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View Full Version : over-head pesticide spraying
11-09-2007, 01:22 PM
Does anyone live in Monterey or Santa Cruz counties where the neighborhoods are being involuntarily sprayed with pesticides at night?!?
This is crazy!
11-09-2007, 02:23 PM
This is really a terrible thing. Residents are being sprayed with a pesticide.
Even the organic food crops and the water are being sprayed too. This is a phermone being sprayed that also has many other compounds including plastics. This is unreal, how can this actually happen. Very scary. There were lawsuits filled against the spray, but were all shot down. And people out of the area don't even seem to know about it. You can read about it here:
scroll down and read the blog as well. The city council were on the streets of downtown handing out face masks, but they have a permit to keep spraying!!!
11-09-2007, 03:01 PM
I will definitely make sure any of the produce I'm buying is not coming from these areas (which, by the way is a HUGE agriculture area including many greens sold in our supermarkets)!
Even the organic crops are getting sprayed with this pesticide concoction containg plastics!
When you are buying your veggies at the store, check to see if they're from this area!
Anyone know the names of these farms/companies? I know they sell a lot of the bagged lettuces and spinach. I think one is called fresh express, maybe.
11-09-2007, 04:30 PM
This is so terrible I feel so bad for the people who live there :(
11-09-2007, 04:33 PM
How do the people there keep from breathing in the pesticides ?
11-09-2007, 04:38 PM
When you get to the election polls you may want to consider changing the local leadership that would allow such an offense to occur.
11-12-2007, 04:33 PM
Just a word of caution, wherever you live,
make sure the produce you are buying in your grocery stores is not from farms in this area (Watsonville, Salinas, Monterey, Santa Cruz).
Even if it is labled organic, it HAS been sprayed with this pesticide and these toxins. So, just beware.
So sad. :(
The local grocery stores in Santa Cruz said they will be trying to buy produce from out of the area for now on and are considering putting produce from this area now in another section of the store because it's been sprayed on, but is still labled organic. But, stores outside of this area probably won't go to the extra effort of separating this for you, so you must educate yourself!
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.1.4 Copyright © 2013 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:95c4f86b-bfc9-426d-9a56-b57282216a05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/archive/index.php/t-34506.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96161 | 598 | 1.507813 | 2 |
Are you one of the lucky ones who has a job in the continuing recession? Hang on, ’cause the storm is coming.
Harvard U. economist Larry Katz warns that your well-paid, middle-class job is in danger.
As reported by Ruth Mantell for Yahoo!, June 16, 2011, it’s not just manufacturing jobs that are disappearing in America. Even some highly-paid workers may find themselves needing to re-tool their skills in the years ahead due to new technologies and the ongoing movement of jobs to countries where labor is cheaper.
Economist Larry Katz said: “Employment growth has stopped, or even declined, among many middle-class jobs that are high wage. A lot of traditional middle-class, upper-middle-class jobs have been disappearing. If you look at general managers and middle-management jobs, those are ones that have been in decline and will decline further.”
For his part, Jeffrey Joerres, chief executive of ManpowerGroup, a Milwaukee-based staffing services firm, similarly warns that workers making about $40,000 to $80,000 a year constitute the bulk of labor costs for many companies, and these workers may be on the chopping block. Joerres said, “That’s your middle class. Companies are finding ways to reduce the number of people in those areas, and change the jobs to make them more simple, to reduce the skill that is required.”
In medicine, an example of a well-paid tech job that will be outsourced is radiology.
Kevin Hallock, director of the Institute for Compensation Studies at Cornell University, said: “I suspect that we will see fewer radiologists in the U.S. than we have in the past since…there is little reason for a radiologist to be in the same place as a patient. A radiologist can read a Terre Haute X-ray as easily in India as she can in Indiana.” MIT economist David Autor explains: “A lot of medical diagnostic work will be done overseas. You can have the initial diagnostic done elsewhere, and have a domestic supervising physician. Medical costs are a huge issue, and there’s enormous incentive to find ways to reduce these costs. The internationalization of medical services will be one of the important ways that costs will potentially be slowed.”
Another well-paid profession that will be affected is computer programming. Katz said, “What used to be good programming jobs, or routine legal work, these are things that are easily broken into parts, and done in other places.”
The legal field is also ripe for such job-slashing cost-cutting. Autor said that software can cut down on workers needed to sort through paperwork, such as legal documents. “You digitize all of those documents, and a piece of software reads them and catalogs them. There is a lot of legal work that is essentially increasingly subject to automation, and that will affect the opportunity set for lawyers.”
To illustrate, five television studios entangled in a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit against CBS saved $2 million in “discovery” costs by using computer software to examine millions of documents, instead of a platoon of lawyers and paralegals working for months at high hourly rates. “Discovery” refers to that essential step in a lawsuit when documents relevant to the suit are provided to the opposing counsel.
John Markoff writes in the New York Times, March 4, 2011, that, thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, “e-discovery” software can analyze documents in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost. The television studios turned to Blackstone Discovery of Palo Alto, Calif., which used the software to analyze 1.5 million documents for less than $100,000.
In his classic book, Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics, social scientist Seymour Martin Lipset first laid out the importance of the middle class to a democracy. The diminishing American middle class, therefore, has implications that go beyond economics, affecting the viability and survival of the American Republic.
The plight of the disappearing American middle class especially afflicts blacks. For that subject, go to Part Two of this series, “The Disappearing American Black Middle Class.”
Amidst the gloomy news, there is a sliver of light. Not all well-paid middle-class jobs are in danger; some occupations are growth areas. For that list, go to Part Three of this series, “20 Fastest Growing Occupations in America,” to be posted on Wednesday. | <urn:uuid:90458cec-931c-4490-86aa-c43b7e3a7821> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/tag/discovery/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951526 | 958 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Florida Legal Services, Inc. (FLS) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1973 to provide civil legal assistance to indigent persons who would not otherwise have the means to obtain a lawyer. A statewide support center, dedicated to ensuring poor people have equal access to justice, FLS fulfills its mission primarily by working with local legal aid and legal service programs to improve their ability to provide legal assistance to those in need in their communities. Providing service delivery coordination, training, case consultation and technical assistance to all legal service providers in Florida, FLS also is the coordinating organization for the first in the nation comprehensive Florida Supreme Court Voluntary Pro Bono Attorney Plan.
FLS July 2012 Docket Published - Check it out.
Rob Williams Honored By the White House
In honor of Cesar Chavez Day 2012, the White House honored 10 leaders
who, like Cesar Chavez, have dedicated themselves to improving the lives
of others throughout their community and across the Nation. The Cesar
Chavez Champions of Change were honored at a ceremony at the White House
last month. Among the honorees was Rob Williams of Florida Legal
Services, Inc. From the White House Press release:
Chuck Elsesser Honored With Prestigious NLADA's Kutak-Dodds Prize
For most of the last 33 years, Charles Elsesser has tirelessly worked as an advocate for low-income people covering a wide swath of legal issues, from affordable housing to welfare. As the senior litigation attorney with Florida Legal Services, Inc., he principally engages in the representation of community organizations in complex and class action litigation in federal court involving housing and disaster-related issues, as well as naturalization and public benefits. Read more and see the plaque!
Legal services embodies two basic principles: fidelity to our clients, and commitment to our community which is bound together by our devotion to equal justice.
Click the image below to learn how you can help FLS build justice in Florida.
Click here for training/CLE opportunities from FLS.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Advocacy Handbook - click here.
What is Legal Aid?
Florida Legal Services, Inc. | <urn:uuid:0b7bd3eb-7ebb-4d75-9f8a-6d6889462bd7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://floridalegal.org/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943686 | 442 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Jailed Iranian lawyer 'ends hunger strike'
Imprisoned prisoner of conscience Nasrin Sotoudeh, is reported to have ended her 49-day strike after the Iranian authorities lifted a travel ban on her 13-year-old daughter.
Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer and winner of the European Parliament's 2012 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, is serving a six-year jail sentence, reduced from 11 years on appeal, on charges of “spreading propaganda” and belonging to an “illegal” organization – the Centre for Human Rights Defenders.
She denies all charges.
Nasrin Sotoudeh has been held in Evin Prison in Tehran since her arrest on 4 September 2010, including a lengthy period in solitary confinement.
Ann Harrison Middle East and North Africa deputy director said:
“While it is good news that Nasrin Sotoudeh has ended her hunger strike, the reported lifting by the judiciary of an illegal travel ban on a 13-year-old girl is in no way a breakthrough. Why should a mother have to endanger her own life in order to get the judiciary to abide by its own obligations?
“It is yet one more example to show how the rule of law in Iran is being undermined by the very body meant to uphold it.
“Nasrin Sotoudeh is in prison simply for her peaceful work as a lawyer. What will it take for the Iranian authorities to accept that she should not be behind bars and to order her immediate and unconditional release?” | <urn:uuid:2dede70c-f124-4792-8f52-c206806129f9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/jailed-iranian-lawyer-ends-hunger-strike-2012-12-05 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967096 | 325 | 1.625 | 2 |
If you haven’t been following the push by regulators from the International Telecommunications Union to grab control of the Internet, Larry Downes’ article on Forbes.com this morning is a good window onto events.
Government regulators have long controlled and profited from telecommunications, also using it for surveillance. With the growth of the Internet, government regulators from around the world have lost their grip on communications, and now they are working to get it back. At the World Conference on International Telecommunications (or WCIT, commonly pronounced “wicket”) meeting in Dubai early next month, ITU regulators plan to introduce a series of proposals that would recapture telecommunications for the national regulatory bodies.
But, while showing just how out of touch ITU regulators are, Downs illustrates that the game has changed. A slick PR campaign will not help the ITU roll the telecom and Internet firms that oppose their plans. The telecom and Internet firms aren’t even the most important players.
The ITU is no different than the sponsors of ACTA, SOPA, PIPA, and other attempts at regulating the Internet, its content, or its users by governments large and small. Like the media lobbyists who continue to see the successful fight to kill SOPA and PIPA as a proxy war waged solely by Google and other Internet companies, the ITU simply can’t accept the reality that Internet users have become their own best advocates. Without prodding, they readily work together to defend a common-sense faith in self-governance for engineering resources and an unshakable belief in a free marketplace of ideas, the cornerstones of the Internet’s success.
That’s a little triumphal, but not too triumphal. The Internet is not governments’ to regulate.
Of course, governments will not release their grip on communications easily. The ITU’s unsubtle and ham-handed attempt to take control of the Internet is only one instance, belying more insidious work being done in the U.S. and abroad to tax and control us through our communications infrastructure.
Continued vigilance in the face of these efforts will defeat them, vigilance being—as always—the price of liberty. | <urn:uuid:9fee3e16-9900-4619-bb5f-18a90616b620> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cato.org/blog/tags/wcit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934268 | 454 | 1.734375 | 2 |
Republican Candidate Committees: Background
The contributions in this category include those from one Republican candidate committee to another— usually a transfer from monied incumbents to cash-poor challengers and open-seat candidates around the time of an election. The totals also reflect transfers to the political parties.
Amounts transferred from one candidate committee to another are limited to $2,400 per election -- rather than the $5,000 per election that leadership PACs can give. While Republicans saw an increase in this practice during the 2006 election cycle, they passed around less funds in the 2008 cycle, at $33.5 million. Democrats exchanged about twice that amount between 2007 and 2008, at $74.1 million.
These contributions are often a leading source of campaign cash for newly elected members of Congress. But during presidential elections, lawmakers running for the White House can also benefit from these transfers of funds. Sen. John McCain of Arizona collected $178,600 from other Republican candidate committees in the 2008 election cycle, when he was running for president. The top recipients of GOP cash through this channel between 2007 and 2008 were Reps. Heather Wilson of New Mexico and Steve Chabot of Ohio.
And who were the most generous Republican contributors in the 2008 election cycle? Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio ($2.5 million), Rep. David Dreier of California and Rep. Jim McCrery of Louisiana.
Updated September 2009
Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. | <urn:uuid:e2f58a6c-5aec-4f65-b7b7-8ccbc94e28d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/background.php?cycle=2012&ind=Z1100 | 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 | 0.961148 | 304 | 1.570313 | 2 |
The University of Kansas has placed the Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) frat on a two-year probation. The move follows an investigation of hazing, after 18-year-old Matt Fritzie was airlifted following his dive into a temporary pool.
KU determined that the frat had violated the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities for hazing.
"After a thorough investigation, the evidence substantiates that members
of Phi Gamma Delta violated the university's hazing policies," Marlesa Roney, vice provost for student success, said in a statement. "This is a serious
violation of the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities and has
resulted in appropriate disciplinary action."
Hazing is defined in the code "as any action, activity or situation that recklessly, negligently or intentionally endangers the mental or physical health, welfare or safety of a person; creates excessive fatigue or mental or physical discomfort; exposes a person to extreme embarrassment or ridicule; involves personal servitude; or substantially interferes with the academic requirements or responsibilities of a student."
The university's investigation failed to determine whether "hazing resulted in any physical injuries."
So what's probation mean for the boys of FIJI house? The university will watch 'em closely, and they won't be able to take part in university events such as the Rock Chalk Revue and intramural sports. They'll also have to go alcohol-free through the 2011-12 school year, won't be allowed to take part in social events for the rest of fall 2010 and won't be able to hold social events on their grounds through spring 2011, and all members of the chapter must do community service. They'll also be required to start programs and policies to "eliminate hazing."
At last word, Fritzie had been moved to a rehabilitation center. While his condition hasn't been released, another fraternity pledge told the Lawrence Journal-World
that "Fritzie initially was paralyzed from the chest down."
The national Phi Gamma Delta
fraternity was also investigating what happened at the house.
Chris Fellows, a former pledge at the frat, explained how the
makeshift pool was constructed to the Journal-World. The pool was created by "lining up
sandbags in a
parking lot, putting a tarp inside, and filling it with water from a
hose." Fellows, who is 6 feet tall, said the pool was no higher than his
Fellows added that he didn't see Fritzie drinking,
didn't see anyone encouraging him to jump into the pool and didn't see
anything he considered to be hazing. Reports said the party continued after Fritzie was rushed to the hospital. The party is certainly over now. | <urn:uuid:d758e0b9-ba43-4ae0-9735-9a8020281ef9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.pitch.com/plog/archives/2010/10/08/university-of-kansas-phi-gamma-delta-fiji-frat-placed-on-two-year-probation-for-violating-code-against-hazing | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968946 | 573 | 1.648438 | 2 |
The controversy over the anti-Islam YouTube film, “The Innocence of Muslims,” isn’t going away. Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri called for mass demonstrations last week, and yesterday thousands of Muslims converged outside Google in London to demand the removal of the YouTube clip:
A protest by 10,000 Muslims outside the offices of Google in London today is just the first in an orchestrated attempt to force the company to remove an anti-Islamic film from website YouTube in Britain. …
Organiser Masoud Alam said: “Our next protest will be at the offices of Google and YouTube across the world. We are looking to ban this film.
“This is not freedom of expression, there is a limit for that. This insult of the Prophet will not be allowed. …
One of the speakers, Sheikh Faiz Al-Aqtab Siddiqui, told The Daily Telegraph: “Terrorism is not just people who kill human bodies, but who kill human feelings as well. The makers of this film have terrorised 1.6 billion people.
That’s an odd quote: “Terrorism is not just people who kill human bodies, but who kill human feelings as well.” On the surface, the speaker seems to be criticizing terrorism, when in fact he’s justifying it. If mocking a religious figure like Mohammed is considered “terrorism,” that would legitimize a violent response. He’s saying you can’t end terrorism against people unless you also end “terrorism against feelings.”
Another protester interviewed in the article said basically the same thing:
Self-employed businessman Ahmed Nasar said he was worried the video could lead to violence in Britain in the same way as it had abroad. “If you push people too far,” he said, “You will turn the peaceful elements into violence.”
Yet another attempt to blame the victims for Islamic terrorism instead of the perpetrators. And these aren’t isolated opinions. The Organization of Islamic Conference, a group that represents 56 Islamic states, called for a global ban on insulting Muhammad at the United Nations last month, claiming that offensive speech could “provoke people to violence.” Not that there’s any chance of a global speech ban actually happening, but it’s a campaign that many Muslim leaders — including ones considered “moderate” – are invested in. | <urn:uuid:2ffc09b9-e2ce-461d-b6ec-831d698dd7ab> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/10/15/terrorism-against-feelings/ | 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 | 0.952031 | 511 | 1.828125 | 2 |
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Sandy spurs Saanich, Victoria to talk sea change
Bill Cleverley , The Victoria Times Colonist November 25, 2012
Arguing recent events like hurricane Sandy can't be ignored, Victoria, Saanich and the Capital Regional District will team up to assess, map and start to prepare to manage effects of rising sea levels brought on by climate change.
Price of food goes up with the temperature
U.S. drought caused by extreme heat a sign of things to come, expert says
By Jeff Bell, Times Colonist August 19, 2012
The high price of corn, driven up by a searing drought in the United States, could be an indicator of more problems to come, says the executive director of the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions.
Up On The Roof
P.C. King, Citizen Journalist
In earlier times the area known as Central Saanich was considered the breadbasket for what is now the Capital Regional District (CRD).
Today, the breadbasket for our region could extend to the rooftops, according to Saanich Councillor Dean Murdock. By developing rooftop gardens, communities could begin utilizing large areas of ‘empty space’. Although rooftop gardening is relatively new to the Saanich Peninsula, green roofs are not a new idea to communities around the world.
Saanich to consider encouraging green roofs for future developments
CFAX 1070 February 12, 2012
Roofs in Saanich could get a little greener, this after council supported a recommendation on considering the encouragement of including rooftop gardens on multi-family or commercial developments in the district.
Councillor Dean Murdock says the recommendation was brought forward by the Healthy Saanich Advisory Committee, and was supported unanimously.
Saanich rooftops could provide local food security
Kyle Slavin, Saanich News
Saanich councillor Dean Murdock is pushing to make rooftop gardens much more commonplace in the municipality.
Murdock, who chairs the Healthy Saanich Advisory Committee, was expected on Monday to ask for support on a recommendation to have green roofs become part of the development guidelines for multi-family residential and commercial projects.
On Monday night, I will bring a motion to Council on behalf of the Healthy Saanich Advisory Committee. Here's a copy of the report to Council, recommending roof top gardens for urban farming. Have a look!
Have you got a household oil tank? Better check it for leaks!
Don't know how? Check out these helpful tips: http://www.saanich.ca/living/environment/pdf/otank.pdf
Did you know that heating with oil produces more greenhouse gas emissions than natural gas or electricty? It can also be quite expensive!
Convert to a heat pump, natural gas, or hydro electricity and you could be eligible for up to $2,000 in rebates!
The provincial Livesmart and federal EcoEnergy programmes offer about $1250 to convert to natural gas and $2000 for a heat pump.
We asked the Saanich mayor and council candidates to provide their thoughts and strategies on climate change.
Dean Murdock, council candidate:
We know that other cities have seen incredible economic growth as a result of rail systems in their major corridors. We know that LRT can reduce emissions significantly and can do a lot to encourage new ridership — as much as double ridership -- bringing more convenience and lower car-dependence to thousands of individuals and families.
Here in our region, we need an independent review of the proposed regional LRT system to give the public and decision-makers the information we need to evaluate these extraordinary benefits and the estimated costs to build and operate the system. | <urn:uuid:5800ade9-01b6-4413-a0c2-2150e87fa496> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.deanmurdock.ca/category/tags/climate-action | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938059 | 771 | 1.84375 | 2 |
It’s probably the most distinctive sign of the beverage geek: the attentive sniff.
When you see someone taking a long sniff of a beverage (say, a cup of coffee, a pint of beer, or even a glass of milk), you just know that this person is an avid enthusiast of the sensory exploration that drinking can be. Of course, that person may also be wondering about some strange odour coming from that drink. But even that may be a step in the direction of beverage hedonism. If the sniffer also looks intently at the beverage and takes a long time to concentrate on every sip, you know this person is a true geek. If that person also takes notes or even listens to the beverage, the geek meter should go off the charts.
Sure, much of it sounds really funny. And there’s often social pressure against this type of enjoyment, especially in cultural contexts linked with Calvinism or Puritanism. Yet, there’s a lot to be said about experiencing a good beverage. Continue reading | <urn:uuid:383c4217-7dea-4813-897c-085705afd1be> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.enkerli.com/tag/moderation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943163 | 213 | 1.65625 | 2 |
There are so many career opportunities that enable a travel addict to stand by his own beliefs. You have to choose: either you will be trembling waiting for your next vacation or you will be excited packing your suitcase for another business trip. Yes, we are talking about the jobs in travel and the opportunities they offer.
Have you ever thought of such an occupation, for example, as a business advisor? At first sight it is no more than a boring job. No way. Let us take a deeper look at the job of business advisors. If the client's office is located in Colombia or in Mexico then who will be the lucky to meet the client on the client's own territory? Right, the obvious answer is our friends. And, you bet, there is always a chance to smell the flowers and to combine the work with interesting travel experiences.
There are numerous jobs that enable individuals to travel both at home and abroad. You only have to want to look for jobs in travel and you will be on your way to realize your dreams. For anyone interested in combining travel with earning a living, you may see that jobs in travel involve:
airlines and cruise lines
travel agencies and tour operators
internships and volunteering
hotels and resorts
military and merchant marine
business in general
short-term work experiences
Well, in such a wide range of jobs in travel, everybody has a chance to find something fetching and relevant. The choice is up to you.
If you are enough motivated to make the first step, you are a half way to find the best job search strategy.
If you are sill in doubt, find a person with this kind of experience and you will know that it is real. You may go abroad to the place you have been dreaming of or you may stay at home and find the place you have never been to yet. You may want to try to do something new and you could reveal talents that you have never thought of. Just try to use your imagination and all the opportunities given.
If you are dreaming of going abroad and work in short-term experience, you should know the five major areas in international job market: teaching English, volunteering, nonprofits, travel industry and construction. After a year or two abroad you could return home and pursue a normal career.
If you tend to pursue a long-term career abroad you should look toward government, international organizations, international nonprofits, educational institutions, consulting firms, and multinational corporations.
For those, who have made up their minds to spend their lives in travel we should strongly recommend the book "Jobs for Travel Lovers" by Ron and Caryl Krannich, Ph.Ds. The book provides invaluable tips and includes names, addresses, telephone/fax numbers, e-mails, and websites for contacting potential employers. It is an ideal guide for those who want to work the world before "settling down" and for those who want to put more travel into their careers and lives. | <urn:uuid:122f7583-11f8-4b81-8d6e-aeb02b511a53> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.syl.com/travel/haveyoueverlookedforjobsintravel.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961157 | 604 | 1.65625 | 2 |
The principal UK regulator that may apply to investments is the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Many alternative investments however are unregulated, although the promotion and selling of them may be a regulated activity. Within the investment directory, the listing confirms the regulatory status of the investment itself.
The effect of being unregulated is that if anything goes wrong, neither the scheme member nor the pension trustees/operator are likely to be able to take any complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service or have any recourse to compensation through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. This is because most, if not all, of the entities dealt with in connection with the investment may be outside of UK regulation and not covered by these institutions. Even if certain entities are authorised and regulated by the FCA, such as an adviser or Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) operator, whether the investor has any regulatory recourse will depend on what has gone wrong - the regulated entities can only be held accountable if something is their fault. For example, if as part of a CIS, an unregulated resort developer goes bust meaning the resort is unfinished and the investment suffers a drop in value, the CIS operator would not usually be at fault. If on the other hand a loss was suffered due to maladministration of the FCA regulated CIS operator, for example not processing payments on time, then regulatory recourse may be available. Alternatively if a regulated adviser has recommended an unregulated investment then the investor may be able to complain or make a claim around the promotion and advice.
The Packaged Retail Investment Products (PRIPs) directive, currently being shaped by the European Union may increase regulation to a wider range of products than currently, however this legislation is still in development. A consultation paper was issued in 2010 with draft regulations on key information to be disclosed issued in July 2012 and for these to come into force in 2014/15.
The pensions based regulatory bodies such as The Pensions Regulator (TPR), The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS) and Pensions Ombudsman are concerned with issues or complaints regarding the running and administration of pension schemes rather than investments within SIPPs and SSASs. | <urn:uuid:e58109f7-91f3-4a6f-b7bf-740a271a80c6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sippinvestmentplatform.co.uk/information-about-investments/regulation/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958317 | 428 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Forty-five school districts will be receiving money from the federal Race to the Top program. Gov. John Kasich says this will give those schools millions of dollars to fund new ways of teaching kids science and math skills.
Kasich says about half of Ohio’s school districts are participating in the Race to the Top program. He thinks all of them should be and says parents should ask school leaders who’ve chosen not to participate why they made that decision. Kasich says his office is working with teachers to establish criteria for teacher evaluation - something he says is necessary in the Race to the Top funding. | <urn:uuid:97493d86-e9fa-43b3-b816-d2969f83d296> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.statenews.org/story_page.cfm?ID=15327&year=2011&month=6 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969598 | 124 | 1.820313 | 2 |
“Survivors have been some of the bravest women that I know,” said Joaneileen Coughlan, director of domestic violence services for WomenRising, speaking to over 20 individuals gathered for the group’s annual candlelight vigil in Jersey City on Oct. 17. The event was held in recognition of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
“Tonight we mourn the victims of domestic violence – the girl I was, and thought I would be,” said Hoboken resident Tatiana Petersen to an audience comprised mostly of women. “Tonight we celebrate the survivors, and the woman I have become, because of my community and organizations like WomenRising. I thank the officers who answered my call regardless of whether I was ready to leave. I thank them for being there when I did leave. I am a domestic violence survivor.”
Awareness of domestic violence
Recent domestic violence cases in Hudson County have made headlines and shaken up communities. Last month a man in Secaucus was charged with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing a woman repeatedly, and a Jersey City husband was arrested after his missing wife’s body was found in the family’s basement.
“Define your destination and create your happiness. You have the power to walk away.” – Tatiana Petersen
Events like the candlelight vigil at WomenRising not only serve as a reminder of the reality of domestic violence but also as a vehicle of self-expression for survivors and as a resource for victims that seek help.
Petersen said it had been 10 years since she escaped the cycle of violence with the help of her local woman’s shelter, which aided her in creating a safety plan.
Members of the audience were noticeably moved by Petersen’s words as she read from her poetry. Petersen said that despite her husband’s attempts at silencing her by strangling her, she used writing “as a tool to escape what I was experiencing.”
“Define your destination and create your happiness. You have the power to walk away,” said Petersen.
Megan Gulczynski, attorney with Northeast New Jersey Legal Services, spoke about services available to low-income individuals for obtaining a restraining order. She said victims are expected to provide their own justification and her office helps them prepare their testimony free of charge.
Kearny Sgt. John Manley, who spoke about the role of police officers, noted that there has been an increase in domestic violence over the last several years. Studies indicate there was a 7 percent rise in domestic violence incidents in New Jersey in the first half of 2010, compared to the same period in 2009.
“It is a cycle where we deal with the same families a lot,” said Manley. “The victim goes through the process sometimes seven, eight, or nine times.”
Manley said Hudson County domestic violence liaison officers from all 12 Hudson County municipalities meet regularly and work together as a group to address what types of training their personnel need.
“We speak about the various cases in our municipalities and we also speak about training issues,” said Manley. Officers will also discuss how cases were handled in other towns noted Manley.
Domestic Violence Response Team
Each Hudson County municipality has a Domestic Violence Response Team (DVRT) as mandated by the state. Officers call on the DVRT members to meet with victims at police headquarters. DVRT members provide victims with information about domestic violence and available support groups. Members also provide details about formulating a safety plan and understanding a temporary restraining order or TRO. Volunteers are fully trained and confidentiality is strictly adhered to.
Manley said all municipalities meet regularly with their DVRT members and WomenRising.
WomenRising is the state-designated lead agency in the county for domestic violence. The organization’s programs include 24-hour, seven day a week domestic violence services that include interventions, intensive counseling and support services for the women and children. The organization also has a court liaison to advise and advocate for battered women within the court system.
But does number work?
The 24-hour hotline number is (201) 333-5700, ext. 511. However, the Reporter called multiple times during an afternoon and no one answered the hotline even after 20 minutes of ringing. No voicemail picked up.
“Never has it gone where [the hotline is] unanswered,” said Margaret Abrams, domestic violence response team coordinator. “I’m concerned that there may be something wrong with the phone line.”
Abrams said the staff were all off-site for training with the exception of one or two people that were supposed to be handling the phones. She said the receptionist could have been on an emergency client call that may have lasted up to 30 minutes. She said there are instances in the evenings when the resident assistant attends to a client in the shelter when the hotline goes to voicemail, but those calls should be returned.
The agency is looking for volunteers to help staff the phones. Volunteers will require training like DVRT members.
If men call the hotline WomenRising assists them with resources and one-on-one counseling but cannot house them. The agency works with men who need assistance finding a place to stay but Abrams said that even though they frequently get calls from men, they typically don’t require a place to stay.
“The male victims usually have places to go,” said Abrams.
The state domestic violence hotline is: (800) 572-SAFE (7233).
In case of a domestic escalating emergency, an individual should call 911.
But if a woman is planning on leaving, WomenRising can help them develop a safety plan and help them prepare to leave.
The Secaucus DVRT is on a rotating schedule and is on call from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Monday through Friday and 24 hours on weekends. The group collects needed items for women and families of domestic violence such as toiletries for the shelter, toys, coats, and clothing. Volunteers are welcome to join the team by calling (201) 333-5700.
Adriana Rambay Fernández may be reached at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:e94cf635-2ac1-4169-898c-527f1d00db03> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hudsonreporter.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Escaping+cycle+of+domestic+violence-Recent+events+in+Secaucus-+JC+draw+attention+to+help+for+victims-%20&id=16412701 | 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 | 0.96898 | 1,311 | 1.570313 | 2 |
With their inquisitive minds and distinctive personalities, cats make wonderful pets. At the Seattle Humane Society we are committed to fostering life-long relationships between people and their pets.
The following pages contain a variety of articles and resources about kitty care, behavior, and activities. The goal of this information is to help you keep your cat as happy and healthy as possible, no matter what stage of "nine lives" he's in.
View our adoptable cats.
You might also like to:
about low cost spay/neuter services
where you can get a pet license
how to report a lost animal | <urn:uuid:815b7ed3-787c-4402-88d6-701803045fa4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.seattlehumane.org/index.php?q=services/catadvice | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941193 | 127 | 1.71875 | 2 |
I don't like, when my private data is shared with third party companies... How about You?
In response to a survey answered by 500 privacy and 900 marketing executives in industries ranging from health care to financial services, more than a third of marketing execs said they don't place any limits on the data they share with third parties, such as e-mail marketing agencies or online advertisers. By contrast, 75% of privacy officers believe that their companies limit the sharing of customer data.
More specifically, 80% of marketers said their organizations share e-mail addresses with third parties, compared with 47% of security and privacy officers. Other examples: 65% of marketers said they would distribute a customer's cellphone number, while 47% of privacy execs believe their companies banned the practice. Forty-five percent of marketers believe their companies shared credit card data, compared with 32% of privacy officers, and 29% of marketers believe their firms distribute social security numbers, compared with 7% of privacy professionals.
That disconnect may be one source of the annoying spam that plagues inboxes. Just 44% of marketers surveyed believe their organizations were in compliance with the CAN-SPAM act, a law that requires marketers to request permission to send email messages, disclose the messages' source and offer an opt-out function. Forty percent of marketing execs who responded weren't sure whether their companies followed the law.
Paul Bates, managing director of StrongMail UK, said: "Businesses have a moral, ethical obligation to keep private, personal customer data safe and secure.
"They should not be handing it out to third parties in the hope of making a fast buck. If they choose to do this, and then lose customer data, then they should at least be obliged to admit it." | <urn:uuid:9ca680c5-da40-40a1-8b81-c1fd16fb8731> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/what-privacy-policy | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962219 | 361 | 1.75 | 2 |
House Democrats have found a way to make their point at the State of the Union address, scheduled on Tuesday, February 12th. House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi is bringing a fourth grade student and her mother from Newtown, CT. The girl does not attend Sandy Hook, but wrote to Pelosi describing how gun violence has impacted her.
The girl sent Pelosi a letter explaining how she has been affected by gun violence. “What everyone in Newtown wants, is for you to ban semi automatic weapons and large capacity magazines and to make everyone use gun safes. This is important so that a person cannot shoot many people at once, and/or injure people badly,” the girl wrote. “This ban will help prevent individuals, families and communities from suffering the way we are in Newtown.”
Another Democrat, Rep. Chris Van Hollen from Maryland is planning to bring Carol Price, a mother who lost her son John to gun violence. According to Van Hollen, a result of John’s death was Maryland legislation which now requires trigger locks on firearms.
News of their plans comes amid an effort by a group of House Democrats to get all lawmakers in their party to bring gun violence victims to the State of the Union, in an effort to keep up the pressure for new gun safety laws. Ten lawmakers were confirmed to participate in the effort earlier this week; that number is now up to 21.
In addition to Pelosi and Van Hollen, Democrats taking part in the effort include Reps. Jim Langevin (R.I.), Keith Ellison (Minn.), Carolyn McCarthy (N.Y.), David Cicilline (R.I.), Lois Frankel (Fla.), Gloria Negrete McLeod (Calif.), Ed Perlmutter (Colo.), Janice Hahn (Calif.), Bobby Scott (Va.), Brad Schneider (Ill.), Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), Elizabeth Esty (Conn.), Mike Thompson (Calif.), Jim Himes (Conn.), Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Diana DeGette (Colo.), Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) and Lujan Grisham (N.M.). | <urn:uuid:a61ebd18-9fd0-41b6-905f-f1255393e088> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.enumclaw.com/news/national-news/democrats-find-opportunity-to-exploit-gun-violence-victims/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936255 | 439 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Traditionally, short volatility trading is regarded as a risky investment approach. Even during quiet periods, strategies based on selling naked options can lead to considerable losses. It is no wonder that a financial crisis, accompanied by a sharp rise in historical and implied volatilities, is commonly considered a factor that dramatically raises the risk of substantial losses, right up to the near-bankruptcy level. Scrutinizing the data of the current crisis allows us to judge whether such views are correct.
Three basic issues will be examined: how does the crisis influence the profitability of short option positions, does the crisis change the structure of trading opportunities existing at the option market and is the effectiveness of the criterion used in selection of the most promising trading opportunities affected by the crisis?
Because the timing of trade entry plays a key role in volatility selling strategies, all of these questions will be studied in the context of different time intervals between trade entry and option expiration.
The success of almost any strategy based on selling naked options depends on the selection procedure. This procedure can be based on one or several criteria that may be informal, or have strict mathematical guidelines. A popular metric is profit expectations based on various probability distributions. Here, we’ll examine how the current financial crisis affects the mathematical expectation of profit estimated using lognormal distribution. This is calculated as the integral of the payoff function with respect to the lognormal probability density function.
Two databases were used in this study. The first one, corresponding to the crisis period, covers the time interval from Aug. 1, 2007, to March 30, 2009. The second database corresponds to the period before the crisis (Jan. 2, 2003, to July 31, 2007). Both data arrays contain prices of options corresponding to the shares that make up the S&P 500 index.
Within each database, a series of 60 portfolios was created for each expiration date. These portfolios differed from each other in terms of time to expiration. The most “distant” portfolio was 60 trading days away from the expiration, the next one was 59 days, and so on.
Each portfolio consisted of 500 short straddles related to the stocks forming the S&P 500 index. Each straddle used the strike closest to the current stock price. The quantity of options corresponding to each stock was determined as $1,000,000/x, where x is the price of the stock underlying the straddle.
For all combinations, criterion values were calculated at portfolio creation. Profits were calculated at the expiration date. The sum of mathematical expectations of all straddles in the portfolio gives the criterion value, while the profit is calculated by summing up profits and losses of these combinations.
During calm periods, profit does not depend on the number of days left to expiration, while at the time of crisis, the profitability of short option portfolios falls as the time left to expiration increases (see “Comparing profits” ). Besides, a decrease of average profit is accompanied by a sharp increase in its variability (vertical bars on chart), which can be explained by high market volatility during the crisis. Close to expiration date profits during both crisis and quiet periods are virtually the same, which may be the most important conclusion of this study.
TAKING A TRADE
A trading opportunity arises when the market price of the option deviates from its fair value — that is, the value that implies zero profit for both buyers and sellers. We assume that trading opportunities are inherent to combinations for which the absolute difference between market and fair values exceeds 1%. The relative frequency of such combinations reflects the abundance of potential trading opportunities existing in the market at a specific time moment.
“Trading opportunities” (above) shows that in crisis, potential trading opportunities exceed those in a calm market. As expiration approaches, the number of trading opportunities falls sharply. However, during the crisis, the rate of this decrease is not as high as during the calm period. Close to expiration, the number of opportunities existing during the crisis is greater than those in the calm period. Also, far from the expiration, the difference between trading potentials is negligible.
Thus, when expiration approaches, more unfairly priced combinations arise during the crisis. Does it mean that the criterion used to reveal potentially profitable combinations would allow identifying these additional trading opportunities, which could raise the number of profitable combinations. Analyzing the criterion effectiveness will answer this.
Several valuation methods should be applied to investigate the impact of the crisis on criterion effectiveness. We begin with ranking analysis developed on the basis of the set theory. This method is based on calculation of the coefficient of the criterion effectiveness k:
k=KP X B/K X P
In the above, B is the total number of combinations (500 in this study, which is the number of straddles in every portfolio), K is the number of combinations with expected profit higher than 1% of the current underlying asset price, P is the number of combinations with profit realized at expiration that is higher than 1% of the current underlying asset price, KP is the number of combinations included in both K and P sets (those of the profitable combinations which were correctly identified by the criterion at the stage of portfolio creation).
The criterion is considered to possess a forecasting capacity when k value exceeds 1. The higher the value of this coefficient, the more effective is the criterion.
“Ranking analysis” shows that the criterion used in this study does not allow benefiting from the sharp rise in the number of trading opportunities occurring during the crisis. While near expiration, the number of trading opportunities is much higher during the crisis than during the calm period, the criterion based on mathematical expectation and on lognormal distribution is more effective in a quiet market. However, when this criterion is applied far from expiration, it shows the same effectiveness regardless of the market phase. In both market environments, the criterion effectiveness is highest close to expiration and decreases sharply as the time to expiration increases.
Ranking analysis of criterion effectiveness estimates the relationship between different combination sets. This method is based on relative frequencies and omits absolute profits of separate combinations. This drawback can be compensated for by considering deviations of actual profits from their expected values and by using correlations between criterion and profit values.
The difference between expected and realized profits increases as the interval between portfolio creation and expiration widens. Such direct relationship is evident both during calm and crisis periods. However, during the crisis, the divergence of two profits increases at a higher rate (see “Deviations from reality,” above). Positive difference means that potential profitability of a combination was overestimated. Negative difference implies that the criterion underestimated the potential profit.
When the expiration is distant, average profit is slightly overestimated in calm periods and highly overestimated during the crisis. Near expiration, deviations between actual and estimated profits are small for both market phases. This means that the crisis does not decrease the effectiveness of criteria applied shortly before expiration date. However, if the investor estimates the potential profitability of option combinations far from expiration, criterion values should be adjusted by introducing a correcting coefficient (the slope of the regression line shown in the figure can be used). At the same time, during the crisis, the variability of deviations of actual profit from estimated values is high, especially far from expiration. Therefore, adjusting coefficients will produce no more than a limited effect.
The correlation between criterion values and calm-period profits grows as time to expiration increases (see “Correlations”). The inverse relationship is observed during crisis: the farther away expiration, the lower the correlation coefficient. Nevertheless, close to expiration, correlation coefficients corresponding to both market phases are almost equivalent. The crisis does not affect the effectiveness of the criterion when its application is limited to a short time interval between portfolio creation and expiration.
The dawning of the crisis period generated additional trading opportunities for option traders (see “Trading opportunities”). This owes to the sharp price fluctuations (historical volatility) and to growing option premiums (implied volatility) that lead traders to make more mistakes in estimating fair option values. However, exploiting these additional trading opportunities is difficult because their discovery using traditional criteria (developed and optimized during calm periods) is impossible.
Despite the adverse effect of crises on high-risk strategies, such as short volatility trading, it does not mean that the whole class of strategies based on selling naked options should be excluded from the investment plans. Although the majority of short portfolios might indeed generate considerable losses during crisis periods, these losses can be reduced and even turned into profits by shortening investment horizons (see “Comparing profits”).
During the crisis period, the criterion fails only when there are more than 10-15 working days until expiration. Close to expiration, the crisis does not affect the quality of the criterion. Although the frequency of false estimates may increase even in this situation, it does not affect the valuation of average profitability of short option portfolios.
Because markets can go several years without extreme crises, traders need a risk management plan that goes beyond simple modeling. The next crisis is usually different from the last and often more extreme than what is
Sergey Izraylevich has a Ph.D. from Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the chief investment officer of Hortan SARL and chairman of High Technology Invest Inc. Vadim Tsudikman is a director at Hortan and develops trading systems based on genetic optimization algorithms. Contact the authors at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:f5b09d03-918f-411f-a691-c15d069fda41> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.futuresmag.com/2009/10/01/short-volatility-trading-in-extreme-markets?t=options&page=2 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935461 | 1,932 | 1.8125 | 2 |
PORT GAMBLE — Negotiations over the cleanup of Port Gamble Bay have broken down, endangering a $9 million appropriation from the Legislature for the purchase of property around the waterway, officials say.
Washington Department of Ecology had worked out extensive plans with Pope Resources to clean up polluted sediments in the bay and to purchase and restore habitat along the shore, according to Tim Nord of the agency. But Ecology could not accommodate the company’s insistence that two large docks over the cleanup area be left in place.
“You have to do a complete cleanup,” Nord said, adding that the proposed dredging could not be accomplished with the docks in the way.
Company officials have said that they would prefer a single new dock outside the bay where the former sawmill once stood. That dock is integral to company plans for renovating the town of Port Gamble, with increased opportunities for tourism and new businesses, said Jon Rose of Olympic Property Group, a subsidiary of Pope Resources.
“We have agreed to take those two docks out once we get approval for a replacement dock,” Rose said. “Without those docks sitting there we do not have a legal right to the water. If we give up those docks, we will never have water access.”
Rose said Ecology has the discretion to phase the cleanup, which could take more than five years to complete. Most of the contaminated sediments can be removed around the pilings at low tide right now with no problem, he said.
Once the new dock is built, the old docks can be removed and the cleanup completed. If the new dock doesn’t get built in time, then the company would cover the old pilings with metal sleeves to prevent the leaching of creosote, he said.
Nord says the company’s proposal is insufficient for a “complete cleanup.” The old pilings are leaching creosote and breaking apart, he said, and they need to be removed. “We have a technical disagreement,” he added.
Rose said Pope Resources has been willing to increase its contribution to the cleanup plan from $4.5 million to more than $17 million and only seeks to legally protect its water access by keeping the old docks inside the bay until a new one is built.
“They are killing a viable project, because they don’t think it is perfect,” Rose said of Ecology’s stand.
“It is our understanding that the new director of Ecology has not been briefed on Port Gamble yet,” Rose noted, adding that he will seek an audience with Maia Bellon, who was appointed Ecology director Friday. On Tuesday, Rose was in Olympia discussing the issue with legislators.
Kitsap County Commissioner Rob Gelder said he had not heard about the negotiation breakdown between Ecology and Pope Resources.
“Until I have a conversation, I will remain optimistic,” he said, “but this sounds like a devastating blow to the conservation effort. It is truly disappointing, because this had a lot of potential to achieve the long-term conservation goals for the Forest and Bay Project.”
The Kitsap Forest and Bay Project is a community effort to acquire for public use up to 7,000 acres of forestland and shoreline habitat in North Kitsap.
“This is disappointing news,” said Sandra Staples-Bortner of Great Peninsula Conservancy, a land trust involved in the project. “There is a huge community interest in seeing this move forward, so I hope we are not going to give up over a couple of docks.”
“Our job is to get a cleanup,” Nord said. “We’re not going to get the grand prize, and there is a lot of disappointment, but we will get a cleanup for the community.”
The next step, he said, is for Ecology to issue an enforcement order to compel Pope Resources to begin working on the cleanup plan.
The cleanup plan includes removing about 1,800 creosote pilings, excavating intertidal areas and dredging up to 45,000 cubic yards of wood waste from the bottom of the harbor. Some areas would receive a 4-foot-thick cap of clean sediments to contain remaining pollution, while other areas would get a 1-foot or 6-inch cap.
The Legislature appropriated $9 million toward the restoration plan — provided that the parties could agree to a cleanup program. About $2 million of that was proposed to remove a sewer outfall and restore a geoduck bed in deep water. The remaining $7 million would be used to purchase nearshore areas along Port Gamble Bay.
At the end of January, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved a $1 million grant to purchase 1.8 miles of shoreline on Port Gamble Bay. The grant requires a $520,000 match of state and local funds, and Nord said he would help to make sure the match is available.
Without the restoration plan, however, most of the $9 million earmarked for restoration will be lost, he said. The money could have been used to buy more land for shoreline buffers and open space on the waterfront, he said.
According to Rose, Pope Resources plans to spend $7 million for habitat restoration. Work proposed in the restoration plan includes removing fill on the shoreline, cleaning up an old landfill, planting vegetation, pulling out shoreline structures and creating new access roads.
The plan also includes the construction of a new Marine Resource Center to be operated by Western Washington University. Pope would provide $250,000 to install utilities and $600,000 in general startup costs for the education and research center.
Rose said Pope Resources is willing to spend $24 million for cleanup and restoration, but the company must insist on continued water access to protect the future of Port Gamble, a port town.
Nord said he was successful in getting federal, state and tribal entities on board with the restoration plan. Without an approved plan, he added, they could file separate claims for natural resource damages caused by past mill operations. | <urn:uuid:e0ea4416-afdb-4684-aef3-6d2cb349dc13> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2013/feb/12/ecology-port-gamble-deal-appears-to-be-in/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958614 | 1,268 | 1.671875 | 2 |
- Policy & Research
- About KHI
Feb. 5, 2013
TOPEKA A bill to significantly expand exemptions to the statewide smoking ban was introduced today in the Kansas House.
House Bill 2219, would allow any private business to allow smoking provided it:
• employs only people age 21 years or older,
• posts signs stating that no one under 21 would be admitted, and
• posts signs stating that the business allows smoking.
The statewide smoking ban that began in 2010 currently exempts casino gaming floors, private clubs, retail tobacco shops, certain hotel rooms and designated spaces in adult long-term care facilities.
Chris Masoner of the American Cancer Society's Kansas chapter said the bill would do nothing to protect employees from the perils of second-hand tobacco smoke, which was one of the chief reasons cited by policymakers when they approved the public smoking ban.
"This could apply to any business, whether it's an office or manufacturing facility or anything else. It's written so broadly that it would really drive a truck through the law," Masoner said.
The measure was introduced by Rep. Randy Garber of Sabetha and 10 fellow Republicans.
The bill is similar to a bill introduced last year by Garber, which the House declined to debate.
Garber could not immediately be reached for comment.
The bill has not yet been referred to a committee.
The KHI News Service is an editorially independent initiative of the Kansas Health Institute and is committed to timely, objective and in-depth coverage of health issues and the policy making environment. Find more about the News Service at khi.org/newsservice or contact us at (785) 783-2529. | <urn:uuid:6aa931a0-766e-4c37-989d-b1ec177a2d37> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.khi.org/news/2013/feb/05/bill-would-exempt-businesses-smoking-ban/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962112 | 352 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Keeney’s Internal Green Mission.
Our commitment to sustainability recognizes that all business activities are derived from or take place in the natural environment. Based on a long-term perspective and the realization that we are in a closed system, it is easy to see that what is good for the environment is also good for our customers. And being interconnected, what is good for the environment and customers is also good for our employees and our business. We also realize that there are no quick fixes. By paying attention to detail and being a consciously engaged participant, we can all reduce the negative impacts of normal business activities and enjoy the resulting efficiencies.
Below are a few examples of internal measures we have recently undertaken to reduce our own carbon footprint:
- Keeney’s reduced waste to the landfill by 85% over the past two years. This reduction was a result of company-wide reuse and recycling.
- In 2012, Keeney’s joined Forterra’s “C3 Program” which calculated our carbon footprint and in turn planted 57 trees in the Carnation area to offset our operational impact on the environment.
- Keeney’s is part of the Green Power buying program with Puget Sound Energy and our monthly contribution equates to planting more than 5 acres of trees per year.
- Keeney’s recycles 85% of its waste per year. What does not go in the trash, gets recycled, composted or is reused. Items include paper, cardboard, packing material, Styrofoam, pens, markers, CFL light bulbs, wooden pallets, toner cartridges and food scraps.
- All office printing is set to duplex printing on all office computers and is networked to energy star compliant printers. We also use 100% recycled paper in all printers.
- We work with local suppliers of products (where we can) to reduce the distance our products travel to reach our warehouse and our customers
- Styrofoam packaging material is diverted to a company called Styro Recycle, who in turn reduces the mixed material into blocks and sells to their neighboring company to produce newly molded stryofoam for new products. This decreases production of more Styrofoam, keeps our unwanted Styrofoam out of the landfill, and helps increase the lifespan of a material that take many years to disappear in the landfill.
- We reuse packing boxes for deliveries. This keeps over 54,000 boxes a year in use, rather than having to create 54,000 new boxes and get rid of 54,000 old ones. Re-use is greener and lower cost than recycling.
- Wood pallets are given to the wood recycler or diverted to neighbors who again would have to purchase these products for their use.
- Keeney’s delivery team uses a Flexible Delivery Manifest System. To respond to constantly changing delivery requirements, we use flexible daily routing of our delivery fleet to maximize route efficiency and truck running time. Each day we alter our delivery routes to shorten the time Keeney’s trucks are on the road. These efforts have enabled us to grow as a business, with more deliveries, and to do them with fewer trucks. Having no engine running is better than an efficient engine running. When appropriate, we also utilize the services of a local delivery company to reach outlying areas where their trucks are already going so we don’t waste resources driving from centralized delivery areas to marginal areas. | <urn:uuid:76068cff-fa91-4610-a113-f1ed3e24b5e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.keeneys.com/sustainability/keeneys-green-mission/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947562 | 716 | 1.796875 | 2 |
The six month Atlantic Hurricane Season officially begins June 1st and runs through November 30th. We should all be prepared to take actions to lessen a storm's impact.
The Town of Hilton Head Island has worked with county and state officials to develop comprehensive plans to respond effectively and to ease the evacuation and re-entry processes. In addition, we have also developed strategies to expedite and ease our recovery efforts by establishing an emergency reserve account to fund these activities and by amending our Land Management Ordinance to facilitate a rapid reestablishment of our community following a hurricane or other disaster. In the event of a potential or actual storm strike, you play a key role in a successful pre- and post-disaster scenario. Your Town wants you to be prepared for whatever comes our way this year. The best way to protect your family from the effects of a disaster is to have a disaster plan. Make plans now!
If you have any questions or concerns regarding hurricane evacuations or Island reentry procedures, please contact Thomas Dunn at (843)682-5156. | <urn:uuid:3ed25f36-c81d-44a2-b5b6-7842dcac541d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hiltonheadislandsc.gov/publicsafety/hurricane/home.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951921 | 215 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Last September, in the heat of the mis-named “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy and the hubbub over Terry Jones’ first, aborted, Koran-building spectacle, People For’s Michael Keegan warned of the “careful mainstreaming of Islamophobia” in American life:
Some anti-Park51 crusaders, even Sarah Palin, denounced Jones' dangerous publicity stunt. But the fact is that his actions would attract little attention, and do little harm, if they weren't taking place in the context of widespread and loud Islamophobia encouraged and implicitly condoned by prominent political leaders. Leaders such as Palin could pretend to be tolerant by denouncing Jones' clear extremism, while all the while continuing to push subtler, more pervasive strains of Islamophobia. The suggestion, made by Palin, John Boehner, and by Jones himself that the Koran-burning event and the building of the Islamic Community Center had some moral equivalence is treacherous indeed, implying that somehow the practice of Islam is itself an offensive act. It's this sort of insidious notion -- passed off as a legitimate argument -- that creates the growing level of distrust of Muslims in our society.
The outcry against the Park51 Islamic community center in lower Manhattan set the tone for what has become virulent and widespread anti-Islam sentiment among many leaders on the Right, which has led to an increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes. In March, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that one-fifth of all anti-Muslim hate crimes since Sept. 11, 2001 had occurred in the ten months since the Park51 controversy had erupted.
The mainstreaming of anti-Muslim rhetoric has also contributed to a rash of attacks on American mosques. The ACLU is now compiling data on mosque attacks in an interactive map – they have so far chronicled incidents in 21 states: | <urn:uuid:07d03987-070c-461b-9071-f391d717bdb7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.pfaw.org/content/attacks-mosques-spread-through-us | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960065 | 370 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Legend of The Little Professor…
I have long been interested in the career of former Boston Red Sox centerfielder Dom DiMaggio. He played before my time, but I was always amazed that he was able to carve out a great career despite playing in the long shadows of his brother, Yankees centerfielder Joe DiMaggio and Boston great Ted Williams.
Dominic Paul DiMaggio was born on February 12, 1917; the ninth and youngest son of Italian immigrants Guiseppe and Rosalia (Mercurio) DiMaggio. Brothers Vince and Joe shared the same middle name due to Guiseppe’s favorite saint, St. Paul.
Physically, Dom was smaller than his older brothers who played major league baseball. Vince, who played for 5 National League teams, was 5’11″, 183 lbs; while Joe was the tallest at 6’2″, 193 lbs. Dom, known as “The Little Professor” because of his glasses and his studious nature, was only 5’9″, 168 lbs. However, it didn’t stop Dom from becoming a legitimate baseball star in his own right.
He started his professional baseball career with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League in 1937 (where Joe had starred a few years earlier). After batting .361 in 1939, his contract was purchased by the Boston Red Sox.
In his rookie season of 1940, he became part of Boston’s .300 hitting outfield trio, joining Ted Williams and Doc Cramer, with a .301 batting average. Dom played in Boston for a couple more years, and then joined the U.S. Navy in October 1942. He was one of many major league baseball players who saw interruptions in their major league careers due to military commitment during World War II. I have always wondered what these players could have done in those missing years. Of course, they served a greater cause, but it’s still tough not to wonder ‘what if’.
Nevertheless, Dom picked up right where he left off when he returned to the Red Sox in 1946. That year, he hit .316 and participated in his only World Series. It was Boston’s first Series appearance in 28 years. Dom batted third and almost became a World Series hero and could have eliminated the so-called ‘Curse of the Bambino’ in 1946 rather than allowing it to stew in the minds of fans until 2004. In the 8th inning of Game 7 with two outs, Dom doubled home two runs to tie the score against the St. Louis Cardinals at 3-3. As he was coming into second base, he pulled his hamstring and had to be lifted for a pinch runner. Dom was very gifted defensively, and his presence in the Boston outfield in the 9th inning could have prevented the famed Mad Dash by the Cardinals’ Enos “Country” Slaughter. After Dom left the game, Leon Culberson took over center. With one out and Slaughter on base, Harry Walker hit a ball into centerfield. Culberson relayed the ball to shortstop Johnny Pesky. Pesky hesitated (either it was a mental lapse or he thought Slaughter wouldn’t try to run home). Slaughter ran past the stop sign at third, and scored what proved the game and series winning score, sending the Red Sox to their first World Series defeat. There has been long speculation that had a healthy DiMaggio been in centerfield, he would have either caught the ball or his strong throwing arm would have held Slaughter at third.
In 1948, Dom broke the AL record for most putouts in a season with 503 and most total chances with 526. The marks stood until 1977 when they were broken by Chet Lemon of the Chicago White Sox.
In 1949, Dom pieced together a 34-game hitting streak to set the Red Sox team record.
Dom was generally good for about 10-15 stolen bases a year in an era that did not place much emphasis on stolen bags. His 15 stolen bases in 1950 led the league, and it was the lowest total to lead either league.
Another hitting streak, this time it was 27 games, followed in 1951.
Dom retired in 1953, at a time when he could have continued to play at a high level for a few more years. He hit .300 four times during his Boston career (lifetime batting average was .298, with an excellent OBP of .383). Dom also led the AL in runs twice (he scored over 100 run in 6 of his 10 seasons with the Red Sox). At the time of his retirement, his 1,338 games played in centerfield ranked 8th in AL history.
Talk to baseball old-timers, and you’ll find more than a few who felt that Dom played the best centerfield in the DiMaggio family.
Who hits the ball and makes it go?
Who runs the bases fast, not slow?
Who’s better than his brother Joe?
But when it comes to getting dough,
They give it all to brother Joe.
(Refrain recited by Red Sox fans in the 1940s.)
Dom was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1995. If he had played during the war years, I am sure that he would have found his way to Cooperstown…
Joe Gromelski/S&S (2005)
With weekend sweep of the Yankees, the Red Sox completed an undefeated 9-game home stand and their current winning streak stands at 10 games. The streak began with an 8-2 victory over the Oakland A’s on April 15th. If Death and Taxes are the only certainties in life, I guess a Red Sox winning streak is not far behind…
Yes Julia, Wally remains on his “perch” and will stay there until the Red Sox winning streak is over… | <urn:uuid:7ddd4607-f306-459f-9554-00ac4fafd2cf> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://fotr.mlblogs.com/2009/04/27/legend-of-the-little-professor/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986033 | 1,225 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Hey gang got another way to spend you working hours on the computer!
The Midwest Dairy Association has launched a new Facebook app called “Butter-Fy Yourself” that allows you to create and share of image of yourself that replicates the butter statues often created for state fairs. To butter-fy yourself, you just select a photo from Facebook or your desktop and then select a butter persona: Dairy Princess, Butter Hippie, Butter Cow, Butter Liberty, Butter Bouffant and Butter Up. You can then arrange your photo within that frame, slap it on a postcard, and share it with your friends via your wall, photo album or personal invite to join in the fun.
… Apparently, the first butter statue was created by Tibetan monks, who carved animals and gods out of the fatty substance, which was then jazzed up with colorful dye. After that, the buttery creations found their way to North America in the early 1800s, where people whipped up decorative patterns and displayed them at state fairs. In 1910, the first butter cow was created at the Iowa State Fair, and now you can find sculptures of all shapes and sizes at fairs across the Midwest.
(Link to the app) | <urn:uuid:a5f87d89-813e-46ca-9ff1-95ff81b94ffe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wil92.com/2010/09/22/butter-fy-your-face/ | 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 | 0.953635 | 250 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Lance Cottrell develops Internet privacy systems. Cottrell launched the first commercial privacy service, Anonymizer.com, in 1995 while studying towards a PhD in Astrophysics at UCSD. Cottrell was the original coder for the Mixmaster anonymous remailer and designed version 1 Mixmaster Protocol). Cottrell established the Kosovo Privacy Project which, using internet anonymizer services, allowed individuals to report from the 1999 Kosovo war zone without fear of retaliation.
Cottrell's company Anonymizer Inc. was acquired by Abraxas Corporation in April 2008 and Cottrell now serves as Chief Scientist for the company.
Cottrell is a noted privacy advocate and has appeared in dozens of interviews on radio, TV, and in print, as well as speaking at numerous conferences. | <urn:uuid:5b376e17-3c97-4be6-b061-d5df5edbd643> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thefullwiki.org/Lance_Cottrell | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949151 | 163 | 1.820313 | 2 |
The Peace River Regional District (PRRD) has voted to send out a recommendation that two municipal organizations support a measure that would require dam permit holders to notify the public in case of emergency, rather than contacting the municipalities and asking them to notify the public.
However, board chair Karen Goodings said that the motion was not done "in particular" because of the controversial Site C project.
"This is something that's been something longstanding for our emergency committee," said Goodings. "It's something we've said that we've need to had. It's not good enough for the directors, for us to say, BC Hydro will get a hold of the municipality and expect us to do all the work."
According to the PRRD's letter, current dam safety regulations require dam permit holders to prepare emergency plans for the dams. However, these plans do not require them to inform the public about the risks involved.
"The emergency plan is quite basic in that it only includes the names of contact persons, access routes and who should be notified downstream of the dam," according to the information. "For example, in the case of an emergency ... BC Hydro as the dam owner only notifies the potentially affected local government of the emergency and does not notify the residents or businesses that could be impacted."
They asked that the dam owners should develop public notification procedures and help coordinate emergency response.
This motion was sent on the North Central Local Government Association, an area association of northern B.C. municipalities, and the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM), which makes up all municipalities in the province.
They hope to have the NCLGA vote on the resolution at their 2013 conference. | <urn:uuid:66efa96a-6b35-4114-a003-9c06647f8376> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dawsoncreekdailynews.ca/article/20130217/DAWSONCREEK0101/130219919/-1/dawsoncreek/prrd-votes-to-revisit-dam-emergency-plan | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963971 | 344 | 1.71875 | 2 |
The question of seeing the glass half-full or half-empty has become a familiar defining of some one's outlook on life.
Interesting to note - in both glasses the liquid amount is the same. It is in the eye of the beholder whether the glass is in the process of being filled or in the process of being emptied.
Two people can find themselves in identical circumstances; one will see the meaning of his life draining out as in a half-empty glass, whereas the other will see his glass is only half-full leaving room for fulfilling purpose to be yet added!
Easy in theory.... not so easy to live out.
I love stories of people who inspire us with what they do when their cup is suddenly half-empty. and end up with a story worth telling !
I saw Leon Fleisher's interview on TV today. A well-known professional concert pianist. Then one day his cup was emptied.
A seemingly simple cut on his right thumb caused focal dystonia. His fingers froze into a permanent curl rendering his hand useless on the keyboard!
But music was his life and he determined that he would not choose to see his cup half-empty but rather half-full! So he became famous as a skilled pianist of concertos written for left-hand only accompanied by orchestra! For 40 years he continued as a one-handed pianist until doctors recently discovered that botox injections released his frozen fingers and allowed his right hand to once more join his left hand on the piano keyboard!
Fourteen years ago when I was diagnosed with auto-immune diseases, my first thought was of a half-full glass. I went to the Lord and with a troubled heart expressing to Him how I had been so willing to serve Him and had been so excited about the things I could do ! Also without my full involvement in our business our income would dry up!
The Lord's reply resonated in my spirit . He softly said... "What if you can serve Me better without perfect health?" "Yes!!" I responded. "My cup is truly half full !! Fill it, O Lord !!" and He did ! My challenges opened new doors greater than the ones that closed.
Joseph's cup was half-emptied when his brothers planned his death, he was sold into slavery, he was unjustly thrown into prison and forgotten. But God filled his cup by bringing him into a ruling position, second only to Pharaoh and through him saved nations , including his own family, from starvation.
Abraham's cup was emptied when he was told to sacrifice his beloved son... but God filled his cup by providing a substitute lamb and with countless descendants who followed his example of faith .
Paul's cup was often emptied by beatings, shipwrecks, stonings but God filled it by inspiring him to write most of the New Testament!
In Zarephath, a widow's cup was emptied when famine threatened her life and that of her son. But God filled her cup with the miracle of an unending supply of flour and oil when she gave her last morsel to feed God's prophet Elijah.
And Jesus' cup was emptied in suffering and death but God filled it with resurrection life! Not only for Him but for countless others who place their faith/trust in Him !
Is your cup half-empty today ??
Hold your half-full cup up to God and ask Him to fill it ! | <urn:uuid:db3ced36-5bcd-4401-87b3-a382a94ef55a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pearlsinanutshell.blogspot.com/2011/01/glass-half-empty-or-half-full.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986079 | 701 | 1.585938 | 2 |
War Inc. Shifts Homeward
It’s been said many times that the war is a self-sustaining industry that requires a constant threat overseas to keep the machine thriving at home. Looking at the millions if not billions of dollars spent on securing “national special security events” against its own citizens, it’s clear that protesters have become the threat that has allowed, in part, the warfare state to flourish on American soil.
Sound dramatic? One need only to look at the lockdown of our cities during these “events” — whether it be the NATO Summit in Chicago today, or preparations to militarize the cities of Tampa and Charlotte for the Democratic and Republican conventions this summer — to see that the constitutionally protected, American tradition of protest has become a reason for law enforcement to spend their quickly evaporating budgets each year on new toys and overtime — including the latest in surveillance, crowd control gear and communications equipment, not to mention the helicopters overhead and armed vehicles on the ground.
Just as important, this threat allows the federal government to extend its own powers under the Patriot Act onto Main Street, all in the order of counterterrorism and national security.
No one would dispute that the gathering of representatives from 50 member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), including 28 members of the military alliance in Afghanistan, warrants extra security. Indeed, we live in a world today where gunmen walk right up to U.S. members of Congress and shoot them in the head, or pack cars full of explosives on the city street. But it becomes increasingly clear, after 10 years of conventions and “special events” with little or no incident, that the specter of terrorism is being used to generate intimidating and repressive conditions, particularly against peaceful protesters, and proliferating an industry that thrives on domestic conflict and chaos.
What is this industry? Look no further than the advertisements for this year’s GovSec 2012, the annual security exposition held in Washington, D.C. In April, it promised to help “arm homeland security professionals and law enforcement professionals alike with the training and tools they need to detect, prevent and respond to terrorist attacks — from large-scale international threats to the dangers posed by homegrown extremists and lone wolves.”
According to this report, funding for the U.S. homeland security and homeland defense sector (including federal, state and local governments, and the private sector) will grow from $184 billion in 2011 to $205 billion by 2014. The market will grow from $73 billion in 2011 to $86 billion by 2014.
“The face of terrorism is constantly changing,” insisted GovSec Director Don Berey in a GovSec press release. “As a result, it is critical that those on the front lines of homeland security understand where new threats may arise and how their strategies must be adjusted to remain ever vigilant.” Adjusted, and paid for.
Thus, the endless war over there, becomes the endless war at home. Chicago is just the latest example of putting these new “strategies” to use. Talking about Chicago last week on Democracy Now!, Bill Ayers, University of Illinois professor and right-wing nemesis, explained:
There’s a mass campaign. They’re shutting Lakeshore Drive. They’re shutting the trains. They’re closing exits off the freeways. And they’re creating a kind of culture of fear. We have police officers we—who are friends of ours, we run into in coffee shops. They’ve told us that the training is focused a lot on the danger of the protesters and how you should be careful when you grab one of them, because they might have some kind of poison spike in their sleeve or something. I mean, it really is quite nuts.
At the same time, they’ve denied permits, taken permits away, given them back, been very vague about making any agreement with the protesters…we insist that this is a family-friendly, nonviolent, permitted march. And all the kind of hysteria about what’s about to happen is really brought on by the police. I don’t think anything is going to happen, except that they are creating the conditions for a police riot, once again.
Reports on Monday morning indicated that 45 people were arrested and four officers injured, including a police officer who was reportedly stabbed during a dramatic clash with protesters on Sunday night. In his remarks to reporters Sunday, Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy blamed the “black bloc” for rushing the police and precipitating the violence.
Meanwhile, according to Firedoglake.com writer Kevin Gosztola, a number of independent journalists who were videotaping and/or livestreaming the event were pulled over and interrogated at gunpoint and “under the cover of night.”
There appears to have been a conscious targeting of bloggers and livestreamers. The Chicago police, possibly with help from the Department of Homeland Security, FBI or other federal agencies, appear to be working off a list of “suspected” people or spaces where they must go “check in” on what is happening simply to ensure all is safe…
In each of these instances, the police did not inform those detained why they were being detained.
Peace activist David Swanson, who was on hand for Sunday’s events and publishes the WarIsACrime.org weblog, admitted that a “segment of the activist world plays into these police tactics, wearing bandanas, shouting curses, antagonizing police, and eroding credibility for claims that violence is all police-initiated,” but that the buildup of tension and intimidation — including Friday’s pre-dawn raid and arrest of the so-called NATO 3 on terror charges (two additional arrests make it the NATO 5) — contributed to lower than expected turnout. All five of those arrested have been tied to the “Black Bloc.”
And who knows how much these dynamics fueled the anxiety and hostility in the air between police and protesters before exploding late Sunday afternoon? They don’t call it a tinderbox for nothing.
No one can have been disappointed with the turnout, but it might have been bigger if not for the fear that was spread prior to Sunday …
The fear was the result of a massive militarized police build up, rumors of evacuations, the boarding up of windows, brutal police assaults on activists, preemptive arrests, disappearances, and charges of terrorism.
A massive crowd of activists was significantly outnumbered on Sunday by armed police, many in riot gear. They lined the march route. They swarmed off buses. They looked a little ridiculous as we marched nonviolently, just as we’d intended to do. The marching didn’t harm anyone or destroy any accumulated riches or smash any of the windows that were not boarded up.
Police did not allow the day to end without any use of their training and weapons. Not long after I left, according to numerous reports, all hell broke loose. If it hadn’t, think of how many of those people fearfully watching Sunday’s march from their high balconies would have joined in the next one and invited their friends!
The militarization aspect is uncanny and has been captured in numerous photos now circulating in places like Twitter. All we need to know is on Thursday, Chief McCarthy took to the airways to talk about his 12,000 officers doing “12-hour tours” instead of 12-hour shifts, as though policing parades and protests and keeping vigilant outside of this international gathering was indeed, going to war.
This is not surprising, given how much law enforcement now emulates the military and the military feeds on this, handing down a record $500 million in surplus equipment to local departments in 2011 alone.
This is a decade-old phenomenon, in which “the military surplus program and (police) paramilitary units feed off one another in a cyclical loop that has caused an explosive growth in militarized crime control techniques.” Federal grants help the process along, leading “to a booming law enforcement industry that specifically markets military-style weaponry to local police departments,” wrote Rania Khalek in an explosive 2011 report for Alternet, which begins with the story of a 7-year-old girl who was shot in the neck by police during a SWAT raid in Detroit.
Today, Mayberrys all across the country have tanks and M-16s, and according to one estimate, SWAT teams outfitted for convoy on Route Michigan to Ramadi are conducting some 40,000 raids a year across America. Sadly, though SWAT teams were once only used in emergency situations like a hostage crises, these paramilitary units are more inclined to use their fancy new gear to perform normal police work, like executing warrants, often resulting in botched raids and the death of innocent citizens.
An interesting map of botched SWAT raids by Cato’s Radley Balko is here.
This year’s Occupy protests have been instructive in many ways, not the least of which they have shown how police are employing their military stockpiles and all the latest crowd control devices and strategy, the result of this massive niche market that has exploded after 9/11. This industry not only hawks the latest in hardware (pepper spray, Tasers, flash grenades, smoke bombs, rubber bullets, cameras, GPS), but traffics in training and consultants that cost municipalities big bucks for the privilege.
“Why is it that the state is spending so much money on arming the police here supposedly in response to what is being planned as a peaceful protest?” said John Beecham, an anti-war protest organizer, in an interview about Chicago with The Guardian.
Turns out Chicago raised upwards of $55 million, including $19 million in federal security grants, for security, traffic control and sanitation for the summit. We know that at least $1 million was used to buy new riot gear, and $40,000 for two new Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRAD). Officials say they are using this “modern megaphone” as a “messaging device,” and not to produce “high pitched alarm tones,” that have been blamed for damaging the protesters’ hearing when the LRAD was used at the Pittsburgh G8 summit in 2011.
We also note that some of the biggest corporate donors to Chicago’s summit fund are Honeywell, Boeing Corp & Raytheon, all huge players in the nation’s defense contracting industry.
Meanwhile, Tampa and Charlotte will each receive $50 million in
federal taxpayer funding to secure their cities in anticipation of
zombie apocalypse RNC and DNC confabs respectively. That is
in addition to whatever else the state and city fathers plan to
contribute for the occasion.
According to Khalek at Alternet:
The (Tampa) city council agreed to spend nearly $237,000 on a Lenco BearCat armored vehicle, which will be used in conjunction with two aging armored vehicles the city acquired through the military surplus program. Tampa Assistant Police Chief Marc Hamlin told the Tampa Bay Times that the trucks are strictly for the purpose of protecting officers from potential gunfire, not for day-to-day patrolling and crowd control.
Whatever would be they doing in an armored vehicle during the convention if not engaging in some variation of “crowd control”? Are they truly expecting an insurgent attack in sunny downtown Tampa? It may feel as hot in August, but it is most certainly not Baghdad.
Another $1.18 million is going toward new digital video communication technology that will allow police helicopters to transmit video to cops on the ground equipped with handheld receivers. Various news outlets report that an additional $2 million was requested to ramp up surveillance with the installation of 60 surveillance cameras in downtown Tampa, far more than the five traffic cameras the city currently has.
Meanwhile, according to Ray Reyes of The Tampa Tribune, the city has purchased $815,000 in riot gear, and $6 million for new two-way walkie-talkies. The $13.5 million already spent also includes four-wheel drive utility vehicles, and 200 bikes for patrol officers. The city is also expected to pay $25 million to train, house and feed 3,000 visiting police officers for the event.
Despite the hype, there has been no major terror threat associated with the national conventions since 9/11. Given this, it is safe to assume that not only is the massive security presence an extravagant vanity exercise for the quadrennial gathering of politicians, lobbyists and party delegates, but yet another way to justify the enormous annual budgets of the burgeoning homeland enterprise. And as someone who has been to the last two rounds of conventions, I can say the display has gotten more intense each time.
Meanwhile, instead of shrinking from it, the protest movement seems to be growing in proportion to the hyper-militarization nationwide. The gulf between “civilian” and “soldier” on the street widens, too. Bursts of violent skirmishes appear inevitable now, a self-fulfilling prophecy unfolding before our eyes. While this may be quite profitable for War Inc., the impact on the health of our society, much less the republic, may be incalculable.
Follow Vlahos on Twitter @KelleyBVlahos
Read more by Kelley B. Vlahos
- Antiwar.com Sues FBI After Secret Surveillance – May 21st, 2013
- Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Film – May 13th, 2013
- Iraq’s Generation Hell – May 6th, 2013
- Jeremy Scahill’s ‘Dirty’ Work – April 29th, 2013
- People Vanishing from Iraq War History – April 22nd, 2013 | <urn:uuid:78e0ea25-d926-41ed-b19d-bdeebe6754b6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2012/05/21/war-inc-shifts-homeward/ | 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 | 0.957475 | 2,874 | 1.679688 | 2 |
VIDEO: President Obama Begins Gun Violence Remarks by Reading Letters From Children
Moments ago, President Obama began his remarks on gun violence by reading letters written by several of America’s children.
President Obama called these “some pretty smart letters from some pretty smart young people.”
The sentiments included, “I feel terrible for the parents who lost their children. I love my country, and I want everybody to be happy and safe” and “I think there should be some changes, we should learn from what happened at Sandy Hook. I feel really bad.”
READ: The Letters Written by Children on Gun Violence | <urn:uuid:3bd93165-8aed-4c49-8fd4-57982286e968> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/01/16/video-president-obama-begins-gun-violence-remarks-by-reading-letters-from-children/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967703 | 133 | 1.742188 | 2 |
By Geoffrey Paul
February 10, 2010
Pope Benedict's forthcoming visit to the UK is bound to stimulate discussion about Christian-Jewish relations in the UK. The fact of the matter, here as almost everywhere else in the world. is that contacts on the Jewish side with Christian partners in dialogue are almost entirely handled by Reform and Liberal rabbis and lay leaders. Such Orthodox contacts as there are remain little more than tentative, despite the visits by Israel's Chief Rabbis to the Pope in Rome, the ubiquitous presence of the Orthodox Rabbi David Rosen at international Christian-Jewish gatherings and the Chief Rabbi's joint patronage of the Council of Christians and Jews with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the (Catholic) Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols.
Why Orthodox Jews hold back from this dialogue with Christians, specifically Catholics, who have made historic changes in their deicidic and other attitudes to Jews, was examined intensely in a recent contribution to an Italian Jewish journal by the Israeli Ambassador to the Vatican, Mordecai Lewy, which was picked up and republished in full by the Vatican newspaper, Osservatore Romano. It makes for a good and challenging read in any language.
Ambassador Lewy recalls that the late and great Rabbi Soloveitchik resented any inter-religious dialogue that lead to discussing principles of faith with Catholics but he didn't mind Jews and Christians talking together about "soft" topics, such as bioethics, ecology, violence, etc. But, Ambassador Lewy notes, "the Catholic Cburch initiated in the Sixties a radical change towards Jews. Conversion is banned to a distant and unknown eschatological horizon. The survivability of Judaism is guaranteed with the establishment of the Jewish State. Their hand is stretched out to us. It would be unwise not to grasp it, lest we mortgage our future in continued animosity with the Catholic world. The first 2000 years do not warrant repetition. Both of us deserve better."
To which I would say "Hear, hear" and "Amen" and "Selah," were it not that the dark, dark shadow of Pius XII continues to hang heavily over every encounter with the Catholic Cburch and Benedict does nothing to shake himself free from the unforgettable and dreadful fate of the hapless Jews of Rome taken away in a day to the death camps from under the very windows of the Vatican itself. Ora pro nobis.... | <urn:uuid:26e5abe0-f68e-4618-a71e-462527bf9d5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thejc.com/blogpost/no-dialogue-today-thank-you | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957132 | 488 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Via Brad de Long I recently saw this post from Jim Henley on the failure of Appeal Courts to impose significant constraints on the US government’s policy of secret detention of terrorist suspects. Henley says
For those of you reading these words I have one request:
COULD I GET A LITTLE ALARMISM HERE, PLEASE?????
What has the appeals court authorized?
Please say those words aloud. “Secret detentions.” Now use them in a sentence:
The US government engages in the practice of secret detentions.
The US government has broadly asserted its right to engage in the practice of secret detentions.
A federal appeals court has affirmed that the US government may engage in secret detentions.
The biggest single step in this regard is the creation of the category of “enemy combatants” applied both to people taken prisoner in Afghanistan and elsewhere (for example Pakistan), allegedly in the course of the war aagainst terror. More significantly the category has been applied to Jose Padilla, a US citizen arrested in the United States allegedly after returning from a meeting with Al Qaeda.
Until recently, I haven’t been too alarmed about all this. It seemed likely that as with most wartime excesses, the Administration would moderate its claimed powers, and, if not, that the courts would constrain them. In particular, I thought that the actions in the Padilla case would ultimately be declared illegal and that the Administration would be happy enough having had a couple of years to operate outside the normal limits.
But this optimistic view looks increasingly untenable.
The Administration has been winning most of its cases in court and yesterday cancelled criminal proceedings against a suspect who’d been in custody for two years and declared him an enemy combatant. The suspect in this case is a Qatari student, who was arrested in the United States.
It also appears that the threat of enemy combatant status is being used to secure guilty pleas in terror cases, and to deter people held without trial in other ways (for example, as material witnesses) from pursuing legal remedies. Once the authorities get used to exercising this kind of power routinely, it’s going to be very difficult to persuade or force them to give it up.
Thinking about the consequences, suppose that the Clinton Administration had asserted these powers in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing. Any of the thousands of members of anti-government militias could reasonably be classed as an “enemy combatants”. The same is true of groups like the Weather Underground in the Nixon era. The only feature of the Padilla case that does not apply to these groups is that they are not associated with a foreign enemy and that doesn’t appear to be critical (in any case, its arguable that the Weather Underground were supporting the VietCong). In both cases, there’s no easy dividing line between active “enemy combatants”, material supporters and the much larger class of radical opponents of government policy. If these powers become well-established, it’s hard to believe they won’t be used on a large scale sometime in the future.
Is all this relevant to Australians? Undoubtedly, yes. The Administration claims the right to seize anyone, anywhere, and has already exercised this right in relation to two Australians. The US courts are considerably less protective of foreigners, including legal visitors to the United States, than of American citizens. | <urn:uuid:5ed12e83-9ce4-44be-89b2-e9ad2506fb9d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://johnquiggin.com/2003/06/24/enemy-combatants/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368709037764/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125717-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95687 | 706 | 1.65625 | 2 |
Pick a Good Topic
Lily’s assignment is broad enough to give her some choices when picking a topic. So, what makes a good topic?
- It interests you! You'll enjoy it and do a better job.
- It meets the requirements of your assignment.
- It’s broad enough to give you several search options.
- It’s focused enough that you’re not overwhelmed with information.
You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialize correctly. | <urn:uuid:e0512622-48ec-4df5-a133-d2dd356b0afd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://library.pdx.edu/tutorials/beginresearch/5 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946301 | 118 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Capitalism, Weeds, and Brotherly Business Deals
Then I remembered this story from my childhood.
One summer, we were visiting my grandparents. I was about ten and my brother was seven. Our grandfather hired us to weed his garden, paying us a dime apiece.
That seems like a paltry sum, but it wasn’t such a bad wage for a couple of kids at the time. After all, a bottle of soda only cost a nickel.
We started off to work. The day was hot. The garden seemed huge. I kept thinking about getting a bottle of soda and sitting in the shade. Pulling all those weeds seemed like a huge price to pay for that reward.
Then I had a brilliant idea. “Dave,” I said, “How would you like to earn an extra nickel?”
My brother was interested. I offered him the opportunity to weed my half of the garden for half of my dime. It seemed like a good idea to him, and we made a deal.
David weeded the entire garden. I bought a bottle of Coke with my nickel, sat in the shade, and watched him work. When the weeding was finished, he was tired and hot but had fifteen cents to show for his labors. I was broke, but I had enjoyed relaxing with my soda instead of having to work in the hot sun.
It seemed like a win-win situation to me. My grandfather didn’t see it the same way. In his view, I had taken advantage of my innocent younger brother by coercing or manipulating him into doing my work for me. I’m not sure Granddad ever forgave me for what I did that day.
I suppose there may have been a tiny grain of truth in his perspective. After all, I was three years older than my brother. However, I don’t remember any bullying or manipulation being involved. I simply offered him a deal, and he took it. The transaction involved a willing seller and a willing buyer. One thing of value—his work—was exchanged for another thing of value—my nickel. He benefitted from receiving more money, and I benefitted from not having to perform manual labor.
Thinking about it all these years later, it occurred to me that what I did was exactly the same thing my grandfather did. Each of us paid someone else to do a task we didn’t want to do. And each of us got the job done at the lowest cost to ourselves.
For Granddad to accuse me of using my position as the oldest to take advantage of my brother wasn’t quite fair. After all, one could say he used his position as a grandfather to get cheap labor out of a couple of little kids. I suppose one of his aims was to teach us about the value of hard work and the satisfaction of being paid for our efforts. The lesson I learned wasn’t exactly the one he had intended to teach.
The whole process, though, was a small example of capitalism at work. It was a lesson I took to heart.
My brother must have done the same. He’s still a hard worker, and he’s certainly been a very successful capitalist. And when his son was a teenager and I hired him to do my yard work, I had to pay him a lot more than a nickel. | <urn:uuid:2891f275-9f41-4f87-b5f7-0ae1028d92e7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://financialawakenings.com/personal-notes/capitalism-weeds-and-brotherly-business-deals | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.991047 | 702 | 1.796875 | 2 |
Let's walk this summer
SUMITRA SENAPATY looks at where you can step out in India and abroad...
BILDER SOMMER AND WINTER/ISO 9660.JPG
Yes, being there is good, but walking there makes it even better. Walking sets the tone for togetherness an idyllic touch to days spent enjoying the joys of a countryside that always seems to have a finger of silence pressed to its green lips. It is a life that can lull anyone into a peaceful sloth, deterring the person from doing anything at all. But what does one do on a walking holiday? As little as one cares to undertake, with the world at your feet.
Determined walkers are heralding a new trend in international tourism, as more and more vacationers are choosing walking tours over conventional travel options. It's hardly a surprise then, that many of this tribe are selecting vacations built around their sport. Walking is a growing segment of soft adventure the buzz phrase for active travel with modest physical challenge, but with little or no danger. That challenge and a beautiful setting with good accommodation is a combination most find irresistible. When you reach the top of a hill, even if you're gasping for air, you feel so charged up, the physical-ness of it is indeed refreshing! The World Health Organisation (WHO) refers to walking as "the forgotten art" it is also one of the best forms of exercise for getting and staying fit. It is relatively easy to do a self-paced activity and done consistently, can help reduce many maladies. So lace up your shoes and hit the road for a little right-left-right-left!
* * *
Coffee trailing in Chikmagalur
CHIKMAGALUR was known only for its coffee plantations and its car rallies that was till 1978. Then former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared elections after the Emergency and because she wanted to be sure she would win, she needed a second constituency that would guarantee her that victory. Her trusted colleague, Devraj Urs, then Chief Minister of Karnataka, offered her the seat at Chikmagalur. Overnight, this small town became the focus of global attention. Chikmagalur was resplendent in the glory of limelight and Indira Gandhi won her seat. Today, it is a coffee-and-culture spot and it is best to get here by road. The culture-heritage packed drive takes you through the plains of Karnataka, but once in Chikmagalur, the forests mesmerise you. The air here has a whiff of the coffee that Chikmagalur is famous for and tourists, who are game, can enjoy a walk through a private coffee estate, a very scenic, tasty and aroma-filled experience. During the guided walk through the coffee garden, you will see, feel and smell the various stages of processing. Each stage has its unique visual beauty, smell, sense of touch, aroma and taste. The de-pulping of the ripe berries leaves a sweet smell in the air and your skin will feel the moist of the washing of the beans at the mill.
You will also feel the heat produced by the mechanical dryer and the warmth and new smell of the dry beans.
Your nose will tickle while watching the dehusker remove the parchments from the beans. The aroma created by the roasting and grounding of the beans at the roaster will awaken your senses. Finally, you will inhale and drink freshly brewed coffee in the old plantation, surrounded by the workers. Whether it is culture that you like to see in the form of temple architecture and history and myth, or pristine nature in the form of forest, wildlife and hill station, or coffee plantation and the delights of coffee processing, Chikmagalur offers it all within a walking radius of about 100 kilometres. What are the highlights of estate life? A few talk of the magnificent sunrise and sunset, almost on one's doorstep.
Another speaks of the white coffee blossoms sprinkling the deep green of the leaves, the aroma permeating the air and also the special smell of the rains. Some remember the sounds of the plantations the night owl, crickets and the fox. Then there are the friendships, binding and intense.
* * *
The Daphne du Maurier trail
IT's from Jamaica Inn to Frenchman's Creek .... Artists aren't the only ones to have been inspired by Cornwall's light and landscape. Thomas Hardy met, and wooed, Emma Gifford in the 1870s, Dylan Thomas dubbed Mousehole the prettiest village in England and D.H. Lawrence wrote Women In Love while living with his German wife, Frieda, in the little village of Zennor. However, the writer most closely associated with Cornwall is Daphne du Maurier, who spent most of her life in the county. Fans of her books will have little trouble tracking down the places that inspired her. Jamaica Inn, just off the A30 on Bodmin Moor, is now a tacky pub, while Frenchman's Creek is near the old smuggling hideout of Helford. Then there's Polridmouth, where Rebecca met her end (Menabilly, Du Maurier's one-time home, and the model for Manderley, can just about be seen from the beach over here). At Land's End, scramble down one of the short coastal paths ahead of you and all you are faced with is wind-whipped heather, spongy grass, rock and ocean. It may feel like there is nothing between you and anything else at this point but that isn't strictly true. The Isles of Sicilly are only a few miles out to sea. It's a bit easier to get away from the crowds, when you want to beat a path along the cliff tops between Polperro and Polruan, stagger up to the summit of Bodmin Moor's Rough Tor, or stroll beside the sea from Mousehole to Lamorna. Walking the Cornwall Coast gives you the opportunity to breathe air that's been purified by thousands of miles of ocean. You visit friendly coves where tourists are welcome, but the real business of living, lobster, fish, and crabs, comes first. The Cornwall Coast Path never drifts far from the cry of the gull, the wail of the foghorn and the crash of the sea against the cliffs.
* * *
Cozy in Coorg
ALTHOUGH Dervla Murphy wrote one of her books about the place (On a Shoestring to Coorg), it has yet, to be discovered by the "touristy" circuit. and what magic there is in these forested hills. Hiking through stands of wild cardamom, glades scented with lemon-grass, watching a heavily-antlered sambar stag dip its head to drink at a lake where the trees gave way to high meadows Coorg is Kipling's India still. As you walk through Coorg, thickets of bamboo appear by the roadside, indicating the start of the more lush terrain for which Coorg is famous. To enter the South eastern boundaries of the region, you have to pass through a forest checkpoint ... the guards are on the lookout for poachers coming out of the wildlife sanctuary, as well as the pilfering of sandalwood and other timber out of Coorg. The splendour of the landscape does not fail to impress ... Dense jungle, in which many of the trees are ablaze with blossom, cover the lower slopes. The air feels deliciously cool and on each side, mountains rise steeply from deep, narrow, wild ravines, while occasionally one glimpses, far below in a paddy-valley, the vivid green of a new crop or the gold of stubble. The cool climate and hilly terrain of Coorg inspired the British, who were in this area for over 100 years, to call it the "Scotland of India".
They helped to make coffee a major crop, and you can now meander for hours along narrow roads winding through estates with row upon row of neatly trimmed coffee bushes. Part of the Western Ghats, Coorg is part of a small mountain range that runs north south from Mumbai to Cape Cormorin, India's southernmost tip. Here the hills rise up to 8,000 feet. You ascend slowly, through successive levels of jungle to high watershed grasslands, which catch the rains that blow in from the Arabian Sea and send them back down to the rice-growing valleys below. The hills are still wild, home to the elephant, the sloth bear and the tiger "Just there sir," said the guide cheerily, pointing to a bend in the track where the ground falls towards the forests below.
* * *
Tirol meadows and mountains
THE Tirol is a fascinating region with age-old traditions, picture-book villages with flower-bedecked houses, beautiful scenery, sweeping views and an excellent network of paths dotted with mountain huts offering deliciously strong coffees, refreshing beers and tasty lunches. The road winds up through forest and turns a corner, and suddenly you see green, undulating meadows laid out like a patchwork before you, dotted with tiny villages and framed by mountains. And cows. On the rare occasion when you can't actually see any, you can usually hear the gentle clanging of cowbells in the distance. Walking across the meadows, you pass a schnapps brewery on the way. Besides cheese, schnapps is one of the area's principal products. The range of flavours is incredible, and practically all villages have their own variety, so if you do fancy it, it is worth asking to try the local "brew". Pleasant walks, mostly over flat ground, lead from Seefeld to Mosern.
The walk through the woods and meadows is a pleasure, even for unpractised walkers, and quite a way to discover Nature. The objective is the "Friedensglocke", the largest outdoor bell in the Alpine area. From here, the view of the Upper Inn Valley is truly stupendous. A climb to the Stubai Glacier is hard work, but worth the effort, especially for the views. You can then walk along the ridge, stopping at one of the mountain huts for a tasty cooked lunch. (The word "hut" is an injustice these are attractive, wooden buildings with a small verandah and tables outside). The possibilities for walking are endless. The route leads you high above the valley, passing a dairy surrounded by grazing goats where visitors can see the cheese being made, and climbing over a steep ridge into a broad, green valley and along to a remote Austrian village. It's totally unspoiled no traffic is allowed into the village, there is a pleasant Gasthof where you can stop for a beer and a slice of cake.
Walking the Imperial Alps is definitely something to savour mountains, meadows, fruits, cheese, beer, schnapps, wine, flowers, clanging cowbells what more could you want from a holiday?
* * *
Wandering through Naldhera
NOW imagine the fetid furnace that is Delhi, the heat sucking at you on a hot June day. Pack yourself, pack your kids and take the train, the overnight Mail to Kalka and "The Chalets" will pick you up from there and whisk you to Naldhera. Winds thrashing the lush, towering deodar trees, thunder rumbling over the Himalayas and flowers sprinkling themselves around dainty handkerchief lawns. This is Naldhera perched way above sea level, with majestic views of the Shimla ridge, offering nature for the sybarite, hiking and rafting for the athlete and golf for those who are into handicaps and hole-in-ones. Apart from golf, one gets to breathe the same cool, fresh air that made the British overlords feel at home. Gorgeous views of valleys and forests are a perfect backdrop to the "Chalet" huts designed in Scandinavian style and here you can easily slip into the storybook romance of yesteryears. Built into a cliff hillside, the log homes are quaint and seemingly old fashioned with a working fireplace, and a wooden staircase winding up to the attic. Sloping roofs complete the romance, when you return after wandering through the hills and meadows. From Naldhera, you can walk and explore the Himalayan valley. Here, the deodars grow tall and straight, sometimes as high as 200 feet, with few lower branches, very different from the cedars you see in England. Between the evergreen Indian oaks, Himalayan pines and a single species of Rhododendron arboreum, about 30 ft high on a single trunk, very much a tree, with deep red flowers. The air smells of pines, daffodils, mountain foliage and wood smoke. Wild animals howl in the hills, while kites and eagles circle above the treetops. High on a hillside past Tattapani, one takes the cemented footpath to the ancient Shivji ka Gufa, leaving behind a placid blue-green river and deep forests. At the lingam dotted cave, there is a small deity and two sadhus with cotton loincloths, matted hair and glittering, mischievous, slightly dangerous eyes. You sit for a while without much need for conversation, staring at the white-topped mountains and totally at ease for no particular reason.
In case you need to do something else apart from walking, Yatish Sud runs a golf academy here. "The Chalets", Naldhera, would also be able to organise picnic lunches and rafting on the Sutlej during the season.
Send this article to Friends by | <urn:uuid:9ac00806-bee7-4503-9ed3-813e93808269> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mag/2004/05/02/stories/2004050200320100.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949753 | 2,872 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The department announced the development in September.
“Most people don’t know that the 285 speed limit is 55,” GDOT Commissioner Keith Golden told the Perimeter Business Alliance at its monthly luncheon Friday at Cox Enterprises in Sandy Springs. “We wanted to raise the speed limit to 65, then lower that speed limit when congestion gets worse. We’re only going to do that on the northern section of the interstate. This system is used all around the world, and we will be one of the first states to do that.”
Golden said the DOT’s fiscal 2013 budget was $2.1 billion.
The commissioner said about $393 million of it was to be used for debt service.
Golden also said the DOT had a “bleak outlook in terms of revenue.”
Georgia has one of the lowest gas taxes in the country, according to Golden, and about 90 percent of the GDOT’s funding comes from this tax. Revenue keeps going down each year, he said.
The department now employs 4,300 workers, half the number employed when Golden began working there in the 1980s. There were 5,900 Georgia residents employed by the agency in 2008. Golden said he wanted to take the agency to a more business-minded operation.
To do this, it will engage in public-private partnerships and look for innovative tools and techniques to work with, according to Golden. | <urn:uuid:602bb131-9991-4845-b83a-408cf970999f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mdjonline.com/view/full_story/20873356/article-Interstate-285-speed-limit-to-rise-to-65-mph?instance=home_viewed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964801 | 297 | 1.742188 | 2 |
In the letter column of this month’s Poetry (June 08 ) Marilyn Chin, in response to a question of translation, savages the questioner for the use of the expression “noodling around”:
“Perhaps Joseph Bednarik is not conscious that “noodling around in the margins” is an appalling and problematic expression, fraught with demeaning sexist, racist, imperialist overtones, and born out of the very hateful stuff that Ho Xuan Huong so pointedly and whole-heartedly fought against in her poetry and in her life.”
I’m fairly certain that the writer did not intend a sexist et cetera expression, much less a “demeaning” one. Personally, when I use sexist/racist expressions with imperialistic overtones I always avoid the demeaning ones, but my point here is that if this is the sort of thing that we can make big to-dos over then racism and sexism is done. It used to be that racism was stringing someone up from a tree, sexism used to be treating a woman like a possession, but now we’re digging up archaic denotations of common expressions -one that I’m not even sure I buy, but we’ll grant for argument. Some scholar once said that as the races grow closer together, as their differences shrink, then those differences will become all the more important, and though the flash go up, the bang goes down. So either the end of racism is in sight or Marilyn Chin demeans the problem with such a silly and grasping display of victimhood.
The both letters are presented below in full:
One of my favorite books is Eliot Weinberger’s slender classic on translation, Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, which makes a strong and illuminating case for reading multiple translations of a single poem. That said, I encourage everyone to read Marilyn Chin’s translations of the Vietnamese poet Ho Xuan Huong [April 2008] against John Balaban’s in Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong. When I read Chin’s translations, I couldn’t help but wonder: which Nym character means “boo hoo“? (Emphasis Chin’s.) Biased as my opinion may appear (I work at Copper Canyon, Balaban’s publisher), I don’t see how Chin’s versions add depth or nuance to the work. Frankly, they read like someone noodling around in the margins of someone else’s book.
Port Townsend, Washington
Marilyn Chin responds:
The first two characters in the quatrain are onomatopoeic, mimicking the sound of a woman’s crying. Therefore, “boo-hoo” is an accurate translation, both semantically and tonally. I was aiming to capture the edgy, satirical attitude so ample in Ho’s work.
Perhaps Joseph Bednarik is not conscious that “noodling around in the margins” is an appalling and problematic expression, fraught with demeaning sexist, racist, imperialist overtones, and born out of the very hateful stuff that Ho Xuan Huong so pointedly and whole-heartedly fought against in her poetry and in her life. All ugliness revealed, perhaps we could finally cut through his pernicious smugness and have that real discussion regarding how many Western cultural imperialists does it take to plunder Wang Wei and who, if anyone, should have the rightful claim to an Asian woman’s poetry. “Noodling” could have been an unfortunate slip and not unconscious hatred; but he might as well have said “flied-licing.” Perhaps Bednarik and his press believe that the white male patriarchy must forever colonize the translation of Asian poetry and that I, a dark-skinned Asian woman poet, should not be “noodling” where I don’t belong. | <urn:uuid:df43423c-d0c5-4cc2-8a3b-5da839172ecc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thewholegardenwillbow.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/the-end-of-racism-a-sign/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94324 | 838 | 1.789063 | 2 |
Marion Reservoir, KS
US Army Corps of Engineers
If you enjoy camping, boating, fishing, hunting, or wildlife watching - we have the place for you. Completed in 1968, Marion Reservoir encompasses 6,200 acres of water surrounded by another 6,000 acres of public lands. The lake is located just north of U.S. Highway 56 between the communities of Marion and Hillsboro, Kansas. Camping and picnicking opportunities are numerous with 171 campsites located in four parks - Cottonwood Point, Hillsboro Cove, Marion Cove, and French Creek Cove. Campsites contain picnic tables, grills and/or fire-rings, sun-shelters and gravel parking pads. Facilities at our class "A" parks, Cottonwood Point and Hillsboro Cove, include electrical hookups, showers, RV dump stations, group camping areas, group picnic areas, playgrounds, and beaches. Potable water is available in all parks. Cottonwood Point also includes some sites with 50 amp electrical service and individual water hookups. A special treat for wildlife observers is the 1-mile Willow Walk Nature Trail located at Cottonwood Point. Maps and information on specific facilities, fees, the Golden Age/Access discount and park regulations are available from gate attendants, park rangers, or the project office at (316) 382-2101. Anglers have bright opportunities at Marion Reservoir. The lake is noted for its walleye, crappie, white bass, wipers and channel catfish. The lake also contains largemouth bass, and a good population of lunker-size flathead catfish. An 18-inch length limit is in effect for walleyes and black bass. Fish feeders are located in Hillsboro Cove and Cottonwood Point. Boaters will find boat ramps located around the lake at Cottonwood Point (2 ramps, 4 lanes), Hillsboro Cove, Marion Cove (2 lanes), French Creek, Durham Cove and Broken Bridge. Developed ramps provide lights and courtesy docks. There is a fee to use these ramps. The undeveloped ramps at Durham Cove and Broken Bridge are free. Hunters at Marion Reservoir will find a mixed bag including pheasants, quail, rabbits, turkeys, and white-tail deer. Waterfowl hunters will find good populations of Canada, snow, and white-front geese as well as all species of ducks found within the Central Flyway. The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks maintains a large percentage of the perimeter of the lake as a public hunting area. A map showing the location of this public hunting land may be obtained at the project office. The Department also maintains a waterfowl refuge at Marion Reservoir located just east of French Creek Cove that is off-limits to the public. Its boundaries are designated on the Marion Reservoir brochure and the hunting map.
Address:2105 North Pawnee
Phone: (620) 382-2101
Directions:From Newton, 24 miles north on KS 15, 12 miles east on US 56. | <urn:uuid:1c5eb60b-5091-40cc-a7b2-4a4196e11601> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.recreation.gov/recAreaDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&recAreaId=565&agencyCode=70902 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934868 | 625 | 1.6875 | 2 |
He has already convinced chef Brad Spence of the Vetri restaurant group in Philadelphia to start buying Randall Lineback meat. And Henderson hopes a spark in demand creates a burning desire for other farmers to start raising the Linebacks.
"Ideally what you'd like to have is a satellite herd here, a satellite herd that serves New York, a satellite herd maybe up around Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, five, six, seven herd and then you save the breed," explains Henderson.
Unfortunately, Henderson has been unable to supply demand down south in cities like New Orleans. The distance is too great for delivery and because the Randall Linebacks cannot handle hot climates, a satellite herd in the South would not work.
But, he says he has a friend in Alabama who raises Pineywoods cattle, another endangered breed, and sells that meat to chefs in Louisiana and other southern stops.
For now, though, Henderson will keep focus on sustaining his herd of rare Randall Linebacks...and maybe finding a better way to describe them.
"If you raise them right, you slaughter them right, you treat them right and you have chefs who are good chefs, they are the best tasting, 'we don't know what to call it' in the world." | <urn:uuid:dd26900a-9187-4b78-a077-2fe7ad6779e8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.local10.com/thats-life/To-save-this-endangered-cow-breed-eat-it/-/1716786/17724108/-/item/1/-/jbpqabz/-/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953269 | 255 | 1.507813 | 2 |
In elementary school, my parents and teachers discovered that I possessed exceptional mathematical aptitude. This was particularly seen when I got a perfect on the Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools (MOEMS) contest in 6th grade, which was a rare occurrence at my school. In middle school I participated in the American Math Competitions, making it to the USA Math Olympiad in 8th grade, and in MathCounts, where I captained the Virginia Team at MathCounts Nationals 2006, where we won first place. In high school, I, like many other freshman math team members, became part of our school's physics and computer teams, in addition to the math team. So, in 9th grade, I took the USAPhO preliminary round, and utterly failed, barely managing to answer a few questions.
However, my inability to do physics simply stemmed from a lack of knowledge. Once I had grasped a physics concept, it was not hard for me to do the math. Last year, I took a physics class taught by Dr. Dell, our coach, who quickly remedied my lack of physics knowledge. In addition to this, my learning is supplemented by the teachings of my fellow students. To me, physics is much more straightforward than math, but it contains a few tricks that make it fun. Simply applying formulas isn't entertaining, but finding new ways to use them is.
As mentioned above, I find physics fun. I also participate in my school's physics team for the company of people with similar interests. We meet afterschool, and while physics learning is the main focus, we also find time to do fun things like play bridge.
In the fall, I will be attending MIT, where I plan to major in physics and mathematics. | <urn:uuid:b5c98da5-9bce-4010-bf3a-311fa7f4611d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aapt.org/physicsteam/2010/team.cfm?id=819 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00030-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978817 | 360 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The Contemporary Los Altos Hills Residence, USA
According to the architects they have: “Designed this modern home for a family of five in Los Altos Hills, California. The clients, both working parents, wanted a warm and casual, family-friendly dwelling with interiors that would merge with the outdoors. The goal of sustainability was met through the home’s building methods, materials, and energy systems.
The luxury home is broken into three parts separated by two breezeways. The result is a contemporary home with well-defined outdoor spaces that are comfortable during hot summer days. An L-shaped main level plan houses the primary living areas and garage. The second floor bedroom wing, clad in cedar, is a long bar that is rotated in relation to the first floor. It creates sheltered zones below as well as a pair of roof decks for the four bedrooms. The second floor meets the ground at its north end, forming the pool house. Between the pool house and the family room, a breezeway frames a view of the property and Silicon Valley.
The open floor plan maximises connections to outdoor living spaces with large glass sliding doors aligned on each side of most rooms. This main living space is a series of rooms that flow together in a linear fashion. The light-filled interior is composed of white painted walls, wood walls, hardwood floors, stainless steel, glass, and painted cabinetry.
A 4-killowatt photovoltaic solar array on the roof generates about half of the home’s electricity, with additional solar panels that heat all of its water. An electric, high efficiency split-system heat pump provides heating and cooling. Sunshades over windows and doors temper the sunlight and decrease heat gain in the summer. Images courtesy of Matthew Millman. | <urn:uuid:e00ec6fa-7644-437a-bb00-cc17795357c5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.adelto.co.uk/the-contemporary-los-altos-hills-residence-usa/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00025-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942109 | 368 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Aging game machines and the lack of a substantial price cut took their toll on the video game industry in 2003 as sales slipped 4 percent from 2002 totals to $11.2 billion.
PC games took the biggest hit, according to The NPD Group, which tracks the industry's sales. Stung by the delay of key titles such as "Half-Life 2" and "Doom 3", 2003 sales came in at $1.2 billion, a 14 percent drop from 2002's figures. Software for home video game consoles climbed 14 percent.
Read more: [URL=http://money.cnn.com/2004/01/26/technology/gamesales/index.htm?cnn=yes]CNN[/URL]. | <urn:uuid:69c9f8e8-6de3-48f9-9416-76300cfafee8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techspot.com/news/10596-video-games-see-2003-slump.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956418 | 151 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Low Credit Score? All Is Not Lost in Getting a Loan
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- This month we looked at how banks, mortgage lenders, and credit card companies are digging in their heels on granting credit to low-credit score consumers.
By and large, any U.S. adult with a credit score below 660 will continue to have a tough time getting a loan or credit card. In short, it's up to the consumer to bring that score up to an acceptable level (that's a FICO score of over 700 these days).
But if that is an uphill climb for you, and one you may not be able to make for a while, all is not lost.
There are some creative ways to earn credit even if your FICO score is down and out and at least for the moment unable to get up off the canvas. | <urn:uuid:7ea766c9-2a9c-4526-9512-7e9a239c800e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://business-news.thestreet.com/mendocino-beacon/story/low-credit-score-all-is-not-lost-in-getting-a-loan/11765754 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955156 | 174 | 1.523438 | 2 |
public broadcasting & podcasting
I’ve been listening to tons of great public broadcasting on earideas.com.
And here’s a different view about why “good” public broadcasting is important: with the web, and podcasts, the CBC becomes a calling card for Canada. Ditto Deutsche-Welle for Germany and ARN for Australia etc. The broadcaster becomes a marketing tool and a builder of prestige. This is becoming more important in the networked world, where – for many of my peers, for instance – we can be anywhere in the world to do the work we do. Ditto businesses, scientists, writers and other “elites.” We want them here, in Canada, in Montreal, because really smart people make a country more vibrant and innovative.
I believe that a strong public broadcaster with excellent, thought-provoking content, helps build Canada’s image in the world.
While this isn’t all a public broadcaster should do, this is a new kind of rationale, I believe, brought on by the web; and one that might be more compelling to the business-only decision-making that runs our governments these days.
Note, this applies as well to universities: all universities should put a chunk of their marketing budget towards producing a weekly, high-quality podcast that interviews professors doing exciting research (whether in arts, humanities, or sciences and professional disciplines). I’m thinking of a weekly podcast with content as varied and wonderful as the TEDTalks. That is the gold standard for thought-provoking web content … and should be emulated by anyone who wants to build an image as a place of exciting innovation. | <urn:uuid:ecd4e92a-edd1-485e-89e8-684c3cee645d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://hughmcguire.net/2007/12/29/public-broadcasting-podcasting/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942459 | 347 | 1.679688 | 2 |
GovCamp is an open, ‘unconference’ style discussion format and aims to simply provide a space to share ideas ranging from eGov, Gov 2.0 and opengov to innovation for public sector resilience. GovCampNSW is an invitation to be part of an emerging conversation, that may inspire and shape new opportunities for innovation in government in Sydney, in NSW and beyond. It is an opportunity to talk with a mix of people – from inside and outside government, from the worlds of technology and policy, of community and universities – to talk about shaping an agenda for innovation in NSW and to make a start on that agenda.
For details, visit the GovCamp website.
This is a free event and actively supported by Australian and NSW Government agencies including Premier & Cabinet, in particular the NSW Office of the Information Commissioner and Dr Peter Shergold for the NSW Public Service Commission. | <urn:uuid:a441267f-582a-48c5-bdb8-cd2c60176d95> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://cpd.org.au/2011/10/govcampnsw-sydney-november-16/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945557 | 179 | 1.507813 | 2 |
BSc (Econ) Joint Honours Economics and Accounting (UCAS Code: LN14)
For entrance requirements:
T: +44 (0)28 9097 3838
For course information:
Dr Graham Brownlow
Queen’s University Management School
T: +44 (0)28 9097 4200
BSc (Econ) Single Honours
BSc (Econ) Major Honours with a Minor in Finance
BSc (Econ) Major Honours with a Minor in a Modern Language
Note: if the language is studied at a higher level then the grade required at that level must be achieved.
BSc (Econ) Joint Honours in Economics and Accounting
For students whose first language is not English
An IELTS score of 6.5 with a minimum of 5.5 in each test component component or an equivalent qualification acceptable to the University. Further information on other acceptable English Language qualifications is available here
If you are an international student and you do not meet the entrance requirements, you should consider a preparation course at INTO Queen's University Belfast, which will prepare you for successful study on this degree course. INTO Queen's University Belfast is based on the University campus and offers a range of courses including:
International Foundation in Business, Humanities and Social Science
International Diploma in Management and Finance
Economics is concerned with how people make choices in conditions of resource scarcity and the results of these choices for society. Many of the world's most pressing issues such as global warming, underdevelopment, rising inequality, inflation and financial instability are economic in nature. In understanding these problems, economists make use of a wide variety of analytical techniques borrowed from numerous other fields including history, philosophy, mathematics and statistics.Back to top
Students may study Economics as a single discipline or in conjunction with another subject such as accounting, finance, a modern language or another social science or arts subject. Irrespective of programme choice, the degree provides a thorough grounding in micro- and macroeconomics and equips students with the quantitative skills necessary to support their studies. This develops an understanding of the economic issues confronting our society and provides an insight into possible solutions.
The programmes are based on three years of study and six modules are taken each year - three modules per semester. (Note: the range of modules is subject to the acceptance of final programme review.) All BSc (Econ) students will take the following:
Financial Institutions and Markets
Mathematics for Economists
Principles of Economics
Economic Growth Theory
Game Theory with Economic Applications
Students will take modules in International Economics and Applied Econometrics. The remaining modules may be chosen from a variety of specialisms.
Queen’s University Management School is one of the largest Schools in the University with more than 1300 full-time undergraduate students and 300 plus postgraduate students. The School has been delivering high quality programmes for more than 40 years and was one of the first schools in the UK to introduce undergraduate management education. Since then, QUMS has been developing and enhancing its teaching portfolio for both local and international students and boasts students from more than 20 different nationalities.
In recent years, the School has benefited from significant investment resulting in many new academic appointments and state-of-the-art facilities including computer teaching labs with specilaised software and a Trading Room in Riddel Hall. In addition, the new McClay library houses an excellent selection of Management and related texts and there are extensive IT facilities throughout the campus.
At Queen’s, we aim to deliver a high quality learning environment that embeds intellectual curiosity, innovation and best practice in learning, teaching and student support to enable student to achieve their full academic potential. In line with this, one of QUMS’ primary objectives is to deliver innovative learning and teaching programmes that provide students with the competences and skills to make a positive contribution to business, economic and civic life.
On the BSc Economics with Accounting programme we achieve these goals by providing a range of learning environments which enable our students to engage with subject experts both academic staff and industry guest speakers, develop skills and attributes and perspectives that will equip them for life and work in a global society and make use of innovative technologies and a world-class library that enhances their development as independent, lifelong learners. Examples of the opportunities provided for learning on this degree programme are:
Assessment (general): The way in which students are assessed will vary according to the learning objectives of each module. Details of how each module is assessed are shown in the Student Handbook which is provided to all students during their first year induction. Modules are typically assessed by a combination of continuous assessment and a final written unseen examination. Continuous assessment consists of: class tests, computer-generated practical experiments where students have to manipulate economic and more specific accounting-related data, case study research and analysis of a particular economic issue, and small group project and presentations whereby groups of three/four students work on a particular economics and accounting related task to provide possible solutions.
Feedback (general): As students progress through their course at Queen’s they will receive general and specific feedback about their work from a variety of sources including lecturers, module co-ordinators, placement supervisors, personal tutors, advisers of study and peers. University students are expected to engage with reflective practice and to use this approach to improve the quality of their work. Feedback may be provided in a variety of forms including:
Once you have reviewed your feedback, you will be encouraged to identify and implement further improvements to the quality of your work.Back to top
Those pursuing a career in Economics with Accounting should enjoy working with numbers and dealing with a range of information which might be incomplete or provide conflicting advice as they attempt to understand and provide solutions to economics and accounting-related problems to a range of stakeholders such as the banking industry, investors, policy-makers, industry etc. They should also be effective communicators and work well with people.
Many of the skills that students will acquire during their studies at Queen’s will be of great value in a range of different career and life situations. Core transferable skills include the ability to learn independently, problem solve, understand and interpret very sophisticated economic and financial information and work productively as part of a team.
Students completing this programme (subject to having studied certain modules and meeting certain conditions etc) are eligible for a range of exemptions from the examinations of Chartered Accountants Ireland, subject to meeting specified criteria. Exemptions are also available from the examinations of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Graduate Careers and Achievements
Students graduating with a degree in Economics with Accounting from Queens’ are well placed to secure a range of employment opportunities in a wide range of positions in the public and private sectors. In recent years, students have secured positions in economic analysis and appraisal with a range of government and other public sector organisations, specialist careers in economic appraisal, audit and forensic work, careers with international accountancy organisations, as well as more generalist positions in consulting.
The Prospects website provides further information regarding the types of jobs that attract BSc Economics with Accounting graduates.
Further study is also an option open to BSc Economics with Accounting graduates. Students can choose from a wide range of Masters programmes as well as a comprehensive list of research topics, as shown on the Queen’s University Management School website.
Other Career-related information: Queen’s is a member of the Russell Group and, therefore, one of the 20 universities most-targeted by leading graduate employers. Queen’s students will be advised and guided about career choice and, through the Degree Plus initiative, will have an opportunity to seek accreditation for skills development and experience gained through the wide range of extra-curricular activities on offer. See Queen’s University Belfast fullEmployability Statementfor further information.
Degree Plus and other related initiatives: Recognising student diversity, as well as promoting employability enhancements and other interests, is part of the developmental experience at Queen’s. Students are encouraged to plan and build their own, personal skill and experiential profile through a range of activities including; recognised Queen’s Certificates, placements and other work experiences (at home or overseas), Erasmus study options elsewhere in Europe, learning development opportunities and involvement in wider university life through activities, such as clubs, societies, and sports.
Queen’s actively encourages this type of activity by offering students an additional qualification, the Degree Plus Award (and the related Researcher Plus Award for PhD and MPhil students). Degree Plus accredits wider experiential and skill development gained through extra-curricular activities that promote the enhancement of academic, career management, personal and employability skills in a variety of contexts. As part of the Award, students are also trained on how to reflect on the experience(s) and make the link between academic achievement, extracurricular activities, transferable skills and graduate employment. Participating students will also be trained in how to reflect on their skills and experiences and can gain an understanding of how to articulate the significance of these to others, e.g. employers.
Overall, these initiatives, and Degree Plusin particular, reward the energy, drive, determination and enthusiasm shown by students engaging in activities over-and-above the requirements of their academic studies. These qualities are amongst those valued highly by graduate employers.Back to top
Placements: there are opportunities for students to avail of summer and year-long placements with a variety of organisations including HM Treasury and major consultancy firms. Study USA, formerly the Business Education Initiative (BEI) scheme provides funded opportunities for study at a US university.
• McKane Medal and Scholarship for proficiency in Economics is awarded to the best final Honours BSc (Econ) student
• KPMG Prize is awarded to the graduate with the highest performance in the BSc (Business Economics) degree
• Shaw Memorial Prizes are awarded to the two best performing second year students in the BSc (Econ) and BSc (Business Economics) degrees
Exemptions: Joint Economics and Accounting students are eligible for exemptions from some professional accountancy examinations.Back to top | <urn:uuid:5ddcdcdf-d648-4231-856e-e20d150235ce> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://qub.ac.uk/home/StudyatQueens/CourseFinder/UCF2013-14/Economics/LN14/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936663 | 2,118 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Truckload of Donated Items Leaves Farmington Hills for the Jersey Shore
A local psychologist with roots in storm-damaged New Jersey spearheads a drive through Nov. 30 to help people devastated by Superstorm Sandy.
As Farmington Hills psychologist Dr. Barbara Foley watched the devastation of Hurricane and Superstorm Sandy unfold, she felt the memories of her youth disappearing.
"It was horrible," Foley said. "When all of this first began, I was depressed for days."
Foley grew up on the Jersey Shore. The places she enjoyed as a child have been swept into the ocean. And now she's doing something to help the people from her home state recover. On Thursday night, the first truckload of donated items – everything from baby formula to cleaning supplies – left Farmington Hills for the East Coast.
With friends and family still in that area, Foley learned people were left without homes, without electricity or heat. Food shelves were wiped out, and schools have become shelters for those left homeless by the storm, which has been followed by a second, wintry storm.
Through her network in Farmington Hills, Foley began gathering food items, cleaning supplies, personal hygiene products, clothing and other items to ship east. While the American Red Cross and other agencies are providing disaster relief, she said, these items will go directly into the hands of people who live where she once lived.
"It has been very heart-warming to see the outpouring of caring for other people," Foley said. "People genuinely, in their hearts, are caring and want to be able to help others."
The following items are needed:
- Non perishable food such as cereal, crackers, canned soups and ravioli, powdered milk, water, peanut butter, jelly, canned tuna or canned chicken
- Cleaning supplies
- Toiletries such as shampoo, soap, toilet paper, toothpaste and toothbrushes, deodorant, and razors for both men and women
- New and gently used clothing, blankets, towels, socks, underwear
- Can openers
- Plastic plates, utensils, and garbage bags
- Baby items such as baby cereal, diapers, wipes and formula
The collection will continue through Nov. 30, at Farmington Hills City Hall at 11 Mile and Orchard Lake. Walmart or Target gift cards are being collected by community relations coordinator Diane Bauman at the Farmington Public Schools Lewis Schulman Administrative Center, 32500 Shiawassee, Farmington, MI 48336.
This article has been updated with a list of items being collected. | <urn:uuid:eaa4b439-6185-478c-857f-8eb6653d5d11> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://westbloomfield.patch.com/articles/truckload-of-donated-items-leaves-farmington-hills-for-the-jersey-shore | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962927 | 534 | 1.664063 | 2 |
About POGO's Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD)
The government awards contracts to companies with histories of misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations. In the absence of a centralized federal database listing instances of misconduct, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is providing such data. We believe that it will lead to improved contracting decisions and public access to information about how the government spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer money each year on goods and services. Report an instance of misconduct »
Date: 07/22/2010 (Date of Settlement Announcement)
Misconduct Type: Securities
Enforcement Agency: SEC
Contracting Party: None
Court Type: Civil
Synopsis: In March 2006, it was reported that Dell's board uncovered evidence of misconduct, including accounting errors and “deficiencies in the financial control environment,” while conducting an ongoing investigation of the company's accounting. The board’s investigation was prompted by a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry that began in August 2005. In August 2007, Dell announced it would restate four years of financial results (fiscal years 2003-2006 and the first fiscal quarter of 2007) after a separate internal audit found that senior executives sought accounting adjustments “motivated by the objective of attaining financial targets.” According to Dell, “a number of these adjustments were improper,” and “[t]he investigation found that sometimes business unit personnel did not provide complete information to corporate headquarters and, in a number of instances, purposefully incorrect or incomplete information about these activities was provided to internal or external auditors.” In July 2010, Dell agreed to pay $100 million to resolve the SEC investigation. The settlement also resolved allegations that Dell misrepresented aspects of its commercial relationship with Intel Corp. In addition, Dell CEO Michael Dell and former CEO Kevin Rollins each agreed to pay a $4 million civil penalty; former CFO James Schneider agreed to pay a $3 million penalty plus over $121,000 in disgorgement and interest; and former regional vice president of finance Nicholas Dunning agreed to pay a $50,000 penalty. The company and the individual executives settled without admitting or denying SEC’s allegations. | <urn:uuid:ff6071b6-9630-4715-8be0-1738eaf5bae7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.contractormisconduct.org/index.cfm/1,73,222,html?CaseID=559 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949331 | 456 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Stephen Harper is on a charm offensive this week at the United Nations in New York, in advance of an October vote where Canada is hoping to land one of the temporary seats on the Security Council.
As a Canadian, I have no qualms saying that I hope this bid fails. It's not that I think highly of the Security Council, a club that protects the prerogatives of the big powers at the expense of democracy and equality in international relations; it's just that I believe that the world needs less of Stephen Harper and what Canadian foreign policy now clearly represents. If UN representatives vote based on Canada's record of late, Harper's diplomatic campaign will go down in flames.
Addressing the main UN chamber Tuesday, as part of a three-day conference on the Millennium Development Goals, Harper vowed: "We must get results. We must all be held accountable. And people in the developing world must see that we deliver on our word."
After a quick trip back to Ottawa to vote against the national gun registry, Harper is back in New York today to address the General Assembly. Harper has not given a major speech at the UN since 2006, and in many ways he is a fish out of water, emerging as he did from the ranks of the atavistic western Canadian Reform Party that eventually merged into (or took over) the revamped Conservative Party. Talk of multilateralism, global cooperation and compassion for the world's poor -- the rhetorical currency of the UN -- do not come naturally to Harper. But he is a quick study and a shrewd politician. So to avoid being bamboozled by the Prime Minister's speech today it's worth reviewing the actual record and results of Harper's Canada in world affairs.
What follows, I’m afraid, is only a very partial list.
--Indigenous rights. Canada was one of only four countries to vote against the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights when it was passed in 2007. Three years after this shameful vote, Harper's government has still not signed on, despite an active pressure campaign that includes Indigenous leaders from across Canada. Harper is so cynical on this issue that he has even asserted that Canada has "no history of colonialism," even as he obstructs a landmark international declaration aimed at ending still ongoing colonial crimes.
--Global warming. In climate negotiations, Canada has been noteworthy for its obstruction of meaningful and serious efforts to tackle this most urgent of global issues. At last year's COP15 UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen, climate justice activists singled-out the Harper government for condemnation. George Monbiot was blistering in his assessment: "This thuggish petro-state is today the greatest obstacle to a deal in Copenhagen." Even the infamous pranksters The Yes Men got in on the act of shaming Canada. Before he was prime minister, Harper once criticized the UN's Kyoto Protocol as a "socialist scheme."
--Omar Khadr. Stephen Harper has ignored repeated Court rulings that his government must press for the repatriation of this Canadian citizen from the dungeon of Guantanamo Bay. This child soldier has now spent one-third of his life in extra-legal detention, abandoned by his own government to suffer torture and now to face the indignity of a sham trial for war crimes. Canada is the only western government to leave one of its own citizens languishing in Gitmo.
--"Aid." Harper is expected to make this country's provision of so-called aid money a centerpiece of his pitch to the UN. But close observers are highly critical of Canada’s actual record. Writing in the Globe and Mail this week, Gerald Caplan takes the federal government to task for the reactionary ideological axe it’s been grinding when it comes to NGOs and aid: "… The Harper government has canceled funding this year for a number of prominent Canadian international NGOs, including International Planned Parenthood Federation, Kairos, the Canadian Council for International Cooperation and Match International... Why were they cut off? Because all of them advocate for international development based on solidarity and respect. What the Harper government offers instead is charity and handouts, fish for some rather than all learning to fish."
--Haiti. Harper is expected to extol the virtues of Canada's post-earthquake aid to Haiti in his UN address. But Haiti solidarity activists say that the real record is shameful. Canada Haiti Action Network member Roger Annis describes "Canada’s failed aid to Haiti," including: inflation of announced dollar figures for aid, failure to deliver promised aid money in a timely manner, misallocation of aid money to police and prisons rather than the urgent needs of rubble removal and shelter. Prior to the earthquake, Canada was already investing heavily in building the repressive apparatus in Haiti which has carried out systematic attacks against members and supporters of the Lavalas movement, whose democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown in 2004 in a coup backed by Canada, the U.S. and France.
-The Middle East. Canada under Stephen Harper has been called “Israel’s best friend,” even as that state has grown ever more aggressive in violating international law to maintain its occupation and collective punishment against the Palestinian people. Fittingly, Israeli PM Netanyahu was visiting Ottawa in May when Israeli forces massacred nine members of an international aid flotilla seeking to break the siege of Gaza. The Harper government took the lead in enforcing the siege, backed Israel’s brutal military assault on Gaza, and has taken steps towards criminalizing and suppressing criticism of the state of Israel.
--War. But then Harper's unstinting support for Israel is consistent with his sympathy for war and illegal occupation more generally -- in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond. In the days after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Harper and Stockwell Day wrote a letter of apology of sorts in the Wall Street Journal, responding to then Prime Minister Chretien's announcement that Canada would not be sending combat troops into Iraq. Calling this decision a "serious mistake," Harper and Day stated that they "[support] the American and British position because we share their concerns, their worries about the future if Iraq is left unattended to, and their fundamental vision of civilization and human values." In addition to the apologetic letter, Harper rose in the House of Commons and delivered a pro-war speech, sections of which an aide later admitted were plagiarized from a speech by Australian PM John Howard.
Even though he was Bush's advocate, I doubt anyone will accuse Harper of leaving a smell of sulfur behind at the UN rostrum today. But the Canadian Prime Minister will be speaking with a forked tongue, attempting to cover over his real record with a patina of platitudes.
The people of the developing world have seen what Canada has delivered on the international stage, in both words and deeds. Their UN representatives would do well to hold Harper accountable by denying his bid for a seat on the Security Council. | <urn:uuid:9f98730b-62ae-4b4a-9a22-f1a47097b979> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/derrick/2010/09/stephen-harper-un-truth-his-speech-will-try-hide | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963489 | 1,409 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Scarface quickly became the South's most admired rapper and remained so throughout the '90s after breaking away from the Geto Boys to launch his solo career in 1991. Even if he never scored any national hits or stormed up the charts with any of his numerous albums throughout the '90s, no one could question his clout throughout the South. He essentially defined what it meant to be a Southern thug rapper years before anyone even coined the term Dirty South. This became glaringly evident in the late '90s when a massive wave of young MCs arose from Houston, New Orleans, and Memphis emulating his style of hard-boiled, ghetto-bred, straight-up hardcore rapping. Besides serving as the father of Southern thug rap, it seemed as if every hardcore rapper wanted to align himself with Scarface during the '90s -- everyone from Ice Cube and Dr. Dre to 2Pac and Master P collaborated with the former Geto Boy -- all in an attempt to foster credibility among the loyal Southern rap audience. Yet despite his unquestionable influence, Scarface never crossed over to mainstream success. His albums were often plagued with filler, his lyrics were simply too harsh for radio, and his devotion to producer Mike Dean led to a stagnant, albeit trademark, sound. Still, likely because Scarface never crossed over and remained aligned to the streets, his influence never waned, making him one of the few veterans able to sustain in the here-today, gone-tomorrow rap game. In the early 2000s, Def Jam Records rewarded his staying power with a lucrative contract, a wealth of industry connections, and a powerful marketing push. Scarface consequently enjoyed the most successful album of his career, The Fix (2002), and a revival of interest in his back catalog, which his former label, Rap-a-Lot, repackaged that same year on Greatest Hits.
Before Brad Jordan (born November 9, 1970) became known as Scarface, he called himself Akshen. As such, he began his rap career first as a solo artist in his native Houston during the mid-'80s for James Smith's then-fledging Rap-a-Lot label. Smith was trying to launch a group he tagged the Geto Boys, and he eventually asked Akshen to join the group in the late '80s. The Geto Boys' second album (and first to feature Scarface) -- Grip It! On That Other Level (1990), later repackaged and re-released that same year simply as The Geto Boys -- shocked many with its vivid depictions of violence and its overall extreme nature. This album featured the song "Scarface," which introduced Akshen's alter ego, a title he would keep from that point onward. The ensuing controversy surrounding the group's debut put the Geto Boys on the map and set the stage for the impressive We Can't Be Stopped (1991). In the wake of the group's national success came solo albums, one of which being Scarface's debut, Mr. Scarface Is Back (1991). The album made it evident who the group's most talented member was, and the acclaim showered on Scarface resulted in bitter tensions among his fellow Geto Boys: Bushwick Bill and Willie D. By the time Scarface returned with his follow-up album, The World Is Yours (1993), his reputation overshadowed that of his group's. Willie D consequently departed, and the Geto Boys never again rivaled We Can't Be Stopped, releasing half-hearted, albeit popular, efforts with a new lineup before later reuniting in the late '90s. In the meantime, Scarface continued to funnel his efforts into additional solo efforts: The Diary (1994) and Untouchable (1997). He then released the double-disc My Homies (1998), a bloated effort laden with guests, many of the South's leading rappers.
It wasn't until 2000, though, that Scarface won substantial admiration from the greater rap community with Last of a Dying Breed (2000), his most personal and focused album in years. As a result, he was awarded Lyricist of the Year at the 2001 Source Awards and was offered a promising deal with Def Jam Records. The powerhouse East Coast label wanted Scarface to helm its Def Jam South subsidiary division, and the rapper obliged, first signing Ludacris, who became an overnight superstar, and then releasing his own album, The Fix (2002). Led by a Kayne West-produced collaboration with Jay-Z, "Guess Who's Back," it spawned a popular single, "My Block," and attracted widespread embrace. Rap-a-Lot furthered Scarface's newfound coast-to-coast acceptance with the rapper's first best-of collection, Greatest Hits (2002). In turn, he reunited with Willie D and Bushwick Bill and put together The Foundation (2005), another Geto Boys album. In 2006 he introduced his new crew, the Product, with the album One Hunid and released a second volume of My Homies. Also landing in 2006 was 2 Face, a collection of tracks featuring Scarface and the late 2Pac. MADE proved that Scarface was still relevant in 2007; it debuted at number two on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart. A year later he retired his solo career with the good-bye album Emeritus. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
Click here to search songs by Scarface | <urn:uuid:2e040573-0912-4ca7-9179-f0bc53c4b384> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.musicdumper.com/artist/info/scarface/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97934 | 1,114 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Producing movies in 3D has quickly become a growing trend with movie studios. They want a film that practically leaps off the screen, one that audiences can reach out to and almost touch. It all sounds like a good idea, but not every one is on board with the way 3D movies are made, especially when it involves adding 3D effects as an afterthought to movies originally shot in 2D.
James Cameron – well-known writer and director of such films as Titanic, True Lies and the Terminator series, and of course the 3D visionary whose Avatar 3D movie success paved the way for Hollywood’s current obsession with 3D films – has criticised the hasty and reckless manner in which movie studios convert films to 3D in post-production (rather than initially shooting them in 3D) for the sole purpose of milking the 3D gravy train.
Speaking at the Blu-Con 2010 event at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills earlier this month, Mr Cameron denounced Warner Bros for attempting to add 3D effects to the latest installment in the Harry Potter franchise. The film studio eventually had to abandon 2D-to-3D conversion for Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1, as they ran out of time to complete the project in 3D before the scheduled US and UK release date.
Claiming that a rushed 2D-to-3D conversion job – he cited Clash Of The Titans as a prime example – would erode the public’s confidence in 3D movies and make the entire film industry look bad, Mr Cameron expressed his view that post-production 2D-to-3D conversion should only be reserved for classic movies like ET, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Titanic and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, where re-shooting these perennial favourites in 3D is simply not possible.
At the Blu-Con conference, Mr Cameron also gave an estimated time frame of eight to ten years for glasses-free 3D technology (also technically known as autostereoscopic 3D) to reach mass market penetration. | <urn:uuid:cca24e8a-8590-4651-8071-9637acb231b3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/cameron-slams-3d-conversion-20101120928.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936209 | 423 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Pasadena studies letting NFL temporarily use Rose Bowl
As community leaders try to lure professional football back to L.A., officials in Pasadena have begun a study to determine whether the city could profit by offering the Rose Bowl as a temporary home to the NFL.
Pasadena and NFL officials have discussed using the Rose Bowl as a venue for a football team while a permanent stadium is being built -- possibly in downtown L.A. or the City of Industry.
And now, city leaders and the Rose Bowl Operating Co., which manages the stadium, have moved forward with a traffic study to measure the effect of hosting a pro team, the Pasadena Sun reported.
A short-term deal could bring the Rose Bowl millions of dollars, helping plug a $16-million shortfall in the ongoing $152-million stadium renovation.
The study would measure traffic near the Rose Bowl over a four-day period, including Oct. 29 when UCLA hosts UC Berkeley. The Bruins play their home games at the stadium. The study is expected to be completed in December.
Pasadena officials emphasize the traffic study is only a preliminary step because no team has committed to move to Los Angeles, and neither of the proposed stadiums has been built.
Rose Bowl Operating Co. President Darryl Dunn said his organization has not estimated the revenue from a possible two- or three-year deal to host at least 10 NFL games a year, but said it could help pay for the modernization effort at the Rose Bowl.
Several years ago, the NFL considered making the Rose Bowl the permanent home field for an NFL team and Pasadena leaders put the proposal on the ballot in 2006. Nearly 75% of the voters opposed the idea.
Pasadena resident Jennifer Steinwedell was among those who voted against the 2006 plan, and said she would do so again, even if it meant hosting a team only on a temporary basis.
“It would clog the area with traffic,” Steinwedell said. “If we had an NFL team, all kinds of people would be coming.”
Claudia Adkins of Altadena took a different view.
“I would just love it,” Adkins said. “It would bring more jobs, money and more activity to the area.”
Lee Zanteson, president of the homeowners group in the area adjacent to the Rose Bowl, said members of the Linda Vista-Annandale Assn. voted in August to oppose an NFL deal.
“Having that much traffic is going to decrease home values in our area,” Zanteson said. “But we’re just a gnat buzzing around. They’ll eventually swat us.”
-- Adolfo Flores
Photo: The Rose Bowl is being considered as a temporary home to an NFL team. Credit: Lori Shepler / Los Angeles | <urn:uuid:83fd7183-1ae1-4c44-9d0d-9095bbfef1d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/10/pasadena-studies-letting-nfl-temporarily-use-rose-bowl-.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965763 | 590 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Posters from Days Gone By...
Posters, whether published by an individual or the government of a nation have always been an effective form of communication. Many times you don't even realize that you are being bombarded with information from this source of "advertising".
During the wars of the 20th century, governments used this advertising form for everything from urging safety to asking for money. The amount of propaganda sent out to the peoples of ALL nations was large. The amount directed at the American people was at times overwhelming.
With the vast wealth of these posters no longer available (without huge sums of money from collectors) we discovered a cache of pictures depicting them in an online library. As with anything, creating the information doesn't mean that it is readily available, especially on the internet.
To that end, we are making them available here at MilitaryWives.com. Enjoy.
BJ 'n Cindy
Materials published by the U.S. Government Printing Office are in the public domain and, as such, not subject to copyright restriction.
The information about and the pictures of the World War 2 posters on this site were acquired from:
World War II Poster Collection located at the Northwestern University Library | <urn:uuid:e4262f9d-ecbb-494e-9d63-04c1db146a39> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.armywives.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=158&Itemid=213 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961963 | 245 | 1.726563 | 2 |
An Arkansas coroner was investigating after a cargo shipment of 40 to 60 human heads was discovered by a Southwest Airlines employee, NBC DFW reported Thursday.
The container of heads was found in Little Rock, Ark., last Wednesday and was set for transportation to a Medtronic research lab in Fort Worth, Texas.
"It wasn't labeled or packaged properly," Ashley Rogers, a Southwest spokeswoman, told NBC DFW. "They called the local authorities."
Police were called by the airline, who investigated before turning them over to the county coroner.
A spokesman for Medtronic told NBC DFW it was common practice to ship body parts for medical education and research, adding his firm expected suppliers to follow proper procedures.
Pulaski County Coroner Garland Camper, charged with the investigation, said he was waiting for the correct documentation to prove the heads were for medical research before releasing them.
"In our discussion with the health department, we've come to the conclusion that there is a black market for body parts out there," he was quoted as saying by NBC.
"We just want to make sure these specimens aren't part of that underground trade." | <urn:uuid:a29dfa3a-41b4-4233-b26a-150448bcbe25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,594828,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985774 | 236 | 1.585938 | 2 |
His language thumps like a happy puppy’s wagging tail with references to popular media and made up trade-marked phrases such as ‘drink bravely’ and ‘poosh it’ (no, me neither).
Each recommended wine gets between 1 and 2 pages of enthusiastic description followed by 2 - 3 pages of quotes from actors, musicians and restaurateurs and an information sheet containing a price/adventurous chart and facts on how to pronounce names, similar wines, food matches and more.
Oldman suggests unusual varietals such as Txakoli, Aglianico, Moshofilero, Torrontes and Albarino.
But he then hits a big problem. There are thousands of wine grape varieties growing around the world and many are excellent. But his aim is to help people step out of their wine comfort zone and buy something different to their usual drink. So the wines he recommends have to be available on the shelves of American shops. And that would make a very short book.
So the ‘usual suspects’ including Merlot, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Champagne and Chardonnay are all included along with many other wines that I think most wine drinkers would know. His approach is to find some other angle that makes some difference to these familiar varieties. Such as if you ordinarily buy Sauvignon Blanc, he recommends trying those from New Zealand, choose Pinot Noir from Oregon. And instead of your usual Merlot, get ‘good’ Merlot.
Such is his attention grabbing writing style that such flim-flam goes under one's radar at the time as he tells how he smuggles wine into cinemas by decanting into an empty Sprite bottle whose coloured plastic hides the contents, or using hotel fridges to store bottles of inexpensive American sparkling wine. Incidentally he doesn’t use the ‘C’ word for them but has coined the useful ‘Federal Fizz’.
I am thoroughly behind him in his task to encourage American wine drinkers to broaden their horizons and it is a shame there appears so few unusual wines available.
Production of this book is superb: it is a large format paperback with good quality paper with text printed in warm brown and blue.
Would make a great gift for new wine drinkers. But note it is aimed at the younger set and definitely of most interest to those living in the United States.
(The ‘C’ word is Champagne. Only sparkling wines from Champagne, France are entitled to that name.)
Oldman's Brave New World of Wine: Pleasure, Value, and Adventure Beyond Wine's Usual Suspects
By: Mark Oldman
Paperback: 334 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (September 6, 2010)
Disclosure: The author received a review copy of this book
Peter F May is the author of Marilyn Merlot and the Naked Grape: Odd Wines from Around the World which features more than 100 wine labels and the stories behind them, and PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa’s Own Wine which tells the story behind the Pinotage wine and grape.
Oldman's Brave New World of Wine
Mark Oldman’s exuberant ebullient book encourages wine drinkers to explore familiar wines that offer good value and great tasting experiences.
His language thumps like a puppy with wagging tail with references to popular media and made up trade-marked phrases such as ‘drink bravely’ and ‘poosh it'.
A wine detective story. Come with me as I try to find out the truth behind South Africa's own variety. | <urn:uuid:b5403040-62e0-4fc0-a154-91deb090ed72> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bellaonline.com/ArticlesP/art69646.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00041-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945191 | 775 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Latest Regulatory Filings Reveal Mixed Results in Addressing Cyber Threats
Photo entitled "Cyber AttacK" by Marsmet501 on Flickr
Companies submitted their first 10-Q quarterly filings since the SEC issued guidance on reporting cyber issues. A Reuters review of over 2,000 filings revealed varying degrees of effort to follow the SEC’s guidance.
Issued in October, the Division of Corporate Finance’s CF Disclosure Guidance emphasized the importance of disclosing information about the risks and impacts of cyber incidents, considering among other things, the history of attacks as well as future threats and costs. Investor perception and materiality played important roles within the guidelines for public companies making the determination to release cyber threat information.
Most companies addressed cyber risks in a general sense using boilerplate language but others, including known hacking victims, did not address the issue at all. Among the notable companies to not even report cyber risks as generic threats to business were major defense contractors including Lockheed Martin Corp., Mantech International Corp., and CACI International Corp. All three corporations have been targeted in sophisticated cyber attacks.
Yet other companies were more transparent and disclosed details of cyber incidents and related threats. Internet security provider VeriSign Inc. and credit card and debit card transaction processor VeriFone Systems Inc., submitted threat details after suffering major breaches in 2010. While some companies made good faith efforts to address the SEC’s cyber concerns these attempts were by no means indicative of all public filings for the most recent quarter.
Upon initial review, most companies made some attempt to follow the SEC’s October guidelines. However, using standard terminology to address generic cyber threats is probably not what the SEC would consider ideal compliance. Such attempts do not improve corporate transparency nor do they aid investors and business partners in making thorough investment decisions.
Some experts anticipate that public companies will make better efforts to address cyber threats in their upcoming annual filings and disclose more information regarding successful hacking attempts. Others feel the guidance does not contain enough specificity and plan to watch the SEC closely as it responds to this most recent round of filings. However, most experts agree that while the disclosure is not a new concern, companies are slowly moving toward increasing transparency and acknowledge that the process will take time to develop.
© Copyright 2010 The Journal of High Technology Law, Suffolk University Law School
Suite 450B | 120 Tremont Street | Boston | MA | 02108-4977 | Legal and Copyright Information | <urn:uuid:91af65dc-7112-43e7-976b-6d62a6da9381> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jhtl.org/archives/2012/03/entry_125.html | 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 | 0.946539 | 504 | 1.570313 | 2 |
An entrepreneur’s work is never done.
This is especially true when you first launch your business and you are the chief cook and bottle washer, and pretty much everything else in between. So taking some time out to read a business book or two may seem like a totally unwarranted indulgence of dubious longterm value.
But bear with me. As this latest entry in the continuing series, “3 Business Books that Changed My Life” shows, taking some time to learn from the wisdom of entrepreneurs who have gone before you can make a real difference to how you approach the running of your business, and its eventual success or otherwise.
Rebekah Campbell, who I recently profiled on my weekly Fairfax blog, Enterprise, is a testament to the power of drawing inspiration from others. She credits reading the life stories of Richard Branson, David Geffen and Steve Jobs with inspiring her to dream big in business.
She is the founder of posse.com, a “social search” site that allows people to create a virtual street on which they can place five of their favourite places to shop, eat or hangout. The idea is that businesses can then engage with customers via this portal and reward them with special deals for their loyalty.
But it’s not the first entrepreneurial venture for Rebekah who started out running her school newspaper in her native New Zealand at a profit and graduated to managing and promoting bands in Australia. She has managed everyone from Evermore to Matt Corby and Amy Meredith, and has also been behind major fund-raising events such as Levi’s Life Festival which was staged to raise awareness of youth suicide.
Here are the three business books that changed her life:
Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson
I read this book when I was 18 after getting it for Christmas from my mum. I had always thought about being an entrepreneur and I identified with his ambition to do lots of interesting things.
It fuelled my ambition to get out there and do something big. It gave me a global focus – I grew up in New Zealand – and it made me think that I could do [what Richard did] too.
It’s a really well-told story and it sounds like [he's led] the most awesome life, and it inspired me to be an entrepreneur and be really ambitious in my thinking. Everything he ever did, like start an airline or a massive retail chain, were always really, really big ideas and made me think big.
The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood by Tom King
I read this when I had just moved to Australia and was working in the music industry. I was involved in the day to day of running a business, and trying to think about the next record release or the next band and it wasn’t small thinking.
When I read David Geffen’s story, it lifted my ambition again to another level and made me think about getting into America and what he’d learnt about the music industry and management and moving from management into owning content. It inspired me to think bigger again.
I was in the early stages of my entrepreneurial career and I had made a bunch of mistakes by this point. Reading about David Geffen’s flaws [which led to him] getting involved with some of the wrong people and falling out with people, it made me feel better about just going for it and not worrying about what other people think and not worrying about making mistakes.
iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon
It’s a Steve Job’s biography that is much better than the one which came out recently (Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson).
This book goes into detail about what happened when he got fired from Apple, and what kind of character he was, and what he doing at the time.
Then he went and set up his own software company and got offered an IBM contract for his operating software but he couldn’t be bothered reading the contract. So he told them to come back later and he lost the deal which went to Microsoft. He would’ve been Bill Gates if he hadn’t been [done that].
Steve Jobs had his own vision for what his companies were going to do, and he [missed] small things that didn’t fit that vision. For instance it took Pixar winning an Oscar for him to notice what they were doing.
If you’re interested in the way Steve Jobs did business, then it’s the perfect book for that. He didn’t authorise this book and he was much less involved than he was in the official one and so it doesn’t paint him in nearly as glowing a light as the official one. But you can learn a lot more about his mistakes and not to make the same ones yourself because of that.
If you’d like to learn how to write your own business book, our course How To Write a Business Book is the perfect place to start.Posted on 5 September 2012 | <urn:uuid:07112297-55f3-40cc-a73c-5a43fbdaba8e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://valeriekhoo.com/2012/09/3-business-books-that-changed-my-life-rebekah-campbell-founder-and-ceo-at-posse-com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981047 | 1,076 | 1.539063 | 2 |
NEW YORK — Heavy snow continued to wreak havoc on the Northeast Thursday, with airports closed and roads snarled as another storm swept over a region already beaten down by a winter not even half over.
In New York's Central Park, 15 inches had fallen by 2 a.m. ET, smashing an 86-year-old record for snowfall in January, according to the National Weather Service.
In other areas, 14 inches had fallen at Newark, an estimated 8 to 10 inches hit Philadelphia, with 6 inches at Baltimore Washington International Airport and 3 inches at Providence, Rhode Island.
"I fell three times trying to get off the steps," commuter Elliot Self said after leaving an elevated train in Philadelphia. "I just want the snow to stop. I want the sun again. I want to feel just a little bit of warmth."
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In the Washington, D.C., area, traffic was at a standstill, with motorists stuck for hours on icy roadways, NBC News reported.
Runways were closed Wednesday evening at the region's airports, and the airport authority said flight cancellations and delays early Thursday morning.
Blankets were being handed out to the several hundred passengers who couldn't leave the terminals because there was no ground transportation to hotels.
Police on New York's Long Island said a pickup truck plowing a snow-covered parking lot struck and killed a woman Wednesday afternoon.
Since Dec. 14, snow has fallen eight times on the New York region — or an average of about once every five days, including the blizzard that dropped 20 inches on the city and paralyzed travel after Christmas.
The NWS said the old record for Central Park was the 27.4 inches which fell in 1925. The latest snowfall took that to 32.3 inches.
The New York area's three major airports, among the nation's busiest, saw more than 1,000 flights canceled. John F. Kennedy in New York and Newark International in New Jersey were among Northeast airports shut down early Thursday.
In Pennsylvania, residents hunkered down as a one-two punch of a winter storm brought snow, sleet and then more snow, which forecasters said could total a foot in some areas.
Philadelphia declared a snow emergency as of Wednesday evening, ordering cars removed from emergency routes.
Northwest, in Hatfield Township, Pa., residents were scared by thunder claps and blinding lightning in a rare thundersnow, a thunderstorm with heavy snow instead of rain.
New Jersey also was looking at up to a foot of snow, and high winds were expected before the storm moves out early Thursday.
Rain drenched the nation's capital for most of the day and changed to sleet before it started snowing in earnest at midafternoon. Washington was expected to get up to 10 inches of snow.
The snow and icy roads created hazardous conditions for President Barack Obama as he returned to the White House on Wednesday after a post-State of the Union trip to Manitowoc, Wis.
The wintry weather grounded Marine One, the helicopter that typically transports Obama to and from the military base where Air Force One lands.
Instead, Obama was met at the plane by his motorcade, which spent an hour weaving through rush hour traffic already slowed by the storm. It normally takes the president's motorcade about 20 minutes to travel between the base and the White House.
In suburban Silver Spring, Md., nurse Tiffany Horairy said as she waited for a bus that she was getting tired of the constant pecking of minor or moderate storms.
"I'd rather get something like last year, with all the snow at once," she said.PhotoBlog: View, discuss weather photos
Officials urged residents in Washington and Maryland to stay off the roads as snow, thunder and lightning pounded the Mid-Atlantic region. In D.C., Metro transit officials pulled buses off the roads as conditions deteriorated. Firefighters warned the heavy snow was bringing down power lines and causing outages.
About 200,000 customers lost power, about half as many as in July, when a powerful line of thunderstorms moved through the area.
Some places are running out of room to stash plowed snow.
Portsmouth, N.H., hauls its snow out to Peirce Island, but it was nearly full, with a huge mountain of the stuff.Video: Watch the Weather Channel's forecast (on this page)
"We probably have a five-story snow dump right now," said Portsmouth public works director David Allen. "It's time to get a lift up on it and we could probably do a ski run."
For days, forecasters had been predicting rain, freezing rain or deep snow along the East Coast, but they weren't quite sure who would get what. That unpredictability continued playing out as the storm swept from middle Appalachia into the Northeast.
In New Jersey, state workers were sent home early and schools closed as the storm brought more snow than anticipated Wednesday morning. A second band of snow began falling in the evening. The NJ Transit agency allowed customers to use bus tickets for rail travel, and vice versa, to get home any way they could.
In suburban Philadelphia's Phoenixville, a delayed decision to call off classes angered parents when dozens of students got stranded at school. Eighty-seven buses had to be redirected to take students back home.
Parents and teachers in Tennessee were concerned about yet another day off from school Wednesday. Angela Wilburn, who teaches eighth grade at McMurray Middle School in Nashville, said students had missed eight days so far this year, pushing back her teaching schedule and making it difficult to keep kids focused. She was worried about a writing test scheduled for February.Story: Fight back when your flight is canceled Story: Even best-laid travel plans sometimes go awry
"The writing assessment counts toward No Child Left Behind," she said. "It affects the whole school."
New York City declared a weather emergency for the second time since the Dec. 26 storm, which trapped hundreds of buses and ambulances and caused a political crisis for the mayor. An emergency declaration means any car blocking roads or impeding snowplows can be towed at the owner's expense.
In the suburbs, a pickup truck plowing a snow-covered parking lot struck and killed a Long Island woman Wednesday afternoon, police said.Story: Obama caught in Washington's wintry weather
In Kentucky, where several inches of snow fell, a man who lost control of his pickup truck on an ice-covered road and got out of it was hit and killed by another truck that lost control on the same patch.
Numerous vehicles were disabled or abandoned across northern Delaware, and dozens of crashes were reported.
The Associated Press, NBC News and Reuters contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:a514df36-241c-44b2-ba18-4ce1ed14214f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.nbcnews.com/id/41271875/ns/weather/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968051 | 1,490 | 1.609375 | 2 |
According to surveys conducted by AARP, Hispanics over the age of 50 want candidates to address issues related to the future of Social Security and Medicare.
A little-known bill filed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) this month that would impede undocumented immigrants from claiming a child tax credit is drawing fire from Latino groups and immigrant activists.
Hispanic Americans, the nation's fastest-growing minority group, are least prepared for retirement, according to a new ING Study that compares how different ethnic groups are planning for their financial future.
Roland Hernandez knows his idea on how to reform immigration is going to make a lot of people mad, but he’s willing to take that chance, hoping to re-build social security, health care, and getting an accurate census of undocumented immigrants.
While many Americans believe illegal immigrants don't pay taxes, billions of dollars deducted from paychecks issued to undocumented workers.
“Latino seniors are particularly vulnerable to cuts and changes because Social Security benefits represent nearly all of their income," according to the National Council of La Raza.
E-Verify has made it harder to find enough workers for many farm jobs, especially during spring growing season. Though the U.S. unemployment rate is stalled above 9 percent, business owners say few native-born workers are willing to do tough jobs, leading employers to hire immigrants.
What it will cost employers, employees, and taxpayers.
Several posts this month have addressed household wealth (or the lack of it) among minorities. So what comes next? Retirement, which involves every generation. And it’s not a bright picture, for Latinos especially.
The U.S. state and federal mandatory E-Verify bills threaten to throw America’s struggling economy further into the depths.
If President Obama carries through with his intention to cut Social Security benefits in such a way that it will imperil the lives of Latino seniors, it will be a sad day for a community who believed in change.
We are witnessing round two of a food fight by the smug “right to lifers” and the equally condescending “right to choice” brigade. Neither of whom, incidentally, really care about Latino lives or Latino choices, respectively. We are merely a pawn. | <urn:uuid:42fa4a9f-a620-4337-b585-cf9e6431860c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mariowire.com/news/social-security/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960504 | 465 | 1.742188 | 2 |
christopher::: wrote:A good teacher is an absolute blessing, I don't doubt that. Those fortunate enough to have found a teacher they can work with in 3D are very lucky. But the 3 jewels are Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, not Buddha, Dharma, Teacher....
In the triple gem, the Buddha is the teacher. Today we have his teaching (the Dhamma) and those that preserve his teachings (the monastic Sangha). There might even still be those that have penetrated and realized those teachings for themselves (the Noble Sangha).
What was Buddha's view about the importance of having a teacher to work with one-on-one, vs the support of a sangha?
For a layperson practitioner, is the support of a sangha more important then having a teacher, are they equally important or is a relationship with a teacher more essential?
They are the same thing. Having a teacher is
the support of the sangha.
What you seem to be asking is a one-on-one teacher vs a group discussion situation. On the one hand, one can learn Buddhism from a group or from a lone teacher so there is no difference. On the other hand, a group discussion tends to be more unfocused and free-ranging whereas a one-on-one discussion tends to be more focused and goes deeper. In addition, establishing a long term relationship with a teacher allows you to get to know each other and this helps any teaching situation. Compare this to a group of strangers, especially on the internet. Furthermore, if the group can't even agree on what Buddhism teaches, as is common on internet forums, then you're even worse off. One teacher who is actually part of the sangha who knows and respects Buddhism, dedicates his life to preserving and embodying those teachings, is a way different thing than a group of strangers all coming up with their own half-baked interpretations and debating them.
I think everything and everyone can be your teacher.
That depends what one hopes to learn. If one hopes to learn baking, then a baker is a better teacher than "everything and everyone". If one hopes to learn Buddhism, then one who studies, preserves, and practices those teachings is the better than "everything and everyone". One who has penetrated and realized those teachings for themselves is the best teacher of all.
If one is not so much interested in learning Buddhism but is interested in gathering up random life experiences in the hopes of chancing upon something useful or profound... then perhaps everything and anyone is the way to go. | <urn:uuid:aec66f5c-3858-4ead-8ab4-b2ed7b7c060d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?p=30008 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970927 | 524 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Human Rights Activist and Best-Selling Author to Speak at Occidental College
Human rights activist and New York Times best-selling author John Prendergast will speak at Occidental College's Thorne Hall on Tuesday, April 5, at 11:45 a.m.
Prendergast, who has worked with actors such as George Clooney and Angelina Jolie to bring the plight of Africans caught in Sudan's civil war to the attention of the United States, has worked for peace in Africa for more than 25 years. He is the co-founder of the Enough Project, an initiative to end genocide and crimes against humanity that is affiliated with the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank.
On April 5, Prendergast will speak about the recent referendum in Sudan and the political situation in Darfur. He will also sign his book, New York Times bestseller, The Enough Movement: Fighting to End Africa's Worst Human Rights Crimes, which was co-written by actor Don Cheadle, in the lobby of Thorne Hall immediately after his talk.
Prendergast will present his talk as a First Tuesday speaker. The longtime series, sponsored by the Remsen Bird Fund, brings a dynamic speaker to Occidental on the first Tuesday of every month. The series' events are free and open to the public.
Under the Enough Project, Prendergast helped to create a number of peace initiatives. With George Clooney, he launched the Satellite Sentinel Project, which aims to prevent conflict and human rights abuses through the use of satellite imagery. With NBA players such as Tracy McGrady, Prendergast co-founded the Darfur Dream Team Sister Schools Program to fund schools in Darfurian refugee camps and create partnerships with U.S. schools. He also helped launch two campaigns on ending civil war and violence against women: the Raise Hope for Congo Campaign and Sudan Now.
In addition, Prendegast has worked for the Clinton administration, UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, the International Crisis Group, and the U.S. Institute for Peace, among other groups. He has been a Big Brother for more than 25 years, as well as a youth counselor and a basketball coach. Prendergast's next book, which will be available in May, is Unlikely Brothers, a memoir he co-authored with his first little brother in the Big Brother program.
For directions to Occidental College, visit http://www.oxy.edu/x119.xml. Parking is available in the visitors parking lot. | <urn:uuid:327105eb-8b5e-456b-866a-5f12187dcc33> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oxy.edu/news/human-rights-activist-and-best-selling-author-speak-occidental-college | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964087 | 523 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Return to South Sudan ahead of the referendum
By the beginning of January, 120,000 southerners had left northern Sudan to return to their ancestral homes in the South ahead of this week’s landmark Sudan referendum – twice the number since mid-December. On average, 2,000 persons are crossing into the South each day. UNHCR anticipates that many more will return in the coming months following the referendum. Many of the returnees who have lived in the North for years say they have left for fear of the unknown and the opportunity to start afresh in their native South.
Following the referendum it will be essential that the status of those southern Sudanese who would prefer to remain in the North is established. There are an estimated 1.5 – 2 million southerners living in the North and UNHCR is concerned about the specter of a significant number of these having uncertain citizen status and possibly becoming stateless. We are actively supporting negotiations with officials to address this issue, which if left unresolved could result in an even larger movement south.
To date, approximately 30 per cent of returnees have gone to urban centres, while the reminder are going to rural areas. Most of the returnees come from the Khartoum area where some have lived for two or more generations. Consequently, they do not necessarily have a home village to return to. This puts additional pressure on the fragile infrastructure of the towns in South Sudan and has prompted UNHCR to focus its attention on these urban returns. For example, we are providing assistance to 35,000 returnees in and around the town of Abyei, with stocks in the South for more than 100,000, should they be needed.
Upper Nile is a region that has received a high number of returnees from the North. Every day, buses and barges with returnees arrive in the state capital, Malakal. The returnees are laden with everything they own, leading the buses and barges to be packed with beds, sofa seats, chairs, tables, cooking pans and utensils, corrugated iron sheets and radio sets, while some have even come with TV sets, fridges and small generators. Once in Malakal, the returnees are registered and provided with reintegration packages by the state authorities before moving on to their home villages.
Since early last year UNHCR has established a presence in all the ten states of South Sudan to support returnees and the existing community. In addition, the organisation sets up eight way stations and a number of soup kitchens along the route to the principal areas of return. These way stations are providing a safe resting place for women, children and the elderly as they make the arduous journey home.
UNHCR’s community services and protection specialists in the region are monitoring and following up on cases of unaccompanied and separated children, survivors of gender based violence, and elderly and disabled people who need support. | <urn:uuid:bfe35cb7-7fb6-4190-a7d3-1845422f7259> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.unhcr.org.uk/resources/monthly-updates/january-2011/sudan.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957723 | 602 | 1.84375 | 2 |
|This graceful evergreen shrub is at home along the banks of creeks or massed in front of shrub borders. Often used to "loosen up" the tight feel hollies give to the landscape. Best planted in generous drifts, this shrub is a slow grower that reaches a height of 3 to 5 feet tall and wide. A natural companion plant to rhododendrons, this woodland native thrives in acid soil and full to partial shade, but will tolerate sun if soil is not dry. The oblong to ovate or elliptic, shiny, deep green leaves grow 2 1/2 inches in length. Early summer flowers are fragrant, white and urn-shaped. There is no real reason to prune this plant unless it is to shape it up. | <urn:uuid:b2f993ae-39ad-4362-806a-712a085067d7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.backyardgardener.com/plantname/pda_a49a.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945027 | 165 | 1.8125 | 2 |
Back pain. Those that suffer from it know just how aggravating and potentially debilitating it can be. Fortunately, there are key secrets available in how to relieve back pain that you can begin implementing today. Each of these suggestions on how to relieve back pains are relatively easy to begin with; the key ingredient between them all is consistency.
My own personal top recommendation for how to relieve back pain is found by using an affordable product I very recently became aware of. RTPR or Real Time Pain Relief removes pain instantly, according to my own experience (with my wife) and other people we have shared RTPR with. According to my findings, about 90% of those we sent samples to reported significant improvements with just one application. Continual usage over a long period of time improves those results, according to my own personal findings.
I highly recommend using RTPR in conjunction with the following 5 tips on how to relieve back pain:
Hot Tips on How to Relieve Back Pain
Putting these tips on how to relieve back pain into motion can result in significant improvements with your own personal back pain issues:
- Limiting Loads
- Exercising Regularly
- Balancing Nutrition
- Drinking Water
- Posturing Properly
How to Relieve Back Pain by Limiting Loads
Do not lift more than you can handle, and, when you do, team up with someone else for best success. Load lifting tools like dollies can also greatly assist in lifting heavier loads. Straps and scooters designed to help with managing heavy loads are also available. Whatever you do, do not stress your body unduly unless you want to experience the complications of doing so.
How to Relieve Back Pain by Exercising Regularly
Our bodies are meant to move. Unfortunately, today’s society finds us much more sedentary than we should be. One idea presented to me recently was to take a 10 minute walk after every meal. Combine this 10 minute walk with stretching every 30 minutes when doing activities like working on the computer and you are headed in the right direction.
How to Relieve Back Pain by Balancing Nutrition
Did you know that food can play a major roll in answering the question of how to relieve back pain? It can. This is the very reason it is highly recommended to stay away from foods that cause inflammation. Choosing a diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables is highly recommended.
How to Relieve Back Pain by Drinking Water
Another secret to eliminating back pain is to drink plenty of water. You likely know our bodies are largely made of water. What you may not realize is that the majority of people are dehydrated. Dehydration can lead to a number of preventable health related issues had proper amounts of water been consumed. Target consuming 8 to 10 glasses of water daily and increase this amount when the weather is hot or you are exerting yourself more.
How to Relieve Back Pain by Posturing Properly
Proper posture when sitting or standing is yet another way of relieving back pains. It is indeed important how we hold ourselves. Correct posture can also have dramatic effects on your mental attitude perhaps because the body is not stressed as much as it is with incorrect posture.
Concluding Thoughts on How to Relieve Back Pain
Implementing just one of the tips above can help your back pains be relieved. The more you do to care for your back the more your back will care for you.  My recommendation would be to follow all the tips listed above to discover just how to relieve back pain.
Article edited by Valerie Robins, owner of WordsWellRead editing and creative services.  Contact Valerie for inquiries and costs at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:4b0fc05a-6f7e-492f-9466-f9c1095f180c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://painkickers.com/how-to-relieve-back-pain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952997 | 778 | 1.679688 | 2 |
Feb. 29: Praise in the midst of complaint
Scroll down for complete Scripture.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That’s the opening cry of the Psalm from which our text is taken. A classic lament, and our text a familiar vow of praise of the sort found not infrequently in lamentation literature. It is the hymn that Jesus begins to recite from the cross, branding that anguished cry onto our collective consciousness. Perhaps he would have continued reciting through the praise portion – had he lived.
Why praise in the midst of scripted complaint, choreographed despair, ritualized hopelessness? For the ancient worshipper a “sacrifice of praise” was part of the lamenter’s strategy to incline the ear of one’s deity, to call attention to one’s case, to evoke sympathy for one’s suffering. To provoke perchance a positive response, in hopes that the deity might (also) be assuaged by the sweet aroma of adoration.
Hymnody at the service of special pleading does not lack authenticity or sincerity. The power of this ancient genre is its embrace of praise within the context of complaint. Or even more to the point, the validation of complaint within the context of worship. Those suffering in our midst should be empowered to make us squirm during sharing time. We should feel their sense of abandonment like a shroud of existential angst. If all we hear are the victories, then we’re not really listening. Only then can their songs of praise, intoned from the abyss, ennoble human pathos.
The bottom has fallen out, catastrophe looms, the world no longer makes sense – how can I keep from singing? | <urn:uuid:939b5754-7f21-49f7-8eee-43957603ed1a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goshen.edu/devotions/feb-29-praise-in-the-midst-of-complaint/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931985 | 368 | 1.835938 | 2 |
Reality limits our options but freedom can never be silenced.
Aug 04, 2012
Theoretically the Olympics with its spirit of amateurism and multicultural participation is a model for a more open and transparent world. Unfortunately the Olympics has become a corrupt commercialized vehicle that enriches the few and gives monolithic authoritarian governments a world stage to showcase their petty nationalism.
It is hard to feel the excitement for the Olympics knowing there are people in Syria fighting for their survival against an authoritarian regime that cares little for human lives. Where are the medals for Ibrahim Qashoush?
Jan 17, 2012
First it was the Patriot Act, then the National Defense Authorization Act and now Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). When will irrational fear finally end?
Dear Congressmen, Congresswomen, and Mr. President, when can we have our freedom back?
Dec 28, 2009
iMP can't offer much but a small banner and is probably on the opposite political spectrum from most Iranian protestors, but iMP fully supports the universal human right to free speech and free association without fear, or intimidation, or death. | <urn:uuid:6154f12e-4292-4a0d-a2c6-1e8c164100d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tux-lab.com/project_detail?id=16 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939186 | 228 | 1.640625 | 2 |
REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
4 January 2013
Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the High Commissioner for Refugees, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Labour Organization and the International Organization for Migration.
Central African Republic
Jens Laerke for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said OCHA was expressing serious concern about the protection of civilians in the fighting going on in the Central African Republic (CAR).
There were an estimated 360,000 people living in the affected areas and there are some 700,000 at further risk because of the escalation in fighting. There had been a relocation of staff, who were now working out of Cameroon, where the humanitarian team was working around the clock to get access to the Republic, all dependent on the security situation.
On the ground NGOs, such as Médecins Sans Frontières, the Red Cross and the International Medical Corps, were working to respond to the needs of displaced people.
Marixie Mercado for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said UNICEF was calling for the immediate cessation of child recruitment by all armed groups in the CAR, and urged all parties to protect children against the harmful impact of, and their involvement in, armed conflict in the country. This came following credible reports that rebel groups and pro-government militias were increasingly recruiting and involving children in armed conflict in the CAR.
UNICEF was working with partners to monitor, verify, and respond to grave violations of child rights, including recruitment into armed groups. Those at greater risk were children who had lost their homes, were separated from their families or were formerly associated with armed groups
Even before conflict erupted in December 2012, about 2,500 children – both girls and boys – were associated with multiple armed groups, including self-defence groups, in CAR. While it was impossible to give a precise figure, reports indicated that this number would rise because of the recent and escalating conflict, she said.
UNICEF was highly concerned about the harmful impact of conflict on children in the country and condemned the involvement of boys and girls below the age of 18 who may be forced to fight, carry supplies, perform other support roles and be abused as sex slaves by armed groups.
Since 2007, UNICEF had worked in CAR with both the government and rebel factions, in collaboration with non-governmental organizations, to secure the release of more than 1,000 girls and boys from armed groups and self-defence groups and supported their reintegration into families and communities.
The security situation was also hampering the delivery of humanitarian assistance to affected communities and had led UNICEF to relocate 14 international staff and consultants last week. Through a team of national experts, UNICEF maintained a critical staff presence in the CAR and collaborated with a network of partners to continue emergency activities.
According to UNICEF, more than 300,000 children had already been affected by the violence in CAR and its consequences, including through recruitment, family separation, sexual violence, forced displacement and no or limited access to education and health facilities.
Melissa Fleming for the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said UNHCR had concluded the voluntary repatriation operation for 155,000 Liberians who were forced into exile because of 14 years of civil war in their country which forced 750,000 civilians to become either internally displaced or refugees.
As part of the program, which began in 2004, each returning refugee received a small cash grant to help them restart their lives. The returnees were further helped by the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC) to get jobs, including government positions for those with the required skills. LRRRC also provided scholarships and assistance in acquiring a plot of land for construction of their houses.
Jumbe Omari Jumbe for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on the night of 31st December 2012, IOM teams arrived to start a distribution of family kits composed of cooking and kitchen utensils, bedding and flashlights, to 1,160 families in the worst-hit Compostela Valley and Agusan del Sur Provinces.
The families had been identified as the most vulnerable by IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix, DTM. DTM was an Excel and Android-based tool developed by IOM to gather data on the conditions of displacement in evacuation centres to better inform and coordinate humanitarian responses.
After the initial non-food aid distribution had been completed, IOM was to start to distribute 6,000 emergency shelter kits which were currently on the way to the Philippines, as well as 16,000 solar lamps which were vital for protection and for such tasks as enabling women to visit latrines at night or allowing children to do their homework.
The lack of sufficient latrines and availability of clean water were a cause of concern for eruption of diseases such as the upper respiratory tract infections, diarrhoea and skin infections, especially as 13 sites surveyed had no or limited health services. At least 10,000 people had been displaced to temporary shelters since the disaster struck on 4 December, killing over 1,000 and leaving more than 200,000 houses damaged or destroyed.
Jumbe Omari Jumbe for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said a report which looked into human trafficking trends showed half of the human trafficking cases brought before IOM for assistance in 2011 involved victims of labour exploitation.
The report, which collected information from more than 150 IOM missions showed that during the period, IOM provided assistance to some 3,014 victims of labour exploitation, which represented 53 per cent of all recorded instances of assistance sought by victims of human trafficking.
Since 2010, labour trafficking had overtaken sexual exploitation as the main type of trafficking seen in cases assisted by IOM. A second report covering 2012 was planned to be released in June this year.
Hans von Rohland for the International Labour Organization announced a press conference on Wednesday (9 January) at 10:00 in Room III to mark the launch of the report “Domestic workers across the world.” Copies of the report could be made available under embargo. | <urn:uuid:ad4cc28d-b0b0-4111-8bdb-60f0c9d1a70e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://unog.ch/80256EDD006B9C2E/(httpNewsByYear_en)/1C779A0D5A3DE400C1257AE9003E6587?OpenDocument | 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 | 0.971106 | 1,305 | 1.820313 | 2 |
The Army Gets Closer To Fielding “Smartphones”
The United States Army has been trying for over two decades to connect soldiers on the battlefield to each other. That program, called Land Warrior, has been expensive and plagued with problems from the beginning but it appears the Army has taken to literally any soldiers pocket for a solution. The smartphone. The Army calls the device the Nett Warrior System and it will run a version of Google’s Android. It is the Army’s next generation design that will literally save lives that is if it works and if they have the money for it. The idea is brilliant though. Instead of cumbersome equipment, tangles of wires and batteries that don’t last half a day they looked to the something that has already proven successful.
The Army has been trying to acquaint small groups of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan with the
older version of Nett Warrior and the results were so grim that the Army wanted to scrap the whole project and start over. The previous version would require a soldier to add an extra 15 pounds of kit to his already heavy load and then they had to be taught how to use it. It was costly, ugly and frankly soldiers would have spent more time trying to untangle themselves than engaging the enemy. The Army’s rethink netted them, no pun intended, a device that nearly everyone in the world can use, is cost effective and actually works.
As Brig. Gen. Camille Nichols, the leader of the Army office, called Program Executive Officer Soldier, in charge of the Nett Warrior program likes to point out this device is not a phone. It is primarily the Army’s Joint Tactical Radio System and will allow soldiers to communicate through the device. The Army seeks to ensure that no breaches of security occur considering it will be in the hands of, in theory, every infantry soldier. It will not be able to connect to any WiFi network and will only be able to access the military’s network of classified networks and the Army’s new data nets. It should weigh about three pounds if the Army doesn’t add anymore crap to it before it fields and most of that weight comes from the Rifleman Radio.
Any soldier knows how useful the Blue Force Tracker has been in combat and the Army looks to run a “mapping and tracking” app on the device that is similar to Blue Force. It will enable troops to see where everyone is on the field of battle and where support units are. Commanders will also be getting a mission planning app that will let them send out mission specific plans to the devices or units they select. You heard that right; it will run apps. Army apps downloaded from the Army app store. It is unsure what apps will come loaded onto the device or if it will be up to the command to choose which one its soldiers should have.
The Army hasn’t selected a specific phone but General Nichols purchased about 60 directly from Best Buy that are being put through their paces. Each year new devices, including tablets, will be tested to figure out what the next generation device should be. I have a feeling that the army will have to specially order touch screens that can work with gloves and take a heavy beating. It certainly won’t be a delicate iPhone 4 that you see soldiers receiving orders on nor will it be a Windows phone. Maybe in the future we will see “Army approved” screen protectors?
The problem that Wired has pointed out is that it still isn’t a cell phone and the Army has been upgrading its networks and programs to run specifically on smartphones. In the end this idea may just be scrapped for issuing soldiers phones like you see at large corporations. Phones that run on secure networks, are durable but easy to replace and lastly are easy to use. For now though the Nett Warrior Device has been given the ok to carry on and should be in production by mid 2012 which means it could be in the hands of soldiers by 2013. This is a crucial step to modernize the Army and make warfighting more effective.
How many of you are reading this and thinking “they took cellphones away from us in basic training and now they’ll be giving them out”?
Source: Wired Source: Military.com | <urn:uuid:fc61a02c-6836-4a3e-a548-d66d3629034e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mybloggityblog.com/wordpress/2011/10/the-army-gets-closer-to-fielding-smartphones/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968622 | 882 | 1.773438 | 2 |
A woman who was injured during a shooting at a pool hall is carried into the Catalino Rivas Public Hospital in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. / Esteban Felix, AP
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Every Saturday morning, one of my taxi drivers pays about $12 for the right to park his cab near a hospital, about two blocks from a police station.
But it's not the government that's charging.
An unidentified man pulls up in a large SUV, usually brandishing an AK-47, and accepts an envelope of cash without saying a word. Jose and nine other drivers who pay the extortionists estimate that it amounts to more than $500 a year to park on public property. During Christmas, the cabbies dish out another $500 each in holiday "bonuses."
Meanwhile, Jose pays the city $30 a year for his taxi license.
"Who do you think is really in charge here?" Jose asked me.
It is an interesting question, one I have been trying to answer since I arrived here a year ago as a correspondent for the Associated Press. Is the government in charge? The drug traffickers? The gangs? This curious capital of 1.3 million people is a lawless place, but it does seem to have its own set of unwritten rules for living with the daily dangers.
Jose, who did not want his last name used for fear of reprisals, says his extortionists are from "18th Street," a powerful gang that started in U.S. prisons. The taxi drivers don't bother to report the crime, he says, because they suspect police are involved in the racket. In the first six months of 2012, 51 taxi drivers were killed in Tegucigalpa - most of them, Jose's colleagues believe, for failing to pay extortionists.
When I moved to Tegucigalpa last March several friends back home in Spain wanted to know why. The big story was in Egypt, Libya and Syria; what was I planning to do on the other side of the globe? "Bear witness," I said, "to the most violent place in the world, to a country in crisis."
I am the only foreign correspondent here, with no press pack to consult on questions of security, or to rely on for safety in numbers. I fall back on instincts honed in war zones, but they are not always sufficient when you are covering a failing state.
When you are in the trenches of Libya, you generally know where the shooting comes from. But in Honduras, you never know where danger lurks.
Three weeks after I arrived, I attended a ceremony in the capital where U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield delivered 30 motorcycles to President Porfirio Lobo to help Honduras fight crime. A neighborhood leader, however, had complained to me that the narcos had bribed some police officers to look the other way. I asked the officials if they weren't afraid the motorcycles would end up in the hands of the bad guys.
I got no answer. Instead a Honduran reporter wrapped his arm around my shoulder and whispered, "We don't ask questions like that here." If I wanted to survive in Honduras, he said, "Keep a low profile."
More than two dozen Honduran journalists have been killed in the last two years. Some reporters carry weapons to protect themselves, others use the armed guards that President Lobo offered after a prominent Honduran radio journalist was assassinated last May - reportedly in retaliation for a government crackdown on cartels.
It is not hard to become a fatality. A few months ago, I interviewed a lawyer, Antonio Trejo, who was defending the peasants of Aguan Valley in a land dispute against agribusiness tycoon Miguel Facusse, one of the most powerful men in the country. Trejo had warned repeatedly that he would be killed for helping the campesinos. Two days after I interviewed him, he was shot six times as he was leaving church by two men on a motorcycle.
In August, I took a walk on a Sunday with a couple of friends in a sad dilapidated park - one of only two in the city. I got a call on my iPhone. I stepped away from friends and began to walk as I talked, as you would in a normal city, a normal park. Suddenly two teenagers approached me, asking first for a cigarette, then for the phone. I hung up, put the phone in my pocket and shouted over to my friends, who helped me chase the young men away - once we realized they weren't armed.
But I learned my lesson. Unwritten rule: Do not walk around talking on an iPhone, which costs about three times a monthly salary in Honduras. And forget the park.
Like most Hondurans who can afford it, my family and I live behind high gated walls with a guard out front. After the park episode, I gave up my morning ritual of newspapers and espresso at an outdoor cafe. I don't go out at night.
In the daytime, I use trusted drivers like Jose to guide me through Tegucigalpa's chaotic streets, past its barbed-wire fences, mounds of garbage and packs of dogs. I keep the tinted windows up, the doors locked, and we don't stop at the lights, so we won't get carjacked.
I vary my routes. I try not to fall victim to the permanent sense of danger that hangs over the capital, where the conversation is invariably about whose relative was just killed, or what atrocity happened on the corner. Yet I constantly check the rear and side mirrors of Jose's car for approaching motorcycles. Honduras has the world's highest murder rate, and paid gunmen almost always travel by motorcycle to make a quick getaway through impossible traffic.
The violence is a stark contrast to the friendly feel of a land where many have a Caribbean attitude about life, happy and easygoing. Once you leave the cities, the landscape is amazing - wild, healthy, and savage, from the waterfalls of La Tigra National park, just half an hour from the capital, to the islands of the Caribbean and the world's second largest coral reef.
Crime in the barrio
Our babysitter, Wendy, sells Avon products door-to-door to make extra money after her child's father disappeared on his clandestine journey to the U.S. to find work.
Last month, she was on her way to deposit her Avon earnings in the bank when a robber pointed a knife at her waist and told her to hand over the cash. He took 5,000 lempiras - about $250 - which was everything she had earned, including the money she owed Avon.
Again last week, Wendy encountered thieves, this time as she left my house about 7:30 p.m. Half a block away, she passed a group of basketball players just as three gunmen threw them up against a wall, stealing their money and phones. "They looked like police," she said of the gunmen.
Two days later, a neighbor in Wendy's poor barrio of ramshackle huts and dirt roads was robbed by an armed drug addict. The neighbor escaped, went home for his own gun and returned to kill the drug addict. "Police thanked him for the favor," Wendy said.
Violence not limited by class
My best friend here is a man named German who studied art and opened a tattoo parlor with a business partner. They were talented and developed a good clientele, particularly among youths looking to leave the street gangs and get rid of the signature tattoos. German learned how to convert numbers such as 18 into pirate ships, and to turn other gang symbols into random designs. He saw this as a kind of social service, removing a stigma from the skin of a gangster who wanted to return to civilian life, and he asked to borrow a camera of mine to take pictures of their work.
Some days later, German's partner was walking home when a black car drew near. He tried to run until the front-seat passenger screamed at him to halt. "Get in and put this on," the man said, handing him a black hood.
They took him to a dark room where they removed the hood and claimed he spied on them. They tortured him for several hours before letting him go, with a broken rib.
My friend closed his shop and moved to a new house. He knows they are looking for him.
German comes from a family of means. Here, violence is democratic.
Night filled with carnage
Honduran officials receive aid from the U.S. to fight the trafficking of cocaine headed for the U.S. market. The country has 400 miles of northern Caribbean coastline, with plenty of tree cover and great uninhabited stretches for moving drugs. It is flanked by the port town of Puerto Lempira in the east and San Pedro Sula in the west.
While Hondurans blame their police for much of the crime, police say they are overwhelmed and outgunned by the drug traffickers and criminals. AP photographer Esteban Felix and I decided to see this for ourselves, and rode with police in San Pedro Sula, the country's largest and wealthiest city.
In one night, we saw the bodies of two bus drivers who had been killed for refusing to pay a cut to gangs, a police officer executed on a highway with a single shot to the head, and three people shot dead in a pool hall for what was described as "a settling of accounts."
The hospital emergency room looked like a scene out of a civil war, with mop-wielding orderlies failing to keep up with the blood pooling on the floor.
The owner of the bus company urged his employees to remove the drivers' bodies and collect the fares from the bloodied bus before police did. Once again, I made the mistake of asking a question, this time of the owner of the bus company. He turned in anger and ordered me not to publish what I had seen, while asking me repeatedly, "Where are you staying?"
Needless to say, I did not stay the night in San Pedro Sula.
I returned to the capital, which, despite the violence, has become my home. My 2-year-old daughter can say Tegucigalpa - which is not easy. And every time she sees the flag, she waves and says "Honduras," as she was taught in her preschool.
Somehow, we already belong to this country. After 10 months living here, I have learned the rules of survival. If Jose pays his weekly extortion fee, chances are he'll survive.
And since I'm usually sitting in the passenger seat, chances are so will I.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Read the original story: Letter From Honduras: Who's really in charge here? | <urn:uuid:8af986a1-be2c-4d0b-a19b-469a95dea231> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thetowntalk.com/usatoday/article/1798947 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978455 | 2,258 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Election Rewind: A Day at the Polls
What it was like on the other side of the ballot box.
Everyone has a voting story. At my work on Wednesday morning, we all shared ours, and then again last night, at a school function, I heard even more. People who waited for hours to vote first thing making sure a Northern Virginia commute wouldn’t prevent them from voting, flat tires and people who breezed right through in the middle of the day.
One gentleman told me the story of voting at the Jersey shore, where a hotel became a last-minute voting location and to ensure voter privacy, the staff hastily arranged for an oversized cardboard box to serve as a voting booth looking like the beginnings of a kid’s Halloween costume.
Voting is our right and our duty and more than 80 percent of Fairfax County’s registered voters and 72 percent of Prince William County’s voters either voted absentee or showed up in person on Election Day to make their choice known.
I have been an elections officer in Prince William County since the Democratic primary of 2008. I wanted to share a few things about your neighbors who are there to help you exercise your right.
Election Officers Are People Like You
Any registered Virginia voter who isn’t an elected official or who doesn’t work for an elected official can serve as an election officer. In our precinct, we had a team of 10 officers composed of longtime veterans and a few brand-new officers. We had a mix of professional backgrounds (several government employees who previously served in the military, a real estate agent, a sales person, a non-profit professional, a retired contractor, a college student and a lifeguard) and a range of ages from student to more seasoned individuals.
The Hours Are Long
...and the pay is, well, if you have to ask...Officers in PWC make $125 for the day, in Fairfax $100 (with slightly higher rates for the chief and assistant chief officers). Not bad as long as you don’t do the math. The workday starts at 5 a.m. and goes until the polls are closed, the paperwork is completed and the site is cleaned up. Our precinct is led by a veteran and a Boy Scout leader so we are quite efficient and were out the door before 9 p.m., less than two hours after the polls closed. You have to commit to work the entire day and you can’t step out for lunch, to walk the dog or any other reason. Once you are there, you are committed to stay the entire shift.
Each officer has to attend at least one training session as well and PWC adds a small amount to the daily rate for attending that session. Some election officers volunteer to assist with in-person absentee locations prior to Election Day and don’t expect a thing in return.
There Is a Lot of Paperwork
At closing time, we didn’t have any waiting voters. We had a large staff, many of us with several elections-worth of experience, yet we still had work to do for almost two hours. Why so long? Paperwork. We have detailed instructions on how to close down all the machines to collect the voting data and to ensure its integrity.
The votes from the machine are consolidated and those numbers are transferred into the Statement of Results along with ballots cast on paper by outside voters and others, and provisional votes are logged. Any communications with the county office are logged, any “incidents," all supporting documentation and summaries from the poll-book check-ins are added. It is only after we complete the Statement of Results that we can call in to report. This is why it may take so long to have 100 percent precincts reported on election night.
We Train Hard for Election Day
Whether learning the basics of the particular hardware, software or paperwork or about the laws and regulations that change from time to time, we are trained. Training sessions take up to three hours for officers prior to each election and in the lead up to a presidential election there may be more than one session. This year’s changes in voter identification had Prince William County’s Electoral Board offering “summinars” on the new requirements. Both Fairfax and Prince William are also adding videos on their websites to offer more information. We take an oath to follow the law and to ensure a fair election.
Anything Can Happen
Remember our earthquake in 2011? That happened to be on the same day as a primary election. The snowstorm in February 2008 wreaked havoc on the closing hours of the Democratic primary and there are always unexpected situations like power problems, malfunctioning equipment and confusion after changes in poll locations.
We are given emergency plans to ensure that no matter what occurs, your votes already cast are preserved and after a few adjustments, that the election will go on. Elections have taken place in parking lots and by flashlight. Our only incident this time around was a small medical situation where our trained lifeguard was great at helping with before, during and after emergency personnel arrived.
The Food Is Pretty Good!
No, no, the counties aren’t paying for catering. The spread is provided by our fellow officers, each bringing potluck goodies. Several of us also can call on the assistance of friends and family to refill the stores if rations run low. Unfortunately, that can lead to a bit of over-eating on slow turnout elections and the food being untouched when we have a busy presidential election to handle. We coordinate in the week before to make sure we don’t all bring the same thing or that no one forgets to bring the crucial caffeine.
We Love Our Voters
There are always a few sour apples who come in, and registration issues can make voters stressed, but for the vast majority of voters, we are happy to be there to assist in any way to getting you to be able to cast your vote. There are provisions for blind voters, to allow for assistance from a friend or family member (or even from one of the officers) or to allow for you to vote curbside. If you show up at the wrong precinct, we work to make sure you find the right one. If you can’t stand for long periods, we are happy to find you a chair and if you want to have a chance to study the ballot that will be on the machine, it is posted prominently.
Sometimes there are problems such as the long lines in some Prince William precincts. We know it is frustrating and that you might take it out on us. We take problems seriously and please remember you are our neighbors. The last thing we want to see is someone in distress either from standing in long lines or being a toddler and doing a very boring thing when you are hungry or missing naptime. Ask us for help and we will see what we can do.
A Message to Voters from your Election Officers
It is always important before every election to confirm your voter registration, your personal information, your polling place and your ballot before the end of registration for that election. The people tasked with managing your registration can make mistakes. Lines are redrawn to rebalance the precinct size and every 10 years, the congressional districts are realigned. Check online at the Virginia State Board of Elections site. If you move, you need to change your registration. Many voters came to the polls expecting that changing their address at the DMV would change it on the voter rolls. It doesn’t. Check with instructions at Fairfax’s and Prince William’s offices.
We do not ever want to turn someone away. Make sure your right is preserved.
Do you have an Election Day story? Tell us about it in the comments box below. How did things go at your precinct? | <urn:uuid:28432a92-7a37-4ab2-af0d-8a7356a2e131> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://burke.patch.com/articles/election-rewind-a-day-at-the-polls | 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 | 0.966158 | 1,603 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Learn something new every day More Info... by email
There are many tips to keep in mind when painting textured walls. Homeowners should make sure they have the right type of paint and equipment. It can also be a good idea to prime the surface before applying interior paint. Going over the wall in a diagonal or criss-cross pattern can help hide brush marks and make sure paint completely penetrates all the grooves. It may be necessary to add a second coat to areas that were missed when the first coat was applied.
Priming textured walls can be a good idea if they are discolored or yellowed. Doing this ensures the paint will stick to the surface easier. It can also help seal up small cracks, which can keep the wall from absorbing a great deal of paint. Adding primer is necessary whenever dark walls are being painted a lighter color.
Semigloss paint is generally preferred over a flat type for painting textured walls. This is because the consistency of the paint tends to penetrate the grooves of the wall better. Flat paint also tends to soak into the surface, which in turn requires more product to be used.
Most people prefer to paint textured walls with a paintbrush rather than a roller. It is easier to get into tight spots with a paintbrush, so it typically gives more even coverage. The best brush typically has coarse, thick fibers. Individuals who decide to use a paint roller should make sure to buy one that has a nap designed for rough surfaces.
Even with the best paintbrush it can be difficult to completely cover textured walls. For this reason, it can be a good idea to paint the wall diagonally in an "x" pattern. Painters can do this with either a paint roller or a paintbrush. This method of painting textured walls ensures that even if some areas are missed on the first pass, they should be covered on the second stroke. Covering walls in this manner also helps disguise brush strokes or uneven paint roller lines.
Painting textured walls can be a messy endeavor. People who decide to paint with a roller may want to use one with a splatter guard. This device partially covers the roller but also allows it to turn freely so paint does not spray onto the floor or furniture. It is a good idea to have plenty of drop cloths on hand as well as damp sponges for wiping up spills as they occur. | <urn:uuid:96e85a49-8b9a-4ff4-8041-f0bdd570106a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-best-tips-for-painting-textured-walls.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958252 | 492 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Publication Date: June 2012
One night, a renowned and now retired literary publisher has a vivid dream that takes place in Dublin, a city he s never visited. The central scene of the dream is a funeral in the era of Ulysses. The publisher would give anything to know if an unidentified character in his dream is the great author he always wanted to meet, or the ghostly angel who abandoned him during childhood. As the days go by, he will come to understand that his vision of the end of an era was prophetic.
Enrique Vila-Matas traces a journey that connects the worlds of Joyce and Beckett, revealing the difficulties faced by literary authors, publishers, and good readers in a society where literature is losing influence. A robust work, Dublinesque is a masterwork of irony, humor, and erudition by one of Spain s most celebrated living authors. | <urn:uuid:6d86d921-ed8f-4cca-a571-e1634961aa27> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780811219617 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96654 | 182 | 1.5 | 2 |
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£300m 'can be saved' on social care
Councils could release more than £300 million for the care of the elderly if they cut the cost of social care assessments and reviews, a public spending watchdog has found.
The Audit Commission has calculated that local authorities in England could save up to £312 million a year if they reduced their assessment costs to the level of the most efficient councils.
It said its analysis showed that low-cost councils achieved broadly the same levels of service quality as high-cost councils, suggesting savings were possible without putting vulnerable people at risk.
Commission managing director Andy McKeon said: "Assessments and reviews are a crucial element of social care, enabling individuals' needs to be properly identified and met.
"However, our evidence suggests that councils can spend less and still do an excellent job in helping people receive the care that they need.
"As councils struggle to meet the needs of a growing older population with less cash, any opportunity to save money and redirect it into care should be pursued enthusiastically." | <urn:uuid:711df1c6-d620-446f-9816-9c11e524770b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.stourbridgenews.co.uk/news/national/news/9888446.__300m__can_be_saved__on_social_care/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967713 | 239 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Cyberwarfare: Law & Policy Proposals for U.S. & Global Governance
George Mason University - School of Public Policy
November 18, 2010
Virginia Lawyer, Vol. 58, p. 28, February 2010
GMU School of Public Policy Research Paper No. 2009-11
Cybersecurity is the newest and most unique national security issue of the 21st century.
The most critical aspect of this issue is the notion of cyberwarfare, which is the use of computer technologies as both defensive and offensive weapons in international relations.
Until now, there has been no national debate within the United States over the concept of cyberwarfare; neither its meaning nor the international laws governing this concept have been discussed at any length, to say nothing of the domestic rules regarding it. President Obama’s reliance on a resurrected notion of the “just war doctrine,” as enunciated in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, heightens the need for legal clarity. Recent developments concerning WikiLeaks and Stuxnet malware further heightens generally the debate over legal rules.
The debate over cyberwarfare is only now emerging in the United States, the United Kingdom, and in the foreign policy dialogue between the United States, the Russian Federation, and other nations. “[M]uch of the debate on policies related to cyber war is happening behind closed doors.” National and international understanding and strategy need to be developed, and architecture must be implemented, both nationally and internationally. In December 2009 the United States entered into talks with the Russian Federation on cybersecurity and cyberwarfare. Since 2010 these are now being conducted in the United Nations.
In this paper, I address the concept of cyberwarfare in the context of both domestic and international affairs from a legal-political perspective. First, I examine recent government and private reports on cybersecurity and cyberwarfare. Second, I outline what I consider the major issue that confronts the United States and the global system as they struggle to address the dangers of cyberwarfare. Third, I conclude by proposing a method to begin structuring a comprehensive security strategy, taking into consideration the many domestic and global stakeholders.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 5
Keywords: cyberwarfare, cybersecurity, digital warfare, cyberattack, cyberspace, international law, foreign policy, cyberwarAccepted Paper Series
Date posted: July 21, 2009 ; Last revised: January 12, 2011
© 2013 Social Science Electronic Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Turkey recalibrates its approach to Syria
ANKARA (Reuters) - Just over a year ago, Turkey's prime minister addressed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus as "my brother". Today, illusions of kinship are long gone and the region's rising power finds itself marshalling efforts to press him from power, but increasingly wary of being pitched into military action.
The falling out between Assad and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan grew personal as well as diplomatic as Syria's president ignored Turkish calls for restraint and pressed his attacks on protesters. Erdogan drew a comparison with Nazi Germany in some of the strongest words of any major leader on Syria.
In one email, intercepted and published in Britain's Guardian newspaper, Assad's wife Asma is asked if she would pass her email address to Erdogan's wife. "I use this account only for family and friends," she replies. "It would be difficult for me at this stage to consider her in either category after the insults they have directed towards the president."
The Syrian insurrection has tested the limits of Turkish regional diplomatic power that has grown markedly under Erdogan's stewardship. For years Ankara invested heavily in relations with Syria and Assad, calculating closer ties could foster both trade and reforms in its southern neighbour, as well as weaken its reliance on Iran, for centuries Turkey's main regional rival.
"They thought that because of the personal relationship that had developed between Erdogan and Bashar, the Syrians would be a pushover," said Philip Robins of Oxford University.
"There was a complete misunderstanding based on an assumption that they had manoeuvred the other side so that they would do their bidding, and that absolutely was not the case."
Syrian protests escalated from March last year. Assad failed to heed ever more insistent telephone calls from Erdogan and visits from Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu appealing for reform. By August, Ankara had had enough.
TURKEY SEES RED LINES
Having seen the rapid revolution in Egypt and with the overthrow of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi seemingly imminent, Turkey sharply turned against its erstwhile ally in Damascus.
"They wanted to position themselves on the right side of history, expecting the Syrian regime to fall in weeks as in Tunisia and Egypt," said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
Turkey now hosts Syria's main opposition groups and shelters the rebel Free Syria Army on its side of the common frontier. On April 1, it will be the venue of a meeting of Western and Middle Eastern officials and groups involved with Syria.
Assad has shown himself to be impervious to verbal assault and resilient to increasingly violent protests and guerrilla attacks. He is also for now at least largely insulated from strong United Nations-backed action due to the vetoes of China and his backer Russia on the Security Council.
"Right now there is a disappointing situation for Ankara," said Salem. "What they banked on didn't happen. Their bluff and bluster was met by bluff and bluster from the Syrian side and now we are certainly in a bit of a stalemate."
Without backing from the U.N., or at least the Arab League and NATO, Turkey is unwilling to go it alone in Syria. But with a 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria, more than 16,000 Syrian refugees on its soil and hundreds more arriving each day, it is not a problem from which Ankara can simply walk away.
Turkey has signalled a huge flood of refugees or massacres on its door-step would be red lines that would force it to act, but short of military intervention, there are few effective options available, analysts said.
Erdogan said last week setting up a "safe" or "buffer zone" along the border was one of the options under consideration, but that would mean troops going into Syria to seize and secure territory which the rebel Free Syrian Army has failed to do.
"We need to consider maybe to have a buffer zone inside Syrian territory, but without Syrian consent this may lead to some kind of military conflict ... and this may escalate the situation," said Kamer Kasim of the International Strategic Research Organisation (USAK), Turkish think-tank.
Like it or not, Turkey finds itself centre stage of diplomatic efforts to dislodge Assad, and would be on the front line of any military intervention, whether an Arab peace force or arming the Free Syrian Army, both measures the Arab League could discuss when it holds a summit in Baghdad next week.
But there are very good reasons why Turkey should be wary of intervening in Syria, given its strategic backing by Turkey's neighbour and regional power Iran, and the closeness to Iran of Ankara's other Middle Eastern neighbour, Iraq.
"Turkey has got itself into a position where it has a major foreign policy issue with its three Middle Eastern neighbours," said Robins. "This is really not clever, especially in a part of the world where power politics is still the name of the game."
"If it were just Turkey versus Syria then the Turks if they were minded to could probably just pile in," he said. "But when you factor in the presence of other regional powers ... and you also have Israel which is getting closer to Cyprus and Greece, and then of course you have the Russians to the north who are supporting Syria, it suddenly becomes much more complex."
Some in Turkey see a Western attempt to push Ankara into taking the leading role, and a large part of the risk, in Syria.
Parliament speaker Cemil Cicek, from Erdogan's AK Party, blamed what he called "Western cunning" for trying to push Turkey into action. "Everyone is on the sidelines as if they are watching a match and saying 'let Turkey sort it out'."
That at least was how many observers saw last week's visit to Ankara of CIA Director David Petraeus.
"It seems Turkey has been left holding the baby," said Ali Nihat Ozcan, a security analyst at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey.
The Americans, he said, "are probably trying to encourage Turkey to get more involved. Turkey is having second thoughts."
Turkey has not yet rowed back, but much of the rhetoric has been replaced by a determined attempt to forge more consensus on Syria, hosting a "Friends of Syria" meeting in Istanbul on April 1 to try keep it high on the international agenda.
There Turkey will do what it diplomatically does best, bringing together the West and the Middle East where it uniquely has a foot in both camps.
"I would have thought the thing to do is to get back in the pack as far as NATO and the Western alliance is concerned; you are not exposed in the way that Turkey has been," said Robins.
"You can have your own perspective on what is happening. You are still deeply alarmed at the loss of life and devastation in Syria, but you can only really move in tandem with the alliance more generally and with the Americans in particular."
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Is Love a fancy or a feeling? What is Love? Do we know how to recognize it?
Why is it that in some people’s presence – or for a long while after, you feel bruised, flat, squashed, as though you have nothing of value to offer or give. Like “What rock have you squirmed out from under?” Less human, treated with contempt, somehow the unspoken message rings loud & clear, you will always be inferior in their eyes, nothing you ever do is good enough. Sound familiar? I’ve just crossed paths with one such as this. Don’t keep falling for it. Whenever you start feeling small, I tell myself -stand with your shoulders high. You were created for Love. Believe.
Some people make you soar, like a kite in full flight. They have a way of making you realize your full potential, you feel treasured, loved & of great worth – even when you didn’t do a thing.
These people are
Lovers in the truest sense. They love you because… they do… & the person sitting next to you & the next & the next.
They see a crowd as symphony of individuals – well, just because they are. These souls are secure enough to radically love in a way that utterly transforms those around them. They are not afraid of your gifts & talents, or of anyone else shinning.
They give Love because they are first open to receive, nurturing it deep within & giving birth to new possibilities of life & wonders of being. The souls of these Lovers are in union with God. They live with passion, these pro-lifers; they live in God & God lives in them.
True Love has a purity to it, in fact only true love is pure. Those who are pure of heart, pure in their intentions towards others, are our real lovers. They are not interested in gaining anything at your expense. They are interested in YOUR good. These people KNOW that their good, is dependent on your good. This is truth. ~ Sheer Heaven!
Real purity is a state of the heart. What use is it if someone is physically pure, but polluted in thought?
Only the pure of heart can see God. Only the pure of heart can truly love.
“To defend his purity, St.Francis of Assisi threw himself into a thorn bush. St Benedict rolled in the snow. St.Bernard threw himself into an icy pond. And you, what have you done? Don’t say, “It’s the way I am,it’s my character.” It’s your lack of character. Esto vir! Be a man! When you decide firmly to lead a clean life, chastity will no longer be a burden on you. It will be a crown of triumph.” ~St. Josemaria Escriva
Let us ask God to bring about this purity of heart that allows us to truly Love:
“Beloved, we ask for this purity that allows You to be completely glorified in our every thought, word & deed, that we may Love as You Love. With You, Lord, all things are possible. May Your Name be praised. Thank You for coming to set us free, that we might truly have life to the full. We Love You Jesus. Amen.”
At the end of the day, unless we see God in others, they’re unlikely to see God in us. Let us live this new way of Loving, let us see God in all we meet. “Thy Kingdom come… Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Let us bring Heaven to earth & earth to Heaven!
St Therese, asked her Daddy one day:
“Papa, is Love like Glory, in that it’s only worth anything if it is forever?” | <urn:uuid:c41688d3-caea-4d3a-ab56-fd9338e1ef7c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://missionariesofthenewevangelisation.com/2011/11/26/is-it-love-is-it-love-is-it-love-is-it-love-that-im-feeling/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951896 | 824 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The Senate Finance Committee approved legislation to grant Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status. Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said, “We took a major step forward today to seize this opportunity to boost U.S. exports to Russia and create the jobs we need here at home. All this boils down to one thing – jobs. Russia will formally be a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) next month, which is Congress’ deadline for passing PNTR. There is no time to waste – America risks being left behind. If Congress misses that deadline, American farmers, ranchers, workers and businesses will lose out to the other 154 members of the WTO that already have PNTR with Russia.” During consideration of the bill, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) raised concerns of Russia’s compliance with sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) issues. Current exports to Russia are $9 billion and are expected to double in the next five years. | <urn:uuid:7ca71991-05df-4d63-be18-fd7bfcba8fe1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nationalhogfarmer.com/print/business/russia-pntr-passes-committee | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941597 | 215 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Novelist Bellow seen through a glass darkly; Saul Bellow: Drumlin Woodchuck, by Mark Harris. Athens, Ga.: The University of Georgia Press. $9.95.
Suppose nobody ever does write a biography of Nobel Prize-winning novelist Saul Bellow. Then this modest volume may loom larger, even though it is the record of a ten-year failure to become Bellow's Boswell. Until the real thing comes along, as the song says, Mark Harris's sweet-sour-comic chronicle offers enough tantalizing glimpses of Bellow to evoke at least a partial person behind the books. Or rather it is a person interpenetrating the books, as would-be biographer Harris thriftily ekes out fragments of firsthand knowledge about Bellow with echolike references to "Henderson the Rain King," "Humboldt's Gift," and other works.Skip to next paragraph
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The Bellow who emerges is now a punster, now a philosopher, now pithy, now vulgar of speech, now prickly, now gracious. He didn't like the way he seemed in a Harris excerpt published earlier, but he wouldn't come right out and deny Harris's right to set things down as he saw them.
Neither would Bellow authorize Harris as his biographer or help him as requested when they occasionally met or corresponded over the years. Thus Harris's view of Bellow as the woodchuck celebrated by Robert Frost, a creature capable of preserving its privacy with more than one door to its burrow. Thus a book as much about Harris as about Bellow, with Harris -- a professor and novelist in his own right -- playing a kind of worshipful innocent perpetually being slighted or soothed by his idol.
And thus a book that, despite meticulous footnoting and protests of factuality, is not your typical university press publication. It runs dangerously close to parody of scholarship and scholarly gatherings. When Harris keeps telling us about his note-taking, he blithely risks a certain guilt by association with one of his own fictional characters who "lived all life twice" through his journal -- to which someone says that "to live life twice was never to live it once."
Professor Harris brings up not only what he knows but what he doesn't know, and often has no intention of finding out. He swings from guilelessness to gossip. And here in the heady summit regions of American literature there seems a relentless drizzle of mundane problems with cars, mail, reservations, tickets, telephones, misspelled words, parking-meter coins (imagine Boswell having to ask Dr. Johnson for a dime).
Sometimes it all seems futile; sometimes it is the kind of sharp contemporary comedy expected from some of Harris's previous writings. As for Bellow, overshadowing the pettier observations is the figure of a man who in his role as writer has a sense of vocation resisting the compromises of celebrity. Asked to give talks, he unsettles or even bores people by saying what's on his mind instead of what they want to hear. When the intellectual fashion is to be bluntly anti-Vietnam, he judiciously refuses to be swept along, though he opposes guns for the solution of any problem. When black activists like Huey Newton are under prosecution, Bellow says: "I could wear a button saying Give Huey a Fair Trialm but I can't wear a button saying Free Huey.m I can't advocate the overthrow of the federal judiciary system." As Bellow sees it: "Some writers write only long enough to qualify for public life. The writerm works in isolation."
Where then did Bellow stand? Maybe someday there will be a biographer, and the biographer will find out. Meanwhile, his nonbiographer leaves us with words of no inconsiderable tribute, and they recall what woodchuck Frost once said when he called on people to think: "Thinking isn't agreeing or disagreeing. That's voting. . . ." Here's Harris on Bellow:
"His work was where he stood. What chutzpah,m when you get all through his collected work you find that he didn't vote for anybody, that his characters did the voting, that Bellow subordinated himself to the law of the art of fiction, as if it were the federal judiciary." | <urn:uuid:a624d546-fadb-41f3-8aa1-05cc6bc8f87c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0309/030953.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977627 | 912 | 1.609375 | 2 |
How many parents feel completely helpless in advocating for their child's right to a "Free Appropriate Public Education"? I cannot give a percentage, but I have a hunch that it is unnecessarily high.
During the last three years, I have placed my life and college goals on hold while trying to navigate through the bureaucracy of something called Special Education. My nights have been filled with countless hours spent reading through the "California Special Education Programs A Composite of Laws" book just to be turned away by multiple IEP teams. Many family members have questioned my relentless persistence in advocating for Jayden's education.
So what can we do?
Well, I just moved from Riverside back to this awesome county of Ventura. Since my arrival, I have found some great resources available to parents like myself.
Where to start:
1. Low income parents please start at Ventura County Behavioral Health Department. This team of professionals will serve your family in many priceless ways.
2. United Parents in Camarillo: This place offers advocacy on a sliding fee scale!!!! In addition, they provide up to 10 hours of respite care with a $2 per hour co-payment! Hurray!
3. Check out the California Department of Education and get your copy of the current edition of "A Composite of Laws": http://www.cde.ca.gov/index.asp
4. If a lawyer is absolutely needed here is an attorney that works for free: http://www.adamsesq.com/index.html
Sherry Worn, an advocate from United Parents recently represented Jayden in an IEP meeting. The IEP meeting went smoothly, almost like a dream. I am hopeful that Jayden will finally have a chance to receive an education.
Remember: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"-Martin Luther King Jr. (Do not be scared to fight!) | <urn:uuid:30ef8704-e27d-4db7-ac7e-c54527acf0ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.vcstar.com/blogs/jenifer-wolfe/2009/oct/03/advocacy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951732 | 385 | 1.671875 | 2 |
Misinformation and the 2010 Election - A Study of the US Electorate. The key findings of the study are:
1. Perceptions of Misleading and False Information An overwhelming majority of voters said that they encountered misleading or false information in the last election, with a majority saying that this occurred frequently and occurred more frequently than usual.
2. Evidence of Misinformation Among Voters The poll found strong evidence that voters were substantially misinformed on many of the issues prominent in the election campaign, including the stimulus legislation, the healthcare reform law, TARP, the state of the economy, climate change, campaign contributions by the US Chamber of Commerce and President Obama’s birthplace. In particular, voters had perceptions about the expert opinion of economists and other scientists that were quite different from actual expert opinion.
posted by caddis
on Dec 19, 2010 -
With newly released video, Rachel Maddow
shows that the Fox News/Breitbart/James O'Keefe takedown of ACORN in California was fraudulent. For example, coverage depicted ACORN employee Juan Carlos Vera as eager to participate in a pedophile prostitution ring suggested by O'Keefe's character. In fact Vera had reported O'Keefe to police. Nevertheless, Vera was fired, and months later ACORN was dissolved. (Previously: 1
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94
on Apr 8, 2010 -
CNN Wins Ratings for Shuttle Coverage
Despite the absence of chief anchor Aaron Brown, CNN scored a significant ratings victory over rival Fox News Channel on Saturday when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated
Reading that immediately reminds me of what I hate about the news media.
One can only imagine how they are salivating over the pending Iraq situation.
posted by a3matrix
on Feb 4, 2003 -
A pinhead editorial writer's adventure in the No Spin Zone.
Not intending to post another partisan attack on Bill O'Reilly, but rather an interesting example from start to finish of how the host of a "fair" debate show calls every shot from minute one, and why, frankly, it's just not worth it to watch American news channels anymore. [More within...]
posted by XQUZYPHYR
on Nov 21, 2002 -
Sometimes, often even, life imitates art. Rarely is it as spot-on as this example.
Recall if you will, actor Robert Downey's character in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers
. Compare Downey's character to this photo
Now, try not to laugh.
No, really. Be serious, because this picture pretty much sums up everything
thats gone wrong with modern journalism (and does so without even so much as a caption).
posted by BentPenguin
on Dec 26, 2001 -
Geraldo caught lying
about his exploits in Afghanistan. Rivera reported in a Dec. 6 piece that he
(was) standing on the "hallowed ground" in Afghanistan where "friendly fire took so many of our, our men and the mujahedeen yesterday."
(later) admitted that he was several hundred miles from the site.
It seemed awfully strange how Geraldo was always where "the action" was in a country that large. What do you think Fox will do about this? Should he be fired?
posted by revbrian
on Dec 18, 2001 - | <urn:uuid:9cdc7848-9b82-4fb2-9eff-6d2189df0845> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.metafilter.com/tags/news+FoxNews | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954459 | 692 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Cold weather contingency plan for January GCE/GCSE examinations
Whatever the skies may throw at us and however hard the ground may be, the external examinations will always take place as scheduled.
Of course, pupils must judge whether, or not, it is safe for them to travel to school. If pupils realise they will be absent, we would ask that they contact school so that we don’t delay the start of an examination. There are no estimated marks awarded in the event of an absence, the module simply has to be taken in June. | <urn:uuid:207c3a46-882a-4b1a-beb9-e89fdab8db05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.colstons.bristol.sch.uk/09-news/ExamprocedureJan2012.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969034 | 112 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Nyungwe Forest Lodge
Nyungwe Forest Lodge lies on the edge of Rwanda's Nyungwe Rainforest National Park in the South-West of the country. It boasts an impressive view overlooking the forest canopy from a ridge on one side and a tea-plantation on the other. Although the country and its wildlife are still recovering from the civil war and genocide which ravaged them both in the mid 1990's, today there still exists an impressive array of 13 different species of primate living in Nyungwe Rainforest National Park including chimpanzees.
Our view of Nyungwe Forest Lodge
The facilities at Nyungwe Forest Lodge are without doubt some of the best in Rwanda. The rooms are well designed and fitted out with all the mod-cons you may find in a hotel in a large city and despite its size Nyungwe manages to maintain a 'lodge feel'. The guided activities offered are varied and the mix of unique flora and fauna the National Park has to offer makes for some fantastic experiences. The contrast between the rainforest on one side and a tea plantation on the other also gives this lodge a little added something.
A member of the Expert Africa team will be travelling to the Nyungwe Forest Lodge in the future so please check with us for further updates…
Nyungwe Forest Lodge: Traveller ratings
Nyungwe Forest Lodge is set right in the middle of a tea plantation. | <urn:uuid:11d511a4-e9ba-4fbe-9640-87c5f89f0d30> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.expertafrica.com/rwanda/nyungwe-forest-national-park/nyungwe-forest-lodge | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931263 | 291 | 1.679688 | 2 |
The Family Vacation
The best vacations for families with young children are less about location than about realistic expectations. Your one-year-old will not care that she's zipping down the Autobahn or driving along Highway 1 in California. She will not care if she's on the sand in Florida or Bora Bora. Her experience of a vacation will be very much about the new sensory experiences you expose her to. Save the expensive trips for when she's older and focus on giving you what
Like a day trip or a family outing with a toddler, you need to keep your child at the top of the priority list when you plan the details of your family vacation, especially when it comes to packing. Consider each day with his needs in mind, including naps, feeding, and time for play. How many days will you be away? Figure that you'll need two to three changes of clothes a day, as well as toys, a place for him to comfortably sleep, a stroller, food, and a supply of toiletries, including emergency medicines. Some things to take along include the following:
• Diapers, wipes, diaper rash cream
• Extra food
• Bottles (if your baby uses them)
• Another warm layer, like a sweater
• Pain reliever
• Any prescriptions your child uses
• Soap and shampoo
• Your baby's comfort item
• Pacifiers if your child uses them
• Books (if you read before bedtime)
• Pediatrician's phone number and insurance information
Don't let the long list of things to bring with you on a trip dissuade you from traveling. It's good to teach your child how to travel and to expose her to lots of experiences so that she feels at home in the world. The keys to a successful journey are organization and a spirit of adventure, as well as the ability to roll with the punches.
Just as you do when planning to eat out in a group, be sure the people you are traveling with have realistic expectations about what a day (or a week) with a one-year-old is like. Your friends will appreciate your explaining, in advance, how much time you'll have for partying and how much time you plan to spend parenting so that no one is surprised by the trip's itinerary. | <urn:uuid:63a574a1-6aa5-4f43-b105-fec26fc7c616> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.netplaces.com/raising-a-one-year-old/chapter-4-family-life/the-family-vacation.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964791 | 472 | 1.5625 | 2 |
Windward School is excited to announce that it has been invited to become a member of the Global Online Academy (GOA), an online consortium of the world’s leading independent schools.
The GOA creates an environment where students from around the world collaboratively probe the social and ethical dynamics that define our global society. Beginning in the fall of 2012, Windward’s students can take GOA online courses as part of their course of study, further complementing the wide range of curricular choices already offered by the School. Through these courses, students will collaborate with their peers from other top independent schools in the U.S and around the world, including: Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., Chicago Latin School, the International School in Beijing, Jakarta International School, American School of Japan, Lausanne School in Switzerland, and King’s Academy in Jordan.
Associate Director of Windward’s Center for Teaching & Learning and Director of Global Programs Eryn Hoffman said that “Windward is honored to have been invited to be a member school of this innovative academy that is truly at the forefront of 21st century education.”
Global Online Academy classes are specifically designed to engage students in exploring some of the 21st century's most pressing issues using the online format. Courses such as Medical Problem Solving, Digital Photography through the Global Lens, Global Ethics, iPhone/iPad App Development, Bioethics, the Hispanic Experience, and French Hip Hop are taught by teachers from GOA member schools and utilize the most up-to-date technology.
For more on the Global Online Academy, visit http://www.globalonlineacademy.org | <urn:uuid:f0dc0c7c-37c2-4c7e-9a81-4342e0af0e6d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://venice.patch.com/groups/windward-schools-blog/p/bp--windward-invited-to-be-member-of-global-online-acf929431c3e | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949016 | 346 | 1.554688 | 2 |
I get misty when during our ongoing basement purge I open a shoebox to find letters from old pen-pals. It’s a pleasure my kids are unlikely to share. I was ecstatic when one box yielded a long-lost childhood artifact - an autographed picture and tiny, typewritten note from Judy Blume.
I can credit my dad for this treasure. I had just read the last Blume novel published (at that time) and was moping about the house waiting for the next one. “Why don’t you write to her?” he suggested. He took me on the bus to the Lethbridge Public Library and showed me how to look up the address for Blume’s publisher.
Turns out your kids can also have the experience of having a celebrated author write them back. One of our fave new lit sites, The Rumpus, has launched “Letters for Kids” to great excitement on the twitterwebs. For a reasonable monthly fee, children six years of age and older can get real letters in the mailbox – two per month! – from the likes of Daniel Handler, Rebecca Stead or Nathalie Standiford. I’m getting fluttery just thinking about it.
As per the website:
Some of the letters will be illustrated. Some will be written by hand. Some will be in color, some will be in black and white. It’s hard to say! We’ll copy the letters, fold them, put them in an envelope, put a first class stamp on the envelope, and send the letters to you.
Many of the authors will include a mailing address on their letter so you can write back. But we can’t guarantee it. We can’t control these people. Some of them live in the woods.
Anyway, this is fun. Six is pretty much the perfect age to start checking your mailbox. | <urn:uuid:f44e4d61-d589-46ea-a01e-ade54f1d919c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://bunchfamily.ca/we-love-letters-for-kids/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954869 | 403 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The reality behind the VAT
Over at the very fine TaxVox blog, Howard Gleckman writes a good explanatory piece on the current VAT debate. But this one part really struck me:
Our current revenue system has reached its breaking point. To fix our terrible budget problem, we are going to have to cut spending. But we are also going to have to raise more revenue. And for the life of me, I don’t understand why we wouldn’t want to do so in the most efficient way possible. And that may lead us to a consumption tax in one form or another, Senate resolutions notwithstanding.
Me: That was directed at conservative critics of the VAT. Now from what I can tell, plenty of conservatives would have no problem with a VAT if it a) replaced the income tax and b) was designed to boost tax revenue by boosting economic growth. And as far as a way of increasing the tax burden, the budget cuts are going to have to come first. Optimize government, try to quick the pace of GDP growth and then raise taxes if necessary. | <urn:uuid:e1cb1d00-ccfc-4721-a7dc-483b311b26a4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.reuters.com/james-pethokoukis/2010/04/22/the-reality-behind-the-vat/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969123 | 221 | 1.796875 | 2 |
We are often likes moths round a flame when it comes to stories of conflict and adversity. It is like we are hard wired to be attracted to disaster. I know I want to hear about tragedies, and as much as I get annoyed with a news media focus on conflict, I still tune in. And the other thing is, no matter how reasonable I try to be, I take sides. There will be a good guy and a bad guy.
I believe we have been hard wired to desire conflict in the stories we tell and listen to as part of our survival mechanism. Unconsciously almost, we use a bit of fear to raise our children, if you do this or that, something bad will happen. In ancient times, we learnt to survive through fear. That rustle in the bush might be a predator or it might be the wind. Our myths and legends all have a fear factor. Many children's stories can be downright scary.
I think we extend this fear factor in stories to decide who we like and dislike in the world. We write people off. So and so is hopeless. Can't stand them. That guy I talked to at a call centre was just a complete a******.
I believe it is time to play a bigger game with the stories we tell about people. Sure the best stories are a journey through good and bad times, good and bad behaviours. But to have the world be a better place, these stories we tell about each other have to be underpinned with love. Who are we for one another in the stories we tell ? How often do we write people off? I know I do it and I see it as my job on this planet to raise the ante, and catch myself as often as I can and take a closer look when I tell a story, even to myself about how bad someone is. | <urn:uuid:4950e7cd-49fa-45c1-9987-1e3297a827d4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spokestory.com/2010/12/why-we-love-nasty-stories.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9757 | 376 | 1.71875 | 2 |
Food & Cuisine in Santa Marta
In Colombia's major cities, tourists have a wide range of cuisines to experiment with, from local food to Continental and Asian; in smaller towns, you'll have to do with comida corriente, or the staple food of the region like corn, potatoes and rice. Soups (caldos) are frequently served with lunch and dinner and meats (chicken, pork, beef) and seafood are usually a part of main meals.
Typically, local ingredients include red beans, fried plantains, white rice and arepa, leavened South American bread resembling a tortilla.
Our Santa Marta Restaurant Guide below tells you all about the wonderful food and cuisine to be found in Santa Marta, as well as the best places to find it. Many of the Santa Marta restaurants, cafes and bars are situated amongst the best known Santa Marta shopping spots, perfect for grabbing a quick bite between buying that perfect Santa Marta souvenir. For more information on Colombian food and cuisine take a look at our Colombia Restaurant Guide.
Food & Cuisine in Santa Marta
The Caribbean Sea yields a wide variety of seafood, while meat products come from the Savannah region of Bogota. Some local favourites are coconut rice, egg arepas, casaba (sweet, winter melon), fried plantain and stuffed potatoes.
Seafood and fish varieties are ubiquitous items on the menu, regardless of the type of restaurant you decide to patronise. Santa Marta boasts of a good variety of eateries from upscale Santa Marta restaurants to tiny joints serving Colombian staples for as little as $1.60-$4.20. The neighbourhood of El Rodadero is rather more expensive. Playa Blanca is an enormously popular beach where you can enjoy fresh seafood dishes, along with a fabulous view of the sea.
For a delicious Sunday lunch, try sancocho de gallina, a hearty chicken soup eaten with rice, vegetables and salad. Sancocho, which is basically a meat and vegetable stew, assumes several regional variations. In coastal areas for instance, sancocho is prepared with fish, a must-try for food lovers.
After sunset, the pavements of Avenida Bastidas and its camellón (median) become a long line of colourful street food stalls, hawking their tempting wares. The air is redolent with the aromas of frying cheese arepas and shish kebabs. You'll be spoilt for choice with the variety available: roasted/grilled chicken, the tough but tasty local beef and ever popular fast foods like pizzas, burgers, hot dogs and French fries. There are stalls selling milk shakes, hot drinks like coffee, hot chocolate and more. Shrimp and seafood cocktail vendors do brisk business. Many restaurants too are located on this stretch, from where one can dine while watching the sun sink into the bay. Post dinner, pick up a local dessert from a peddler on the way back, the delicious crema de arroz (rice with milk and coconut).
To get a taste of what locals prefer, try a comida corriente - a set menu that typically features a meat soup, a main course of salad, rice, beans and any one meat (fish, chicken or red meat). The meal usually includes a soft drink. On average, a comida corriente costs just 2,000 pesos (US$1.00 = 2,800 pesos) and can be found all over Colombia.
Beer is widely drunk, an ideal beverage for relaxing with friends in the cool evenings. Since day temperatures can get cruelly high during summer (over 35 °C/95 °F), it's important to always carry a bottle of water around. You can buy soft drinks in virtually all restaurants, sometimes in glass bottles. They're cheap too, at prices as low as 1000 COP for a drink.
At Calle 16 and Carrera 5, you can slake your thirst any time of the day at the innumerable fresh juice stands, which feature a truly amazing variety of tropical fruits that are not often seen in cooler countries.
Santa Marta's nightlife truly rocks, thanks in part to its being a port city. The beach road is lined with the lights of night-clubs where you can dance the night away to live Vallenata music. The city doesn't go to sleep until the early hours of morning; from cafés throbbing with live Cuban music to ever popular discos and ‘action'-packed dance-cum-brothel clubs, it's one big party every evening. Gay bars operate openly in Santa Marta, symbolic of its more tolerant culture as compared to the country's conservative hinterland.
In El Rodadero, it's the done thing to pick up liquor and hit the beach, relaxing and soaking in the balmy atmosphere for endless hours. Adding to the fun are beachside performers who'll belt out popular songs for a small payment. | <urn:uuid:10dfbc8d-9757-430e-af6e-e561e9a7c337> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.santamarta-hotels-tours.travel/santa-marta-restaurants | 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 | 0.933012 | 1,028 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Your Android phone has a built-in kill switch for nasty apps. And Google, apparently, is not afraid to use it.
Over the weekend, the search giant announced that it had remotely wiped “a number” of malicious Android apps from users’ phones, programs that earlier in the week had been identified as malware and pulled from Android’s app store. “We are remotely removing the malicious applications from affected devices. This remote application removal feature is one of many security controls the Android team can use to help protect users from malicious applications,” Google wrote on its mobile blog, linking to an explanation it posted in June of a built-in functionality for deleting apps from users’ phones.
Google also wrote that it’s contacting law enforcement about the issue and updating Android devices with a fix for the exploit used by those apps–pirated copies of legitimate programs with malicious code weaved in–designed to prevent any further compromise of users’ data. The company added that “we are adding a number of measures to help prevent additional malicious applications using similar exploits from being distributed through Android Market and are working with our partners to provide the fix for the underlying security issues.”
Exactly what those “measures” might be, Google isn’t saying. A Google spokesperson I contacted declined to comment beyond the text of the company’s blog post.
But Chris Wysopal, the chief technology officer of security vulnerability analysis firm Veracode, speculates that Google is likely introducing signature-based scanning to the Android Market, a tool for identifying malware and making sure that similar instances of malicious code are blocked from the Market in the future, just as viruses are identified and blocked by signature-based scans on PCs.
“This relies on someone external to Google finding the first malware and reporting it. In this case the trojan apps were pirated so the original developers were tipped off,” Wysopal wrote to me in an email. “This is definitely an improvement, but I expect malware writers to adjust.”
The last time Google deleted applications that were already downloaded to users’ devices was in June, and its targets were two proof of concept apps built by security researcher Jon Oberheide. As I wrote at the time, that use of its kill switch seemed to be a loud warning to malware writers about the company’s ability to remotely destroy their tools. After all, Oberheide’s apps were designed to show the possibility of creating an Android-hosted botnet, not to actually create one.
But as cybercriminals increasingly look to mobile platforms as new targets, their malware is no longer a mere demonstration–and nor is Google’s ability to nuke those apps from orbit. | <urn:uuid:45f5dd95-5fc5-4994-bac0-df44eddceec9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://teabhaji.blogspot.com/2011/03/google-nukes-rogue-android-apps-on.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967885 | 571 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Scour.com works as a fully-fledged, brand new search engine offering a unique system for the average web searcher that will offer results depending on viewpoint and allow them to vote on significance. Searchers are able to get in touch directly with their results, producing a right social search experience which is achieved through sophisticated tools to fulfill the basics of today's Internet searchers.
Sherman Oaks, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/20/2013 -- The search engine, Scour.com, is helping people get their voices heard on which websites are more valuable than others. It’s changing the way searches are done and adding the social aspect to the scenario to make search results more relevant to users.
Thanks to Scour.com, searches could become more influenced by people in the future. The way searches work on the website is that people put in a search term and a list comes up that is a combination of the three major search engines: Google, Bing, and Yahoo. People then have the opportunity to vote on those results either to move them up or down.
Websites have the potential to do well on Scour.com if they provide the information that people want to see. With this website, it is about more than just using the typical SEO tools to rank well. It has to appeal to humans; this could mean visually as well as contextually. Whereas, images and graphics don’t carry weight with the search engines, they can with people.
What this means for people searching for information is that they can rely on other people’s opinions and comments to guide them on which websites to look at and which ones to ignore. While other search engines try to incorporate users’ information into their results, Scour.com does so in a more direct way.
The goal of Scour.com is to connect users and results to gain more accurate information. By using the ideal of a social interaction, it is like having a friend tell you about a website that you need to check out, except you have a large group of friends recommending it to you.
Instead of dealing with complex algorithms that most people don’t understand, users can look at what others have said about a site and make their own determination about its value. This puts searching back into the hands of humans instead of search bots and spiders.
To protect against abuse of the site, Scour.com checks for patterns that appear invalid or spam. This ensures that the results they do count are from real people so that they are valid and trustworthy.
The goal of Scour.com is for people to get their voices heard on searching instead of relying on computers and automatic results.
To learn more about Scour.com, visit their website and FAQs.
Founded in 2007, Scour was originally named Aftervote.com, a search engine with an AJAX backbone with one mission: to deliver the most relevant results as efficiently as possible. Almost exactly 1 year later, Aftervote was acquired by Internext media, owner and operator of the ABCSearch Network and re-branded to Scour.com.
Scour's purpose is to bridge the gap between searchers and relevant results. By providing a platform for the user to vote and comment on relevancy, searchers connect with one another creating a true social search community, attained through innovative solutions to meet the needs of today's web searchers.
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Contact Us: 888-4-SBWIRE (US) - 920-321-1250 (International) | <urn:uuid:037bef82-ecad-4db7-bbe6-c003da876581> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/scourcom-helps-users-get-their-voices-heard-210288.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947364 | 767 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Three alternate iOS music player apps
Products mentioned in this article
While the Music app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch might be sufficient for you, there are plenty of other apps you can use to listen to music on your iOS device. Some offer unique ways of organizing and listening to music, and others focus on providing better sound. Here’s a look at three apps that you can use to listen differently to music on iOS.
While these three apps approach playing music differently, you may find that one of them offers something you are missing in the default Music app. Try them out and see if you get more out of your music. (And note that there are many music apps for your iOS device, and this is just a small taste of what you’ll find on the App Store.)
1. Enhance your music’s sound with SonicMax Pro
When you listen to music on an iOS device, it may not be in optimal situations. If you’re on the move, you may listen on mediocre headphones in loud environments (the morning commute, say). If you’re in your office, you may have a small iPod speaker dock. Or you might be listening on some excellent noise-canceling headphones or using audiophile-grade cans.
BBE Sound’s $5 SonicMax Pro steps in to tweak your music and provide better sound on your headphones, through speaker docs, or even when your iOS device is connected to good speakers. When you launch the app, you can choose what you’re using to listen to your music: earbuds/earphones, headphones, external speakers, a dock, or a custom device. Then, in the app’s Settings screen, you can make a number of adjustments to enhance your sound. BBE calls these Lo Contour, BBE Process, iSet, Sound Field, Mach3 Bass, and Mach3 Gain.
One thing this app does is enhance bass, so if you listen to music that calls for more bass, you can compensate for weaknesses in your headphones or speakers. The BBE Process enhances high frequencies, and can sound tinny if set too high. But the Sound Field setting is the most interesting. It is a kind of faux surround sound that renders the soundscape much more detailed. For some music, I found this worked very well; for other types of music, certain highlights sounded slightly artificial.
Classical music is probably least suited to this type of sound enhancement, since part of its effect is to position instruments and voices in multiple locations across the soundscape. In other words, an instrument that is in the center of the mix will sound spread out. Rock, punk and reggae all sound much more spacious though, and some jazz sounds better as well. (Bauhaus’s Bela Lugosi’s Dead is a great track to test this app, for example.) I tested with both my portable headphones (Sennheiser PX 100-IIi) and home headphones (Beyerdynamic DT 990), and the results were noticeable on both. On the portable headphones, the increase in bass was welcome, whereas on the Beyerdynamics it wasn’t needed.
Once you’ve adjusted your settings, you can choose music by artist, album, genre or playlist, and playing your music is simple. My only gripe is that playlists nested in folders don’t display in folders, but all playlists are listed alphabetically.
2. Make your iOS device’s sound match your hearing with SoundBest Player
There are many apps that offer equalization features. You can adjust different frequency ranges to compensate for small speakers, earbuds, or poor headphones; or simply because you like your music to have more oomph.
But when you fiddle with EQ settings, you have two choices: either pick a preset—often named after a genre or style of music, such as classical, jazz, vocal, or acoustic—or roll your own. The latter is tough to get right, and the former (which you can pick in Settings -> Music on your iOS device) never really sounds quite right to me.
Klisten’s $3 SoundBest Player takes a different approach. While it offers standard EQ presets, what sets this app apart is its ability to make a custom EQ setting that matches your hearing. When you launch the app, you spend about 90 seconds taking a hearing test; essentially the same kind of test an ENT or audiologist would give you. The app finds your “personal hearing curve” and creates an EQ setting to compensate for the differences between your hearing and what is normal.
This approach is interesting, and it’s hard to say how it sounds—it’s meant to be neutral. It corrects the sound output to match the deficiencies in your hearing. So while it doesn’t make music sound any better, per se, it can make it sound “right.” You can create multiple presets for different headphones or listening devices, and store them, choosing the one you want for each listen.
The one problem for me, however, was that it boosted the bass, even though my hearing doesn’t need that boost. You can’t edit the EQ settings it creates for you, so you can’t put the bass back where you think it should be. But you could look at the graph of your hearing and create your own preset, taking into account the differences it highlights.
3. Get iTunes DJ on the move with OnCue
Sometimes when I listen to music on my iPod, I hear a certain song, and that makes me want to hear another song, maybe by the same artist, or something that is similar in rhythm or style. On my Mac, I can use iTunes DJ; I use it a lot to queue up music for my daily listening. But I hate the iPod’s On-The-Go playlist; it’s too complicated to be practical. And iOS’s Genius Playlists feature doesn’t provide enough flexibility. Former Macworld contributor Daniel Pourhadi’s $3 OnCue is a great tool for creating and updating a permanent queue of music that functions like iTunes DJ.
OnCue lets you create dynamic playlists—or queues—adding music as you listen, dragging songs around, and manipulating your music so you can cue up the next three songs or the next three hours of listening. You can swipe to see what’s next in the queue, and change the order of upcoming songs at any time. You can navigate to find songs, or browse by album, artist, genre, song, and more. OnCue picks up the playlists you sync from iTunes, and you can save your own in the app. You can make smart queues—similar to smart playlists—and if you swipe a track you get can info about it, such as lyrics, and artist bios. It even displays the current track and the next four in the queue on your lock screen so you can see what’s next.
OnCue has a lot of features, and can be a bit confusing to get the hang of. But the core feature—the ability to create a listening queue and easily add more music to it—makes it a great tool if you like to choose your playlists on the fly.
[Senior contributor Kirk McElhearn writes about more than just Macs on his blog Kirkville. Twitter: @mcelhearn Kirk is the author of Take Control of iTunes 10: The FAQ, second edition]. | <urn:uuid:48bba62e-362f-41bd-bbb7-76013e3577a0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macworld.com/article/1166613/three_alternate_ios_music_player_apps.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933501 | 1,578 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Nevertheless, I am going to take a stab at reading the tea leaves. Though I too see the future only dimly, there are some things of which we can be certain. One is that taxes will go up and another is that federal spending will rise as well.
Despite all the talk about getting the deficit under control, I see the national debt growing to nearly $18 trillion before we reach 2014. The reason is simple. Judging from the current evidence, the politicians seem intent on kicking the can down the road once again.
The Republicans have warned that the taxes Democrats are determined to impose will not raise sufficient revenue to lower the annual deficit substantially — and I agree. Yet there seems to be no stopping the liberal juggernaut. In addition to Obamacare’s hidden taxes, there will be rate increases, even on the middle class.
Adding these levies to those of states like California, there is good reason to believe the wealthy will seek to protect their assets. And if they do, revenues will not rise as quickly as projected; hence unfunded spending will grow more rapidly than projected.
Since Democrats also show no inclination to reign in entitlement spending, or discretionary expenditures other than for the military, the gap between government income and outgo should get larger. This may be exacerbated if the economy stalls — as many economists expect.
Under these conditions the need to borrow will continue to mount, as will the Federal Reserve’s policy of printing money. Where this will end is hard to say, but eventually there must be a roaring inflation. The only way this cannot happen is if the laws of economics are suspended.
The reason inflation seems not to have already occurred is that foreigners, whose economies are worse than our own, continue to perceive American bonds as safe. This, however, cannot go on forever. The question is when will the kicked-can explode? It may not be this next year, but it will be some year.
Then there is the international situation. The Middle East continues to boil and Iran keeps getting closer to producing nuclear weapons. Will Obama do anything to reverse this trend? Will Israel?
Again we do not know, but as of now I predict that Obama will maintain the policy he has in the past — that is, he will do nothing. As for Israel, I am not sure it has the strength to save the day without U.S. support.
Where does this leave us? I say in a pretty pickle. There is a very good chance that the economy will slide off the edge and that a host of Islamicized nations will join in an alliance against us. If so, far from achieving peace and prosperity, we will persist in decline and insecurity.
These predictions do not cheer me. They are certainly not intended as an “I told you so” directed at politicians I do, in fact, despise. This is not something I want to happen because, like it or not, we are all in the same boat. Liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, will all be hurt if my fears come to pass.
Of course, we could survive another year. Who knows when the horrors of inflation will arrive? It could be years from now. Also, it just might be that a nuclear-armed Iran will behave itself in the short run.
But what of the long run? When will we as a nation begin looking beyond the immediate future? When will the politicians — and the voters — begin to consider the fate of our children and grandchildren?
Melvyn L. Fein Ph.D., is professor of Sociology at Kennesaw State University. | <urn:uuid:74b52463-b4b8-4a84-a763-49183998fbb8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/21276789/article-Prediction--2013-will-be-year-of-the-kicked-can?instance=secondary_story_left_column | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961158 | 737 | 1.523438 | 2 |
In yesterday's House hearing, the Treasury Inspector-General was asked if he could list which organizations had been targeted by the IRS for delayed approval or harassing questions. He replied that he could not make that...
- The Tax Policy Blog
- Tax Reform and the Long-Term Budget
Tax Reform and the Long-Term Budget
Tax reform is necessary. There are basically no policy experts who think that the current system is a good one. It is convoluted, costly, and economically damaging. Tax reform would get rid of the tangled web of credits, deductions, and exemptions and lower statutory tax rates.
Of course, there are other issues looming: growing deficits, the national debt, entitlements, etc. The debate here is about whether this is fundamentally a revenue issue or spending issue: Do we need more revenue or less spending, or some combination?
Often tax reform gets lumped into these long-term budget debates. The recent budget alternative proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, includes tax reform (and references the President's Deficit Commission report from December) along with all the other budgetary changes.
However, two veterans of the historic 1986 tax reform told the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation on Wednesday that while tax reform is necessary, it should be separated from the budget debate. Dick Gephardt, former U.S. House Majority Leader, and James Baker, Former Treasury Secretary, said that tax reform won't happen unless you have both parties on board. They fear that including it in the contentious long-term budget debate will doom tax reform. "If tax reform gets caught up in that, you won't have tax reform," Baker said.
They make a compelling point. Revenue neutral tax reform is an end in itself. The question of the proper level of taxation is different than the question of the best structure for taxation, and the latter can be solved separately from the former. Lumping them together may be a recipe for accomplishing nothing. We can receive all the benefits from reforming the tax code and then have a debate about the proper level and distribution of taxes in the context of the long-term budget.
Blogging over at Tax.com last November in response to the President's Deficit Commission, Martin Sullivan argued:
Tax reform is one of the most arduous tasks Congress could ever undertake. So is massive deficit reduction. What is it that makes people think that doing both simultaneously will make everything easier?
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About the Tax Policy Blog
The Tax Policy Blog is the official weblog of the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan, non-profit research organization that has monitored tax policy at the federal, state and local levels since 1937. Our economists welcome your feedback. If you would like to send an e-mail to the author of a blog post, please click on that person's name to locate his or her e-mail address or visit our staff page here. | <urn:uuid:f99b1906-7f35-40f7-af8c-99c33da02fc5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://taxfoundation.org/blog/tax-reform-and-long-term-budget | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964047 | 613 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The fateful meeting of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth at Bad Ischl is dramatized in the 1955 German film Sissi starring Romy Schneider in the title role and Karlheinz Böhm as the young emperor. The film is the first of a trilogy about Elisabeth, a trilogy which has been blamed for propagating the romantic fairy tale view of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth's troubled marriage. However, there are worse things to be deluded about than the relationship of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth, especially when during their lives they did as much to propagate the myth about themselves as did any filmmaker. All one has to do is look at the portraits of Elisabeth with her hair tumbling down, or the popular prints showing the royal couple riding together or walking arm-in arm or sitting surrounded by their children, to guess that they wanted the dream to be true as much as anyone else did. Ultimately, theirs is a story of star-crossed lovers who are never able to live out their love for each other because of the crushing demands of empire as well as basic incompatibility.
Romy Schneider's Sissi is an utterly captivating mischief maker, a cross between Marie-Antoinette, Maria of The Sound of Music and Heidi of Heidi. She is the antithesis of everything in Franz Joseph's regimented, highly disciplined life, a life which has already experienced war, revolution, exile and restoration. When Franz Joseph insists that he will marry no one but Sissi, the viewer knows he means it, even as Sissi herself knows her destiny has been determined as she accepts the armful of red roses from her suitor. The portrayal of Sissi's loving but topsy-turvy family is humorous and delightful, reminding me of other large families I have known. On the other hand, Franz Joseph's mother Archduchess Sophie thinks that Elisabeth is completely unsuitable to be empress and makes no secret of her disappointment as well as of her determination to force the lively girl into submission.
Filmed on location in Austria and Bavaria, every scene shows stunning mountain vistas that Americans would later relish in The Sound of Music. As far as pageantry goes, the film is second to none, except perhaps the other two films in the trilogy, which as of this writing I have yet to see. The shot of Elisabeth's barge sailing down the Danube as she waves to the rejoicing crowds on the shore is almost Wagnerian in its beauty and pathos. The wedding scene is incomparable for the majesty of both the liturgy and the imperial pomp. Anyone who loves historical drama must see Sissi.
Sissi is overall one of the best films about royalty ever, free from the skeptical undercurrent which too often characterizes Hollywood films about royals. To watch a film about south Germans and Austrians with German and Austrian actors truly makes the past come alive. Effort was made to make the costumes and sets as accurate as possible. I think that Sissi perfectly captures the mood of the beginning of the relationship of the imperial couple, with all the joy and hope and fairy tale glamor amid great misgivings. I look forward to the other two films, entitled Sissi — die junge Kaiserin (Sissi — The Young Empress) and Sissi — Schicksalsjahre einer Kaiserin (1957) (Sissi — Fateful Years of an Empress).
|Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria| | <urn:uuid:bab159f0-8dfc-487a-93ec-4281217afe38> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://teaattrianon.blogspot.com/2011/01/sissi-1955.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964514 | 731 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Prominent Leaders Speak Out on Marijuana in California
LOS ANGELES, June 28 /PRNewswire/ — At an event on Friday, June 25, 2010 at the Universal City Hilton Hotel in Universal City, California, the San Diego-based non-profit CADFY (Californians for Drug Free Youth) hosted community leaders who shared their professional and expert perspectives on the dangers of marijuana in California.
Key quotes from the event:
John Redman, Executive Director, Californians for Drug Free Youth:
CADFY’s mission is to bring awareness to people about the issues of substance abuse to the people of California; to change our neighborhoods so that drugs are no longer the common norm. It is with great honor that I stand here today with leaders from all sectors of the community who share CADFY’s dream of reducing substance abuse throughout California, particularly in regards to marijuana abuse. There are two indelible truths in prevention: One is that if you increase the availability of a drug you increase its use. The second is if you lower the risk and perception of harm of that drug, you increase its use. Legalizing marijuana does both. And, therefore, how can kids say no when the adults around them are saying yes?
Steve Cooley, Los Angeles County District Attorney:
This is not just a major public safety issue, this is a major public health issue. What you see here today is a very broad and strong coalition of individuals and institutions who strongly oppose the legalization of drugs in general and marijuana is included in that category. We’re going to send a message and make it resoundingly clear, that these sort of foolish and dangerous initiatives that endanger our society and diminish it are going to be rejected. The “legalizers” who are very well entrenched, sometimes very well funded who are behind this, George Soros and his ilk, must be sent a message: enough is enough. Keep your dangerous laws off of California’s law books. Stop endangering us.
Leroy Baca, Sheriff, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.:
We have enough carnage on our highways as it stands with drinking and driving with alcohol and now we want marijuana to join in with the process of destruction? That’s probably the biggest point I can make. We’re looking at the degeneration of our future society by exposing our children to a foolish law that will lead to further self-destruction and the ultimate limitation of the future of a great nation and the future of humanity.
Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy:
Marijuana is not a cure-all for any budget woes anywhere — and we know that the costs that are incurred daily with alcohol in this country are not even off-set to the slightest in the amount of taxes that are collected. So, whether it’s the criminal justice costs, lost productivity, healthcare costs around alcohol, those taxes don’t begin to pay for that. Legalizing marijuana would saddle the government with the dual burden of regulating a new legal market while continuing to pay for the negative side-effects that are associated with an underground market. Any action that would make marijuana more accessible would jeopardize the health and safety of all Americans.
Nate Holden, former California State Senator, former LA City Councilman (Ret.):
What about the (drug) cartels that have now migrated to the north to the U.S.? They are shipping their drugs, tons of marijuana into our state. You think they are going to leave and they are not going to come in and protect their investment? They are here to stay, and they are going to destroy our society if we let them. We are going to fight them and we are not going to let them destroy us.
Joe Stewart , Executive Director, California Narcotics Officers Association:
If the (Tax Cannabis 2010) initiative passes, transportation companies would be powerless to prevent employees who had tested positive from driving busses or taxis. Imagine your child being on a school bus driven by someone who has tested positive for being under the influence of marijuana. If this initiative passes, even inmates in prisons and county jails will be permitted to possess marijuana.
Bishop Ron Allen, President of the International Faith Based Coalition:
I had a good year in 2009; I only buried six youths related to drugs and drug overdoses. I can certainly tell you, if marijuana is legalized it will be a dark day in the State of California. If marijuana is legalized in the state of California, crime will increase, murder will increase. If marijuana is legalized in my community, and is legalized in my world, and our youth have an opportunity to be able to use — we will see more drop-outs, we will see an increase of crime, and we will see more individuals hanging out on the corner — and I am seriously afraid we will lose generations to come.
Kathy Robi, Operations Council Chair and Spokesperson for MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving):
It has been proven that even in small doses marijuana will impair a driver’s ability to safely operate a motor vehicle. By legalizing marijuana, it stands to reason that incidents of impaired driving from this drug would rise. Widespread testing by police for marijuana in motorists would be difficult and costly in California. In a recent report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), it was concluded that drugs played a large role in impaired driving. That THC – marijuana — was the most largely detected drug. Make no mistake, all mind-altering drugs, whether its alcohol or marijuana, have a devastating impact on our roadways. If this legislation is passed, it will set traffic safety back years by the increased number of injuries and deaths caused by impaired drivers.
Alison Triessl, Co-Founder and CEO, Pasadena Recovery Center:
I am able to see, every day, the disastrous effects of addiction on our youth. I can tell you that in almost every single case that we have, their addictions began with marijuana.
Bishop Dr. Henry B. Alexander, Founder and Presiding Bishop, Shield of Faith Fellowship:
We’re concerned for our children as faith communities, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim or some less prominent belief system. One of our greatest concerns is the transmission of wisdom from our generation to the next.
Lupe Delgado, Ed.D, Assistant Superintendent, Educational Services, Los Angeles County Office of Education:
Students who have smoked marijuana more than 100 times leave schools six times more often than those who have not. They enter college three times less frequently and graduate from college four times less often.
About CADFY: Visit www.cadfy.org
SOURCE Californians for Drug Free Youth | <urn:uuid:724e03a0-a9dc-414e-b19c-7580dbe2b289> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1885327/prominent_leaders_speak_out_on_marijuana_in_california/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9541 | 1,390 | 1.609375 | 2 |
In case you don’t recognise it, that’s a vintage Singer motor plug of the most common type, shown here without the two screws which hold it together. In most installations there are two leads connected to one of these – one to the mains plug and one to the foot pedal, and it’s those cut-off leads you see sticking out the back here.
When you consider that all of these plugs are well over 60 years old and many of them are still on the end of the original cables, it’s hardly surprising that most are in a bit of a state inside. Actually, some of them are downright scary, but that’s something for another blog post.
This one wasn’t too bad as these things go, but I’m in awe of whoever had the patience to knit this little lot with the old rubber-covered wires in such a confined space …
It’s bad enough rewiring one of these plugs with modern cable which is both thinner and more flexible, but to do it with two fat old rubber-covered cables that needed forcing through the hole in the plug body to start with must have been a real PITA. And in case you’re wondering, the purpose of the knot is to act as strain-relief i.e. to stop the leads pulling out when No 1 child runs past the end of your table at high speed and trips over the mains lead that you’d just told him for the third time to be careful of.
While I’m having an explain here, if you’ve never used a vintage Singer electric, you might be bemused to know that the motor socket lives more or less under the handwheel, and that plug goes into it in such a way that the two leads come out the top of it, not, as you might reasonably expect, out the bottom. Yes, that does mean that the leads can rub against the handwheel as it rotates at a fair old rate of knots, particularly if the motor bracket’s at the top limit of its adjustment (ie the motor’s as high up as you can get it). I too think that’s very silly, but apparently the reason they did it like that is so the leads didn’t get in the way of you removing the lid of the storage compartment.
Or so they say. I’m more inclined to thinking they just screwed up, simple as that, and took far too long to replace that plug with the one which has a cable going in each side rather than two on the top. It’s a big improvement is that, and it’s actually a bit easier to rewire, for which people like me are truly thankful. | <urn:uuid:581c6e92-0213-426b-80bd-426be22ae065> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://oldsingersewingmachineblog.com/tag/vintage-singer-motor-plug/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696383156/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092623-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968983 | 575 | 1.757813 | 2 |
By Ross Markman
Better traffic flow on Fifth Avenue and improved overall access, and the prospect of more subdivisions at the south end of the city near Havre High School are among the benefits of a road project slated for construction in late 2006.
The Montana Department of Transportation plans to build a street from the Fifth Avenue-South Dell Street intersection over to the south end of 12th Avenue. The project will then continue north, with improvements to 12th Avenue, to the intersection with Eighth Street, and will then extend east to the intersection of 14th Avenue.
In other words, residents and motorists east of 14th Avenue will have an easier link to the southern end of town. The project encompasses 2 miles of road, 1 of which would be newly constructed.
"The main purpose of this is to alleviate traffic from Fifth Avenue," said Dave Peterson, Havre's director of public works. "It's a road that could also be needed because we are getting more subdivisions out there."
Additional right of way is needed for the construction, but it shouldn't be difficult to obtain, Peterson said. Most of the land on the route running past the Human Resources Development Council's new offices and parallel to Bullhook Road is undeveloped.
The project, which could take 1.5 years to complete, is estimated to cost between $5 million and $5.5 million, according to Mick Johnson, Great Falls district administrator for MDT. It will be paid for with money allocated by the state for construction and repair of urban routes, which are well-traveled streets owned and maintained by the city.
Havre has about $2 million in its urban route fund. The remainder will be borrowed from the MDT, which loans money to cities unable to pay all at once, Johnson said.
"Based on a formula of population and road miles, each year Havre gets credited to their account about $250,000 for urban routes," Johnson said. "Once that gets to a certain level, we sit down with the city officials, and say, What do you want to do with that money?'"
The city, however, will have to dip into its coffers to pay for any utilities affected by the construction, Peterson said. The city, he said, will use a $500,000 Treasure State Endowment Program grant it received two years ago to offset the $1.2 estimated cost of installing new water mains. Sewer lines will likely cost an additional $500,000 to $750,000. That money will be raised from other sources like grants or city reserves, Peterson said.
The project, launched in 1998 by then Mayor Phyllis Leonard, was actually first proposed and designed in 1971 and was part of Havre's comprehensive plan. The intention then was to stretch the new road into Highland Park and ultimately link it with U.S. Highway 87.
With the current design, Peterson said, there are no plans to extend the road out to Highway 87 in the next 10 to 20 years.
The project, though, is only in its infant state.
The MDT will conduct a public meeting on April 18 at Havre City Hall to give residents a chance to speak their mind on the issue. Project designer Steve Prinzing of Great Falls-based Neil Consultants will attend.
Johnson expects a good turnout.
"We're asking the adjacent landowners and all of the people who live and work in Havre what they think is best for this street," he said. "We want to try and accommodate everything the public and the city want." | <urn:uuid:03d058f1-1cc0-4963-92cf-468784a490cd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.havredailynews.com/cms/news/story-99865.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706890813/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122130-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971854 | 731 | 1.617188 | 2 |
More Kids Taking Martial Arts to Battle Bullies
Charlotte, NC - Seventh grader Nicholas Krug says, "I was like, I'm ready to go back to school." Nicholas Krug has been bullied at school before. But after taking classes in martial arts, the seventh grader is not afraid of bullies anymore. Krug says, "They know not to mess with me, don't mess with Nicholas. They know not to do that."
Brent Krug, Nicholas' Dad says, "He would come home, and kids had said things or acted a way, but this year, we see he's not concerned about it." Krug says his son isn't a fighter, but a confident kid who once was scared and timid. Krug says, "He's not worried about going back to school, or what the kids are going to say, where in the past we saw doom and gloom."
Michael Price owns Charlotte Martial Arts Academy. He says the most powerful tool he teaches isn't the punch or the kick. Michael Price says, "Its the ability to look someone in the eyes, the ability to shake someone's hand, the ability to ask for help if they need it."
Price has seen more kids come through his classes who have been bullied before. But now, aren't worried. Price says, "When he walks in the door, he's not that shy person anymore, he can talk in front of the class, and hes not concerned about bullies anymore."
What's On TonightFull Schedule | <urn:uuid:504b3c69-fa82-4545-bf1d-c26931d65d5c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.wccbcharlotte.com/news/local/More-Kids-Taking-Martial-Arts-to-Battle-Bullies-167504015.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.985766 | 306 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Design for eyes, not for engines
These days, there is cut throat competition in the online world. So unless you take the advantage of resources and latest technologies available, you cannot rule or compete with other businesses. So when making a site, blog or web page, you need to remember that design for the eyes, not for the search engines. This hold true in the way that the website or blog you develop should be targeted and useful for the customers and traffic and not just for the popular search engines. This will ensure that your site ranks well in the true sense.
What does a nice design do?
A nice website design can attract the much required traffic to your website. Whether you believe it or not, the online users always go with the sites that are easy to navigate, professional looking and clean and neat. And thus, more the number of people visiting your simple, easy to use site, greater will be the possibility to get the sales conversion rate that you always wished to enjoy.
Quality design can even increase the credibility of the online business. With amazing content that balances the aesthetic appeal, you can even have information that targets the audiences thereby letting them make wise decisions. The products and services page on your site will further help the customers know what all you have to offer and at what rates.
A quality and effective design can further help to increase the credibility. When it comes to businesses, it is important that you build nice reputation of not just your company, but of your products and services as well. Otherwise, when people don’t have faith in you, you will thus not be able to enhance your sales or even maintain the customer base.
Enjoy increased sales through effective design
More so, you can easily generate better sales leads from a quality and nice design of your site. Efficient and effective design allows building a huge base of potential customers and clients. This is so because in a proper site design or layout, you include the mailing list in which the visitors and customers can add their names and email addresses, thereby making it easy for you to enjoy promoting your brand or company and send latest updates and news to your customers.
While having the design for eyes, not for engines, ensure that you use some consistent design for every page of the site. This simply means to use the same color scheme, layout, logo, navigation menu in same location as well as the consistent and proper link attributes. This way, you will be able to catch the eye of the customers and take your online business to the top. | <urn:uuid:887430fb-5ce3-4421-a4ca-a3664ebed510> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wibsitedesign.com/design-for-eyes-not-for-engines | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00039-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941184 | 513 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Since this post was published, I’ve located more information – see below for the update!
A wealthy man and a postmaster
An argument over a ditch
A revolver came out and several shots fired
Some of them never hit
A shed to hide
The story of the attempted murder of John James Johnson by Coleman Hawkins in a nutshell. Just who were these men? Were they more than just neighbors?
John James Johnson
John J. Johnson, oldest son and third child of Jacob and Ann (Shields) Johnson, was born on October 8, 1821 in Byrd Township, Brown County, Ohio. He moved with his parents and siblings to Rush County, Indiana by 1840 and married Dolly Mullis on March 4, 1848 in Union Township of that county. Dolly was the sister of Amanda Mullis, wife of John’s brother, James Wilson Johnson.
The couple were enumerated in the 1850 US Census living in Marion Twp in Rush County with their one year old daughter, Ann M. Johnson. John, 27, listed his occupation as a Farmer. They aren’t easily found in the 1860 Census but they had moved to Stoney Creek, Madison County, Indiana by 1870. Two children are living with them – Rosa, age 12, and John, age 7. Dolly’s siblings, Sophia (age 55) and Thomas (age 42) are also residing in their household. By 1880 Rosa had married and was widowed. She and her son, Edward Milburn, age 3, were living with John and Dolly as well as brother, John.
Elizabeth was born to John and Mary Ann (Nelson) Blazer in the mid-1840s. She was enumerated with her parents on the 1850 Census living in Fall Creek, Madison County, Indiana. For a long time she was “missing”. She would have been more than 20 in the 1860 Census and probably married, yet the name of her husband was unknown. Unbeknownst to me – I had found her in the 1870 and 1880 Censuses – I just didn’t know it yet!
This man was born about 1832 in Virginia. I only knew about him through newspaper articles and biographical data from “The History of Madison County”. He is living in Stoney Creek Twp, Madison County, Ohio in the 1870 Census. His residence was adjacent to the John James Johnson family. He had a wife and eight children. In the 1880 Census, Mr. Hawkins and his family are living in the same spot. Seven of the older children are still living there along with two that had been born since the 1870 Census. Coleman Hawkins would not see another census.
Historical sketches and reminiscences of Madison county, Indiana (John L. Forkner, Byron H. Dyson; Publisher: Forkner; 1897; pages 965-968) recounts that Coleman Hawkins, a very wealthy man, had been a resident of Stoney Creek township for a number of years and lived close to the postmaster, John J. Johnson. The Midland Railway – near Johnson’s Crossing, was in the vicinity of their homes. Hawkins and Johnson had maintained a good relationship for many years until 1888. At that time a ditch had been constructed that ran through the neighborhood. On December 5, 1888 Johnson took a mail pouch to the train and saw Mr. Hawkins there. Once the train had left the station, Hawkins inquired whether his neighbor could stop the construction of the ditch. Apparently similar conversations had occurred prior for Johnson told him that he’d already answered that question. Hawkins obviously wasn’t happy with that answer and pulled a revolver on Johnson, who turned and walked away – possibly not believing that the other man would really fire at him. Yet Coleman Hawkins did just that.
“. . . the shot taking effect in the back just left of the spinal column and below the shoulder blade. Johnson ran into the stationhouse and closed the door after him. As he shut the door another pistol shot was fired, the ball just passing the door. Hawkins then rushed to the window, about six feet from the door, broke out a pane of glass, and fired four or five additional shots, two of which took effect in Mr. Johnson’s body, one on the left side of the face and the other in the forearm. One shot passed through the stove pipe in the room and another through the ceiling. Johnson now opened the door and ran out past Hawkins into a field that led to his residence. Hawkins, having emptied the chambers of the revolver, drew a second one and resumed pursuit of his victim. He fired four additional shots, one of which lodged in Johnson’s right shoulder. Four bullet holes were found in his coat in different places where his body had escaped injury. Johnson ran until his strength was fast failing, when he turned upon his pursuer and clinched him, forcing him to the earth.”
At that time Rosa Johnson, John’s daughter, ran toward the two farmers after she had heard the gunshots. Without thought to her own safety, she wrangled the gun out of the hands of Coleman Hawkins. Another neighborhood resident had heard the commotion and came to the two men. Both men agreed to let each other go.
What should have been the end of the violence – was not. Apparently Hawkins was either still enraged or looking toward the future of being tried for attempted murder, that he entered a barn on his farm and shot himself. His wife and son, Rufus, had tried to follow him when they saw him go toward the barn but they didn’t reach him in time.
The ditch that seemed to lay at the center of the quarrel had been awarded by the court so that Johnson could drain his land. He had requested Hawkins give him an outlet for three to four years but had been refused. So Johnson had turned to the court and the court had forced the construction of the ditch through Hawkins’ land.
It was also discovered that the pistols that Hawkins had used to fire upon Johnson and to commit suicide had been purchased the day prior to the incident at the railway station.
The conclusion of the story read, “The remains of Coleman Hawkins were interred in the Anderson cemetery, over which was erected a handsome granite shaft that can be plainly seen from the Alexandria road as the traveler turns to the right after passing out of the iron bridge crossing White river. The widow of Coleman Hawkins yet resides on the old farm, and has earned for herself the reputation of being one of the best farm managers in the county, having carefully preserved the fortune left her by her husband.”
The son of Coleman Hawkins born about 1860 ended up marrying the niece of John J. and Dolly (Mullis) Johnson on July 30, 1881. Olive Belle Johnson was born in August 1865 to James Wilson and Amanda (Mullis) Johnson. The couple had three children – Urmine, Vesta and Lucy. It is believed that George died between 1884 and 1887 since Olive married again.
John Lafayette Johnson and Katie Blazer
My maternal great-grandparents resided in and married in Madison County, Indiana. Katie’s father, Franklin Blazer, had died when she was a small girl. I found her uncles, John and George Blazer but her aunts – Mary Jane and Elizabeth still remained elusive. Or were they?
I re-read a letter my grandfather, Glen R. Johnson (son of John and Katie), had sent to my cousin’s mother.
“My uncle on my mother side Uncle Cole Hawkins shot Uncle John Johnson and then killed himself. My mother was a young girl at the time this happened and she worked for Aunt Lib Hawkins and Uncle Cole. Uncle John Johnson did not die from being shot but he carried the bullet in his body until he died several years later.”
Somehow Coleman Hawkins and his wife, “Lib” (Elizabeth), were related to my grandfather through his mother. Could Elizabeth Hawkins be Franklin Blazer’s sister, Elizabeth? I didn’t have enough documentation to say for sure but I was going on the assumption that she was. I couldn’t find any other relationship other than through the Johnson side and the marriage of my grandfather’s aunt to the Hawkins’ son, George.
I had spent some time earlier in my research to dig up information on the children of Coleman and Elizabeth in case I could verify any other relationships.
Mary Jane Blazer
Then I ran across a listing in the 1870 US Census for an “MJ Webb” living next door to Franklin’s brother’s family. “MJ” and her husband, Marion, were enumerated with four children. The only reason this jumped out at me is because in the George and Amanda Blazer household is “Jas Webb, blacksmith”. Going back to the Historical sketches and reminiscences of Madison county, Indiana, I located an entry about Jasper Webb as a blacksmith. The Blazer family obviously had close ties with the Webb family. Could “MJ” Webb actually be Mary Jane Blazer? The 1880 Census for the Webb family lists Marion Webb, age 40, living with his wife, Mary J. Webb, age 38, and children, Tena, Rufus, Lydia, Wilson, and Horace. By the 1900 Census, Mary J. Webb is widowed and lists herself as a mother of 6 children – all living. Living with her is her son, Horace, and daughter, Maud. Mary J. Webb is also found in the 1910 Census and living with her is her daughter, Maud, with husband and small daughter. The last census she is found is the 1920 Census living with her widowed son, Rufus. The Indiana Room at the Anderson Public Library shows that Mary J. Webb’s obituary was published in the June 7, 1929 edition of the local newspaper.
I’ve had a photograph in my possession for quite sometime of Elizabeth Hawkins and Tena Stanley. Trying to figure out how Tena Stanley fit into my family tree, I’d contacted the Indiana Room for Tena’s obituary. They emailed me four news accounts. I went back over each one. The one published in the Anderson Herald on April 8, 1942 listed her survivors as one brother, Horace Webb, and a sister, Maud Peterson. BINGO!
That was more documentation that Tena Stanley had once been Tena Webb. And with the picture I had of Tena and Elizabeth – that led me to believe that Tena and Elizabeth were related – which it appeared that Elizabeth was Tena’s aunt – sister of Tena’s mother, Mary Jane Blazer Webb.
So the tangled family tree looks like this:
Katie J. Blazer: My maternal great-grandmother’s uncle by marriage, Coleman Hawkins, who was married to her father’s sister, Elizabeth Blazer, shot her husband’s (John Lafayette Johnson) uncle, John James Johnson. My great-grandfather’s aunt, Olive Belle Johnson, married Coleman and Elizabeth’s son, George Hawkins. Tena Webb married for the last time to Nelson Stanley, and was the niece of Elizabeth Blazer Hawkins and Franklin Blazer and first cousin to my great-grandmother, Katie J. Blazer.
So what happened to John James Johnson? He lived four more years after being shot by Coleman Hawkins, dying from heart disease in an instant.
UPDATE: Not only did Olive B. Johnson marry into the Hawkins family, but so did her cousin, John Marshall Johnson, son of John James Johnson - the man Coleman Hawkins shot! Marshall – as he was known – married Hawkins’ daughter, Rosa Jane. There was probably quite a bit of tension in the Marshall and Rosa Johnson household after the shooting incident – yet the couple, who married on December 17, 1881, remained married until Marshall’s death in 1921. Their union produced seven children – Walter, Roy, Grover, Alta, James Leroy, Georgia and Arris. | <urn:uuid:ac722285-61c1-4319-97df-a3de36ed8736> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allmybranches.wordpress.com/category/records/page/4/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98393 | 2,526 | 1.5625 | 2 |
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