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Post by SproutsMom on Oct 25, 2007 17:43:48 GMT -5
Grade: B. Bitty kitty is a sweet little guy. He has soft, deep grey fur, with white accents, and a lavender ribbon. He has sewn eyes, pink nose, and pink mouth. His whiskers are clear. His head, arms, and legs are jointed. His tail is not, but there is a wire in his tail for posability. The accompanying book is "Bitty Kitt's Family Album", in the vein of the one that comes with Bitty Bear. My daughter loves the Bitty Bunch, they are toys for her babies, but I find them a bit expensive for what you get. I think they are more of a $8 toy, even with the book. | <urn:uuid:01cd809c-c36b-4950-b947-3ddb231a5794> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://agplaythings.proboards.com/post/67351/Thread | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703682988/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112802-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982217 | 167 | 1.507813 | 2 |
A: Phytosyn™ is a proprietary blend that aids with digestion and the elimination of toxins, thereby helping your body to absorb the maximum amount of nutrients.
Additional benefits Phytosyn™ include:
- Increasing bioavailability
- Boosting the metabolism and burning more fats and calories
- Fighting allergies and inflammation
- Replenishing trace elements
- Improving digestion.
Q: Is Omega 3 from plant oils better than that of krill oil?
A: Not all Omega 3s are the same. The three main forms are eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). EPA and DHA are considered long-chain forms of Omega 3 and are found in krill, krill oil supplements, fish, fish oil supplements, and algae extract. ALA, the short-chain form, is found in plant sources like walnuts, flax seed, canola and soybean oil, and, to a lesser degree, green leafy vegetables. The body needs to convert the short-chain version to a long-chain version in order to make use of it—but this conversion doesn't happen very rapidly. It is therefore easier for the body to absorb long-chain forms of Omega 3 than convert the short chain forms.
Krill oil has further benefits compared to sources rich in ALA Omega 3 fatty acids:
Krill Oil is less perishable than ALA Omega 3 Sources – compared to ALA based sources of Omega 3, krill oil is less perishable and has a longer shelf life. ALA rich sources of Omega 3 such as flax seed can become rancid much faster.
Q: How soon will I see results from supplementing with Omega 3?
A: It will vary depending on the concentration of the fish oil, and current nutritional state, dosage, and current health. A report “feel better” and experience “clearer thinking” and “enhanced wellbeing” within 2 weeks is usually expected. For optimal results, it is recommended that Omega 3’s are taken daily for at least two months to evaluate their benefits, and also a reduction in the intake of saturated, hydrogenated, and trans-fats.
Q: What is the difference between Omega 3 and Omega 6?
A: Both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are essential polyunsaturated fatty acids. They are called essential because you need them for good health yet your body cannot make them. You should consume a proper balance of these fatty acids in your diet in order to obtain their benefits and prevent deficiency. Both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are important for your brain function and your normal growth and development.
Omega-3 fatty acids are extremely important for our health — probably the most important. Omega-3 acids may reduce inflammation in the body along with helping to improve cognitive function, heart health and joint performance. They do this by countering the pro-inflammatory effects of omega-6’s.
Omega-6 fatty acids are the most commonly consumed polyunsaturated fats in a person’s diet. There are two key dietary omega-6 fatty acids, one found in plants, called linoleic acid (LA), and the other found in meats, called arachidonic acid (AA). Fish has no omega-6 fatty acids. The top three omega-6 fats in a standard diet are soybean oil, cottonseed oil and corn oil.
The ratio of 6’s to 3’s is an important consideration for your health because LA tends to gear up the inflammatory process. Omega 6 acids may increase inflammation in the body. Inflammation is crucial for survival—when a joint is injured the immune response sends fluid to protect the joint and begin the healing process. The inflammatory process is crucial for survival, but also how it requires, an efficient set of checks and balances. This dietary imbalance between Omega 3 and Omega 6 may explain the rise of such diseases as asthma, coronary heart disease, many forms of cancer, auto-immunity and neurodegenerative diseases, all of which are believed to stem from inflammation in the body. The imbalance between Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids may also contribute to obesity, depression, dyslexia, hyperactivity and even a tendency toward violence.
Q: What is the difference between EPA (Eicosapentanoic acid) and DHA (Docosahexanoic acid)?
A: Both EPA and DHA are important Omega 3 fatty acids. These fatty acids cannot be produced in the human body, and therefore have to be provided from sources outside. However, the roles of DHA and EPA in the body are very different from each other. Let us find out the differences between them:
DHA Omega 3 is one of the most complex and beneficial of the omega three fatty acids. It has an important role to play in the development of the brain and the nervous system. It is especially important in the case of pregnant women. In the adults, it is important for the normal functioning of the adult brain and the nervous system.
EPA is also a very important fatty acid. Though it also has an important role to play so far as the human brain is concerned, its role is more important in the case of the hormone and immune system.
Q: What are the disadvantages of Krill oil?
A: One of the disadvantages of krill oil over fish oil capsules is that it tends to be more expensive. However, it must be remembered that krill oil has the added benefits of the powerful antioxidant Astaxanthin and the different structure of the Omega 3 that lets it be more easily absorbed into the body. In addition, because of the high levels of antioxidants in krill oil, it has a longer shelf life than fish oil. | <urn:uuid:c1caea8f-8e16-417d-8e1f-1ddf4b4f0901> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://best4.co.za/faqs | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94946 | 1,212 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Are you wondering where all your money went? Many people face the same conundrum at the end of each month. After taking care of the bills and expenses, you find that there is no money left over. When you sit down to calculate where you spent it, you are unable to remember over half the transactions. This is why budgeting is an important skill to acquire. Keeping a monthly budget enables you to stay in control of your income and expenses. Else, you would end up facing the same situation month after month. Here are five tools you can use to improve your budgeting skills.
Mint.com is fast becoming a preferred money management tool for people looking to plan their monthly expenses. The level of security offered to users is high and all the information you store is safe. The best thing about the website is that it is extremely user-friendly in design and navigation. You can easily create a budget and enhance your skills. Mint.com is completely free to use which makes it even greater for use.
Save Benjis is an application designed for your iPhone and (Read More....) | <urn:uuid:632b5b01-a7cd-41f1-a773-7461755bdb25> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://thepersonalsecurity.com/archives/tag/your-money | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956195 | 223 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Travel technology forum
Language guides for iPods
As someone that studied Indonesian for 5 years many (many) years ago, I wanted to brush up the conversation skills for my upcoming trip. Likewise, I learned some basic Thai when travelling to Thailand last year.
Here are some useful sites that I have found that have FREE downloadable podcasts and PDF language guides.
Thanks to info on Travelfish, I have converted some of these PDF guides to text format to load onto my iPod so I can follow the language lessons on my iPod on those long bus rides!)
48 lessons available via iTunes or from the website. Includes PDF guides. I have found these excellent for my refresher training!
Lots of podcast lessons plus PDF transcripts. Available via iTunes. I found these very good. I notice that they have now added videos to their range which show the words they are teaching in Thai script, in English and in phonetic spelling.
9 lessons available - podcasts and PDF transcripts. Can be accessed via iTunes.
MANY LANGUAGES (incl Indo, Thai, Viet, Laos, Malay, - but many others)
I just discovered these on the World Nomads insurance website. haven't listened to them yet so can rate them. The have MP3 podcasts for iPods (not via iTunes as far as I know), applications for iTouch/iPhone and PDF files.
MP3 and PDF files. Just discovered these this week as well, and haven't checked them out yet.
Sorry, am unable to do links - Somtam, maybe you can fix them up? Also feel free to move to a more appropriate forum if necessary.
#1 Posted: 13/6/2009 - 05:50
Thanks for that -- excellent... see -- you can add links ;-)
The WorldNomads ones are particularly good -- they include phrases like "Don't shoot, the drugs aren't mine!"
#2 Posted: 13/6/2009 - 07:55
Busylizzy I need to brush up my Bahasa Indonesia too and that Indonesian language course is excellent! Many thanks.
Not so sure about the learn Thai thing...too much (unnecessary) new vocabulary all at once in lesson 1 for a complete beginner IMO. Pinkchilli seems a bit better, easier to follow and memorize.
Not at all impressed by the world nomads and intrepid travel language courses however!
#3 Posted: 29/6/2009 - 20:33
19th June, 2009
Location Global Village
Messaging not enabled.
Hi busylizzy, thanks for the links. I can recommend the learn-thai-podcast which we used last year to develop a few words, numbers and phrases. The video version was really useful. And a great way to pass time on a long bus journey.
You can also search iTunes for language podcasts which is where i came across the Thai series.
#4 Posted: 8/7/2009 - 16:31
Time for an update - this time for Laos!
In prep for my upcoming trip, I'm trying to learn some basic Lao. There doesn't seem to be as much available as for Thai and Indo, but I've found a few things that might be of interest to others. Unfortunately, I haven't found much in podcast format, but the first one is in MP3 format that you can listen to while on the move.
1. Intrepid and WorldNomads have put together a 15min 'dialogue' in MP3 format and in an iPhone App which covers some of the basic conversational words. There is also a link for you to download a PDF of the script to help you follow along.
2. Laos 411 have a webpage dedicated to the Lao (travel-related words, phonetic spelling and audio files that you can listen to). It's a bit annoying in that each time you click on the audio file it pops up in a separate window, but I think by printing the page you would have a useful phraseguide to keep on hand.
3. Lao Connection has a few pages on language, and includes info on the tones and script. The website looks a bit crappy to me and I haven't had the patience to look at it in more detail yet - but maybe you will find it useful.
4. SEAsite Laos is a site (apparently) run by University in Illinois. It has about 30 short lessons, and you can listen to audio files, and do the exercises/tests after each lesson. Again, the website seems a bit archaic,but if you have the patience and time to work through it, it looks like it could be good. The media files are RAM format so you may need RealPlayer or VLC to play them.
Personally, I prefer podcasts and don't have the inclination to learn online, hence my less-than-positive comments about the online options. But - hey, these are all free, so I guess I can't complain too much!
Hope this is useful to someone.
#5 Posted: 7/5/2011 - 11:46
#6 Posted: 7/5/2011 - 12:07
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Not a member? you can join here. | <urn:uuid:45b763f8-6894-44c6-ae83-b88502401bd0> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.travelfish.org/board/post/traveltechnology/6502_language-guides-for-ipods | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932245 | 1,095 | 1.59375 | 2 |
As we manage an expanding amount of digital media, multiplied by an increasing number of devices, the question for many of us has become how to have all of our media accessible on all of our devices all the time. Media streaming is a crowded and fast-moving field, but at the moment the crown is held by Zecter’s ZumoCast.
Like many of its competitors, ZumoCast is comprised of two parts: an application that runs on your home Mac or PC and a universal app that you install on any or all of your iOS devices. Unlike many of those rivals, though, ZumoCast is free—and you get more than you pay for. The app allows you to access not only videos and music but also pictures and even documents from folders that you designate.
Setup is simple: when you install the iOS app from the App Store, you’ll be prompted to download the desktop version for your platform; ZumoCast requires an Intel Mac running Mac OX 10.5 or later or a PC running Windows. Allow a little time for ZumoCast to scan your media folders and you’ll be off and streaming in no time.
ZumoCast takes care of all the heavy lifting for you, meaning that there’s no need, for example, to convert videos into iOS-compatible formats; for music, it can access your iTunes library, making available not only all of your artists, albums, and songs, but also any playlists you’ve created. And because ZumoCast takes advantage of iOS 4’s multitasking abilities, it can keep playing music in the background when you’re checking your e-mail or Twitter.
I ran into very few media files that ZumoCast wouldn’t play back, mainly those protected by Digital Rights Management such as videos and older music purchased from the iTunes Store. It’s also worth noting that larger videos—those in high-definition, for example—take longer before they’re ready to play. On a local network, I rarely noticed any skips or jumps in video performance. The app adjusts the streaming quality of video depending on your connection, but it appears to prioritize quality over small size; on a two-bar 3G connection, I was presented with a slow-loading but still good-looking video. Music played back smoothly on a 3G connection, though ZumoCast lowers the audio quality by default (an option you can disable in the application’s Settings).
But one of the things that sets ZumoCast apart from other streaming apps is that it also offers Dropbox-style access to files on your home computer. Just point the software running on your Mac towards any folder and those files will show up in the iOS apps. You can also access your files via a Web browser using Zecter’s ZumoDrive service, which provides 1GB of free storage (you can get more storage space by trying out different features of the service or by referring friends).
While it supports the standard file types—text, DOC, PDF, etc.—ZumoCast also lets you view pretty much any arbitrary file. Granted, you’ll get plenty of garbage characters and lose any existing formatting, but if all you need is a quick reminder of what was in that file you created using an obsolete word processor, ZumoCast can help you out. You cannot, however, edit any of the files or search their contents—for that, you’ll need to open them in a more full-featured app.
If you’re traveling and expecting to be without an Internet connection for a while, there’s no need to worry: ZumoCast lets you download files to your iOS device with the tap of its Download button—you can then view those files right in ZumoCast or open them in a compatible application. For video files that aren’t iOS-compatible, ZumoCast will convert them on your home computer before download, so that you’ll be able to actually watch them (that adds a little time to the entire process, though). Keep in mind, though, that if you're on a 3G connection, ZumoCast limits you to files under 10MB. Finally, if you’re carting around sensitive files, you can set a four-character passcode that’s required for access, though it’s an all-or-nothing affair—you can’t just restrict certain folders.
My gripes with ZumoCast are fairly minor. For one thing, in some cases its full-screen mode doesn’t actually span the whole screen: when you’re viewing pictures or documents, the app’s upper and lower toolbars stick around, which can be a bit distracting. There’s also no way to search your music, videos, or documents, so I hope you remember where you put everything. I also ran into a few random crashes here and there, but they were neither frequent nor reproducible in most cases.
In the end, ZumoCast adroitly solves the problem of getting access to your extensive digital media collection on your small-capacity portable devices. Add in the ability to view and download files, and you have yourself an extremely functional portal into your home computer—all for an unbeatable price.
[Dan Moren is a senior associate editor at Macworld.] | <urn:uuid:4736bdad-7359-46a0-84c2-3d5fe5dcf545> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.macworld.com/article/1156038/zumocast.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936076 | 1,117 | 1.6875 | 2 |
NOVEMBER 4, 2012—Even as New York City struggles to get to its feet following the devastating blow from Hurricane Sandy, critical subway, rail, bus and ferry transportation links are slowly returning thanks to major and often unheralded, behind-the-scene efforts.
One of those is the iconic Staten Island Ferry, which is a proud symbol and vital commuter link for many Staten Islanders. The bright “safety orange” fleet of ferries carries almost 22 million commuters and tourists annually between the St. George Terminal on the north shore of Staten Island and the Whitehall Terminal at The Battery in lower Manhattan.
The ferry resumed service on Nov. 2, following what NYC Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan called “around-the-clock” efforts to repair the damage.
“The Staten Island Ferry, where I road out storm, was hit pretty hard,” James DeSimone, Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer, Ferry Division, NYCDOT, told Marine Log. “The good news is that no one was injured and the ferries survived unscathed due to the expertise of our captains and crews, who manned the vessels throughout the night, tending the moorings and working the engines alongside the Ferry Maintenance Facility piers and our shore staff who supported them. As the storm approached, we clocked frequent gusts over 75 knots before our weather station failed,” says DeSimone.
The ferries were on heavy weather moorings, but one mishap did occur when two moorings on the unmanned, laid up 1,200-passenger ferry Alice Austen let go. DeSimone, however, says ferry crews quickly responded to the problem and secured the vessel.
Above, passengers board the John A. Noble, a sister vessel to the Alice Austen. At right, the Whitehall Ferry Terminal in lower Manhattan
The ferry terminals did not fare as well, says DeSimone. “Our facilities in both Staten Island and Manhattan were inundated with saltwater.” He says about four to five feet of saltwater flooded lower level offices, shops and store rooms in both the terminals and the maintenance facility. He also points out there was a tremendous amount of damage in both terminals to electrical and mechanical systems and to a number of piers and slips.
“Thankfully, we had no injuries or damage to the vessels, but did suffer significant electrical and mechanical damage to both terminals which prevented us from resuming service immediately. All of the electrical relays and controllers in the slips were inundated with salt water. So, it took a major effort to get two slips operational in each terminal, let alone clearing debris.”
But thanks to the efforts of our employees the ferry was able to resume regular half hour service on Nov. 3. “I cannot say enough about how our captains, crews and shore staff conducted themselves,” says DeSimone.
FEBRUARY 4, 2013 — New York City headquartered McAllister Towing reports that Buckley McAllister has been promoted to the position of President. His father, Captain Brian A. McAllister, President of the company since 1984, will remain as Chairman.
Buckley McAllister joined McAllister Towing in 1998 and has served as the company's Vice President and General Counsel since that time. Prior to joining McAllister Towing, Buckley was an Associate at Hill, Betts and Nash LLP. He is a member of the bar in New York, California and a number of federal jurisdictions. In addition, Mr. McAllister is also a Director of Steamship Mutual Underwriting Association Trustees (Bermuda) Limited, Director of the U.S. Coast Guard Foundation and Vice Chairman for the American Waterways Operators.
He is a member of the fifth generation of the McAllister family that has owned and operated McAllister Towing since 1864.
Captain Brian A. McAllister has been working at McAllister Towing since 1959. Along with other members of the fourth generation of the family, Brian purchased McAllister Towing from the third generation in 1974. He became President in 1984 and became sole owner in 1998.
"After the company's nearly 150 years in the industry it is with extreme gratification that I announce the successful passing of the Presidency to my son Buckley McAllister," said Captain McAllister. "Working side by side with him since 1998, I am confident that Buckley and my other son Eric, the company's Chief Financial Officer, will continue to provide our traditional brand of unsurpassed service to the maritime industry."
As well as Buckley and Eric McAllister, other fifth generation family members serve in key executive positions. Captain A.J. McAllister III is Senior Vice President of Sales, Andrew McAllister is Vice President of Information Technology and Captain Jeffrey McAllister is Senior Docking Pilot in New York.
McAllister Towing is one of the oldest towing and transportation companies in the United States and has been providing its service to customers since Captain James McAllister founded the company in 1864. The company operates a modern fleet of more than 75 tugs in a dozen ports covering the U.S. East Coast from Portland, Maine to San Juan, Puerto Rico. In each port, McAllister Towing is engaged in ship docking, general harbor towing, coastal towing and bulk transportation.
FEBRUARY 7, 2013—In a Safety Alert on January 29, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) directed the suspension of operations of offshore drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico that use GE-manufactured bolts on the Lower Marine Riser Package to connect the Blowout Preventer (BOP). Before returning the rigs to service, the bolts would have be certified by an independent third-party to be in compliance with recommended heat-treatment practices or the existing bolts would have to be examined and certified by an independent third-party that they are fit for purpose.
The faulty bolts came to light during a BSEE meeting with industry on January 24 which reviewed a pollution incident involving the discharge of synthetic base mud (SBM) into the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) due to a loss of integrity of a LMRP H-4 connector. During the meeting, a qualified third-party presented preliminary evidence that the stress corrosion cracking caused by hydrogen embrittlement was a contributor to the incident. Zinc electroplating without proper baking, as per ASTM B633, was cited as a possible cause of the hydrogen embrittlement. During the meeting, BSEE was informed of two other rigs as having H-4 connector bolt failures.
BSEE recommended that operators should make an inventory of their contracted rigs [currently involved in well operations in the GOM Outer Continental Shelf or planned to conduct well operations in the GOM] and investigate the bolts of the LMRP and Wellhead connectors.
For detailed instructions on identifying affected bolts please refer to the Safety Notice issued by GE Oil and Gas on January 25, 2013, titled, “H4 Connector Bolt Inspection Required(P/N H10004-2)” at the following: http://www.ge-energy.com/connector-update.jsp
Operators with H-4 connectors, as identified in GE’s safety notice, and that have been verified through documentation that the connector contains any affected bolts, should immediately notify BSEE. You should also consult with your contractors and subcontractors to determine the appropriate inspection, disposition and corrective actions. BSEE will require an independent third-party certification that confirms proper inspection and refurbishment processes were completed prior to reinstallation of any affected bolts.
Operators should review the QA/QC programs for all equipment vendors (contracted and subcontracted) to ensure that all equipment is being manufactured to the required specifications.
Special attention should be given to ensure proper heat treating has taken place in accordance with the specifications.
As a result of the news, Investment banker Dahlman Rose says share prices of the offshore drilling group were coming under pressure and could be negatively affected for the first quarter by this work stoppage depending on the length of the downtime associated with the maintenance.
Dahlman Rose says Diamond Offshore has already stated that it will replace the bolts on 30 BOPs, representing two-thirds of its fleet. Each repair is expected to take one day per BOP and be completed within six weeks. This would include rigs that are not located in the GOM.
Other operators are determining which LMRP connectors are using the faulty GE bolts and, therefore, need to be replaced.
MARCH 14, 2013 — ABB has led a $12 million investment in Scotrenewables Tidal Power, a provider of tidal turbine systems, to support the roll out of a new hydrokinetic device and to expand ABB's renewable energy assets.
60 MW multi-turbine tidal energy farm
ABB's participation was made through its venture capital unit, ABB Technology Ventures (ATV), which invests in early and growth stage companies with technologies of strategic importance to the industries it serves. The investment round included participation from existing strategic investors Total New Energies, a unit of oil major Total, and Fred. Olsen, the Norwegian maritime conglomerate, through its associated Bonheur and Ganger Rolf holding companies.
The funding is being used specifically to roll out a larger and more advanced tidal energy conversion system known as the SR2000. The floating 2 MW turbine includes a number of innovations to deliver simplicity, low mass, rapid connection/disconnection and heightened survivability. Scheduled for completion next year, it will be the first of a number of commercial units installed in the Lashy Sound tidal demonstrator project in Orkney, where Scotrenewables is based.
"ABB led a comprehensive review of tidal stream technology and concluded that Scotrenewables was well below its peers in capital outlay per megawatt and overall power delivery cost," said Grant Allen, senior VP of ATV. "Scotrenewables has designed a remarkably robust hydrokinetic unit which, by nature of its easily accessible floating design bypasses many of the maintenance issues that confront other marine startups."
ABB says that aligning with Scotrenewables is a natural, strategic fit for ABB given the switchgear, transformers, cabling and other electrical gear being used in the containerized design. Through its U.K. operations, ABB engineers have already been working closely with the company on packaging and integration. The ATV investment complements current competencies in marine energy harvesting through ABB's prior early-stage investment in Aquamarine, a specialist in near-shore wave power development.
Barry Johnson, CEO of Scotrenewables, remarked, "We are delighted to have concluded this major investment deal and to have secured funding for the next vital stage in the development of our innovative floating tidal technology. ABB's involvement allows us to tackle complex cabling and grid connection challenges, thereby speeding the technology development process."
MAY 2, 2013 — Mexico's national oil company, Pemex, yesterday signed a letter of intent with Spanish shipbuilder Hijos de J. Barreras (Astilleros Barreras) and its three shareholders agreeing terms for it to take a 51 percent share in the company.
Astilleros Barreras, whose shipyard is located in Vigo, northwest Spain, is in the process of coming out of bankruptcy. Under the arrangements signed yesterday, Pemex and the Barreras shareholders would put an initial Euros 10 million into the company, which is seen as providing it with sufficient working capital. Pemex said yesterday that the yard is expected to resume operations "within weeks."
Pemex said that its fleet is in need of renewal and that the medium term objective of the investment was to acquire knowhow that would enable it to create the capacity to build specialized ships in Mexico. It did not say what its short term objective was, but it would seem logical that this would include placing some initial newbuilding orders at Barreras.
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When Scott Marshall left school in 1951 he was no stranger to the Leach Pottery in his home town of St Ives, Cornwall. His two uncles, Bill Marshall and Kenneth Quick worked there and Scott, who had a deep interest in pottery, became the third and last of the apprenticed potters at the Leach Pottery.
After ten happy years there - he would smile as he recalled the stories that Bernard would tell of his travels, sometimes starting in the morning coffee break and carrying on to the afternoon tea break - he left to start Boscean Pottery near St Just, Cornwall where he continued to pot until his death in 2008 at the age of seventy-two.
After ten years at the Leach Pottery in St Ives, Scott Marshall left to start Boscean Pottery with Richard Jenkins in St Just, a few miles from Land's End. They built their own oil-fired four chamber climbing kiln, big enough to fire 3,000 items at a time. It was capable of reaching very high temperatures and enabled them to produce some beautiful rich dark glazes.
After the death of his partner, Richard, Scott found the kiln, which had been so convenient and versatile for large-scale production, too large for the limited output of one man. He tried using only two of the chambers, but found it impossible to reach a temperature greater than 1,200° C. The kiln was demolished in 1981 and an electric kiln took its place. Scott watched as the kiln, which had taken the best part of a year to build was flattened in half a day. He used some of the wedge-shaped bricks to pave a path to the front door of his studio.
Scott operated Boscean Pottery until his death in 2008, producing the type of work that he is well known for in natural colours. His son, Seth, gave up pottery in early 2000 in favour of painting, which is pottery's loss. He made very attractive highly coloured items that complemented his father's work. | <urn:uuid:e0cd0741-9dba-4da1-815a-524b764b188c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.studiopottery.com/cgi-bin/pp.cgi?item=6461 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00036-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.986626 | 418 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Hearts in Atlantis (film)
- I wouldn't have missed a single minute of it, Bobby. Not for the whole world.
- It will be the kiss by which all others in your life will be judged... and found wanting.
- We're all just passing through, kiddo. Just passing through, that's all.
- Sometimes when you're young, you have moments of such happiness, you think you're living in someplace magical, like Atlantis must have been? then we grow up and our hearts break into two.
- Whenever it wants, the past can come kicking the door down. And you never know where it's going to take you. All you can do is hope it's a place you want to go.
- Why do we always expect home to stay the same? Nothing else does.
- It's funny how when you're a kid, a day can last forever. Now, all these years seem just like a blink.
- I never heard from Ted Brautigan again. Not that I didn't think of him. I always have. I always will. Because that summer was the last of my childhood. And though I never again saw what people were thinking, there was an enduring gift that he left me. What Ted did was open my eyes, and let the future in. I wouldn't have missed a minute of it. Not for all the world.
- [Referring to Ted] You're a strange person.
- Carol: You're a strange person.
- Ted: Shhh! Tell no one.
- Ted: We're all time's captives, hostages to eternity.
- Bobby: Ben Jonson?
- Ted: No, Boris Pasternak. He was a Russian of no account, I think.
- Bobby: Ted, "my father never bought a drunk a drink". What does that mean exactly?
- Ted: It means he was a good man, he was honest, and he never added to the troubles of the world. Okay? Good night.
- [Bobby and Carol are riding the Ferris wheel. It stops and swings for a second. This unnerves Carol]
- Bobby: Don't be afraid.
- Carol: When we swung out, I... I thought we were coming loose and falling to our doom.
- Bobby: We're as safe as can be. [Kisses her suddenly]
- Carol: [Slightly confused] What do you think you're doing?
- Bobby: Well, I thought you wanted me to.
- Carol: I just wasn't ready, that's all.
- Bobby: Okay. [Turns away]
- Carol: [Pauses] Bobby, do it again.
- Bobby: No, I better not. You'll tell.
- Carol: No, it'll be our secret. Hurry, before we go down. [Bobby nervously pauses, not knowing what to do] Bobby, I'm dying here. [Bobby kisses her again. She giggles and puts her head on his shoulder. He puts his arm around her] Thank you, Bobby. That was just the nicest thing.
- Bobby: "And it will be the kiss by which all others in our life will be judged."
- Carol: [Looks at him] What?
- Bobby: I don't know. Sounded better when Ted said it.
Last modified on 5 August 2012, at 08:59
↑Jump back a section | <urn:uuid:c0328ea3-ce07-429e-abaf-ea430c8d812b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hearts_in_Atlantis_(film) | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974736 | 731 | 1.632813 | 2 |
EWU Women’s Basketball Reaches Out to Community, In Many Ways
In conjunction with tonight's home game against Northern Arizona, Eagles partner with Spokane Guilds' School and Neuromuscular Center for its annual "Kids for Kids" Penny Drive
Click HERE for more information on the Spokane Guilds' School & Neuromuscluar Center "Kids for Kids" Penny Drive
In the midst of winning six of seven Big Sky Conference games over the last month, the Eastern Washington University women's basketball team has also been active off the court with a variety of community service projects.
Among its many initiatives, the Eagles have teamed up with the Spokane Guilds' School and Neuromuscular Center to help promote the organization's annual "Kids for Kids" Penny Drive. At tonight's (Feb. 2) home game versus Northern Arizona, members of the SGS&NMC will be on hand to pass out information and accept donations.
The primary goal of the penny drive is to raise awareness of children with developmental disabilities, so that when they enter the public school system they will be treated with the same respect and understanding as anyone else. Over the past 16 years, the "Kids for Kids" Penny Drive has raised $2,367,755 for disabled children in the Spokane community.
In addition to helping with the penny drive efforts, Eastern Washington Athletics donated 200 tickets for this game to those families who use the Spokane Guilds' School & Neuromuscular Center.
Each year, the SGS&NMC serves over 200 infants and toddlers in the Spokane area with medical evaluations, physical, occupational and speech/language therapies, as well as special education and access to full family support centers.
"We have always deemed it a priority within our program to be the type of people who give back and care about our community," said EWU head coach Wendy Schuller. "We know we are blessed to be in the positions we are in as part of Eastern Athletics. Anything we can do to give back and help those around us is really special to us."
The women's basketball squad, spearheaded by its junior class of Carrie Ojeda, Courtney Nolen and Jordan Schoening, also organized a shoe drive this season called Shoe-Za Palooza. The Eagles set up boxes at various home games, throughout campus and around Cheney to collect new and gently used shoes that will be donated to the Union Gospel Mission in Spokane, Wash. The team collected more than 100 pairs of shoes through their efforts.
Eastern participated in a similar campaign while on the road at Montana State last weekend. Schuller, along with her entire staff, coached the game in Bozeman barefoot in an effort to raise awareness and money for Samaritan's Feet - a non-profit organization aimed at providing footwear for impoverished children around the world.
Montana State's head coach Tricia Binford and her staff went barefoot as well to help promote the Barefoot Coaching Movement, which started in 2007 in an effort to raise awareness of the growing problem among impoverished children who suffer from foot-borne diseases and infections.
"We like to take any opportunity when it's there," said Schuller. "With us being in the middle of season right now, we are more visible. For things like the shoe drive and penny drive, it provides a great opportunity to use our visibility to help those causes. But we will continue to be as active in the spring and fall."
The Eagles also recently volunteered at the Special Olympics East Region Basketball Tournament. At the event, which was held on Jan. 29 on the EWU campus, members of the team and coaching staff helped with scoring, officiating and cheerleading/encouragement of the athletes.
The women's basketball team also helps every year with the Special Olympics Spring games and the East Region bowling tournament in the fall. | <urn:uuid:9a23df9a-a427-42b3-9321-7da666fdbd28> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.goeags.com/sports/w-baskbl/2011-12/releases/12wbbFeb2CommunityService | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960765 | 798 | 1.515625 | 2 |
According to a recent Gartner study, brands are increasingly paying for fake online reviews, and by 2014, 15% of all reviews will be fake.
And it's not too difficult to figure out why: research has shown that 88% of consumers turn to online reviews when making a purchase.
For obvious reasons, the scourge of fake reviews is a threat to popular reviews sites. After all, if fake reviews proliferate and consumers start to question online reviews in general, they could fall out of favor.
So one of the most prominent online reviews sites, Yelp, is fighting back. As detailed by the New York Times' David Streitfeld, the company, which went public earlier this year, thinks shaming businesses that purchase fake reviews might be the answer:
Like every Web site that depends on consumer critiques, Yelp has a problem with companies trying to manipulate their results. So it set up a sting operation to catch them. The first eight businesses — including a moving company, two repair shops and a concern that organizes treasure hunts — will find themselves exposed on Thursday.
For the next three months, their Yelp profile pages will feature a "consumer alert" that says: "We caught someone red-handed trying to buy reviews for this business."
Potential customers will see the incriminating e-mails trying to hire a reviewer.
Naturally, the businesses caught in Yelp's honey pot will probably be embarrassed by the badge of shame that now graces their Yelp profiles. But will it work?
The solution, or a can of worms?
Yelp's sting operation may give other businesses considering paying for reviews pause, but it's highly unlikely the company can scale these sting operations significantly. So business owners committed to faking it until they make it will probably assume, perhaps correctly, that the odds they'll be caught and punished are fairly low.
Other services have applied technology-based solutions to the challenge of weeding out fake reviews, but this opens the door to false positives. And without humans at the helm engaging in a law enforcement-like operation, sneaky business owners could theoretically try to frame their competitors. That, for obvious reasons, could create even bigger headaches.
You can't fool all of the people all of the time
So what's the answer? The concern over fake reviews is well-placed, but companies like Yelp may overestimate how much they need to do to protect users. Chances are most of us have spotted a review that looked suspicious and which was dismissed to some extent as a result. The ability of users to filter the wheat from the chaff will, obviously, vary from user to user, but it seems unlikely that every user believes what he or she reads.
Interestingly, businesses that would purchase fake reviews shouldn't underestimate users either: according to a study published earlier this year, the presence of bad reviews may actually improve conversions, suggesting that businesses trying to fool potential customers may ultimately be fooling themselves. | <urn:uuid:0687a2e5-c71e-482e-bcf2-031f402b3964> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/10923-yelp-s-answer-to-fake-reviews-a-badge-of-shame | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968669 | 600 | 1.585938 | 2 |
By Tara Bahrampour
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 2, 2010; A06
Muslim advocacy groups say an increasing number of Muslim and Arab U.S. citizens and permanent residents who travel abroad are facing new complications in returning to the United States because of heightened security.
An attempted Christmas day bombing on a Detroit-bound airplane caused soul-searching in government agencies after it became clear that the alleged would-be bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was not on a watch list. Since then, the no-fly list has swelled from 3,400 people to about 6,000, with thousands more on the list for travelers who warrant extra screening.
The lists are not made public, and most people don’t know they are on one until they arrive at the airport. In one case, an American says he has been barred from returning to the United States without explanation.
Raymond Earl Knaeble IV said that when he presented his U.S. passport at the airport in Bogota, Colombia, for a flight to Miami last month, “They came back and told me, ‘You can’t fly with any airlines to the USA.’ ”
Knaeble, 29, a California-born military contractor scheduled to start a job in Texas that week, said the airline sent him to the U.S. Embassy to straighten things out. There, he said, an FBI agent questioned him about his recent conversion to Islam and a trip to Yemen, where he had spent three months studying Arabic.
“He said, ‘I can’t give you back your passport,’ ” Knaeble said. That was almost three weeks ago, and Knaeble says no one has told him why.
Khalilah Sabra, director of the immigrant justice program at the Falls Church-based Muslim American Society, said that since Christmas the organization has seen a 50 percent increase in reports of extensive questioning and delays of Arabs and Muslims, to about 16 cases a month. “Getting out [of the U.S.] is okay. No one says anything, but when they try to come back they are not allowed in, or they are being questioned,” she said.
The Obama administration plans to replace rules instituted after the Christmas bombing attempt that stepped up airport screening of people traveling to or from 14 countries, or holding passports from those countries, to a system that focuses more on intelligence data such as red-flag travel patterns, senior officials said Thursday. It’s not clear whether that change will affect people who have faced increased difficulties traveling in recent months.
Government officials have said in recent weeks that the lists are likely to continue to grow. “The entire federal government is leaning very far forward on putting people on lists,” said Russell Travers, deputy director for Information Sharing and Knowledge Development at the National Counterterrorism Center, at a Senate hearing March 10. | <urn:uuid:29c712a7-309a-4cab-be43-db98bc76347e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theislamicworkplace.com/2010/05/14/more-u-s-muslims-facing-problems-in-return-from-travel-abroad/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966837 | 617 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Looking for traffic solutions in Grand Bend 0
Lambton Shores Deputy Mayor Elizabeth Davis-Dagg hopes there are some simple solutions to congestion and parking problems in Grand Bend.
The summer hotspot has always been busy and often on Friday's and Saturday's parking is difficult to find and traffic slows to a crawl on Highway 21 through the beach town. The Grand Bend Chamber of Commerce hosted a meeting to talk about the troubles and Davis-Dagg says some of the solutions suggested are simple.
"There were some very practical suggestion and implementing them will take very little cost, things such as signage which tells people where the free parking is so visitors could walk if they wanted to save some money," she says. Other ideas include adding angle parking to a number of streets including River Road and Parker Schoolhouse Avenue to get "the maximum parking available there."
There are other things that will be more difficult to solve, such as the traffic hotspot near Tim Horton's and a way to get residents of Merrywoods across Highway 21 to the Rotary Trail.
Mayor Bill Weber is confident some of the pressures can be eased with common sense solutions.
"There are some things we can do quickly," he says adding the municipality will look at an overall strategy hopefully before the next tourist season.
"Having your parking lots full is a good problem," says Weber. | <urn:uuid:e9aeec5d-da9d-4e30-83e6-9c1657d086e9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.sarniathisweek.com/2011/09/12/looking-for-traffic-solutions-in-grand-bend | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975633 | 275 | 1.539063 | 2 |
N Building is a commercial structure located near Tachikawa station amidst a shopping district. Being a commercial building signs or billboards are typically attached to its facade which we feel undermines the structures' identity. As a solution we thought to use a QR Code as the facade itself. By reading the QR Code with your mobile device you will be taken to a site which includes up to date shop information. In this manner we envision a cityscape unhindered by ubiquitous signage and also an improvement to the quality and accuracy of the information itself.
December 15th, 2009 we held an opening which included the limited release of an iPhone application made specifically for N Building. If a QR Code is static, what could we do with a dynamic device like the iPhone? Our proposed vision of the future is one where the facade of the building disappears, showing those inside who want to be seen. As you press on the characters their comments made on online appear in speech bubbles. You can also browse shop information, make reservations and download coupons. Rather than broadly tagging, we display information specific to the building in a manner in which the virtual (iPhone) serves to enhance the physical (N Building). Our goal is to provide an incentive to visit the space and a virtual connection to space without necessarily being present.
info (at) qosmo.jp
Project by teradadesign+Qosmo.
Music by Airtone.
Loading more stuff…
Hmm…it looks like things are taking a while to load. Try again? | <urn:uuid:a2aa3526-1ca7-489e-994d-1bd49cdbacc8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://vimeo.com/8468513 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00020-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953334 | 308 | 1.5 | 2 |
Because I have kids, and because I spend my day with other people's kids, I am always thinking about the line between enabling and empowering. When is my devotion to tracking down work, making sure kids do their best work, turning into enabling? Am I empowering them to learn by nagging, or simple enabling irresponsibility? It's for darned sure they won't be coddled at most universities or at most entry level jobs, but they won't have seven bosses and a schedule that would fell an ox, either. (Some of my students travel more than 5 hours a day, round trip, to get to school - after 6 hours of school and 2 hours of athletics).
To be honest, the question comes up with adults. When are you being a good friend, a generous giver and helper, and when is it time for self-reliance to kick in? I have been the receiver of generosity - mostly my parents' generosity and have been profoundly grateful. I am aware of the need to be generous with what I have - and I am very generous with my time, although I have little excess food or money to give, which makes me feel ungenerous, so it is constantly on my mind.
I feel a little parsimonious, though, when it comes to our tractor. People are always wanting to either borrow our tractor or have my husband come over with the tractor to save them from hand-tilling or hand-digging. It's stressful, because our tractor isn't that big and a lot of the jobs being asked for are on rough aʻa lava and much too big a job for what amounts to a jumped-up lawn tractor. Once we'd put tires (expensive) on the tractor only to have them chewed up by the lava on a friend's property - another time saw our tractor broken. Fortunately, my husband could fix it with a jury-rigged solution, but it was a bit worrisome to be without our tractor and without the means to fix it, should it need expensive parts.
I see on various online classified ads people looking for free or cheap livestock or places to live for work exchange, and some of the ads break my heart, and I wonder if I am being called to be generous - but we struggle to keep this place going. It means living simply (my son calls it "being cheap") and I would be hard pressed to feed a mouth or two extra. With a homestead which we're working to feed ourselves and not to produce a cash crop, we don't have the resources for an extra pair of hands - particularly as we are not at the point where we are even feeding ourselves completely. To me it seems you need to produce a cash crop before you can think about hiring - and work stay is a way of hiring - the electricity and the food cost money.
People look at our house and barn now, and (one friend, in particular) look at how far they have to go and think we should share. I am so aware of how much our parents have helped us, how that generosity has helped - but I also am aware of how really hard we worked to get here, and how hard we still have to work to both keep it and reach our self-sufficiency goals. The work is still hard, even if it doesn't show quite so much as when we lived in the shack and when the house was a shell with bare studs on the inside. I just would love to have enough extra produce to donate to the Food Bank, to help that homeless couple with a place to live and some board, to have so many sheep and producing chickens I could give that struggling family a few sheep and a small flock - hopefully, some day I will have that excess, but right now I slide into the second pay check of the month with $10 and we eat and live simply, and my neighbors are going to have to forgo the use of our tractor so we aren't faced with a big tractor sculpture in our barn rather than a working tractor. And I will satisfy my need to be generous with tracking down kids and being generous with time and help when they need to improve their grades. And keep praying about it, too, so I can find out ways to be generous. | <urn:uuid:de8b3d44-d8d1-458e-9a22-f9f1e0518d83> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://haplesshomestead.blogspot.com/2013/02/self-reliance.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980045 | 871 | 1.585938 | 2 |
By-laws of the International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods (as amended September, 2002)
The objectives of the International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods are:
- to create an international link between national societies, associations, and groups for Rorschach and Projective Techniques in order to facilitate scientific exchanges among specialists, practitioners and researchers in the field;
- to ensure publication of an international journal named RORSCHACHIANA and of a newsletter designed to facilitate communication among the membership;
- to safeguard the archives concerning the Rorschach and Projective Methods, and endeavor to make them easily accessible to members.
The International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods is a non-profit organization as defined by Article 60 of the Swiss Civil Code. It is situated in Switzerland. The address of the Society can be transferred to another country by decision of the Assembly of Delegates on recommendation of the Executive Board.
2.1 The Society does not assume any responsibility for a professional or commercial use of Society membership by individuals. The Society strongly discourages listing membership as a credential that implies professional competence.
2.2 The society recognizes as the only legitimate inkblots constituting the Rorschach Test those produced and published by Verlag Hans Huber of Bern, Switzerland.
The International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods is composed of collective members and honorary members.
3.1 Collective Members are societies, associations, federations or groups who wish to become a member of the Society and whose application has been approved according to the procedure described in Article 4 of the present by-laws. They must pay an annual membership fee. A federation is said to exist when more than one society, association, or group from a single country is admitted to membership in the Society.
So as to admit in the Society Rorschach Rorschach specialists who do not belong to a national society, association or group, either because there is no such association in their country, or because the association itself does not wish to belong to the Society, or for other reasons which have to be articulated, a special group is created within the Society for individual members. This group is a member of the Society as are other collective members. Individual members of the group must pay an individual annual fee.
3.2 Honorary members are persons who contribute or have contributed in an outstanding manner to the cause of the International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods and who have been elected by the Assembly of Delegates on proposal of the Executive Board. Honorary members are exempted of dues.
The procedures for admission are:
4.1 Societies, associations and groups must apply for admission according to the application formula described in the Rules of Procedure. The application is examined by the Executive Board, which makes a conditional decision. The agreement is made definitive by a vote of the Assembly of Delegates, by the vote of a majority plus one of those voting, provided that al least two-thirds of those eligible to vote actually cast their vote.
If the application is received in either of the two years prior to the year in which a Congress will be held, the Board, if finding the organization eligible for admission, will grant provisional admission and subsequently conduct a mail ballot among voting delegates to the Assembly of Delegates so that formal admission as a member organization may occur prior to the next formal meeting of the Assembly of Delegates. If the application is received during the year in which a Congress will be held, action will be taken concerning the application during the meeting of the Assembly of Delegates. In either instance, the admission is made definitive by a vote of the Assembly of Delegates, by the vote of a majority plus one of those voting, provided that at least two-thirds of those eligible to vote actually cast their vote.
4.2 Individual members must apply for admission according to the application formula described in the Rules of Procedure and explicate the reasons for their not belonging to a national society, association or group. Their application is examined by the election committee of the Executive Board which makes the decision.
Membership is terminated by:
b) Dissolution of the national society, association or group
c) Death in the case of individual members
d) Non payment of annual dues according to the terms defined in the Rules of Procedure
e) On decision by the Assembly of Delegates, voted by a majority of attending members, motivated by a breach of the by-laws or of ethical rules or professional rules. Motives for the decision must be clearly stated in the minutes of the session.
Finances of the Society include:
a) annual dues
b) any grants from States, Departments, Districts
c) any donations by foundations, member societies and other authorized sources
d) any profits form publications
e) half of any profits realized by a congress of the Society, the other half being retained by the organizing society
f) any other source authorized by laws and rules.
The International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods is directed by an Assembly of Delegates and an Executive Board.
7.1 The Assembly of Delegates is composed of all delegates of member societies and of the delegate of the group of individual members. Delegates serve as a liaison between their organization and the Society. Their activities should, to the best of their ability, represent the wishes and opinions of the organization that they represent. The Assembly of Delegates meets at the time of the Congress. It is presided over by the President of the International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods who is assisted by the Executive Board.
The Assembly of Delegates has all the powers of decision to ensure the rightful functioning of the Society, and more particularly:
- elects the Executive Board
- debates on the orientations of the Society
- approves the management of the Executive Board
- fixes the amount of the annual dues
All decisions, with the exception of the Elections to the Executive Board, are made by a show of hands or by a secret ballot on request of the President or an official Delegate. Elections are conducted with a secret ballot.
Only Delegates (or their designated Alternate) and the President have voting rights. In case of a tie vote, the President has the deciding vote. Vote by proxy is not admitted.
7.2 The Executive Board is composed of nine voting members plus several ex-officio non-voting advisors. The nine voting members consist of five officers, the President, the Past President, two Vice-Presidents, and the Executive Secretary, plus four Members-at-large. The ex-officio members are the Treasurer, the Curator and Associate Curator of the Rorschach Archives and Museum, the Editor of RORSCHACHIANA, the Editor of the BULLETIN, the President of the Organizing Committee of the preceding International Congress, the President/Chairperson of the Organizing Committee of the next Congress, and the Director of Hans Huber Verlag.
7.3 The Executive Board is in charge of the functioning of the Society according to the decisions and directions of the Assembly of Delegates, and of the management of finances. More particularly,
- The Executive Board develops and modifies the Rules of Procedure in accordance with the expressed intentions of the Assembly of Delegates.
- The Executive Board chooses the site of the next Congress and designates the society, association or group that will be in charge of its organization.
- The President calls the Assemblies of Delegates and the meetings of the Executive Board, and presides at them. The President represents the Society in all acts of civil life and is invested with all powers to that effect.
- The first Vice-President substitutes for the President in all functions if the latter is unable to do so.
- The Past President ensures the continuity of Executive Board deliberations and actions.
- The Secretary is in charge of all correspondence, log-books and archives. The Secretary drafts the minutes of the deliberations.
- The Treasurer is in charge of the account books of the Society, makes all payments directed by the Executive Board, and receives all payments. The Treasurer keeps in due order the books of the Society and reports on them to the Assembly of Delegates, which rules on the Treasurer's management.
- The Curator is in charge of the Rorschach Archives and Museum. The Curator is assisted by the Associate Curator.
- The President of the Organizing Committee of the Preceding Congress serves as an advisor for the preparation of the next Congress.
- The President/Chair of the Organizing Committee of the next Congress reports on the progress of preparations for the Congress.
- In case of a vacancy on the Board, the President designates a replacement until the next election.
The Executive Board meets at least once every year on the President's notice or at the request of one-third of its members. Decisions are made by the majority of attending members. In case of tie vote, the President has a deciding vote.
Eligibility requirements for election to the Executive Board are:
8.1 For Officers of the Executive Board:
a) Has achieved the doctoral degree or be approved for qualifications by the eligibility committee which consists of the President and at least one other officer of the Board.
b) Has been a member of the International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods for at least five years or has served as a Delegate to the Assembly of Delegates.
c) Has demonstrated significant contributions in Rorschach and/or Projective Methods
d) Persons completing two consecutive terms as President, Vice President, or Secretary are not eligible to be candidates for that same position for three years.
8.2 For Members-at-Large of the Executive Board:
a) Is a member of the International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods
b) Has demonstrated significant contributions in Rorschach and/or Projective Methods
c) Persons completing two consecutive terms as Member-at-Large are not eligible to be candidates for that position again for at least three years.
The procedures of election are:
A member society or federation will have one delegate and one alternate if the number of its members is less than 100, two delegates and two alternates if the number of its members is 100-199, and three delegates and three alternates if the number of its members is 200 or more.
Each member society or federation elects, according to its own rules, one to three delegates and one to three alternates, according to the size of its membership.
The names of the Delegates and Alternates must be known to the Executive Board before the meeting of the Assembly of Delegates.
Each Delegate has a single vote. The Alternate replaces the Delegate who is not able to attend the Assembly. The Alternate votes in place of the absent Delegate.
The group of individual members elects one Delegate and one Alternate. The elected Delegate must organize the vote among individual members to elect the Delegate for the next term.
9.2 President and Members of the Executive Board:
The President and the members of the Executive Board, with the exception of ex-officio members who are appointed by the Executive Board, are elected for a term of three years or until the next Congress, renewable, by the Assembly of Delegates, according to the Rules of Procedure.
The elected officers of the Executive Board should belong to different organizations and be from different countries.
The four Members-at-Large should belong to different organizations and be from different countries.
The new Executive Board and the new Delegates begin their term at the end of the Congress.
Dues of the member societies and federations are calculated according to a sliding scale based on the number of the members in the society or federation, and are fixed by the Assembly of Delegates. The Scale appears in the Rules of Procedure. Dues for individual members are fixed by the Assembly of Delegates.
It is the task of the Executive Board to decide on the orientation of the Journal RORSCHACHIANA and the BULLETIN of the Society, and make necessary decisions for their publication. To that purpose, Editors are appointed for each publication by the Executive Board for a three year term, which is renewable. The Editor responsible for RORSCHACHIANA will establish the content of issues, negotiate contracts with the publisher, and establish costs. He or she must submit each projected issue for the approval of the Executive Board.
Each member society, including those in federations, that has paid its dues is sent as many copies of Rorschachiana and the Bulletin as there are declared members in the society. Each individual member who has paid dues receives one copy of each.
The Congress of the International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods is held every three years in a different country. The period of the Congress may be changed by decision of the Assembly of Delegates on proposal of the Executive Board.
The organization of the Congress is entrusted to a member society by the Executive Board. The International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods advances moneys necessary to launch the Congress and assists the organizing society as much as possible.
After the Congress, the organizing society reimburses any moneys advanced by the International Society for the initial expenses. Profits from the Congress, if any, are divided, half for the organizing society and half for the International Society.
Dissolution of the Society can only be decided by an Extraordinary meeting of the Assembly of Delegates, called by the President. The Extraordinary Assembly of Delegates must be composed of more than half of its members. If the quorum is not reached, a second Assembly will be called on the same day and has the right to make decisions, regardless of the number of attending Delegates.
Decisions of the Extraordinary Assembly of Delegates are made by the vote of a majority plus one of those voting, provided that at least two-thirds of those eligible to vote actually cast their vote.
In case of dissolution, pronounced by the Assembly, the latter decides on the destiny of the financial balance and of the archives.
Modification of the by-laws may be proposed either by the Executive Board or by at least two thirds of the Delegates. The proposition must be sent by the Secretary to all the Delegates at least four months before the date of the Assembly of Delegates, which has the sole power to adopt the modifications by the vote of a majority plus one of those voting, provided that at least two-thirds of those eligible to vote actually cast their vote. The new version of the by-laws becomes valid at the moment of its approval.
By-laws adopted on July 22, 1990 in Paris+ amended on July 18, 1993 in Lisbon; amended on July 7, 1996 in Boston; amended by mail ballot March, 1998; amended by mail ballot April, 2001; amended on September 9, 2002 in Rome. | <urn:uuid:990150e3-887f-4722-b520-056dbaedd646> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rorschach.com/pages/isr/by-laws.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00014-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956165 | 3,111 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Ever hear of a one-man-band? Sure you have. But I suspect you have never heard of a one-woman-symphony before have you? Well if you haven’t, you will certainly know what that phrase means once you view the video above.
YouTube contributor atokun111kyusyu demonstrates some awesome keyboard skills by using her Electone to perform several pieces from the musical score to Star Wars. All I can say is I can’t help but think that if Star Wars composer John Williams also takes a glance at this video, it would bring a smile to his face.
Plus, I’m just plain jealous. I mean I couldn’t even get the trumpet part right to the Star Wars theme in band class all those years ago, and that was only playing one instrument.
Found via Cynical-C Blog | <urn:uuid:8c6509eb-c402-410c-9dfd-d2960f084e34> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.geek.com/news/one-woman-symphony-plays-star-wars-on-an-electone-1234591/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951995 | 178 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Google has announced a global campaign in support of equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples.
The Internet giant announced its Legalize Love campaign at the Global LGBT Workplace Summit 2012, which took place in London.
The campaign launches Saturday, July 7 in Poland and Singapore. Organizers plan to expand the campaign to every country where Google has an office, focusing on countries where anti-gay sentiment runs high.
“We want our employees who are gay or lesbian or transgender to have the same experience outside the office as they do in the office,” Google's Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe is quoted by dot429.com as saying at the summit. “It is obviously a very ambitious piece of work.”
“Singapore wants to be a global financial center and world leader and we can push them on the fact that being a global center and a world leader means you have to treat all people the same, irrespective of their sexual orientation,” Palmer-Edgecumbe said of the decision to include Singapore in the campaign's initial phase.
That is awesome!
Now just think that every time some homophobic redneck dipshit tries to Google ideas for new racist tattoos he will be inadvertently supporting a company dedicated to the legalization of gay marriage.
Well I guess they could simply stop looking up information on the internet, hasn't really seemed to improve the intelligence of those people very much anyhow. | <urn:uuid:ae1857da-7106-4d4f-9191-cfd68c17d011> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2012/07/google-announces-global-plan-to-help.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966232 | 290 | 1.640625 | 2 |
By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate easily passed on Friday a symbolic measure approving the Canada to Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline, a move backers said showed strong support for a bill that would give Congress power to green light the project later in the year.
The amendment to the budget plan, sponsored by Senator John Hoeven, a Republican from North Dakota, passed 62 to 37.
It was symbolic because the budget is a blueprint that will not become law. But the measure was selected out of hundreds of others for a vote and was approved by a strong majority in the 100-seat chamber led by Democrats.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters earlier this month that the approval process for pipelines crossing international borders belongs with the State Department.
The State Department must finalize an environmental assessment. Then it will have 90 days to decide whether the project is in the country's interest.
President Barack Obama is expected to make a final decision on the pipeline late this summer.
The pipeline permit has been pending for nearly five years and supporters of the project say they cannot risk more hold-ups.
"I think it shows strong support for the project," Hoeven said in an interview. "I think where we are is the president needs to move forward and approve it, and I think if he doesn't, we've shown there's approval to do it Congressionally."
The budget passed by the House of Representatives this week also authorized construction of the pipeline.
Minutes before the vote on Hoeven's amendment another measure to study Keystone further, sponsored by Barbara Boxer, the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, was defeated 33 to 66.
TransCanada Corp's more than 800,000-barrel-per-day pipeline would link Canada's oil sands, the world's third richest oil deposit, with refineries in Texas.
Last week, Hoeven and Montana Democrat Max Baucus introduced a bill that would give Congress the power to approve the pipeline, taking it away from the Obama administration. There is a similar bill in the House of Representatives and both could be voted on later in the spring.
Hoeven's bill claims Congress has the authority to approve the TransCanada pipeline under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Lawyers at the non-partisan Congressional Research Service wrote an analysis last year that said Congress would likely be within its Constitutional authority if it chose to force approval.
Supporters of the $5.3-billion pipeline say it would increase North American energy security and pour capital into the economy. Environmentalists say the pipeline would increase emissions of greenhouse gases.
Pipeline opponents said the amendment was a futile effort.
"The only thing today's nonbinding, symbolic vote underscores on Keystone XL is the fact that this is President Obama's decision alone," said Becky Bond, of CREDO, the activist arm of the CREDO mobile network.
Hoeven's larger bill would likely need 60 votes to pass. Its supporters may try to attach it to must-pass legislation that Obama would find hard to veto.
Hoeven tried to pass legislation that would allow Congress to approve Keystone last year, but it was short four votes.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Richard Cowan; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Carol Bishopric) | <urn:uuid:480db247-ac14-45da-bbd5-8a6acd2734bc> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://rock947.com/news/articles/2013/mar/22/senate-budget-plan-to-include-keystone-xl-approval-lawmaker/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96085 | 679 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Each and every week from 1971 to 1980, the popular TV sitcom All in the Family was heralded by the glass-shattering offkey singing of Edith Bunker, aka "Dingbat." This tended to obscure the fact that Jean Stapleton, the woman who so brilliantly portrayed Edith not only possessed a lilting, well-modulated singing voice, but also was as far removed as possible from a "dingbat" in real life. While attending Hunter College, Stapleton began her performing career as a member of the Robert Shaw Chorale. She made her professional stage debut in 1941, then went on to fruitful work-study associations with the American Apprentice Theater, the American Actors Company, the American Theater Wing, and director-acting coach Harold Clurman. Her first Broadway appearance was in the 1953 production In the Summer House; the following year, she made her TV bow as a semi-regular on the daytime drama Woman With a Past. She endeared herself to Broadwayites with her wistfully funny characterizations in the SRO musicals Damn Yankees, Bells Are Ringing, and Funny Girl, roles that she would carry over into the film versions of these hits. In 1958, she made her first appearance at the Totem Pole Playhouse in Fayetteville, PA, a summer-stock operation managed by her husband, Bill Putch.
Most of Stapleton's onscreen work in the 1960s and 1970s could be found in New York-based movies (Something Wild, Up the Down Staircase, Klute) and TV series (Car 54, Where Are You, The Defenders, The Patty Duke Show). Her earliest association with producer-director Norman Lear occurred in the 1969 theatrical feature Cold Turkey, in which she played a neurotic housewife named Edith. When Lear began assembling the cast for his upcoming TV sitcom All in the Family, he immediately thought of Stapleton for the role of slow-witted, strident, essentially kindhearted Bronx housewife Edith Bunker. Before leaving the series in 1980, Stapleton earned three Emmy Awards for her portrayal of Edith -- not to mention the undying affection of millions.
Once free of All in the Family, she sought out roles that she hoped would demonstrate her versatility: She played the distraught mother of a drug-addicted teenager (enacted by her real-life son, John Putch) in the made-for-TV Angel Dusted (1981), and effectively portrayed Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1982 TV biopic Eleanor: First Lady of the World. Stapleton kept her comic skills sharpened by appearing in the made-for-cable productions of Shelley Duvall: She was terrific as a no-nonsense Fairy Godmother ("Trust me. This is important.") in Duvall's Faerie Tale Theater adaptation of Cinderella, and even better as the title characters in Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. In 1990, she briefly returned to weekly television as co-star (with Whoopi Goldberg) of the offbeat sitcom Bagdad Café. Jean Stapleton was then an infrequent but always welcome TV guest-star presence; in 1995, she startled (and delighted) her Edith Bunker fans with her con brio portrayal of Lea Thompson's sex-starved aunt in an episode of Caroline in the City. In 1998 she had a major part in the romantic comedy You've Got Mail, and that same year she voiced a character in Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi | <urn:uuid:8bfc2070-332d-4785-8214-cb695929be69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.movies.com/actors/jean-stapleton/jean-stapleton-biography/p282634 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9606 | 742 | 1.609375 | 2 |
Bottled Water vs. Tap Water
Is bottled water bad?
There are few consumer products which produce as much controversy as bottled water. Water in a bottle is sometimes marketed as a luxury item, sometimes as a safety net in a world where government taps can’t be trusted, sometimes even as a health drink, and always as a convenience.
Very few folks outside of the developing world would suggest it’s a daily necessity, though it remains a common daily purchase by millions of people. For better or worse, it’s ubiquitous and here to stay. We’ve collected a variety of stories and perspectives on the issue here on this page and we’ll continue to post new stories here as they come in. Enjoy! | <urn:uuid:40ff27f0-430e-4bed-af6f-02f766d21942> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.triplepundit.com/topic/bottled-water-vs-tap-water/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708766848/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516125246-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97701 | 153 | 1.734375 | 2 |
|Published:||Dec 17, 2012 1:41 PM EST|
|Updated:||Dec 17, 2012 1:44 PM EST|
FORT MYERS, Fla. - A warning has been issued for business owners. A new con is stealing millions of dollars. It's happening to thousands of small business owners through a letter in the mail.
The first of the year is the time to renew LLC and corporate registrations. You might mistake this scam letter for a real one. The letter asks you to renew a fee but it's a scam. Even the post office is tracking it.
"My first instinct was to pay for it then I remembered something I'd been told awhile back so I looked into it further," said Susan Mullen, a fraud victim.
Susan Mullen, a small business owner, got a letter in the mail asking for her business license renewal fee. But then she remembered a warning she'd heard.
"There were a lot of scams regarding the renewals for LLC's, to watch out for that, I wouldn't be getting anything in the mail," said Mullen.
The letter, in fact, was a scam that bills more than $10 million from thousand of victims.
"These small business owners got a document in the mail that looked very much like a bill asking them to remit payment immediately for $175 and if they didn't pay there would be a penalty," said Wynter Kugel, U.S. Postal Inspector.
Postal inspectors started tracking the case after thousands of complaints.
"This mailing had no numbers, email addresses and no website. There was no way to contact other than mailing your money to the post office," said Kugel.
Inspectors say that is a red flag too. Another piece of advice, read the fine print.
"On the form, there was tiny writing that said, 'this is not a bill.' I think read the fine print and really go over it before you write a check," said Mullen.
Postal inspectors have worked to find the suspect and have made sure he stops his deceptive mailings. Inspectors are considering civil action which often results with the return of funds that the suspect may still have.
- Hostage situation ends in house fire, man found dead inside
- Defense releases photos, texts of Trayvon Martin
- Ft. Myers man dies in New Jersey crash, wife critically hurt
- Vehicles flee the scene after seriously injuring pedestrian
- LCSO: Hohensee died from self-inflicted gun shot wound
- FWC relocates largest black bear captured in Fla.
- CCSO searches for missing 23 y/o Golden Gate woman
- A look at the dangers of riding a motorcycle
- Man finds drugs in a safe in front of his Pt. Charlotte home
- Crash with injuries on Veterans at Chiquita blocks traffic | <urn:uuid:5efbec39-49ea-441a-9faf-12b069f13def> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2012-12-17/Call-for-Action-AlertLLC-con-stealing-from-small-businesses | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00017-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973233 | 592 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The Learning Community program at Dickinson is designed to enhance First Year student experience and set the groundwork for long-term student success. The research literature documents that critical factors in student engagement include interaction and connection between a student and a faculty member, and positive, meaningful interaction with peers.
Many types of residentially-based “learning communities” exist at colleges across the country. We certainly didn’t invent the concept, but here at Dickinson, the Learning Community program is built upon the solid foundation of our First Year Seminar program. Students in two (and sometimes more) seminars which are linked by a common theme live together in a common residence hall. In the Fall semester during the First Year Seminar, the faculty members design a series of informal learning opportunities outside of class, such as dinner/discussions, films, trips, small group meetings with campus speakers, etc. Faculty members also have the option of planning exchange teaching in each other’s seminars, and even assignments which require the students to draw upon resources of the learning community.
The Learning Community faculty members are assisted by a Learning Community Coordinator (an upper class student) who lives in the residence hall. The LCC provides logistical support to you in program implementation, and in the course of developing relationships with these First Year students, acts informally as a mentor. The LCC also works with the students to transition from the Fall semester, when the Learning Community is basically faculty-led, to the student-designed activities which may occur in the Spring semester. Assistant Provost Shalom Staub coordinates the overall Learning Community program, assisting faculty in any way possible and supervising the LCC’s.
From the students’ experience, a learning community provides the opportunity for out-of-classroom interaction with two faculty members, and a living environment in which the hall mates are familiar from class or Learning Community activities and with whom they can connect around activities and issues linked to intellectual inquiry. For the past four years, Dickinson College has conducting research to examine the First Year student experience, in what ways students experience the Learning Community program, and if/how various engaged learning initiatives connect to student wellness (defined in the study in terms of mental health and patterns of alcohol use/abuse) and civic engagement. The results from the 4 year study indicate that indeed students in learning communities experience higher levels of engaged learning, and that this pattern of engaged learning persists throughout their college careers. Additionally, the socialization that occurs during the Learning Community correlates to less frequent and less alcohol consumption, a pattern that again establishes itself during the first semester and persisting across the 4 years of college. Faculty interested in more details of this research should contact Assistant Provost Shalom Staub.
There is no question that participating as a faculty member of a Learning Community takes additional time. We cannot create more time for you, but participating faculty members receive an additional stipend.
As the program has evolved, we now ask the following from participating faculty members:
- In the Spring of the year prior to teaching in a learning community:
o Meet with the Learning Community program administrator and the other paired faculty member to plan the overall contour of the learning community--focusing on the intersection of the two First Year Seminars.
o Participate, if desired, in the selection process of the student Learning Community Coordinator.
o Meet with that LCC, once selected, to outline expectations and needs.
- Between end of Spring semester and beginning of Fall semester:
o Exchange syllabi with fellow LC faculty member.
o Together with the other LC faculty member, plan a series of out-of-class co-curricular activities. At least one of the participating LC faculty members should be present at each of these activities. These co-curricular activities could be attendance at college-wide campus events that are relevant to the seminar or the learning community, or events planned specifically for the learning community. (Planning and scheduling support will be provided by Assistant Provost Shalom Staub.)
o Provide syllabus to LCC.
o Participate in LC activities as planned.
o Meet regularly with your LCC.
o Meet at the beginning of the semester and once during the semester with other LC faculty members and Assistant Provost for overall program coordination.
o Meet with fellow learning community faculty members and the Assistant Provost at the end of the semester to debrief and evaluate the experience. | <urn:uuid:9a9f6343-9b13-4cb2-b99d-2ddfba1abbb2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dickinson.edu/academics/first-year-programs/learning-communities/content/Faculty-Information/ | 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 | 0.949434 | 902 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Sanofi inked a research collaboration with Oncodesign to evaluate use of the latter’s Nanocyclix® technology for a number of its kinase target programs. Nanocyclix is a medicinal chemistry platform based on macrocyclization, which allows the design of selective kinase inhibitors that target the ATP binding site of kinase. Oncodesign says this capability means highly specific inhibitors can be developed against individual kinases, which don’t cross-react with highly homologous targets.
Under terms of the four-year deal with Sanofi, Oncodesign receive a technology access fee and discovery, development, regulatory, and commercial milestones that could reach up to €130 million (approximately $167.6 million), plus potential future sales royalties. “This new agreement illustrates the leading position of Oncodesign in the kinase inhibitor field,” states Jan Hoflack, Ph.D., Oncodesign CSO. “Our Nanocyclix technology is now clearly established as a high-value, differentiating approach that gives access to next-generation kinase inhibitors in multiple therapeutic indications.”
France-based Oncodesign specializes in the discovery and preclinical assessment of anticancer therapies, and is leveraging its Chi-Mice® chimeric mouse models, PharImage® imaging, and Predict® pharmacology platforms to offer products and services for anticancer drug and biomarker development. The firm is also undertaking in-house research programs in collaboration with partners, headed by its IMAkinib® program for the discovery of PET radiotracers for use in the identification of oncology targets and pathways, and monitoring changes during anticancer therapy. | <urn:uuid:0fe6bc94-080c-40aa-a85c-b141f9792413> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/sanofi-taps-oncodesign-for-kinase-inhibitor-expertise/81247308/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698924319/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516100844-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932623 | 345 | 1.59375 | 2 |
A message from co-founder Eric Runstadler:
As some of you know, over the past few years I’ve created the Glencoe Homestead. My intention was to use the space as a tool, showing folks how relatively easy it is to keep a garden, bees, chickens, and goats in a very urban environment. The positive feedback has been more than I’ve ever imagined.
As a result, even more ideas have come up. I’d like to take this concept I’ve created here and introduce it on a much larger scale. I have visions of a place where, as a community, we grow fruits, veggies, crops, fowl, and bees. I’m hoping to create a place where anyone in the community can come, enjoy the space, educate themselves and their loved ones on where their food comes from, while being an active participant in the advancement and sustainability of the space.
We can utilize the restored historic Train Depot as our central office, place of commerce, meetings, education and instructional seminars, community events, and information.
The land will be cultivated, we’ll plant a fruit orchard, erect fencing/structures for fowl, grow seasonal fruits and veggies, and year-round growing in a community greenhouse. The intention of this space is local, fresh, organic, all natural food production, and community. We’ll have a living farmers market, where the consumer harvests their own food thus eliminating excess waste and connecting the community with the food they eat.
This is where you come in!!
Urban Farming is all about self-sustainability. We’re currently building our team and looking for folks interested in helping with this project and, it’s potential impact on the way neighborhoods and communities all over can benefit. We’re in the process of writing this proposal in response to the RFP (request for proposal) put out by the City of Englewood.
We’re looking for people who are excited as we are about this project and want to contribute and help to achieve the collective vision.
If you have experience in any of the following:
Farming, ranching, Horticulture, Sustainability, gardening, beekeeping, Architects, Event/Community Planners, artists, cheese/soap makers, and brewers. We’re also looking for Homesteaders, Educators, Fund-raisers, HR, Landscapers, Construction, Carpentry, Electrical, Grant writers, Caterers/Chefs, Solar, Irrigation, Attorneys, secretarial, and Master Gardeners. We’re also looking for someone good with managing books and accounting.
Or if you feel inspired to just BE the change you want to see in the world, we want you!
If you’re at all inspired by this, please let us know and if you wish to contribute in any capacity please don’t hesitate to offer.
The working board members will be assembled immediately following the acceptance of our proposal by the City of Englewood and we will use the seed money, $7,500 (still needs to be donated) to finance the Funding Resource Team. By August, our goal is to have the $500,000 needed to get started on the restoration and remodeling of this historic landmark.
Copies of the proposal are currently available upon request. | <urn:uuid:4ab9b147-09e0-42a3-94c8-5cc3741078f5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://englewoodurbanfarm.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00003-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948694 | 706 | 1.5 | 2 |
Haiti: Zanmi Lasante Clinic Staff Continuing to Provide Around the Clock Care
Posted on: Thursday, February 11, 2010
Zanmi Lasante staff continue to work around the clock to provide care to the many injured and sick still arriving at Port-au-Prince's General Hospital (HUEH), as well as at their clinics and at field hospitals they set up during the first week after the earthquake.
MADRE has been working with Partners in Health to provide Zanmi Lasante with medicine and medical supplies.
Andrew Marx, Partners in Health's Director of Communications, recently returned from Haiti. In his words:
"...inspired is what I felt upon seeing our Haitian partner organization Zanmi Lasante spring into action, doing what they do best—what they've been doing for over 25 years—working in partnership with the residents of destitute communities to provide quality health care and essential social services."
Staff at the clinics and the hospitals have noticed a change in the type of injuries they are seeing. Many people who sustained non-life-threatening injuries during the earthquake are now coming in to seek treatment. Doctors are very worried about the high numbers of people who are at risk of infection from untreated wounds. MADRE will continue to work with our partners in Haiti to respond to the needs of people affected by the earthquake.
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Kaitlyn Soligan, Media Coordinator
PHONE: +1 212 627 0444
MADRE Makes News
Stoking Fire: Addressing the Specific Needs of Female Syrian Refugees (RH Reality Check, May 17, 2013)
An Open Letter to the Indigenous Peoples of Guatemala (Common Dreams, May 15, 2013)
Mothers Fight Back (RH Reality Check, May 9, 2013)
How Not to End the War in Syria (Common Dreams, May 9, 2013)
Conditions in Jordan Syrian refugee camp are worse for women (Women's News Network, April 19, 2013) | <urn:uuid:c34a48a9-ef96-408f-aee9-8042afeacd0e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.madre.org/index/press-room-4/press-releases-34/news/haiti-zanmi-lasante-clinic-staff-continuing-to-provide-around-the-clock-care-292.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978274 | 523 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Category Archives: Uncategorized
All true Christians know that there is one God who exists in three persons. In the passage below the Apostle Paul confirms that God the father has publicly declared that Jesus is His Son.
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4 who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, (Romans 1:1-4 NASB).
This passage is a typical Pauline sentence, which means that it seems to ramble on endlessly, and is therefore very hard to follow. So let me paraphrase Paul’s statements about Jesus, so that we can unpack this verse. Words in bold have been taken directly from the verse above.
Paul is saying that Christ Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is a descendant of David according to the flesh which means that he took on the body of a man and became David’s physical descendant. God Himself declared him to be the Son of God by raising him from the dead which fully displayed God’s power and should have been enough to silence all the doubters.
My Muslim friends of course say that Jesus can’t be God because there is only one God, and one God cannot exist in three persons. I say that one God can exist in three persons. The reason I believe it is because God says so. You can find many proofs of the Deity and Sonship of Christ in the Old Testament prophecies and in all the miracles He did in public. The Muslims are foolish to think that the nature of God is so simple that human beings can completely understand it. It is not surprising that the true nature of God is beyond human comprehension.
Now that I’m done blogging through the book of John I’m going to go on and start the book of Romans. I am going to have to slow down how much I blog because my job is getting busier as I approach the summer. I expect to be able to post about every other day on this blog. At that rate, it could take me a whole year or more to got through the book of Romans.
Should I fear the Lord God? This is definitely a question I've wrestled with in the past. But the only way for me to give an honest answer is to allow the Bible to interpret itself. I'm not implying my relationship with him should be one of fear. My relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, is one of love not fear.
It is very easy for young men in our culture to become addicted to their sexual lusts. They are constantly bombarded with images and messages from the media that tempt them to want things that are bad for them. Fortunately, there are things you can do to help the young men in your family get their sex-drive under control.
- Teach them right and wrong.
In Psalm 22 King David, the author, is crying out for help to God. David underwent many trials and challenges in his lifetime and He learned to depend on God to get him through them. However, if you read carefully through Psalm 22 you will discover that many of the events described in this Psalm never actually happened to David. Rather, this Psalm is a prophecy about David’s descendant, Jesus. If you read through this Psalm you will discover some amazing prophecies about the crucifixion of Jesus. Here are a few of them:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Psalm 22:1a NIV)
This opening line are the exact words that Jesus uses when He is suffering on the cross a thousand years later (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). He is crying out because of the separation that existed between Him and His father as He was being punished for the sins of all mankind.
All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8 “He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
“let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.” (Psalm 22:7-8)
Verses seven and eight describe the humiliation that he was subjected to while He was publicly suffering. Many who were standing by mocked him, challenging him to save himself saying “He saved others, let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God” (Luke 23:35).
Verse 15 describes Him as being thirsty. Indeed, when Jesus was on the cross, He cried out in a loud voice: “I thirst” (John 19:28). Verse 16 predicts what the Roman soldiers would do to Jesus’ hands and feet:
Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce[e] my hands and my feet. (Psalm 22:16)
This perfectly describes Jesus’ crucifixion, when the soldiers drove nails through His hands and His feet (John 20:25). Verse 17, the next verse, predicts Jesus naked as He is stretched on the cross:
All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me. (Psalm 22:17)
Verse 18 predicts what the soldiers would do with Jesus’ clothes:
They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment. (Psalm 22:18)
We can see the fulfillment of verse 18 in the gospel of John:
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.”[a]
So this is what the soldiers did. (John 19:23-24)
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” (John 18:36-37 NIV)
Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, 16 but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in.
17 “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter.
He replied, “I am not.”
18 It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself. (John 18:15-18)
In this passage we see one of Peter’s greatest failures. He claimed to be a follower of Jesus, and yet he immediately lied to the servant girl about his relationship with Jesus in order to save his own life. True Christians are not supposed to behave like this. We are supposed to never deny our relationship with Jesus. We must remain faithful even to the death.
And yet… true Christians do behave like this all the time. Peter, after all, was one of the twelve apostles. He later recovered from this failure and went on to die for Christ some years later. The lesson to learn from his sin here, then, is that just because you fail once does not mean that you have to fail perpetually. Human beings are naturally weak. Even true Christians have failures. But our God is a loving God who will forgive us after we fall, and give us the strength to be victorious next time around.
Do not let yourself be swallowed up by guilt if you have failed in the past. This is no guarentee that you will fail in the future. God loves you, and if you repent of your sins He will give you His power to allow you to be spiritually successful. After all, it is not strong people who are victorious, but weak people who trust in God.
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. (John 17:13 NIV)”
This prayer that Jesus prays in John chapter 17 was done not only to communicate with the Father, but for the benefit of His disciples who were looking on. Jesus, of course, would have unlimited opportunity to commune with the Father after His ascension. Nevertheless, He made a point of praying in front of His disciples so that they could learn about and be comforted by the relationship between the Father and the Son.
Those of us who are believers should “have the full measure of my joy” within us as a result of reading these words.
After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. (John 16:1)
There are many so-called believers who seek glory from God for selfish purposes. But Jesus, looking ahead to the triumph of the cross, only seeks glory so that the Father will be glorified through Him.
Christians ought not to seek their own glory, but God’s. If Jesus can humble himself, than we should humble ourselves too, for we deserve glory much less than He.
To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:
These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. (Revelation 3:7)
There is much beauty in the Words of Jesus as He addresses His beloved children who worship Him on Earth. | <urn:uuid:6f3639e0-fc88-4974-b424-e64a9e5b2768> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://whynotbelieve.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974564 | 2,209 | 1.59375 | 2 |
You have the right to an adviser.
An adviser can help you understand the conduct process, obtain information, contact witnesses, accompany you to meetings, and advise you about your rights and any defenses. An adviser can also explain the possible consequences to you, including sanctions and the impact on your student conduct record.
The Office of Student Advocacy provides free professional services to currently registered eligible students. The Office of Student Advocacy is provided by the ASUO, the UO student government, and is supported by the incidental fee. Students are not required to use the services of the Office of Student Advocacy and may obtain assistance from an attorney or other person of their choice at their own expense, or proceed on their own.
If you would like to meet with an adviser, be sure to leave enough time to do so when setting up an appointment with the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.
Things you should know:
- You must comply with the Notice of Allegation email that you received and contact the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards within the stated timeframe and arrange an appointment. If you do not comply, you may lose your rights and could face serious sanctions.
- You are entitled to obtain a copy of the information on which an allegation is based, including an incident report or other written report provided by a complainant.
- When making an appointment with the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards you are not required to take the next available appointment. You are required, however, to call and arrange an appointment within the time stated in the email you received.
- You are entitled to bring an adviser with you to all meetings and may consult with an adviser before responding to emails or phone messages.
If you would like to schedule a meeting with an adviser in the Office of Student Advocacy please call: (541) 346-3722. | <urn:uuid:7a0f903e-873c-490c-9387-8a21ad5f19c2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://pages.uoregon.edu/asuoosa/conduct.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705559639/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115919-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966327 | 377 | 1.523438 | 2 |
By Lori Burke
As a college student, Virginia Logan ’81 encountered the rich connection between art and nature in a 19th-century gristmill in the Brandywine Valley. The Brandywine River Museum sparked her lifelong interest in the region and its influence on the area’s cultural heritage. Now, as the recently named executive director of Brandywine Conservancy, Logan hopes “to raise the conservancy’s profile.”
Last year, as the first initiative under her leadership, the organization opened the Chadds Ford, Pa., studio where Andrew Wyeth, one of the most significant American artists, painted many of his important works. The studio—a gift of the artist’s wife, Betsy James Wyeth—was restored by a team of specialized architects trained in historic preservation. Wyeth’s sons, Nicholas and Jamie, were advisers for the project.
In September 2012, Thomas Padon came on board as director of the Brandywine River Museum. With the expanded team, Logan is more fully exploring the connections between art and the environment with goals of increasing educational programming, continuing land preservation efforts, and growing the role it plays in working with municipalities and developers to further smart growth initiatives in the region.
An English graduate, Logan credits Lafayette with preparing her for this challenge. “Lafayette was a transformative experience for me,” she says. Diane Ahl, Rothkopf Professor of Art History; David Johnson, professor and head of English; and H. Ellis Finger, director of the Williams Center for the Arts, nurtured her love of the arts and helped her develop critical thinking and communications skills.
Logan stays connected to the College through serving on Lafayette Leadership Council and as a member of the Board of Trustees Committee on Development and Alumni Affairs.
The Brandywine River Museum holds special memories for Logan and her family. “The facility is internationally known for its unparalleled collection of works by three generations of Wyeths and its fine collection of art in the Brandywine tradition, with focus areas on American illustration, landscape painting, still life including trompe l’oeil, and much more,” says Logan. “I brought my children here from the time that they were quite young. They were initially captivated by Jamie Wyeth’s enormous Portrait of Pig and the pirates in N.C. Wyeth’s illustrations for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and grew in their love of art through the broader collection.”
Carrying that love of the arts through his youth, Logan’s son, Will Rockafellow ’14, is one of Lafayette’s first Creative and Performing Arts (CaPA) fellows. “I am delighted that the arts are expanding at Lafayette,” says Logan. “The CaPA program made the difference in his college choice.” Rockafellow collaborated with Jim Toia, director of the community-based teaching program, to arrange a tour for the CaPA fellows of Wyeth’s Studio and the Brandywine Museum during fall semester.
A resident of Rosemont, Pa., Logan earned a juris doctor from Villanova University School of Law and previously held leadership positions in Sunoco’s law department and marketing business. She also served as executive in charge of the company’s public affairs. She was chair of the board of directors of Philadelphia Boys Choir & Chorale for seven years.
Brandywine Conservancy was founded by a group of local residents in 1967 to preserve the historic valley from industrial development. It holds more than 440 conservation easements, protecting more than 45,000 acres in Pennsylvania and Delaware. The Environmental Management Center supports reforestation initiatives and the Brandywine Creek Greenway project, a 30-mile green corridor stretching from the Delaware state line to Pennsylvania Highlands. | <urn:uuid:ff47798d-cfbf-4709-b1ff-ae5a509bc4d3> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lafayette.edu/about/news/2013/03/11/virginia-logan-81-connects-arts-and-nature-at-brandywine-conservancy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961106 | 805 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Readers, Editors Diverge On Ethics
A Charlotte experiment gives us something to think about.
By Reese Cleghorn
Reese Cleghorn is former president of AJR and former dean of the College of Journalism of the University of Maryland.
Readers and viewers think journalists should have higher ethical standards. Right? Maybe not.
Perhaps they do as a general proposition. But presented with specific questions about conflicts of interest and other touchstones of ethical conduct, they may not be as demanding as journalists are.
Ed Williams, who runs fresh and informed editorial pages at the Charlotte Observer, recently conducted an experiment. He asked his readers to respond to a multiple-choice questionnaire in his column and had 10 Observer editors do the same. About 240 readers sent responses.
On most questions the editors and readers were similar in their judgments, but they differed greatly on conflict-of-interest questions. The editors were "much less forgiving" than the readers, Williams wrote in a
The discussion of ethics among journalists has been pervasive in recent times. Although journalists rightly resist any formal industry-wide codification of the rules, news organizations increasingly have adopted clear and detailed ethics and conflict-of-interest policies.
More important, journalists without doubt have become more sensitive to the nuances of many ethical questions involving substance and appearance. A given problem may still elicit diverse answers from different reporters and editors, but on many issues the framework for the decision-making is more clearly established than ever.
The Observer's Williams noted these disparities in his experiment (which used questions he borrowed from professors Philip Meyer of North Carolina and David Arant of the University of Memphis):
• Whether to pay an informant who had reliable information about payoffs to a fictional mayor and city council, editors (100 percent) said no. Only 18 percent of the readers said no.
• When asked what to do about a city hall reporter who had gotten so close to the mayor and his staff that they frequently consulted him before making a decision, 100 percent of the editors said they would fire, admonish or reassign the reporter, but only 70 percent of the readers said they would. Some 29 percent of the readers said they would reward the reporter for his knowledge of the subject and for having such loyal sources.
On that one, the editor of the Observer, Jennie Buckner, had a question about the question. Had the reporter actually given the advice he was asked for? "If so," she said, "fire him."
• A reporter working on inequities in tax assessments discovers that his own taxes were not increased after he recorded a value-enhancing addition to his property. He puts this into his story, then decides to take it out. The editors (100 percent) said he should put it back in, even though this would raise his taxes by $300. Only 46 percent of the readers thought he should be required to do this.
What does all this tell us? I'm not sure. I wonder whether lawyers' clients would say they are too finicky about some of their basic ethical standards, or whether patients would think their doctors are. Or whether the journalists' cult is just uniquely baffling to normal people. ### | <urn:uuid:65d5dbd2-d2be-4b6b-9c0c-d19536c7e7ae> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=1712 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00032-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977219 | 650 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The Senate has confirmed Elena Kagan as the 45th solicitor general of the United States — and as the first woman ever to hold the position.
Kagan, 48, will be the government’s chief advocate before the Supreme Court, though she has never argued a case there or before any other appellate court. She has been dean of Harvard Law School since 2003 and is widely seen as a possible future nominee for the Supreme Court.
Senators voted 61-31 to confirm her after three hours of debate that focused on whether she has the right kinds of experiences to be solicitor general.
Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) recalled meeting Kagan when she worked for Kaufman’s predecessor and former boss, then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), as a special counsel in the summer of 1993. He said her talents were clear then.
“Elena Kagan has the piercing intellect, the superb judgment, and the wealth of experience to be an outstanding solicitor general,” Kaufman said.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) questioned Kagan’s lack of any appellate advocacy, arguing that the hole in her résumé makes her unqualified. “So far as I can observe, other than time in the White House Counsel’s Office, Dean Kagan has practiced law for only two years in a real-world environment,” he said.
Prior to her elevation to dean, Kagan served as a law professor at Harvard and at the University of Chicago. She worked in the Clinton White House for four years as a counsel and domestic policy adviser. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, she clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall and Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She was an associate at Williams & Connolly for two years.
As Legal Times reported in January, the selection of experienced appellate litigators for the position of solicitor general is a relatively recent phenomenon that parallels specialization at the Court generally. Past solicitors general who had not argued before the Court until after their selection include Robert Bork, Wade McCree, and Kenneth Starr.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was voting against Kagan because of her unwillingness to detail her views on controversial constitutional questions. “I’m not prepared to relinquish the prerogatives of the Senate to ask those kinds of questions, Specter said.
Kagan, who was admitted to the Supreme Court bar shortly after President Barack Obama nominated her, will not have to wait for a chance to argue her first case. Though she might take time to get up to speed on pending cases, the Supreme Court is next scheduled to hear oral arguments Monday.
UPDATE: The roll call has been posted. All Democrats who voted supported Kagan. Most Republicans opposed her. The GOP senators who voted "Yea" were Tom Coburn (Okla.), Susan Collins (Maine), Judd Gregg (N.H.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Richard Lugar (Ind.), and Olympia Snowe (Maine). | <urn:uuid:f9a01ee8-8ceb-4bb5-979a-84e3c5b2ca63> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/03/kagan-confirmed-as-first-female-solicitor-general.html | 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 | 0.963613 | 657 | 1.695313 | 2 |
Sorry, everyone, about the delay. We had a little glitch this morning, but we're up and running now.
Every story takes place somewhere, and the "where" often influences the story. What would Wuthering Heights be without the windswept loneliness of the moors? Or LOTR, without the contrasts of the soft. green beauty of the Shire, the elven elegance of Lothlorien, and the arid hostility of Mordor? Or the Darkhunters, without the moody atmosphere of New Orleans?
Not as effective, I think. In each instance, the setting plays a role in the story. It reinforces mood and, at least in the case of Sauron's Mordor and Galadriel's Lothlorien, says something about those who inhabit it. (Notice how I resisted the urge to stick in a picture of Viggo Mortenson as Aragorn. But I thought about it.)
Historicals don't always take place in castles, of course. The post-medievals tend to involve manor houses and London townhouses. But each place says something about the people who inhabit it. And each era has its own conflicts and problems that can shape a story.
When I first started reading historical romance, there was much more variety in settings. The Caribbean was big. Pirates, y'know? Sabrina Jeffries' The Pirate Lord is a wonderful example. The first pirate romance I read was Shirley Busbee's The Spanish Rose, which is still on my keeper shelf. At the other end of the alphabet sits Kathleen Woodiwiss' Shanna, whose fabulous Ruark did a turn as a pirate. Claudia Dain's debut novel was a superb pirate book, Tell Me Lies.
Now that Pirates of the Caribbean has been so big, I wonder if pirates will enjoy a big resurgence. So far, that doesn't seem to be happening.
Elizabethan England used to pop up from time to time. So did Revolutionary America. Then Regency England exploded and shoved lots of other choices to the side. Medievals are still hanging in, but they're more or less a niche market. Victorian seems to have blossomed but only if they're set in England.
I once heard an editor say every period has its fans, but profitability depends on having most of the books in a line set in the most popular periods. Much as I wish it were otherwise, this makes a certain amount of sense. Science fiction, fantasy, and mystery novels tend to be less restricted in setting, but in romance, we want a comfort book, and maybe part of that is a desire for the familiar, which means periods readers already know.
My 2006 finalist and its sequel were set in the English Restoration (so named because Charles II's 1660 return from exile after Oliver Cromwell died "restored" the English monarchy). I once heard an author (not me, honestly and truly) ask an editor about that period in a Q&A. The editor wrinkled her nose. "Restoraaaation," she said, sort of in the same tone you might use if you said, "I smell rotten fish in the kitchen." After a moment, she said, "I don't think that period really keys into reader fantasies."
If you look at the wardrobe, you can understand why. I mean, seriously, can you see this guy buckling a swash? As Jayne Anne Krentz said in her wonderful book Dangerous Men, Adventurous Women, readers want to identify with the heroine and fall in love with the hero. Foppish heroes who dress kind of like we readers envision heroines don't really have that appeal. I love the period because it's so rich in conflict and tension and deprivation and decadence, but it's not big with most readers. There are a few authors out there dipping into it, but most of them tend not to stay there.
And just so we all know, my heroes avoided contemporary fashion, which they thought was impractical. One was a naval officer who wouldn't wear anything that made climbing the rigging more dangerous than it already was, and the other was an earl and ex-soldier who had no patience with frills and furbelows (I love that phrase, but I had to look up the latter word. A furbelow is a showy frill or pleating).
As I became more educated about the market, I put that period aside and moved to the medieval era instead. For pure flash and dash, I don't think any dynasty in the history of any country can beat England's Plantagenets, though the post-Conquest Normans offer a lot of conflict, as do the Dark Ages. The advantage of being a history geek is having a great many periods one loves.
Contemporaries also make great use of setting. Urban paranormals play off the shiny glass and steel and the gritty slums of cities. Small towns bring in the sense of community and the sometimes unfortunate awareness of everyone else's business.
What settings do you love, and why? What's your favorite book set in a historical time period or your favorite contemporary where setting plays a part? If you could read a book set anywhere and anywhen, from the dawn of time to the far future, what would you pick? | <urn:uuid:62b56bc6-7ee7-41ea-bcb8-56b6cfcea962> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://romancebandits.blogspot.com/2011/01/place-in-story-story-in-place.html?showComment=1293996605633 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970731 | 1,098 | 1.640625 | 2 |
The View From Here
Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! That's Hawaiian for Happy New Year. Having spent my holidays at home in the islands, you'll forgive me trying to keep aloha alive as we dive into 2008. This year will be as ripe with space-related celebrations and anniversaries as it will be stressed by political, economic, and technical uncertainties. It is a presidential election year, which means that political developments are likely to become completely surreal by the time they trickle down to us in the space community. Our space ohana (family) is going to need to hana pu (work together) to make it through 2008.
With the political mudslinging already in full force, it seems to me the best way for us to approach 2008 is with a simple, true, American message: Space is Good for People, and Leadership in Space is Good for the United States.
That's a very simple message, but it resonates at the grass roots level. As the presidential election has become polarized around a very few lightning-rod issues, it seems to me that trusting in the collective wisdom of grass roots America is, perhaps, not such a bad idea.
My home district of Ka'u, on the big island of Hawai'i, is one of the most sparsely populated and unplugged remote areas of the country. No high-speed Internet and only one (sporadic) cellular phone service. Yet when I "talk story" with my extended ohana there, everyone wants to know what is going on in space. What's happening in the universe? When will the International Space Station be passing overhead again? When are we going back to the moon? Will we ever get to Mars? What is up with the Chinese? What contributions are the telescopes on Mauna Kea making to our understanding of our place in the universe? Have you been to space yet, Elliot? When will I be able to go?
This is not so different from any small town. Take, for example, Galena, Alaska, - the Space Foundation recently visited Galena as part of a Space Week Alaska tour organized by the Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation. Aside from the obvious temperature difference (106 degrees as this is written . . . -32F in Galena versus +74F in Na'alehu), these two small towns have a lot in common. The population is small (919 in Na'alehu and 675 in Galena according to the 2000 census), unemployment is high, and kids don't see a lot of opportunity in their future.
Until you get them talking about space.
A Space Foundation team went to Galena as part of a weeklong program in November, in part to bring the excitement of space to Fairbanks-area teachers and students, and in part to talk about the global space economy to Alaska business and community leaders anxious to develop new business opportunities. It turns out that Fairbanks has a lot to offer our industry, but that's another story.
During the course of the week, our education team put on programs for nearly 2,000 students in grades K-12. We conducted a weekend-long teacher training workshop for about 50 Fairbanks school teachers. We held lectures for engineering, history, and Native Alaskan students at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (UAF). And we presented economic data, industry analysis, and political context for Rotary Clubs, Chambers of Commerce, and the Economic Development Corporation. What struck me was the consistent enthusiasm for space activities, whether I was speaking to a group of Native Alaskan third graders in Galena, chemistry students or nanotech experts at UAF, or senior executives from the petrochemical and tourism industries.
Speaking in broad generalities, here is where grass roots America is (as measured in Fairbanks, Galena and Na'alehu) with regard to space:
- Most people are extremely proud of what America has done in space. They understand that America is a greater nation by virtue of what the country has accomplished in space.
- Most people have some sense that we realize tangible benefits from space, primarily in the form of high technology, although things get slippery when you start to ask for specific examples.
- Most people think we spend a lot more on space, especially on NASA, than we actually do. They tend to think we spend upward of 25 percent of the federal budget on NASA, and they are mostly OK with that. When they find out we spend less than one percent, reactions vary from "wow, what a deal" to "that's outrageous and why-in-the-hell aren't we spending more?"
- Despite the underlying base of support for NASA, there is a pronounced frustration that the U.S. isn't doing more, especially in terms of going places. There's acceptance that the ISS is a necessary stepping stone, but there's also a sense of urgency that we get on with it - and get back to the moon and on to Mars.
- There is a desire to see more linkage between the exploration of space and the stewardship of the home planet. People understand that our knowledge of Earth has vastly expanded through our exploration of space, and they are very anxious to see our space programs contribute solutions to the problems of global warming, climate change, and protection from Near Earth Objects.
- The space, science, and engineering communities get high marks for their stewardship of our space programs; Congress and the Administration, not so much.
What is most encouraging to me is that there remains a fundamental optimism and belief in the limitless possibilities of the American Dream when you talk to Americans about space. Remembering my own childhood years in Na'alehu, there wasn't anyone in my home town who had ever gotten into the space business, but neither was there anyone telling me that I couldn't do it. Na'alehu is an isolated place. It is 90 minutes to the airport and then a 40-minute flight to the nearest big city, Honolulu. Even then you're a five-hour flight from Honolulu to the real metropolitan areas of the mainland U.S. You get the same sense of isolation in Galena - 400 km as the crow flies from Fairbanks, which in turn is a nearly four hour flight to Seattle.
But these two tiny villages do share some things in common. They are heavily populated by disadvantaged indigenous peoples. They are economic "has been" communities - Na'alehu a mere remnant of the booming sugar town it once was, Galena a mere shadow of the pre-BRAC Air Force F-16 base that once defined it. Sleepy towns where not much happens, and there's not a lot to hope for. Yet, get in front of a civic group or a classroom full of kids, start talking about space, and see what happens. Once again, the world is full of possibilities. The idea that the future is what we make it seems perfectly plausible. And the idea that we should make the future bigger, brighter, and more opportune than the past still burns as bright as ever.
Visits to places like Fairbanks and Galena give us a great opportunity at the Space Foundation. We can integrate and deploy all our resources - education, research, analysis, policy, space awareness, and public outreach - into a seamless program that brings space down to Earth for entire communities. The return on investment for us is more than just a sense of "mission accomplished." When we connect with America's grass roots, we're reminded of the collective wisdom, optimism, and faith in the future that characterize our people. It is a rejuvenating elixir that stands as a potent antidote to the negative journalism and pusillanimous political punditry that permeates so much of the space environment.
The view from here is that grass roots America is right: Space is Good for People, and Leadership in Space is Good for the United States.
Let's start 2008 firm in that commitment, and unabashed in our commitment to speak that truth to anyone who will hear it.
Elliot Holokauahi Pulham
Chief Executive Officer | <urn:uuid:f29ddb4e-ebb2-4d34-a616-127e10bd5372> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.spacefoundation.org/media/space-watch/view-here-10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959329 | 1,665 | 1.8125 | 2 |
tareeq is Arabic for street, or in a fancy chain-of-words, right-of-way.
In the urban sense of the Arab-Muslim/Middle Eastern city, the street has been a highly conducive element, interchangeably having the capacity to house contrasts. It acts as both interim and permanent space. As a vestibule of urban motion it serves as that portion of your journey where in every second a new visual frame of the city is generated in your head. And it is that permanent space where jurors scratched their minds figuring what forms of encroachment affect the permeability of it, what was a visual violation of privacy, and contemplated boundaries. An element of contrasts, tareeq is literally and figuratively a way.Read more »
City Design تصميم المدن
Observing and influencing the way our cities are shaped and perform is an ongoing process.
The processes may be one or a multitude. This section demonstrates those we tap and discover at tareeq.
Our main focus is experiments we carry out or investigate in cities. Currently, we are covering Gaza, New York and Amman. Although focus is on these locales, we believe the perpetual affect & representation can be global. We will further feature in this section international cities.Read more »
Media platforms house a multitude of our products & services developed using various platforms.
Conducted as both manifestation and complimentary on urban life, different forms of media are utilized to achieve these means. From photo montages to video, artistic themes come in many cocktails. Pop art trails are grafted in Street Art Montage, a collection of photo montages of striking icons & colors in locales across four cities in the globe. While Read is a video art piece that taps into literature & architecture.
Explore the visual candy by clicking on the tabs in the bar above. For art work that you would like to purchase, check out the Contact section for details on how to drop us a line. | <urn:uuid:1f3269d3-8bc3-425c-9610-a7e149ee2ce6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tareeq.me/ | 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 | 0.930596 | 409 | 1.804688 | 2 |
By Nick Cooney
April 3, 2012
“How I say it has as much of an impact on what people think of me as what I say…You can have the best message in the world, but the person on the receiving end will always understand it through the prism of his or her own emotions, preconceptions, prejudices, and preexisting beliefs.”
If you’re familiar with the terms “death tax” and “energy exploration,” you can thank Frank Luntz. You can also thank him for the powerful quote above.
Luntz is a Republican Party consultant who conducts polling to see which words and phrases resonate with the public. Luntz popularized the terms “death tax” and “energy exploration” after polling showed they were more effective in promoting Republican ideals than the original terms “estate tax” and “oil drilling.”
Whether or not you agree with Luntz’s politics, his point rings true: language matters. When making the case for vegan eating, the words we use matter too. Some phrases appeal to meat eaters, and some phrases will be more likely to turn them off.
Case in point: a study by British trade magazine The Grocer found that the public was more likely to embrace vegetarian meat products when the products were labeled “meat-free” instead of “vegetarian.” Over the past four years an increasing number of British supermarkets and vegetarian meat producers have switched labels from “vegetarian” to “meat-free,” and as a result they are seeing increased sales among meat-eaters.
On this side of the Atlantic, vegetarian meat producers are catching on. Pick up a bag of Gardein vegetarian meat, and you’ll see the label “I’m meat-free!” Even Lightlife is catching on, labeling their products “meat-free” or noting they are packed with “veggie protein.” Virtually none of their products still carry a prominent “vegetarian” label.
Why does “meat-free” seem to go over better than “vegetarian” with the general public? Industry experts think the term “vegetarian” has negative connotations for many people. Maybe some have had negative experiences with vegetarians. Perhaps, due to guilt, social norms, or other reasons, they simply look down on all things “vegetarian.” For those over 30 years old, the term might conjure up memories of a flavorless tofu burger they tried back in college.
(It’s possible that for those who are 21 and under, “vegetarian” does not have as negative a connotation. Higher percentages of those age groups consider themselves vegetarian, and they have grown up with a much tastier selection of vegetarian products.)
Using the word “vegetarian” also raises the sticky issue of self-identity. The public may see vegetarians as a distinct group of people quite different from the average American. Ditto for vegans. That’s why, when asked about my diet, I don’t say “I am a vegan” or “I am a vegetarian.” I say, “I don’t eat meat.” I don’t want the people I’m speaking with to lump me into a box, as if who I am is determined by what I eat. More importantly, I don’t want them to think they need to take on a new identity – joining me in the box – in order to cut cruelty out of their diets.
For a funny parallel example, consider the following. Which of these statements sounds more palatable to you? “You should become a Canadian,” or “You should move to Canada.” The first statement focuses on identity, while the second focuses on action. The second statement is probably more palatable to most Americans.
The bottom line?
When we leave issues of self-identity off the table, we make it easier for our audience to hear our message.
When we use words that don’t have negative connotations in the minds of our audience, our audience will be more likely to listen.
At times “meat-free” can sound a bit awkward when you try to work it into conversation. But after learning what the research has to say on this issue, I’m planning to use “meat-free” instead of “vegetarian” whenever possible.
In other words, I’m going meat-free. How about you?
Want to receive blog updates twice a month? Join the Compassionate Communities Campaign to get them delivered straight to your inbox. | <urn:uuid:40c84d73-9ae2-4493-ab81-7cb8ee8c1854> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ccc.farmsanctuary.org/tag/meat-free/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00001-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95953 | 1,018 | 1.5 | 2 |
Join the thriving Midlands group for a fantastic afternoon of great learning and development with the quite superb, David Hyner.
Story telling ... How to connect with any audience with nothing but your truth!
This interactive “have-a-go” workshop gives you the opportunity to tell your stories like you have never told them before.
We tend to get in our own way a bit when storytelling for many reasons and as a result, we can find ourselves giving information rather than telling the story, for fear of how others may perceive our “assumed” extrovert nature.
David gives you the confidence to;
- understand why a well told story connects with ANY audience
- practice your own stories and how to tell them
- see how your authentic use of voice, gesture and body language engages and enthralls
- get REAL feedback on what worked and what didn’t work in a safe and supportive environment
“Yesterday they thanked me for my talk, much like any other gig.
Today however, the tears were a mixture of empathy, pride, acceptance and self realisation as she stood before me with a trembling lip and salty mascara track running down her cheek towards the corner of her mouth.”
“I was that girl” she exclaimed
“Wow” I replied “are you okay?”
“It was that story you told.... Was it real?”
“Yes it was” I said, feeling a little awkward now and wondering where the conversation would lead.
“I thought so .... The way you told it ... It was as if it was you going through it”
“It made me realise that I was using my problems as excuses to not be the best I can be, and now I ...”
Find out what it’s all about at the master class!
Do make very effort to be there! Meet at 3.30 for a 4.00 start and the event runs until 6.00.
It is priced at a ridiculously low price of £10 so that everyone can be there!
Please register and pay for the event through the link below.
Remember if you are coming to the evening event, you need to pay for that separately
You are guaranteed a very warm welcome. | <urn:uuid:d631c9c9-6578-4244-aa2e-1f28621c1c69> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://professionalspeaking.biz/Default.aspx?pageId=706432&eventId=535069&EventViewMode=EventDetails | 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 | 0.956647 | 478 | 1.742188 | 2 |
(Updated with additions, March 10, 2012. Here's a Twitter list, so you can follow all of the African writers mentioned in this post who are on Twitter.)
The internets are all a-flutter with reactions to Kony 2012, a high-velocity viral fundraising campaign created by the "rebel soul dream evangelists" at Invisible Children to "raise awareness" about Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony and child soldiers. As noted in my previous post here on Boing Boing, the project has many critics. There is a drinking game, there are epic lolpictorials, and a chorus of idiots on Facebook.
There are indications the project may be about stealth-evangelizing Christianity. The Invisible Children filmmakers have responded to some of the criticism. Media personalities and celebrities are duking it out as the campaign (and now, backlash) spreads.
But in that flood of attention, one set of voices has gone largely ignored: Africans themselves. Writers, journalists, activists; people of African descent who live and work and think about life on the continent. In this post, we'll round up some of their replies to #Kony2012.
• Above, a video by Rosebell Kagumire, a Ugandan multimedia journalist who works on "media, women, peace and conflict issues." She writes, "This is me talking about the danger of portraying people with one single story and using old footage to cause hysteria when it could have been possible to get to DRC and other affected countries get a fresh perspective and also include other actors."
• Ethiopian writer and activist Solome Lemma writes that she is disturbed by the "dis-empowering and reductive narrative" evidenced in Invisible Children's promotional videos: "[It] paints the people as victims, lacking agency, voice, will, or power. It calls upon an external cadre of American students to liberate them by removing the bad guy who is causing their suffering. Well, this is a misrepresentation of the reality on the ground. Fortunately, there are plenty of examples of child and youth advocates who have been fighting to address the very issues at the heart of IC’s work." Update: Here's another from Lemma on "Seven steps for critical reflection." She urges those concerned about human rights in Africa to "think before you give."
• Musa Okwonga, a " football writer, poet and musician of Ugandan descent," writes in an Independent op-ed: “I understand the anger and resentment at Invisible Children’s approach, which with its paternalism has unpleasant echoes of colonialism. I will admit to being perturbed by its apparent top-down prescriptiveness, when so much diligent work is already being done at Northern Uganda’s grassroots... Watching the video, though, I was concerned at the simplicity of the approach that Invisible Children seemed to have taken."
• Award-winning Nigerian-American novelist and photographer Teju Cole published an inspired set of tweets today on sentimentality toward Africa by Americans. Ethan Zuckerman gathered them here, and Alexis Madrigal did the same here. "From Sachs to Kristof to Invisible Children to TED, the fastest growth industry in the US is the White Savior Industrial Complex," Cole writes. "The white savior supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening." He is brilliant and you should be following him on Twitter, anyway.
• Angelo Opi-aiya Izama, a journalist and researcher based in Kampala, Uganda, writes: "The simplicity of the 'good versus evil,' where good is inevitably white/western and bad is black or African, is also reminiscent of some of the worst excesses of the colonial era interventions. These campaigns don’t just lack scholarship or nuance. They are not bothered to seek it."
• Benin-born "Author and Africa Enthusiast" Mafoya Dossoumon focuses less on the shortcomings of "Invisible Children," and more on the power elite within Africa. "I urge you my African brothers and sisters, and friends of Africa to direct more energy towards holding our leaders accountable. Our leaders have failed us! "
• TMS Ruge, the Ugandan-born co-founder of Project Diaspora is pissed. He says he wants to "bang my head against my desk" to "make the dumb-assery stop." writes, "It is a slap in the face to so many of us who want to rise from the ashes of our tumultuous past and the noose of benevolent, paternalistic, aid-driven development memes. We, Africans, are sandwiched between our historically factual imperfections and well-intentioned, road-to-hell-building-do-gooders. It is a suffocating state of existence. To be properly heard, we must ride the coattails of self-righteous idiocy train. Even then, we have to fight for our voices to be respected." Update: Ruge has a commentary in the New York Times: "‘Kony 2012’ Is Not a Revolution."
• Semhar Araia, founder of the Diaspora African Women's Network (DAWN), is based in Minneapolis and is of Eritrean descent. DAWN "develops and supports talented women and girls of the African diaspora," and is focused on African affairs. In an opinion piece at the Christian Science Monitor titled "Learn to Respect Africans," Araia writes of Invisible Children: "They must be willing to use their media to amplify African voices, not simply their own. This isn’t about them."
• At National Geographic, a guest essay by Anywar Ricky Richard, a former child soldier of the Lord’s Resistance Army, and director of the northern Ugandan organization Friends of Orphans. Richard writes of perceptions of Invisible Children in northern Uganda, where the group has had a presence for some years, "They are not known as a peace building organization and I do not think they have experience with peace building and conflict resolution methods. I totally disagree with their approach of military action as a means to end this conflict."
• Dayo Olopade, a Nigerian-American journalist who is writing a book on the connection between disruptive technology and African development, wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times: "The mundane march of progress in poor countries is what 'awareness' campaigns often miss. And when, as in this case, success is determined by action from outside the region, cries of a new imperialism should be taken seriously. Few international NGOs working in Africa define success properly — as putting themselves out of business. Invisible Children seems no better."
• London-based Ida Horner "grew up in Idi Amin’s Uganda," and says the first 20 years of her life were "marked by civil wars." She now consults to companies that want to ethically source products from East Africa, and writes and speaks about sustainable development and issues affecting African women in poverty. Among her concerns: how will Kony 2012 fever affect tourism income, and investment, which she sees as a better solution than aid? "Uganda was voted by Lonely Planet amongst the top destinations for 2012 but has this NGO just undone the potential for Uganda’s tourism? After all the tourism industry provides a real opportunity for Ugandans to work their way out of poverty through providing services that tourists want to consume."
• Kampala-based "Poet, Artist, and Computer Engineer" Frank Odongka published a poem about Invisible Children, titled " Mocking a Mocking Bird." In an intro, he writes about how he felt immediately after seeing the video: "I was only filled with emptiness. I felt our past was being used by some external figure to attract attention to their cause; which cause is obviously not a better life for my relatives. In 2000, travelling to Kampala from the West Nile was suicide and Invisible Children didn't realize we were invisible and holed up there. Today, more than ever, we are visible but someone suddenly feels the need to exploit our past and paint it as our present! I wrote this poem, short as it is, to reflect how I feel about it."
• "Let’s call Joseph Kony what he is: a narcissist, a pedophile and a terrorist," writes Ghanaian-American blogger Malaka Gyekye Grant in a post titled Joseph Kony Is Still At Large and It’s all My Fault. "Why are we not speaking out until our voices are impossible to ignore? Here’s a better question: Why did an AFRICAN not start the Kony2012 campaign?"
• Ethiopian-American writer Dinaw Mengestu, at the conflict journal Warscapes: "If there is one thing Invisible Children is right about, it’s that ignorance is blinding. Change has never come with a click, or a tweet; lives are not saved by bracelets. We all want solutions, but why should we think or expect an easy one exists for a twenty-year-old conflict in Uganda when we have none for the wars we’re engaged in now. "
• Former LRA abductee turned peacekeeper Victor Ochen is a social entrepreneur and peace builder in Uganda who founded The African Youth Initiative Network. They work to physically and psychologically rehabilitate youth affected by war. He writes at AYINET's blog: "I agree that Kony must be stopped as soon as possible. However, it must be done in a way that avoids further civilian casualties and the loss of the lives of innocent children. Raising potentially false expectation such as arresting Kony in 2012 will not rebuild the lives of the people in northern Uganda. Rebuilding communities and rehabilitating victims is what we need. The stronger survivors become, the less Kony remains an issue. Restoration of communities devastated by Kony is a greater priority than catching or even killing him."
• The Guardian has published an interview with Jacob Acaye, the Ugandan former child abductee featured in the "Kony 2012" video. Acaye is now a 21-year-old law student in Kampala. He says the filmmakers wandered into a village where he and other children sought refuge; the Invisible Children representatives were looking for a child who spoke English, to feature in their film. "They could not understand what was happening. They wanted a kid who was sleeping there and who spoke English," Acaye said. "I could understand English and I could say what was happening, so that is how I was in their film."
• Ethan Zuckerman is not African, but the Global Voices co-founder has done much work over the years to create platforms and networks that amplify voices from the continent, and promote thoughtful, informed dialogue on complicated issues like this one. Ethan has a great roundup of links from various African voices. And Global Voices contributor Rebekah Heacock has an extensive post here, which gathers opinions from the African blog-o-/twitter-o-sphere.
Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:31f75c48-3adb-4ba2-ac4c-355c56750f05> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://boingboing.net/2012/03/08/african-voices-respond-to-hype.html?fb_source=message | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966453 | 2,344 | 1.578125 | 2 |
If an employee or student has reasons to believe, either by direct knowledge or a report from another person, that a person is in any danger of harming himself/herself, that employee or student is to report the situation immediately. The procedure to report the situation is as follows:
- If an individual has threatened or displayed a cluster of alarming warning signals, appears to have a plan, or is in imminent danger and requires intervention, the Crisis Team will be contacted immediately. The following procedures are to be followed
A. Do not leave the individual alone.
B. Contact the Campus police-332-3875 or Ext. 5316.
C. Counseling techniques will be used as appropriate to try to diffuse the situation.
D. Counselors will collaborate about the results of a risk assessment to try to determine the severity of the situation.
E. Do not allow the individual to go home unsupervised. A parent or adult must assume direct responsibility for the individual before allowing him or her to leave school.
- After the immediate crisis has been resolved, the Crisis Assistance Team shall meet to evaluate the situation and decide on an appropriate role for the university to take in assisting the individual.
A. A case manager shall be appointed to remain in close contact with the individual. The counselor will be the liaison between student, school, parent, and any involved community agencies.
B. Faculty involved with the individual will be assisted in appropriately dealing with them.
C. Referral sources will be given to the parents/spouse. Individuals who are suicidal are not safe at school, and parents/spouse shall arrange for treatment through outside sources.
- Confidentiality shall be maintained throughout these procedures. | <urn:uuid:b21ba571-f2ae-478d-bb64-f457165a494c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://ecok.edu/offices/campus_safety/emergency/suicide.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00034-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941153 | 348 | 1.632813 | 2 |
|The Price Paid
Author: Sophia Isobel Theoreux PM
A decade after the war, Harry found himself reminiscing the events that had transpire the day they won the war. Harry remembered all the love ones they had lost in order to conquer their enemy. Warning: One Kiss shared at the very end.Rated: Fiction K - English - Hurt/Comfort/Family - Harry P. - Words: 1,254 - Reviews: 1 - Published: 07-03-11 - Status: Complete - id: 7141434
|A+ A- Full 3/4 1/2 Expand Tighten|
Written for Filch's List of Prompts
For Monday June 27th
Prompt: "The Price Paid"
Character: Harry Potter
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER! DON'T SUE.
"The Price Paid"
Ten years after the war, Harry was in his study.
The war anniversary was fast approaching again.
He leaned back on his chair and recalled the event ten years ago, that led him to where he was now.
Shouts of joy boomed throughout the castle.
Harry had slowly turned to see everyone hugging each other and crying for their hard-earned victory. Hermione had kissed Ron and their friends cheered.
Angelina had comforted George for the loss of his twin brother, Fred.
Molly, Arthur, Ginny, and Percy surrounded him, crying for the loss of a son, a brother, a family member, and a twin.
Charlie was inside the castle, probably looking for Pansy.
Harry had been glad that Pansy chose to help them and win the war for everyone else.
Charlie had told him before the war that when they get through the whole ordeal, Charlie, and Pansy will move to Romania and start a new life together.
Bill and Fleur were by the fountain; she was hugging Bill and looking him all over. She checked if he was injured anywhere else and was worried for her husband.
By the other corner of the courtyard, Luna was sitting with Neville. She had pulled him into a hug and comforted him.
Harry could clearly see that he was still shaking from his victory against Lucius Malfoy.
Just then, by the castle entrance, he saw Draco Malfoy dragging himself inside, with a black robe. The one Snape wore all the time. Harry's eyes widened in shock as he saw him tightly hugging it to his body.
Harry stood up and went to the Astronomy Tower.
The moment he stepped foot in the tower, memories can flooding in from that night, two years ago.
The night Dumbledore died.
He could picture Malfoy and Snape in front of the wakened wizard.
He sat at the very corner, remembering the price they all had to pay for the victory they all were basking in.
Harry had lost his parents, James and Lily, because they had tried protecting him when he was still a baby.
Next, he lost Sirius, just when they were getting to know each other. He was one of the few Harry considered family. Now he was gone because of Bellatrix Lestrange.
Another loss he had to take into account was Dobby's life.
The free elf had risked his life again and again to protect him from the threats that came his way.
Harry also lost Cedric.
Though they were not close, in the last moments of Cedric's life, they had formed a special kind of friendship and witnessed the return of Voldemort.
Harry blamed himself for Cedric's death. Wormtail had killed him because he was at the cemetery with Harry.
And recently, Dumbledore's death took a toll on Harry.
The old wizard was the closest person h had to a father figure.
Since he was in his first year, Dumbledore had always been there for him.
To make things worse, he died while Harry watched.
He couldn't do anything to save him.
Harry cried his heart out.
Then he remembered that he had also lost Fred to the war.
This made him cry even harder.
Harry recalled Bill being bitten by Greyback. Now, he too carried the curse of the moon.
The same curse that Remus was still struggling to control. Bill Weasley will now bear the curse because he was helping Harry.
For some reason, Harry couldn't help but hate himself.
It was because of his life that everyone had to suffer.
After what seemed like forever, he got up and pulled himself together.
He left the Astronomy Tower and wandered the halls half dead.
H found himself standing outside the doors of the Room of Requirement.
It was visible because someone left the door ajar.
Harry could hear faint sobs from inside the room.
He slowly made his way and peaked inside.
He saw Malfoy in the middle of the room, tightly holding the black robe to him, crying.
Harry could guess why he was crying.
He wanted to help him but how?
He himself was also struggling with his inner battles.
Suddenly, Harry felt a hand on his shoulder.
He turned around to see whom it belonged to.
It was Theodore Nott.
He placed a finger on his lips, signalling Harry to keep quiet.
"Thank you, Potter. For winning the war and saving so many lives. For some reason, watching you watch Draco, you want to help him too. But right now isn't the right time. He needs to accept that Professor Snape is gone." Theodor said.
Harry nodded and left.
Before leaving the floor, harry turned to look at Theodor once more and saw him standing by the door.
He was going to wait for Draco.
Harry got down to the courtyard again and saw everyone heading towards him.
They all spoke at once that Harry was having a hard time keeping up with all of them.
The next thing he remembered was that they were celebrating the end of a very long war.
END OF FLASHBACK
Harry snapped out from his daydream when he heard the door slam.
"Harry? Where are you?" called a familiar voice.
"I'm here in the study." Harry answered.
He could hear the footsteps getting closer and the doorknob turned.
"Harry, good that you are dressed. I thought that I would have to wait forever for you again."
"I would never make you wait, love."
"Well, we better go. Ronald and Hermione are already at the party. Ginny and Blaise are on their way with Charlie and Pansy. Percy owled me and said that you have to give a few words."
"I always give a few words during the anniversary."
Harry stood up and closed his journal.
"What were you doing by the day?"
"Just reminiscing the event that led to what we are celebrating now. Recalling how it was a decade ago." Harry said and stood up.
He got his coat and put it on.
They left his study and headed to the door.
"Molly and Arthur are very excited to see George and Angelina's new baby."
"I know, little Freddie is a carbon copy of his name sake. We I recall the past, I just can't help but blame myself."
"Not this again. We talked about this. The war wasn't your fault."
"I know but—"
"No buts! We better stop this topic and go. No one likes a party pooper, Harry."
"Your right. I should just enjoy the present, our present."
"You got that right, Potter."
They apparated and a few moments later were outside the Burrow.
Before they went in, Harry stopped.
"What's wrong Harry?"
"Nothing's wrong. Despite the fact that we all paid a heavy price of the lives we have now, I am very grateful to have you in my life." Harry said.
"I am grateful and happy as well. You know I love you right?"
"And I love you too, Draco Lucius Potter nee Malfoy."
Harry pulled the blond closer for a kiss.
Then they went inside and enjoyed the peaceful occasion with their family and friends.
A/N: Read and Review. Constructive Criticisms are very welcomed. ^_^ | <urn:uuid:1e800e2f-8ec3-4b9f-8c98-0b6d54180a98> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7141434/1/The-Price-Paid | 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 | 0.988348 | 1,747 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Whether you are retired or just approaching retirement age, here are some milestones for you to keep in mind when planning or reviewing your retirement strategy.
Age 50: You can begin making catch-up contributions to your Traditional and Roth IRAs, as well as certain employer-sponsored retirement plans with a salary deferral feature, such as a 401(k) or 403(b). For IRAs, in tax year 2011, you can invest an additional $1,000 over the $5,000 limit. For 401(k) and 403(b) plans, you can contribute $5,500 above the $16,500 limit in 2011.
Age 55: If you have assets in an employer's retirement plan and separate from service after age 55, you may take a distribution without facing the 10% early withdrawal tax penalty.
Age 59½: You can begin withdrawing from your Traditional IRA or retirement savings plan account without facing the 10% penalty, although income taxes still apply to any earnings and deductible contributions. You may withdraw cash from your Roth IRA contributions without facing taxes or penalties, and if you've held the account for at least five years, you may withdraw any earnings from your Roth IRA.
Age 62: You can begin receiving Social Security benefits at a reduced 25% payout. Wondering when to claim your Social Security benefits? Weigh your options with our Social Security Benefits Evaluator.
Ages 65—67: Depending on the year you were born, you may begin drawing Social Security benefits once you reach your full retirement age.
Age 70: If you have delayed receiving Social Security benefits, payments reach their maximum amount by age 70.
Age 70½: You must begin taking required minimum distributions from your Traditional IRA or you may face a hefty tax penalty. You are never required to make withdrawals from your Roth IRA.
Participants in qualified retirement plans, such as a 401(k) or 403(b) plan, are generally required to receive a required minimum distribution by April 1st of the year that you attain age 70½; check with your plan administrator if you are still employed to determine if distributions may be delayed until April 1st of the year following the year of retirement. | <urn:uuid:37c4e9fd-91f2-491b-befa-6415a6bd48f1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://individual.troweprice.com/public/Retail/Retirement/Retirement-Planning/Living-in-Retirement/Age-Related-Milestones | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00021-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944294 | 448 | 1.734375 | 2 |
New Numbers Confirm Inflationary Recession (Stagflation)
Yesterday's GDP report indicated that the headline volume growth number stayed unchanged at +0.6%, and the terms of trade adjusted real growth number also stayed unchanged at -0.6%. Domestic demand was revised down but so was the trade deficit, leaving production unrevised.
However,other revisions were clearly bearish. Inflation was revised up with both the GDP deflator and the domestic demand deflator being revised up with 0.1% point each while the Personal Consumption Expenditure deflator was upwardly revised by 0.2%:points. Meanwhile, disposable income was revised down even in nominal terms and much more so in real terms.
Today we got the monthly breakdown on that downward revision, with most of it coming in November and December. Real disposable income rose slightly in January, but this was entirely a result of temporary factors such as expired options and other bonuses. Despite these factors, real disposable income remains 0.2% below the September peak, confirming the beginning of a recession during the fourth quarter of 2007. This is likely to become even clearer after these numbers have gone through the annual revision in late July. These revisions always result in a downward revision of real growth and an upward revision of inflation. For example, the real growth rate for 2004 was initially reported as 4.4% while the GDP deflator was reported to rise 2.1%. After the 2007 annual revision it was said that growth was only 3.6% while the GDP deflator is said to have risen 2.9%.
With consumer price inflation soaring and nominal income growth likely remaining slow, this implies that real income will likely fall faster in coming month (also in February, the removal of the temporary factors that boosted the January number will also contribute to a deeper monthly decline. And with the savings rate being negative and asset prices falling, this will also imply a decline in personal consumption which in turn will contibute to faster declines in terms of trade adjusted real GDP. | <urn:uuid:a8f78f17-1173-4c73-a7c5-631b335de80b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stefanmikarlsson.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970585 | 408 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Critical Commentary on My Alexandria
The poems of My Alexandria transform homophobic narratives about the disease, offer comfort to those living with HIV, and encourage empathy from those whose lives have not yet been affected by the virus.... Although Dotys poems are not polemical, they counter reductive representations of people with AIDS, are accessible to a wider audience, and have the potential to improve public response to the epidemic.... His poems expose the codes that map meaning onto the HIV-positive body, destabilize the complex cultural networks that construct gay male identity in the context of the AIDS epidemic, and forge a transformed and transforming language in which to articulate love and loss.... For Doty, poetry is a medium for imagining temporary exemption from history, from the physical and cultural constraints that circumscribe sensation and experience. By revealing the myths and politics that construct the AIDS epidemic and by depicting individual acts that defy the pressure of those constructions, My Alexandria transforms the terms that limit the lives and deaths of people with AIDS.
From Deborah Landau, "How to Live. What to Do.: The Poetics and Politics of AIDS," American Literature vol. 68, no.1 (1996), pp. 193-225.
With his rhapsodic inclusiveness, Doty performs a kind of meditation through which the wounds of memory are healed. In many of his poems, the meditation blooms from the spirit of his narrative, appearing often in what seems like an extended addendaor cadenzato the poem. The tone of these meditations is thoughtful, almost essay-like, enfolding the poem in a membrane of sensuous exposition. In a lesser poet, this exposition might intrude on the poem, might seem like an apology for what the more dramatic parts of the poem fail to offer. But Doty employs these to distance the principal event of the poem, to invest the event with a mysterious sensuousness afforded him through the shimmer of memory.
From Tony Whedon, "Let Me Go, If I Have to, In Brilliance," Poetry East, no.35 (1993), pp. 160-61.
Diann Blakely Shoaf
Like Cavafy, whose native city the title of this new collection alludes to, Mark Doty is a poet of desire and loss, of the monuments and ruins belonging to ancient and modern, "high" and "popular" cultures alike. The ancient world as underlying our own, and the multilayered mysteries revealed through excavation, imagined or actual, are subjects that have served Doty before.
From Diann Blakely Shoaf, review of My Alexandria, Harvard Review (Spring 1993).
Return to Mark Doty | <urn:uuid:bc9f49d6-590c-4431-9762-117bfc9073a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/doty/alexandria.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935357 | 542 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Can diversity and inclusion help your diverse workforce reach its full potential? Ruling with an iron fist might get the job done, but it won’t help you attain true business growth.
This is the lesson that Bernard Tyson, president and chief operating officer for Kaiser Permanente (No. 3 in The 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity), addressed during his presentation at the DiversityInc event in Washington, D.C.
“I like to work with people out of aspiration,” Tyson said, “with the commitment that people are working from their full potential. I will specifically align that to Kaiser Permanente in terms of diversity [and inclusion].” He notes that managing through methods of forced compliance, such as firing and other penalties, causes people to do “the minimum amount they need to get by.”
As a direct report to Kaiser Permanente’s chairman, Tyson knows the value of a strong commitment to diversity at the top levels of an organization. He’s a direct report to Chairman and CEO George Halvorson, who is a vocal proponent of diversity and inclusion. In fact, it’s Kaiser’s diverse board of directors and senior management that thrust them to the top of The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list, and it’s why they were recognized with our 2011 Special Award for Top Company for Executive Development.
Tyson is responsible for the organization’s operations and oversees the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plans. He is executive sponsor for Kaiser Permanente’s initiatives to eliminate healthcare disparities and to promote diversity in the workplace.
Among Kaiser Permanente’s best practices for inspiring diversity:
- Equity for health. Kaiser Permanente is the only organization that is able to conduct race-based data collection. Its leaders receive a dashboard report each month of health outcomes. “I know how we are doing in every single color and race,” said Tyson, attesting to the impact of good information. Eliminating disparity is the priority agenda.Diversity and inclusion for Kaiser Permanente evolves into a quality-of-care issue. “We know for a fact that as we improve as an organization, the healthcare to all populations is improving,” said Tyson. That’s why the company runs a program to bring farmers markets into low-income Black communities. Healthy eating is critical to good health, but grocery stores in these locations typically do not provide healthy food.
- Build a representative workforce. “The people in our organization are our most precious asset and resource,” Tyson said. “What I am doing is kid’s play, deciding on a billion dollars here or a million there, deciding on an ad campaign. Someone cutting someone’s chest open, that’s serious business.” He notes that one of his most important roles is to represent Kaiser Permanente’s people.
Kaiser Permanente already employs a diverse workforce, with 42 percent white, 26 percent Asian, 17 percent Native Hawaiian, 13 percent Black and 1 percent American Indian employees. But the company is still striving to improve: It has a goal to increase diversity in upper management.
- Economically sustainable communities. Kaiser Permanente has an aggressive goal to spend a billion dollars with diverse suppliers over the next five years. (It is already on target to spend $680 million in 2011.) Tyson receives a monthly dashboard of the pipeline to make sure all business is on target.
- Healthy environments.Healthcare is an ongoing dedication and extends beyond office visits and doctor appointments. Kaiser Permanente seeks a full return on its investments by getting involved in the communities it serves, spending more than $2 billion a year with major initiatives across the country.
- Ensuring the most vulnerable populations have access to care
- Extending reach beyond healthcare in building farmers markets, planting gardens and producing educational theater for children on topics regarding healthy living including sex, bullying and HIV
- Identifying and impacting social determinants of health
Above all, diversity and inclusion efforts can only be successful under the guidance of inspiring leaders, Tyson said. Kaiser Permanente’s executives set an example by getting involved with charitable organizations. Tyson himself recently worked with Remember Them: Champions for Humanity to create a bronze monument in Oakland, Calif., which depicts 25 international humanitarians. The goal was to make sure future generations don’t forget those who strived for the greater good. The project raised $7 million.
“My role is that I’m trying to create an environment where brilliant people can do brilliant things,” Tyson said. | <urn:uuid:b2d27ca8-e777-494b-8750-b2b416d684a7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.diversityinc.com/diversity-events/what-makes-kaiser-permanente-no-1-for-diversity/ | 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 | 0.946171 | 964 | 1.71875 | 2 |
When most countries experienced a decline in patent applications growth last year, Japan managed to record a growth rate of 7.9 percent. While China, the world’s largest Internet market grew by a whopping 56.2 percent.
ZTE Corporate and Huiwei Technologies were two of the top patent contributors in China and also the world. None of the Chinese Internet giant was included in the list. Facebook wasn’t either while Google was ranked in the 80th position. With China’s introduction of its patent development plan earlier this year, we can expect patent application count to surge in 2011.
“Overall Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) filings recovered from the economic crisis-induced drop in 2009, almost reaching their 2008 level,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry in a statement.
“The fast growth rates from East Asia reflect acceleration in the geographic diversification of innovative activities. This trend has many implications, not least an increased linguistic diversity of the technology that patent offices use as a basis for determining whether an invention is patentable.”
In Southeast Asia, Singapore led the front with 637 patent applications in 2010. Thailand had 69, Malaysia 302 and Indonesia 15.
Image courtesy of cross flag pins | <urn:uuid:765c6e90-cdcf-451f-9999-e562f6780729> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.techinasia.com/japan-china-patent/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00027-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932095 | 255 | 1.773438 | 2 |
Posted 1 year ago
The pattern is called Oud Rhodesia or is it Old Rhodesia?
It has a deco feel to it. I have had it now for thirty years. When I first found it at a market one Saturday I puzzled over the marks. At that time research on Gouda marks was rather sketchy and not all of the year marks were known. The three lines with a cross-hatch was one of these unknowns. I only learnt about the date of 1954 about ten years ago. Up until then I thought it might have been from the thirties. I still do not know about the artists mark. I have seen the design on quite a few different shapes. This form I believe to be a gin bottle and it may well have had a round ceramic top with a cork as a stopper.
It retains the original green/silver label used from 1950 -1955.
A similar vase is thought to have been painted by Johann van Kersbergen. | <urn:uuid:1e2466af-ff60-4061-a168-9ea53d97bed2> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/52113-zuid-holland-gin-bottle?in=collection-48 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980199 | 206 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Time's Karen Tumulty has a great piece up today about her family's experience with the health insurance industry. Go read it.
Some key points:
Some key points:
- Insurance companies are evil. This is a pretty classic case of a company retroactively canceling a policy because the policy holder developed an expensive condition. Health care reform, with guaranteed issue and community rating will go a long way towards restraining the bad behavior of the insurers.
- Underinsurance is as serious a problem as uninsurance. This patient did the right thing (as far as he knew) -- he paid for private insurance, high-deductible, out of his own pocket. It turns out that he bought the wrong policy for a number of reasons. Even if Assurant had not canceled his policy, when he hit his next renewal date, he would have been freshly underwritten with his new chronic condition, and the cost of renewing the policy would have been well beyond his means, or would have been excluded as a pre-existing condition.
- Texas is not a state to live in if you are poor and sick. 25% of the population is uninsured and Medicaid only covers those making less than 21% of the poverty line! Holy crap. So much for compassionate conservatives.
- Preventative care saves both lives and money. This is a great case study in which a patient may wind up falling out of the work force, hurting the economy and becoming a ward of the state, because of his chronic disease. Not knowing his diagnosis, it's impossible to say that in this case preventative care would have kept stage 1 or 2 chronic kidney disease from progressing to stage 3 or 4, but across all comers it is certain that significant numbers of patients will benefit.
- The uninsured really get screwed with health care costs, when they have to pay the gross charges instead of the negotiated rates given to insured patients and medicare patients. Of course, most don't pay, but it adds to their economic burden anyway and accelerates the slide towards bankruptcy.
- Half of bankrupties are in part due to medical costs. | <urn:uuid:263410e1-567d-4312-aada-c27cd8e9bdbe> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://allbleedingstops.blogspot.com/2009/03/case-study-in-need-for-health-reform.html?showComment=1236320760000 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705953421/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120553-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.979818 | 433 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Last June, the inaptly named MV Wisdom, under tow to a scrap yard, broke her tow line and drifted on to Juhu beach in Mumbai, India, after narrowly missing a major bridge. This Sunday, the tanker, MT Pavit, drifted ashore on the same beach, to the apparent surprise of all concerned. The ship had been previously reported to have sunk on June 29 off Oman following flooding in the engine room.
After the attacks of November 2008, in which ten terrorists in inflatable speedboats came ashore in two location in Mumbai, there have been efforts made to strengthen coastal security. Nevertheless the MT Pavit drifted for nearly 100 hours in Indian territorial waters without being detected, arriving on Juhu catching the police and coastal authorities by surprise.. As was the case following the grounding of the MV Wisdom, investigations are being called for to determine how the MT Pavit breached coastal security. | <urn:uuid:6e33b872-374b-4822-8183-6f7be987800c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2011/08/mt-pavit-on-juhu-beach-a-security-breach-big-enough-to-drift-a-tanker-through/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972763 | 183 | 1.8125 | 2 |
I'm having trouble dipping truffle centres in white chocolate, and I'm hoping someone can help out...
I'm dipping by hand, small batches, and using Valrhona Ivoire. Heating with a double boiler, following Valrhona's suggested temperature curve, and seeding with chips of the Ivoire.
Also - and this may be significant – I'm adding a very small amount of lemon zest to the chocolate.
The problem I have is that the melted Ivoire isn't quite fluid enough, and seems to become less fluid after I start dipping. On its way down to 79/80°F it seems to have a good consistency, but less so once it has reached the lower temperature and is then heated to working temperature.
I expecially want a fairly fluid chocolate here as the centres that I'm dipping have to come more or less straight out of the freezer (they're quite creamy, and too soft at room temperature to dip), and I want them to spend as little time as possible in the chocolate... and the thicker consistency (compared to the dark chocolate I'm working with) is making this difficult.
Can I thin the chocolate slightly with cocoa butter perhaps? Or am I maybe not being quite careful enough with temperature?
The thing that occurs to me right away is that your centers are coming from the freezer and they're cooling the chocolate really, really quickly causing the cocoa butter to crystallize a lot faster than you expect.
First thought is to raise the temperature of the chocolate to as high as you possibly can and still keep it in temper. After dipping a couple of centers, stir the chocolate and check to see what temperature it is, and adjust accordingly.
Now - this may introduce other issues, such as the shells cracking because of the differential in temperatures.
Like Clay says the cold chocolate center will cause your couverture to cool down super fast. Perhaps this soft filling is better suited as a molded chocolate piece instead of a dipped piece ? The Vahlrona Ivoire is excellent couverture.
Hi Clay, Daniel,
THanks for the thoughts...
I hear what you say about the cold centres cooling the couverture too quickly, and maybe that is the issue - but as the centres spend relatively little time in there, and more importantly take with them out of the bath of chocolate that portion which has been cooled, I suspect the amount of heat 'drain' isn't actually that significant. Also, I'm not seeing a dramatic drop in chocolate temperature on the thermometer. But on the other hand I don't have a better theory ;-)
Taking the moulded route rather than dipped could make sense, and maybe I should give that another shot. I tried it before, but probably wasn't using suitable moulds - the main problem for me was getting a decent (not too thick, not too thin, reasonably even) shell thickness.
There's another way to think about this.
Chocolate will continue to crystallize at a constant temperature (that's why it tends to thicken over the course of a day in a tempering machine even if nothing else changes). Cooling the chocolate induces faster crystallization. This cooling might be very local (within a few mm of the surface of your frozen center), but it can effect a very real change in the chocolate over time as the crystals are mixed in and spread.
So - while the temperature might not change "significantly," you are inducing faster crystal formation in the chocolate that's left behind in the bowl.
Ah, I'm with you - thanks, that's making sense, and rather fascinating. A tricky issue to manage if that's what's going on. I'll have a shot at working at the highest possible temperature, as you suggest, and maybe a larger volume of chocolate to dip in.
If that doesn't give satisfactory results then perhaps go back to the moulding route, as Daniel suggests
If adjusting the temp, and working with a larger volume doesn't remedy the situation, another thing to consider is moisture. Depending on the humidity of your working environment, frozen centers can collect condensation very quickly after removing them from the freezer. They can develop a thin layer of frost that can then melt into the warm chocolate, causing it to thicken and seize. Also, along with natural oils, freshly grated lemon zest contains some moisture. You can try using a drop or two of pure lemon oil instead of the zest.
I use Valrhona Ivoire, and it quite fluid. It's very hygroscopic though, and will absorb moisture from the air. I had an open bag that I misplaced, and when I found it and tried to work with the remaining chocolate, it was very thick. You might want to temper a small batch without adding anything to it, and try dipping some room temp items, just to be sure it's not the chocolate that is the problem. | <urn:uuid:e03cf3fa-21af-442c-9308-247f1bbe9d86> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/trouble-with-white-chocolate-consistency-for-dipping?commentId=1978963%3AComment%3A163266&xg_source=activity | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969446 | 1,011 | 1.59375 | 2 |
The Netherlands was the first non-English-speaking country to offer degrees in English. Therefore various programmes are taught in English and are very international oriented. The Netherlands, also known as Holland, stands out for its great inventiveness, its problem-solving attitude and its openness to the world.
In this inter-disciplinary field, one usually specialises his studies on a certain culture such as Asian studies, African American studies, Latino studies but also childhood studies for example.
Find and compare 77 Masters in Area and Cultural Studies in Netherlands. Below is a selection of the available study options. If you're interested in studying Area and Cultural Studies in Netherlands you can view all 77 Master's programmes. You can also read more about the Area and Cultural Studies discipline in general or about studying in Netherlands. | <urn:uuid:8d6f6bf0-fb75-4ab9-bee5-e349a9e5322a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.mastersportal.eu/study-options/268451907/area-and-cultural-studies-netherlands.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699881956/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102441-00038-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967972 | 160 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Why Apple Can't Deny Google Maps On iPhone
When Google submits its rewritten Google Maps app for iOS, Apple can't block it.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Google is now field testing the app outside of Google. It should soon be ready for Google to submit to Apple for approval.
Apple booted Google Maps from the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch earlier this year with the introduction of iOS 6. Google Maps was a part of iOS from the very first iPhone through September of this year -- a partnership that lasted more than five years. But Apple has been divorcing itself from Google's goods and services ever since the two began battling head-to-head with competing smartphone platforms.
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Apple replaced Google Maps with its own mapping product. Embarrassingly for Apple, Apple Maps has been a complete failure. Users immediately complained that the app was inferior to Google Maps. It was (still is?) riddled with mistakes, missing towns, distorted imagery, and other goof-ups. The black eye Apple received for Apple Maps probably played a role in Apple iOS head Scott Forstall's recent departure from Apple. Apple was forced to apologize for the Apple Maps disaster and has been working hard to fix the software ever since.
What everyone wants to know, of course, is whether or not Apple will approve the new Google Maps.
[ For more on the status of Google Maps for iOS 6, see Google Maps For iOS 6 In Beta. ]
Traditionally, Apple has disliked apps and services that compete with the iPhone's (or iPad's) native software and services. For years, it wouldn't allow competitive apps in the app store. It has relaxed that policy a bit. For example, iPhone users can use alternate email applications (including Google's Gmail app), alternate browsers (including Google's Chrome app), and alternate cloud syncing services (including Google's Drive app).
After the Apple Maps fiasco, Apple understood that it had made a mistake. It recommended that iPad and iPhone users find an alternate mapping application. In fact, the iTunes App Store still has a place reserved on the home page that takes users to a collection of mapping and navigation apps. Some of the apps listed there belong to MapQuest, TomTom, Magellan, TeleNav, Garmin, and even Microsoft. All these companies offer navigation apps that compete with Apple Maps. Some are free and some are not, and many don't have the deep system-wide integration that Apple Maps does (or that Google Maps did), but they still help iPhone users get from Point A to Point B and show them nearby points of interest.
Considering how Apple has relaxed some of its traditional app policies and is currently recommending competitors' mapping apps, it would look petulant and hypocritical if it were to deny Google Maps for the iPhone. Apple may not typically concern itself over such things, but this is a major exception. Denying Google Maps at this point would be opposite of everything Apple is already doing. It would be an obvious move against a competitor. It would make Apple look petty and pathetic in the eyes of many.
Apple can't say no.
InformationWeek is conducting a survey on the state of Apple in the enterprise: How has the flood of iOS devices affected use and support of Apple systems? If you're not supporting Apple gear, what's holding you back? Take our InformationWeek Apple Outlook Survey now. Survey ends Nov. 26. | <urn:uuid:a9069f8c-87f2-4e89-97ad-96bd63d5d128> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/why-apple-cant-deny-google-maps-on-iphon/240142256?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Handhelds/PDAs_hardware | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00011-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951833 | 701 | 1.625 | 2 |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell to a seasonally adjusted 340,000 last week, driving down the four-week average to its lowest level in five years. The drop is a positive sign ahead of Friday's report on February job growth.
Applications for benefits fell 7,000 in the week ended March 2, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's near five-year lows reached in January. And the four-week average, a less volatile measure, dropped 7,000 to 348,750. That's the lowest since March 2008, just a few months into the Great Recession.
Weekly applications are a proxy for layoffs. When they fall, it suggests that companies are shedding fewer jobs. More hiring may follow.
The decline adds to other evidence that hiring may have been better last month than economists forecast. Analysts predict that employers added 152,000 jobs, according to a survey by FactSet. That's about the same as in January. The unemployment rate is projected to fall to 7.8 percent from 7.9 percent.
The economy generated an average of 200,000 jobs a month from November through January. That was up from about 150,000 in the previous three months. In January they added 157,000.
Several reports this week suggest hiring remained healthy last month. Payroll services provider ADP said Wednesday that businesses added 198,000 jobs in February, above most analysts' expectations. And January's hiring was revised higher by 23,000 to 215,000.
Services firms, including retailers, restaurants and construction companies added jobs at a healthy clip, according to the Institute for Supply Management's monthly survey. An index of hiring by service companies slipped but remained near January's seven-year high.
The ISM's manufacturing survey found that factories also added workers in February, too, though at a slower pace than the previous month.
The number of people receiving unemployment aid fell to 5.4 million in the week ended Feb. 16, the latest data available. That's a drop of 362,000 from the previous week. Some of the decline is likely because people found work. But it is also because many have simply used up all the benefits available.
Strong auto sales and a healthy recovery in housing are spurring more hiring and economic growth. Builders started work on the most homes last year since 2008. New-home sales jumped 16 percent in January to the highest level since July 2008. And home prices, meanwhile, rose by the most in more than six years in the 12 months ending in January, according to real estate data provider CoreLogic.
Companies are laying off fewer workers despite concerns about the impact of higher taxes and government spending cuts. Social Security taxes rose two percentage points Jan. 1, reducing the typical household's income by $1,000.
And $85 billion in across-the-board government spending cuts kicked in March 1 after the White House and Congress failed to reach a deal to avoid the reductions.
The cuts could slow economic growth and cost 700,000 jobs, according to the Congressional Budget Office. They could also reduce unemployment benefit checks for those out of work for more than six months by about 11 percent, according to the National Employment Law Project. Benefits average about $320 per week nationwide. | <urn:uuid:9a7362c1-cc9c-4269-8189-32051109930c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.myfoxny.com/story/21543952/weekly-us-unemployment-claims-fall | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971161 | 671 | 1.601563 | 2 |
Lenders are giving more credence to each of the so-called "Five C's" -- character, capacity, collateral, capital and credit. But your credit score, a numerical snapshot of your credit history at a single point in time, is still paramount, says David Chung, managing director of CreditXpert, a Towson, Md., firm that sells credit-management tools to lenders.
Just a few months ago, a credit score of 620 would garner the best mortgage rates and terms. But many lenders now require a minimum of 680 for a prime loan. And some won't lend to anyone whose score is below that.
"The gold-rush era is over; 680 is the new 620," Chung says.
Since the significance of a good credit score cannot be overstated, it is important for borrowers to understand how to raise their bar. Start by making sure the information in your credit reports is accurate.
Check your histories with all three repositories -- Experian, TransUnion and Equifax -- because each receives information from different creditors. In addition, information often is reported at a different time, say, at the end of the month or once every three months.
If you are one of the estimated 50 million Americans who have little or no credit records on file, you can still have a credit score if you pay for rent, cable television and phone service, child care, insurance, utilities, appliance and furniture rentals, health-club memberships, transportation and security systems.
These recurring bills are not typically included in the data used to compile a credit score. But people who tend to pay with cash or money orders can use them to create a "non-traditional" credit history.
Credit Plus, a Salisbury, Md., credit-information service, allows consumers to post their payments online with PRBC, a consumer reporting agency that collects, stores, scores and reports non-traditional payment data.
"Non-traditional credit reports have been gaining greater acceptance in the mortgage sector," says Allen Johnson, vice president of sales and marketing.
Obviously, paying your bills on time shows you take your responsibilities seriously. On the flip side, late payments are always a negative. And consistent tardiness can kill a deal.
But credit scoring is based on complex mathematical formulas containing as many as 300 characteristics that might predict how a person will meet his obligations.
Of these, though, about two dozen are considered the most predictive -- and the easiest way to raise your score.
And though the many permutations and complexity of scoring systems make generalizations risky, there are some basic credit truths.
For example, the longer a consumer's credit history, the better. Files that go back 30 years are considered ideal. But a three-year record will do the trick, and Johnson of Credit Plus says a record of 12 or more consecutive on-time monthly payments will help even thin-file borrowers obtain financing.
Managing debt load is also recognized. So keeping your credit below half of your limit will improve your score. But keeping it below 30 percent -- $300 on accounts with a ceiling of $1,000, for example -- is ideal. To raise your score, pay accounts down, which is better than paying them off.
Delinquencies, of course, are negatives. But when a late payment occurred is important. Recent late payments will reduce your score significantly, while a late payment more than two years ago will cause hardly a ripple.
Paying credit cards in full each month will not necessarily raise your score. If the balance is high the day the credit-card company reports to the bureau, that's the amount the score sees. So it doesn't matter that you paid the amount in full by the due date, because the balance may have changed because of incoming charges.
Scoring models also look for well-balanced credit, including the number of credit cards in use. There is no optimal number, but typically people with too many or too few are considered higher risks.
Write to Lew Sichelman c/o Chicago Tribune, Real Estate, 435 N. Michigan Ave., 4th floor, Chicago IL 60611. Or e-mail him at realestate@ tribune.com. Sorry, he cannot make personal replies. Answers will be supplied only through the newspaper. | <urn:uuid:b6ba976f-7d51-46d7-90e6-ef573683d66b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.dailyamerican.com/news/business/chi-0805010440may04,0,3508904.story | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.952829 | 876 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Great Expectations -- These Students Will Surely Shape The Future
By Randy Weckman
Remember these names: Conley Chaney, Angela Green, Craig Duvall.
The talents of these recent College of Agriculture grads are already recognized; their magnificence is likely to make them famous.
Chaney is nationally acclaimed as a Truman Scholar; Green and Duvall are both noted as being among a handful of National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows.
Green and Duvall, in addition to being nationally recognized as National Science Foundation Research Scholars, are unusual in that they both attended the same rather small high school in Western Kentucky (Muhlenberg South High School) and because they both studied biosystems and agricultural engineering at UK, a pretty small major in the mix of the University's curriculum. The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship rewards the students with $27,500 each year for three years of graduate studies. Past recipients of the fellowships have made substantial contributions to science23 have won Nobel Prizes for their work.
Chaney, a native of McCreary County in southeastern Kentucky, graduated summa cum laude in May with a degree in Community and Leadership Development and accepted a one-year fellowship with the National Rural Development Partnership in Washington, D.C., part of USDA Rural Development. In this role, he serves as liaison to the National Rural Development Council as well as coordinator of the National Rural Development Partnerships honors fellows program. Among other duties, Chaney also is responsible for working with state rural development councils in their quest for improving rural economies and infrastructures.
And although Chaney finds his current position both stimulating and rewarding, he sees it only as a transition between undergraduate school and law school in the next couple of years.
Kentucky is my home, and the world is my oyster. I dont expect ever to enter into any 20-year professional position, Chaney said. Rather, I plan on an evolving career to make the most positive social differences where and when I canall the while holding just enough back to maintain a steady and necessary amount of leisure and simplicity.
The Truman Scholars program recognizes 60 students nationwide each year who plan careers in public service. It rewards them with a stipend of $30,000 to use toward their graduate education. Chaney plans to use his stipend for law school.
Conleys the type of student every professor dreams of having in class. Hes beyond bright; hes articulate with an expansive and curious mind, said sociologist Lori Garkovich, who serves as advisor to students in the Public Service and Leadership program. His concerns about social issues and social policies are genuine and well founded. I am proud to be able to say that I was his advisor, she said.
Green found the right program as an undergraduate when Tommy Harrison, Muhlenberg County 4-H agent, brought her to Lexington to look at the agricultural engineering program.
I liked math and science a lot in high school, and when I found that I could use those interests in the biosystems and agricultural engineering program at UK, I knew I had found my home, Green said.
Green currently is finishing up her masters degree at UK in biosystems and agricultural engineering. In December she defended her thesis, a groundbreaking study of the physiological response of horses to being transported. It will contribute to improving trailer design and thus the well-being of animals. She plans to spend a few months away from school working in engineering design before starting work on her doctorate next fall.
While writing her thesis, she interviewed several prestigious programs (thats right, she interviewed them) for a position to work on her doctorate in biosystems and agricultural engineering.
Green is confident about being accepted into a program of her choice because, as she says, When a graduate student brings funding, it changes everything. Doors open that you never knew existed; there is a great selection of doctoral programs from which to choose.
A graduate of UKs biosystems and agricultural engineering program in 2001, Craig Duvall used his undergraduate degree as a platform for a doctoral program in biomedical engineering, a joint program of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. He bypassed a traditional masters of science degree and went straight into the doctoral program, where his research involves developing techniques for measuring vascular growth in animalsthe development of new blood vessels.
He plans to use these new techniques to assess various growth factors that could be used in therapeutic strategies for stimulating the formation of new blood vessels that may replace non-functional clogged arteries, helping human patients avoid highly invasive procedures currently used to treat blockages.
Duvall expects to complete his dissertation in the next three years, before embarking on a career that likely will involve either teaching and research at the university level or practicing as a professional engineer in the medical technology industry.
It is a pleasure to see both Angela and Craig win these national awards, said Rich Gates, chairman of the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. I have had pleasure of interacting with both of them in the classroom, and they are very deserving of these awards. Their achievements reflect well on our faculty and programs. With these fellowships, Angela and Craig will go on to rewarding and fulfilling careers, he said.
These three College of Agriculture graduates, whose promise already is recognized, are potent indicators that the University of Kentuckys quest for Top 20 status, as mandated by the Kentucky Legislature, is well on its way to becoming a reality. | <urn:uuid:e672fb8a-bcab-4a74-99c4-023f36b746c8> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/Magazine/2004/winterspring2004/Articles/htmlfiles/GreatExpectations.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368711005985/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516133005-00006-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965875 | 1,126 | 1.65625 | 2 |
by Squirrel ~ June 22nd, 2011. Filed under: Listening suggestions, Personal.
Today’s chapter of this series is about a very eclectic and quite unique musician, his name is Rabih Abou Khalil.
Born in Lebanon, but having moved to Germany in 1978 because of the civil war, he early started his music studies, becoming a virtuoso on his main instrument, the oud (string instrument having common origins with the lute – read more here).
Probably the best term to describe the style of Khalil’s music could be “World Jazz”, as he combines traditional arabic music with jazz, rock and classical music.
Having released several albums with different projects and colaborations, his original compositions feature a wide spectrum of styles, instrumentations and genres.
Along his career he ranged from an album with mostly arabic music, over two projects more oriented to jazz (one with Sonny Fortune and the other with Charlie Mariano and Kenny Wheeler), a lineup of string quartet, oud, tuba and frame drums producing the album called Arabian Waltz, an exotic project called Morton’s Foot (combining european and easter traditions, including tibetan throat singing) to his most recent project, consisting of a trio (oud, piano and drums), with the original name Journey to the Centre of an Egg.
For a more complete biography, read this.
Let’s listen to some of his music:
Ma Muse m’amuse (from CD The Cactus of Knowledge)
Live at Jazz Club 1990
About this series:
One of the ideas I have for this blog is to start periodic post series about a few interesting topics. Like one post a week or a month, about the same topic but always bringing you new (or classic but little known) musical discoveries.
This series that I gave the name “The Alternative Music Lounge” is about presenting you bands and projects that I like a lot or respect much because of the quality of their music although they haven’t made it into the so called “main stream” and therefore probably will remain unknown for many people.
Whatever might be the reasons for this (sometimes their creations are just too good, too unique, lacking any “commercial characteristics”, othertimes it’s just another case of being disregarded by the music industry, we all know what’s usual to happen…), I think the’re more people out there who might like their music but just didn’t have a chance to discover it yet, so I hope these publications of mine might be helpful.
By the way, if you’re a musician and think I might like your music and would like to propose your creations for being featured in a post of this series, you’re welcome to comment this post or any other future post of this series, stating your project’s name, a link to where I can listen to some tracks and a way to contact you.
I promise to try and listen to everyone’s tracks and respond, even if I happen to not accept the proposal. | <urn:uuid:199236ff-c168-4908-80a1-aaab853fc01d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jammin-squirrel.com/blog/personal/the-alternative-music-lounge-rabih-abou-khalil/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961544 | 659 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Tobyhanna Army Depot Pennsylvania
Location: 41.185, -75.453 Phone: (570) 895-7000 DSN: 795-7000
Modified: February 21, 2012
Tobyhanna Army Depot is a military base from Coolbaugh Township, in the eastern part of Pennsylvania. It is mostly used as a logistics center and its primary mission is to deal with repairing, updating and integrating C4ISR systems for any field of the United States of America forces. The name is given after a nearby human community that barely counts 6000 inhabitants.
The general mission of this army depot is to entirely support a wide variety of electronic systems. This means it operates the manufacturing and design process, as well as repairing operations. Such systems include night vision, surveillance equipments, warfare, satellite parts, radar systems, guidance systems for missiles or telephones. The base is said to be the most important such center the Air Force and Army use. It has gained all these missions over the years, while taking in consideration the BRAC (Base Realignment And Closure) commissions from the past, starting with the 1988 one. At the same time, the facility is currently the most important civilian employer from the eastern side of Pennsylvania, with more than 5000 civilians employed on site. Aside from operating in the United States of America, some of the operations are conducted in Southeast Asia in a tight collaboration with the military bases located there. The site was also picked by George W. Bush for the Veterans Day in 2005. He thanked the workers there for their magnificent work. One year later, the place was awarded with the Shingo Prize and the Award of Excellence for its services.
At the beginning of the 20-th century, the area had a relatively high industrial importance due to the ice storage industry. At the same time, the authorities realized the importance of a military base, since there was basically no training range for the artillery troops in the eastern side of Wisconsin. The place was picked by Charles P. Summerall. By 1914, the construction was over. It was initially used as a training site for ambulance corps and tanks for 4 years. The upcoming 23 years were used for artillery training. From 1941, it dealt with the young recruits of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Over World War II, its importance dropped due to the limited training possibilities. The place was inhabited by ambulance trainees again, while the authorities decided to raise a hospital too. It was supposed to treat the injured men coming from Japan. Tobyhanna Army Depot also hosted close to 300 prisoners of war, most of them coming from Germany.
After World War II ended, Tobyhanna Army Depot was operated Army Corps of Engineers. By 1949, since its activity dropped, it was taken over by the local authorities, who decided to begin the actual construction of a depot around the ’50s. At the same time, the local coal mining industry almost died, resulting in more than 35000 unemployed people. The depot received not less than 600 applications every day for almost 2 years, before its official opening. These days, t is the largest employer in the area.
Homes for Rent Nearby
Tobyhanna Army Depot Jobs
a Total Army. Tobyhanna Army Depot is the largest... www.tobyhanna.army.mil/ The incumbent will work at the Child Development Center located at Tobyhanna Army...
organization at Tobyhanna Army Depot, Pennsylvania... Channel Radio Shelter assets located at Tobyhanna Army Depot (TYAD). Duties include: Trouble shoot and... | <urn:uuid:7ebc8900-d56a-4bfe-9a19-77960a044803> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://militarybases.com/pennsylvania/tobyhanna/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972815 | 732 | 1.585938 | 2 |
The Department of Foreign Affairs strongly recommends that you obtain comprehensive travel insurance, which will cover all overseas medical costs, before travelling to Ghana. You should check any exclusions and that and that your policy covers you for the activities you want to undertake. Emergency treatment and/or evacuation are very expensive in Ghana.
Irish citizens should note that the Irish government does not provide funds for emergency medical repatriation or for repatriation of remains.
If participating in extreme adventure sports (white water rafting, kayaking, bungee jumping etc), you should ensure that these activities are also provided for in your insurance. Travelers should be aware that many of these adventure sports operators are unregulated, and so care should be taken in selecting reputable tour operators.
For entry requirements for Ghana, please contact the nearest Ghanian Embassy or Consulate. The "Emergency Visa" procedure should, where possible, be avoided, especially if proposed by a new local business partner.
It is advisable to take a number of photocopies of your passport with you. During your stay you should carry a photocopy of your passport at all times.
SAFETY & SECURITY
You should be aware of the global risk of indiscriminate terrorist attacks, which could be against civilian targets, including places frequented by foreigners.
Wave and tide patterns are often dangerous, and swimming from beaches can be hazardous. You should only do so after taking local advice on conditions.
Travellers should be aware that there has been a continuing cholera outbreak in five regions of the country (Central, Eastern, Upper West and Northern Ghana and Greater Accra). As of April 2011, there have been 5,308 reported cases and 67 deaths as a result of the outbreak since September 2010. Travellers may wish to familiarise themselves with the symptoms of the disease and take precautions. Further information is available from the WHO at http://www.who.int/topics/cholera/en/.
Most visits to Ghana are trouble-free. However, there are incidents of crime, particularly in and around Accra and the other main urban areas. You should avoid carrying large sums of money or valuables and be very wary when drawing cash from any of the cash points in central Accra.
You are advised to exercise vigilance, particularly after dark.
LOCAL LAWS & CUSTOMS
Ghana is a conservative and deeply religious country. Although modern and progressive attitudes also prevail, respect must be shown for traditional values and morals. Beachwear should be confined to the beach, and wearing immodest clothing in public is likely to cause offence or attract unwanted attention.
Penalties for drugs related offences are severe.
Homosexuality in Ghana is illegal.
Photography near sensitive sites such as military installations or the airport is strictly prohibited.
Roads are mainly in a poor condition, particularly in rural areas. Road travel can be extremely hazardous due to poor or non-existent street lighting. You are advised to avoid travelling by road outside the main towns after dark, when the risk of accidents and robbery is greater. Safety standards on small private buses and taxis are often low
DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR MISSIONS
There is currently no Irish consulate in Ghana.
For contact details of the Honorary Consul in Ghana, click here .Top | <urn:uuid:8e661a45-b7b3-4ac1-92bb-8156c5fdddb4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.irelandunnewyork.org/home/index.aspx?id=8567 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702810651/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516111330-00005-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948228 | 680 | 1.671875 | 2 |
"And unlike my blue-eyed, sandy-haired mother, I have dark hair and dark eyes and look Hispanic. This is the ethnicity that’s been checked off for me on all school and other forms. My parents always told me this might give me an edge for college admissions or some government jobs. I have recently found out I’m not Hispanic. My mother told me my biological father was Mediterranean, maybe Armenian. I make good grades and was accepted into a good college on my own merits. I've been offered a substantial financial scholarship available only for Hispanic students. Is it ethical to take it?"
If you think the answer so obviously "no" that anyone getting as far as writing it down should see that to ask the question is to demonstrate to yourself that the answer is "no," then you should read the advice columnist Emily Yoffe, who answers "yes." | <urn:uuid:88b433f6-01a8-4c4b-aea6-8bdebc6142c7> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-hispanic-surname-is-from-my-adoptive.html?showComment=1334927001420 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00028-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981614 | 181 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Floridians committed to rooting out corruption in government are building momentum for a statewide movement for ethics reform. Integrity Florida has been honored to meet and engage citizen watchdogs, journalists, tea party groups, League of Women Voters chapters, local chambers of commerce, retiree groups and other civic groups across the state from Naples to Pensacola and Jacksonville to Miami in this effort.
One of our board members, Marty Rogol, led the Palm Beach County ethics reform initiative in 2010. Palm Beach saw four of their county commissioners go to prison and Time magazine gave that community the dubious distinction as the most corrupt county in Florida. As chairman of Leadership Palm Beach County, Rogol brought together a broad and diverse coalition of individuals of all partisan viewpoints to support ethics reform. Voters in Palm Beach overwhelmingly passed ballot measures creating a local ethics commission that has the power to self-start investigations, an independent inspector general with secure funding and a stronger local ethics code than the state ethics code for public officials.
The National Association of Counties recently recognized Palm Beach County with an award for its government ethics program. Integrity Florida is working to replicate the Palm Beach County reform model in other communities and recommending similar reform measures to the governor and state legislators.
Did you know that Florida led the United States in federal public corruption convictions from 2000-10? Since 1976, Florida's federal courts have convicted nearly 1,800 individuals for public corruption, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. That's an average of 49 public corruption convictions a year, or about one a week for 35 years. Forbes magazine has cited public corruption as a reason they gave several Florida cities poor marks on their list of America's Most Miserable Cities.
A recent report by State Integrity Investigation gave Florida an overall C-minus for corruption risk and failing marks for ethics enforcement agencies.
The 2013 legislative session is shaping up to be one where Florida has the potential to go from an F grade for ethics enforcement to an A grade. Florida will be on track for an A grade if our state legislators give state ethics law enforcement officers the authority to initiate investigations, incorporate a report corruption hotline, increase penalties and give the Ethics Commission more tools for enforcement of fines.
Integrity Florida is working to address Florida's corruption problem by publishing research reports that are getting results. Our first report exposed a secretive, self-dealing government agency that has committed nearly $2 billion of tax dollars without accountability for results. The second research report by Integrity Florida provided a road map for ethics reform that was largely adopted by the Florida Commission on Ethics as their 2013 ethics reform legislative agenda. Legislators are backing ethics reform bills based on Integrity Florida research recommendations. Florida lawmakers are calling for more disclosure following the third research report published by Integrity Florida titled Corruption Risk Report: Financial Disclosure.
In addition to publishing reports, Integrity Florida has convened ethics reform coalitions across the state, dedicated to passing local government ethics policies. These grassroots coalitions cross partisan boundaries bringing together Republicans, Democrats and independents to achieve local reform victories.
Our vision is a Florida with the most open, ethical, responsive and accountable government in the world. We want to make sure that public servants are doing the public's business, not gaining privately based on their position. The coalition of Floridians continuing to vocalize their support for ethics reform has made it clear to the governor, state Legislature and local governments that reducing corruption at all levels of government is a top priority.
Incoming state Senate President Don Gaetz, State Rep. Charles McBurney and other lawmakers are prioritizing ethics reform legislation for the coming session. Integrity Florida applauds the priority attention being given to ethics reform measures by our state leaders. | <urn:uuid:7fca17a6-770c-47ce-8377-ee3445d1bc44> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.marconews.com/news/2012/sep/23/guest-column-dan-krassner-statewide-movement-for/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701852492/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105732-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943117 | 745 | 1.820313 | 2 |
When director Tate Taylor, a Mississippi native, set out to adapt the novel “The Help” into a movie, he knew he had to convince his skeptical Hollywood associates that the only way to do it right was to take the filming home to the Deep South.
“The air looks like there’s syrup floating around in it,” he told me when we talked in Washington, D.C. recently. “You don’t get that in Toronto.”
Mississippi was a hard sell for some of L.A.’s more provincial studio executives. “They were concerned about whether they could get copy paper there for the office,” he laughed. “I told them, ‘Guys, it’s Mississippi. It’s not the Congo.’”
For Taylor, it wasn’t just about scouting for the right visual effect. It was personal. The best-selling novel, written by Kathryn Stockett, paints an intimate portrait of African-American maids and the white women they served in the early 1960s, at the dawn of the civil rights era. It draws a complex web of love, guilt and interconnectedness between white and black Mississippians.
Taylor says he didn’t want the story of the South in the hands of people who didn’t understand the South.
“I just wanted to tell the truth and tell it properly and tell it accurately as a Southern man from Mississippi. So many times Hollywood gets it wrong. They play up the hatred and dumb down the African-American characters or just make them one note as these victims … And being from there, I guess I felt like you have a pass to talk about it. It’s part of our lives too, black or white.”
Taylor grew up with Stockett in Jackson, Mississippi. They met in preschool and became friends as, he says, two artsy oddballs. Although they didn’t grow up in the ’60s, both are white and had African-American caretakers when they were children.
“Kathryn wrote [The Help as] a tribute to [her caretaker] Demetrie, who basically co-raised her with her mother. It spoke to me, made me think of Carol Lee, who is the one who served that role in my life and made me want to tell the story. These women are usually plot points. They’re just serving food and you don’t really get much beyond that.”
The movie goes far beyond just serving food. White, wealthy Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone), desperate to find a job in journalism, sets out to write about the black maids of her married friends. The distant-feeling civil rights movement plays out on the television news, but Skeeter feels “the help” has stories to tell. Compassionate Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) and fiery Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) warily allow her into their stories and their lives. As Skeeter examines their lives as well as her own relationship with the family maid Constantine, she discovers powerful examples of mistreatment, intimidation and fear.
She also discovers something even more powerful: love and pride. Aibileen, who has made a career taking care of white babies, finds meaning in teaching her little charges their own worth. Minny makes the best chocolate pie and fried chicken in town, and she knows it. The women are good at what they do and take pride in their work, although they might have chosen something different if they had been given the opportunity. | <urn:uuid:6169b489-df85-44a7-880c-5711e3b4c87d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/01/why-the-help-rules-the-box-office/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696381249/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092621-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.978201 | 760 | 1.742188 | 2 |
Book Review: The Legends of Indian Cinema - Sohrab Modi
By Joginder Tuteja, Bollywood Hungama News Network
In the series of 'The Legend Of Indian Cinema', there have been six releases so far. While the ones on Shammi Kapoor and Mehboob did make an interesting read, the ones on PC Barua and Sivaji Ganesan were just OK. As for the book written on Guru Dutt (from which one had most expectations to begin with), the less said about it better. Hence, one looks forward to how interesting does the author Amrit Gangar make the sixth in the series which is done on Sohrab Modi.
Though the cinema followers of the current generation have definitely heard the name Sohrab Modi, more or less they aren't too clued into his work during a cinematic journey which lasted close to 50 years (1934 - 1983). Yes, the word 'historical' comes to the mind immediately since Modi has always been known as a man who made Jhansi Ki Rani. However, what is really ironic is that though Jhansi Ki Rani has made him a known name today, the film by itself was a box office failure while there were countless other social films which he made decades back.
What really surprises is to know that Modi, who made quite a few historical movies in his time, actually hated history classes in his childhood. However, it was only later when he started making movies and on exploring history further did he realize the immense importance of history in making one's future. In addition, he may well have been a politician if he hadn't entered into the world of movies. That's because after his matriculation, when he was contemplating a career path to choose, his school principal had commented - "Sohrab, looking at the quality of your voice, I think you should either be a politician or an actor."
As is pretty obvious, Modi choose the later and the rest, as they say, is history!
Talking about his voice, any student of cinema would vouch for the fact that Modi's USP was his voice. Whether it is his debut film Khoon Ka Khoon (which was based on 'Hamlet') or Pukar or Sikandar or Prithvi Vallabh, his voice always loomed large. In his younger days, Modi had earned quite some reputation of being a Shakespearean actor and along with his brother's theatrical company; he used to travel throughout India while enthralling audience all over due to his towering presence and depth in voice.
Another great facet of Modi was his relentless approach when it came to sheer grandeur in his films. Amrit Gangar takes a reader through number of Modi's films which boasted of great sets, huge canvas and sheer lavish approach when it came to providing big screen entertainment. Films like Pukar, Sikandar (starring none other than Prithviraj Kapoor in the lead role), Jhansi Ki Rani and Mirza Ghalib amongst others were huge in canvas and can easily be counted amongst the best in Indian cinema. In fact, for Jhansi Ki Rani, the technicians roped in were the same who had worked on Gone With The Wind!
Talking about historical films, not many are aware that Sohrab Modi was one of the first filmmakers to have actually embarked on a journey to make a film on Ashoka! Decades back Modi had all but begun shooting for Ashoka. In fact, he also had the publicity material for the film published and circulated with an amazing caption accompanying the film's poster that read - "Wielding of the sword made Ashoka the conqueror but breaking of the sword made Ashoka the great."
However, the film never went beyond that stage. Reason? During his meeting with the distributors, one of them asked him about the hero who would be playing the title role of Ashoka. Hurt by the question since it indicated that distributors were seemingly loosing faith in him as a producer/director and instead concerned about the actor in the film, he shelved the project pronto. Sad, since the dream of making a film on Ashoka went away with his death!
This was one of the stray instances when Sohrab Modi took anything personal because as narrated by Gangar, Modi was a peace loving person who never had any enemies. Content with his world of cinema, he lived his passion every day and night while working on films. Known for seldom getting angry, there were only a few instances of him loosing temper. One such instance was in a film called Bharosa. One of the critical scenes in the film required the lead actor Mazhar Khan to execute a six minute long scene. Since he couldn't get the scene right even after 22 takes, Khan removed his make-up and thought of seeking permission from Modi to resume shooting after a month. This was when Modi didn't mince any word and ultimately ensured that Khan got the scene right on the very same day!
A perfectionist on all counts, Modi ensured that each and every area was well researched when it came to films made by him, This is why for Sikandar, he went to the extent of discovering the actual weight of the historical figure of Sikandar. For this, he even made his actors strip down to their undergarments and stand on the weighing scale to ensure that the consistent weight was maintained!
Author Amrit Gangar does well in doing a painstaking research on Sohrab Modi and comes up with a good account of the journey of the producer/director/actor. Though there isn't much touched upon the personal life of Modi (wish there was a little more detail on this count), it is compensated by innumerous anecdotes which make their presence felt from the beginning till the end of the book.
Price: Rs. 195/= | <urn:uuid:8e74ff59-7400-4ea0-be64-80dddfdfd438> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bollywood.com/node/7394 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98842 | 1,210 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Maintain Your Diet While Traveling
Posted July 19, 2012
Q. I generally travel two weeks out of the month on business, and
I find it hard to stay on track with my diet because I'm eating out
at restaurants all the time. Do you have any tips on healthy eating
while you're away from home?
-- James, Hoffman Estates
A. Being on the road and out of your element can definitely
hinder your attempts at eating healthy. But, with a sensible game
plan, you'll find that you can do a pretty good job of eating
healthy even when you're away from home for weeks at a time. Try the
following tips to stay on track on your next trip.
Do your homework. Once you know where you'll be traveling, go
online and check out healthy restaurants and grocery stores in that
area. Many restaurants have healthy options if you know what to look
for. Ask your waiter how your food is prepared and request
modifications if necessary. Stay away from sauces, breading and
heavy dressings. A lean meat and a side of vegetables with water or
iced tea is obviously a better choice than a combo meal at the fast-
food drive-through. Many grocery stores also have lunch or dinner
options available as long as you choose the right foods.
Be prepared. If you want to eat healthy, you must have food
options available so you don't skip meals. Poor planning and skipped
meals during the day will increase your chances of eating too much
or the wrong kinds of foods at night. Once you get settled into your
hotel, do some grocery shopping and pick up some breakfast and snack
options. Oatmeal, nuts, fruit and protein powders require no
refrigeration and can be taken along in your bag or purse. If you
have a small fridge in your hotel room, you can pick up some Greek
yogurt or sliced deli meat to have around for breakfast or snacking.
You could even pack a cooler and take options like this or a salad
with you during the day if you know you'll only have a small window
for lunch. If you go through your day without a food plan, you're
setting yourself up for failure.
Hydrate. You should always have a bottle of water with you at all
times. Staying properly hydrated will keep you performing at your
best and will make you less likely to reach for a coffee in the
middle of the afternoon or a can of cola as you walk by the vending
machine. A bottle of water and a healthy snack will keep your mind
in control of your food choices rather than allowing you stomach to
Avoid temptations. Many traveling clients find options like
bagels, doughnuts and other pastries available when they walk into
their early morning meetings, or someone may have ordered pizza for
a lunch meeting. If you go into these situations on an empty
stomach, it's hard to resist these unhealthy foods, especially when
everyone else is eating right in front of you. If you stick to your
plan and eat healthy foods every two to three hours, you won't be
affected by these unhealthy temptations.
Don't skip workouts. Studies have shown that people who exercise
consistently also eat healthier. An early-morning workout puts you
in the right frame of mind, which will keep you focused throughout
the day on what's best for your body. If your hotel doesn't have an
exercise room, get outside for a 30-minute walk or jog. A healthy
body craves healthy foods.
So being away from home only means that you have to plan
accordingly. Make the right decisions and you'll see and feel the
For more exercise and nutrition tips, visit our blog at .
* Joshua Steckler and Mark Trapp are co-owners of Push Fitness, a
personal training studio in Schaumburg specializing in weight loss,
muscle toning and nutrition. Contact them at
© 2012 Chicago Daily Herald. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved | <urn:uuid:60d743b1-cc49-48d8-a4dd-fbffb8602c97> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.naturalfrontiermarket.net/common/news/news_results.asp?task=Headline&id=13868&StoreID=74FDC012E8D140618EB6B4C6234A2B79 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953122 | 857 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The April explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico left 11 workers dead, released huge quantities of oil into the Gulf and disrupted whole industries along the Gulf Coast, such as fishing and tourism. Yet the disaster is not expected to have much effect on the insurance industry or the premiums paid by companies outside the petrochemical industry.
"Having just completed the July 1 renewal cycle, we've seen little impact on client pricing and terms and conditions, except for certain energy-related companies that have offshore or water operations," says Dean Klisura, U.S. risk practices leader at insurance brokerage Marsh.
Current estimates of the total losses stemming from the spill range from $50 billion to as high as $100 billion. But BP, which owns 65% of the project, is self-insured, and estimates of the losses that are covered by insurance top out at $3.5 billion to $4 billion.
Commercial insurance rates have been weakening for years, and the oil spill isn't expected to interrupt that trend. Klisura notes that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 didn't trigger sustained hard market pricing even though they involved considerably more insurance industry capital than the Gulf oil spill. "There's more capital in the marketplace now than there was in 2005," he adds. "It would take some significant catastrophe activity to cause a substantial market change."
David Bradford, executive vice president at Advisen, agrees the spill won't affect overall insurance pricing. "There's really nothing on the horizon that would suggest the market's going to harden," he says. "The one thing that could have a big impact is an active hurricane season, and forecasts are for a much more active than usual year for hurricanes."
The oil spill has given rise to a multitude of lawsuits, and Bradford expects still more, predicting that new types of lawsuits will emerge, lincluding those claiming damages related to the clean-up.
"The next battleground from an insurance standpoint is business interruption losses," he adds. Business interruption policies generally cover losses tied to events covered by property policies, like fires and hurricanes, Bradford says, and since offshore oil spills aren't a clear trigger under property policies, the issue is likely to be litigated. | <urn:uuid:64a857b9-39cb-4868-96fb-ba108dff5f65> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.treasuryandrisk.com/2010/08/02/insurance-premiums-hold-despite-gulf-oil-spill | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697974692/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095254-00000-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.977412 | 452 | 1.664063 | 2 |
A bronze sculpture Hercules (Oppenheimer II)
Advice: A bronze sculpture Hercules (Oppenheimer II)
Recommendation regarding Oppenheimer II
(case number RC 1.120)
In a letter dated 22 September 2010, the State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science (hereafter referred to as: the State Secretary) requested the Restitutions Committee (hereafter referred to as: the Committee) to issue a recommendation regarding a decision to be taken on the application filed on 23 April 2010 by the heirs of Rosa and Jakob Oppenheimer (hereafter referred to as: the applicants) for restitution of the bronze sculpture Hercules by sculptor Hubert Gerhard (former attribution). The applicants claim that the statue originates from one of the Margraf group companies in Berlin, of which the Jewish art dealers Rosa and Jakob Oppenheimer were said to have been the sole shareholders. Following a donation, the claimed object has been part of the Dutch National Art Collection (inventory number RBK 15247) since 1938 and is currently in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (hereafter referred to as: RMA).
The applicants’ authorised representative wrote the following about the reason for applying for restitution: ‘I was informed that Sotheby’s London conducted a research on Bronze statues and that they located the abovementioned bronze statue of Hercules by Hubert GERHARD called “Grosse Herkules Statuette” in the Rijksmuseum (…)’.
Following the request for a recommendation by the State Secretary, the Committee instigated a fact-finding investigation, using the data and investigation results from the Oppenheimer case (RC 1.67), following which, on 4 February 2008, the Committee issued a recommendation to return two paintings.
The results of the investigation were included in a draft report dated11 April 2011. This draft report was sent to the applicants for comment in a letter dated 19 April 2011, and to the State Secretary and the RMA with a request for more factual information in letters of the same date. The applicants responded to the draft report in a letter dated 26 April 2011. The State Secretary and the RMA informed the Committee on 30 May 2011 and 1 June 2011, respectively, that they did not have any additional information for the Committee. However, the RMA noted that the claimed statue had not been attributed to Hubert Gerhard since the early 1970s. This information was added to the report, which was subsequently adopted on 7 June 2011. For the facts of the case, the Committee refers to this report.
During the procedure with the Committee, the applicants were represented by E. Sterzing, lawyer in Paris.
The applicants request restitution of the bronze statue Hercules by (formerly attributed to) Hubert Gerhard, which is part of the Dutch National Art Collection under inventory number RBK 15247. The applicants have claimed that they are the heirs of Rosa and Jakob Oppenheimer, who are said to have been the sole shareholders of the German Margraf group. In this regard, the Committee has taken cognisance of legal inheritance documents sent by the applicants, based on which the Committee sees no reason to doubt the applicants’ status.
The relevant facts are included in the investigatory report dated 7 June 2011. The following is a summary. In 1912, Albert Loeske founded Margraf & Co. GmbH in Berlin, a company trading in jewellery and gold. In the years that followed, he expanded the Margraf Group with various subsidiary companies including the art dealerships Van Diemen & Co. GmbH, Dr. Benedict & Co. GmbH, Dr. Burchard & Co. GmbH, as well as the antiques business Altkunst & Co. GmbH. These companies were managed on behalf of Loeske by Jakob Oppenheimer, who was an art dealer, and his wife Rosa Oppenheimer-Silberstein. By the time of Loeske’s death in 1929, the said dealerships had grown into reputable businesses. Loeske left his shares in the companies to the Oppenheimers. However, settlement of Loeske’s estate was delayed because of a lengthy legal battle that was not decided until just before the Nazis assumed power in 1933.
Early on in the Nazi regime in 1933, the Nazi authorities started targeting the Margraf group, which they considered an exponent of the ‘international Jewish jewellery and art trade’. On 1 April 1933, the Nazi authorities tried to intern Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer, but the couple avoided this fate by fleeing to France. Due to these developments, the shares in the Margraf group were never made out in their names. Following Loeske’s death, the shares had been pledged to Tiergarten tax firm as security for payment of inheritance tax on Loeske’s estate. After this tax debt had been paid in 1937, the Nazi authorities were only prepared to release the shares on condition that they were transferred to a Jewish woman, Rosa Beer, who, forced by the authorities, acquiesced. She was heir to Loeske’s other assets and still lived in Germany. This measure enabled the Nazis to keep control of these assets. Jakob Oppenheimer died in France in 1941. Rosa Oppenheimer-Silberstein was deported by the Nazis and perished in Auschwitz in 1943. Their three children survived the war.
According to a decision taken by the Landgericht Berlin [Berlin District Court] on 2 December 1933, Jakob Oppenheimer was forbidden to perform any legal duties for the various companies of the Margraf concern. Bolko Freiherr von Richthofen, a good acquaintance of Hermann Göring, was appointed administrator of the group. As of 1938, Von Richthofen acted as liquidator for these companies. With a view to the winding-up of the Margraf concern, the subsidiaries’ stocks were capitalised at eight or more sales under execution. According to the applicants, these were forced sales, known at the time as Judenauktionen. According to an auction catalogue entitled ‘Die Bestände der Berliner Firmen / Galerie Van Diemen & Co /GMBH / Altkunst / Antiquitäten / GMBH / Dr. Otto Burchard & Co / GMBH / sämtlich in Liquidation’ [The inventory of the Berlin companies Galerie Van Diemen & Co/ GmbH / Altkunst/Antiquitäten/ GmbH / Dr. Otto Burchard & Co/ GmbH, all in liquidation ], the currently claimed statue was part of the trading stock of the above-mentioned companies that was auctioned off at Paul Graupe auction house in Berlin on 25 and 26 January 1935. The work of art is listed in the catalogue under lot number 406 with a photograph and the following description: ‘Grosse Herkulesstatuette von Hubert Gerhard (1560-1609, 1568 bis 1595 im Dienste Herzogs Wilhelm V. von Bayern), in der erhobenen Rechten Keule, in der Linken Flammenbündel. Marmorsockel. H. 78 cm. Erworben aus den Beständen der Münchener Residenz. Tafel 75’ Large Hercules statue by Hubert Gerhard (1560-1606, in the service of William V, Duke of Bavaria, from 1568 until 1595), in the raised right hand a club, in the left thunderbolts. Marble base. H 78 cm. Acquired from the property of the Munich Residenz. Table 75.] Whether the statue was sold at the auction is unknown.
After the war, in a letter dated 25 July 1956, Willi Schulz, a tax consultant from Berlin, filed a claim for damages with the German authorities, also on behalf of Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer’s children. In addition, documentation from the German Entschädigungsamt [Compensation Office] has shown that a claim for damages to the amount of RM 500,000 was filed on behalf of Firma Galerie Van Diemen & Co. GmbH (in liquidation) on 25 July 1956 because of financial losses due to selling of paintings at knock-down prices. According to this documentation, a settlement was reached on 13 June 1957, in which damages worth DM 75,000 (the maximum amount) were awarded to art dealership Van Diemen & Co because of financial losses.
Information received from the RMA shows that the claimed statue has been part of the national collection since 1938. It is noted on the RMA inventory card on this work of art that the statue was a gift’ van een museumvriend, die onbekend wenscht te blijven (de heer xx; Internat. Antiquiteitenhandel)’ [from a friend of the museum, who wishes to remain anonymous (Mr xx; Internat. Antiquiteitenhandel)]. The RMA has informed the Committee that there is no acquisition file for the work of art. No further details about the gift are known.
During the Committee’s investigation, no evidence was found of post-war correspondence between the Dutch authorities and the Oppenheimer heirs and/or (a subsidiary of) the Margraf group concerning the currently claimed statue There is no indication that the parties concerned were aware at the time of the fact that the claimed statue had been part of the Dutch national art collection since 1938.
Assessment of the claim
Pursuant to current national policy in respect of the restitution of works of art, restitution can only be recommended if the title to the item can be proven with a high degree of probability and loss of possession of the claimed item was involuntary as a result of circumstances directly related to the Nazi regime.
The investigation of the title to the currently claimed statue has shown that this work of art was part of the trading stock of one of the companies Galerie Van Diemen & Co GmbH, Altkunst Antiquitäten GmbH and Dr. Otto Burchard & Co GmbH, all in liquidation, whose trading stocks were all auctioned off at Paul Graupe auction house in Berlin on 25 and 26 January 1935.
The Committee then tried to establish whether this work of art was part of the old trading stock (acquired by the owner) or the new trading stock (acquired by Von Richthofen). No acquisition date for this statue was found during the investigation. However, the Committee thinks it is highly probable that the art dealerships in question no longer acquired any art between the Oppenheimers’ escape and the said auction, which means that this work is to be considered part of the old trading stock.
The Committee then investigated whether there are indications to prove to a high degree of probability that loss of possession in this case was involuntary, as referred to in the Recommendations for Art Dealerships 4 and 6 by the Ekkart Committee. The required high degree of probability can be assumed if the applicants have proof of theft, confiscation or forced sale. According to the Committee, the applicants provided sufficient proof that this work of art was auctioned off at an auction enforced by the Nazi authorities pursuant to anti-Jewish measures and the Committee is therefore of the opinion that loss of possession was involuntary and came about as a result of circumstances directly related to the Nazi regime.
The Committee then investigated the question of whether the Oppenheimer couple received the proceeds from the sales under execution. The investigation did not reveal any evidence that they did. Given the nature and purpose of this auction and considering all the circumstances mentioned above, particularly the Oppenheimers’ escape in 1933, the Committee deems it highly unlikely that the couple ever received any proceeds. The Committee therefore believes that the sales proceeds need not be considered.
- As regards the compensation for losses paid by the German authorities in 1957, the Committee considers the following. In so far as it were possible to ascertain which part of the damages paid relates to the currently claimed statue, any payment of this amount is a matter between the Oppenheimer heirs and the German state.
The Restitutions Committee advises the State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science to return the bronze statue Hercules by (formerly attributed to) Hubert Gerhard from the Dutch National Art Collection (inventory number RBK 15247) to the heirs of Rosa and Jakob Oppenheimer.
Adopted on 7 June 2011 by W.J.M. Davids (chair), J.Th.M. Bank, P.J.N. van Os, D.H.M. Peeperkorn, E.J. van Straaten, and signed by the chair and the secretary.
(W.J.M. Davids, chair) (E. Campfens, secretary) | <urn:uuid:60ca6147-4f77-42c9-89b8-8fbc8fd9c0d1> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.restitutiecommissie.nl/en/recommendations/recommendation_1120.html | 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 | 0.949273 | 2,695 | 1.804688 | 2 |
Schools IT Excellence Group Set Up
Education Secretary Michael Russell has appointed the Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Muffy Calder to convene an ICT Excellence Group to consider the future development of the schools' intranet 'Glow'.
The new ICT excellence group will draw on the experience and expertise of end-users, and educational technology experts to scope the long-term user-centred future of Glow.
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Michael Russell said:"It is crucial that the next generation of Glow allows schools to harness the power of technology for learning, to keep pace with rapidly evolving developments and speak the language that young people speak online.
"Professor Calder's group will have the challenge of imagining a future for the service that can be customised to the individual requirements of our young people, is dynamic and can remain relevant for years to come. I look forward to receiving their advice later this year."
Statement On The Future of GLOW - 8June 2012
By Michael Russell,
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning.
Glow was first conceived in 2001 as The Scottish Schools Digital Network. Its concept was simple, to use online tools to support teachers and pupils to enhance Scottish education. That core mission remains, but the online world has changed radically in the last 11 years and to remain relevant to its users Glow must change with it.
Since 2001 myriad new services have begun or grown. It's worth reflecting that conceptually Glow predates SmartPhones, Twitter, Skype, Facebook, Flickr and Youtube.
I articulated in September last year my vision for the future of Glow, and in October the ICT in Education conference took place and the user community generated invaluable insights on how Glow could develop in future. Debate and suggestions examined how we could deliver on my 5 key principles for Glow:
- Change the culture of use of ICT
- Improve confidence in the use of ICT for learners, teachers, school leaders and parents
- Promote new behaviours for teaching
- Deepen parental engagement
- Strengthen position on hardware and associated infrastructure
The informed engagement through the ICT conference, and other mediums such as Twitter, has crystallised for me the need for the long-term future of Glow to be user-led, and potentially user delivered. In the meantime it is vital that we secure continuity of service for Glow's users and for its current application suite to be overhauled.
To ensure continuity we have taken the step of extending the current RM provision through to December 2013. Microsoft have agreed to provide the tools and services of their integrated application suite 'Microsoft Office 365 for Education' for free through to December 2014; this was the first offer of its kind in the world for a national schools project.
Microsoft have also agreed to go further and deliver a package over and above the integrated application suite to deliver on the 5 key principles for Glow. For example, the improvements to the functionality and ease of use of the Glow application suite will be aided by a full-time dedicated staff member funded by Microsoft to help support and promote the service.
As a Government we will also work to integrate the ICT choices made by local authorities for their own education communities within our co-ordinated national effort.
As I set out in September 2011 Glow must continue to evolve and become more dynamic. At the heart of this is seeking a secure way through Glow for pupils, parents and teachers to utilise the free tools and the open source services that already exist on the web or that will emerge in the future.
One criticism of how Glow has developed over the years is that users were not sufficiently involved in directing its future. I agree.
We must build on the successful user engagements of the ICT conference and the debates on the future of Glow that take place online. As the First Minister has said, we do not have a monopoly on wisdom.
With the roll-out of the new and improved integrated application suite and the agreement to extend the services of RM, the work of the current iteration of the ICT in Education programme board will draw to a close. To oversee the next phase in development I have asked the Scottish Government's new Chief Scientific Adviser, Prof Muffy Calder, to convene an ICT Education Excellence group. The excellence group will call on the expertise of education technology specialists and end users.
The excellence group will have the immediate task of scoping the long-term user-centred future of Glow. Their challenge will be to imagine a future for the service that provides a seamless user experience and connectivity on the one hand and an open pluralist range of tools and applications on the other.
The group will draw on the contributions made to date and further explore community generated contributions like Glew.
11 years ago when Glow was first conceived it would have been hard to imagine the range of free online tools and services that could be used to enhance education today.
The exciting opportunity is to develop Glow to be a service that evolves with the demands of teachers and pupils, and utilising new tools as they emerge. Only by creating a user-centred Glow will we ensure that in 2023 the service remains relevant and vital to Scottish Education.
Find out more about Glow for Scottish Schools here - | <urn:uuid:2ed9b1da-f888-42eb-bc8e-7507a6a72cc4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.caithness-business.co.uk/article.php?id=3150 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699273641/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516101433-00018-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.946428 | 1,070 | 1.664063 | 2 |
Nehemia Shtrasler writes: The Second Lebanon War taught us something new about the Israeli economy. In 2006, we were sure that the economy would get caught up in a crisis and deep recession following the barrage of rockets on the north, which we feared would hit Tel Aviv. But it turned out we were wrong. The economy was unusually strong and stable. It did shift down a gear for one quarter, but it returned to its previous pace of growth immediately afterward, as though nothing had happened. So maybe our economy will be able to survive an attack on Iran intact?
This time around, the Bank of Israel and the Finance Ministry are predicting that an attack on Iran would cause serious economic damage. They are concerned that the economy will ground to a long-term halt; they worry about bankruptcies and mass layoffs. The Bank of Israel is preparing to launch a program protecting the banks from a possible panic manifested by a mass withdrawal of money, which could put the banking system at risk of bankruptcy.
An attack on Iran would be condemned around the world. There are already countries, companies, labor associations and consumer groups that boycott Israel because of its occupation of the territories. An attack on Iran would broaden and intensify the boycott. There are also European companies that won’t trade with Israeli companies because of the risk they say Israel poses. And when that threat is actualized – when rockets fall on Tel Aviv – the rest of the world’s investors will also flee. So we should expect stocks and government bonds to drop sharply, and the deficit to rise in the wake of an increase in security expenses as tax revenue drops.
A military assault on Iran will also spell a sharp rise in oil prices, which will intensify the global recession and make us even less popular in Europe and the United States than we already are. Because if there’s anything that unemployed Spaniards or Greek demonstrators really don’t want right now, it’s a gas hike.
Iran’s response to an attack is expected to be far more significant than Iraq’s late and relatively minor response to the bombing of its nuclear facility in 1981: dozens, and perhaps hundreds, of rockets fired on Israel as an initial reaction, boosted by a drizzle of rockets over the long term. A few Shahab-4 missiles a day will be enough to cause immense damage to morale and to the economy. You can’t live a normal life under a daily threat like that. People will be scared to go shopping and the malls will be empty. Demand for goods and services will drop and factories will go bankrupt. Tourists will stop coming, investors will flee, the ports will be paralyzed and international airlines will stop landing here.
As a result, the shekel will drop sharply, inflation will rise, interest rates will be sky-high and unemployment will go up. One blow will follow another. At least housing prices will drop, though.
Under such a scenario, we will have no choice but to ask our only friend for help. But given the state of relations with U.S. President Barack Obama, there’s no reason for him to rush in to assist Israel. After all, he opposes an attack in the first place, and particularly doesn’t want one now, on the eve of presidential elections. It is this undermining of the alliance with the United States that is the most dangerous step of all.
In both his first and second terms of office, Benjamin Netanyahu has managed to make himself hated by the U.S. administration because of his manipulative approach toward the Palestinian issue. Now he, along with the rest of us, is reaping the fruit of that approach.
It appears that the Israeli public understands full well the degree to which we are dependent on the United States. It’s not just the $3 billion a year or the new military aircraft. Without a source of more weapons during wartime and without diplomatic protection, our situation will be frightfully dangerous. All it takes is for a U.S. president to imply that he’s reconsidering his country’s ties with Israel and we will become a pariah country to which no one will want to lend even a single dollar. Under such conditions, even international corporate giants like Teva won’t be able to get credit abroad.
But wait, isn’t it possible this whole doomsday scenario won’t take place and the dour predictions will turn out to be just as mistaken this time around as they were in 2006?
In light of the massive differences between the war in Lebanon and a military assault on Iran, one would have to be an incurable optimist to believe that’s the case. The doomsday scenario seems to be the most likely. | <urn:uuid:5bfe59f2-e411-4184-9d7f-af498ac381a5> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://warincontext.org/2012/08/14/israelis-will-all-pay-on-doomsday/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963174 | 976 | 1.820313 | 2 |
If the Supreme Court’s decision to declare the Stolen Valor Act unconstitutional got under your skin, there was a promising development out of the Pentagon Tuesday when a spokesman said that DoD is “exploring options” to create a database of valor awards that could be searched to root out those who lie about having received military decorations.
“We are taking another look at that decision,” said spokesman George Little during a press conference. “We are exploring options to stand up a database of valor awards and medals. We haven’t arrived at a final conclusion yet, but that process is ongoing and the goal is to stand up such a database.”
Some, including at least one Supreme, feel that a publicly accessible database would allow anyone to “out” a faker and eliminate the need to make lying about such awards a crime. The Stolen Valor Act was reversed because a majority of the justices felt it impinged on the First Amendment.
Little said officials are looking at issues such as how deep and wide such a database would be. “We would obviously hope to be able to go as far back as possible, but we also want there to be integrity in the data,” Little said. | <urn:uuid:c009ffe4-5829-49e4-b5ab-e639c2ed5e6c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blogs.delawareonline.com/delawaredefense/2012/07/11/pentagon-wants-valor-awards-database/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976513 | 259 | 1.515625 | 2 |
IN YOUR OPINION
Letters to the Editor for June 19, 2012
Published: Tuesday, June 19, 2012 at 6:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, June 18, 2012 at 8:34 p.m.
Home schooling works
I am a 16-year-old homeschooler and I would like to address one of the many fallacies that I found in the recent guest column about home schooling.
The writer said that the parents of homeschoolers decide whether or not their child is up to the proper “academic level.” She also stated that “they (parents) do not have to show any proof or actual work that the child has done on their own.”
According to Florida law, the parents of homeschoolers must keep a portfolio of work that the student has done and the work must be looked through by a certified teacher, who evaluates the students. The evaluation form must then be sent to the school district to be kept on file.
Homeschoolers are accountable for their schooling. These measures keep them accountable and ensure that children are not left behind academically. Homeschooled children are monitored and there are safety measures that are in place to prevent incidents like the one that she mentioned from happening. The parents are held accountable.
Just because one person falls through the cracks does not mean everyone else should be punished. The writer based her entire premise on the fact that the parents are not held accountable, which just isn’t true. Home schooling in Marion County is working perfectly fine.
Have you looked closely at a copy of any of your bills lately?
One of my bills had an increase, and I decided to check it out. What I discovered during that perusal was astonishing. There are 10, yes, 10, separate taxes on the bill.
They are the following amounts: 98 cents, $1.14, 66 cents, 43 cents, 11 cents, 21 cents, 22 cents, 18 cents, 50 cents, and $1.07. No big deal. The total is only $5.40 per bill.
This is how they are nickel-and-diming us to death. The talk is now of a government charge on every deposit and withdrawal to your bank account. Where, or when, does it end? Will they ever run out of ideas as to where to pile on another tax?
One other thought. How, much does it cost to process an 11-cent tax? Printing material, shipping, handling, manpower, fuel, equipment, etc.?
These things boggle the mind. When is an insatiable government satiated?
Next month there may be 12 taxes on the bill. I mean to keep an eye on that one. Other bills have taxes; they are fewer in number. Tax, tax, tax, tax, tax. We need a tax anthem. Anyone have a ditty in their portfolio?
D. I. Larson
I live in the northeast section of Ocala with my husband and two children. My oldest child, who just turned 3, loves to play outside and, as with most toddlers, has no fear.
Our neighbors’ home is in foreclosure and the grass and landscaping on their property is so overgrown that we are constantly seeing snakes, rats, mice, roaches and other small varmints.
Both my husband and I are taxpaying citizens, and as such, feel that our children should have the right to play outside this summer without fear of being poisoned, bit or attacked by the reptiles/rodents that reside next door as a result of neglect.
We pay our mortgage, taxes and insurance and deserve the right to take our children outside and let them play without fear of strange creatures threatening our safety,
I have plenty of photos of said reptiles. My garage seems to also be a refuge for these creatures as well. This is an unacceptable response.
Marion County, step up and do the right thing!
Money saving for whom?
“The spending spree in Washington is hurting our economy, not helping it. Nevertheless, Speaker Pelosi and President Obama seem intent on continuing their failed tax-and-spend policies. I have always been one of the most fiscally responsible members of Congress and one of the most outspoken leaders on reducing government spending. According to the budget watchdog group National Taxpayers Union (NTU), in 2009, I voted for or cosponsored legislation that would cut nearly $107 billion from the federal budget. By comparison, the overall Republican average is $72 billion. This dedication to reining in spending is one of the reasons why I was named a ‘Taxpayer Hero’ from the Citizens Against Government Waste.”
That is from U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns’ website. What a great money-saving champion we have in Washington.
Oh, wait ... the $4.7 million of our tax dollars that he got for the College of Central Florida doesn’t count? And what a coincidence, his wife more than doubled her salary at the same institution during that time period. No connection?
I would hope that the righteous wing will be appalled at this situation.
In your face
This is regard to the Pentagon recognizing June as Gay Pride Month in order to celebrate the removal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in the military.
My question is, why does this deserve a commemorative month? What happened to keeping things to oneself? If you believe this and I believe that, why does it have to be flaunted in everybody’s face?
Americans simply can’t keep anything to themselves anymore. How about let’s ask the Pentagon to declare April Straight Pride Month.
Get real, people of America. The path to our ultimate destruction is well on its way one bad seed at a time.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged. | <urn:uuid:43a58fc4-c4ed-4adc-82ea-d95e0ca1b049> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ocala.com/article/20120619/OPINION02/120619704/0/APS?Title=Letters-to-the-Editor-for-June-19-2012 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968181 | 1,252 | 1.742188 | 2 |
This research was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, Grant No. KA 2256/2-2), which is gratefully acknowledged. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2011 EAWOP Conference in Maastricht, The Netherlands. We appreciate the research assistance of Angela Henschel and Alexandra Neininger. Finally, we would like to thank Dr Vivien Lim and our three anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback and constructive comments.
Promoting Multifoci Citizenship Behavior: Time-Lagged Effects of Procedural Justice, Trust, and Commitment
Article first published online: 29 FEB 2012
© 2012 The Authors. Applied Psychology: An International Review © 2012 International Association of Applied Psychology.
Volume 62, Issue 3, pages 454–485, July 2013
How to Cite
Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., Grohmann, A. and Kauffeld, S. (2013), Promoting Multifoci Citizenship Behavior: Time-Lagged Effects of Procedural Justice, Trust, and Commitment. Applied Psychology:An International Review, 62: 454–485. doi: 10.1111/j.1464-0597.2012.00488.x
- Issue published online: 3 MAY 2013
- Article first published online: 29 FEB 2012
To explain why procedural justice leads to organisational citizenship behavior (OCB), both commitment and trust have been studied—but never concurrently. Moreover, as employees aim their behaviors toward distinct targets in the workplace, citizenship behaviors as well as commitment and trust should be considered as multifoci constructs. To address this, 204 industrial workers were surveyed over a period of three years. Data were analysed with Mplus using structural equation modeling. Our time-lagged findings show that procedural justice was linked to OCB, and that this link was mediated successively by trust and commitment. Moreover, we found target-specific effects: Procedural justice effects on organisational citizenship behavior were mediated by organisational trust and organisational commitment, whereas procedural justice effects on co-worker citizenship behavior were mediated by co-worker trust and co-worker commitment. These results underscore the importance of including multifoci trust for understanding the procedural justice–OCB link. We discuss theoretical implications for studying target-specific citizenship behaviors and their antecedents, and deduce practical implications for fostering multifoci citizenship behaviors. | <urn:uuid:f7f4195d-8220-4325-80e4-80bd5bea233c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2012.00488.x/abstract | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936963 | 490 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Celebrating Washington, DC’s first Gold Award of Distinction in USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge
I had the pleasure of celebrating the top notch achievement of the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School as USDA Under Secretary Kevin Concannon and District of Columbia State Superintendent of Education Hosanna Mahaley presented this great school with a HealthierUS School Challenge Gold Award of Distinction. The award represents the highest honor a school can achieve in the Challenge and they couldn’t have done it without the committed leadership and staff at this special school. This school is truly a role model and the award puts them on the map as the first school in the nation’s capital to earn the Gold Award of Distinction. E.W. Stokes is a diverse pre-school and elementary school providing instruction in two languages. Their unwavering commitment to sharing the benefits of physical activity and making good food choices is evident in everything they do!
We dined on a very tasty and visually appealing lunch with students who just couldn’t get enough of the Asian-inspired baked chicken, brown rice, and sautéed spinach. I would have loved to have sampled the vegetarian option, featuring a chickpea and cauliflower curry but I was full. I have it on good authority from the smiling faces around us that it was simply delicious! As for physical education, this school takes the First Lady’s Let’s Move! mantra to a whole new level! Kids can dance, play soccer, basketball or volleyball, learn yoga, go swimming, or practice Tae Kwon Do. So many choices and something for everyone! Almost makes me wish I could join them—especially on the basketball court!
One of the First Lady’s biggest priorities is improving the health of our nation’s children through the Let’s Move! initiative, and a big part of that effort is getting more schools to participate in the HealthierUS Schools Challenge. As we approach the anniversary of Let’s Move!, it’s wonderful to see how much we’ve already accomplished. From participating in HUSSC to improving school meals, there are so many things schools like E.W. Stokes are doing to help children get a healthy start that can last a lifetime.
Thank you, E.W. Stokes for hosting our celebration and building a solid foundation for students to develop healthful habits that will last them a lifetime. I hope more schools in the District—and around the country—follow your lead. | <urn:uuid:1de0c892-472a-400f-8890-1dded70bd6aa> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.letsmove.gov/blog/2011/02/04/celebrating-washington-dc%E2%80%99s-first-gold-award-distinction-usda%E2%80%99s-healthierus-school-c | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947849 | 525 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Home | Golf Clubs
All low handicappers and golfers who are serious about shooting the lowest scores possible consider flex in their clubs. It makes the science of hitting the ball so much easier, which translates to more enjoyment on the course.
Now, when I say "flex", I am referring to the ability of a golf shaft to bend as forces are applied to it during the golf swing. Just go ahead and “waggle” your club a little and see how much the shaft bends and you will get an idea of what “flex” is.
There are five basic categories or types of shaft flex:
1. Extra Stiff
Why is the flex in your shaft important? Well, when you have a flex that doesn't match the needs of your swing, the result is the clubface being misaligned at impact, causing your shots to go off-target. Not good. To be more specific, your flex will impact how straight you hit the ball, how high or low it goes and how long or short it travels.
Keep in mind one very important thing about the shaft of your club and its flex. As the shaft flexes throughout the swing, the position of the clubhead will change. This means you need a shaft that will properly match your swing type and speed so that it can deliver the clubface back to a square position at impact.
For example, if the flex of your clubs is too stiff, the clubface will tend to be open, sending the ball in a slicing direction. Or, if you have clubs with a shaft flex that is not very stiff, the clubhead will be tend to be closed at impact, resulting in a hook.
Choose Your Flex Type
I always am experimenting with different shafts and flex types because I know that if my swing is on plane and accurate, my shaft flex type can be adversely affecting my results.
Here’s what I do:
• Your driver will be your best gauge on which flex you need. Not 100% accurate but the best club to use for this purpose. If you can carry you driver 250 yards or more, go with Stiff; 230-250 yards, Regular; 200-230 yards, Senior; less than 200 yards, Ladies. What about Extra Stiff? I can count the number of people on one hand that actually need or use an Extra Stiff shaft. Only guys like John Daily and Long Drive Champions need that type.
• If shots with your driver tend to go left, you might benefit from a stiffer flex; if your drives go right, you might benefit from a softer flex.
• If you know (or have been told) you have a very smooth swing, you might benefit from a softer flex even if you swing very fast. Further, if you have a swing that gets jerky at the top, especially starting the downswing, you’ll probably need a stiffer shaft.
The Best (and most accurate way) to Choose Flex Type
If you are not comfortable determining which flex you should choose on your own, go see your local pro at the course you play at or your driving range. This will take
a lot of the guesswork out of the equation.
A good pro will take a lot of measurements, watch your swing, measure your swing speed, watch your ball flight and be able to tell you with certainty which flex is right for you.
What you want to do is to experiment by hitting lots of different clubs and watching the effects on your shots of changing shaft flex.
If you find a flex that feels good and produces a good ball flight, there's a good chance that's the right flex for you.
And lastly, here’s the best advice I can give on choosing flex. Most high-handicappers (especially men) tend to over-swing. If this describes you (and you know who you are), you should consider a softer flex to help you slow your swing down. Slowing down the swing will certainly produce more accurate shots and better distance control.
Article Source: http://www.golfarticles.net
Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book "How To Break 80…And Shoot Like The Pros!”.“ He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers lower their handicaps without quitting their day jobs.
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I am embarking on a massive (image quality, file size, high frame count) project. I am still working on the basic engine, but have a big question that I would like answered before I begin testing. (It requires a lot of work to test, and possibly fail and have to recreate all sprite sheets, so an answer can help me save weeks of work if I'm wrong.)
The game is entirely in 2D, with 2.5D view. I want to eventually have 40 animations, which all have to be animated in 8 directions. I want each direction/animation to have its own sprite sheet. This equates to hundreds of spritesheets and thousands of files.
Before the obvious solution "Degrade quality for file size!" I would like to take every step possible to prevent degradation of quality, animation frame count, and image size.
Before my solution, one character was 350MB in ram (LOL!) but that was fixed quickly down to 10-20MB per whole character. That is...if I were to load ALL (40) animations in ALL directions (8). So if I were to load 320 sprite sheets into memory, it was going to be a ridiculously large amount per character in ram.
MY QUESTION IS THIS:
How much (of total sprite sheets) should I have loaded into memory at any given point?
Can I get away with loading ONLY the CURRENT spritesheet (Direction + Animation) into memory? Is modern hardware fast enough to constantly swap textures on the fly?
Players could, at any moment, change direction. This would change the entire spritesheet. Same for animation. So within a split second, the game would have to load a specific new spritesheet, unload the old one (or unload it eventually), and render all within a split second. This would have to be done once for every character, anytime they animate or change directions in a real time game.
Fortunately, the amount of characters on screen at once will be limited by the fact the game is 2D, but I'd prefer to be able to cram in the maximum amount without performance issues on a mediocre computer.
Is texture swapping, file loading, instant rendering from HDD and memory-- all so fast with modern hardware that I wont even need to worry about ANY of this?
I just dont want to work on all of these spritesheets (from thousands of images I already have) only to find out my performance will be horrible and have to redo all spritesheets. Even to test, since I have a layering equipment system, is a time consuming task for spritesheet creation. That is, until I find a solution to process those faster (automation, i do it manually currently, using a program) | <urn:uuid:a67cc82e-0e66-4fc4-ade6-48e3c697e693> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/28311/how-powerful-is-modern-hardware-for-complex-intensive-2d-graphics/28349 | 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 | 0.961145 | 569 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Solar powered gadgets that you can use in your house
Solar power is truly the technology of the future. There will be a time when homes become self sufficient for their energy needs, but we aren’t there yet. The technology is still developing and even though one cannot have a fully solar powered house, there are still gadgets available in the market that can bring down your electricity bill. Here is a small list of a few solar powered gadgets that you can use around the house.
1. Eol’eau: A Wind and Solar Powered Home Gadget
A gadget that not only helps to conserve water, but also generates power will surely come handy around the house. Rainwater can be collected in its 600L tank and this water can be conveniently sprinkled on planters through a tap located 30cms above the ground. The wind generator installed produces electric current.
2. The Solar Stairway Light
These 4 LEDs lined across the stairs provide illumination without affecting your electricity bill. Along the side of these lights, solar panels have been fitted that collect sunlight and generate illumination. On a full charge, these LEDs can provide light for 10 hours. Also, there is no need to turn them on or off. A built in sensor detects the light around and accordingly switches the LEDs on at any intensity required to brighten up your stairway. The product priced at $40 is available at hammacher.
3. Home/Office/Cars solar powered blue LED Smoke-free ashtray
Helping you out with energy conservation are these solar powered ashtrays that also incorporate electric power storage capacity. You will not miss tossing inside the bin even when it gets dark as a blue LED has been embedded on the piece. This LED only lights up when you open the lid by 90 degrees. The piece weighing around 120 grams will cost you $15.
4. Solar Powered Electic Razor
Electric shavers are very convenient and you will be absolutely thrilled when you find one powered by sunlight. Don’t think many of us have heard of a solar powered razor before and so no one has thought of buying one. But in case you like the idea, you can always go for the Sabeco solar powered razor. Sporty guys and busy jetsetters will really like the idea of a shaver that they can use even when there is no electric socket around.
5. Landport Solar Powered Speaker
Music buffs who also care about the environment will be thrilled to have this piece from Japanese company Landport. The kit contains two speakers that have solar panels embedded on top. The 950mAh lithium battery plays at a frequency between 200Hz to 12KHz. Once charged, the speaker will play for an uninterrupted five or eightg hours. Also, when you can’t depend on sunlight, you will always be able to juice up the piece using a USB cable. The $78 priced gizmo is available in white as well as black.
6. Solio CLIP-MINI USB/Solar Rechargeable LED Light
Combine the energy efficient LEDs with solar power and you have a gadget to die for. This pocket sized contraption called Solio Clip mini USB/ solar rechargeable light has 4 LED bulbs. The built in red filter helps with night vision while the piece can provide illumination for anywhere between 3 to 33 hours. Using sunlight you can charge the piece in 5 to 7 hours while a power socket can juice it up in an hour.
7. Illuminated Glow Brick Night Lights
The tinted light bulb slotted inside an acrylic cube looks utterly groovy. The smashing night light is available in two colors of blue and green. The bulbs look a little edgy at times and will suit your Halloween decorations. However, they will also go well with classy modern décor done up in metal or glass. Also, they will look neat when you throw a bash in your pad.
8. DeepDesign’s Disko Solar-Powered Outdoor Speaker
If you are looking for a cool speaker to blast off music in an open air setting, then your search ends here. This doodad, that actually looks like a bucket, is a showy speaker from Heimdall. The freestanding and wireless piece embedded with LEDs can easily be controlled by gadgets like iPhones and laptops.
9. Mobile Light: Kyouei Design
This sleek looking LED designed by Koichi Okamoto starts to radiate light as the sun sets. The mobile light hardly requires any maintenance and can be used in any part of the house. The fab piece contains 6 AA lithium ion rechargeable batteries that charge by soaking in solar energy during the day.
10. MIR: A solar powered Radio Alarm Clock for a green good-morning
This design by Klaus Rosburg is still a concept. The super duper design looks like a futuristic plane and will wake you up from your sound sleep every morning. | <urn:uuid:f1be16c8-7362-413f-b6a9-ecb7fbd97d16> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ecofriend.com/solar-powered-gadgets-use-house.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707435344/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516123035-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934221 | 1,004 | 1.648438 | 2 |
Milk and Blood
We had the texts and some images and our goal was to put them together in order to tell a short story that whet your appetite to know more about South Sudan and this project.
To do that, we used the arrows to lead the reader from the top to the bottom, following the short texts and dramatic images in order to play with the idea that the books authors had found much more than you could imagine in their work reporting in South Sudan.
We selected five images, and soon we realized they were so good it was best to try and present them in the simplest format to let them lead the story.
That is why we chose a condensed typography and made black transparencies within the arrows. Most of all, we wanted to avoid the softening effect that a too intrusive design would have on the images.
Finally, the last picture –we picked an image with students standing in a football ground, which we we saw as a metaphor for a country waiting for their nation to arrive- leads you into the final paragraph, a strong text that, that like the images, needed to be presented in the purest way.
At this point we gave the reader a variety of ways to interact with the authors and get involved in the book which will be launch with it’s own website this fall.visit Website
Designer: Trevor Snapp & ESVINILO
Country: United States | <urn:uuid:2a3d7888-1cb9-4241-87f1-60208ddbc427> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.quandtnet.de/sites/promotional/milk-and-blood/?cat=822 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700264179/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103104-00023-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.976908 | 292 | 1.765625 | 2 |
It’s official 28 February 2010Posted by marisacat in Chile - Bachelet, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
People look at destroyed cars by a collapsed bridge over the Biobio rive linking Concepcion and San Pedro de la Paz
Photograph: Francesco Degasperi/AFP/Getty Images
Chileans are “looters”… The first three pics in this gallery are of “looters”… the fourth is of people crowded and pressed, trying to enter a grocery to BUY food and being held back by the police.
It is inevitable, what are people going to be doing a day or two after disaster? Trying to get food, water and supplies, however they can.
Pacific ripple 27 February 2010Posted by marisacat in California / Pacific Coast, Chile - Bachelet, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, San Francisco, The Battle for New Orleans.
According to reports, the Hawaiian authorities are currently evacuating all the coastal areas today ever since the Hawaii tsunami warning was issued. [UK Today]
It seems whatever tsunami raises itself from the quake is due in Hawai’i later today, Japan tomorrow. I also read projections of 1 metre… some reports of 8 feet.
I noticed it took us, that would be liberal SF, a few minutes to figure out the percussive force in the water was headed in the wrong way, out to sea and away from us… and we finally alerted we would not be affected. We probably had so many [very dry gin] martinis, our official bird!, on Friday, we had to think long and hard on that one.
Ongoing developments in the Chilean earthquake and the tsunami warnings that followed. All times are local in Chile, which is two hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in the United States.
(CNN) — 2:36 p.m. — The earliest estimated arrival time for a wave that could affect Hawaii is 11:05 a.m. HST(4:05 p.m. ET), according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The center had earlier reported the first wave could arrive at 11:19 a.m. HST.
2:15 p.m. — The government of a Chilean province says a large wave killed three people and 10 were missing on the island of Juan Fernandez, 400 miles off the coast of Chile.
2:02 p.m. — U.S. State Department now says two of its Embassy employees in Santiago are missing, after earlier reporting that all 118 were accounted for.
1 p.m. — Evacuation sirens sounded in Hawaii at 6 a.m. (11 a.m. ET) alerting residents and visitors of a possible tsunami. The earliest estimated arrival for a wave that could affect Hawaii is 11:19 a.m. (4:19 p.m. ET), according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
12:40 p.m. — Death toll in Chile rises to 122, according to President-elect Sebastian Pinera. ….
From what I read (and see in the pics) the runways are operational at Santiago airport, but the airport is severely damaged.
Well…I have on La Boheme, live from the Met, the mail box a little later should be stuffed with incoming Netflix, but I can promise in other parts of Cali, there is ever growing hope for a killer quake to enable the clearing of the flatlands in the East Bay. New Orleans model. I am sure they call it something like, “effective triage”…
Someday they get their wish…
‘Til then, and to forget what is coming, blast the opera louder and louder…
UPDATE, 11:07 am on the Pacific
I just saw this at MSNBC
This color-coded map shows earthquakes that have been recorded over the previous seven days. The size of the box indicates the quake’s strength, and the color indicates how recently the quake occurred. Notable quakes include the cluster of red boxes in Chile, and the blue box indicating a seismic event in Japan.
The article manages to be interesting as well, mostly on the Ring of Fire:
[W]hile the Chilean earthquake wasn’t directly related to Japan’s 7.0-magnitude temblor, the two have some factors in common.
For one, any seismic waves that made their way from Japan to the Chilean coast could play a slight role in ground-shaking.
“It is too far away for any direct triggering, and those distances also make the seismic waves as they would pass by from the Haiti or Japan events pretty small because of attenuation,” Arrowsmith told LiveScience. (Attenuation is the decrease in energy with distance.) “Nevertheless, if the Chilean fault surface were close to failure, those small waves could push it even closer.”
In addition, both regions reside within the Ring of Fire, which is a zone surrounding the Pacific Ocean where the Pacific tectonic plate and other plates dive beneath other slabs of Earth. About 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes occur along this arc. (The next most seismic region, where just 5 to 6 percent of temblors occur, is the Alpide belt, which extends from the Mediterranean region eastward.) snip
Have a drink… 26 February 2010Posted by marisacat in Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, WAR!.
Photographer takes to the water for perfect shots in the Great Rift Valley: A zebra stallion peers through the dust cloud that has blown up around his herd [Greg du Toit/Barcroft Media - Guardian ]
I read today (in Spiegel) that Politikon, the Danish newspaper that published, at least in Europe, the so blasphemous cartoon images of The Prophet, has settled with his descendants for damages.
Lordy! Dregs of French aristos have for years claimed descendance from none other than Jesus….
Please, Heavenly Father and Allah and whoever else!, renounce them all.
Can you imagine the law suits from the fucking whining Xtians?
Better to contemplate the watering hole in the Great Rift Valley.
Ground up… 25 February 2010Posted by marisacat in Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
Many outside of New York were first exposed to graffiti in 1979, when Lee Quinones and Fab 5 Freddy were featured in a gallery in Rome and when Jean-Michel Basquiat was featured in Blondie’s video “Rapture.” Basquiat later branched out from street graffiti, working on pieces like the one above. Published: 02/05/2010 09:19:51 – Credits: Bloomberg News
NYDN of all places, has a nice gallery of street art in NY…. tho perhaps less surprising when one considers years into decades of commissioned work, as well as gallery commissions.
I had not meant to pick one by so well known an artist as Basquiat… but it appealed.
Meanwhile… 24 February 2010Posted by marisacat in California / Pacific Coast, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
In pictures: protesters and riot police clash in Athens during 24-hour general strike – The walkout comes as Greece is considering tougher austerity measures to ward off a financial crisis that has undermined the euro and raised fears that financial market contagion will spread to other weak economies such as Portugal, Spain and Italy [EPA]
While I was wandering around the UK Telegraph I notced they referred to Jeb Bush as the “former California Governor”… well, not to worry! We elected Arnold, once on the infamous Recall of Grey Davis and once all on his own, so obviously we would have elected Jeb, given the chance.
The Bush Rove machine screwed up, they needed a long standing Cali division, as well. For Neil or Marv… Or, hey for Doro… we are big on turning out the wimmens vote in Cali…
Empire… 23 February 2010Posted by marisacat in Culture of Death, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, WAR!.
Google Earth Image of the the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group [Photo: BARCROFT]
From the article at the Telegraph:
The article seems to strive for usefulness of the boneyard, in stating that fully a fifth make it back to flying and fighting. Or floating and killing or whatever the toys do… Meanwhile they, all 22 Billion worth!, lie there, shrinkwrapped no less!
I call it what I called the massing of the troops on the border of Iraq in February and March of 2003: OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM.
In a sense.
Meanwhile Ob and his Oblettes chew on their own fingers and toes and service the various industries they are tied to.
Ratty little Romanovs 22 February 2010Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, 2012 Re Election, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
Flies over this article at Politico (fwiw)
So, chickie babies, what’s the joke? Surely the collegiate hilarity is not…. ENFORCED?
Doesn’t look like a fun party.
New… 21 February 2010Posted by marisacat in Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
Zurich, Switzerland: The arm of a baby gelada baboon (Theropithecus gelada) protrudes through the coat of its mother at the city zoo [Steffen Schmidt/EPA]
Weekend… 19 February 2010Posted by marisacat in Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
Birds gather around a feeder in Nashville, Indiana [David Snodgress/AP]
Takes “awww” to the extreme… 18 February 2010Posted by marisacat in Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
This sleepy dormouse made use of a TV prop mini sofa at Paignton Zoo in Devon and dozed away to his heart’s content whilst waiting to be photographed for a feature on the lifestyle of dormice Picture: RICHARD AUSTIN
but, if the legend beneath the photo is true, just a model lounging before a shoot… | <urn:uuid:4c555cd9-4b11-4b53-96c6-5925d72e3bdd> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marisacat.wordpress.com/2010/02/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00008-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937841 | 2,185 | 1.515625 | 2 |
Actinium Advances Armed Cancer Drugs, Preps for Wall Street Debut
(Page 2 of 2)
a thousand times smaller dose of radiation” than what’s typically given with beta-emitting drugs, he says.
Actinium plans to initially develop the drug for AML patients who are over 60 and not strong enough to endure bone marrow transplant, which is one of the more commonly used treatments for the disease. “Among older patients, survival rates are very low, and only a small percentage are eligible for bone marrow transplants,” says co-founder Sheinberg, who is a professor of medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and at Weill-Cornell University Medical College in New York. “There’s a huge need for tolerable treatments that prolong survival.”
Figuring out how to produce Actinium 225 at commercial quantities has not been easy. The company worked with a group of scientists in Germany to develop the manufacturing technology. One of the key collaborators was Cuban, which turned out to be a huge complication, Cicic says. “It took months to get him to a meeting here because there were issues with his visa,” Cicic says. “It took lots of intervention.” Eventually the visa issues were sorted out, and Actinium developed a manufacturing plan that it will put into place in time to meet demand, Cicic says. For now, though, the company only needs a small quantity of the isotope for clinical trials, which it is able to get from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
On July 11, Actinium boosted its pipeline by licensing an antibody product developed at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. The drug is designed to destroy the bone marrow of patients with blood cancers, as a way of preparing them for bone marrow transplants. The antibody is currently linked to radioactive iodine, a gamma-emitting isotope, but Cicic says the plan is to ultimately transition it to Actinium’s alpha-emitting platform.
Actinium has raised about $60 million in several rounds of funding, says Sandeth Seth, senior managing director and head of healthcare investment banking at Laidlaw & Co., which managed the company’s $8 million Series E financing last year. Actinium initially raised seed funding from Organon, a Dutch company that’s now owned by Merck (NYSE: MRK), and from a billionaire philanthropist whom the company will not name.
Seth says Actinium will do a $20 million private placement after Labor Day and then consider an “alternative public offering,” which would likely involve merging it into a shell company that’s already publicly traded. “The cash needs as we transition from a platform company to a product company are getting to the point where the private markets can’t sustain it anymore,” Seth says.
Actinium may well generate some interest on Wall Street, where investors have been flocking to companies that are coming up with innovative ways to link cancer-killing agents to antibodies. Among the companies that have made strides with “antibody drug conjugates”—cancer-targeting antibodies linked to toxins—are Roche unit Genentech, Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: SGEN), and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE).
Cicic hopes the idea that Sheinberg has been nurturing for so many years at Actinium will also catch on with investors. “This whole idea of arming antibodies with targeted payload therapies has been simmering for a while,” Cicic says. “People recognize it’s a very viable way to fight cancer.” | <urn:uuid:c1f0b2c7-8e25-4af1-97e8-07b637aeee90> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.xconomy.com/new-york/2012/08/01/actinium-advances-armed-cancer-drugs-preps-for-wall-street-debut/2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368708142388/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516124222-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963534 | 773 | 1.59375 | 2 |
Panic Selling? Why Investors Are Dumping Dividend Stocks
CNBC Executive News Editor
The fear of higher taxes has put a chill on dividend-paying stocks, in what some analysts say could be an overreaction to the "fiscal cliff."
The Bush-era tax cuts on dividends and capital gains, to 15 percent, are in the cross hairs, as congressional leaders and President Barack Obama this week start work on reshaping the tax and spending components of the so-called fiscal cliff.
(Read More: Washington Confronts 'Fiscal Cliff')
The cliff is the $607 billion expiration of a bundle of tax cuts and other programs, and the onset of automatic spending cuts that take place starting Jan. 1 if Congress does not act.
For dividend investors, a worst-case scenario for the wealthiest Americans would be that the upper income tax rate is returned to 39.6 percent, and dividends could then be taxed at that much higher rate, if the Bush tax cuts are left to expire.
For individuals earning $200,000 and couples earning $250,000, there is also the new 3.8 percent tax rate that comes as part of the Affordable Care Act on certain types of income, including dividends, capital gains and rental income. (Read More: 'Fiscal Cliff'—What Are the Options for a Deal?)
In that case, dividends could be taxed at a steep 43.4 percent for the upper income bracket, and capital gains would be at 23.8 percent for the top rate, if the Bush tax cuts expire without change. Even if the tax cuts were maintained, dividends would be taxes at 18.8 percent for the richest Americans.
Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at S&P Capital IQ, said dividend-paying stocks have been hit harder than most in recent weeks, in anticipation of higher dividend taxes in 2013, as well as a possible higher capital gains tax. (Read More: Fiscal Cliff—Complete Coverage)
"The real question is how will investors respond. I think some of these groups will be and have been beaten up because a lot of these investors were riding the momentum wave for high yielders," Stovall said. "As a result, a lot of these groups were pretty expensive."
He noted that the high-yielding telecom sector's forward P/E was 17.5, and it has now fallen to 16.6. Utilities, the market's worst performers Monday, are now trading on a forward price to earnings ratio of 14 and consumer staples are near 15. The overall market is at 12.2 times 2013 earnings. Utilities shares were higher on Tuesday.
"Even though they normally trade at a premium to the market because of their consistent earnings and dividend growth, they do look relatively expensive," Stovall said. "At the same time they do offer a good dividend yield. Telecom is close to 5 percent, utilities are 4.5 percent, and consumer staples at 3 percent. … It's almost twice as good as a 10-year note yield."
Stovall said beyond dividend stocks, the whole stock market is at risk if Congress and the White House fail to work out a deal on the cliff issues. "The stock market will fall off its own cliff," he said.
Goldman Sachs economists recently wrote that they believe the ultimate outcome on the dividend tax rate will be that it and capital gains would be pushed to 20 percent rate, as favored by Senate Democrats. But the rate would then be nearly 24 percent for the wealthiest tax payers. Other scenarios include dividend tax rates that would be graduated to a higher level for the rich.
"If an investor wants yield, and they also want an investment vehicle linked to growth, then dividend stocks would still seem to be a good place to be," said John Stoltzfus, chief market strategist at Oppenheimer Asset Management. "In an environment where a market continues to be fairly prone to move from 'risk on' to 'risk off,' it's nice to have an investment to pay you while you wait."
"The Bush-era advantage on dividend stocks was a fabulous deal for investors of all income categories. The question is would that still play to some income levels? We would hope that it would be extended to all investors," Stoltzfus said. Stoltzfus said baby boomers, in particular, would be looking for high-yielding dividend stocks as a source of income in retirement.
In the past month, the S&P 500 is down about 2 percent, but some of the dividend paying sectors were down more. Utilities are by far the worse, down 6.4 percent for the month, and down 4.2 percent year to date. Telecoms were down about 2 percent in the past month, but up more than 12 percent for the year.
Steve Massocca, managing director at Wedbush Securities, is portfolio manager of the Wedbush Hedged Dividend Fund, which he says was up 16.8 percent year to date through Oct. 31. He said as investors head for the exits, they are unfairly treating REITs and MLPs just as they are corporate dividend payers. The dividend income from REITs and MLPs is nonqualified and taxed at the individual tax rate.
"I view the selloff in MLPs as a buying opportunity. I view the selloff in all these dividend paying companies as a buying opportunity," said Massocca.
He pointed to the Alerian MLP , which investors have been dumping. "It lends itself to panic selling, and that's what it looks like right now," said Massocca.
"Utilities got killed and that makes sense. That's a qualified dividend," he said. "It makes no sense with MLPs. They're not qualified dividends."
Stovall said a change in the dividend rate could actually be an advantage for MLPs. "REITs will probably look a little more attractive under the new (possible) tax environment because there's a more level playing field, the same as limited partners," he said.
Stovall said while the market was down 2 percent in the past 13 weeks, residential REITs were down 4.9 percent and retail were down 2.6 percent. Industrial were 0.4 percent higher.
Some REITs rated buy by S&P are Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, which yields 3.9 percent. They also recommend Duke Realty, yielding 5 percent, CBL and Associates, yielding 3.8 percent and Home Properties yielding 4.4 percent.
"With the housing market going through a recovery, with the more leveling possibly of the tax playing field, that could make REITs more attractive on a relative basis," he said.
"There are companies that our analysts continue to recommend because they have good earnings growth prospects, attractive valuations and above average consistency of raising earnings and dividends," Stovall said.
Follow Patti Domm on Twitter: @pattidomm
Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] | <urn:uuid:b925a1a2-0b89-4c6d-abac-8edf2dd472e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cnbc.com/id/49807521 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00010-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974264 | 1,460 | 1.710938 | 2 |
Candles in the Dark
More in Television
A daily updated summary of the week in TV.
Set in Estonia in 1988, prior to its emancipation from 50 years of Soviet domination, a small group declare through symbolic gestures that they are free Estonians. One such gesture is the placing of a decorative Christmas star atop a tree.
THE burrowing of tunnels is a well-worn device in suspense films. Usually, somebody or other is trying to get out of a prison or detention camp. In ''Berlin Tunnel 21,'' tonight's three-hour movie on CBS-TV at 8 o'clock, Richard Thomas and several collaborators are trying to dig their way into East Berlin, under the wall that has been constructed by the Communists. The point is to bring assorted loved ones to freedom in West Berlin. Based on a novel by Donald Lindquist, John Gay's screenplay opens in 1961. Sandy Mueller (Mr. Thomas), a United States Army lieutenant, and his fiancee, Ilse (Ute Christensen), are planning a trip to America after his pending discharge from the service. Suddenly, military trucks are heard rumbling in the streets. The Berlin Wall has been erected overnight. He is allowed to return to West Berlin, but she is forced to stay behind. He begins hatching his tunnel plan.
THE DIARY of Anne Frank,'' on NBC-TV tonight at 9 o'clock, continues to survive with remarkable strength. The play, adapted by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett from the book ''The Diary of a Young Girl,'' manages to convey with power the horror of the Nazi holocaust by focusing on a small group of Jewish people hiding in an Amsterdam attic. When Anne begins her diary on July 6, 1942, she's 13 years old. Two years later, she and her family are discovered and sent to concentration camps. Only her father survived. Meanwhile, however, the play captures the initial blossomings of a sensitive and beautiful young woman doomed for the simple fact that she was a Jew. The monstrousness of her inevitable murder is always palpable, gradually overwhelming.
LONDON OPERA as show biz, for movies and television, is now a reality, transporting improbable plots and hefty singers from stage to screen with varying results. As show biz, the Royal Opera's dazzling new ''Les Contes d'Hoffmann'' at Covent Garden, staged by the film director John Schlesinger in his opera debut, is being praised by London critics as an eye-filling if controversial triumph. New York viewers will get a look at Offenbach's opera on Sunday night at 7 on WNEW-TV, Channel 5, and it will be broadcast throughout the United States by Metromedia stations. ''Magnificently sung, resplendently set and superbly staged,'' wrote The Observer. And The Financial Times said: ''The first thing to be said of the new 'Hoffmann' is that it is a success -a large, handsome, enjoyable show, intelligently plotted, crisply executed and musically a performance of some (if not of complete) distinction.''
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- Music Review: Restrained, Then Madly Lyrical: The Pianist as Spring Mechanism | <urn:uuid:061102fd-a621-4689-b54f-d19d8d6f5a50> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://tv.nytimes.com/show/42856/Candles-in-the-Dark/overview | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936491 | 771 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Fourteen years later, he and other voters go to the polls Saturday to choose a leader they hope will assure continued peace and finally bring some measure of prosperity to this war-ravaged country that remains among the world's poorest.
"Life is very, very rough. Poverty is always at our door," Kamara says. "That's my prayer each day: God help me to survive and make a good future for my children."
After his horrible run-in with the rebels in 1998, Kamara survived for days without medical attention in the jungles of northern Sierra Leone. After years of rehabilitation, he learned to write again and became the most educated member of his family.
Now the married father of two young children works as a receptionist in the capital, but many of those wounded during Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war have not been as successful.
Saturday's vote—the country's third presidential election since the end of the war—hinges on whether incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma or one of his eight challengers can best uplift this West African country trying to shed its past and benefit from its diamond riches.
Sierra Leoneans rallied for peace on Friday in downtown Freetown, where political campaigning had ended the day before. While
The government has deployed military to maintain peace during the vote, and armed personnel, some with pointed guns at the ready, can be seen manning certain strategic areas and driving in police vehicles around the capital.
National election officials are spreading that message through posters on tin shacks and at traffic circles throughout the capital: "The world is watching us. Let us don't disappoint them."
Another poster reminds voters: "You have only one Sierra Leone—hold her like an egg."
Today, most of the country's nearly 6 million people live on less than $1.25 a day, according to the World Bank, and it remains among the deadliest places in the world for women to give birth.
An estimated 2,000 people suffered amputations or were seriously maimed during the war by rebels who conscripted child soldiers, a conflict depicted in the film "Blood Diamond." Many survivors face discrimination and few job prospects, and must resort to begging on the streets of the capital.
The incumbent president is pointing to his accomplishments during his first term, promising in his campaign signs that "I Will Do More." It's unclear, though, whether the leader of the All Peoples Congress (APC) party can garner the 55 percent of ballots needed to avert a runoff.
He faces eight opponents including leading opposition figure Julius Maada Bio, a retired brigadier general from the Sierra Leone People's Party, or SLPP. He calls himself the "father of democracy" after his brief three-month tenure at the country's helm in 1996.
Among the smaller party candidates is Joshua Carew, who spent nearly four decades in the American state of Iowa before deciding to make a run for national office in his native Sierra Leone.
Koroma was elected in 2007 on a ticket of change, and says he has visibly improved the country's quality of life. His supporters point to newly paved roads and a government health care reform program that has provided free medical treatment although there are serious concerns about its sustainability.
"There are those who in spite of the progress we are experiencing continue to preach sermons of doom," he said. "I am asking to be elected again so that I can scale up the gains we have made in just five years and bring prosperity to all Sierra Leoneans."
In addition to its diamond riches, Sierrra Leone also has had three offshore oil discoveries between 2009 and 2012 though the government says appraisals are still under way to determine their viability. Koroma said that "the prospects for Sierra Leone becoming an oil-exporting nation are very great," and is pledging that the country will develop its resources in a sustainable way that benefits the impoverished country's citizens.
But Bio and his supporters maintain the president has failed to deliver and does not deserve a second term.
"This is not a classroom when you are allowed to repeat after you have failed," he told reporters. "Today the economy of the country is in bad shape. The plight of our youths is very serious and it is not only a developmental issue but a security threat."
While Sierra Leone's economic growth has been good, analyst Tom Cargill says "youth unemployment and corruption remain dangerously high."
"The real issues facing Sierra Leone, particularly around youth unemployment, simply don't really appear to be being discussed in the way they should be if Sierra Leone is to escape its legacy of conflict," said Cargill, assistant head of the Africa program at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.
Observers say the upcoming election will mark a critical test.
"Peaceful elections resulting in a credible outcome are critical for consolidating Sierra Leone's hard-won peace and for demonstrating that the tremendous progress the country has made since the end of the hostilities one decade ago is irreversible," said United Nations spokesman Martin Nesirky.
The run up to Saturday's vote has been mostly peaceful, though the two main candidates squared off last month when Bio was accused of obstructing the president's convoy.
The main opposition party's final political rally went ahead peacefully Thursday, with large boisterous crowds dressed in the party's color of green flocking to the streets of Freetown. Many carried palm leaves, the symbol of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party. On Friday morning, others marched through the capital as part of a peace march aimed at ensuring a successful vote.
Koroma is expected to draw strong support in the north and in the capital, though he also appears to be making some inroads in traditional opposition strongholds.
Near the provincial capital of Bo, Augustine Pujah, 23, sported a red T-shirt emblazoned with the president's image. The young man dreams of studying science at a university and leaving his small community of Bevehun. For the time being, though, he and his friends make small change alongside the highway by selling palm wine in a yellow plastic jug.
"It's all about development," he says. "The president who comes to our aid is our leader."
Associated Press writer Clarence Roy-Macaulay contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:d7c9cf88-1e55-4833-a6d2-8c312f5df80d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.montereyherald.com/world/ci_22009284/sierra-leone-election-key-moving-beyond-war | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97271 | 1,295 | 1.75 | 2 |
Light a Candle for Barbaro
Let's go off-topic for a moment, let's give the law a rest for a few more hours, because all I have been able to think about since Saturday afternoon is what happened to Barbaro, the magnificant thoroughbred race horse who broke down in front of all the world during the running of the Preakness Stakes. In one moment, the horse went from being a legitimate contender for racing's Triple Crown, at the top of his sport, to being crippled-- and perhaps fatally injured. Even though it's a story about a horse, the story of Barbaro's rise and sudden fall is a story that slaps us in the face and reminds us all how fragile is the balance between life and death, success and failure.
That's why everyone is still talking about Barbaro, two full days after that awful race, and no one is talking about the winner of the Preakness, a horse named Bernardi, who now goes into history as a footnote as much as a champion. Ask people today about Foolish Pleasure and they are less likely to tell you he won the Kentucky Derby in 1975 as they are to tell you that he was a two-horse duel with the great filly Ruffian when she broke down and had to be destroyed on the track. There are winners each year in racing's Triple Crown races. Catastrophes come around only occasionally. That's why we are so much more likely to remember the latter and forget the former.
Someone wise once said that there are more good horses in the world than there are good people. But anyone who saw that race, and the emotions and courage and skill it invoked in the main human players in the drama, knows that there were good people and good horses both on Saturday. From Barbaro's jockey, Edgar Prado, who immediately sensed something was wrong and pulled up the horse, to the track veterinarian, who immediately put Barbaro's shattered leg into an air cast, to the doctors who heroically performed surgery on the horse for over seven hours on Sunday, to the countless scores of ordinary people who have taken time since to send their good wishes to the horse's owner and trainer, the racing community and really the rest of the nation have shown a sense of class and purpose that is as encouraging as it is sad.
As a member of that racing community-- harness racing for me-- my son and I on Saturday lit a candle for Barbaro as I explained what the horse might have to go through to live to see the summer. It is hard on children when animals die. And it is hard on them when they see animals hurt and scared, as Barbaro was, when he was being soothed by his handlers on the track. But children, lke the rest of us, have to learn that even the mighty fall sometime, even the strong get weak; even the swifest slow down, and even the good days can turn bad. On the other hand, as I told my boy, even the lame may one day walk; and even the sick may one day heal. That's what the Cohen Boys are rooting for as we root for a horse we never met and saw race only once.
In the meantime, if you are so inclined, you can send a message of support here to Barbaro's human clan.
Please email us to report offensive comments.
Posted by: Susan | August 14, 2006 05:02 PM
The comments to this entry are closed. | <urn:uuid:f273d2b0-af3d-4fa3-a900-a67f2207654d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2006/05/light_a_candle_for_barbaro_2.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368702448584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516110728-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98186 | 715 | 1.585938 | 2 |
TAIPEI, Taiwan—Professor Tsai Yung-Wen, Dean of College of Performing Arts of National Taiwan University of Arts, saw Shen Yun Performing Arts on Feb. 22. As a tenor, opera director, and artist, Mr. Tsai admired how Shen Yun conveyed the highest principles of Chinese culture through art.
Mr. Tsai said that Shen Yun blends various art elements into one and succeeds in a mission to educate the audience.
“Everyone knows [the Chinese novel] Journey to the West. Simply reading or watching the story does not bring so many thrills. Through fantastic staging, brilliant dancing, and amazing music, Shen Yun’s story telling brings the audience closer to the characters in the story, and that is the cultural exchange. Nowadays, dance alone can no longer reach people’s hearts. Dance must include music, singing, and orchestra, so it can become the best choreography that moves people.”
Mr. Tsai said he understood the skill and artistry of the orchestra. “It’s very difficult for an orchestra to conduct a live performance in such marvelous way. The orchestra must have rehearsed with the dancers many, many times.”
The singers impressed Mr. Tsai. “They truly did a terrific job. Singing Chinese in bel canto style is not easy.”
Not only the vocal technique, but the meaning of the lyrics moved Mr. Tsai. He said, “Even a person who is not religious can feel the power in the lyrics,” he said.
According to Mr. Tsai, the performance’s power came from mankind’s courteous admiration of the mercy of divine beings. “When the Buddha appeared in the end, it was the most amazing and touching moment. This finale is definitely the climax of the show.”
Mr. Tsai identified with Shen Yun’s mission to revive the 5,000-year-old civilization, “Shen Yun brings out the part of the Chinese culture that has the core values that people must cherish. Our society lacks ethics, loyalty, filial piety, and righteousness. It is wrong when there is only self-interest left in people’s relationships.”
In the end, he stressed the inseparability of art and morality. “The morality and the meaning inside the art is what reaches people’s hearts.”
Reporting by Yun Li and Hsin-Yi Lin.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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|10 steps to defusing loan-mod bombs (updated) (May 4, 2009)|
Don’t hurt your bank while helping borrowers
A special update to this article has been added, as of May 14, 2009. Please see the new material at the end of the article. Specifically, the information deals with Point #9, addressing collection of government monitoring information.
There’s more than one way to save a loan—and even more ways to mess up
Your regulator is encouraging you to work constructively with borrowers to prevent foreclosures, but don’t forget that even bend-over-backwards loans remain fully subject to all applicable regulatory compliance requirements—no matter how flexible you are being to help your customers.
Many customers are feeling extreme economic stress and are looking for relief. They’re seeking payment holidays, rate relief, and principal reductions. Mortgage lenders are responding by refinancing or modifying loans, and helping consumers avoid foreclosure. (See Cover Story, p. 5.) But, in the meantime, there is no compliance holiday, and banks must continue to be alert to—and comply with—all the regulatory compliance requirements that apply to mortgage loan modifications and restructurings.
Mistakes can have disastrous consequences. The victim consumer will seek help any way possible. This is no time for your bank to find itself the subject of headlines like: “Bank Fined for Violating Consumer Protection Laws” or “Bank Found to be Using Unfair Practices.” The cause of those headlines could be as minor as a technical error on a form or a missed Notice to the Cosigner. Or it could be a credit discrimination lawsuit brought by a consumer who didn’t get his mortgage loan modified and felt unfairly treated.
Here are ten compliance pitfalls associated with mortgage loan modifications that bankers must avoid.
1. Equal Credit Opportunity Act/Regulation B and the Fair Housing Act apply to ALL aspects of credit throughout the credit relationship.
Even after a loan is approved and on the books, a bank is still subject to ECOA/Regulation B and fair-lending laws. How a bank treats each borrower or groups of borrowers through the loan-servicing and loan-workout process will be judged under the same equal credit opportunity standards as when the loan application process first began. Banks must avoid any unequal or discriminatory treatment on any prohibited basis when determining which loans should be modified or refinanced, and how the resulting loans will be structured and priced.
To avoid this problem, develop and follow clear policies and procedures on loan marketing, underwriting, and pricing–and rewriting. Banks should have a defined plan for how to communicate loan modification program availability, handle customer requests, price the product, and determine qualifications. Some banks may be affirmatively soliciting consumers through advertising and active communications, while others may be waiting for customers to contact them.
Banks should know the demographic implications of each approach. Banks should decide how much discretion to allow loan officers in making changes to loans. If clear guidelines are not provided by management, the treatment among borrowers could vary significantly, and the bank could be subject to allegations of disparate treatment on a prohibited basis.
2. Adding cosigners, guarantors, and other signers
Banks may be tempted to shore up existing loans with additional signatures. If an additional signer for the loan is deemed necessary, the bank may not require that the borrower’s spouse be the signer. However, the bank has the ability to evaluate the offered signer under its objective standards and determine if the signer is qualified. State laws should also be consulted, because state laws vary on spousal property rights and signatures needed for access to collateral.
The Notice to Cosigners under Regulation AA may be required if a cosigner is added to a loan–other than a mortgage loan—that is modified. The notice informs the consumer who is assuming liability for an obligation without receiving goods, services, or money of the implications of that obligation, and must be provided to the cosigner in order for the obligation to be valid. Failure to provide the Notice to Cosigners is considered an unfair or deceptive practice.
3. “Modification” vs. “refinancing” under Regulation Z and RESPA
Lenders may sometimes use the two terms interchangeably, but there is an important distinction between modification and refinancing for purposes of compliance loan disclosures.
If an existing obligation is satisfied, and then replaced by a new obligation undertaken by the same consumer, the new obligation is a “refinancing” that is subject to new Regulation Z and RESPA disclosures for the new obligation. On the other hand, modifying the terms of an existing consumer obligation does not trigger all new disclosures.
Now let’s complicate things. There are certain new loan situations that would not be considered refinancings, even if there is a satisfaction of an existing loan with a new obligation. Example: If the new loan involves a reduced APR and a corresponding reduction in the payment schedule, the new loan is not a refinancing under Reg Z. There is also an exemption for situations involving the consumer’s default or delinquency. When in doubt, treat the loan as a refinancing and disclose.
Any finance charges that are imposed at this stage need to be identified. Loan modification fees are generally not finance charges, but fees for refinancing may be, depending on circumstances. If a loan is being refinanced and new loan disclosures apply, the timing of providing disclosures to consumers must be carefully observed. Many disclosures must be provided to consumers early in the loan process and—sometimes before a loan decision is made.
One further consideration is that a refinancing may be subject to rescission, while a modification is not. A new loan with the same lender is generally not rescindable except for an amount that exceeds the previous obligation. However, if you are refinancing a loan originally made by another lender, be sure to follow procedures for rescission.
4. Flood insurance obligations rise again
If a loan is made, increased, renewed, or extended (“MIRE”), a new flood determination is required under flood insurance regulations. Any action that the lender takes to rewrite the loan triggers flood hazard insurance requirements. When a bank refinances a loan that it made originally, it may use a prior flood determination as long as: the prior determination is not more than seven years old; was properly documented on the Standard Flood Hazard Determination Form; and there have not been any new or revised flood maps issued during that period.
In the case of a loan modification that does not involve an increase in loan amount, or a renewal or extension of the maturity, a new flood determination is not required. However, a bank should always ensure that any required flood insurance continues to be in place and in an amount sufficient to meet the regulatory requirements. The lender should also confirm whether the life-of-loan coverage applies to the renewal without a new flood hazard determination.
5. Unfair and deceptive acts or practices
Unfair and deceptive practices of unscrupulous lenders contributed to today’s serious mortgage problems. As a result, much more attention is being given to the quality and accuracy of information that lenders provide to consumers—from advertisements through disclosures. Fair advertising, while a concern in any promotional efforts, is particularly important for mortgage rewrites and modifications. Be sure that your marketing pieces include all required information, are clear and easily understood, and do not omit information that would be important for consumers to fully understand the nature and type of product.
The concepts of unfairness and deception can be used in a positive campaign. Consider a positive theme, such as “We tell you everything you need to know.”
6. Suspicious activity and fraud monitoring
Mortgage fraud is at an all-time high. Some borrowers took out mortgages intending to commit fraud, while others may have dodged responsibilities that they found they couldn’t handle. Banks may find themselves holding such mortgages with no remedy other than filing Suspicious Activity Reports. Banks must be alert to the fraud opportunities that the economic problems present and report suspicious activity to the regulators and appropriate law enforcement agencies. FinCEN has published guidance to help you identify and report types of mortgage fraud.
7. Tracking Community Reinvestment Act performance
Not all consumers who want their loans rewritten will be low- or moderate-income, but many will be. When your treatment of problem loans, whether foreclosure or refinancing, involves low- or moderate-income borrowers or neighborhoods, your actions could be a significant aspect of your CRA performance. Working with low- and moderate-income customers can make a difference not only to your CRA program, but—more importantly—help to stabilize neighborhoods.
There are CRA opportunities beyond the refinancing or making of loans. The service and investment tests present opportunities for financial and homeownership counseling, support for employment centers, and job training.
And there is also a risk to your CRA program, depending on how your bank responds to the credit needs presented in your community.
8. Fees may be restricted under state law
Federal law requires disclosure of fees, but state law specifies whether a fee may be charged and what limitations apply to those fees. Check the state laws where your bank does business to determine if fees are permitted for loan modifications or restructurings, before imposing any.
9. Collecting government monitoring information and HMDA reporting not permitted unless the loan is a refinancing
Unless there is a new loan that replaces an existing obligation, a loan is not a refinancing and is not subject to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. In that case, requesting borrowers to provide race, gender, and ethnicity information would be prohibited, because the loan does not meet the definition of a “ refinancing” under HMDA. The loan would also not be reportable on the bank’s HMDA Loan Application Register. A modified loan is not subject to HMDA and collection of government monitoring information unless it qualifies as a “refinancing” under the law. [See the update and elaboration below.]
10. Nonpreferential treatment for insiders
Modifying a loan to an executive officer or other bank insider is not totally out of the question. It can be done so long as the insider is not given preferential treatment. A bank must be sure that any changes to the loan are based on credit underwriting standards that are not less stringent than those for non-insiders and that the bank can show that it is not treating the insider more favorably than unaffiliated borrowers in the same situation. Another reason for policies, procedures, and clear standards for handling loan modifications and be able to document consistent, fair treatment for all borrowers. BJ
[This article was posted on May 4, 2009 on the website of ABA Banking Journal, www.ababj.com, and is copyright 2009 by the American Bankers Association.]
A special update to this article has been added, as of May 14, 2009, below. Specifically, the information deals with Point #9, addressing collection of government monitoring information.
More help for mortgage modifiers
The “10 Steps to Defusing Loan-Mod Bombs” article (published online at www.ababj.com and in the May print and digital editions of ABA Banking Journal) cautions banks about the compliance traps that banks need to watch out for when helping consumers with mortgage refinancings and modifications, including the prohibition under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) against requesting government monitoring information (race, sex, and ethnicity) from borrowers for loan modifications. Banks that are following the Obama Administration’s new Homeowner Affordability Modification Program (HAMP) have additional compliance challenges in knowing when the normal rules don’t apply.
On April 21, 2009, the U.S. Treasury Department issued Supplemental Directive 09-02 that makes an exception to the normal rules concerning requests for government monitoring information for mortgage loans. The new directive requires loan servicers who are participating in the HAMP to request, as part of the HAMP Hardship Affidavit, the borrowers’ race, ethnicity, and sex, even if the loan is not normally subject to data collection compliance requirements.
The process is familiar. The loan servicer is required to request the government monitoring information. If the borrowers elect not to provide the information, and the Hardship Affidavit is completed in a face-to-face interview, the servicer is required to record the information based on visual observation or surname. If the Hardship Affidavit is handled over the telephone, by internet, or through the mail, and the borrowers refuse to provide the information, the servicer is required to ask for the information, but not required to record it based on visual observation or surname.
The directive explains that the additional request for government monitoring information is authorized under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B, which allows a creditor to obtain information required by a regulation, order, or agreement issued by, or entered into with, a court or an enforcement agency (including the attorney general of the United States or a similar state official) to monitor or enforce compliance with the ECOA, Regulation B or other federal or state statutes or regulations. The Treasury Department intends to use the borrower characteristic information to monitor loan servicers’ compliance with fair-lending laws.
[This update was posted on May 14, 2009, on the website of ABA Banking Journal, www.ababj.com, and is copyright 2009 by the American Bankers Association.]
| TechTopics Plus | <urn:uuid:b83be293-cabd-4e65-baa3-57faf94a9a99> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.ababj.com/briefing/10-steps-to-defusing-loan-mod-bombs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00019-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93883 | 2,799 | 1.757813 | 2 |
What a delightful and wonderful surprise! Little Edie’s diary is very captivating and precise. I Only Mark The Hours That Shine is such a very appropriate title for Little Edie’s diary because even as an 11 year old girl, she seemed to have possessed an infinite optimistic tendency as she displayed in the Grey Gardens documentary. The tone in her diary really suggests maturity and sophistication for such a young preteen; it is not the incessant prattling tone of pre-adolescence. Her innate wisdom and genuine unselfishness are two themes that truly “shine” throughout the pages of her diary.
For example, on Wednesday, January 9, 1929, she writes, “So you see-- tho I am having a very quiet time--I fill it up by devoting it to the things I am struggling to accomplish. Writing—dancing--and my health!” This statement shows such an indomitable spirit in someone so young who seemed to have maintained this “can do” attitude throughout her entire life. In addition, I really appreciate the editor’s thoughtfulness for providing the helpful list of the people in Little Edie’s life so that the reader is able to keep track of the identities of the names mentioned throughout the diary. Furthermore, I love how this diary inadvertently provides a pictorial of bits and pieces of late 1920’s era.
Little Edie's Diary - | <urn:uuid:3384e281-f026-4d58-9915-de1bfb96d4ea> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://greygardenscollections.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_reviews_info&products_id=547&reviews_id=22 | 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 | 0.950994 | 298 | 1.671875 | 2 |
There’s no subtle way of delving into it, so I’ll just lay it out there: this evening, I went to see the new Morgan Spurlock documentary, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold. It’s a film about brand sponsorships in movies… and the movie itself is paid for by brand sponsorships. It’s a vastly entertaining movie on the process (from start to finish) of how advertising and entertainment are joined at the hip, the former funding and influencing the latter. And I really, really enjoyed it.
On the drive home, I thought about sponsorships as a means of funding the library. This is not a new idea by any means, so there is a certain amount of moving old bones into new graves on this blog post. But in the last two years, the sources of funding for public and school libraries have failed like nothing else. The budget cuts are well documented and well known (for non-librarians reading this, try this Google search covering the last three years) but the government funding forecast continues to look bleak. There have been victories in terms of raising tax levies and finding other public funding, but in most cases it is not a sustainable funding model for the future.
The ideal of the public institution for the common benefit is no longer good enough to win the budget day anymore; the common anti-public library refrain is that “I don’t want my tax dollars paying for other people’s entertainment/literature/ computer use”. Compared to the relative status of police, fire, ambulance, and even sanitation, the library is perceived as a luxury community expenditure. In taking money from interested corporations, public librarians can tell those anti-library people that their money is no longer being used for that. School librarians have been proven to be effective in raising achievement in schools; if taxpayers can’t or won’t foot the bill, why not pay for it through advertising and marketing money? Schools, once thought off limits, are now using advertising to meet their budgets. (There is a disconnect between wanting the best education for our nation’s children and paying that bill, but I digress.) So, why not libraries?
We have markets that companies want to reach through advertising. Whether it is book readers, movie watchers, internet users, or story time attendees, these are all representatives of desirable demographics. The library is uniquely positioned in the community since there is no other institution or entity (public or private) that does we do. There are aspects to the library that could hold unique appeal to both library vendors and non-library companies on that basis. And, to put it in some additional perspective, it’s a relatively unexplored market.
As much as people might find this idea reprehensible, here’s a incontrovertible fact: a closed library helps exactly zero people. You can explain your adherence to the “the ends don’t justify the means” principle while you stand on the front step of your closed library to the job hunters and students being turned away. I believe that the tough economic times call for consideration of other avenues of funding and revenue, especially from sources that libraries may have shied away from in the past. Where public funding has failed I think corporate funding can fill in some of the gaps to keep the doors open for both the public and students alike.
The fair rebuttal question to ask of this idea is “where does it stop once you introduce advertising to a library setting?” To be honest, I don’t know but I’d like to imagine I would know it when I saw it. Is the “Gale Cengage Computer Center” too far? No, I don’t think so. Is the “Playaway Presents Time for Twos: Story Time Program for Toddlers” too far? No, I don’t think so either. Would taking time at the start of a crafting program to announce and thank sponsor Jo Anne Fabrics while making promotional material be too far? Perhaps to some, but not to me. Considering how the Friends and Trustees of the library fund and support programs (hell, we even have a sign in our library to display when they do), how is that any different than offering a corporate advertisement? There are extreme cases we should avoid (like a 3-6 year old story time where the children sing commercial jingles or recommending books based on sponsorship and not patron desire), but I think it can be handled in a manner which is in line with our core mission while benefiting a corporate sponsor.
I feel there is a certain hypocrisy to the rejection of sponsorships and product placement in the library world. The major state and national conferences that we attend are not exclusively funded by registration fees. They have sponsorships where library vendors pay money to get their name on the front of the program book, on the websites, and on every advertising piece that goes out. It ranges from the free ice cream that is handed out at the New Jersey Library Association conference, the open bar exhibitor reception at Computer in Libraries, and funding some of the major speakers at the American Library Association Annual conference. Some might revolt at the idea of the “Harlequin Romance Section” at their library, but have no issue picking up advance reader copies or other swag from the publisher’s booth. You cannot curse it at one end while seeking to exploit it at another.
For the libraries that are well supported, this kind of funding should not be a consideration. For the libraries that are facing budget gaps, it should be a viable option put on the table. There is only so much materials, so many hours, and so many staff members you can cut before the operation becomes wholly inefficient to its mission. Like the movie poster for Morgan’s movie says, “We’re not selling out. We’re buying in.” And what we get for buying in is staying the business of helping our patron communities. At the end of the day, that is what matters.
Like I said at the top, there is no subtle way of approaching this as a blog topic. In putting links to the filmmaker, the movie, and providing my own personal endorsement, I’ve inserted a variation of product placement in my blog post (sans compensation but staying faithful to the unwritten blogging credo of citing and referencing the subjects being addressed). I’ve just sent this blog entry with a product placement/endorsement to over 1,000 blog subscribers, over 200 Facebook fans, and since I’ll tweet this post several times, over 2,300 Twitter followers. This will be in addition to whatever incoming links I might get from other bloggers (both from this post or from previous links) or if/when my posts get picked up by American Libraries Direct which goes out to the tens of thousands of American Library Association members. Between all those tweets, Facebook shares, and emails, those who actually read the post will see that I went to a movie, liked it, and then wrote about it. (To steal a line from Morgan in the movie, “dozens and dozens” of people will end up actually reading this.)
In looking back, I can see everything that I have, in essence, advertised: from “People for a Library Themed Ben & Jerry’s Flavor” Facebook group to the Edublog and Salem Press Awards to a permanent link to my Mover & Shaker profile on Library Journal and even talking about how I advertised myself to boost my Facebook author page. And that’s just the stuff off the top of my head.
So long as we are talking about self marketing and self promotion, if I really wanted to utilize the blog space to pay some bills I could sell the banner spot, buttons on the side of the sidebar of the blog, even put a banner and link at the base of all of my posts. Of course, it is a matter of proving value (or in other words, my brand); while I get thousands of views a month (a small number compared to some of the other librarian bloggers out there), I would say that I’m widely read by all the right librarian people. “Do you want your library products to reach library thought leaders and futurists? Then I’m your guy. Send me an email and let’s talk!”
And Morgan, if you’re reading this: first, thanks for an enjoyable and informative movie. You do excellent work that makes people think. I laughed as I drove home and looked at all the advertising I saw on the way. Second, I’m biased but I would hope that you’d be interested in doing a documentary of libraries (or at least an important information issue like the inadequacy of current copyright or the digital divide). I’d be happy to answer any curiosities you might have even if it’s just for yourself. Third, if you have any thoughts about the idea of advertising libraries, please feel free to leave a comment. It would be most welcome, especially as someone coming from outside the library world.
(By the way, the only potential result I fear from this blog post is being haunted by the ghost of Bill Hicks.) | <urn:uuid:2ad420c6-1ff7-4355-8c97-b51309ca9395> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/the-greatest-library-funding-idea-ever-written/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00024-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953191 | 1,938 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Look out! Your phone knows what you’re doing. It has your contacts, email messages, SMS text, pictures and video. It gets worse. Your carrier — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon — has to handle some of this information. You hit “send” and then their networks pass along personal email messages to your contacts. Some of these messages also contain your photos and even, if bandwidth permits, video. Horrifying, I know. Now for the worst possible news: Carrier IQ is also, possibly, running on your phone. It was put there by the manufacturers and carriers to help improve network and handset performance, and it can see everything you’re doing. That’s right — every action. It’s watching.
It doesn’t stop there. Your computer also has software on it that knows every keystroke, every email and photo. It’s called the operating system, and it basically runs everything. But who knows what it’s doing with all it knows. Sometimes, you can tell, especially when it tries to help you. Say you’re using universal search. How does that work, exactly? Well, it has to index everything on your hard drive and then maintain and update a database so you can find everything matching a keyword search. Some people install powerful system search software like Google Desktop, which can even index chats and instant messages.
Smart systems, in other words, know pretty much everything about us. And when our computer or phone can’t find what we need and acts, on occasion, like it doesn’t know everything — like it can’t connect the dots between our data and, say, our social and business connections — we get annoyed.
Now, what Carrier IQ is doing is, to be fair, deeper than just pure data. It’s watching, at least according to this research, all activity on the phone: Every keystroke and action. This must be a whole new level, right? What kind of software would look at system activity, user actions, which applications are running?
From the moment I read about Carrier IQ's explanation about what its software does and watched this video, I recognized it as pretty much run-of-the-mill debugging and diagnostic software. If you watch the video you'll notice that while it is in fact recording virtually all activity, it would be nearly impossible for anyone without a programming degree to decipher it. The hieroglyphics spit out by Carrier IQ actually reminded me of code I had seen before. Not on an Android device or even another mobile phone, but on a PC and from a pretty long time ago.
Back in the early days of Windows there was a diagnostic utility called Dr. Watson. On Windows 95 and 98, you could run it to collect system activity into a log file that, if you were savvy enough and had some of the right decoding tools, you could use to figure out what was triggering your system crashes. Yes, Windows users — well most in my industry, at least — were aware of Dr. Watson. However, on Windows NT, whether you were aware of it or not, Dr. Watson was running, watching and collecting errors — and potentially more. There were posts online about how to disable Dr. Watson on the OS, but it wasn’t easy. You had to dive into Windows Registry.
No one was ever harmed by what Watson collected, and the reason most people wanted to disable it was that some thought the doctor was slowing down their PCs.
There is, of course, a big difference between good old Dr. Watson and Carrier IQ. Dr. Watson ran, primarily, on desk-bound computers (and early laptops). Carrier IQ runs in your pocket. You could lose your phone and whatever Carrier IQ has collected could be on there. A would-be thief then simply has to, well, unlock your phone, hope you don’t remotely brick it, find the Carrier IQ log file, and then figure out a way to read Carrier IQ-speak. On the other hand, if Carrier IQ were removed from all phones — including yours — and a thief found one of them, he could still access all recent emails, contacts, and texts, view videos and photos and do a whole lot more, as long someone left the phone unlocked. (Admit it, you don't always lock your phone).
My point? This situation is way overblown and spiraling out of control. However, when I asked the relatively tech savvy Google+ audience why people didn’t understand that complex systems are always running diagnostic software, they surprised me. Most sided with those who find the very existence of Carrier IQ on phone troubling. Many believe that Carrier IQ is collecting emails and SMS messages and passing them along to carriers (Carrier IQ says it's not). They were also concerned that there's no way to shut down the software or opt out.
The last point is somewhat laughable. Do a Ctrl Alt Delete on your Windows computer sometime and look at the process tab. There are dozens of processes running on your computer at any given time, most of them likely unidentifiable to you. Microsoft runs some, other software and utilities you’re running are responsible for the others. You didn’t explicitly ask for those processes to run, but they come as part of the system or software you’re using. You can shut any of them down, but at the risk of harming your computer.
For carriers and handset manufacturers, Carrier IQ is very much like one of those processes. I bet it never even occurred to them that they should inform consumers, let alone offer a way to disable the diagnostic tool.
Carrier IQ, though, is not blameless — and I think this whole mess would have disappeared in a hurry if Carrier IQ had not dropped a Cease and Desist order on researcher Trevor Eckhart, who discovered the diagnostic software, wrote a post about it and then and documented Carrier IQ's abilities (virtually unstoppable, voracious tracking on an HTC Android phone) in video. That is, at least in some people’s eyes, the act of a company that has something to hide.
The reality is it’s an act of a company that’s not used to dealing with the public. Carrier IQ operates in the background and only deals directly with carriers and manufacturers. Now consumers are looking for ways to disable Carrier IQ on their phone, as if that will in some way improve their mobile experience or protect them from identity theft. This is misguided and in the end, could end up hurting more than it helps as Carrier IQ’s carrier and manufacturer customers suddenly find themselves with far less diagnostic information and fewer avenues for measuring service and network quality. If service quality degrades, consumers will finally be harmed — but not by Carrier IQ. | <urn:uuid:1e5e414a-a23a-4233-9ac2-3dab5fd93280> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://mashable.com/2011/12/03/carrier-iq-is-misunderstood-not-evil/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704132298/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113532-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965157 | 1,413 | 1.757813 | 2 |
What I have been thinking about is how I was able to travel the distance of my ancestors lives in a matter of hours. My Scots-Irish family migrated south through the Shenandoah Valley from western Pennsylvania to Tennessee over several generations. One morning I woke in Lexington, VA and visited the Rockbridge County Courthouse. I saw the original marriage bond for my 4th great-grandparents, John Stephenson and Elizabeth Cloyd. That afternoon, after driving south on I-81, I visited their graves at the Salem Cemetery in Washington County, TN. I stayed in Jonesborough, where Elizabeth started a school for girls in 1820.
I remember traveling through Virginia before the interstate was built, before cars had air conditioners, when a hotel swimming pool was rare. It took a full day longer. The roads were curvier (I consumed large quantities of dramamine on those trips), narrower, and far more difficult to drive. From today's perspective it was a difficult trip.
I try to imagine John and Elizabeth traveling down to Tennessee in 1808. They surely traveled the same route I did - the Great Warriors Trail. I wonder if there were ghosts on their road, as there have been on mine. | <urn:uuid:50397bce-dac3-4e1f-ae7d-24038189b7f6> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://nolichuckyroots.blogspot.com/2011/07/road.html?showComment=1311597705683 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368701459211/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516105059-00015-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980391 | 245 | 1.796875 | 2 |
According to a recent article in the Catholic weekly Our Sunday Visitor, today’s young adults struggle to engage in life outside the digital realm. How can teens stay connected without losing touch with the outside world?
God’s fundamental desire for everyone is that we would love Him with all our hearts and love others as we love ourselves. Technology can help us in those pursuits, but it can be a distracting hindrance as well. Following a few of God’s basic guidelines can help teens stay in touch without having to give up their iTouch.
The most important source of goodness for anyone is to have a personal relationship with God. James encourages us that “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights . . .” (James 1:7). Everyone who is spiritually alive is led by God’s Spirit. So if anyone has a personal relationship with God, He will lead them toward what is healthy and honoring to Him, and away from what isolates and alienates us. | <urn:uuid:72624a48-0517-48ac-8926-808b1218a691> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://articles.burbankleader.com/2009-06-13/features/blr-intheory13_1_heavenly-lights-teens-worship | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706153698/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516120913-00033-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959839 | 215 | 1.84375 | 2 |
results for "french"
Main Course (2)
This dish of sliced beef in a sour cream sauce garnished with straw potatoes was named for the Stroganov family of Russian merchants. The inventor was plainly familiar with French cuisine.
Composer Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868) was a noted gourmand, and dishes with his name attached typically involve foie gras and truffles. This one was served in his honor at the Café Anglais in Paris. | <urn:uuid:3bfc8e10-1fc0-4a3c-8dc5-33aa047a4812> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.saveur.com/solrSearchResults.jsp?q=french&p=0&fq=Season%3AFall&fq=Topic%3ARecipe&fq=Technique%3AFry&fq=Main%5C+Ingredient%3ABeef | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00037-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957987 | 107 | 1.632813 | 2 |
Nov 19, 2009
Zarberg - See all 39 of my articles
The two big wars the US is involved in these days are getting less and less popular by the minute, thanks in part to the 24-7 news coverage modern technology brings us. I personally was fine with our invasion of Afghanistan and very much against our invasion of Iraq, but that’s not the topic I’m going to rant about today. I want to talk about a “war” that the US has been losing for decades: The War on Drugs.
The War on Drugs fought its first losing battle in 1969, when Richard Nixon used the term to describe a plan to intercept marijuana at border crossings in Mexico. That lasted 20 days because of the burden on state border guards who had better things to do than inspect legitimate traffic for illegal materials. Thanks in part to Nancy Reagan, the anti-drug campaign saw a huge media push in the 80′s – we all remember “Just Say No.” It’s received quite a large amount of funding, too: $600 dollars.
Yes. $600 dollars.
The Federal government alone spent $19 billion dollars in 2003 fighting illegal drug use. When you combine state spending the figure for this year is already over $40 billion dollars. Surely those large sums of money are doing some good, right? 85% of high school seniors say it would be “very easy” for them to get drugs if they wanted, and that figure has never dropped below 82% in the last 3 decades. Doesn’t congress hold budget inquiries for misused or misspent federal funds? We’ve had our elected officials in Washington get involved with professional sports multiple times in the last decade, yet none of them are questioning why we’re spending billions a year on a war that has seen no improvement. Imagine if McArthur was still trying to re-take the Philippines in 1951, appearing before congress like Oliver Twist asking for more gruel. That would have gone over well.
Add this economic sinkhole to a controversial yet widely accepted fact that marijuana, in terms of lung health only, is less harmful than cigarettes. In addition, the United States Department of Health and Human Services published a study in 2002 that showed less than 1 percent of Americans smoke marijuana on a daily basis, and just a small percentage of those were considered dependent. Personal anecdote time: I know at least a dozen people who smoke pot multiple times a year. All of them are productive members of society, holding jobs or making good grades in school. Cigarette smoking cost the US almost 200 billion dollars a year between health care costs and lost productivity time (those smoking breaks add up!). Pot doesn’t look so bad compared to your average Camel or Kool now, huh?
We have a war on drugs that is wasting vast sums of money and a drug that doesn’t appear to be overly harmful. What is the point I’m trying to make? We should legalize marijuana and tax it. A recent Frasier Institute study showed that the price of .5 grams of weed on the street is about $8.60 while the cost to produce it was only $1.70. While that’s quite a profit, there are reasons for it, the biggest being it is illegal and not currently industrialized in this country. But imagine if the government could get a decent sized chunk of that revenue. In 2005 the Federal Government made 7.7 billion dollars on tobacco tax, and the state governments took in over 13 million combined. While not as many people would immediately jump to smoking pot, a big chunk of money would be simply saved from that $600 dollars a second in addition to the tax revenue you would generate. A recent projection showed nearly a billion dollars a year could be made from the taxation of marijuana.
I would think the tax revenue and savings alone would have Republicans jumping on the bandwagon to support this cause, but I fear pandering to the religious right and socially conservative crowd is the reason they don’t. | <urn:uuid:c0c6f7bb-65bc-4351-a784-891a24eba8eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.thesoapboxers.com/losing-the-war/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704713110/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516114513-00009-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951314 | 830 | 1.65625 | 2 |
All marriages have good times and some bad times. Don't let small issues develop into large ones. Here is help in working through your marriage problems.
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, and other agreements and contracts. | <urn:uuid:750f59f2-d57b-4c85-af68-1d094da5fb9a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://marriage.about.com/od/adviceandselftests/qt/needhelp.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00013-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937215 | 446 | 1.8125 | 2 |
December 2004, Vol. 127, No.12
Download the PDF (17K)
Book reviews from past issues
The Israeli Economy, 1985–1998: From Government Intervention to Market Economics. Edited by Avi Ben-Bassat. Cambridge, MA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002, 514 pp., $40/cloth.
As editor, Avi Ben-Bassat presents a series of 14 essays based on a 1996 research project by various Israeli academic and financial institutions as well as the International Monetary Fund, plus his own contribution in the form of an introductory essay discussing the obstacles Israel faced in its transformative efforts. These essays detail efforts to reform Israel from a poorly performing centralized command economy to a dynamic market economy. The Israeli Economy, 1985–1998 explores the obstacles faced and transformations experienced during this transition period. These essays describe the fiscal and monetary changes, changes in the markets, and external developments that allowed Israel to move from a situation where it faced 400 percent inflation to relative stability and growth.
After the intensified conflicts of the 1967 Six Day War and the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel reacted by centralizing decisionmaking and controlling resources. These conflicts resulted in the growth of the public sector and the public deficit. Lax fiscal discipline and the growth of government, due to increased defense expenditures and subsidies to businesses, resulted in severe economic decline. After a relaxation in the intensity of the Israeli-Arab conflict during the latter part of the 1970s and early 1980s, Israel was in a better position to address the economic difficulties it faced in the forms of high inflation and almost nonexistent growth of gross domestic product (GDP).
To address these economic difficulties, Israeli policies needed some serious reform. How Israel addressed its reform program is described in six major headings: fiscal policy; monetary policy; financial market reforms; reforms in the goods and services markets; immigration and the labor market; and changes in growth, branch structure, and income distribution.
Changes in fiscal policy are explained in the first essay showing efforts at implementing tight fiscal discipline and a reduction in the size of government. Because of fiscal reform, three areas saw the greatest change in an effort to reduce expenditures: defense spending; subsidies to the business sector and interest payments; and welfare transfers to households. Another part of these efforts was the drive to reduce public expenditures through the elimination of interest payments on external debts that approached 80 percent of GDP.
Reform of monetary policy, as part of these stabilization program efforts, is addressed in three essays: reform of the financial system; disinflation from 1985 to 1998; and the international view of Israeli inflation. Israel’s greatest accomplishment was to achieve disinflation. Liberalization is shown to be a key to enhancing competition in the financial markets in this accomplishment, as well as the Bank of Israel’s (BoI) increased independence and use of interest rates as an instrument of monetary policy. These measures were fairly successful when combined with a reduction in the government budget deficit through fiscal discipline. The program did not work as well as it could have due to political pressures; changes in employment due to increased immigration from the former Soviet Union; and Israel’s inability to reach a consensus about the process as a whole, shown by a conflict between the BoI and the Treasury.
Achieving disinflation proved a difficult process when compared to nine other countries—all of which went from high inflation to lowered inflation levels with varying results. Despite set-back periods of double-digit inflation rates, Israel, by 1998, was experiencing mid single-digit rates. Liberalization of financial markets also saw mixed results, but in general the outcome has been positive.
Liberalization of financial markets has allowed many projects to proceed when previously they would not have done so under government-provided funding, while others of less likely profit have been dropped. Because of more reliance for funding from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and less from bank debt or government-provided credits, credit crunches and reduced output volatility have been reduced over the business cycle, and results of this program are fairly solid.
Pension reform, however, is a work in progress. Balancing social needs of pensioners against relieving the younger generation from the burden of a large share of income support is difficult. The solution is to accumulate more pension savings while workers are young, thus sharing the burden of risk between the generations.
Fortunately for these workers, the unemployment rate dropped from 12 percent to 6 percent during the 1990s. This effect was produced by changes in immigration and liberalization of the goods and services market. These two issues are addressed separately, but are closely intertwined. While immigration increased during the 1990s due to the fall of the Soviet Union and an increase in migrants from Eastern Europe, the labor market grew as well. With the diminishment of economic centralization came growth in the labor market as industries increased efficiency efforts. In the first half of the 1990s, growth was greatest in exposed industries that were open to competition from imported items and required lower skills. In the second half, growth was seen most in more sophisticated industries that required skilled workers.
Changes in capital accumulation and increased productivity resulted in changes to the labor market. It also resulted in challenging questions of income distribution. While Israel was growing in a dynamic market economy with immigration increases, income inequalities were also growing. The approach to these questions, and how Israel is going to answer them, is addressed in the book’s final chapters.
A constant theme emerges as the authors describe the complex, and often contradictory, events and efforts to reform. Sectors and industries that are opened to competition thrive and become more efficient, providing benefits to both labor and consumers. Efficiency aids efforts to globalize Israel’s economy, though it also is more exposed to external crises. Another recurring issue of many essays is that success is not seen in every effort to liberalize, as is the case in some public utilities.
Because this book is a collection of studies analyzing one country going through one process, there are some redundancies. This is unavoidable because this one process is complex and has many levels that are affected by the same events. The essays provide a nonpartisan view of an economic system in transformation, and a good argument for market solutions versus dirigiste philosophies toward providing a healthy economic environment.
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BLS Home | Publications & Research Papers | <urn:uuid:bad5b7fa-fddf-4beb-a1a6-a4e90e82007b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://stats.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2004/12/bookrevs.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00012-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962164 | 1,331 | 1.84375 | 2 |
From Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia
W. Curtis Thacker (1898-1977) was Superintendent at Monticello from 1950 to 1970.
Mr. Thacker was born in Albemarle County in 1898. He attended Virginia Tech for two years before returning to Albemarle County where he worked as a manager of buildings and grounds for the Stone family at Morven from the mid-1920s until 1947. In that year he was hired by the newly established Keswick Country Club to be their first buildings and grounds manager. At the January 1950 Board of Directors' meeting, Fiske Kimball suggested the Foundation employ Mr. Thacker to oversee the maintenance of the equipment and buildings because the present gardener was unsatisfactory, and Mr. Taliaferro was away on a six-month medical leave of absence. He noted that Mr. Thacker was "a qualified carpenter, a registered plumber, a competent gardener and altogether a very intelligent and capable man." Mr. Hildreth also supported Mr. Kimball's recommendation, stating that he had known Mr. Thacker for 20 years and that he had "the reputation of being the best gardener in the county." Mr. Hildreth was authorized to offer Mr. Thacker the position of "Superintendent of the Grounds and Buildings." Mr. Thacker accepted and in the summer of 1950, he and his family moved into the Weaver's Cottage on Mulberry Row. Mr. Kimball noted of Mr. Thacker's early work at Monticello that he "is a jewel, and is keeping everything in fine shape." In 1966, Mr. Thacker was made Treasurer in addition to his position as Superintendent. He retired from Monticello in December of 1970.
As Superintendent, Thacker was responsible for the grounds, the grounds employees, and the physical properties of Monticello. He was also responsible for counting ticket sales, making deposits, and employee payroll. In addition, he initiated the packaging of seeds from the flower gardens and the smoking of hams in the parking lot barn which were offered for sale to visitors.
In addition to his work at Monticello, Mr. Thacker was involved with the Fraternal Order of Police and served as a Special Police Officer for Albemarle County in 1965. He was also active with the local Chamber of Commerce. Following his retirement, he assisted his son in the latter's local construction firm. Mr. Thacker died at the age of 78 in February 1977.
- ↑ This article is based on Anna G. Koester, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Archives: Collection Guide and Catalog, October 1989, 22-23.
- Celebrating Seventy-Five Years of Preservation and Education: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, Inc., 1923-1998. Charlottesville, Va.: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1998. | <urn:uuid:01bba46f-544e-4efd-b3ee-10dfafec1e3d> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Curtis_Thacker | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975295 | 580 | 1.507813 | 2 |
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Home > Jobs & Training - 57th Maine State Police Training Troop
Jobs & Training - 57th Maine State Police Training Troop
On Monday May 28, 2007 fourteen recruits began their journey in the Maine
State Police 57th Recruit Training Troop (RTT). We learned what the Maine State Police stood for, Integrity, Fairness, Compassion, and Excellence. These core values are to be integrated into our lives not only as recruits, but as people.
The troop spent a great deal of time in the classroom throughout the week. The recruits learned, the Core Principles of the Maine State Police, Domestic Violence,
How to make Death Notifications, Report Writing and how to use the State
Police record program.
Four times through out the week, the class spent time being instructed in numerous defensive techniques. Whether it was learning how to control an uncooperative suspect
or learning to defend yourself under extremely stressful and physical
57th RTT also spent time testing their bodies physically. Each day at least
once, sometimes twice, we did physical training. We ran three to four miles
or did as many pushups as we could.
Week 2 -->
|Copyright © 2005 All rights reserved.| | <urn:uuid:cd51aa2d-031a-40da-aa8c-71783d7a67fb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://maine.gov/dps/msp/57%20training%20troop/57thweek1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00040-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941649 | 285 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Fresh questions were raised tonight about the behaviour of British officials towards terror suspects by the disclosure that MI6 had referred one of its officers to the attorney general over allegations of complicity in torture.
The unprecedented move was disclosed in a letter from David Miliband, the foreign secretary, to his Conservative shadow, William Hague. He said MI6 had acted on its own initiative, "unprompted by any accusation against MI6 or the individual concerned".
The Metropolitan police specialist crime branch said Lady Scotland, the attorney general, had asked it to investigate "the conditions under which a non-Briton was held" and the "potential involvement of British personnel".
Officials were reluctant to say anything more about the case other than it was "unrelated" to that of Binyam Mohamed, a British resident who says he was tortured and ill-treated in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Morocco and Guantánamo Bay.
The police are separately investigating allegations of what the high court has called "possible criminal wrongdoing" by an MI5 officer involved in Mohamed's secret interrogation.
Miliband said the government could not comment further on the MI6 case "to avoid prejudice and to protect the individuals involved".
Officials told the Guardian that the circumstances surrounding the MI6 case had never been referred to in public. But Whitehall sources said they came to the notice of MI6 lawyers as concerns about the activities of both MI5 and MI6 were being raised by the high court, MPs, and the media. The court heard growing evidence of Britain's involvement in the interrogation of detainees and CIA flights transferring them to secret destinations .
There was speculation among human rights groups that MI6 was prompted to take action as a result of evidence that will emerge in the US inquiry into the CIA's interrogation of terror suspects.
Sir John Scarlett, the head of MI6, told the BBC last month that there no torture and "no complicity in torture" by the Secret Intelligence Service.
Miliband said in his letter, published yesterday on the Foreign Office website, that the government "wholeheartedly condemned torture". He added: "We will not condone it. Neither will we ever ask others to do it on our behalf. This is not mere rhetoric but a principled stance consistent with our unequivocal commitment to human rights. We are fortunate to have the best security and intelligence services and armed forces in the world."
Miliband was responding to a letter Hague wrote to Gordon Brown last month in light of a report by parliament's joint committee on human rights. The committee said the government could no longer get away with repeating standard denials of complicity by the security and intelligence agencies.
Hague asked the government to "clarify as a matter of urgency whether you intend to instruct the attorney general to consider ... allegations of UK complicity in the light of the joint committee report, which documents allegations of UK complicity in torture in respect of detainees held in Pakistan, Egypt, and Guantánamo Bay, and in the case of Uzbekistan, raises concerns about the receipt of information which may have been obtained through torture".
Hague said later: "It is very important that any such allegations are thoroughly investigated. Torture or complicity in torture is unacceptable, immoral and counter-productive".
Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, called for a full judicial inquiry into the British authorities' possible complicity in torture. "Given the gravity and number of allegations of UK complicity in torture, separate limited police investigations alone are inadequate," he said.
Tim Hancock, Amnesty International's UK campaigns director said: "If the UK authorities are serious about their responsibilities to combat torture, we need a full, impartial and independent investigation into all allegations that UK personnel have colluded with torturers."
Shami Chakrabarti, director of campaign group Liberty, said: "Criminal investigations into individual officers don't reveal what ministers knew or authorised … Only an independent judicial inquiry can get to the bottom of this rotten business."
According to Westminster's intelligence and security committee, by early 2005, MI5, MI6 and military intelligence officers took part in more than 100 such sessions in Afghanistan, and MI5 and MI6 officers had been involved in a similar number at Guantánamo Bay. There had been about 2,000 such interrogations in Iraq involving MI5, MI6, military intelligence and civilians. | <urn:uuid:954ae9f1-443c-4d44-a36d-a048712a5434> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/11/mi6-investigated-over-torture-allegation | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00031-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967915 | 887 | 1.617188 | 2 |
The 29th running of the annual John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon might be canceled again this year.
At the time of this writing, the event's Board of Directors are set to assemble Jan. 15 and determine if trail conditions are safe enough for the race to proceed as scheduled or to cancel the event altogether.
If the race is called off, it would mark the second time in five years. Back in 2007, when the 25th running of the John Beargrease was canceled for the same reason that this year's marathon could be, it marked the first time in the event's long and storied history that a lack of snow halted the race. Indeed, times are tough when a late January-early February dogsled race in northern Minnesota has to be called off because little or no snow.
For those of you unacquainted, the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon is an annual sled dog race that begins in Duluth, goes on to Grand Marais and returns to Duluth.
This grueling contest pits teams of mushers and their sled dogs against one another for top honors in the 500-mile marathon along the rugged North Shore. And for possibly the second time since the marathon's inception, there might not be enough snow for the event to take place.
I would bet if the man for whom the race is named to honor -- John Beargrease, the son of an Anishinaabe chief -- could know that this year's race could be canceled again, he would probably not believe it.
From 1879 through 1899, once a week every week, John Beargrease and his brothers delivered the mail between Two Harbors and Grand Marais. Though the mail was transported year-round by an assortment of methods by the men, including by horse and canoe, John was especially known for his dogsled deliveries.
According to the official John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon website, John's fastest trip with his team of only four dogs pulling him and his toboggan-like sled loaded with mail, took just 28 hours. That's slow by today's standards of modern dogsleds and equipment pulled by much larger teams. Nonetheless, the Beargrease brothers provided a vital delivery service in Minnesota's early history that ultimately helped to settle the North Shore.
Another famous sled dog marathon that, in this case, celebrates an important historical moment in Alaska, is the Iditarod. At more than 1,000 miles, this race is twice the length of the John Beargrease. Beginning in Anchorage and ending in Nome, the Iditarod is frequently noted as the "1,049-mile race" in recognition of Alaska becoming the 49th state. The actual length varies from year to year because of snow and trail conditions -- even in Alaska.
The first Iditarod was not a competition conducted for the fun of it. Nor did it have a name. It was quite literally a race against time and distance and a matter of life and death. As in today's Iditarod, the dogsled race Gunnar Kaasen finished on Feb. 2, 1925, commenced in Anchorage and concluded in Nome. But, unlike today's remembrance run, the first was carried out under very grave circumstances.
During the winter of 1925 in Nome, children's lives -- mostly Inuit children -- were in danger because they had been exposed to diphtheria, an illness for which they had no immunity. The highly contagious bacterial disease, which attacks the nose and throat and sometimes nerves and the heart, can be fatal if not treated with antibiotics.
Kaasen was a musher who took part in an impossible 674-mile relay race from Nenana to Nome in order to inoculate the children against the terrible sickness. Scott Bone, the then territorial governor of Alaska, authorized a shipment of 300,000 units of antitoxin serum be delivered by train from Anchorage to Nenana. But from there it took 20 mushers and more than 100 dogs to deliver the medicine all the way to Nome.
Less than two weeks earlier, Dr. Curtis Welch, the only physician in Nome, diagnosed the diphtheria outbreak and subsequently telegraphed Anchorage, Fairbanks, Seward and Juneau seeking help. The only medicine available was located at the Alaska Railroad Hospital in Anchorage.
Gunnar Kaasen, a Norwegian musher who was born in 1882, was to be the second-to-last musher in the incredible relay delivery race. Another musher, Charlie Olson, passed the 20-pound cylinder of antitoxin serum to Kaasen in the settlement of Bluff, where Gunnar and his team of 13 sled dogs, including his husky lead-dog Balto, then raced in the dark of night through a blizzard to Point Safety.
Kaasen was supposed to be relieved by Ed Rohn once he reached Point Safety, but Rohn was asleep, so Gunnar continued another 25 miles to Nome. Three and a half hours later, at 5:30 a.m., after about 54 total miles, a very weary musher and his team of sled dogs arrived in Nome with the serum for the awaiting Dr. Welch, who administered the medicine.
The Iditarod sled dog race, as we know it today, from Anchorage to Nome, officially began in March of 1973. There were two other shorter races prior to this. And like Minnesota's John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, the Alaskan Iditarod is a long and difficult race that's rich in history and tradition.
Hopefully, as mushers, sled dogs, race organizers, and spectators wait for this year's verdict with an eye to the sky in anticipation of snowfall, the John Beargrease will convene once again on Northwood's trails as we get out and enjoy the great outdoors.
Blane Klemek is wildlife manager with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. He can be reached at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:df4fd716-0bd6-4eea-8494-2a177ee8805b> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/content/dogsled-races-have-noble-history?qt-latest_trending_article_page=0 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700958435/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516104238-00016-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972332 | 1,240 | 1.8125 | 2 |
|stamping evidence page|
I enjoy visiting youtube to learn how to create different arts and crafts. That‘s where I learned to sew my journals together using the coptic stitch! What’s so great about this Do-It-Yourself mentality? It's that you don’t have to follow exactly the method used by the “instructor”. On Mission 9 of my Craft Cleanse Moira linked us to her video, DIY washi tape. Great idea! That led me to another video and a third (love those suggestions!) I put all three videos to work and made my own brand of “washi” tape with rubber stamps. Then I made a new evidence page (a mixture of art and inventory) for my stamps.
Which stamps did I inventory?
An alphabet set (the first stamps I ever bought - which I haven't even used!) and a "barrel" of spring stamps, with flowers and such (that I use all the time)
Here’s a close-up of my evidence page. I used light blue ink for my alphabet and multi-colored stamp pads (which I love) for Spring.
I also have a few sheets of clear stamps, which I forgot were hanging on the wall next to my desk! And some large misc. stamps gathered over the years. Good thing I started my inventory...
If you enjoy DIY projects, watch Moira's silent video and see what you come up with! | <urn:uuid:8e7ee8e6-ef05-49cd-983b-31b38503289c> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.storybeader.com/2011_07_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368706499548/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516121459-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955077 | 308 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Thread: pics of brown spots on anubias.
07-23-2010, 02:53 PM #1
pics of brown spots on anubias.
Here is a pic of what I'm dealing with on my anubias and Amazon swords.
Can anyone let me know if this is due to the algae or something else?
07-23-2010, 02:57 PM #2
07-23-2010, 03:10 PM #3
I havent tried to wipe it off. I suppose that should have been my first thought of something to do.
I thought it was discoloration of the actual leaf though, like a spot that was dieing.
When I get home from work i will try to wipe them and see if that helps. Also, if it is something that simply wipes off would that be something that a small group of Otos or another type of small bottom feeder would be able to keep clean and maintained?
07-23-2010, 03:21 PM #4
07-24-2010, 04:06 AM #5
Well, I brought home 4 Otocinclus cats today. I went out for dinner shortly after getting them in the tank. By the time I got back my anubias and amazon swords were all clean...no more brownish spots.
07-24-2010, 04:49 AM #6
I've had similar looking spots on my plants (and gravel) sometimes. I've found that a good water change will usually make it go away. I think it's the remains of dead algae although I can't tell for sure. I usually try to wipe it off gently. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. | <urn:uuid:718d4039-109e-4f0e-93a2-871249e8ba60> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=66719 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368705195219/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516115315-00042-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969702 | 356 | 1.625 | 2 |
Tres Leches Cake210 Reviews
“This is a part dry, part moist Mexican cake made with three types of milk. It is a sweet and delicious treat!” - by Monica
Original recipe yields 8 servings
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter and flour bottom of a 9 inch springform pan.
- Beat the egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar until light in color and doubled in volume. Stir in milk, vanilla, flour and baking powder.
- In a small bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Beat until firm but not dry. Fold egg whites into yolk mixture. Pour into prepared pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 to 50 minutes or until cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool 10 minutes.
- Loosen edge of cake with knife before removing side of pan. Cool cake completely; place on a deep serving plate. Use a two prong meat fork or cake tester to pierce surface of cake.
- Mix together condensed milk, evaporated milk and 1/4 cup of the whipping cream. Discard 1 cup of the measured milk mixture or cover and refrigerate. Pour remaining milk mixture over cake slowly until absorbed. Whip the remaining whipping cream until it thickens and reaches spreading consistency. Frost cake with whipped cream and garnish with cherries.
Amount Per Serving (8 total)
- 642 cal
- 33 g
- 75 g
Based on a 2,000 calorie diet
Reviews (210)Rate This Recipe
"This is a basic sponge cake recipe soaked in a milk mixture. A succesful sponge cake requires proper treatment of the egg, at every step. The egg whites form the body or lightness of the cake. It ..." See moreis extremely important to properly fold the whites into the batter. Too much folding and you have a flat cake. Too little folding and you will have "chewy" pieces from unincorporated egg white. The 1/4 c. granulated sugar should be added to the egg whites before whipping, as sugar helps build peaks, prevents overbeating, and dissolves in liquid egg. I don't know why some reviewers thought white sugar meant powdered sugar, but sponge cakes are made with granulated sugar. I substituted cake flour (1 c. + 2 T.), added a pinch of salt, and the cake was great."
"Maybe I am the only cook that does not know this, but this recipe should call for CONFECTIONOR'S SUGAR, not to be confused with granular sugar which is obviously white too--I am new to the cooking sc..." See moreene, but this info would have been nice to know."
"I took this cake to a Cinco De Mayo party. I looked at all the tres leches cake recipes on this website, and I decided to try this one. I was not dissapointed. Everyone raved about it. I did subst..." See moreiture Fresh strawberries with the cherries, so it was like a super moist strawberry shortcake. Even my kids loved the "strawberry cake" My 2 yr old son actually ate his own piece, and then tried to steal mine. I definatly recommend this cake. There is no excess run off of liquid like the others cakes listed on this web site. Try it, you'll like it."
Pastel de Tres Leches (Three Milk Cake)
Tres Leches III
Just swipe to see more like this. | <urn:uuid:a4718f54-1a35-428c-babf-16fee87d843a> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/15654/recipetres-leches-cake?sitepref=m | 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 | 0.933451 | 749 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Does anyone remember making popcorn on the stove as a kid? I would always burn it, and ruin my mom’s pots. Then came along the hot air popper, which was much better. Then came microwave popcorn that I thought was the best…I ate it all of the time until I discovered that the ingredients in the flavoring were not too good for me. So, after years without popcorn, I am happy to report that you can pop your own in the microwave!
This might not be news to you, but it was to me when I saw my co-worker pull a small brown paper bag out of the microwave, and pour out perfectly popped popcorn.
This is much better for you and a heck of a lot cheaper than the microwave packs. Please note: some microwave manufacturers say that brown paper bags are a fire hazard, so use your judgement, and don’t leave the microwave unattended.
Here’s all you need:
Brown paper lunch sack
Pour about half an inch of popcorn into the bag. Fold the top over 2 or 3 times. Place in the microwave and cook on the popcorn setting. Listen for when the pops become less frequent and avoid burning. It took my bag about 25 seconds less than the popcorn setting.
Open the bag to release the steam. (Open the bag away from your face.)
Pour into a bowl and top with melted butter, and sprinkle with a salt of your choosing. Or you can just eat it plain from the bag. | <urn:uuid:5d99d64a-ec00-4383-bb95-57b32dba6795> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://my-sweet-addiction.com/2013/02/24/microwave-popcorn-in-a-brown-paper-bag/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703298047/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112138-00026-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965666 | 310 | 1.703125 | 2 |
I have an article on staple tropes of science fiction and fantasy television out at Den of Geek this week; apparently there's a show called Fringe that I've never seen and need to, but all my favourite shows are represented there!
I first came across The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as a book, but my favourite incarnation of this modern myth has always been the original two radio series. Series 2 has all sorts of gems in it that rarely get transferred to other media or that get thoroughly transformed in the process, mostly those revolving around the planet Brontetaal. My personal favourite is the Shoe Event Horizon (which I believe appears in one of the books, but I haven't read them in a long time), a 'rather sad' historical phenomenon which is under investigation by three attractive young archaeologists called Lintilla (they're clones).
Arthur runs into the Lintillas after an encounter with the Bird People, who live in the ear of a 15-mile high statue of himself (it's a long story). The Bird People refused to go anywhere near the ground, and have not touched it since they shook the dust from their 'things'. Lintilla, as it turns out, is investigating the reason for this odd behaviour and has had a stroke of luck; a deep shaft in the ground has suddenly appeared (caused by Marvin the Paranoid Android plummeting to the ground from 13 miles up) and revealed several archaeological layers. After a brief explanation of how archaeological layers are like layer cake, she points out to Arthur an entire archaeological layer of compressed shoes.
After a certain amount of running around being chased by Foot Warriors, the Guide reveals the true cause of this extraordinary phenomenon (in a sequence involving some mildly disturbing button-pushing and pleasure noises from a young boy and a computer). While in a thriving, go-ahead civilization, people are looking up at an infinite horizon, in a depressed, downward spiralling civilization, they are looking down, at their shoes. To cheer themselves up, they buy a new pair. Everyone does this. And so shoe shops start to multiply to meet demand. When demand starts to dry up, the shoe shops start making shoes that don't fit or pinch uncomfortably or fall apart very quickly, so that everyone has to keep buying more shoes. Eventually, no shops other than shoe shops can survive, the economy collapses and any survivors eventually evolve into birds and never set foot on the ground again. It's implied that this is the way Oxford Street is going (and if it was bad back then, in 1980, imagine how far along we must be now!). The whole thing is completely brilliant and, apart from the birds bit, frighteningly plausible.
Lintilla the archaeologist is very unusual for a science fiction and fantasy archaeologist because, unlike Indiana Jones, various characters from The Mummy or Lara Croft, she is not trying to find treasure, nor is she looking for some kind of powerful, mystical or alien artefact. She's actually just trying to find out about history. She gets caught up in various adventures with Arthur over the course of a couple of episodes, before vanishing from the story all together with the end of Series 2 on the radio, and her status as a clone becomes vital to the plot, but in her actual job as an archaeologist, all she does is dig and learn about history. Her closest counterpart is probably River Song, who is similarly engaged in actual archaeology in 'Silence in the Library'/'The Forest of the Dead', though without the digging part. (I have a vague memory of Captain Picard doing some actual digging at some point as well, but haven't seen that episode in about 20 years, and can't remember which one it was!). Lintilla is a breath of fresh air for fictional archaeologists. In fact, her job is usually so dull, she has a 'crisis inducer' to help her pretend there's some kind of adventure in progress when, usually, there isn't.
It's rather nice to hear an archaeologist just doing their job in a science fiction setting, complete with digging and everything - and to this day I can't visit an archaeological dig without half expecting to find 'an entire archaeological layer of compressed shoes'... | <urn:uuid:1a58b190-5665-4a6e-a154-3bd53fa88574> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://popclassicsjg.blogspot.com/2010/12/hitchhikers-guide-to-galaxy-radio.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368696382584/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516092622-00035-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968189 | 868 | 1.523438 | 2 |
Before we jump into the fun facts, here's an extra fun fact that relates to me. Several years ago, I unearthed a child's baseball glove with Bobby Tolan's facsimile signature on it from our basement. I believe it belonged to one of my aunts, but by the time I found it the thing was much too small for my long monkey fingers. Such is life.
-A product of the University of California, native Louisianan Dowling was an All-Star with the Alaskan Goldpanners, a summer collegiate team. In 1963, he went 11-3 with team-records in ERA (0.85), complete games (seven) and strikeouts (217). He would be the first Goldpanner to reach the majors.
-21-year-old Dave earned a late promotion to St. Louis in his first pro season after winning 10 games between AA and AAA with a 3.53 ERA.
-The Cubs picked up the southpaw off of waivers in early 1965, and he went 24-15 at AA and AAA combined over the next two seasons.
-After two more years in the minors, Dowling hung up his spikes at the age of 25.
Fun facts about Bob Tolan:
-He debuted with St. Louis in 1965 at age 19 but never did play full-time in his four seasons there. He did appear in two World Series (1967-1968), though.
-The day after the 1968 Fall Classic, the Redbirds dealt Tolan to Cincinnati for fellow outfielder Vada Pinson. Bobby had a breakout year in the Queen's City, batting .305 with 104 runs, 26 steals, and career highs in triples (10), home runs (21) and RBI (93).
-He was even better in 1970, with a .316 average, 112 runs, 34 doubles, and a league-leading 57 steals. He interrupted Lou Brock's string of N.L. stolen base titles (1966-1969, 1971-1974). He carried his success into the postseason, hitting .417 in the NLCS sweep over the Pirates before running into the Orioles in the World Series.
-After missing all of 1971 with a ruptured Achilles tendon, Bobby was the N.L. Comeback Player of the Year the following season (.283, 42 SB, 82 RBI). He drove in six runs and swiped five bags in the Reds' World Series loss to Oakland.
-1973 saw Tolan struggle both on and off the field. He hit only .206 and feuded with team management. After disappearing for a couple games and bucking the rules by growing a beard, he was finally suspended in late September and subsequently traded to the Padres for pitcher Clay Kirby.
-He played the entire 1974 season without a contract, serving as a test case against the reserve clause. The players' union filed a greivance, but the Padres eventually reached an agreement with the outfielder on a two-year deal covering 1974-1975.
-After coming off of the bench for the Phillies, Pirates, and Padres, with a year spent in Japan as a Nankai Hawk in between, Tolan called it a career following the 1979 season. In parts of 13 major league seasons, he hit .265 with 86 homers, 497 RBI and 193 steals.
-Bobby coached for the Padres (1980-1983) and managed in their minor league system (1984-1985), as well as in the Orioles (1988-1989) and White Sox (2006) organizations. He also managed and played for the St. Petersburg Pelicans of the short-lived Senior Professional Baseball Association, batting .320 and leading them to the league's only championship in 1989.
-His son Robbie played in the Nationals organization in 2007, but was shot in the liver late the following year by a police officer in Bellaire, TX. There is an ongoing investigation as to whether the incident was racially motivated. | <urn:uuid:cddea113-d33e-4a46-93d7-ac734a14f6ff> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://1965topps.blogspot.com/2009/08/116-cardinals-rookie-stars-dave-dowling.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698207393/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095647-00002-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971957 | 809 | 1.515625 | 2 |
The Writing Center is a separate entity from the DLRC. Visit the Writing Center website for more information and helpful writing links.
Mission of the Concordia University Writing Center
The Concordia Writing Center promotes the University's mission of empowering students for a life of learning and service by providing an environment for developing and refining independent writing.
What is the Writing Center?
The Writing Center is a place where students of all disciplines and writing abilities can discuss their writing with a trained writing consultant. Using methods which promote dialogue and inquiry, and formats such as one-to-one and small group conferencing, we help you achieve greater independence and confidence in your writing.
How much does it cost?
The Writing Center is an academic support service of the University and is free to all Concordia students seeking to improve their writing skills.
What is the purpose of the Writing Center?
The purpose of the Writing Center is to help you become a better writer. Because that is our focus, we do not proofread or edit work. We do, however, help you to become a better proofreader and editor of your own work.
Do I need an appointment?
You can drop by the Writing Center in Theta Lounge without an appointment; however, we recommend you make an appointment ahead of time to insure that a consultant is available to work with you. Appointments can be made either by phone at (949) 854-8002 ext. 1502 from off campus, or extension 1502 from any on-campus phone. You can also stop by the Writing Center in person to set an appointment. Appointments are generally one half-hour in length, though full hour appointments are possible, based on availability.
What if I can't make my appointment?
If you need to cancel, please call at least one hour before your scheduled appointment to cancel and reschedule. This courtesy allows other students who want an appointment to fill your spot.
How do I prepare for a session?
To prepare for a session, please bring in the assignment, a paper, or an idea for a paper, and allow ample time after your appointment to rethink and revise your work before it is due. Have clear directions from your professor on what kind of paper you are writing and what documentation style, if any, is required. If these instructions are unclear to you, ask your professor. At times, you may need help getting started. That's fine. Just remember to bring in your assignment sheet, extra paper for writing notes and ideas, and a clear sense of what you want to work on. During your session, it will be important for you to talk! This is your opportunity to discuss your writing. Consultants provide feedback but will not do the thinking or writing for you!
What else does the Writing Center have?
You can come into the Writing Center at any time to browse our shelf and use our resources. Dictionaries, thesauruses, style and grammar sheets, writing handbooks, and handouts on various documentation styles are available for you.
Does the Writing Center have a website with more information and useful links to writing resources?
Yes! Visit us at www.cui.edu/studentlife/writing-center. | <urn:uuid:07b5384a-fdbb-45f4-9f21-c6ca076fda74> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.cui.edu/StudentLife/Disability-Learning-Resource-Center/index.aspx?id=19390 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368697380733/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516094300-00004-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941163 | 662 | 1.53125 | 2 |
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