilitate informed consumer choice of health insurance options. [H.R.3590enr.txt.pdf" target="_blank">P.L. 111-148; H.R.4872enr.txt.pdf" target="_blank">P.L. 111-152] Earlier this month, HHS launched CuidadodeSalud.gov, the partner site to HealthCare.gov, both of which will help individuals and small businesses identify insurance options in their state. [HHS, 9/8/10] In addition to helping individuals navigate private insurance options in the individual and small group markets, the websites will assist users in determining if they are eligible for various public programs, including existing high risk pools, the new pre-existing condition insurance plan created by the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, Medicare, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). [HHS, undated] CuidadodeSalud.gov will help individuals and small businesses in the Latino community access the information they need to make informed decisions regarding their health care.
Helping Businesses Help Early Retirees
The Affordable Care Act creates a $5 billion Early Retiree Reinsurance Program to support employer health plans that provide coverage to retirees who are not yet eligible for Medicare, to help protect access to coverage while reducing costs for employers and retirees. [H.R.3590enr.txt.pdf" target="_blank">P.L. 111-148; H.R.4872enr.txt.pdf" target="_blank">P.L. 111-152] Skyrocketing health care costs have made it difficult for employers to continue to provide health benefits for employees and retirees, and this temporary program will provide financial assistance until 2014, when health insurance Exchanges will make it easier for early retirees to access affordable health insurance options. Earlier this year, a survey found that 76 percent of large employers that offer retiree benefits planned to pursue participation in the program, and that the average federal reimbursement for each early retiree will represent between 25 and 35 percent of each early retiree’s health care costs. [Hewitt Associates, 5/25/10] Recently, HHS announced nearly 2,000 employers were accepted into the program as part of the first round of applications. [HHS, 8/31/10] Participating employers come from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, representing large and small businesses, State and local governments, educational institutions, non-profits, and unions. A list of approved applicants is available at HealthCare.gov. Applications are still being accepted, and more information on the Early Retiree Reinsurance Programs is available at HealthCare.gov.
Holding Insurers Accountable
Earlier this month, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius responded to claims by several health insurance carriers that patient protections in the Affordable Care Act are driving up health insurance premiums. [HHS, 9/9/10] Secretary Sebelius reminded America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group, that it and its member companies fully supported these patient protections and that their potential impact on premiums will be minimal. HHS estimated a premium impact of not more than two percent, which is consistent with estimates provided by experts and insurers themselves. Secretary Sebelius also emphasized that even these modest premium increases will be moderated by out-of-pockets savings resulting from the Affordable Care Act, including a reduction in the “hidden tax” on health insurance Americans now pay to subsidize the cost of caring for the uninsured.
Putting the Prevention Fund to Work
The Affordable Care Act includes a Prevention and Public Health Investment Fund to provide an expanded, sustained national investment of $15 billion over ten years for prevention, wellness, and public health activities to improve health and help restrain the rate of growth in private and public sector health care costs. [H.R.3590enr.txt.pdf" target="_blank">P.L. 111-148; H.R.4872enr.txt.pdf" target="_blank">P.L. 111-152] Of the $2.3 trillion the United States annually spends on health care, only four cents out of every dollar is invested in prevention and public health, despite studies showing that disease prevention can effectively reduce health care spending.[CMS, accessed 9/13/10; Brookings, 4/07; Trust for America's Health, accessed 9/13/10] This limited investment results in low utilization of prevention services, with studies finding that American adults receive just half of all recommended clinical preventive services. [New England Journal of Medicine, 2003] Reduced utilization of preventive care contributes to the more than half of all Americans who live with one or more chronic conditions, which are responsible for seven out of ten deaths in the United States. [Milken Institute, 10/07; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 12/21/05] Chronic diseases are one of the main reasons why health care costs have increased so dramatically over the past several decades. Two-thirds of the increase in health care spending between 1987 and 2000 was due to increased prevalence of chronic diseases. [Partnership to Fight Chronic Diseases, accessed 9/13/10] The investment in wellness and prevention can save millions of Americans needless suffering and early death and it also can save countless billions of dollars in health care costs. For example, every dollar we spend on childhood immunizations, we save $16.50 in terms of health care and other costs. [Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 2005] Every dollar spent on smoking cessation for pregnant women saves six dollars. [Association of State and Territorial Health Official, 4/09] Overall, the return on investment in community-based prevention interventions is six dollars for every dollar invested. [Trust for America's Health, 9/09] This is why funding these type of programs is crucial if we hope to slow the growth in health care costs in our country.
This week, as Senate Democrats defeated an attempt by Senate Republicans to eliminate the Prevention and Public Health Investment Fund via an amendment to the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010 (H.R.5297), HHS awarded several grants from the Fund. Ten communities and one state health department received a combined $31 million to reduce obesity and smoking, increase physical activity and improve nutrition. [HHS, 9/14/10] These awards are part of an HHS initiative called Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW), which aims to improve health by reducing chronic disease related to obesity and tobacco. [CDC, 5/7/10] HHS also announced that 27 Public Health Training Centers will receive a combined $16.8 million for public health workforce training. [HHS, 9/13/10] Public Health Training Centers are located at schools of public health and other public or non-profit institutions across the country, and work to improve public health by enhancing the skills of the current and future public health workforce.
Planning Health Insurance Exchanges
Starting in 2014, the Affordable Care Act creates state-based Health Insurance Exchanges where individuals and small businesses can compare and purchase health insurance online at competitive prices. [H.R.3590enr.txt.pdf" target="_blank">P.L. 111-148; H.R.4872enr.txt.pdf" target="_blank">P.L. 111-152] Exchanges will offer consumers a choice of quality, affordable health insurance plans presented in a consumer-friendly format to ensure individuals and families can choose the right plan for their needs. To make coverage even more affordable, premium and cost-sharing tax credits will also become available through the Exchanges to help middle-class families afford coverage.
Last month, HHS hosted a one-day conference with stakeholders on implementation of Health Insurance Exchanges. [HHS, 8/30/10] Panelists and participants discussed many aspects of Exchange implementation, such as meeting the needs of consumers and small businesses, Exchange operation, quality improvement, and affordability, and enrollment and eligibility issues.
The Democratic Policy Committee has released nine previous updates on health reform implementation, available on the DPC website here. In addition, DPC maintains a centralized listing of health reform implementation resources which is frequently updated and is available here. | <urn:uuid:fd0675a4-4e69-4ac8-ac3f-80489fe283ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://democrats.senate.gov/2010/09/17/senate-democrats-are-on-your-side-implementing-health-reform-that-works-for-middle-class-americans-17/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935589 | 2,149 | 1.742188 | 2 |
TalkTalk serves up website blocking to users
First we stalk, then you walk the limited interwebs walk
TalkTalk just became the first major UK internet service provider to implement network-level anti-malware blockers on its service.
The system has arrived later than originally planned, after the company quietly begun following its customers around the web and scanning what they looked at last summer as part of TalkTalk's development of the new anti-malware system it has dubbed "HomeSafe".
It had expected to launch the system late last year, but in July 2010 Information Commissioner Christopher Graham chided TalkTalk for following its 4.2 million customers around the web without telling them.
He said at the time that he was disappointed that the firm kept the trials of its anti-malware system quiet at a meeting with TalkTalk, where he cited the exposure of BT's controversial and similarly unpublicised trials of Phorm's targeted advertising technology.
Last month the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that it would not be prosecuting anyone in BT's secret trials of Phorm's web-monitoring system.
Now that the blocking features and parental controls of the system have been activated by TalkTalk, the ISP's customers are being asked if they want to opt in at no extra cost.
The system was provided by Chinese vendor Huawei and works by harvesting every URL visited by every TalkTalk customer. It then follows them to each web page and scans for threats, creating a master blacklist and a whitelist of dangerous and safe URLs.
HomeSafe comes with three features, said TalkTalk. Virus Alerts blocks webpages infected with any kind of malware. KidsSafe parental controls allows the account-holder to block porn, violence, and other content they don't want access to via their connection. There's also a Homework Time option that allows parents/carers to block sites such as Facebook.
TalkTalk adopted a paternalistic line about that final feature, by describing the dominant social network as a source "of distraction for schoolchildren from their homework."
The account-holder can switch between settings at any time, said TalkTalk.
As for the company's run-in with the ICO, TalkTalk provided the commissioner with documents to support its public claims that the technology and the trials complied with privacy laws.
It is unclear if TalkTalk's quiet trials will be the last of their kind in the UK. But the recent planned changes to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act could put an end to all that. The Home Office has declared that companies placing notice of monitoring into fine-print terms and conditions would not be taking strong enough measures to count as "consent" from customers to such a seemingly stealth-stalking mechanism. ® | <urn:uuid:7c9b3a06-bf8b-4f66-9325-524462c34ce4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/09/talktalk_homesafe/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966003 | 555 | 1.757813 | 2 |
C-SPAN to film live at McGovern Library FridaySeries to feature George McGovern’s contributions since 1972 presidential race.
By: News release, Dakota Wesleyan University
MITCHELL – Sometimes it’s not about who won, but what those who lost did with their notoriety that molds history.
C-SPAN began a series this fall called “The Contenders: They Lost the Election But Changed Political History,” which features 14 would-be presidents. A piece featuring George McGovern will air live at 7 p.m. on C-SPAN, Friday, Dec. 2, from the McGovern Library at Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell.
McGovern is probably best known as the 1972 Democratic nominee for president – but the Avon native and DWU alumnus and former professor took his political experience and popularity to grander levels after losing the presidential election to Republican Richard Nixon.
McGovern may have lost an election, but he did not walk away from his beliefs or social responsibilities.
He went back to the Senate in 1974 – leading the way on expanding key nutrition programs. He went on to be named a United Nations delegate to General Assembly in 1976 by President Gerald Ford; a United Nations delegate for Special Session on Disarmaments in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter; served as the president of the Middle East Policy Council from 1991-98 until President Bill Clinton appointed him ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. In 2001 he was made the first United Nations global ambassador on hunger – a scourge he has devoted his life to eradicating.
For information, or to view past programs on “The Contenders,” visit the C-SPAN website at http://thecontenders.c-span.org/. | <urn:uuid:1218a518-c540-405c-8b8c-54cb639ea482> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/event/article/id/59537/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962071 | 365 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Children's Book Week: Bedtime "Teens Read with Kids"
Tuesday, May 8 from 6 - 7:30 pm
Children of all ages are invited to join us for a special "bedtime edition" of a favorite program, "Teens Read with Kids" celebrating Children's Book Week! Both children attending and the teen readers are invited to wear their PJs and bring a stuffed animal, if you wish, and snuggle in for some good books. Children can choose books from our collection or bring their own and may be read to or practice their reading! Children who wear their PJs and/or bring their favorite stuffed animal will receive a small prize. NOTE: This program will be held in the FOL Community Room and all children under the age of 10 must be accompanied by an adult for the duration of the program. | <urn:uuid:09f24abb-30b4-426f-ad4f-a9ae0d40ef4c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://sjcpls.org/content/childrens-book-week-bedtime-teens-read-kids?mini=calendar%2F2012-10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965154 | 170 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Dining out is still considered by many one of life’s luxuries: no prep-time, no dirty dishes to clean up, and no menu to plan. Unfortunately, it can also be a vacuum for your monthly food budget. While the restaurant industry continues to feel the effects of less-disposable income among consumers, this puts you in the driver’s seat as they try to gain new customers via promotional techniques. Here are 10 ways to use their promotional avenues to save money on your next meal out:
Dine mid-week. Stay away from dining on weekends if possible. To entice customers to dine on slower nights, many restaurants offer mid-week specials that can save you up to 50 percent off your entrée. Typically, these specials occur on Tuesdays and Wednesdays—historically shown to be the two slowest nights of the week for restaurants.
Early-bird specials. Dine before 6 p.m. and take advantage of the early-bird special. While these specials are typically associated with the elderly, they are available to all consumers and offered at many dining establishments. These specials are also a great way for families with young kids to save money and still be home for bedtime.
Dine at the bar. A number of restaurants offer a special bar menu that is considerably cheaper than the regular menu. If you are dining alone or "with the guys,” this is an especially useful money-saving tactic. Also, many restaurants offer a happy hour period every afternoon, which includes drink specials and appetizer deals.
Have a snack first. While this tip alone may not save you money, it will help prevent the condition of your eyes growing bigger than your stomach. Grabbing a light snack before you head out to dinner can curb the desire to order a huge meal.
Share a large entrée. Take advantage of big portions by splitting one with a dining companion. Additionally, many restaurants offer a “Meal-for-Two” special of, say, frajitas—an order guaranteed to save you some money.
Expensive drinks. Be aware of the high costs of specialty beverages, as they can easily cancel out the savings you get from strategies like dining early, coupon usage, or the splitting of large entrees.
Dine out for lunch. On average, lunch menus are 25 percent cheaper than dinner menus. Oftentimes the lunch menu is similar, with the only difference being portion size. If you have the flexibility to dine at lunch it can save you some substantial money.
Discounted gift cards. Mid-priced restaurants are becoming more and more promotional in recent years in an attempt to get customers in the door. Some chain restaurants, for example, are directly discounting their gift cards as a backdoor way of lowering menu prices. Keep an eye out for offers like a $100 gift card discounted to $80.
Get social. Follow the Facebook page or Twitter feed of your favorite restaurants and eateries. Many post exclusive deals and coupons, so give these social media outlets a quick glance before heading out the door.
Use coupons. Your ability to find a discount or coupon directly depends on you taking the initiative to search the Internet or your local newspaper, so spare a few minutes to search for a restaurant coupon before dining out. After all, there’s no sense paying full price on your next meal when a free coupon is available for the taking.
Kyle James operates a website called Rather-Be-Shopping.com, which offers a free iPhone coupon app loaded with dining coupons to dozens of nationwide restaurants, bakeries, and fast-food establishments. | <urn:uuid:9c8ea46e-115b-4c55-995d-720795013423> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money/2013/02/14/10-easy-ways-to-save-money-eating-out?s_cid=rss:my-money:10-easy-ways-to-save-money-eating-out | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934926 | 747 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Friday, February 22, 2013
AMSA will compete this Sunday on the High School Quiz Show program on WGBH.
The High School Quiz Show episode featuring the academic team from Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School vs. the academic team from Brookline High School premieres this Sunday, Feb 24 at 6:30pm on WGBH 2. Nearby Wachusett Regional High School in Holden has also advanced and will face Framingham High School with the episode airing on March 31. The show’s production team announced the 16 schools on High School Quiz Show’s Facebook page. Teams qualified by earning top scores on “Super Sunday,” an event at which registered school teams each took an identical 100-question oral quiz at WGBH Studios in Brighton. The 16 high school academic teams that will appear on season four of High School Quiz Show are (in alphabetical order): Acton…
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
The Advanced Math and Science Academy Public Charter School will compete in February on the game show.
Tuesday, January 8
Advanced Math and Science Academy Public Charter School will face off against Brookline High School on season four of High School Quiz Show, WGBH’s academic quiz show hosted by Billy Costa. All episodes premiere Sundays at 6:30 p.m., repeating Saturdays at 6pm, on WGBH 2. AMSA's competition will air on Feb. 24. Nearby Wachusett Regional High School in Holden has also advanced and will face Framingham High School with the episode airing on March 31. Season four premieres Sunday, Feb. 10 at 6:30 p.m. on WGBH 2. The show’s production team announced the 16 schools on High School Quiz Show’s Facebook page. Teams qualified by earning top scores on “Super Sunday,” an event at which registered school teams each took an identical 100-question oral …
Monday, October 8, 2012
Results from the Department Public Health reveal that Marlborough has more overweight students than the state average.
According to results of a Body Mass Index screening conducted during the 2010-2011 school year by the Department of Public Health, Marlborough is among the towns with the highest number of obese and overweight students. Nearly one-third of Massachusetts students in grades 1, 4, 7 and 10 are overweight or obese, revealed the findings, as reported in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. The Marlborough school district ranked at 42.4 percent, taking second place for the highest percentage in the region behind Pathfinder Regional Technical School at 48.8 percent. The two schools join Leicester and Ware as others with high percentages above the state average of 32.4 percent. Assabet Valley Vocational School fared only slightly better, with 37.4 …
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Sterling Kelly, son of Horace and Dreama Sloan-Kelly, talked to Patch about his first book and his plans to make it a series.
Sterling Kelly is a 14-year-old young man who is the oldest child in his family. He attends the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School (AMSA), plays basketball, runs track and loves to program computers. In addition, Kelly is also a Johns Hopkins Central for Talented Youth (CTY) honors scholar with one of the highest scores in the country and has recently published a book. Kelly wrote The Jato Lee Chronicles Book One: The Unknown when he was 12 years old. Printed in 2011, the story is about a 14-year-old ninja named Jato Lee who woke up alone in a cavern in Hirosaki (the name of this world a combination of Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and cannot remember anything from before he got there. "Jato can do all of the things the other …
Monday, March 5, 2012
There is local art for sale at very reasonable prices, and AMSA students will be treated to a special guest early next week.
1. If you'd like to keep up on Marlborough news, but don't always remember to log on Marlborough Patch, our daily newsletter may be for you! The newsletter goes out each morning with the top stories from the day before, but there are several options to best fit your interests and lifestyle. We won't abuse your address, and we will never give your email to a third party. 2. The Post Road Art Center is currently hosting the exhibit "It's in the Bag." Participating area artists were given a mystery bag and were asked to create a piece of work based on the ingredients of the bag. The finished pieces are now on sale and on display at the gallery. There is also an opening reception from 5:30 to 8 p.m., Thursday, March 8 at the gallery. Visitor … | <urn:uuid:7f2cb6d1-de0e-4a4d-99e3-1f822cad3da9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marlborough.patch.com/topics/Advanced+Math+and+Science+Academy?logout=true | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965905 | 991 | 1.515625 | 2 |
And all I want for Christmas is You
jolly love, spread the joy and love! xx PHA
Van Gogh’s created his painting “Starry Nite” when he found God, he was inspired by the beautiful nite and then that made him realize that God was huge himself. So the dark of the painting represented strength, he was trying to express his love for God. If Van Gogh looked outside his window and “found” God and uses the nite as his inspiration to express his love for...
Caught up in sorrow Lost in the song you sang
Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.– Swedish Proverb (via blua)
“Does it break my heart, of course, every moment of every day, into more pieces than my heart was made of, I never thought of myself as quiet, much less silent, I never thought about things at all, everything changed, the distance that wedged itself between me and my happiness wasn’t the world, it wasn’t the bombs and burning buildings, it was me, my thinking, the cancer of never letting go,...
I like people with depth, I like people with emotion, I like people with a...– ~ Abbey Lee Kershaw (via insanedreams)
Islamic Thinking: Actual Children’s Answers to The... →
islamicthinking: “Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.” - Chrissy, age 6 “Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.” - Terri, age 4 “Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving… | <urn:uuid:a5334d58-db26-4ce2-8671-c36168b3ee60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hereandout.tumblr.com/archive/2011/12 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978481 | 370 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Most Active Stories
- Four Concerts Scheduled In Expanded, Larger Back Porch Music Series In Durham
- Duke Professor Carries On Tradition Of Black Radical Poetry
- First Openly Lesbian Presbyterian Pastor, One Year In
- Why Do Political Activists Burn Out?
- As Costa Concordia Sank, Newlyweds Allowed Others To Take Life Boats First
Hosts, Reporters and Producers
Mon March 5, 2012
Preparing For Severe Weather
Emergency management officials are encouraging businesses and citizens to create safety plans for severe weather.
Jeff Tiberii: Last year North Carolina had 63 tornadoes touch down, more than double the state's annual average. Julia Jarema is with the department of public safety. She says each year there are thousands of severe weather warnings throughout the state. And she adds, knowing what to do before the weather moves through is a critical step:
Julia Jarema: We want to make sure that everybody, whether you're a family or a business, you know what to do to be safe. Make sure you go to an interior room that's very sturdy. In big areas, you need to make sure you're not in shelters that are not big and open.
Jarema says students, customers and employees need to avoid open areas like cafeterias or big stores. This Severe Weather Awareness Week runs through Saturday. Tomorrow, many schools and government buildings across the state will have Tornado drills tomorrow morning, to rehearse their plans. | <urn:uuid:4bdebf4a-c2eb-4f81-854b-9e77620922fc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wunc.org/post/preparing-severe-weather | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939373 | 312 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Tatzu Nishi was brought to New York by the Public Art Fund in order to find the perfect project for our city streets. He stumbled upon the Christopher Columbus statue and was immediately drawn to the dichotomy of its public location – so central and at the same time, so estranged from the public. To bring people closer to this great sculpture, he decided to build six stories of scaffolding up to the statue and construct a pop-up living room with Columbus as the centerpiece. The room is fully furnished with tables, lamps, and even couches and chairs with magazines and newspapers for people to sit down and enjoy. Columbus, who stands proudly in the middle of the coffee table, is presented in an entirely new format for the first time in 120 years. The artist also designed custom wallpaper with images of what he imagined New York to be like as a child growing up in Japan. The playful paper includes images of Mickey Mouse, Elvis, and McDonald’s.
Mayor Bloomberg attended the opening today, lauding the Public Art Fund’s continuing dedication to bringing new and exciting art to New Yorkers, while also thanking locals for appreciating and respecting public art around the city. He noted that “Discovering Columbus” is not only about getting a closer look at America’s history, but also taking the time out to acknowledge the various nationalities that have helped shape the nation and New York. Tatzu Nishi also spoke briefly, encouraging visitors to take advantage of this amazing free exhibit that was created for each and everyone one of them.
After the three month exhibit, the statue will undergo a much needed restoration. The artsy apartment will undoubtedly aid in touching up the monument that has stood too high for regular cleanings since its creation. Nicholas Baume, Chief Curator of “Discovering Columbus” put it best this morning saying “Christopher Columbus gets to live the New York dream. After 120 years with only pigeons for company, he now will live in a penthouse in Columbus Circle, with views of Central Park, and enjoy a housewarming party with an expected 100,000 people.”
a href=”http://www.publicartfund.org/” target=”_blank”>+ Public Art Fund | <urn:uuid:bcae006b-dab4-40ad-a1bb-f9d1d71fa57e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inhabitat.com/nyc/photos-a-first-look-inside-discovering-columbus-a-pop-up-apartment-high-above-columbus-circle/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958534 | 464 | 1.664063 | 2 |
What a fascinating woman she was! She pushed for women's rights and LGBT rights. She pioneered the humane treatment of drug and alcohol addiction, especially among women. The Florida Commission on the Status of Women honored her, and she won the Elizabeth Blackwell Award for her contributions to women and medicine. She rescued injured wildlife. And she was a big supporter of Democrats, including Hillary Clinton for president, according to donation reports. "Her answering machine said, 'If you’re a Democrat, you may leave a message.' ”
Here's more from the Island Reporter: “I think the most extraordinary thing about LeClair was that she did things because they needed to be done,” said Kate Gooderham, who knew LeClair from the local National Women’s Political Caucus. “No limelight, no applause, no kudos — she saw a need and filled it. I really admired her dedication to her beliefs. She truly put her ‘time, her treasury and her talent’ into the things she cared about.”
May women like this inspire us all. | <urn:uuid:02427340-7ff8-4e1a-807e-26ad716b8ba1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com/2008/09/caring-for-underdog-by-suzie.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970558 | 226 | 1.671875 | 2 |
The Second amendment gives Americans the right to bear arms. But not many folks choose to walk around carrying a rifle, which is why 49 states have passed laws allowing citizens to carry a concealed weapon (CCW). This law makes it perfectly legal to have a handgun in your pocket, purse, holstered to your belt or ankle.
Illinois and the District of Columbia are the only No-Issue jurisdictions in the country where it is illegal to carry any type of concealed weapon.
This graphic created by 511 Tactical clearly highlights each type of CCW license the state’s policies:
- Unrestricted – No permit is required to have a concealed weapon on your person
- Shall Issue – As long as the citizen meets the states requirements a CCW license shall be issued
- May Issue – If the citizen meets the requirements by the state a license may be issued, pending local law enforcement’s discretion
- No Issue – CCW licenses are not issued
Source: 5.11 Tactical
Let us know what you think about carrying a concealed weapon. Share your thoughts in the comment section below. | <urn:uuid:ad477457-e135-4cb4-85c7-bfe70959f659> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://infographicjournal.com/concealed-carry-licenses/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937326 | 226 | 1.75 | 2 |
How (and Why) to Co-opt Those Cops on Wall Street
Madison protests built a middle-class movement
Without articulating a clear set of demands, they have nevertheless voiced the frustration felt by millions of ordinary people who have lost homes, jobs, income and security in the post-crash economy and see little help coming from government offices or corporate suites. Soon, however, someone will have to decide whether Occupy Wall Street eventually concludes in mere symbolic success, which would be little more than glorified failure, or evolves into a powerful political current that can rival the tea party.
If the pivotal moment of this protest continues to be a video of a high-ranking police officer brutally "macing" innocent women, then it is unlikely to grow far from its anarcho-bohemian roots. There are simply too many Americans who will never side with "hippies" against cops, no matter how wrong the cops may be. But if the sympathetic statements from labor leaders of the past few days turn into supportive action—and if teachers, bus drivers, firefighters, nurses and, yes, police officers show up to demand change—then this could be the beginning of something very, very big.
Don't scoff too quickly: Last winter, hundreds of off-duty law enforcement officers from around Wisconsin repeatedly joined the statehouse sit-in against Gov. Scott Walker's attack on labor, even though their own unions were exempt from his proposed law—and even as their fellow officers were standing guard over the protesters.
In those circumstances, the cops were just as capable of understanding the stakes behind the protest as any other workers, or the students who supported them. A policeman who had retired from the Madison Police Department after 20 years on the force explained to USA Today that "we all see this as union busting and wage suppression. This is a long-term, downward spiral of wages for working families."
Link Protests to Families' Struggles
Such progressive insights probably don't fit the anarchist stereotype of the cop, whose enmity is cherished as a token of the alienated lifestyle. But not all of those who have flocked to Zuccotti Park and the other protest sites that have sprung up around the country are committed to political irrelevance as proof of authenticity. Many, perhaps even a majority, might be intrigued by an opportunity to provoke something more significant than a cloud of tear gas or a court summons.
The protesters have serious grievances, from mass youth unemployment to burdensome student loans that cannot begin to be paid off if there are no decent jobs.
What would happen if they began to articulate the connections between their own problems and the assault on the living standards of public employees and unionized workers? How would the angry middle class respond if the "kids" made common cause with those downwardly mobile working families—demanding debt relief for everyone, a special prosecutor for the financial crooks and higher taxes on those who have profited from the crisis? Why shouldn't the students (and former students) stand with teachers against cuts in education and for rebuilding public schools and colleges? Even those who understandably disdain partisan politics, with its endemic money corruption, could swiftly change the direction of the national debate.
It is encouraging that many young activists came down to Wall Street from Wisconsin, where they have conducted themselves with impeccable style and effectiveness. Four decades ago, the goons in Richard Nixon's White House egged on construction workers in downtown Manhattan to beat up antiwar students, who had allowed themselves to be portrayed as enemies of working-class soldiers and cops. Repeating that same mistake now would be tragic for everyone—except the 1%.
© 2011 Creators.com | <urn:uuid:50752cb6-08f1-41ce-a522-0401b3dd0339> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://expressmilwaukee.com/article-16368-how-(and-why)-to-co-opt-those-cops-on-wall-street.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967274 | 749 | 1.671875 | 2 |
1. Loopiest Water SlideCannonball Loop (aka the Looping Water Slide), Action Park
Action Park was a place of legends. A spectacular orgy of thrills and danger that, due to pesky things such as insurance companies and basic common sense, will likely never be recreated.
The park, which was open from 1978 to 1996, was loaded with rides that seemed intent on pushing the limits of physics. At least six people died at the hands of the parks attractions, and countless more were injured (earning the park the affectionate nicknames "Accident Park," "Traction Park" and "Class-Action Park"). But nothing quite symbolized the park's flirtation with danger like the Cannonball Loop--a ride that is better known simply as the Looping Water Slide.
We first came face to face with the monstrous tubular blue circle as children visiting the park in the late 1980s. The loop wasn't open to the public at that point, but we distinctly remember park employees taking turns on the inertia-driven ride. In fact, in the years that it stood taunting the park's thrill seekers, it was barely open to the public at all. But its imposing presence earned it countless unverified rumors: As a child, we heard that they had to close it because some kid got stuck at the top, that crash test dummies they sent down the ride came out dismembered and that the park staff were given cash to act as human guinea pigs. As adults, we were unable to verify these rumors, but many are repeated on Wikipedia.
And then there's the fact that the ride's radical design seems to betray a lack of an understanding of basic physics. To wit: The ride runs through a perfect circle. Early-roller coaster engineers toyed with this design, with disastrous results. The high g-forces that are exerted when entering and exiting the inversion of a perfect circular loop are enough to break a person's neck (this is why all roller-coaster loops are elliptical or corkscrew-shaped). If the slide's few passengers were injured, this could partly have been to blame.
Action Park closed in 1996 and with it, the Cannonball Loop was dismantled. Since then, at least one other looping water slide has popped up, this time, in Germany. From the looks of it, it's far more professional, with elliptical-shaped loops.
2. Most Dangerous Human TrebuchetHuman Catapult, Middlemoor Water Park, United Kingdom
Some rides are just a bad idea. Case in point: the human trebuchet at Middlemoor Water Park in the U.K. For £40 ($66) a pop, riders could crawl into the cradle of a massive medieval-style catapult and be flung at 60 mph through the air into a net positioned 75 feet away.
While previous riders suffered injuries such as a broken pelvis, the catapult ultimately proved how dangerous it could be in 2002 when 19-year-old Oxford student Dino Yankov took his turn. His launch missed the landing net, and he was killed.
3. Scariest Zero Gravity ExperienceKingda Ka, Six Flags Great Adventure
There's something wonderful about the simplicity of Kingda Ka--a roller coaster that is about as close a ride as exists to a NASA simulator. It has no lame shtick, no fancy loops; just one short burst of track that goes up and down. The goal: Move the riders as fast and high as it possibly can. And this it does. As the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka launches its passengers up to 128 mph in just 3.5 seconds, speeding them through the 456-foot-high track in just 28 seconds. It's basically a vomit comet --and actually renders riders weightless for a stretch.
On a recent test ride, PM staffers reported that although they lost control of their facial muscles, the ride was perhaps the most thrilling they had ever experienced. Sadly, would-be riders will have to wait: The coaster is currently closed due to mechanical issues that arose after a recent lightning strike.
4. Biggest Leap-of-Faith for Early AdoptersOriginal Ferris Wheel, 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago
Today, Ferris wheels are far from the most fearsome rides on the boardwalk. But when the first Ferris wheel was built, it was a novelty that likely struck fear into the hearts of anybody who considered riding it.
The original Ferris wheel, created for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, was to be a symbol of the Windy City's progress. It was constructed to be a towering landmark that would "out-Eiffel the Eiffel Tower" (the French tower had been constructed for the Paris World's Fair a few years prior).
The first Ferris wheel was enormous: 284 feet tall, with 36 cars capable of holding 60 people a piece (for a total load of 2400 riders). A single revolution took 10 minutes, and 50 cents earned people two trips around the circle. But its maiden riders were undoubtedly taking a risk on a piece of unproven machinery: Before it was turned on for the first time, nobody knew if it would actually work, or would simply collapse into a pile of steel. According to Erik Larson's book on the Chicago World's Fair Devil in the White City, when the wheel first creaked into motion, onlookers saw it rain rusty bolts from above. But, fortunately, nobody was injured, and Ferris Wheels are now common theme-park and carnival attractions.
5. Most Likely To Leave Riders Black and BlueAlpine Slide, Action Park A blurry shot of a man hurtling down the Alpine Slide, captured from an Action Park TV commercial that aired in 1983.
If there were ever a park that deserves two spots on our list, it is Action Park (see No. 1 on the list). The park's alpine slide was certainly one of the park's most notorious rides--second only to the Looping Water Slide. For this ride, passengers hopped into single-person sleds (they were essentially modified snow sleds) and zoomed down a steep concrete-and-fiberglass track. Yes, it was fun, but it was also truly terrifying.
The ride began at the top of a hill. To get there, riders had to take a ski lift to the top. This lift went directly over the Alpine Slide's track, allowing passengers to watch riders zoom down the track below. It also afforded them a fair warning: We remember the sides of the track being littered with the sleds of accidents past. Ski-lift riders were also known to taunt--and even spit on--riders below. The hill was also heavily populated with enormous high-voltage power towers.
Because Action Park was, at its core, a water park, riders often zoomed down the Alpine Slides in swimsuits with a lot of skin exposed. When coupled with the concrete and fiberglass tracks, this made even the most minor spills dangerous skin-grating occasions. Unfortunately, these accidents were far too common. The sleds themselves were notoriously difficult to control, particularly at high speed. The only way to control the speed was to pull the brake, which slowed you down by shoving a friction-creating stick into the track below. Problem was, it didn't work very well. It took several seconds to slow down and stop, and it was far too easy to end up going far too fast. And if you decided to crawl across the track at a snail's pace, you were likely to be hit by the speed-happy passenger behind you.
In 1980, a park employee died after suffering a head injury when his sled jumped the track. The ride was reportedly responsible for more than a dozen fractures and two dozen head injuries in the years 1984 and 1985 alone. | <urn:uuid:e17aff76-b963-48ea-bbb4-fa09bceefc3a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/extreme-machines/4323692 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974351 | 1,622 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Click on any phrase to play the video at that point.Close
My mission in life since I was a kid was, and is, to take the rest of you into space. It's during our lifetime that we're going to take the Earth, take the people of Earth and transition off, permanently. And that's exciting. In fact, I think it is a moral imperative that we open the space frontier. You know, it's the first time that we're going to have a chance to have planetary redundancy, a chance to, if you would, back up the biosphere. And if you think about space, everything we hold of value on this planet -- metals and minerals and real estate and energy -- is in infinite quantities in space.
In fact, the Earth is a crumb in a supermarket filled with resources. The analogy for me is Alaska. You know, we bought Alaska. We Americans bought Alaska in the 1850s. It's called Seward's folly. We valued it as the number of seal pelts we could kill. And then we discovered these things -- gold and oil and fishing and timber -- and it became, you know, a trillion-dollar economy, and now we take our honeymoons there. The same thing will happen in space. We are on the verge of the greatest exploration that the human race has ever known.
We explore for three reasons, the weakest of which is curiosity. You know, it's funded NASA's budget up until now. Some images from Mars, 1997. In fact, I think in the next decade, without any question, we will discover life on Mars and find that it is literally ubiquitous under the soils and different parts of that planet.
The stronger motivator, the much stronger motivator, is fear. It drove us to the moon. We -- literally in fear -- with the Soviet Union raced to the moon. And we have these huge rocks, you know, killer-sized rocks in the hundreds of thousands or millions out there, and while the probability is very small, the impact, figured in literally, of one of these hitting the Earth is so huge that to spend a small fraction looking, searching, preparing to defend, is not unreasonable.
And of course, the third motivator, one near and dear to my heart as an entrepreneur, is wealth. In fact, the greatest wealth. If you think about these other asteroids, there's a class of the nickel iron, which in platinum-group metal markets alone are worth something like 20 trillion dollars, if you can go out and grab one of these rocks. My plan is to actually buy puts on the precious metal market, and then actually claim that I'm going to go out and get one. And that will fund the actual mission to go and get one. But fear, curiosity and greed have driven us. And for me, this is -- I'm the short kid on the right. This was -- my motivation was actually during Apollo.
And Apollo was one of the greatest motivators ever. If you think about what happened at the turn of -- early 1960s, on May 25, JFK said, "We're going to go to the moon." And people left their jobs and they went to obscure locations to go and be part of this amazing mission. And we knew nothing about going to space. We went from having literally put Alan Shepard in suborbital flight to going to the moon in eight years, and the average age of the people that got us there was 26 years old. They didn't know what couldn't be done. They had to make up everything. And that, my friend, is amazing motivation. This is Gene Cernan, a good friend of mine, saying, "If I can go to the moon" -- this is the last human on the moon so far -- "nothing, nothing is impossible." But of course, we've thought about the government always as the person taking us there.
But I put forward here, the government is not going to get us there. The government is unable to take the risks required to open up this precious frontier. The shuttle is costing a billion dollars a launch. That's a pathetic number. It's unreasonable. We shouldn't be happy in standing for that. One of the things that we did with the Ansari X PRIZE was take the challenge on that risk is OK, you know. As we are going out there and taking on a new frontier, we should be allowed to risk. In fact, anyone who says we shouldn't, you know, just needs to be put aside, because, as we go forward, in fact, the greatest discoveries we will ever know is ahead of us. The entrepreneurs in the space business are the furry mammals, and clearly the industrial-military complex -- with Boeing and Lockheed and NASA -- are the dinosaurs. The ability for us to access these resources to gain planetary redundancy -- we can now gather all the information, the genetic codes, you know, everything stored on our databases, and back them up off the planet, in case there would be one of those disastrous situations.
The difficulty is getting there, and clearly, the cost to orbit is key. Once you're in orbit, you are two thirds of the way, energetically, to anywhere -- the moon, to Mars. And today, there's only three vehicles -- the U.S. shuttle, the Russian Soyuz and the Chinese vehicle -- that gets you there. Arguably, it's about 100 million dollars a person on the space shuttle. One of the companies I started, Space Adventures, will sell you a ticket. We've done two so far. We'll be announcing two more on the Soyuz to go up to the space station for 20 million dollars. But that's expensive and to understand what the potential is --
it is expensive. But people are willing to pay that! You know, one -- we have a very unique period in time today. For the first time ever, we have enough wealth concentrated in the hands of few individuals and the technology accessible that will allow us to really drive space exploration. But how cheap could it get? I want to give you the end point. We know -- 20 million dollars today, you can go and buy a ticket, but how cheap could it get?
Let's go back to high school physics here. If you calculate the amount of potential energy, mgh, to take you and your spacesuit up to a couple hundred miles, and then you accelerate yourself to 17,500 miles per hour -- remember, that one half MV squared -- and you figure it out. It's about 5.7 gigajoules of energy. If you expended that over an hour, it's about 1.6 megawatts. If you go to one of Vijay's micro-power sources, and they sell it to you for seven cents a kilowatt hour -- anybody here fast in math? How much will it cost you and your spacesuit to go to orbit? 100 bucks. That's the price-improvement curve that -- we need some breakthroughs in physics along the way, I'll grant you that.
But guys, if history has taught us anything, it's that if you can imagine it, you will get there eventually. I have no question that the physics, the engineering to get us down to the point where all of us can afford orbital space flight is around the corner. The difficulty is that there needs to be a real marketplace to drive the investment. Today, the Boeings and the Lockheeds don't spend a dollar of their own money in R&D. It's all government research dollars, and very few of those. And in fact, the large corporations, the governments, can't take the risk. So we need what I call an exothermic economic reaction in space. Today's commercial markets worldwide, global commercial launch market? 12 to 15 launches per year. Number of commercial companies out there? 12 to 15 companies. One per company. That's not it. There's only one marketplace, and I call them self-loading carbon payloads. They come with their own money. They're easy to make. It's people. The Ansari X PRIZE was my solution, reading about Lindbergh for creating the vehicles to get us there.
We offered 10 million dollars in cash for the first reusable ship, carry three people up to 100 kilometers, come back down, and within two weeks, make the trip again. Twenty-six teams from seven countries entered the competition, spending between one to 25 million dollars each. And of course, we had beautiful SpaceShipOne, which made those two flights and won the competition. And I'd like to take you there, to that morning, for just a quick video.
Peter Diamandis: Probably the most difficult thing that I had to do was raise the capital for this. It was literally impossible. We went -- I went to 100, 200 CEOs, CMOs. No one believed it was done. Everyone said, "Oh, what does NASA think? Well, people are going to die, how can you possibly going to put this forward?" I found a visionary family, the Ansari family, and Champ Car, and raised part of the money, but not the full 10 million.
And what I ended up doing was going out to the insurance industry and buying a hole-in-one insurance policy. See, the insurance companies went to Boeing and Lockheed, and said, "Are you going to compete?" No. "Are you going to compete?" No. "No one's going to win this thing." So, they took a bet that no one would win by January of '05, and I took a bet that someone would win.
We've had a lot of accomplishments and it's been a tremendous success. One of the things I'm most happy about is that the SpaceShipOne is going to hang in Air and Space Museum, next to the Spirit of St. Louis and the Wright Flyer. Isn't that great? (Applause) So a little bit about the future, steps to space, what's available for you. Today, you can go and experience weightless flights. By '08, suborbital flights, the price tag for that, you know, on Virgin, is going to be about 200,000. There are three or four other serious efforts that will bring the price down very rapidly, I think, to about 25,000 dollars for a suborbital flight. Orbital flights -- we can take you to the space station.
Quick moment for the designers in the audience. We spent 11 years getting FAA approval to do zero gravity flights. Here are some fun images. Here's Burt Rutan and my good friend Greg Meronek inside a zero gravity -- people think a zero gravity room, there's a switch on there that turns it off -- but it's actually parabolic flight of an airplane. And turns out 7-Up has just done a little commercial that's airing this month. If we can get the audio up?
PD: That was filmed inside our airplane, and so, you can now do this. We're based down in Florida. Let me talk about the other thing I'm excited about. The future of prizes. You know, prizes are a very old idea. I had the pleasure of borrowing from the Longitude Prize and the Orteig Prize that put Lindbergh forward. And we have made a decision in the X PRIZE Foundation to actually carry that concept forward into other technology areas, and we just took on a new mission statement: "to bring about radical breakthroughs in space and other technologies for the benefit of humanity." And this is something that we're very excited about. I showed this slide to Larry Page, who just joined our board.
And you know, when you give to a nonprofit, you might have 50 cents on the dollar. If you have a matching grant, it's typically two or three to one. If you put up a prize, you can get literally a 50 to one leverage on your dollars. And that's huge. And then he turned around and said, "Well, if you back a prize institute that runs a 10 prize, you get 500 to one." I said, "Well, that's great." So, we have actually -- are looking to turn the X PRIZE into a world-class prize institute. This is what happens when you put up a prize, when you announce it and teams start to begin doing trials. You get publicity increase, and when it's won, publicity shoots through the roof -- if it's properly managed -- and that's part of the benefits to a sponsor. Then, when the prize is actually won, after it's moving, you get societal benefits, you know, new technology, new capability. And the benefit to the sponsors is the sum of the publicity and societal benefits over the long term. That's our value proposition in a prize.
If you were going to go and try to create SpaceShipOne, or any kind of a new technology, you have to fund that from the beginning and maintain that funding with an uncertain outcome. It may or may not happen. But if you put up a prize, the beautiful thing is, you know, it's a very small maintenance fee, and you pay on success. Orteig didn't pay a dime out to the nine teams that went across -- tried to go across the Atlantic, and we didn't pay a dime until someone won the Ansari X PRIZE. So, prizes work great. You know, innovators, the entrepreneurs out there, you know that when you're going for a goal, the first thing you have to do is believe that you can do it yourself. Then, you've got to, you know, face potential public ridicule of -- that's a crazy idea, it'll never work. And then you have to convince others, so that they can, in fact, help you raise the funds, and then you've got to deal with the fact that you've got government bureaucracies and institutions that don't want you to move those things forward, and you have to deal with failures. What a prize does, what we've experienced a prize doing, is literally help to short-circuit or support all of these things, because a prize credentials the idea that this is a good idea. Well, it must be a good idea. Someone's offering 10 million dollars to go and do this thing.
And each of these areas was something that we found the Ansari X PRIZE helped short-circuit these for innovation. So, as an organization, we put together a prize discovery process of how to come up with prizes and write the rules, and we're actually looking at creating prizes in a number of different categories. We're looking at attacking energy, environment, nanotechnology -- and I'll talk about those more in a moment. And the way we're doing that is we're creating prize teams within the X PRIZE. We have a space prize team. We're going after an orbital prize.
We are looking at a number of energy prizes. Craig Venter has just joined our board and we're doing a rapid genome sequencing prize with him, we'll be announcing later this fall, about -- imagine being able to sequence anybody's DNA for under 1,000 dollars, revolutionize medicine. And clean water, education, medicine and even looking at social entrepreneurship. So my final slide here is, the most critical tool for solving humanity's grand challenges -- it isn't technology, it isn't money, it's only one thing -- it's the committed, passionate human mind.
You can share this video by copying this HTML to your clipboard and pasting into your blog or web page.
need to get the latest Flash player.
Got an idea, question, or debate inspired by this talk? Start a TED Conversation.
Peter Diamandis says it's our moral imperative to keep exploring space -- and he talks about how, with the X Prize and other incentives, we're going to do just that.
Peter Diamandis runs the X Prize Foundation, which offers large cash incentive prizes to inventors who can solve grand challenges like space flight, low-cost mobile medical diagnostics and oil spill cleanup. He is the chair of Singularity University, which teaches executives and grad students about exponentially growing technologies. Full bio » | <urn:uuid:6be5c1ae-51cd-4912-b509-385e0696e8b1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/peter_diamandis_on_our_next_giant_leap.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970269 | 3,366 | 1.679688 | 2 |
NEW YORK — One of the stock market's enduring legends has it that Joseph P. Kennedy, multimillionaire founder of America's most powerful political dynasty, was saved from the Crash of 1929 by a stock tip from a Wall Street shoeshine boy.
Kennedy, a veteran stock speculator, ignored the tip, of course. But he told himself: If teen-age bootblacks are in this market, then I'm out.
To many investment professionals, today's version of the shoeshine boy is a 25-year-old with a laptop computer frenetically trading Internet stocks.
Propelled overwhelmingly by small investors buying and selling through maverick online brokerages such as E-Trade Group, the Internet stock boom of the past few months has blindsided the Wall Street establishment like nothing before.
And as with so much else about the burgeoning Internet, what is happening in the stock market is a power struggle between the old ways and the new.
So far, the mania has seen share prices of Internet-related companies sometimes quadruple in a day and billion-dollar enterprises bloom like tulips. The combined market value of the 20 companies in TheStreet.com's Internet stock index -- including such names as Yahoo!, America Online, Netscape and Amazon.com -- has more than tripled, to $504 billion, since mid-October. None of these companies existed a decade ago.
America Online, which alone has stock now worth more than $75billion, has eclipsed the market value of such industrial giants as Du Pont, Chevron and Eastman Kodak.
At least for the moment it has. Recently, the Internet stock frenzy showed signs of fatigue. Many of the most popular stocks suffered declines of 30 percent or more, while investors complained loudly of trading glitches that made it difficult to buy or sell shares. Online brokerages said their computer systems were buried under an avalanche of orders. In short, the very popularity of the game was causing it to break down.
For professional Wall Street, a comeuppance for the army of individual Net stock traders couldn't arrive soon enough. Indeed, the Net stock craze has seemed factory-engineered to drive the brokerage establishment crazy.
Not only do the Internet stocks lack a pedigree -- many of the hottest companies have yet to earn a nickel of profit -- but the people trading the shares thumb their noses at the investment tenets that Wall Street holds dear.
Net stock investors make a mockery of the concept of "buy and hold," the pros complain, they can't read a balance sheet, and many of them don't know any more about the companies they're trading than their four-letter stock symbols.
"We don't like to think that somebody who knows less can make more," acknowledged Peter Bernstein, author and longtime money manager.
While some of the neophyte traders have indeed made huge profits in recent months as Net stocks have rocketed -- Net directory company Yahoo!, for example, has soared from $100 to as high as $445 -- many veteran Wall Streeters predict that it will all end badly: The Internet bubble inevitably will burst, they say, causing horrifying losses for people dabbling in the stocks.
"It's disheartening, to say the least," said Hugh A. Johnson Jr., longtime stock strategist for First Albany Securities. "Brokers sometimes feel like economist] Roger Babson in 1928 or '29 warning of the crash. It sounds like sour grapes, and the naysayers are always reviled."
Concern extends beyond the Internet stocks themselves. A collapse of those shares could drag the entire stock market down, some experts worry. That, in turn, would batter consumer confidence and threaten the health of the U.S. economy.
Yet many of the small investors happily playing the Net stock game may see more than reasoned caution behind the brokerage establishment's hand-wringing.
However much lip service may be paid to the individual investor being the bedrock of the U.S. capital-market system, critics say Wall Street abhors democracy.
Whatever else can be said about the Internet stock boom, it is hands-down the most democratic market phenomenon of this century. Whether the bubble bursts or keeps inflating, the way stocks are bought and sold has changed forever. And the power of individual investors to write new rules for the market seems only likely to grow.
Previously, if you wanted to join the latest investment rage -- be it biotech in the early-1990s, data processing in the late-1960s or radio in the Roaring '20s -- you went to an oak-paneled brokerage office and opened an account, or funneled your money to a mutual fund manager who made stock decisions on your behalf.
Now you log on to the Internet, click over to an online broker's Web site, type in your credit card number and start trading individual stocks without guidance, or interference, from a "professional." | <urn:uuid:583f09a9-e90e-446c-95c0-44f816964a09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1999-01-31/business/9901310228_1_stock-tip-net-stock-stock-market | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954136 | 1,008 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Unclutter Your Life
Are You Overwhelmed by Your Stuff?
by Cheryl Fusco Johnson
Don't let your possessions take over your life! Organize, donate, and recycle your unused things.
On a recent Friday night, my husband and son were downstairs avidly watching Engineer ing an Empire: Egypt, while I sat beside them battling to keep my eyes open and musing about how helpful this documentary would be during bouts of insomnia. Suddenly a noise resembling a shotgun blast exploded from somewhere upstairs. We all leapt off the sofa and looked at each other.
“Press pause,” my son advised, maybe so we could listen for other unsettling sounds but probably so we wouldn’t miss exciting engineering trivia.
“An exploding bottle?” I conjectured.
One long-ago hot summer night a case of my parents’ homemade root beer had mysteriously shattered, shooting sticky brown syrup in all directions. The mess deterred my parents from ever again attempting to save money by concocting their own soft drinks. But on Wednesday night my son had bottled his latest batch of homemade brew. Ninety-seven bottles were fermenting in the kitchen above our heads.
“Maybe,” my son responded. But then he added that he’d heard an odd sliding sound right before the explosion.
Upstairs, the bottles were intact. However, the black metal base to our blender, which I’d left on the counter, was lying on the oak kitchen floor. A small prong had broken off the blender base and was lying beside it. The oak floor sported a new, splintery pea-sized dent.
What had happened? We don’t have mice, and the really big spiders never venture upstairs. I suspect our household clutter, swollen by carloads of sentimental treasures we’d hauled home after emptying and selling my parents’ and in-laws’ houses, had reached a critical mass that caused inanimate objects to try to escape. The sleek, black blender base recoiled at being wedged between a grungy old food processor and a cracked pink teapot.
At first, we’d managed to segregate our parents’ treasures. Crumbling albums of sepia photos; our fathers’ World War II U.S. Army uniforms; my mother’s sewing machines; textbooks my mother-in-law taught from in a one-room country schoolhouse—these things and more formed a formidable but contained cardboard-carton pyramid that dominated our basement family room.
Then, this summer, our house required remedial refurbishing. Our belongings migrated from room to room, merging into a monstrous hodgepodge, as we emptied one space and cluttered others to accommodate roving construction workers. The pyramid crumbled. Cartons of our moms’ favorite recipes became indistinguishable from ones containing current necessities that we distractedly swept off desktops. Car keys, printer paper, utility bills, and ink cartridges disappeared like the pharaohs’ lost treasures.
Increasingly disoriented by the disintegration of an admittedly weak organizational system, I sought solace from weird reality TV shows. Mission Organization, Clean House, and the truly horrifying Hoarders all spotlight messy people. These shows taught me that others, too, have stumbled down the littered road to chaos.
Some of us hold onto deceased loved ones’ treasures, falsely believing we need talismans to remember the people themselves. Others refuse to surrender unused items from our own pasts in a futile attempt to preserve earlier versions of ourselves. The pharaohs did this, too, mercilessly conquering, robbing, and taxing their neighbors so they could erect enormous monuments in which to store their own shriveled, salted, and mummy-wrapped hearts.
Fellow clutterers, it’s time to let go. In the current economic climate, it’s small-hearted to cling to unused things that others might need. Eschew the pharaohs’ hoarding mentality, but embrace their engineers’ creative persistence. Inexplicably confident, Egypt’s early builders employed a simple trial and error technique. King Snefru’s architects constructed two defective pyramids for him before their third stood firm. Today, that creation, the Red Pyramid in Dahshur, still stands, the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to survive to modern times.
Courage, clutterites! Trial and error can work for us, too. National Clutter Awareness Week is March 21-28, 2010. From now until then, join me on a half-year journey towards a clutter-light life. Begin with these three tips.
1. Pick the low-hanging fruit. Some things are impossible to give or toss away and others merely difficult. Focus on the least difficult categories first. Junk mail, old newspapers or catalogs, maybe? Experiencing success in one area will embolden you to tackle more.
2. Respond generously to pleas for donated goods. Churches solicit donations of like-new coats in winter. They hold pink-elephant bazaars each spring. Women’s shelters need kitchen equipment. Families who’ve lost their homes to fire need everything. Help others and you’ll help yourself, as well.
3. Exploit community resources. My town provides free annual trash pickups. It also periodically holds low-cost citywide garage sales. On a recent Saturday, for example, I paid $8.36 to reserve a parking-space slot. Pricing to sell, I netted only about $20 but disposed of two tables’ worth of stuff. I sold my mother’s old microwave, a boom box, and other electronics that charity stores won’t accept. Best of all, I sold my grungy old food processor—I cleaned it up first—and gave away the cracked pink teapot. No more mysterious explosions for us!
Need more inspiration to get uncluttered? Read Cheryl’s progress toward de-cluttering her life on her new blog at cherylfuscojohnson.net. Look for updates from Cheryl at www.iowasource. com too.
Visit the index for more articles on home and garden.
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites | <urn:uuid:f792af82-5b2f-4569-8218-15b8e7b4009a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.iowasource.com/home_garden/2010_03.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933852 | 1,317 | 1.585938 | 2 |
PORTER | Visitors to Porter Beach could be in for a treat in summers to come.
The small but popular Lake Michigan waterfront is being eyed for possible future work to improve access to the beach and make visits a better experience.
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Superintendent Costa Dillon recently referred to it as Porter's complement to the new lakefront park in Portage that has received wide acclaim.
"The big issue there (Porter Beach) is traffic and congestion," said Eric Ehn, management assistant with the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Officials with the agency, which is managed by the National Park Service, are early in the process for determining what, if anything, might be done to improve conditions.
The National Lakeshore and the town of Porter have adjoining beaches at the location, tucked between the community of Dune Acres to the west and Indiana Dunes State Park -- a separate entity from the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore -- to the east.
"There is no visitor impact on personal property," Dillon said. National Park Service rangers and signs deter visitors from trespassing or littering on private property nearby.
Some of the town's residents have concerns.
"It's not that we don't want to share our beaches," Porter Town Council President Elka Nelson said. "But there's no physical room. Even if there is more parking, there are no streets to put the traffic on."
Visitors to the National Lakeshore will "need to use our public streets, that are unimproved," Nelson said. "They'd have to cut through Dunes. There's the idea of additional congestion and emissions.
"There are a lot of groups in support of Dillon and the National Park Service," Nelson said. "And we're not unreasonable. But they need to address the immediate impact."
Wabash Avenue in Porter provides the only access by car to Porter Beach, including the town's 60 feet of beach and the National Lakeshore's 400 feet of beach.
The two-lane road is heavily traveled on summer beach days.
"It gets pretty crowded there," Ehn said.
Visitor use of the beach is on the rise, and the trend is likely to continue even though no effort has been made by the National Park Service to attract more visitors, according to the National Lakeshore.
Goals of the National Lakeshore plan center on improving traffic circulation, including emergency access for fire and police vehicles, and on developing a formal picnic area accessible to people with disabilities and easily reachable from the beach.
The beach is public property under Indiana law, and the public want and have the right to use it, according to the National Lakeshore.
But the costs to the town of Porter, including for maintenance, law enforcement and traffic management, also are among issues listed in a draft prepared by the National Lakeshore for distribution to guests of public meeting in late June.
With several steps remaining in the formal planning process, a final decision has not yet been made. Public input will be invited along the way. The decision, when it comes, will be released to the public. | <urn:uuid:9acc254c-bd2f-4e25-aba3-7ee13fe80da6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/forum/national-park-service-eyes-porter-beach-access/article_b9b0c4f1-e9f9-5758-a155-4a479e014dd9.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960041 | 649 | 1.710938 | 2 |
» Discovery -- UTSA Research
» Innovations -- College of Engineering
» Ovations -- College of Liberal and Fine Arts
» Spectrum -- College of Education
UTSA hosts two-day National Science Foundation visit with research presentations
(Nov. 7, 2011) -- The UTSA Department of Physics and Astronomy recently hosted representatives from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and visiting university professors to learn more about the department's participation as a member of the Partnership for Research and Education in Materials (PREM).
The two-day visit included research and poster presentations by physics faculty members and students as well as tours of UTSA physics laboratories.
Miguel Yacaman, professor of astronomy and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, introduced the group to "Helenita," one of the world's most powerful electron microscopes. The microscope was purchased in January 2010 with the support of a $1.2 million gift from the Robert J. Kleberg Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation.
The JEOL transmission electron microscope will assist in development of new cancer therapies and disease treatments by allowing nanotechnology researchers to see samples magnified 20 million times their original size.
Yacaman said the microscope is being used extensively by UTSA faculty and students. Additionally, the microscope is being used for an hourly rate by faculty members outside the university and researchers in the private sector.
While on campus, PREM site visitors also had the opportunity to tour the laboratory of Dhiraj Sardar, Ashbel Smith Professor of Physics, who uses lasers for his nanotechnology research. Sardar was the principal investigator who helped the department acquire a five-year $2.7 million grant in 2009 from the NSF. The grant is designed to help increase the participation of underrepresented minorities and advance the understanding of the fundamental science of nanomaterials. Additionally, the grant enhances the educational outreach programs for high school and junior college students.
The department's investments in sophisticated world-class, high-technology equipment and nanotechnology research have paid dividends as the interest in physics continues to grow. Since the UTSA doctoral degree program was established in 2005, eight students have earned Ph.D.s in physics. Currently, 63 students are enrolled in the program, ranking it the fifth largest in Texas. | <urn:uuid:6afa2b88-76f7-4995-ae6d-3a2d42d69795> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://utsa.edu/today/2011/11/nsfvisit.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951648 | 471 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Florida Southern College, Lakeland, Fla.
The geometric Annie Pfeiffer Chapel at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida is among a dozen Frank Lloyd Wright structures at this small college. Frank Lloyd Wright's stated intent was to create a collegiate architecture that would be a beacon of light. And for the efforts that have gone into the restoration of his vision, we included Southern Florida College on this list. And it doesn't hurt that this college is located in a town between Orlando and Tampa named for its 38 lakes. | <urn:uuid:9f63c586-4eb9-4cc7-82e7-fad2936c3119> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/pictures/ekkf45i/southern-florida-college-lakeland-fla/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.983363 | 106 | 1.789063 | 2 |
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- It looks like Greece will avoid an outright default in the short run now that eurozone finance officials have signed off on a second bailout for the debt-stricken nation.
But the rescue package worth €130 billion is contingent on a historic debt reduction agreement with private sector investors that must be approved before any bailout money can be released.
Assuming private sector investors sign off, Greece should be able to secure the funds it needs to make a €14.5 billion bond payment in March.
The terms of the private sector agreement include a write down of 53% on the face value of Greek government bonds, steeper than the previous 50% reduction agreed to in October.
The proposal will now be presented to members of the Institute of International Finance, which represents the private sector. The IIF's full committee will review the details and make a decision "in accordance with their own individual processes," according to a statement.
IIF director Charles Dallara said in an interview with CNN's Richard Quest that he expects a high participation rate, but he acknowledged that each investor has the right to make their own decision.
Under the terms of the agreement, Greece's debt load will be cut by about €107 billion, equal to 50% of the nation's estimated economic output for the year. It will also reduce the amount of debt Greece needs to refinance over the coming years by roughly €150 billion, according to the IIF.
In addition to the write down, investors would exchange existing bonds for securities with lower interest rates. At the same time, investors would receive securities that could increase in value as the Greek economy improves, and EU officials would kick in a €30 billion "sweetener."
According to the IIF, the agreement represents the largest sovereign debt restructuring in history.
Overall, the deal will result in losses of 74% for the private sector, according to Marc Chandler, head of global currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman.
Given the onerous terms, he said reaching the targeted 95% participation rate "seems unlikely." He also suggested that an official endorsement by the IIF may not mean that all private sector investors are on board.
"It is not clear how much the IIF really represents the private sector," said Chandler, in a note to clients.
The concern is that a large number of investors will balk at the deal, forcing the terms to be renegotiated. That could delay the just-approved bailout and put Greece back at risk of a disorderly default.
The Greek government is expected to pass legislation this week that would force investors who reject the agreement to take losses on Greek bonds issued under domestic law, which make up the majority of the nation's debt load.
The presence of so-called collective action clauses would not qualify as a "credit event," according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. But the association suggested that activating the clauses could trigger credit default swaps, a form of insurance that investors use to protect against a default.
Credit default swaps, or CDS, were a major contributor to the 2008 financial crisis, when declines in the U.S. housing market caused banks to suffer major losses on mortgage-backed securities.
But analysts say the Greek CDS market is small and such a credit event would probably not shock the global financial system.
"The net Greek CDS positions of systemically-relevant financial institutions appear to be relatively limited," said Tobias Blattner, euro area economist at Daiwa Capital Markets.
|Make $30 an hour, no bachelor's degree required|
|The 'chicken poop' credit and other bad tax breaks|
|McDonald's gives Charles Ramsey free food for a year|
|Why Waze is a hot takeover target|
|Where your donation dollars go|
|Overnight Avg Rate||Latest||Change||Last Week|
|30 yr fixed||3.75%||3.66%|
|15 yr fixed||2.89%||2.79%|
|30 yr refi||3.74%||3.64%|
|15 yr refi||2.89%||2.79%|
Today's featured rates: | <urn:uuid:b5808b4a-2ca3-48a8-950e-63f7491d0bc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/21/markets/greece/index.htm?iid=EL | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934382 | 865 | 1.640625 | 2 |
I have documented Yahoo Inc.’s Cloud Computing efforts in this space many times already. They are doing some classy work on projects like Hadoop, etc.. What about their own use of Cloud Computing internally? There was not much info about it till recently. Now, the company has announced how they are tapping into a Cloud based data store for the storage needs of Yahoo properties. It is called as Sherpa.
Sherpa, based on the technology called PNUTS (research paper on this technology can be found here) is a home grown technology developed with Yahoo Scale in mind. Toby Negrin, Product Manager of Sherpa, describes Yahoo Scale as follows.
At Yahoo!, our systems have to scale horizontally (we have to handle
tens of thousands of requests per second in a single datacenter) and
geographically (our users are around the globe and their data needs to
be close to them wherever they are). Scaling on these two axes
simultaneously is a problem that very few companies have to deal with.
At the same time, we must meet the latency SLAs required by user-facing
It appears Sherpa is architected to handle these requirements well using a simple RESTful interface
with four basic operations: Get, Set, Delete, and Scan.
There is something called CAP theorem that imposes a “restriction” in all distributed systems. Using the simpler explanation offered by Mr. Negrin, the CAP theorem restrictions can be explained as follows.
unavoidable trade-offs between consistency (all records are the same in
all replicas), availability (all replicas can accept updates or
inserts), and tolerance of network partitions (the system still
functions when distributed replicas cannot talk to each other).
In order to take care of the limitations imposed by the CAP theorem, Yahoo team has chosen the tradeoff to be between consistency and availability. They offer the users various options to choose between consistency and availability and then offer tools to minimize the impact of their choice on the other parameter.
Various Yahoo properties have started using this Cloud based storage. There are no user facing APIs available at this point of time but it may change in the future once they fully integrate themselves with this new technology. | <urn:uuid:d9dfe9b7-219b-4ef7-969d-5138aa58a084> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cloudave.com/2013/yahoo-embraces-cloud-storage/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957057 | 463 | 1.84375 | 2 |
As noted in an earlier post, there are plausible scenarios under which next month’s election could result in a 269–269 electoral vote tie, which would send the presidential election over to the House of Representatives. Such an outcome would favor Romney over President Obama, according to an analysis by the Washington Examiner.
But in such a case, it would fall on the Senate to choose the vice president, with each Senator getting a vote. Given that it’s quite possible (arguably likely) that Democrats will retain control of the Senate, it means that they could vote for Biden to remain on as VP, even if the House elects Romney as president.
In theory, if the election outcome is a 50-50 Senate, Biden could be the tie-breaking vote for himself. | <urn:uuid:2f832d0c-8bee-4a1a-9979-4b5533c9ba24> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2012/10/13/how-biden-could-become-romneys-vp/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971184 | 160 | 1.625 | 2 |
The veepstakes begin
All presidential nominees pay lip service to the ideal of choosing the individual who is best qualified to assume the presidency if fate were to so dictate. But always present also is a pure calculation of seeking to strengthen the ticket politically or shore up a perceived weakness.
Such matters as ideological and geographical balance, gender, ethnicity and potential to capture a large chunk of electoral votes all get thrown into the pot. And sometimes when a presidential nominee feels a Hail Mary pass is necessary, desperate selections are made. Remember Geraldine Ferraro by Walter Mondale in 1984, Dan Quayle by the senior George Bush in 1992, and Sarah Palin by John McCain in 2008.
In all three cases, there was no clear evidence that the choice made any real difference in the outcome. Ferraro, as the first woman nominated for national office, made no dent in the Ronald Reagan landslide re-election. Bush was elected over Michael Dukakis despite Quayle's serial gaffes. Palin's early flash was dampened by revealed deficiencies, and she couldn't prevent Barack Obama's historic election.
But over than last 20 years, the winning presidential nominees -- Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama -- have chosen individuals whose long public service recommended them as reasonably qualified to assume the presidency if called on: Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Joe Biden. One may argue that one or all failed to live up to that potential, but the solid track record was there.
In each case, the running mate proved to be more than a show horse, brought not only into the political but also the policy-making deliberations of the administration to which he was elected. The partnerships developed on the campaign trail were carried over into governance of the country -- for good or evil, depending on one's own perceptions.
So the experience of the last two decades weighs heavily on Romney, if he is nominated, to choose his running mate on the basis of true qualification to assume the presidency if so required, and to play a productive role in helping the president govern the country in the meantime.
In eight years as vice president, Gore proved to be an effective right-hand man to Clinton over a range of domestic matters. Cheney in eight years under Bush became a powerful voice in the shaping and implementation of foreign policy. And Biden for nearly four years has been an influential figure for Obama in both realms, as a former chairman of both the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees.
Whether Romney will follow suit in his selection of a running mate obviously depends on his own perceptions of what role he wants that individual to play. The fact that he himself has had little experience with foreign policy or governing on the national level would suggest he will seek to shore up those deficiencies, but with someone personally compatible, to assure a smooth working relationship.
The current flavor of the month, freshman Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, would seem a poor fit. So would any of the Republican governors and former governors being mentioned, or Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, unless Romney would be willing to bet his chances on Ryan's budget plan, an obvious campaign target for the Democrats.
In terms of being a partner in governance, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, as former U.S. trade representative and budget director under the junior President Bush, would seem to have the credentials. It also helps that comes from the state that no Republican has ever won the presidency without carrying.
All this is no guarantee that a Romney running mate would not become another Ferraro, Quayle or Palin. But Mitt seems nothing if not cautious and serious. That alone would be a hopeful augur for selection of someone who really would be qualified for the presidency, and useful as vice president as well.
(Jules Witcover's latest book is "Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption" (William Morrow). You can respond to this column at [email protected].) | <urn:uuid:b70e6ba3-ebb1-4dc4-a34f-21a89ebf3899> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/sns-201204061400--tms--poltodayctnyq-a20120408apr08,0,852823.column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967565 | 800 | 1.632813 | 2 |
When a company first starts out, they have many challenges to face. Establishing a brand, marketing themselves to a particular demographic, bringing in the first quarter of profits…it is a lot to handle. Most businesses also spend that time focusing purely on their product, a natural inclination that can have some consequences.
It is impossible to deny the importance of product development. But what about people development? When you have to compete with more well known businesses, how do you show potential customers that you are a brand they should trust?
This is called a user acquisition strategy, and many startups fail to recognize the importance from the very beginning. These seven books can teach you more about the value of building a community from scratch.
1. Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson
Considered one of the better manuals for small businesses on the market, Ready, Fire, Aim works to break down successful entrepreneur plans into four stages. One of those is all about creating a link between you and your demographic. Being self made and incredibly accomplished, Michael Masterson is a great resource for information.
2. Viral Loop by Adam Penenburg
An important element of community building in today’s business world is social media and the use of viral content. NYU journalism professor Adam Penenburg explores this concept through various case studies. You can find a ton of information that shows the benefits of digital media in user connection for the modern age.
3. The Startup Owner’s Manual by Steve Bank and Bob Dorf
Go step by step through the process of customer and relationship development with this handy guide from business gurus Steve Bank and Bob Dorf.. Considered of the most useful training manuals on the subject ever written, it covers all stages for startups hoping to build a really effect user acquisition blueprint.
4. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Focus on both product development and customer satisfaction at the same time with this innovative approach to startups. Cutting out the frills, it gets to the heart of sustainable businesses. All by showing you faster ways to reach milestones, rapid product development without quality control mistakes and learning what customers want for adapting your brand and establishing user loyalty.
5. Trust Your Heart by Marnie L Pehrson
From customer community building, to the importance of fostering a community among your employees or startup team, this is all about relationships in business. Learn to leverage your contacts and build lasting relationships to better your profits.
6. Trust Based Selling by Charles H Green
How does a company like, say, PayPal or Mint manage to gain customers when they ask for something as sensitive as financial information? All while being entirely online based, and so getting that info in spite of identity theft fears? It is all about trust, and this book covers the fundamentals of trust based selling.
7. Privacy Payoff by Ann Cavoukian, Tyler Hamilton and Don Tapscott
Want to know the secret of gaining the loyalty of customers from the very beginning? According to this book, it is through offering privacy to your customers. Since this is a lesson that is very important for startups, which naturally face more scrutiny than established brands, it is a good one to check out.
Do you know of a book on user acquisition or community building that you would like to share? Let us know in the comments. | <urn:uuid:8154a8a4-88fe-4f2e-b6f1-6ccb528f9106> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.searchenginejournal.com/building-a-community-from-scratch/54179/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95067 | 678 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Research reveals that if Facebook decided to launch a search engine tomorrow, the social network would become a leader in the global search market, giving Google a run for its money.
A study reveals that that Facebook could easily become the second most used search engine in major markets, with the exception of Russia, China, and Japan where it could come in third.
Greenlight's Search and Social Survey found that if Facebook wanted to start its own search engine, the company could take 22% of the global search market.
Facebook has over 900 million registered users and is the top social website globally. Thus, Facebook could have millions of dedicated users that might be easily influenced to use it as their preferred search engine.
Research revealed that 5% of those surveyed said they would definitely use Facebook if it launched a search engine to compete against Google's.
12% of respondents said they would probably use Facebook over their preferred search engine and 9% said they didn't know.
"These stats therefore suggest Facebook could capture around 22% of the global search market by simply launching its own search engine tomorrow morning (the 'Definitely', 'Probably', and half of the 'Don't know' respondents combined) says Andreas Pouros, chief operating officer at Greenlight. "It wouldn't need to be a spectacular engine either, just well integrated into the Facebook experience and generally competent."
However, 26% said they would not use Facebook as a search engine and another 22% said they would probably not use a search engine by Facebook.
Yet, 27% of respondents said they would maybe consider using Facebook if it proved to be better than Google or Bing. If Facebook were able to launch a search engine better than Google it could possibly take above the estimated 22% of the global search engine market.
The research suggests that if Facebook could convert the least loyal Google search engine users, the social network could have the opportunity of occupying 49% of the overall search engine market, rather than just 22%.
Please follow this author on Twitter @Tineka_S or comment below. | <urn:uuid:6ccb311c-c958-4e2b-b396-23d8ad258792> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cbronline.com/news/facebook-the-next-big-player-in-social-search-160512 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967955 | 418 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Former Muskegon Lassies standout dies at 85
Sams died June 28 in her hometown of Knoxville, Tenn., after suffering from Alzheimer’s for three years, according to The Associated Press. She was 85.
Sams, also called Sammye, was a leading player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1940s and 1950s. She was a five-time all-star in her eight-year pro career with the Lassies and later the Kalamazoo Lassies.
The teams played "in these factory towns where the people were making good money, but they had gas rationing and couldn't go anywhere," Sams told The Associated Press in 1988. "After the war they went other directions … but we entertained them for a while."
Marc Okkonen, a local baseball historian who has researched and written about the Muskegon Lassies, ranked Sams as one of the top five players in the league. The team played its home games at Marsh Field.
Among Sams’ highlights included pitching a perfect game for Muskegon on Aug. 18, 1947, against the Fort Wayne Daisies. It turned out to be one of five perfect games in league history.
Sams later recalled that game "wasn't so perfect."
"They hit me like a drum. But it was one of those days when everybody was on their toes. … You know, the pitcher doesn't do it alone," Sams told the Society for American Baseball Research in 1997.
Sams was named the league's most valuable player following the 1947 season. During her career, she earned all-star honors as a pitcher and outfielder. She finished with a career batting average of .290 and a 64-47 pitching record.
Upon retiring from professional baseball, she returned home and worked in the offices of the Knoxville Utilities Board. She never married and had no immediate survivors.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report). | <urn:uuid:e2aea624-55a0-4e6a-bae2-9eb49741287f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mlive.com/sports/muskegon/index.ssf/2012/07/former_muskegon_lassies_stando.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988428 | 404 | 1.625 | 2 |
TOLEDO – Students will ultimately be the winners of a promotion by a local auto dealership that put many of their parents behind the wheel to test drive a car.
Through Chrysler’s Drive for the Kids program, Denny Amrhein of Grogan’s Towne presented a $1,500 check Thursday morning to Douglas Road Elementary School Principal Carol Perz.
The money will be used to support a hands-on science curriculum that students in grades kindergarten through five use at the school, Ms. Perz said.
“We already have the science program,” she said. “Now, we can purchase some non-fiction books to go along with it. It will be nice for the students to be able to learn through the hands-on side of it, then read about it.”
It’s the second time the Chrysler’s Drive for Kids program helped earn money for the Bedford Public Schools’ district. Earlier, money was given to the Bedford wrestling program.
The school earned the donation after recruiting people to test drive Chrysler vehicles. Chrysler provided the vehicles, Grogan’s Towne provided the cars and the Parent-Teacher Association helped provide the parents to drive the cars. Chrylser gave $10 for everyone who took a test drive.
“You get the parents in the cars, behind the wheels, and hopefully something hits their hot-button,” Mr. Amrhein said.
Katie Roe represented the PTA at the ceremony, held in the showroom at Grogan’s Towne.
“This is nice because its something parents can do to show they support the school, without having to buy gift wrap or candy or something,” Ms. Perz said. | <urn:uuid:c06f910a-7fe3-4e41-b55d-5e85c35518dc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bedfordnow.com/news/2012/nov/08/douglas-rd-gets-1500-donation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959095 | 371 | 1.523438 | 2 |
A friend of mine reminded me of a post that I wrote many years ago (five, by my reckoning) with which I no longer entirely agree.
The post was entitled, “Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now” and it’s main line of argument was that people should not try to control where their content appears on the web.
My reasoning was threefold. First, if people are citing your content, or, really, reproducing lengthy citations from it, on their site then (a) that may fall under the doctrine of “fair use” and (b) as long as they are attributing it to you and linking back to the original, that should be fine.
Second, I invoked John Perry Barlow and asserted that “giving it away” was the wave of the future and that companies should share content freely and focus on making money from inimitable products or services. As an illustration, I referred the Grateful Dead’s willingness to allow taping at their concerts while charging for attendance at said concerts.
Finally, I argued that, since every page on the web is literally one click away from any other page, the very notion of a “site” is questionable. That is, in a sense, the web is the site, so quibbling about where content appears (on this site or that site) misses something fundamental about how the web works (or, more accurately, how the very nature of the web calls into question the absolute location of any particular piece of content).
Dissenting from Myself
As I mentioned, I wrote the original piece a long time ago and my thoughts on copyright and control of content have in the interim shifted somewhat.
For example, a little over two years ago I started working for an online publisher and came to experience first hand what it’s like when someone scrapes your content and publishes it in it’s entirety to their site (and not always with proper attribution). Aside from blatant issues of copyright infringement, there is an actual business impact to this sort of thievery to the degree that the stealing site reaps the SEO reward of your content, on the one hand, but can also bring Google penalties down on your site for publishing “duplicate content.” (If any SEOs are reading this and I’m getting this wrong, please school me in the comments.)
My thoughts on digital copyright have also been influenced by Robert Levine’s book Free Ride, in which he convincingly argues that, rather than a question of free speech or freedom of information, the people calling most vocally for “freedom of content” are actually huge businesses (Google and Apple, among them) who sell services or products that benefit from unlimited access to content. If you can fill an iPod with music you downloaded illegally from the web, or use Google to find such music, the argument goes, then the content creator’s loss is the gain of Google and Apple.
Finally, I think that, underlying my argument, was the notion that “content is going to be stolen, so don’t build your business around ownership of content,” which is really more an expression of resigned acceptance than an actual argument.
All That’s Solid
We live in a world in which things that used to be concrete—books, records, movies, etc.—and relatively difficult to reproduce and distribute, now exist as configurations of electricity that can be replicated at will and accessed from anywhere. The obstinacy of matter that once offered some protection to works of imagination, intellect, technical proficiency and physical prowess, has evaporated.
We are in the midst of dealing with the repercussions of this technological turn of events and the end is not yet in sight. Organizations and individuals are experimenting with a variety of methods for tracking, tagging and getting paid for access to content, but there is no perfect solution yet that can prevent people from “taking” whatever content they like. In fact, these people can easily feel little guilt for doing so because, in the end, they aren’t “taking” anything at all; they are merely copying or reproducing, as I said, a “configuration of electricity.”
Should someone who has recorded a piece of music or written a book or produced a film be able to control access to their work? I believe that they should.
Can they now? Not entirely.
Will they be able to do so in the future? I am not certain and tend to think that, if the work can be copied and distributed electronically, then it will always be, to a greater or lesser degree, beyond their control.
Image from the Public Domain | <urn:uuid:300b668f-8ca1-49c2-8327-00f47076be97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.matthewtgrant.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958229 | 980 | 1.5 | 2 |
Best Known For
June Carter Cash was a Grammy-winning country singer who was married to and performed with country music star Johnny Cash.
The Carter family had a profound influence on both country music and the life of Johnny Cash. It was Johnny Cash’s love for June Carter that changed the course of his life.
Dolly Parton and producer Chet Atkins laughed for many years about the first time she visited the RCA studio.
Dolly Parton is a beloved country singer, entrepreneur and philanthropist from Tennessee, whose larger-than-life personality and reputation attracts thousands of visitors to her theme park, Dollywood, every year.
In the 1990's, Neil Young joined the grunge band Pearl Jam. Young was also a prime mover in Farm Aid and participated in the 9-11 fundraiser in New York.
Think you know about Biography?
Answer questions and see how you rank against other players.Play Now
Born Valerie June Carter on June 23, 1929, in Maces Springs, Virginia, Cash and her sisters performed as the Carter Sisters, with June singing and playing rhythm guitar. She and Johnny Cash had a number of hits, including "It Ain't Me Babe" and "If I Were a Carpenter." She married Cash in 1968, and their story made it to the big screen in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line 37 years later.
Singer-songwriter June Carter Cash was born Valerie June Carter on June 23, 1929, in Maces Springs, Virginia. The daughter of Ezra Carter and Mother Maybelle Carter, June was a born into the first family of country music. She and her sisters, Helen and Anita, performed as the Carter Sisters, with June singing, playing autoharp and rhythm guitar and keeping audiences entertained with her comedic wit.
In 1952, June married Carl Smith, with whom she performed at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry and had two daughters, Rozanna and Rebecca Carlene. After their divorce, she toured with Elvis Presley and was briefly married to a local police officer, Edwin Nix, with whom she had another daughter, Rosie.
In the mid-1950s, June studied at The Actor's Studio in New York City, landing a role in 1958's Country Music Holiday, as well as guest spots on TV westerns and soap operas. But she returned to music with her mother and sisters in the early 1960s to work with Johnny Cash. June and Johnny had a number of hits, including "It Ain't Me Babe," "Jackson" and "If I Were a Carpenter." She married Cash on March 1, 1968, and their son, John Carter Cash, was born in 1970.
For much of the 1970s and 1980s June's career to a backseat to Johnny's. But in 1999, following what many believed to be her retirement, June reemerged with the album Press On, which won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album. Four years later, Wildwood Flower netted her two Grammys. June won the award for Best Traditional Folk Album and the award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for the song "Keep on the Sunny Side."
June Carter Cash died of complications folllowing heart surgery on May 15, 2003, in Nashville, Tennessee. Later that year, her beloved husband passed away on September 12. Their love story made to the big screen in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line two years later. Actress Reese Witherspoon played June Carter Cash—winning an Academy Award for her portrayal—and Joaquin Phoenix starred her legendary husband.
Two years later, Sheryl Crow, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris and Kris Kristofferson were among the artists who participated in a special tribute recording, Anchored In Love (2007), for June Carter Cash. It was also the title of the biography of her written by her son John Carter Cash published that same year.
© 2013 A+E Networks. All rights reserved.
profile name: June Carter Cash profile occupation:
Sign in with Facebook to see how you and your friends are connected to famous icons.
Your Friends' Connections
Included In These Groups
Truth is often more fascinating than fiction. Since the beginning of movies, actors have been portraying figures from history and bringing them to life on screen. Mastering the well-known mannerisms and characteristics of real world figures can be more challenging than portraying a fictional character. Enormous amounts of research and drastic physical transformations are not uncommon for actors wanting to properly inhabit their role on film. Whether playing a scheming Queen, a country singer, a temperamental boxer, or a pioneering writer, those performers who can accurately play the part often find Oscar gold as their reward. Here are the Academy Award-winning actors, and the larger-than-life people they portrayed.
Oscar-Winning Portrayals 70 people in this group
presented by Oscar-Winning Portrayals
Famous Cancerians 556 people in this group
Famous Singers 715 people in this group | <urn:uuid:d2116364-0d40-4e13-837c-c772d24a2c80> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.biography.com/people/june-carter-cash-16257320?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976186 | 1,039 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Longest Electric Bike In The World
The longest electric bike is 5.2 meters long and can seat nine people. This bike was created in China and its manufacturer has already applied for the Longest Electric Bike official Guinness Record.
This bicycle could carry a big family easily …
Also see: Drinking water in space | <urn:uuid:13234f59-f4a3-4dd7-8f49-5edf51cf85f4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.factsden.com/longest-electric-bike-in-the-world/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967162 | 64 | 1.710938 | 2 |
How come Andhra is left out of the mining loot story ? It is good for the nation if we learn to keep environmental and...
The UN environment report states that Ganga would disappear by 2030.There would be no need to train engineers or even Ganga...
A report published in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology suggests that babies of...
A two-member team of experts from the European Union (EU) has started inspection of the seafood processing units in Kerala as part of the move to review the EU ban on Indian marine-food exports.
About 20 people have been killed in some districts of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh by a mysterious fever caused by an unidentified virus. The virus is believed to cause high fever and vomiting leading to unconsciousness within a day or two followed by death.
The chairperson of the Central Pollution Control Board, Dilip K Biswas, has been awarded the Central Board Irrigation and Power diamond Jubilee award for 1996, in recognition of his expertise and services rendered in the field of environmental management in the water resources sector.
The Delhi government is going to set up four peripheral hospitals at the cost of about Rs 15 crores with a view to cater to the population residing in the outskirts of the capital.
The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has issued notices to 1,006 industrial units in the state discharging their effluents directly or indirectly into rivers or lakes to report about the action taken by them to control pollution or face closure.
The Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) will chair the International Committee on Earth Observation Systems (CEOS). As the new CEOS coordinator till November 1998, ISRO will host the 12th plen-ary of the apex committee next November.
The government of Tamil Nadu may soon enact a legislation to punish parents indulging in female infanticide. S P Sarguna Pandian, the social welfare minister said that in the original draft, only mothers were to be punished, but due to protests, the father of a victim will also be under the preview of the proposed legislation.
Representatives of fishing communities from 32 nations have launched a world forum of fish-harvesters and fishworkers to protect declining fish stocks from commercial fishing fleets. Thomas Kocherry, head of the National Fishworkers' Forum was elected as the chief of the new body. | <urn:uuid:1abe3621-8275-4dde-b05d-116971e6d424> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/25111 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943394 | 489 | 1.664063 | 2 |
for too long, the debate about online discussion has been about the commenters. We need to move away from pointing the finger at pseudonyms or anonymity as the sole problem, because it’s not. Instead the debate needs to shift to what kinds of online communities we are creating because I’m a firm believer that if we build better online communities, we will have better discussions. In fact, I think Beowulf actually said it best when quizzed about his pivotal role in the monetary system debate: “You say it was my idea, [but] it was a group of people — it was really a group thing… It’s fascinating that I can have a bull session with people all over the country.
There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender… identity is performatively constituted by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results. | <urn:uuid:b827e950-910e-4f14-9292-678b7874ff82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://inbonobo.tumblr.com/tagged/identity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974484 | 182 | 1.664063 | 2 |
There are many different types of glass bedroom furniture.
Some common pieces include tables or nightstands with glass tops, hutches or other large pieces with glass in the doors, and vanities with large mirrors or mirrored surfaces for use in bedrooms. There are also a number of Glass Bedroom Furniture pieces that utilize glass or mirrors in doors and other panels on the furniture, usually for aesthetic or practical purposes.
One of the most common types of Glass Bedroom Furniture is table or nightstand that uses a piece of glass as the top surface.
Tables are often found in large bedrooms, especially those that may include sitting area with seats or couch. Nightstands are usually placed on either side of a bed, providing a tabletop and potential storage for those sleeping in the bed. Many of these nightstands and tables use glass tops for more pleasing aesthetic design, often with small supports on each side of the glass or on top of full pedestal beneath the top.
Glass bedroom furniture typically refers to any type of furniture used in bedroom which utilizes pieces of glass as part of the furniture. These pieces often use tempered glass, since it is stronger than many other types of glass and when broken it is less prone to forming large shards. Depending on the style of such glass bedroom furniture, the rest of the piece may be made from another material such as wood or metal.
There are also a number of Glass Bedroom Furniture pieces that use glass for a more ornamental purpose. Vanities and hutches, for example, often feature glass doors that allow someone to see what is within the item without opening it. Many of these pieces may use panels of glass within a larger door on the piece instead, often tinted or frosted glass, for a pleasing appearance that can still protect the contents of the furniture from potentially harmful sunlight. | <urn:uuid:f8fb55bf-3a7b-4bca-8852-20fef9dabb68> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dighomedesign.com/the-different-types-from-stylish-glass-bedroom-furniture.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955161 | 373 | 1.757813 | 2 |
We enlightened folks of the 21st century often look smugly and condescendingly at the gullible people of the 19th century who bought into various forms of "snake oil." But the fact is, they couldn't hold a candle to the ignorance and credulity of our generation. And it's not just homeopathy; it's the majority of nostrums and supplements on the shelves of drugstores and supermarkets. Homeopathy is just the tip of the iceberg, in terms of worthless products and therapies (acupuncture, subluxation, therapeutic touch, magnets, etc.) purported to make us healthier. All they really do is lighten our wallets.
Thanks to a law passed by Republicans in 1994 to please Orrin Hatch's donors in the Utah-based dietary supplement industry, the FDA has been rendered virtually helpless in trying to make sure that pills, tonics, and sprays (That means YOU, "Airborne!") actually are safe and effective. Consequently, most of them aren't. But Americans continue to shell out billions of dollars for substances that have not even been tested, much less approved by any recognized authority. It is perfectly legal, for instance, for someone to bottle mud and sell it as a "mineral supplement," as long as they don't claim, without proof, that it cures disease. The FDA can warn people about it, but they can't prohibit its sale without first proving that it fails to deliver what it promises, which takes years. But for every product that finally gets tested, 20 others hit the market shelves, untested. And we (well, not ME!) are stupid enough to buy them.
Perhaps most discouraging of all, whenever the information put out by the FDA, EPA, CDC, NIH, etc. conflict with ads on TV, the overwhelming majority of Americans believe the ads rather than the science. It's just another example of the disdain Americans have for science. It's why half of all Americans don't believe in evolution.
Check out any of the ads for health support products on TV. Nearly all of them consist mostly of warnings of possible dire effects (to forestall lawsuits); and many of them point out in the tiniest print, that the product hasn't even been tested for efficacy. Still, people spend their hard-earned money on them, despite the fact that they are demonstrably useless, if not downright dangerous.
This pisses me off. It's preying on the ignorant--aparantly a profitable business model. What an embarrassment to our society that we allow this to go on.
I'm struggling with homeopathy with my wife at the moment.... I insist it's complete hokum, and she agrees, and then she buys it anyway because it makes her feel better.
Also, from wikipedia:
Has a 60% probability of containing one molecule of original substance if one mole of the original substance was used.
The dilution is so great that there are no traces of the “active” ingredients remaining. Explained here with humor.
Homeopathy is given credit when in fact people would be cured with or without it. People will give credit to all sorts of false causes. So at best it is a placebo when it 'works' for mild illnesses and it is dangerous when it doesn't for serious illnesses. Homeopathy is just one big logical fallacy, it's the classic post-hoc fallacy.
If homeopathy worked, wouldn't sea water cure everything?
I found a website that is called "How does homeopathy work" Here is the link
Join Think Atheist
Welcome toThink Atheist
Get Started Nowor Sign In
Or sign in with:
Started by Mercedes in Welcome to Think Atheist. Last reply by Bo Fowler 1 minute ago.
Posted by Cathy Cooper on May 17, 2013 at 10:00am
May 11, 2013 at 12pm to May 18, 2013 at 6pm – Stillpoint Farm, MD
May 20, 2013 from 7pm to 9pm – Level
Added by Dan
Check out our new mobile/tablet version of Think Atheist! www.ThinkAtheist.com/m
© 2013 Created by Morgan Matthew.
Report an Issue |
Terms of Service
Please check your browser settings or contact your system administrator. | <urn:uuid:44a999df-91cb-4ad4-bca6-b4ad200e419b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thinkatheist.com/photo/homeopathy-at-cvs?commentId=1982180%3AComment%3A1248759&xg_source=activity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952457 | 882 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Glenn Llopis, Contributor
I share the immigrant perspective on leadership & workplace innovation
As organizations seek to find new ways to capture sustainable business growth, the estimated $1.2 trillion dollars of Hispanic consumer purchasing power in 2012 represents a time-sensitive opportunity for America’s corporations to earn this powerful relationship. Creating and sustaining momentum with this rapidly growing consumer segment is key, yet risky if not executed properly. In fact, many brands have tried to market to Hispanics, yet have failed miserably losing millions of dollars along the way. These unsuccessful attempts have proven that Hispanic consumers are looking for brands to create greater cultural affinity and to listen to their needs more carefully. As a group of participants shared with me at a Hispanic Consumer Roundtable event my company recently hosted, “If you take the time to know me you will not need to sell me.”
Hispanics in the United States are growing frustrated with how brands represent their voice and identity in their marketing, public relations, social media campaigns and grassroots efforts. The success of any campaign effort to Latino consumers will be measured by how well brands authentically embrace and become an integral part of what matters most to the Latino community at-large. Simply put, Hispanics don’t want to be sold – they want brand owners to help advance their voice, respectability and opportunities for their families in America. Savvy Latino consumers are making one thing clear: “Respect our voice and help create opportunities for advancement to earn our trust and vote of confidence.” Brands must focus on ways to enable Hispanics in America, helping them discover their full potential – as leaders and small business owners, as parents and students, as anything they want to be – by leveraging their Hispanic heritage.
Here are a couple of ways brands can earn the respect, trust and loyalty of Hispanic consumers.
1. Become an Integral part of the Hispanic voice – Communicate with Hispanics, Not at Them
Don’t force Hispanics to speak like your brand. Get to know Hispanics and their cultural nuances so you can begin to position your brand as an advocate of their community. By ignoring the Hispanic voice, you minimize the value of the Hispanic consumer mind share. Believing that your brand will overpower the Hispanic voice because of how it has been accepted in the mainstream market weakens the credibility of your efforts.
The key is to communicate with Hispanic consumers, not alienate them. Help Hispanics find their path toward advancement by helping them overcome the hurdles they face. For example, the Center for Hispanic Leadership has partnered with organizations to provide Hispanic consumers the culturally tailored professional/personal development and career tools to help them succeed at work or advance in their personal lives. Hispanics are confused about whom to trust, what to invest in and how best to commit their time. Therefore they are more inclined to start trusting a brand that genuinely cares and invests in their advancement. Unfortunately, most brands that have attempted this only do it with words (selling hope), but not with actions and real tools that can measurably advance the Hispanic individual or community along with the brand owners.
Hispanics want brands to embrace their cultural identity and lifestyle needs in ways that naturally connect to their cultural values. Hispanic consumers want to be an authentic part of your brand promise, rather than be forced to believe a promise that doesn’t resonate culturally. This fact alone makes it a business and societal imperative for brands to invest in earning a trustworthy relationship with Hispanic consumers. Until you embrace this approach for your brand’s success and begin to show genuine intention in the Hispanic market will you be headed in the right direction. Intention is more powerful than you think as long as you act on it. It gets you closer to earning the trust your brand desperately needs to dominate your industry. Doing it the old way hurts your brand and is a waste of time and money.
2. Don’t Marginalize Hispanic Consumers – Empower Their Identity
Don’t allow your brand to define Hispanics, let Hispanic consumers help define your brand for themselves and their community. For example, on the political front, politicians have destroyed their credibility with Hispanics by solely associating their identity with Immigration Reform and the fate of the Dream Act. Hispanics interpret this behavior as a sign of disrespect and thus are growing uncertain about voting in the 2012 Presidential election.
Hispanics want to align themselves with brands that strengthen their identity. Stop believing that your Hispanic focus groups are necessarily revealing the truth or properly guiding your brand initiatives. Perhaps you are not asking them the right questions? This is the case most of the time because the brand owners don’t really know what they are looking for other than market share. Hispanic consumers are most transparent and become incredibly valuable for your brand when they believe your brand can be trusted. However, this trust must be earned not by your efforts to “pay for their voice” but rather showing them that you genuinely care about empowering their voice.
This is why Latino consumers have not yet forged strong alliances and loyalty with most brands and they have every reason to feel this way. Remember, Hispanics in America are fighting to hold onto their cultural identity and this gets lost when their voice is marginalized.
Hispanics believe they have heard it all before from brands that don’t understand them. This requires brands to change the conversation; change their approach and build a more meaningful and purposeful relationship with Hispanics whose community desires leadership. | <urn:uuid:62801028-5d06-4f3b-9435-d29c7dd51d15> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2012/04/02/earn-the-trust-of-hispanic-consumers-and-your-brand-will-dominate/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962898 | 1,105 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Old trams and buses converted into cultural venues in Mexico City
In Mexico City, old trams and buses are being converted into new venues for plays, mobile libraries, community centres and even shops.
The idea is to bring different forms of culture to people that may otherwise never have access to it.
David Cuen reports.
Video produced by Ignacio de los Reyes | <urn:uuid:33a6c79c-c193-49af-afcd-53835fe44ea5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19546328 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960937 | 76 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Dear Debt Adviser,
My credit score is 600. I plan to pay off my home completely. This will eliminate a major debt. How much will this improve my credit score?
How did you end up with a credit score of 600? Was it because you paid your mortgage late? My guess is no. So if you eliminate your mortgage, that still leaves the reason for the terrible score. That is where you need to focus your efforts if you want to improve matters.
Even if the cause of your low credit score is because of past credit problems with your mortgage, paying off the loan will not dramatically improve your score. However, if the mortgage loan is a positive item -- meaning you have never had any late payments and always paid as agreed -- then paying it off may give your credit score a little boost. And the paid-off mortgage loan will remain on your credit reports for 20 years, which will be a positive for your credit score moving forward.
In order to improve your credit score, I suggest you address the underlying cause of the low score first before you decide to pay off your mortgage loan. From a credit-scoring standpoint, it may be a wiser use of your money to pay off any unpaid delinquent accounts that appear on your credit report. My guess is the collapse of your score was caused by the initial and ongoing late or short payments for accounts on your report. So, while paying them off will not immediately raise your credit score, it will end the negative reporting and start you on the road to credit recovery.
However, if you leave those delinquent accounts unpaid, you may not qualify for an affordable auto loan, insurance, job or other credit-related life opportunities that may arise in the future. Lenders and insurers are more likely to avoid doing business with folks who have not paid their bills. This also is true for employers, who now frequently look at the credit reports of potential employees before hiring.
You didn't say what score scale your 600 fell on. If your credit score is a VantageScore (scores range from 501 to 990), then you have a grade equivalent of a D for a credit score. If your credit score is a FICO score (scores range from 300 to 850) then your score is in the bottom quartile of the national score distribution and well below the median score of 723. Both scoring models give the past 12 to 24 months of credit history more weight, so if you concentrate on adding new positive information to your credit reports, your credit score could recover nicely in two years.
A better score is easy to build. Just make sure you pay your current accounts on time and as agreed every month. Add new credit only as you need and can afford it. If you don't have any current, open, positive accounts on your credit reports, you may consider opening a secured credit card account and an installment loan. Pay off your credit card balance each month or at the least keep the balance well below 25 percent of the credit limit. If you can, open a passbook savings loan with your bank to add an installment loan to your credit reports. Just be sure your bank reports the account to the major credit bureaus. If they don't, look for a secured loan from a bank that does.
Consider your entire credit, emergency savings and goals before you pay off that mortgage. Then give yourself two years to improve your credit score, and you should be pleased with the results. | <urn:uuid:26e9cd48-85d7-4315-a4e6-4285fb44d269> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/12/05/will-paying-off-mortgage-raise-600-credit-score/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958806 | 701 | 1.515625 | 2 |
"Marxism, Baathism and the Torah in Riyadh”
Sultan Al-Qahtani reported in Elaph, a pan-Arab website, on March 5 that: “During the past few days that passed, Saudi Arabians could read Marxists and Baathists books and buy copies of the Torah and Bible in their home town of Riyadh where the majority follow a conservative vision of the Muslim religion.
This occurred during the past few days of the opening of the ‘International Riyadh book fair’ in a bold step by the Saudi government that revealed the extent of the fast rhythm of reform in the petrol rich Kingdom.
A decade or two ago, finding books that are prohibited in the country was not conceivable. For almost a week or more, Saudi males and females wondered around the cultural exhibition halls holding heavy bags filled with books that they will not find after the end of the exhibition in their libraries.”
Al-Qahtani continued: “Observers found Riyadh’s position to be [based on] multiple standards; allowing what is banned for a few days then returning the ban until the next round of the fair.
Saudi critics observing the consequences of the different reform steps of the Saudi government since the events of September 11 see the Saudi cultural and Information Ministry as attempting to balance the Saudi government, headed by the Saudi king Abdullah Bin Abdel Aziz, that is encouraging openness and the religious clerics that claim that the steps [diverge from] the conservative line in the country considered to be the cradle of Islam.
“The [information] Ministry and its minister are moving in a field of suspicions along two conflicting paths; the pressure to increase the open initiatives supported by the liberal movements and those from the conservative Muslim movements that have already instigated many attacks on the Saudi Minister, the latest of which reached the extent of the demand to dispose of him following the bold steps that that he took with the TV programs that the first official channel broadcast in the country; [the critics issued a] warning ‘concerned leaders of his dangers and plans’.
”Al Qahtani concluded: “The Saudis spent around $50 million in the international book fair during the short period of ten days making it the biggest Gulf fair... For the first time, Saudi’s experienced the culture of live book signing by the authors.
Moreover, the majority of the publishing houses did not shut down their exhibition [spaces] during prayer times as all places do in Saudi Arabia due to an absence of the moral religious police that follows up on these issues and described as the moral ruler of the country.
Consequently, Arab intellectuals visited the halls at different times while repeating that the fair is like a liberal space inside a wide ‘conservative’ circle that the Saudi capital Riyadh is known for.”
- Elaph, United Kingdom
posted by Maha at 9:05 AM 0 comments | <urn:uuid:6c0150de-0036-4a2e-b788-db7bf0fe3651> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.elaphblog.com/posts.aspx?u=120&A=32353 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956936 | 604 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Original recipes from De honesta voluptate:
Elderberry Pie. Mix with elder flowers all the things which we have noted for white pie. The latter mixture ought to be, however, thicker than the former, because the flowers are distributed throughout. Although this dish is of little nourishment and is digested slowly, nevertheless it makes those eating it frequently happier. Let Caelius eat this, who surpasses Saturn in melancholy. (Milham, 367)
White Pie. Pound well a pound and a half of the best fresh cheese, cut up especially fine. When it is pounded, mix in twelve to fifteen egg whites, a half pound of sugar, a half ounce of white ginger, a half pound of pork fat, the same of fresh butter, and as much milk as will be enough. When you have spread a thin pastry crust in an earthenware pot, put in all these things. When it has been placed on the hearth, cook on a slow fire. Put coals on the top of the lid so that it will become more colored. When it is cooked and taken from this pot, sprinkle ground sugar with rose water on it. This is very nourishing, is digested slowly, warms the liver, but it causes blockages, generates stone, and is bad for eyes and nerves. (Milham, 363)
Modern recipe: Elder Flower White Pie
Add the mixture to a pre-baked pie shell and bake for 40 minutes. When the oil from the pie separates on the top, remove it from the oven and sprinkle it with the extra sugar and optionally with a few drops of rosewater. Place the pie briefly under the broiler and brown the sugar on the top lightly (or use a kitchen torch to brown the top and caramelize the sugar slightly). Cool the pies to room temperature before cutting. The pie will set as it cools.
Per serving nutritional information:
328 Calories; 23g Fat (64% calories from fat); 9g Protein; 21g Carbohydrate; 43mg Cholesterol; 104mg Sodium
Notes on the recipe:
This recipe represents a somewhat fattier version of today's traditional baked cheesecakes. There's a good chance this recipe would be made similarly to today's ricotta-based cakes (sometimes called "Italian cheesecakes"), which, along with their creamed-cheese counterparts, are really more rich and dense custards than flour-based "cakes" as we might think of today.
The instructions Platina gives us are fairly straightforward. Take your cheese and make sure it's creamy (this is the pounding), add to it some egg whites, sugar, ginger, pork fat, butter, and milk and mix all ingredients well. In an alternate version of the pie, elder flowers (not elder berries as the recipe title suggests) are also added. Everything is put in a pastry crust, baked, lightly browned on top, and finally sprinkled with sugar and rose water prior to serving.
It is possible that when Platina states "the latter mixture ought to be thicker than the former" is because the elder flowers require an evenly distributed suspension. Contrary to some researchers' opinions, we do not believe Platina is informing the cook that the mixture's addition of elder flowers will result in a thicker product. Our experience does not indicate this actually happens.
Although whipping the egg whites is not a specified step in any part of this recipe, some cooks may wish to whip them to soft, white peaks and fold them into the cheese mixture to lighten the texture of the pie. We found the texture of the pies to be suitable without this step.
Fresh vs. dry ginger:
The fresh ginger gives this recipe an added je ne sais quoi that simply can't be imitated by the powdered spice. Do not try to substitute the dried powder for the freshly minced root as the powder will make the dish slightly bitter. If you can't find the fresh root in the vegetable section of a grocery store, try looking in the ethnic food section near the Asian offerings. Preserved, unsweetened, and pre-minced ginger often comes in jars, though its cost is usually prohibitive.
Additional notes on this recipe may be found at: The Coronation Feast of Dag IV & Elayna II
Milham, Mary Ella. Platina's On Right Pleasure and Good Health. University of North Carolina at Asheville: Pegasus Press, 1999. ISBN: 0866982086.
Gaylin Walli is a technical writer and editor for a multinational software company. She spends the vast majority of her personal time researching things because her friends (and people throughout the known world) torture her with comments like "Do you know anything about..."
A Boke of Gode CookeryThe Historical Cookery Page
Torta Sambucea © 2000 Gaylin J. Walli | This page © 2000 James L. Matterer
Historical Cookery Page
ALL GODE COOKERY RECIPES
Please visit The Gode Cookery Bookshop | This site hosted by Visual Presence | <urn:uuid:27bbad77-4074-4768-919d-ad9372b62c82> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.godecookery.com/friends/frec73.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935296 | 1,046 | 1.617188 | 2 |
A Nerd's Take On The Future Of News Media
There are a lot of new technologies which already affect news consumption and future business models. As a nerd, I'm excited by the new tech, particularly mobile, including new display systems and pervasive connectivity.
However, the tech is secondary, not nearly as important as repairing some current issues with trust and curation.
As a news media guy, I'm an amateur, relying on large part on people who really know the business. Frequent engagement in social media helps, and most importantly, 14 years in online customer service gives me a good feel for the ground truth and attitude online.
Trust is the new black, as I like to say. The great opportunity for news organizations is to constructively demonstrate trustworthy reporting, and to visibly do so.
News curation, that is, selecting what's news and should be visible, that's an equally big deal.
Here's the deal...
An increasingly media savvy online public sees that recent major problems involved some really good journalism, particularly the current financial crisis, and also that "weapons of mass destruction" thing. Good reporters told us that something was amiss in both situations, and we did see some really good journalism in both cases.
However, the really good journalism was buried, not curated into the front pages, and then, infrequently if at all repeated. As news consumers, if big news is not prominently displayed, and then repeated, it's a tree falling in the forest.
So, these major news organizations reported on matters of great importance to the world, but the curation model failed to really warn the public about those issues, in any way that genuinely delivered the message.
Many of us feel that professional news curation, editing, failed us deeply. We still hope that this approach will be viable in the future, and I feel it'll happen.
It's a cliche now, but I hear that the kids don't look for professionally curated news, they feel that news will find them. Yakov Smirnoff style: old model, you find news; new model, news finds you. That is, we would look around for a newspaper or TV news show previously; now, we subscribe to the Twitter or Facebook feeds of those friends who have a passion for news. I see this everyday in the feeds I read.
The new model for news curation and selection, I feel, will be a balance of professional editing and collaborative news filtering. In one incarnation, news organizations will look at feeds from highly respected news fans, and that will drive stories that are featured more prominently.
Now, remember that "trust is the new black."
The contemporary model for trustworthiness is "objectivity" but the commonplace observation is that it's failed to inspire trust. That is, the audience just doesn't trust news organizations overall, with some exceptions. (It's also a common observation that many news leaders aren't listening to this, which is difficult news to process.)
One reason for this loss of faith is the failure of curation; per above, people ask about the lack of sustained warnings regarding big stories like the two cited previously.
Another is a failure that a number of commentators have perceived, that "objectivity" is a major destroyer of trust.
In presenting two sides of a story, news organizations will allow both sides to present their positions. That sounds fair, but it's common practice to give those opportunities to "front groups," or "astroturfers," people who are paid to deceive the public in specific matters. This has been very well investigated, documented, and reported. It's a major problem in the public forum, for example, in the health care reform debate, badly hurting our country.
However, most of the reporting has been confined to one-day reports in niche publications like The Consumerist, a vehicle of Consumer Reports, one of the most trusted publications in America. Consumerist did a great report based on research by the Center for Media and Democracy. (Disclaimer: for that reason, I've joined the Consumer Reports board.)
This is a challenge, and an opportunity.
The successful news organizations of the future will pursue models for news curation/selection which is a hybrid of professional editing and collaboration among talented consumers.
A major opportunity is to be found by rejecting the involvement of professional disinformation groups. New models for fairness in reporting will balance the current vision. That's probably captured in the statement that "transparency is the new objectivity."
The deal is that the future of news organizations will be determined by emergent trends which are already visible. There's a lot of challenge there, which is to say, lots of opportunity.
Read original article at Huffington Post | <urn:uuid:ef28d863-1c2a-4a76-832d-039ebcddfae6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://namac.org/node/15548 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970169 | 968 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The Department of Communications is hosting the event, which is endorsed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the United Nations' leading information and technology agency.
The conference has identified six critical sectors in driving the ICT as a tool for development: education; health; infrastructure; agri business; trade and extractive industries. Hundreds of international delegates from Africa, Europe, Asia and South America; business people leading ICT companies and government representatives, are some of the participants. African Union Regulators from more than 50 countries on the continent have also been invited. Main aim
The main aim of the ICT Indaba is to reposition South Africa and the continent at large as a beacon of ICT excellence and achievement.
SABC's spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago says, "The Corporation's partnership at the event presents an opportunity for it to position itself as a leader in broadcasting, focused on educating the South African public about the ICT sector and the impact it has on their everyday lives. As the official partner and national broadcaster, it is central to the migration to digital terrestrial television (DTT) and the Indaba will provide a platform to inform South African citizens and the continent on the developments and the technological advancement that South Africa has embarked on, in preparation for DTT.
"The partnership will provide the SABC with access to the content under discussion during the event, which will be broadcast through SABC radio and TV platforms."
It also allows the SABC to position itself as a leading broadcaster within the continent and the world.Programming
- SABC 1, Shift: 4-5 June 1.30-2.30pm will focus on ICT Indaba
- SABC 1 - Matrics Uploaded: 4-7 June 2.30-3pm will highlight technology interventions
- SABC 2 - Life 24/7: 17 June will provide an insert on new media and technology
- SABC 3 - Espresso: 5 June 2012, will dedicate a show to the ICT Indaba
- SABC 3 - 3-Talk: 5 June talk on technology as a means of communication
- SABC NEWS will do live crossings from the ICT Indaba in Cape Town with Vuyo Mvoko doing updates and interviews from the ICT Indaba
- SABC Digital News will provide on-site coverage
- Umhlobo Wenene FM - 4 June 1-3pm will provide full coverage
- Trufm - 4-7 June will cross over to the ICT Indaba in Cape Town and provide daily wrap-up events
- Thobela FM - 4-7 June 7-9am Morning Drive will do updates from the ICT Indaba in Cape Town; 12-3pm; history feature on technology development; 5 June: 8-9pm on how the ICT Indaba will speed up DTT migration and how the migration will help in job creation. 6 & 7 June: Morning Drive Show 7-9am update and wrap up | <urn:uuid:021a0ce8-2618-4014-ba7f-a192707b56ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/66/76262.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94418 | 614 | 1.585938 | 2 |
SplurgeDIY fungi garden offers easy entry into indoor urban farming
This DIY fungi garden offers an easy entry into urban farming, from the comfort of your own house, apartment or condo.
This is indoor urban farming at its easiest. I sliced open a Back to the Roots kit (mushroom spores in recycled coffee grounds plus a mister), soaked it overnight, misted it twice a day and quickly grew a small oyster mushroom crop. Find kits (guaranteed, and $19.99 to $24.99) at Loblaws, Whole Foods Market, and some Zehrs and small shops. Post a Facebook photo of your mushrooms and the company (founded by two UC Berkeley grads) will donate a kit to an elementary school of your choice.
- Updated Wedding gift spat spirals out of control after bride demands to see receipt
- Toronto man sentenced to 9 years in Cuba on corruption charges
- Video TWA Flight 800 crash was caused by missile, say ex investigators
- Rob Ford case could get Supreme Court green light tomorrow
- My first Brazilian wax: My mother was right
- Saudi women jailed for trying to help a Canadian woman
- Video Updated Bob Rae stepping down as Liberal MP
- NEW Dwane Casey to return as Raptors coach next season
Do your begonias make the neighbours gasp? Are your prize-winning roses something to behold? Send us your snaps of your garden in bloom. | <urn:uuid:2c672b3e-3920-4910-853b-804d91591a25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thestar.com/life/food_wine/2012/10/18/splurgediy_fungi_garden_offers_easy_entry_into_indoor_urban_farming.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936263 | 294 | 1.601563 | 2 |
I remember when I started writing about the tidelands tax — the residents with docks on the bay were quiet. Oh, Mike Henn, it is a tax, but I agree with you on no boycott of the parade. I mentioned that once the commercial, marina and yacht clubs were taxed, the city would be coming after the residential docks. Well, the time has come.
In most other harbors, the property owners paying tideland taxes receive benefits such as docks, bulkheads, parking and dredging. Yet in Newport Harbor, the property owners have to pay for everything, and do not mention the useless eel grass mitigation program. Guess what — after you dredge, the eel grass grows back, so why the costly, unproductive mitigation program?
However, I digress. Where does the current tidelands revenue go now? We need to see an accounting of where that money is spent — hopefully it is not funding the ocean lifeguards' unfunded pension liability.
Raising the tax to the fair market value is subjective and not quantitative in real terms. The reason is that there is a huge difference in calculating the tax for Newport Harbor versus other harbors. First, those who buy a piece of property with a dock will pay a lot more for the purchase price, and thus pay more in property tax. So a $2-million waterfront property without a dock pays 1% (excluding assessments, etc.) of property assessment, which calculates to be a minimum of $20,000 a year in property tax. Yet if that same property had a dock, the property valve would increase to $2.5 million. Now, the lucky property owner will pay $25,000 in property tax, dredging, dock repair, et al.
Second, and very important, is that the property owner paying the tidelands tax will receive no increase in benefits or services. Will the city repair the owner's dock, dredge the slip or help with seawall repairs? Nope.
However, I do have an issue with Bob McCaffrey and his Stop the Dock Tax organization boycotting the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade. I was known as the voice of the parade for years, and the parade is organized by the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce, not the city.
By boycotting the parade, Bob and his group are hurting the homeowners and businesses that this very tax is hurting. The parade is an economic shot in the arm to local businesses and a wonderful event for people to watch and enjoy. Why would this organization attack the parade to make a statement to the city? You are only hurting your allies, and maybe decreasing, a little, the sales tax revenue to the city.
This is the wrong tactic and it hurts the wrong people. How can boycotting the parade change the tidelands tax discussion? I understand that most people do not know that the Chamber of Commerce organizes the parade, yet attacking the parade? Really? This organization has lost my support by trying to hurt our local businesses and ruin a tradition of more than 100 years. Take your issue to the City Council, not the people of the harbor area.
I do not understand why the chamber, and especially the Marine Committee, has been quiet on this important issue. The chamber and its Marine Committee should be vocal, yet I have not seen any commentary or letters to the editor from the chamber. Sad state of affairs when a dock tax is being raised and there is a call to boycott the parade, but no word from our local chamber.
Tip of the week is the Daily Pilot's 103 list is being prepared and there is a call for nominations. After finally making the list last year, I am now once again excluded. The reason is that a columnist for the Pilot cannot be considered for the list.
Lastly, my captain's hat is off to the loss of life to one of our Coast Guard crew members on the Halibut. As I have mentioned in previous columns, the drug smugglers are dangerous running in our waters and now they have killed a Coastie. My prayers are with his family, friends and workmates.
It is time to secure our waterfront borders, and recreational boaters are targets as well.
And don't forget: Tune in to the No. 1 boating radio talk show in the nation, Capt. Mike Whitehead's "Boathouse Radio Show," broadcasting coast-to-coast on the CRN Digital Talk Radio syndicated network at noon Saturdays and replayed at 10 a.m. Sundays.
MIKE WHITEHEAD is a boating columnist for the Daily Pilot. Send marine-related thoughts and story suggestions to [email protected] or go to http://www.boathousetv.com. | <urn:uuid:aac31a78-2424-49fc-b289-950bbdcd168d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.southbendtribune.com/topic/tn-hbi-1206-from-the-boathouse-20121205,0,3590672.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965775 | 976 | 1.546875 | 2 |
By Monica Alonzo
By Ray Stern
By New Times Staff
By Stephen Lemons
By Chris Parker
By Monica Alonzo
By Stephen Lemons
By Robrt L. Pela
It is easy to believe that the police officers enjoyed these occasions enormously. Zaler can be very irritating.
He has perfected an oily, obsequious manner. He will solicit an opinion feverishly and then agree with nearly everything that is said to him. Afterward, observers say, he usually does whatever he had been planning to do originally, as though his advisers had never spoken.
If all this bowing and boneheadedness alienated some members of the Better America Committee, Zaler's approach played much better to the masses. Even his slick emotionalism couldn't disguise his personal commitment to the cause of civil rights.
Although sometimes his enthusiasm, heartfelt as it was, was very goofy. "Peace is everywhere but in Jerusalem and Phoenix!" Zaler expounded to Evan Mecham during a television debate, in the days before Saddam Hussein was a problem. He went on to challenge Mecham to cultivate the peacemaking abilities of Richard Nixon when the former president had made diplomatic inroads into China. "I am asking you to have that same bold vision of leadership [in relationship to Martin Luther King Day]! Let the Middle East be the only place left with problems!"
At other times, Zaler was far more inspiring. These were the occasions when he surfaced as the only pro-MLK Day leader who was willing to cut to the ugly heart of Arizona's racism.
"Evan Mecham has forced people from different backgrounds, different cultures, different colors to work together," he told a group of students at NAU. "He made people think about quiet racism when he would shrug his shoulders and say, `I didn't think that was a bad term to use, be it "pickaninny" or "wetback." I didn't think there was anything wrong with attacking Ed Buck because he is a homosexual. I don't think anything was wrong, Arnie, when I told you before our debate last year, "Gee, you are a lot nicer than any other Jew I have ever met."'
"It is that kind of quiet racism that Mecham has brought back to the front burner of Arizona politics. And it is important. Because too many of us went on to the Seventies and Eighties and forgot what it was all about. We forgot the message. We gave up."
Arnie Zaler made it clear that he would never give up about the Martin Luther King holiday. Says Ida Steele, an organizer in the black community, "When a lot of people would get discouraged, he still had a lot of energy. Arnie motivated you."
Perhaps it was because he was so motivated himself--not only by his personal history, but by the public relations firm he had hired privately to promote his company Softie. Francine Hardaway and her husband Wayne Zink, of Hardaway Connections, always seemed to be at Zaler's elbow during his MLK Day dealings. This state of affairs did not endear him to the MLK-BAC. Already some members were perceiving him as a gentleman who loved the limelight, and now he was accompanied by his own promoter to meetings! Already he was admitting openly that he hoped to run for political office in the future!
Hardaway and Zink say they never appeared on the scene to get Zaler elected to anything. Instead, their interest in the MLK holiday reaches back more than three years to the time when they began working for free on its behalf. At that time, the MLK effort primarily amounted to an intention by the black community to persuade the state legislature to declare a holiday, and the matter had stalled, hung up by an inability to agree on a way to address the issue. Later, Hardaway and Zink had picked up Zaler and Softie as a client because of a mutual interest in the holiday.
Even Hardaway admits that it's difficult for Zaler to avoid the appearance of self-promotion. She says, "Arnie is on an ego trip. But he is also committed to the issue of civil rights and he has spent thousands and thousands of dollars of his own money. People are a lot of things at the same time."
After its years of volunteer work, Hardaway Connections hoped to be hired by the MLK-BAC to take the campaign forward. It didn't happen.
Last August, Mecham and his minions collected 71,000 signatures; the signatures forced a voter referendum on the paid MLK Day that the state legislature, after fifteen years of hedging, had finally established in May. To Hardaway's surprise, the business of selling a Martin Luther King Day to the public by November went to Nelson Ralston Robb, for the fee of $50,000 plus commissions from TV sales, which forced the total much higher. (Robb says this fee is about half what he usually charges for statewide campaigns.)
Hardaway and Zink continued to work with Zaler, however, and to regard the passage of Proposition 302 with such a proprietary interest that they still refer to it as "their" campaign. They admit they are not objective about the strategy Robb chose. "It would have been nice to get paid for the work we'd been doing for free," Hardaway admits. For his part, Robb had also worked for free for the MLK-BAC during its early months of lobbying for the holiday at the legislature. He and Hudgins both say Robb asked not to be considered for the job when it became clear that a campaign was needed. But in the end, Nelson Ralston Robb seemed the most geared up to design a campaign in a hurry, Hudgins says.
Find everything you're looking for in your city
Find the best happy hour deals in your city
Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%
Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city | <urn:uuid:6ff4056a-cdc9-4178-97a4-f7f4d15ce5c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1995-12-05/news/who-killed-king/4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.988804 | 1,248 | 1.695313 | 2 |
On Monday, the winner of the 2008 Nobel prize in economics will be announced. That statement is not quite true: there is no Nobel prize in economics, merely a more recent prize established in memory of Alfred Nobel.
The existence of a quasi-Nobel in economics infuriates some. One objection is that Nobel himself would not have approved. I do not much care. A more serious objection is that economics is not incontrovertibly a science, but then neither is peace or literature.
Nor am I convinced that the economics Nobel is, as some claim, an instrument for the enforcement of orthodoxy. The prize committee has been broad-minded, occasionally even daring. The prize has gone to Keynesians such as James Tobin and to Friedmanites such as, um, Milton Friedman, to a psychologist (Daniel Kahneman), a mathematician (John Nash) and to the unclassifiable Herbert Simon.
The rest of this column can be read here. Please post comments below. | <urn:uuid:dc83432f-9e88-4ec1-b26c-efcfcd745f93> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.ft.com/undercover/2008/10/why-are-some-prizes-more-nobel-than-others/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936526 | 199 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Storm Theunissen recently embarked on an interesting little experiment: She tried parting out her body to see how much it was worth. Obviously there were some limitations on the scheme, as she mainly focused on selling the things she could part with without, you know, dying, but along the way she learned some fascinating things about the global organ and tissue trade, donor shortages and more.
She also raises some interesting questions about the worth of a body itself, not just the person occupying it, something I’ve been thinking about ever since reading Mary Roach’s “Stiff,” which is a fascinating look into the world of cadavers, if you’re into that kind of thing1.
As Roach pointed out, your body can go on to do all sorts of useful things after death, from educating medical students to helping with the development of better safety equipment. Think of it as added value.
Theunissen started her project with the world's oldest profession, working as a lapdancer to get a taste of the sex industry. She noted that many clubs exploit their dancers, promising high nightly pay that's only really achievable for a handful of dancers. Unfortunately, she didn't probe deeper into the sex industry; she didn't, for example, work as an escort as part of her project.
After that, she delved into selling body parts.
Theunissen points out that there is a black market in organs and other human tissues, illustrating a demonstrated need for them. Worldwide, thousands of people die each year waiting for organs, and a number of nations have tried to come up with innovative ways to increase donor participation to meet the need.
Even with these measures in place, gaps in supply and demand will continue, because you can’t get an organ from just anyone.
The “red market,” as it’s known, in human organs, tissues, and other products preys particularly on the Global South, where impoverished people sell blood and plasma along with organs like kidneys. Theunissen’s take on the situation comes from a very different perspective, but her findings are still important, and will hopefully expose audiences (she made a documentary) to issues they may not have thought about before.
She started, she explains, with trying to sell her hair. Knowing that human hair wigs can fetch a hefty sum, especially with hair that hasn’t been dyed or chemically treated, she expected to be able to sell her hair for a comparable amount, but instead she was offered a paltry sum, merely 5 percent of what a wig made with her hair could potentially cost a consumer on the other end.
When she looked into selling body fluids, she found similarly low rates, despite the fact that labs will pay substantially larger sums for fluids used in research.
Her eggs were probably her biggest moneymaker, but unfortunately, as she discovered, the older you are, the less desirable your eggs, and of course you have to go through a lengthy screening before you’ll be considered as a donor.
As with other forms of living tissue donation, officially donors can only be compensated for their time in the United Kingdom, where Theunissen conducted her experiment. For that reason, she looked into selling her eggs in the States, where we’re more free-wheeling about that kind of thing, but also much more choosy: Hey, if you’re gonna pay $15,000 a pop, you want to make sure you’re getting the best possible goods.
As in the red market for human organs and tissue products in the Global South, Theunissen ran up against the middlemen who actually control the market. She wasn’t allowed to sell directly to end consumers, which forced her to go through contracting firms that handle collection and storage. As the literal provider of the product being bought and sold, she stood to make a relatively small amount of money, while her fluids, skin, and other “donated” products could fetch higher and higher sums as they moved up the supply chain to an end consumer.
It’s a creepy thing to think about, the idea that you may someday benefit from human tissue products without knowing who they came from and where they went along their way. And it’s something that’s becoming a pressing issue as the demand for organs and tissue products rises, while donor numbers still remain sluggish.
Even among people who want to donate, there can be considerable red tape, from difficulty donating blood if you have the wrong personal history to family members who aren’t aware of your intent when you die.
If she died, she noted, she could be parted out and sold for around $250,000 on the open market. While you can’t pay for organs in the United States, skin, bone and other types of tissue are freely sold and used in operating rooms across the country for grafts, cosmetic treatments and other purposes. This is a sizable chunk of the medical industry, including a number of major firms with heavy influence in the market that are eager to keep developing new uses for human tissue products.
One reason pricing is so high, of course, is because of the limited supply, but it’s notable to see who ultimately benefits from that pricing and who does not. Living donors selling parts of themselves to survive are typically making a pittance, turning to sale of their fluids and body parts as a last resort, while donors doing so with altruistic means in mind can still face a heavy cost in terms of potential complications.
There’s no easy solution to the shortage of donated materials, or to the pricing problem. Whether barring people from selling their own tissues, initiating price controls, mandating cadaver donation except in special cases or creating nationalized organ and tissue banks, proposals for addressing the issue aren't simple, and don't offer a magic bullet. Potential objections range from religious restrictions on cadaver donation to pragmatic concerns about whether medical companies will continue to develop products in a highly restricted market where they have to worry about their bottom line.
One thing is for certain: We need to stop living in a world where people have to auction off their own body parts to make a living.
1. And I totally am. Return | <urn:uuid:dc2bae44-82cb-4393-848c-80158904d2ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.xojane.com/issues/storm-theunissens-selling-herself-not-way-you-think | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972522 | 1,303 | 1.796875 | 2 |
“Wisdom begins in wonder.”
I have worked in the field of Health Education for the past 30 years. The work I do now is a synthesis of my experience.
Initially the work I did focussed on the ‘problem areas’ of children’s health such as drugs and sexual health. I moved onto training around diversity with the emphasis on celebrating our uniqueness and culture. I realised that I missed working with children as the focus and came back into promoting health education for children and young people.
The journey that I have taken in health education has helped me realise that where we put our focus is where we get results.
In my experience I found that focussing on negative behaviours resulted in creating more of these negative behaviours- (increase in drug use and inappropriate sexual behaviour) whereas focussing on the positive (celebrating who we are and our uniqueness) created more understanding and acceptance of one another.
As a result, all the work I now do in health education focusses on the positive; promoting physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health, building on strengths and successes, gifts and talents.
Etoile Enterprises works with local authorities childrens’ services, schools, and other organisations such as the BBC, National Children’s Bureau, Health Education Partnerships and the Christopher Winter Project to provide the following services:
- Strategic report writing
- Evaluation reports
- Developing and writing teaching materials
- Healthy schools and enhanced healthy schools consultancy
- Moderation of Healthy Schools
- Health Education training
- Happiness Education – the positive psychology approach | <urn:uuid:f1719f00-1e2a-4b5c-a255-d15ecacb13ee> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.etoileenterprises.co.uk/health-education-consultancy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955815 | 328 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Airline Fares You may lower the price of a round trip air fare by as much as two-thirds by making certain your trip includes a Saturday evening stay over, and by purchasing the ticket in advance. ToMore >>
Auto Insurance You can save several hundred dollars a year by purchasing auto insurance from a licensed, low-price insurer. Call your state insurance department for a publication showing typical pricesMore >>
Checking You can save more than $100 a year in fees by selecting a checking account with a low (or no) minimum balance requirement that you can, and do, meet. Request a list of these and other fees More >>
Home Purchase You can often negotiate a lower sale price by employing a buyer broker who works for you not the seller. If the buyer broker or the broker's firm also lists properties, there may be a More >>
Electricity To save as much as hundreds of dollars a year on electricity, make certain that any new appliances you purchase, especially air conditioners and furnaces, are energy-efficient. InformationMore >>
Food Purchased at Markets You can save hundreds of dollars a year by shopping at the lower-priced food stores. Convenience stores often charge the highest prices. You will spend less on food if youMore >>
The information contained on or provided through this site is intended for general consumer understanding and education only and is not intended to be and is not a substitute for professional financial or accounting advice. Always seek the advice of your accountant or other qualified personal finance advisor for answers to any related questions you may have. Use of this site and any information contained on or provided through this site is at your own risk and any information contained on or provided through this site is provided on an "as is" basis without any representations or warranties. | <urn:uuid:586dadf1-4036-4223-b69f-f78f65015bd4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kwqc.com/category/22384/file-and-pay-online | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932969 | 362 | 1.734375 | 2 |
"Drowning in the Desert"
by Mariya Barmak
For a whole new perspective on what it means to be an attorney and what it means to be an American, I recommend the book "Drowning in the Desert: A JAG’s Search for Justice in Iraq" by Vivian Gembara. The book chronicles the author’s year-long deployment in Iraq, from the very beginning of the war in 2003 until March 2004.
As an attorney with the Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG), a judicial arm of the U.S. Army, Capt. Gembara, with the assistance of only three paralegals, advised more than 3,000 soldiers in her brigade on a variety of issues. They handled everything from wills and divorces to the military’s rules of engagement, and from the use-of-force in a war zone to proper treatment of Iraqi detainees.
In addition to her advisory duties, Capt. Gembara was the lead prosecutor in a case where two soldiers were charged with deserting the army and kidnapping an Iraqi civilian. She also worked with Iraqi civilians to investigate claims that soldiers allegedly caused property damage, personal injury or even civilian death. After reviewing claims, if appropriate, she would help determine what compensation would be paid for such claims.
As the second part of the book heats up, Capt. Gembara describes her investigation of a claim that several soldiers forced two unarmed young men to jump into the river, whereby one of them drowned. Then, the author learns about a suspicious death of another Iraqi at the hands of the same group of soldiers. She soon learns that several top commanders were involved in covering up both events, and her further efforts are thwarted by the chain of command.
This book discusses a unique practice of law that very few attorneys outside the military are familiar with. The JAGs must deal with issues that civilian attorneys never have to think about. For example, many trial lawyers interview witnesses and collect evidence on a regular basis. However, interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence takes on a whole different dimension in a war zone, where even a short trip means traveling on roads infested with IEDs (improvised explosive devices). The JAGs also face unique conflicts of interests, because they often advise and prosecute the soldiers.
What makes Capt. Gembara’s story interesting is the timing of her deployment at the very beginning of the war in Iraq. There was very little precedent for her to rely on. For example, her trial of one of the solders accused of desertion and kidnapping was the first trial of an American soldier in Iraq. Capt. Gembara and her team actually had to build the courtroom where the trial took place, something that most attorneys never do. Things like printers, copiers and office supplies — which most attorneys take for granted — were seldom available. For JAGs, it is never just another day in the office. There is no such thing as going home at the end of the day, either.
"Drowning in the Desert" explores how standing up for what is right, despite pressures to the contrary, especially from the chain of command, is never easy. Because all attorneys have a special obligation to justice, this theme is very relevant to any member of this profession, regardless of practice area. I recommend this well-written book to anyone interested in military law or legal ethics. "Drowning in the Desert" offers the reader valuable and unique insights on what it means to be an attorney and what it means to be an American.
Mariya Barmak is an assistant attorney general with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. Previously, she worked as a deputy district attorney with the Office of the District Attorney, Fourth Judicial District, in Colorado Springs. | <urn:uuid:66129e4c-3a83-4b14-a589-8fc5a29fbd2e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.denbar.org/docket/doc_articles.cfm?ArticleID=5946 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969258 | 779 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Looks like company's coming!
I think that the woman in the upper photo is wringing a chickens neck. I always heard that back in the era like this that there usually a fried chicken dinner out on my grandparents farm on Sunday afternoon.
When I was growing up on my parents farm my dad hated chickens so we did not have any. The neighbors had chickens and every so often when I was there they would kill a couple of chickens for dinner. The mom would come out and choose a chicken to eat, grab it by the head, flip that chicken around like it was a propeller and pop the head off. The chickens body would then wander around the yard for a few minutes till it finally flopped over and died.
Quit a grisly sight.
I can distinctly remember my paternal grandmother with a chicken in each hand. When we visited there were big feeds with lots of family. Cooking for my grandmother was an all day affair, breakfast and lunch were heavy, dinner was relatively light. Chicken was offered both roasted and fried along with beef and pork. Back then they burned off a lot of calories on the farm.
I grew up on chickens. Raising them, eating them, and wringing their necks.
We raised them in three large houses. We contracted with a regional chicken company and our family made pretty good money doing it.
We raised around 12-15 thousand a season and had chicken for dinner 2-3 times a week.
We had kerosene brooders( heaters) to keep them warm in the winter.
This was in the late 40's and 50's before Pilgrims Pride and a few other conglomarates took over the chicken market.
We still have the remains of the largest house where I store my T parts and etc.
When I saw the pic of wringing the chickens neck it brought back a lot of memories! Thanks
Steven, my grandparents lived on Wayne Avenue in University City and their neighbors kept chickens in a coop behind the garage. (These are the same neighbors whose teenage sons owned a 1918 T Touring and used to give me rides in it.) I remember once when one of the sons took a hatchet out to the chicken coop and chopped the head off a chicken. I must have been around six or seven at the time. When I later heard the phrase, "like a chicken with its head cut off," I knew what it meant.
When my older grandson (now 16) was about 3 or 4 years old he observed my wife un-package and begin to prepare a whole chicken (supermarket variety). He watched for a couple of minutes then asked, "Who killed it's head?" That phrase is now a standard in our family.
My dad hated chicken for the very reason Herb posted above. He said as a kid (in the 20's & early 30's) they had chicken to eat often and dinner for folks visiting from town almost every Sunday. As the eldest son he got stuck with the dirty work.
Steven, I watched my dad do that a time or two. I fear that I would not have made the best homesteader...grin...
Killing it is easy. Pulling the feathers a bit harder, cleaning the insides the messiest, but it is good eating. Now days we have it easy, just run down to the grocery store and buy a package of legs, wings, breasts or mixed pieces or a whole chicken all cleaned and plucked. You can even get one already cooked!
Remember Mike, the chicken who refused to die when his head was chopped off and became a sideshow attraction 1945/47.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqDjRCHyjTY
His memory lives on in Fruita, Co, with "Mike the Headless Chicken" festival in May every year!
Since Mike didn't have much of a brain left, he didn't care much what cars he was seen around;
Looks suspiciously like a '36 Chxxy..
My mother would stand on the chickens head and pull it off holding the chicken with it's legs. Then the chicken would flop around and bleed out. I can see her now.
When I was about 11 we lived in near Mansfield,Missouri. On the farm we had chickens and I can remember Dad chopping off the chickens head it flopping around. We then dipped the chicken in ho water and pulled the feather, much easier that way. The gutting process I never got into, but chicken and gravy YUM< YUM, hot biscuits and home made cane sorgum, have a small jar in the cabinet that I bought in Missouri Last May..
As said earlier in the post go to the store and buy what you want and save all the time and enjoy FRIED, BAKED, BBQ'D, or what ever way
Bill D #14079
Bobby Rutledge & the Cimarrons knew what they were singin' about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSDIhSFGWwE
Thanks, Steve. We're having chicken for dinner.
After the rooster took a chunk out of my sisters leg I cut its head off and we had boiled rooster! I think that was about the last time I dispatcher a chicken to eat. If it weren't for chicken and a little pork now and then, I wouldn't eat much meat. Glad I like chicken!
This my grandparents and the small chicken ranch
they started after there retirement from the wood and delivery stable business. This was sometime in the late 20's and 30's, in Santa Cruz Ca.area.
My father being a butcher had to do the killing a little different, back then for sale in a store they would have there heads and feet left on the body, why I don't know.
We used a hatchet, usually did 4 a night when it was time to butcher the cockerels. Didn't do much of the gutting but did my share of the killing and plucking. We dunked them in scalding water to make the plucking easier. I HATE the smell of wet feathers.
Mom would cut the carcasses up the next day and burn the hairs off over a candle stub. If you look very closely at your piece of KFC or some other brands of coated chicken you'll see that they don't bother to singe the hair off and chickens DO have hair.
Brings back memories. I started as "hatchet man" at about 6 or 7. Never got used to that. We would do about 10-12 a day for several days to help feed the harvest crews on our ranch. Mother used an small alcohol lamp to burn off the pinfeathers. Your mentioning scalding and plucking feathers brought back a bad smell in my mind too! Thanks for the memories :-)
P.S: I still like chicken-one of my favorites. Commercial chicken is certainly not like "home grown" though. Small and not much flavor. Just glad somebody else does the preparation.
Mom was a small gal & she would put a broom handle over their neck & then step on the handle & give their legs a quick hard pull. She'd pull hard enough so that they'd go flying far enough away that they wouldn't splatter blood on her. Us little kids would chase, or be chased, by the critters until they settled down. I'm not quite sure why we got such a kick out of that.
I've not plucked a chicken in 50 years, but I can smell those scalded feathers like it was yesterday.
Every Sunday dinner, it was roast (beef) or pan fried chicken. We had a dairy, so the beef was tough (from old dairy cow) so more roasts and hamburger.
I always knew if it was a "chicken Sunday" because mom would pull off a chicken's head on Saturday if that was the Sunday menu selection .
When I was growing up in the 50's we had a black lab that thought it great sport to catch and retrieve the chickens after their heads were lopped off with the hatchet. Of course Mom didn't think it was funny since the dog would be covered in blood and needed a bath before he could come back in the house and sometimes he would be a little hard mouthed and chickens would have a few bite marks. | <urn:uuid:b08b28a8-a1e5-4c16-8a35-cadc42dbb731> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mtfca.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?tpc=331880&post=493947 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981448 | 1,744 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Potato's Key ToolRiddles are little poems or phrases that pose a question that needs answering. Riddles frequently rhyme, but this is not a requirement.
A potato's key tool, I have all the power.
I am generally used on the half or full hour.
If my cells were deceased or lost or the such,
My partner would only respond to your touch.
What am I?
AnswerA television remote control.
Often used by a "couch potato".
Channels are most often changed between programs, which end on the hour or half-hour.
If you lose the batteries, the only way to control the TV is by hand.
See another brain teaser just like this one...
Or, just get a random brain teaser
If you become a registered user you can vote on this riddle, keep track of
which ones you have seen, and even make your own.
Back to Top | <urn:uuid:3a434aa4-c465-489c-979f-cc9438ac65f8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.braingle.com/9885.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959633 | 194 | 1.679688 | 2 |
From Foreign Policy b/w of The Daily Beast comes some really fascinating thought on Ronald Reagan’s approach to foreign affairs:
Was the Gipper as tough as his fans make him out to be? “Today’s conservatives have conjured a mythic Reagan who never compromised with America’s enemies and never shrank from a fight,” Peter Beinart writes in an excerpt of his new book, The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris, in Foreign Policy magazine. “But the real Reagan did both those things, often. In fact, they were a big part of his success.” Beinart says Reagan was “terrified of war” and he fought suggestions, from both within and outside his own administration, that he bomb or send troops into Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Cuba. Beinart also takes issue with the conservative boast that Reagan “frightened” the Soviet Union into submission. “The problem with this story is that Reagan began abandoning his hard-line anti-Soviet stance in late 1983, 18 months before Gorbachev took power,” Beinart writes.
A critical case in point here would be the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983. It killed 241 American servicemen, the most killed in an assault on American troops since World War II. Reading about the attack’s response is illuminating:
The late great Pres. Ronald Reagan once famously equated politicians to prostitutes. That little quip drew self-conscious titters from both sides of the political aisle.
But the “Gipper” was wrong, not in principle but in terminology. Politicians aren’t prostitutes. They’re pimps.
Had Reagan lived to see the latest effort in socializing his beloved Republic, the “Gipper” would no longer question which group – peddlers of flesh or influence - is the worst of those willing to trade the sacred for the profane. He’d know.
Because once President Barack Obama signs the so-called health care bill, imposing the most sweeping government devaluation of individual liberty in a generation, he will have legalized a political prostitution Reagan couldn’t have imagined. I suspect Reagan would have watched with growing horror as federal lawmakers dealt away Constitutional freedoms for the scant comfort of executive orders and sweet, home-district bribes.
It’s as if Washington D.C. has become its own red-light district, and prostitution its chief commodity. After all, Democrats hawked their latest bill of health-care goods as a feel-good scheme couched in meaningless phrases of social justice and human rights.
Prostitutes at least have the minimal comfort of knowing that though they’re selling a profoundly intimate and personal value, it is at least theirs to sell. Politicians, on the other hand, act as unprincipled pimps, selling others into the slavery of government dependence with nary a thought for the value they cheapen.
So contends Lev Nazrozov. He writes:
Out-of-control predatory capitalists have perpetrated a worldwide economic depression. Capitalism’s degenerate character is now extraordinarily visible during this time of multiple crises.
On each side of the page there is a picture of a miserable emaciated proletarian who carries on his back a huge pack of money, with a bourgeois seated atop of the pack and smoking a cigar.
By simply allowing the government to dominate every sector of the polity, by embracing totalitarianism, we might be able to avoid the woes of economic recession? Historical study makes such a conclusion seem ridiculous. While totalitarian economies did not suffer from “depressions”, per se, one could argue that consumers and citizens lived under a system which continuously mimicked the effects of depression.
Taxes were very high, but no real revenue was coming in. That’s because the system of taxes at that time was an early form of income tax that centered on the government taking a large percentage of a farmer’s crops.
So Ching Ti did something bold and innovative: he cut taxes.
Overnight, taxes went from over 50% down to about 3%. Farmers, who had fled to the hills to escape draconian tax rates, now came home and began farming again. To make a long story short, Ching Ti’s greatest problem while governing was trying to keep all the grain in his barns from spoiling.
It seems that ancient Chinese history is good for more than just cutesy script on a fortune cookie.
Our U.S. Constitution is a remarkably efficient document. It is our only founding charter. Many times changed, rendered, adumbrated. But it’s essence is unshakable. Written in Thomas Jefferson’s handwriting, edited against his will, pored over, discussed, hushed about, while it lay about some small wooden tables in independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Americans believe, that the Constitution is the link between our government and our lives. Congress and the Executive, can not overstep the harmony that exists, by each American following his path of liberty. Unfortunately, too many harmful minds, want too much power in this country. Power never vested in the Constitution. Power never meant to be handled by bureaucrats or officials or committees. We need to change all this. The oath of office should be sworn on the Constitution. In the Capital Rotunda. Among the historicity of remains from past great ages of the United States.
Drones in our night skies. Unelected lawyers interpreting the U.S. Constition. Surveillance. Internet spying. Blackouts and Stasi-like encroachements. Torturing. Deaths and internment of American citizens. Socialization of medicare for the elderly, and healthcare for those in mid-age. Food stamps and deductibles for people who do not work. Taxation over representation. Data-accumulation. Groping at airports. Fumbling and nefarious Justice Department officials. Cronies. Welfare abuses. War and destruction as an industry, like Hollywood and Corporate America! Blame-games. Undermining of basic civil rights. Monetarism-mongering! Unaccountability and state-sponsored fear. Campaigns of division. Solutions disguised for self-created problems.
Republican voters are being put through the pincers. We are back to 2008. Heaps of strong candidates, but no consensus. Great speeches, but no substance. PAC money spent by the millions, but no conclusive results. GOP candidates are even welcoming Democratic voters, to smear each other, to add to their victories, or to just plainly embitter each other. The Republican race is not going to get any more civil. Once, we see these subterfuges, we can ask the real questions: what will it take to unseat Obama in November, and who can best do this?
In America the conservative movement has been changing. Neo-conservatives, who had for roughly two decades (1980-2000) held the strongarm of the party, are gone with the Bush Administration’s doctrine of “pre-emptive strike” and the PATRIOT ACT. We are in the midst of the dregs. Still trying to find out which direction this country will spill it’s spirit of changelessness.
For all his grandeur, Mitt Romney just has not taken his campaign to the next level. Rick Santorum has peaked, but more likely will not hold his miniscule leads. Newt Gingrinch’s populism and Ron Paul’s constitutionalism, so similar to each other, are self-negating. None is in charge. Marginal candidates can’t win delegates, nor the RNC party’s nomination. Mitt Romney, the ever-chameleon like business mogul, can’t strike a human touch to save his life and political prospects.
If Mitt Romney is the front runner of the wolves, ready to flay Obama; what is his version of the American Dream? How does he see this country, through which prism? Is it a legalistic, rigidly technocratic, institutional approach? It seems, his advantage is not his base, his character, anything as much as his warchest. He won’t run out of steam. Even if the delegate count gets close in Tampa, FL this spring; he’ll be able to resurrect himself, make the necessary promises and sail away with the nomination.
Media-sauvant and Internet fortune-peddler Andrew Breitbart died last night at age 43 in Los Angeles. Breitbart made an ambulance-chasing name for himself, by exposing the rich, powerful and connected.
Scandals that he helped to uncover, included ACORN undercover exposes, Rep. Anthony Weiner’s sexting scandal, Shirley Sherrod’s NAACP racist-rant in front of the USDA, and burning (virtual) wires by taking on most anyone on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit over politics, internationalism, globalism and American society.
Like many of this first decade, he was a contrarian, a (serpent) tongue-split rhetorician full of bombast and verbosity. Remorseless, in his yearning to undo American socialism; he attacked when-, and where-, ever he could.
The first laptop-gonzo, and blackberry-holstering crackpot of the social media age, died abruptly: when he keeled over on an evening walk. According to sources he spent long stretches of his life on the road, reporting and speaking the truth about the powererful through computing and New Media. He is survived by his wife Susannah Bean and four kids.
During four years of non-presidency, the 2012 election in the United States will finally furnish us a leader! While the media are jabbing away fruitlessly at the GOP candidates, one thing is certain: Barack Obama will not be elected twice. If he is (least likely), there will be rebellions in America’s Main Streets.
Just this morning; the USA Today reported, for instance, that the auto-industry bailouts of 2008, were a success! Success? More like highway robbery. There were two articles, one a reprieve to counter. But it is clear who is instigating GOP roadblocks: socialists, occupy wall streeters, the media, the IMF, the U.N. and other fat-cat democrat-billionaires and their crony go-for-mediocre claptraps. Cries for the ouster of president Barack Obama are heard world-wide.
Nightmare scenario reality: Obama’s assault on the markets, are plunging the world into darkness. In congress money is used like never before, to make Washington D.C. more like Paris. Let us be clear: no sane American wants/wanted this. It is time for this ghost, to make his ghoulish departure.
A government which becomes so large it is able to give to everyone, anything at anytime it wishes no matter the cost, will take it all away. Violently.
What has Obama done?
To sum up: he has stalled the economy (purposefully) into a ditch, ruined our dollar, made promises lies, frivoluosly disobeyed the constitution, waged war on all faith, handicapped elderly in a cement straight-jacket, given taxes to Egyptians for jihad against Europe, increased immigration and pummelled this great land with medicare, benefits, welfare, handouts, support, birth control, donations, freebies, impositions on all!
Auto-industry bailouts worked; only insofar as it was the only decision in a one-man’s debate. Another way to have dealt Detriot would have been; to let companies fail, let them go: whatever is left, would be parcelled out among those lasting.
Let us make fresh.
The reason why Rick Santorum would not oust Barack Obama in November, is not his faith. It is simply that he is running a ‘social message’ of uniform decency against a ‘social message’ of uniform healthcare. Plainly, Obama’s health plan, is vital: but not more pressing than the economic calamity of bailouts, frauds, money-laundering, spending and public debt. These are focal issues of the 2012 election.
Santorum is the politician everyone can super-impose themselves on. He’s no CEO like Mitt Romney, no renowned speaker like Newt Gingrich, not intellectual like Ron Paul. No, he is a regular Pennsylvania lawyer, who argued some weird World Wrestling Federation cases. Somehow he is unspectacular enough, that he could almost be your town butcher, postal deliverer or stockyard piler. You would think this is a strength. But it is not.
Eventually, while trying to keep your political pronunciations to a minimum, to correspond to the widest social base possible, you hit a tollboth going 160 mph. Santorum is earnest, he surely is: means well to families and the elderly, but he has yet to prove his salt. His record is plain: he has taken massive amounts of Washington D.C. beltway funding, voted to raise the debt ceiling, is in cahoots with the (so-called) ‘military industrial complex’ and dislikes many anomalies of our population: young pregnants, migrant-labor, jobless, gays, blacks. He has been able to entrench his campaign in an atmosphere of rustic humbleness and simpletonness.
The more connected you are, within the Washington D.C. circuit; and on the long-stretch between Los Angeles and New York, the more clout you have as a politician. Especially, if you’ve squandered taxpayer money on “bridges to nowhere” (Rick Santorum), Olympic “Games” (Mitt Romney) or have been kick-backed by Fannie & Freddie (Newt Gingrich).
All these, of course, are fine examples of Capitalist enterprise, of leadership and smart capital-management. But what do all these undertakings reveal, about abilities in leadership, necessary to plug the dam of the 2008-unward recession? Not, much.
Ron Paul is the antithesis. He negates almost in it’s entirety, every other issues brought by his opponents in the GOP presidential race. He is not reported on, because those who indeed try to, fail miserably: the way Gerald Seib did, moderating the Republican Debate in South Carolina. Ron Paul is too honest: clear, succinct, philosophically astute. This makes him a slippery fish, to place in the Republican Party, although he is by far the most consequently, stalwartly arch-conservative since that other Gipper, that slipped his way into the White House: Ronald Reagan!
Being less ‘politicized’, in other words by having put his neck out on an execution-block, or guillotine, to amass money, has meant he has to do with less campaign finance. But what Paul has lacked in initial spending, his patriots have donated in turn. No other US politician has ever raised a sum, close to over 1 million, which Paul’s campaign has been able to do in 2011. What this means, is; people base decision on mass-media, pandered bits-and-pieces of evening chatter, boxed soundbites (often misinterpreted) while heading out the door in the morning. Ron Paul is lucky to get 3 minutes airtime, after a debate platform. | <urn:uuid:52243a39-562c-4418-b752-f8a739e62455> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unitedliberty.org/categories/ronald-reagan?page=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960172 | 3,248 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Movies about Depression
The following movies about depression are all popular works which focus in some significant way on the the turmoil of depression or similar psychological or mental afflictions. The many different depictions do a good job of illustrating the diversity of the condition. Sometimes the effects can be humorous or inspiring. At other times depression is downright scary and well…depressing. While the list of movies about depression below is not all-inclusive, these are some of the best ones we’ve found and there are quite a few so hopefully it would be enough to keep you busy for a few depressing weekends at least. Enjoy….or commiserate…
Leaving Las Vegas
Leaving Las Vegas touches on the profoundly powerful grip of depression associated with alcoholism.
Sanderson (Nicholas Cage), the main character is an ex screenwriter. He has recently lost everything positive in his life due to his drinking problem. Immersed in his depression, he decides to relocate to Las Vegas with the sole intention of engulfing himself in a slow but resolute alcohol induced suicide plan. There, he meets a prostitute who hopes to cure him of his ill-intent but he forces her to agree not to interfere with his dismal plan…
Trainspotting is not actually focused on depression itself but certainly touches on the subject and explores some very depressing realities of misguided youth and drug addiction.
Renton, (Ewan Mcgreggor) AKA- Obi Wan Kenobi in this film is deeply buried in the Edinburgh Scotland drug scene as a youth. As he tries to clean up and change his life, he is constantly reeled back in by his friends and social acquaintances. Eventually he must turn his back on everything and let the fact that he was the only one strong enough to escape help him find a way out.
Requiem for a dream
It explores different forms of addiction that are endured by the main characters. The addiction leads to depression and desperate delusion that consumes their lives. Eventually this diluted world is shattered by inescapable reality.
Less than Zero
This is one of Robert Downey Jr’s earlier and seemingly more defining roles. Given his own struggles with drug addiction, it is almost a window into his own life and pain as you watch him masterfully play the role of someone in the grip of a powerful clutch.
Clay Easton (Andrew McCarthy) is actually the main character but is accidentally upstaged by Downey’s performance. Clay is a college freshman who returns to L.A. for the holidays and finds his friends in a bad way. His old girlfriend, Blair (Jami Gertz), has become a drug addict and is having sex with his old best friend, Julian (Robert Downey, Jr.), who is also now a drug addict. Clay tries his best to resolve the decline of his friends stature and sanity to no avail.
Jumping off Bridges
Austin filmmaker Kat Candler is a master observer and portrayor of teenage behavior. Jumping off Bridges, is a powerful, revealing look at the impact of suicide on the people who are left behind. It is as very realistic picture of love, depression, death, and human condition that will open your eyes and resonate in your core with tones of bleakness and pain. Definitely a focused look at the depression associated with scenarios involving death and suicide.
Ordinary People is a story that definitely focuses in on the depression associated with the loss of a child. The story is about an upper-middle class family in Lake Forest, Illinois, that begins to fall apart following the death of their son due to a recent boating mishap. The story is based on the 1976 novel by the same name written by Judith Guest.
This film was actually a critical as well as a box office success. It won an Academy Award for Best Picture in addition to three Oscars.
It’s Kind of a Funny Story
Directly after considering suicide by jumping from the Brooklyn Bridge, 16-year-old Craig Gilner (Keir Gilchrist), decides to check himself into the hospital to get some much needed help and shelter from debilitating depression. He explains that he needs immediate help and soon finds himself spending a week in the psych ward. His disturbance is explored and uncovered during this time but Craig is unsure if he made the right decision to stay. We observe him as he integrates himself into the adult ward with a few other teenagers due to renovations. Not quite as dark or scary as other more profound looks at depression but a good depiction of the depressive condition and resulting scenarios.
While not wholly focused on depression, this film looks at teenage angst associated with low self esteem and is a close neighbor to the typical early forms of depression.
Thirteen is a look at an LA teenager, Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) who is a grade A student excelling in early high school years and getting along well with her mom, Melanie (Holly Hunter). Like stereotypical but often true concepts of teen social angst, she feels as if she’s not cool enough for the in-crowd, mainly a girl named Evie (Nikki Reed) who happens to be among the most popular girls in the school.
Motivated by her weak self esteem and need to fit in, Tracy eventually follows Evie into some of the darker sides of teenage social scenes including dangerous interactions with sex, drugs, and other tense and risky endeavors that threaten to deteriorate her good image and positive future.
What Dreams May Come
This film explores the terrible reality of uncontrollable depression and the triumph of overcoming it.
Robin Williams stars is Chris Nielsen, who has endured with his wife Annie (Annabella Sciorra) the loss of their children, Marie and Ian, who were recently killed. Their struggle with depression is nearly overcome when tragedy strikes yet again and Chris is killed. We travel with him into the afterlife when he suddenly realizes the pain that his wife must be enduring. We watch as he struggles to contact her and help her through her pain to no avail. Just as he begins to try and move on into his own afterlife he learns that Annies depression threatens to ruin her and land her in hell for eternity. Chris takes up his crusade to face all odds to reach her and save her soul.
Jim (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his friends are on the hottest basketball team in New York, but meanwhile their friend Bobby lies ill with cancer. His group of friends eventually begins to break apart after their coach makes an inappropriate pass at him, and also kicks them off the team for using drugs. On the streets, Jim resorts to anything in order to survive. He betrays his friends, engages in criminal activity including prostitution, and sells drugs to support his own addictions. This is an in-depth look at the lifestyle surrounding drug addiction and depression.
The main character, Susanna (Winona Ryder) has been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Her parents are convinced that she must be committed to the Claymore Hospital. We watch as she struggles for control of her psychological state over the next year or so and tries to adapt to the surreal environment that she perceives. Susanna makes some friends while there but eventually realizes that one of them, Lisa is dangerous to herself and others. She begins to work harder to come to grips with her own condition but soon learns that getting out of the hospital may not be as easy as she had thought. Similar to many of the issues endured by people experiencing depression this is more of a dramatized and borderline horror style look at mental illness.
The main character (Ed Norton) has become depressed and detached from life and is unable to find any meaning or usefulness in his corporate clone lifestyle. His depression eventually becomes extreme insomnia and unbeknown to him even induces a sort of split personality psychosis that takes him into a whole other underworld of experience and attempts to break out of the pointless previous existence. He eventually comes across an interesting character, named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a charming yet eccentric soap dealer. Their friendship takes them interestingly into a surreal world of bare-knuckle organized fighting and helps him regain a somewhat unhealthy zest for life. As things begin to get even more maddening and surreal, it becomes clearer that there is more than meets the eye where his new friend is concerned. It is an interesting and somewhat existential look at depression and ones subconscious attempts to survive and overcome it.
Ikiru is another existential look at the struggle of a man gripped in a desperate search for purpose in his life. When he discovers that he is dying of stomach cancer, he quits his thirty year career to seek purpose in his final year of life. He realizes that he is completely alone in this with a dead wife and no contact with other family. He decides to break from his normally wholesome routines and drink his way toward death in the bar scenes where he meets a dark character who leads him on a dark tour of bar room under-life of the city. As he tires of this pointless charade, Shimura seeks solace in the company of a young girl who helps take his mind off of the looming shadow of death.
Sylvia (Gwyneth Paltrow) was a talented writer and former child prodigy. After the profoundly disruptive death of her father, she studied at college, and while she was a great student extreme depression began to rear it’s head and take root in her mind. In spite of this and even bouts with suicide attempts she is granted a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Cambridge. While in Great Britain, she meets Ted (Daniel Craig), who is a respected author and the two eventually married. However, marriage, family, and career success failed to bring her happiness, and she became increasingly infatuated with death. Later, when Hughes leaves her for another woman, her depression spirals into much deeper, more disturbing and eventually inescapable reality.
Our main character is a smart, beautiful, music teacher in her 40’s with a happy marriage and a good relationship with her teenage daughter. Suddenly and without and obvious precursor, she slips into depression and seems to have lost her grip on her sanity.
She has insomnia and can’t seem to concentrate. She’s has bouts of panic attacks and extreme fear of public places and eventually progresses toward suicide attempts.
The condition was not a natural result or reaction to a stimulus like we tend to think of when depression ensues. Instead, this film portrays the depression as an illness and in reality it does not have to be set of by some unexpected tragedy. In life, and in this film the focus quickly becomes how to deal with it and treat it..
Three women, living in totally different time periods are linked together by enduring similar crises, and sharing a single work of literature in this film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Michael Cunningham. Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) is working on her novel Mrs. Dalloway, in which she describes the life of a troubled woman. But Virginia has her own problems with depression and suicide. In 1951, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) is a housewife in L.A., where she lives with her husband and son. Laura is reading the same novel, Mrs. Dalloway and realizes the similarities it has with her own problems. Later, in 2000, Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep) is an editor who is taking care of a man, who is slowly losing his fight with HIV and notes the similarities in her own struggles.
Taste of Cherry
Homayoun Ershadi stars as Mr. Badii, a middle-aged man who endures depression and has thoughts of committing suicide. He drives his across the deserts of Tehran, looking for someone to help him do that by agreeing to bury his body when he overdoses on pills. His plan is to find such an individual by offering a large sum of money to a Kurdish soldier who eagerly flees when he learns of the insane intentions. Next he solicits the help of an Afghani student, who instead attempts to convince him to change his direction.
Harvey Pekar (Paul Giamatti) is a struggling comic book writer. He writes comics about the sad monotony of everyday life and bases the situations on his own perceived failed life. He finds Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis) and they share a depressive and strained relationship. This screenplay was based on Pekar’s comic book series American Splendor, of Dark Horse Comics, and the 1994 book-length comic, Our Cancer Year, written by Pekar and Brabner.
Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia, is a surreal look at depression and fittingly, the end of the world. It stars Kirsten Dunst as a depressed young woman whose sister Claire plans to throw her an extravagant wedding party. Her emotional problems begin to take a toll on her new marriage and we also learn that Claire’s wealthy husband John (Kiefer Sutherland) also knows a curious amount about a planet that appears to be on a collision course with Earth, which complicates things even further.
Focus eventually shifts to the sister, Claire, who cares for her sister when her marriage falls apart. Strangely she begins to also suspect that her husband John knows something terribly bad and possibly apocalyptic but is hiding it from her. | <urn:uuid:6e5cee49-557c-4931-bb1a-823c0f8aa28f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://learnhowtobeconfident.net/24894/movies-about-depression | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975494 | 2,730 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The younger sister of the late Marvin Gaye has some tough talk for anyone even remotely interested in the singer’s life: “If it doesn’t have my name or my sister’s name attached to it, it may not be accurate.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Zeola Gaye also discussed growing up poor in the nation’s capital; her family’s substance abuse problems; her brother’s favorite saying, “Do unto others”; her mother, “a God-fearing Christian who didn’t drink or curse,” and a performance with Marvin when she was in high school.
The gig was at the Howard Theatre, which, during its recent reopening, paid homage to one of the city’s native sons in front of an audience that included Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson and Marvin’s little sis.
“There were always tensions in our family.”
“I have some fond memories of growing up in D.C.”
“My father resigned his church post for Marvin.”
“Marvin was upset at the Motown 25 [anniversary show]. He wanted to know why MJ [as in Michael Jackson] could sing any song he wanted, but he couldn’t perform ‘Sexual Healing.’ “
“Drugs were rampant in L.A. We [Marvin and Zeola] used marijuana and cocaine. No heroin. No needles.”
“We were going to take him to rehab on Monday, but he died on Sunday.”
That would be Sunday, April 1, 1984, the day before Marvin would have turned 45 and the day, during another domestic dispute, that Marvin Sr. used the .38 handgun - which Marvin had given to him - to shoot his own son dead.
Zeola said that sometimes, since Marvin’s death, she can’t quite reconcile the pains of the Gaye family with the simple joys of life they shared, a contrariness surely reflected in Marvin’s music.
Zeola - or Zee, the nickname Marvin gave her and she embraced - said her brother’s spiritual self, reared in Pentecostalism, was always in conflict with his secular self, which was encouraged at a young age to enjoy soulful musical stirrings in church.
All four siblings were raised in the church (where Marvin first sang as an adolescent) and were told to honor their mother and father, and respect other adults, and to be mindful of the sabbath - and for the most part they did.View Entire Story
© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
Award-winning opinion writer Deborah Simmons is a senior correspondent who reports on City Hall and writes about education, culture, sports and family-related topics. Mrs. Simmons has worked at several newspapers, and since joining The Washington Times in 1985, has served as editorial-page editor and features editor and on the metro desk. She has taught copy editing at the University of ...
By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Happiness is attainable. Morning to night. I love to teach, deal with folks that have an issue and really wish to tackle it and write.
How does our 50th state view D.C. politics?
Political centrist who tells it like it is
Benghazi: The anatomy of a scandal
Vietnam Memorial adds four names
Cinco de Mayo on the Mall
NRA kicks off annual convention
California wildfires wreak havoc | <urn:uuid:763efdac-2544-453e-8c0b-11e0e9f63709> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/29/simmons-memories-of-marvin-gaye-kept-alive-by-a-lo/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974644 | 772 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Local NAACP holds annual banquet
By Nick Nunn
The Morgan County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) held its 42nd Annual NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet last Saturday night at the Morgan County High School cafeteria. The highlight of the evening was the presentation given by the keynote speaker, Rev. Dr. Francys Johnson.
The theme of the banquet this year, “The Struggle is Not Over,” was reiterated by many of those who spoke during the event, beginning with Alex Coats, the master of ceremonies.
“We’ve come a long way,” began Coats, “but we still have a long way to go, and it starts right now.”
The official welcome for the banquet was given by Mamie Hilsman, who reminded the audience, “Don’t think that we have arrived, because we have not.”
After Hilsman’s welcome, honored members of the community including Fred Perriman, Ellen Warren, and Ralph Bennett were given time to greet the audience.
“Never before has your vote been more important than it is now,” urged Dr. Bennett during his short speech. “We still have a lot to do in education, too.”
Minister Ricky White gave the invocation before dinner. White assured those in attendance that if they, “pray what’s on [their] heart, then everything will be alright.”
After Laura Butler, the Morgan County Branch President, handed out the NAACP’s awards for the evening, Johnson arrived just before he was to begin his speech.
The theme of Johnson’s speech centered around this time in America’s history being a “crossroads.”
“There is no day in yesterday’s America that I want to live in,” said Johnson. “Tomorrow is what is in our hands – and God’s truth is marching on.”
“I believe we are witnessing the death of racism. It will not die quietly. It is kicking and screaming.”
“No lie can live forever, and it is being done away with for the whole world to see in a way that would make the founding fathers proud.”
Next, Johnson turned to the subject of education in America.
“Instead of us pointing the finger at others, we need to find the most talented, innovative, and gifted and give resources to them.”
“It is bad for everybody when the children who do go to school aren’t ready to engage in the type of critical education that can lead America into the future.”
But Johnson acknowledges that there must be an active campaign for change.
“You cannot have progress if you are not willing to endure struggle. We must engage this struggle. What are you demanding?”
“The progress of America will be put on display for the whole world to see,” insisted Johnson.
“I look forward to the day when we can take down the banner of the NAACP because racism has been eliminated in America.”
After concluding his speech, Johnson led the audience in singing “We Shall Overcome.”
Pastor G.C. Brown gave the benediction, ending the NAACP’s 2012 banquet by thanking all of those in attendance for coming.
In other news, on Nov. 1, the Morgan County Branch of the NAACP will have branch elections at St. Paul AME from 4-6 p.m. All branch members are encouraged to come and cast their vote for officers. The regular meeting will be held at the same location beginning at 6 p.m.
Printed in the November 1 2012 edition. | <urn:uuid:c190acdf-01fc-49d4-8ada-28d783a991f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://morgancountycitizen.com/?q=node/21666 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95904 | 794 | 1.53125 | 2 |
It is to be hoped that the more radical gun rights advocates would take some time to read our Constitution. Look at what the Second Amendment says, and see if you can put two and two together without getting five.
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
"Congress shall have the power ... to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions ... to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia" (Art. I, Sec. 8).
"The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states" (Art. II, Sec. 2).
If you put "two and two together" here and derive an absolute right to unregulated gun ownership, congratulations, because, for you, two plus two equals five.
Millcreek should show more respect
As a McDowell graduate and Hall of Fame member for football and track, I felt compelled to respond to Thomas Falasca's letter ("McDowell plan questioned," Erie Times-News, Feb. 6).
I played football and ran track at the University of Connecticut, so I was privileged to play in the Yale Bowl and at William and Mary. I ran at Rutgers, Brown, Harvard and Princeton, so I have admired all of the buildings and history of real estate among these great institutions.
It is challenging to compare these facilities on bricks and mortar, but I can assure you that the people who lead these halls attribute the longevity to respect for the buildings and respect for all who pass through them. After witnessing the most disappointing loss in McDowell's coaching history in Joe Sanford, and the lack of respect for what he worked so hard to build and grow, this debacle is no surprise.
This very good question about why spend that much money to demolish and rebuild needs to be answered. Millcreek has proved that buildings with deferred maintenance (lack of respect for buildings) can be repaired and utilized -- the old Asbury Elementary. We also recognize that new isn't always better, such as the $500,000 repair required to the new Asbury Elementary, due to roof failure.
We can be certain that until respect and personal accountability are harnessed and cohesion brought to this community, it will only get worse.
Laban Marsh|McDowell class of '97, Waterford
Rules, stimulus money criticized
In an article titled "Man able to retrieve pet's ashes," Jo Bawol, owner of Pet Cremations of Erie, stated that a government regulation had forced her to close her business (Erie Times-News, Feb. 10).
The regulation required that she install a device that would prevent her from opening the oven while working. This lock would also prevent her from making sure that the cremation was progressing properly. In order to comply, it would cost her thousands of dollars, and if she didn't comply, the fines imposed on her would put her out of business.
Should we be relieved or concerned that among thousands of new government regulations, one has laid to rest yet another small business, and that not one penny of the $862 billion in stimulus money, squandered by the federal government, was available to help her keep her doors open?
Supervisors right on Sheetz issue
John Groh questioned the scrutiny of Sheetz, based on his inference that there are no adopted aesthetic requirements for this type of project in Millcreek Township (Erie Times-News, Feb. 8).
All too often, power holders in communities throw brickbats on issues, depending on how they lean. Our government of "we the people" is based on the respectful holding of human interest and differences. By engaging in civil discourse and approaching conflicting ideas, we help to develop consensus.
I laud the efforts of these supervisors for bringing the constituents into the dialogue. When has anything been solved when the interested people are not in the room? Tension and conflict are the energy and engine of a democratic society, not staid or outlived, oft-manipulated ordinances. Hopefully, by breaching a divide, the next generation of understanding can be reached and better choices made.
As far as his reference to "no adopted aesthetic requirements," I am led to believe that any person who is involved in governing who does not consider aesthetics first and foremost as an ever-present element to be weighed is missing the big picture.
Rationale of liquor stores sale missing
For the life of me, I can't understand why Gov. Tom Corbett wants to privatize our state liquor stores. They are profitable, provide good-paying jobs with benefits, provide outstanding service and selection, and their prices are cheaper (way cheaper) than many stores in New York.
Please explain the upside to selling off this valuable commodity, other than gaining a one-time windfall (at the expense of long-term profitability) and destroying union jobs for the sake of destroying union jobs.
Sean M. Mallory|Edinboro
NRA becomes 'whipping post'
Why is it that the National Rifle Association, an organization dedicated to protecting and preserving Second Amendment rights for all Americans, is looked upon as an evil cult?
I am a retired police officer and an NRA life member. It has trained and certified thousands of police, military and civilians as firearm instructors, teaching principles of safety and responsible gun ownership. They have become a whipping post of anti-gun politicians, media and mayors for believing law-abiding citizens have the right to ownership and legal use of firearms.
The insane actions of a few have again jeopardized lawful citizens' rights. I do not own an AR-style rifle. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have the right to. There are thousands of gun control laws already. More restrictive laws will not prevent criminals or the insane from misusing any type of weapon, even those already prohibited by law.
Many people do not own firearms. I respect their right not to. How would they feel if a law was passed requiring them to own one? At least we still have the freedom to make those choices. I ask they respect my right also. Many gun control advocates and politicians are uneducated regarding firearms but they're going to try and make the decisions concerning your rights.
I for one do not want our constitutionally guaranteed rights turned into some government-regulated privilege. | <urn:uuid:ca226ead-4d6d-4618-944f-59b4caad9352> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goerie.com/article/20130220/OPINION02/302209997/Letters-to-the-editor%3A-Unregulated-guns-aren't-protected | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965214 | 1,335 | 1.710938 | 2 |
I like purple colour very much. So when I was making decision to try a new variety for winter last year the verona purple savoy cabbage caught my interest. The first time I saw a savoy cabbage was here in Adelaide. Found very fascinating that there are cabbage with wrinkle leaves (Savoy~ A cabbage of hardy variety with densely wrinkled leaves). I like the sweetness of savoy cabbage. This is the first savoy cabbage variety we grown and it was an interesting experience with trial and error. The first error I made was the sowing time. The first batch that I transplanted bolted. Sometime you just have to try your own sowing time instead of following the instruction. Followed the instruction at first did not get favourable result with the first sowing batch in winter bolted. Because I can be very stubborn at times, I sowed some seeds in winter~early spring which was not recommended in the seed packet instruction which at the end gave us some harvest.
Verona Purple Savoy Cabbage Seedlings.
Purple veins on the cabbage leaves.
Inter-planted with radish for productivity.
This is how 100% organic and neglected growing cabbage look like.
Amazingly, a well-established verona purple savoy cabbage can withstand more than 40 degree Celsius and our extreme hot summer here in Adelaide. There were also few days when it did not get any water during mid-summer. We were lucky to harvest several of this cabbage during summer. A heat-tolerant variety cabbage.
One of the cabbages that we harvest last mid-summer.
Aduh sakit pinggang belakang minggu ni nak berkebun pun tak boleh. Gara-gara lama sangat duduk depan mikroskop dari minggu lepas nak pulun habis kerja. | <urn:uuid:a5d86d46-0256-4d42-a298-6032b5a048d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://kebunmalaykadazangirls.blogspot.com/2012/03/verona-purple-savoy-cabbage.html?showComment=1333027871868 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940837 | 392 | 1.523438 | 2 |
The Pasadena Angels invest money and provide critical advice to emerging local companies and nonprofits
By Justin Chapman 12/08/2011
Despite the fact that stores and companies are shutting down left and right amid tough economic times, options still exist for entrepreneurs with good ideas, even if they don’t have a lot of money. The Business Technology Center (BTC) on Lincoln Avenue in Altadena, for example, has been helping small businesses and start-up ventures get on their feet since 1998.
It provides subsidized rent, flexible office space in a professional setting, a team of advisers, conference rooms and other resources to businesses across Southern California. At a Tech Week event held at BTC in October, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who was instrumental in helping launch the business incubator, praised BTC for the help it has provided local businesses, as well as the regional and national economy.
“Delegations from more than 40 countries have come [to BTCS] to see what we have,” said Antonovich. “It has received several national and state awards for its impact in start-up, seed stage and emerging growth companies. Its success was a collaboration between risk-taking entrepreneurs, private investors and other resources, creating an engine for economic growth in LA County that has attracted over $170 million in equity and created over 1,700 jobs so far.”
Angels who gamble
BTC is also home to the Pasadena Angels, a group of about 100 private investors who provide consultation and financing to local, early stage start-up ventures as well as emerging growth companies. It is one of the largest seed money investor networks in the nation. Every month, the group receives 20 to 40 applications from small businesses seeking its services. Individual Angels are assigned an application and serve as the lead pre-screener.
The pre-screeners investigate and meet with the organization or company, visit their facility and see if they have a good management team and a solid idea with growth potential that will eventually help the Angels earn their money back, should they choose to invest in the business.
All of the Angels then meet with their committee members and go over various proposals. They narrow the list down to about six and hold pre-screening meetings at BTC, where representatives from the businesses give brief presentations. The Angels ask questions and give them feedback. Over the course of a month, a business will have gone through three or four meetings before they can give a longer presentation to the entire Angels congregation at monthly breakfast meetings, formal events held at Annandale Golf Club.
Those meetings begin at 7:30 a.m. sharp. Angels who bring guests introduce them to the group. After the chairman makes a few announcements about upcoming events, he yields the floor to the lead pre-screener of the first presenting business. A representative from the business has about 30 minutes to deliver his or her pitch to the room of investors. This is a chance to convince the Angels that the company is worth investing in. When they finish, they are asked to step outside the room while the Angels discuss the pros and cons — and ultimately the profitability — of investing in the business.
“It could be something an investor really likes, but we need to consider whether or not it will make us money in the end,” Pasadena Angel Stan Tomsic explained.
The Angels fill out forms indicating their level of interest in the business, which they then submit to the Angels administration, as the representative comes back into the room and gets feedback from the chairman. This process is repeated with the second presenting business. At the end of the breakfast meeting, the Angels receive updates on prior investments.
“There are a number of positive and negative criteria that trigger interest or disinterest,” said Tomsic. “We tend to veer away from lifestyle companies and look more at growth potential.”
Barry Paulk, the head of marketing who sits on the Angels’ board of directors, explained that there are certain qualifications one must have for membership, including being an accredited investor, which means having a certain amount of disposable income and net worth. While there are no hard and fast rules, Angels are generally expected to invest about $50,000 a year.
“We’re really pushing to get more female members,” said Paulk, noting that the majority of the members are male. “We’ve added two or three very sharp ladies, but we’re looking to add more.”
Most of the companies applying to the Angels come from Southern California’s five-county metro area, according to chairman Al Schneider. “Last year they invested the most money in a company from Caltech called Rockoco, which deals with new technologies in the diamond-etching field,” said Schneider.
Other Angel ventures
During the November meeting, Schneider reiterated the group’s mantra, “It’s more than the money,” and spoke of the importance of supporting nonprofit organizations just as much as up-and-coming businesses. He asked the more than 100 attendees at the meeting to raise their hands if they have or currently sit on a nonprofit’s board of directors. Almost every hand was raised.
“I’m preaching to the choir here,” said Schneider. “We’ve all been in this line of work. Clearly, these nonprofits we work with need our financial support as well as our good counsel, as these countless solicitations we get all year-round but particularly this time of year, remind us. But even with such organizations, I think it’s fair to say that they need more than the money, and we can help them in many ways other than writing checks,” Schneider said.
He specifically mentioned two local nonprofits working on altruistic products. A former USC architecture student is working on a product called Cardborigami, a $30 foldable, treated cardboard overnight shelter that can be used by the homeless or disaster victims.
It provides a very portable, private space that can be folded up and carried around to provide some degree of instantaneous overnight protection from the elements. The second one, called Get on the Bus, helps as many as 1,300 kids stay in touch with parents in prison by providing bus transportation to families of
Angel Terry Kay updated the group about A Noise Within, the classical theater company that just completed its move from Glendale to east Pasadena with a $13.5-million capital campaign.
The nonprofit organization opened its new 283-seat, 33,000-square-foot performing arts complex on Oct. 29.
“One of the cool things they do is they use about 30 percent of the budget for school outreach, where kids from inner city schools get bused in and see live theater for the first time ever, which really is a life-changing event for them,” said Kay, who has been on the board for 10 years and served as president for seven. “About 20,000 students visit each year.”
Each year, the Pasadena Angels invest about $3 million in 12 to 15 emerging growth and seed stage companies and nonprofits. It’s one of the last remaining options in a recession-era economy for local entrepreneurs to turn to for funding to help them get their business and products off the ground.
To learn how to apply to the Angels and for more information, visit pasadenaangels.com. | <urn:uuid:2a9019db-3039-485e-9435-64eb63a64e81> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/financial_wings/10797/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962899 | 1,539 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Teenage Girl on Cellphone Falls Into Sinkhole
As the young woman proceeded down the street, she failed to notice caution blocks on the sidewalk and blundered directly into a 20-foot sinkhole. But, to be fair, there’s not much to indicate this is a dangerous area. Roping it off probably would have been a good idea.
A cabdriver saw the girl fall and rushed immediately to her aid, but the crumbling sidewalk trapped them both. See? Texting and walking can hurt those around you too.
Fortunately, firefighters rushed to the scene and rescued both people, neither of whom were seriously hurt. We bet neither will look at a cellphone the same way again, however. | <urn:uuid:d6380392-50ed-4e56-ae0f-424f2439ee44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://1079ishot.com/teenage-girl-on-cellphone-falls-into-sinkhole/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960184 | 146 | 1.539063 | 2 |
for the 23rd consecutive night of protests, this time spurred on by the Government of Québec’s announcement that it would legislate an end to the 14-week student strike which has gripped Quebec for the past three months. The government’s proposed bill would “impose strict conditions on students wanting to demonstrate against the planned tuition fee hikes,” which could “include stiff fines against anyone attempting to block entrances to the colleges and universities.” Québec Premier Jean Charest announced that the current school session will be postponed by the government, “We are suspending the session. We are not cancelling it … This will allow us to finish the session in August and September.” Students warned that they would challenge the law in court “if the legislation limits their right to demonstrate and to block classes if the majority of members of a school or student association votes to do so.”On the night of May 16, thousands of Montréal students and supporters took to the streets
Gabriel nadeau-Dubois, the 21-year old spokesperson for the largest student association, CLASSE, representing over half of the 160,000 striking students, stated that, “The bill that the government is proposing to table is an anti-union law, it is authoritarian, repressive and breaks the students’ right to strike… This is a government that prefers to hit on its youth, ridicule its youth rather than listen to them.” As thousands poured into the streets of Montréal to oppose the government’s plan, they were again met with riot police, and as violence broke out after what was a peaceful protest was declared “illegal” by the police, 122 protesters were arrested. Only a few of the 122 arrested protesters are being charged with assaulting officers, while the rest are being charged with taking part in an “illegal protest.” Riot police charged the crowd and broke the protest up into smaller units, which police then cornered and followed, using pepper spray and flash bang grenades, as well as beating students with batons.
Earlier on the same day of May 16, nearly 9,000 km away from Montréal, roughly 100,000 students and supporters took to the streets in Santiago, Chile, in the second major demonstration of the new year, bringing a resurgence to the student movement that began one year ago, in May of 2011, the students were mobilized by the Student Confederation of Chile (CONFECH), a confederation of all the student unions from public universities (as well as some private ones), and the oldest individual union, the Student Federation of the University of Chile (FECH). These usions collectively rallied the students against the most expensive educational system among the OECD nations, a largely privatized system of education brought in by Chile’s former military dictator, Augusto Pinochet, who came to power in 1973 with CIA support. Gabriel Boric, the 26-year old student leader of the FECH and spokesperson for CONFECH declared, “We are more than 100,000 people. We are giving again a clear sign to the government that the student movement, after a year, stands up on its feet and will not rest. We are still in the fight.” Boric added, “We will keep on being rebels, because the student movement is not going to settle for a few excesses having been corrected. We want to fix all of them.” The Chilean government has submitted three different proposals to the students in the past year, all of which did not satisfy the student movement as they were mere concessions which did not address the main issue of an unfair social, political, and economic system, demanding a free, quality public education system for all Chileans. Boric stated, “This government has been unable to respond to the students’ basic requests.”
The protests of May 16, 2012 turned violent with clashes between students and riot police, leading to the arrest of 70 students in Santiago. This was the second major student demonstration of this year, following roughly 40 demonstrations across the country in 2011. The riot police responded to the student protest with tear gas and water cannons. On March 15, Santiago was host to the first major student demonstration of the year in which several thousand students took to the streets, and clashes erupted with riot police, leading to 50 arrests. Incidentally, on March 15 in Montréal, students and others took part in a protest against police brutality which ended in violence and the arrest of over 200 protesters.
The Chilean government has consistently attempted to both repress – through state violence – and undermine – through minor legislative concessions – the student movement which has identified the necessity of change in the social, political, and economic system itself. Despite a year of protests, the former student leader of FECH, 24-year old Camilla Vallejo, who led the student movement until she was replaced by Boric in student elections in November of 2011, commented on the student movement: “In concrete terms, you could say we have accomplished little or nothing… But in broad strokes, the student movement has made a break in Chilean society. There’s a before and after 2011, and we’re talking about issues that were taboo in Chile for the first time.”
On May 14, Québec’s Education Minister Line Beauchamp resigned, stating, “I am resigning because I no longer believe I’m part of the solution.” This followed revelations that Line Beauchamp attended a Liberal Party fundraiser at which she accepted donations from a known Montréal mafioso. Québec has been embroiled for years in a controversy over the corrupt construction industry, which is heavily controlled by the Mafia and gets massively over-valued public contracts from city and provincial governments. Beauchamp has not been the only such casuality in Premier Jean Charest’s cabinet. Back in September of 2011, Jean Charest’s Deputy Premier, Nathalie Normandeau, who was also Québec’s Natural Resources Minister, resigned amid controversy. She too, has been implicated in corruption scandals related to the Mafia.
Roughly a month after the student protests began in Chile, the Education Minister Joaquin Lavin resigned in July of 2011. He was replaced with Felipe Bulnes, who in turn resigned in December of 2011, in the midst of the persistent student movement. Bulnes had attempted to calm student protests by granting increased access to credit and “improved supervision of universities.” Bulnes was then replaced with Harald Beyer. Just as Bulnes resigned, following revelations that he had strong ties to a private university in Santiago (and thus, a personal interest in defending the privatized education system), the Agriculture Minister Jose Antonio Galilea also resigned. In late March of 2012, Chile’s Energy Minister Rodrigo Alvarez resigned following two months of protests in the southern region of Aysen over increased fuel prices.
As Quebec’s Natural Resources Minister (until her resignation in September 2011), Nathalie Normandeau was responsible for introducing ‘Plan Nord’ (Northern Plan), an $80 billion economic development program to exploit the resources of northern Québec through public and private investments. The Plan includes invesments in mining, forestry, transportation, and gas, and is drawing interest from multinational corporations around the world. Plan Nord was announced by Normandeau and Premier Jean Charest in May of 2011, at which Charest stated, “On the political level, this is one of the best moments of my life.” He added, “This is one of the reasons I got involved in politics.” Tha Plan envisions 11 new mining projects in the next few years, with billions being spent by the government on developing infrastructure and roads for transportation. The mining industry applauded Charest, but incited concern from environmental groups and First Nations representatives. In April of 2012, a group of First Nations Innu women walked from the North to Montreal to protest against Plan Nord, arriving in the city for the meeting to promote Plan Nord on April 20-21. On April 20, First Nations women gathered to protest the meeting, and were joined by student protesters outside the Palais des congrès in downtown Montreal. The protesters were met with riot police, sound grenades, tear gas, and batons, and roughly 90 protesters were arrested.
Back in May of 2011, just as the Québec government was announcing its plans for Plan Nord, the Chilean government announced the approval of the HidroAysen project, to be Chile’s largest power generator, drawing protests from hundreds of people. The project “involves five dams and a 1,900 kilometer (1,180 mile) transmission line to feed the central grid that supplies Santiago and surrounding cities as well as copper mines owned by Codelco and Anglo American Plc.” The project provoked increased anger from residents of the region, as well as conservationists and other activists. Opponents of the project filed legal injunctions and an appeals court suspended the HidroAysen project in June of 2011. It was at this time that the student movement in Chile began to emerge rapidly. In October, a local appeals court rejected the seven lawsuits aginst the project and gave the green light to resume work. In December, a legal appeal against the project was taken to Chile’s Supreme Court. In April of 2012, the Supreme Court rejected the seven appeals against the project. This sparked major protests over the court’s decision, met with riot police repression. The increased demand for energy comes from the rapidly growing Chilean mining industry, of which Canadian mining companies are the largest foreign investment source.
Protests erupted in the southern Chilean region of Aysen in February of 2012, where the cost of living is significantly higher than in the north (due to the remoteness of the Patagonian region) and thus, the costs of fuel, food, health care and education were greater than elsewhere. Protesters fought almost nightly battles with riot police, even setting up barricades and throwing rocks at police, who used water cannons and tear gas on the protesters. One protester even lost an eye during the confrontations, reportedly by being shot by the police. Supporters took to the streets in Santiago in solidairty with those struggling in Aysen, also clashing with police. In March, the protesters lifted roadblocks to hold negotiations with the government and the more than thirty social organizations participating in the protests. It was after the negotiations that Energy Minister Alvarez resigned, stating that he was excluded from the talks. In late March, the government announced plans to create better conditions in the Aysen region.
In April of 2012, Chile was experiencing protests against a thermoelectric plant and mining, largely participated in by Chileans of indigenous descent, and students took back to the streets in Santiago in the tens of thousands. Across Quebec, students escalated protests throughout the month of April, and united indigenous, environmental and student activists in protest against Plan Nord. On April 25, tens of thousands of Chilean students took to the streets in Santiago, protesting the government’s education “reform” proposal, which was grossly inadequate. On the very same day, April 25, roughly 5,000 student protesters in Montreal demonstrated against the government’s cancellation of negotiations with the student leaders. Earlier in that same month, Chilean President Pinera and Canadian Prime Minister Harper met in Chile to expand the free trade agreement between the two countries. The student movements were not up for discussion.
In Chile, the student movement and its wider social development with environmental, labour, and other activist groups has been referred to as the “Chilean Winter.” In Quebec, the student movement, with its wider social development with labour, environmental, and other activist organizations, has been referred to as the ‘Maple Spring.” Both movements, while maintaining their own specifics, are ultimately mobilized around a struggle against neoliberalism, against austerity, and against a social, political, and economic system which has ruled the world for the few and at the expense of the many.
For both of these movements to move forward, it is important to not only promote informal acts and statements of solidarity between the two movements, but to begin establishing direct and indirect ties between the movements: establishing connections between the student associations, coordinating days of major protest actions, protesting mining companies that exploit both the North of Quebec and the South of Chile, creating student-run news outlets which share information between each other, undertake student-activist exchanges between the two countries; but first and foremost, it is important to educate the students in Quebec about what is taking place in Chile, and the students in Chile about what is taking place in Quebec. That is the basis for all other forms of cooperation.
So from the Chilean Winter to the Maple Spring: Solidarity, solidarité, solidaridad! | <urn:uuid:f9fe689f-1de5-48d9-9b3d-fa0529489d09> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=9402&Itemid=228 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974445 | 2,665 | 1.75 | 2 |
Salvaged Vehicles in Utah
Compare Insurance Rates in 3 Easy Steps
1. Start Your Quote:
A salvage vehicle is one so damaged by collision, flood, or another reason that it would cost more to repair it to safe operation than it is worth at fair market value. A salvage vehicle that has been repaired or restored to operation is called a rebuilt/restored vehicle.
Because of the risks of buying a salvage or rebuilt/restored vehicle, such a vehicle in Utah will be issued a "branded" title. That is, the title will clearly state that the vehicle is either salvage or rebuilt/restored. This makes it difficult to pass off as unblemished an automobile that in fact has been through the ringer and may continue to have problems.
In some cases, a salvage vehicle in Utah can be rebuilt and have the brand removed from the title. This usually happens when the car sustained damage to only one component part and was inspected before, during, and after the repairs―so the Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division (MVED) can make sure the finished work meets Utah's stringent safety standards. But this is rare, so usually a vehicle that has been rebuilt or restored from salvage status will have a branded title.
Though Utah's laws are strict about when a salvage vehicle can be repaired and have its brand removed, other states' laws may not be so demanding, and this opens the door to abuse. Someone can ship a totaled car to a state with more relaxed standards, repair it (maybe well, possibly poorly), get approved for an unbranded title in that state, and then sell the car to a trusting individual or dealer as though the vehicle had never been wrecked.
Unfortunately, vehicles are branded as salvage for a reason, and an inadequate repair might result in a car that looks nice at first but literally falls apart in a collision.
To protect against this, Utah will not issue an unbranded title to a car that has been salvaged in another state, even if the out-of-state title given to the buyer is unbranded. What would happen instead is that a buyer would receive a clean out-of-state title (on a previously salvaged car) and then have Utah brand it―reducing the value of the vehicle by thousands of dollars.
Technically, auto dealers and private sellers are required by law to disclose to you before you even begin negotiating that a vehicle is branded as salvage or rebuilt/restored. Most buyers will want to avoid a salvage vehicle for fear of major hidden problems that could cost thousands of dollars to deal with and potentially be very unsafe.
Some buyers are fine with the inherent risks and can get a great deal on a car that turns out to be just fine. If you're not a risk taker, though, the Utah Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) offers a long list of tips for how to avoid unwittingly buying a salvage vehicle on its Buyer Beware page.
To find out more about salvage vehicles in Utah, including how to certify a vehicle as salvaged or have a brand removed from the title, visit the DMV's related information page or use the following contact information:
- Motor Vehicle Information
- P.O. Box 4000
- Salt Lake City, UT 84130
- (801) 297-3508
Other Topics in This Section
- Register Car
- Registration Renewal
- Registration & Insurance
- Replacing a Lost Registration
- RV & Motorhome Registration
- Custom Built Car Registration
- Boat Registration and Licenses
- Title Transfers
- Replacing a Lost Title
- Salvaged Vehicles
- Special Vehicles
- Drivers with Disabilities
- License Plates & Placards
- Smog & Emission Checks
Your Opinion Matters To Us!Send Feedback
We put a lot of effort into making our content helpful & accurate. Please let us know if you see something that isn't clear or correct; we are here to ease any frustrations you may have while navigating DMV topics. We are not a government agency, please reach out to your local DMV, insurance agent, or respective professional for further assistance on specific situations. | <urn:uuid:0584a0de-bf73-46ee-b222-85e6cf96f8ed> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dmv.org/ut-utah/salvaged-vehicles.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959954 | 849 | 1.539063 | 2 |
Is a win for FIFA a win for South Africa?
Even though the World Cup has not yet ended, there are already some clear winners and losers.
FIFA estimates that in the end they will earn $3.3 billion from marketing, TV rights and other initiatives. Adidas has reported record sales of jerseys and soccer balls, which they are attributing to their sponsorship of the World Cup. And Visa says visitors to South Africa using the charge card jumped almost 70 percent over the same period last year.
Well, that's debatable.
The World Cup created thousands of new construction jobs, but most of those were not permanent. And its still up in the air whether the government will continue to pursue much needed infrastructure without the pressure of World Cup deadlines.
And World Cup preparations, including the construction of billion dollar stadiums did very little to affect the jobless numbers.
In the first quarter of this year almost 80,000 non-farm jobs were lost, according to the South African government's office of statistics. That total is a little more than 240,000 for the 12 months ending in March. And the jobless rate, its above 25 percent.
South Africans are hoping that meeting FIFA deadlines for completion of World Cup infrastructure and the warm welcome they've given visitors will be enough to show the international community the new South Africa
Marius Roodt, a researcher at the South African Institute of Race Relations, recently wrote an economic analysis of this World Cup. He says:
"South Africa and its taxpayers will be paying for this World Cup for decades," he wrote. "But the value of the change in perceptions of this country and the continent will have been priceless." | <urn:uuid:79e1b47f-7107-4531-be97-85e8be521954> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/news-brief/win-fifa-win-south-africa | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952358 | 342 | 1.5 | 2 |
The Coalition's flagship "triple lock" protection for pensions cannot be guaranteed beyond 2015, a Liberal Democrat minister has warned.
Senior citizens in Scotland would benefit from stronger pension safeguards than those elsewhere in the UK if Scotland became independent, the finance secretary has said.
LOW-PAID women are expected to be the main beneficiaries of Government reforms that will result in 80,000 low income households in Scotland qualifying for a state pension from 2016.
HELP for women and older people will be at the heart of the Queen's Speech tomorrow as the UK Government denied proposed changes to pensions for overseas claimants were in response to the political threat from UKIP.
Is it time to think the unthinkable? | <urn:uuid:ec30f548-7bcf-4d56-848f-fe6d05bc8c12> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.heraldscotland.com/t/131761/UK+State+Pension | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964882 | 141 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Some facts the nursing home industry ignores
The Kentucky Initiative for Quality Nursing Home Standards has worked closely with leaders in the nursing home industry to recognize and reward excellent homes and superior care of residents.
Yet, we are saddened and discouraged by the persistent failure of many facilities to provide a safe, caring environment for the residents.
In the flood of advertisement about Senate Bill 9, which proposes a medical review panel for all cases brought for abuse and neglect in nursing homes, there has been a wealth of verbiage and few facts. The performance of most Kentucky nursing homes is substandard, resulting in unsafe environments for elderly and disabled residents:
Four of every 10 facilities are rated "below average" by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Kentucky ranks first in the nation for nursing home fines, reflecting the many deficiencies cited.
61 percent of homes were cited for at least one deficiency; one in five received more than 10.
51 percent of the most serious violations related to resident care, treatment and rights.
Kentucky ranks 50th in quality of life and quality of care and 47th in nursing home staff stability.
In 2012 there were 6,072 complaints regarding care and quality of life brought forward to ombudsmen who visit all Kentucky nursing homes. There were 9,008 charges of abuse, neglect or exploitation of an elderly person anywhere in the state.
According to the Administrative Office of the Courts, there were only 309 charges filed that met that definition.
Given the fact that we have about 25,000 residents in nursing homes, and an undetermined number of elderly in the general population, it is a little hard to translate those figures into a landslide of frivolous lawsuits.
President, Kentucky Initiative for Quality Nursing Home Standards
Not well done
As a fourth generation Lexingtonian, I find the University of Kentucky's "one and done" sports philosophy an insult to all educators from K-12 and all institutions of higher learning. It may even be an insult to humanity in general.
Will the NBA let me go "one and done" if I have a cure for cancer or have a command of the English language and pay me millions of dollars? We are a bit off the center of a civilized society.
Tackling health issues
Gov. Steve Beshear really screwed up the Medicaid program when, in order to save money, he contracted with managed care companies to operate the Medicaid program. Providers and pharmacies aren't being paid in a timely manner as the companies are holding the funds to be paid to them. Hopefully, House Bill 5 will help to resolve that problem.
Also, I hope the obstructionists in the state House and Senate will not keep the state from receiving the 100 percent funding for three years and 90 percent funding thereafter that the federal government will pay for the Medicaid program. To me, it seems stupid not to accept this federal offer under Obamacare.
Furthermore, as I understand it, House Bill 217 will not help doctors who need to prescribe pain medicine for individual patients, as needed, in their offices without having to still comply with the unrealistic requirements of the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. The reporting requirements under that program need to also be reviewed.
On a more serious note: Run, Ashley, run. On an even more serious note, I am 75 years old, have a basketball goal in my backyard and can consistently hit 80 percent of my foul shots. 'Nuff said.
Gene R. Graves
Stop the headhunting
I work at a skilled nursing center which in 2012 had a deficiency-free state survey and was also the recipient of the American Health Care Association Silver Award. Our return to home rate was at 95 percent, and we were well under the state and national average for pain, pressure sores and weight loss.
Yet, we have been repeatedly attacked by certain law firms trying to dig up anything they can to try to make a quick buck. This malicious headhunting is what Senate Bill 9 is trying to combat.
Unfortunately, there are times when nursing centers do make mistakes. Having a review panel will not keep victims from having their voice heard.
The physicians appointed to these review panels will be able to see if someone was treated improperly. SB 9 is aimed to keep malicious, unneeded lawsuits from wasting time in our courts and putting hard-working people out of jobs.
If the current rate of litigation continues, nursing facilities will be forced to shut down. There have already been a few large health care providers who have pulled out of Kentucky for this very reason.
Good people are going to be out of jobs if this continues, but that is not all. Residents who depend on others for their care are not going to be able to receive that care.
Joshua P. Strasburger | <urn:uuid:34513e2a-7cef-4fa8-ac27-4e723a9e44c1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kentucky.com/2013/03/08/2547524/letters-to-editor-march-8.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965802 | 969 | 1.5 | 2 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.