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- The museum
- Calendar & Exhibitions
- Collection & Research
- Support Boijmans
In 2008, a new, internal depository for the drawings, prints and rare books was opened (in total around 70,000 objects).
The storage conditions for the other collection components in the current situation are far from ideal. In the period 2010-2015 - while waiting for a long-term solution in the form of a new depository - a number of the most urgent bottlenecks will be addressed. Other matters of concern can only be removed once a new depository has been built.
First of all, at the start of 2010, four of the nine in-house depositories were renovated, i.e., protected against water and fire. Before carrying out the renovation of the depositories, all the art works and objects had to be temporarily housed elsewhere. This took place in the Kunsthal, where from 6 February to 16 May the exhibition: “Inside out: Museum Boijmans van Beuningen visits the Kunsthal” was held. Before the more than 12,000 objects were transported to the Kunsthal, they were all checked and photographed. They were mainly paintings, sculptures and ceramics. The renovated depositories were completed in May. A large proportion of the works returned to the museum, but since the depositories were previously overflowing, the surplus works have been housed in temporary, external depositories that have been leased with this purpose in mind. In the coming months, the surplus objects in the other depositories will also be rehoused externally. In the coming years, external storage space will be rented annually. Parallel to this, work will continue on finalising the plans for the building of a new, external depository that will be ready in 2016. This is taking place in close collaboration with the Art and Culture Department of Rotterdam and with the Rotterdam Development Company.
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By KevinUK and Verity Jones
Zeke Hausfather’s first look at the new NCDC GHCN v3 beta dataset immediately plots some comparisons of V3 with V2 and shows just how little change (according to Zeke) the new dataset brings to the graph of Mean Global Land Surface Temperature Anomaly vs year. It’s therefore now time to have at this new GHCN dataset in some detail, even if it’s only ‘beta’ at this stage.
Station Inventory data
OK, I’ve now downloaded the NCDC GHCN V3 beta dataset and have started by looking at the data in the ‘unadjusted’ station inventory file ghcnm.v3.0.0-beta1.20100917.qcu.inv and have compared it to the GHCN V2 equivalent v2temperature.inv.It looks like Zeke has not done any basic station counts on this file as I make it that there are exactly 7280 records in both the V3 and v2 station inventory files which would appear to contradict Zeke’s statement ‘Version 3 added about 500 new stations (> 1000 post-2006), so no huge new data update quite yet’ as I can’t see any evidence that any new stations have been added to the station inventory file (unless some of those in V2 have been replaced by an exact same no. of new stations in V3 which doesn’t look to be the case).
I’ve also done a cross tabulation query of the no. of stations (records in the station inventory file) grouped by country/country code and again from what I can see each country has exactly the same no of stations (records) in the V3 station inventory file as in the V2 station inventory file. For example there are 1921 ‘UNITED STATES OF AMERICA’ stations in both files and 847 ‘CANADA’ stations in both files.
One thing I have also noticed is that for about 2/3 of the US (country code 425) stations, the WMO station code/imod combination (which represents a unique station record in the V2 station inventory file) appear to have been replaced with ‘Station IDs’ that are not in the 70,000 range (as they all are in the V2 file) but rather with ‘Station IDs’ that look like they’ve come from USHCN V2 dataset.
For now I’m therfore going to assume that the diferences between the no of stations by year chart for V2 versus V3 posted by Zeke on Lucia’s Blackboard are due to additions of further monthly average temperature data for EXISTING stations in the station inventory file and NOT due to additional stations being added to the GHCN dataset as Zeke’s statements seem to imply.
Now if you are reading this you’ve probably already worked out that I’m looking to compare the changes/additions made to the GHCN v3 beta dataset on an individual station basis as my main interest is in looking at how the changes/additions to the dataset have effected the warming/cooling trends for individual stations. I’m particularly interested to see whether or not NCDC have made any significant changes to how they adjust raw data for individual stations as a great many of the individual station V2 adjustments have no physically justifiable explanation IMO. Let’s see if things have remained much the same or for that matter have gotten even worse in this respect in going from V2 to v3. I somehow doubt that things have improved but lets wait and see.
I suspect it won’t be long now before Willis E has an updated thread on Darwin adjustments up on WUWT. You never know I might even be able to beat him to the punch.
I’ve also noticed that for most of the US stations the latitude/longitude coordinates in the V3 station inventory file use 5 decimal places for the lat/long values as opposed to the only 2 decimal used in the V2 file. sadly it still looks like the rest of the world (ROW) stations use only 2 decimal places for their lat/long values.
The Readme file also seems to indicate that they’ve done something quite different when it comes to quality control (new MFlag and QFlag) and handling duplicate series for the same station (new SFlag). But more of that in Part 2.
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FEBRUARY 15, 1944
WASHINGTON, Monday—To my readers who live in New York City, and incidentally to those who live in other cities where a like situation may exist, I should like to suggest that anyone who has a spare room in his house keep in touch with The Officers' Service Committee. In New York City, the office is in the Hotel Commodore, and there is a housing desk run by the committee, where rooms and apartments are procured for officers and their families. It is difficult for a woman to arrive in a big city, expecting to meet her husband, sometimes with a child or two, only to find that he has not yet arrived or that he has already sailed away.
Big cities are crowded these days. People with limited incomes cannot always afford hotel prices and I know that this particular service has been of great help to many men and to their families.
Of course, there are many other things that are done for the officers. They can procure lists of places of entertainment and theater tickets at half price. They can get information on many subjects and I am sure arrangements can be made for any particular thing they wish to do.
This housing service, however, has especially appealed to me. In New York City it is headed by Mrs. Herbert Carlebach, and I hear that her difficulties are very great at the present time. So if you have a spare room at any time, let her know, or put yourself on her list so she can call you and find out if you have any free space when she is looking for accommodations.
This is Negro History Week, from February 13th to February 20th inclusive. In Chicago, Negro history is being taught in the schools. It seems to me that this might well be done in some of our other big cities to give some background of knowledge about our largest minority group in this country.
On Saturday I went with the President to pay homage at the Lincoln Memorial, and we were reminded that this is the 11th year that the President has attended the ceremonies. The most colorful part is the sight of the waving flags coming down the steps, with the great statue of Lincoln sitting so calmly on its pedestal, looking down on the men who revere his memory, but who have not yet achieved the greatness for their country which was Lincoln's ideal.
In the afternoon I went to the Navy Yard with my husband. He spoke over the radio at the ceremonies attending the turning over of an American destroyer escort to the French. The ship's officers and men presented me with a lovely bouquet of red roses. Mrs. John Roosevelt and I went on board for a glance at the quarters.
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The EU? Over a guy regularly facing down death-threats, bullying, and intimidation from one of the worst dictators on earth? Boo to the Nobel Committee for missing this obvious choice.
If they can give the prize to the drone-warrior with a kill-list (Obama) and an institution run by wealthy, comfortable lawyers, bankers, and white collar professionals, then surely they can give it to someone who every day is making a far more direct, personal, bodily commitment to peace and social change. In fact, why Tsvangirai hasn’t won yet is beyond me. It seems so obvious. (Yes, his personal life is somewhat chaotic, but I don’t think that is normally a consideration. Kissinger called himself a ‘swinger.’)
Here is a good profile from the BBC. Note how badly he got beaten up by the thugs of President Robert Mugabe in 2007. He’s be charged with treason multiple times, and his party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has been harassed from the beginning. That is commitment, far more than endless EU meetings about some treaty no one will read.
It is sometimes said that the committee gives the prize either as a recognition for services already completed (Kim Dae Jung, Mohammed Yunus) or to encourage those in a position to deliver real change to stay the course (Obama, Arafat). I think the EU decision this year falls in the latter category. The problem with that though, is how speculative it is. I don’t think anyone believes anymore that Obama deserved that award given the drone war.
And giving it to the EU was more a way to tell the EU not to fall apart, rather than reward it. It’s obvious the EU is struggling, and it looks like the Committee wanted to encourage it to hang on and muddle through. The Economist makes the obvious point that NATO probably contributed more the European peace than the EU. And of course, Norway, the seat of the peace prize, isn’t even in the EU, having rejected it twice – making the choice even more bizarre.
But giving it to Tsvangirai would have been so much more useful. Zimbabwe is a lot closer to civil war and disorder than the EU. There’s (supposed to be) an election next year. A Nobel for Tsvangirai/the MDC might have helped with that; anything that eases Mugabe out of power in bloodless transition would be a great help. The possibility of bloodshed, even civil war, is real. The international seal of approval a Nobel would give to Tsvangirai might have helped restrain the likely thuggery and better establish the MDC as a legitimate political opposition, not traitors.
Terrible choice. Big missed opportunity.
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“A Handy Tip for the Easily Distracted”:
Filmmaker Miranda July, who apparently suffers from the distractibility that led you and me both to this film (she once had a real problem resisting the PennySaver), fashioned this short instructional film from a scene she cut from her feature The Future, in which she plays the under-employed dancer who is shown here burying her distractions. Alas, this won’t work if your main distraction, your laptop, is also your main work tool. But that’s why they make Freedom.
Miranda July’s very cool website.
Her instructional talk On Strangers (the vid at the top of the page), which is both talk and experiment.
Ayan Halliday’s ” ” “.
How Petulant Skeptic, in the interest of procrastination, de-programs his self-control. Literally.
Again: Freedom, so you can end the distraction.
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The children's charity has teamed up with Dulux in a bid to raise £16.77m
What is it?
The paint brand Dulux has partnered with Unicef, which works to protect the rights of children and young people, to give the public the chance to ‘own’ a colour for a minimum donation of £1. Members of the public can buy a colour from a selection of 16.77 million – the number the average computer, smartphone and tablet can display – on a dedicated website. The campaign will keep running until the total of £16.77m - a figure chosen to match the number of colours - is reached.
What do participants do with the colour?
People who purchase a colour are able to rename it and have it displayed on the microsite. Celebrities who already 'Own A Colour' include Jemima Khan (CFC Blue), Duncan Bannatyne (Scottish Saltire Blue) and Sir Roger Moore (Swedish Blue). Everyone will then have the option to tell their friends and family about their purchase through Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels.
How is the campaign being promoted?
The charity is highlighting the campaign on its own website, Facebook page and Twitter feed. The hashtags #dulux (UK) and #ownacolour were both trending on Twitter the day the campaign launched (29 September).
Who’s behind the campaign?
Dulux and Unicef both thought of the campaign, while the website was built by Feed London and the PR is being handled by Mischief PR.
Third Sector verdict:
Raising £16.77m is a bold target for a fundraising campaign. However, the number will also work in the campaign's favour by suggesting that anyone can get involved and participate. The £1 donation is a low amount and will encourage more people to take part. Getting celebrities on board at the start will also help drive participation in the campaign.
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Now that winter is winding down and spring is not far off, just about everything concerning fishing and hunting is changing.
Ice fishing soon will give way to open-water fishing. Hunters soon will start thinking about spring gobbler hunting and forget about the late small-game seasons and coyote hunting.
Ice fishing typically is best either through early ice or through late ice. In both cases, anglers must contend with questionable ice conditions. Ice fishing has been borderline in one way or another all through this winter at Presque Isle Bay. Only for a short time were anglers on the main body of the bay, and then only at the head of the bay and on ice that could hardly be termed safe.
Now the only ice fishing at Presque Isle Bay is at Misery Bay, where some very nice perch have been caught through the past week.
But getting to those perch requires getting over very poor ice along the shoreline. Even if you can get out onto thicker ice, there is a distinct chance that getting back on shore might be much more difficult, if not impossible, without getting wet. This might be a relatively minor problem if the only part of the body getting wet were the feet. But just a few more feet of bad ice might mean going into water over your head.
Speaking with Al Nacopoulos, owner of BAC Bait and Tackle, for the fishing report last week, he said, "It's not worth it."
And that is coming from a man whose store makes little money if people don't go fishing.
Elsewhere, I heard that chances of catching big perch at Misery Bay improve as the ice fisher gets closer to open water. That, my friends, is crazy. If a person breaks through the ice in this situation, the odds are high that death will follow. For what? A few perch?
Ice might be better at other places, but in any case, keep in mind that when days start to get warm the ice is melting.
Since crappie fishing at Presque Isle Bay was good virtually all through summer, I figured that ice fishing for crappie would be very good.
Typically, crappie fishing gets slow during summer. Good summertime fishing generally is an indication of a very good crappie population.
But it didn't happen.
I was reminded that there was no ice on the parts of the bay where crappie fishing usually is good, so maybe the poor winter crappie fishing meant nothing.
Odds are very good that once boats get onto the bay, fishing for crappie will be good. That also should be the case with perch. It will not be long before the boat launches and routes to the usual spring fishing hot spots will be free of ice.
Crappie fishing at Pymatuning Lake came to a virtual halt last fall because the water level was too low to launch boats at the north end of the lake. Then, during winter, ice conditions were not good. There, we also can anticipate good crappie fishing once we can get boats on the water.
Other good news at Pymatuning involves walleye.
Long known as one of the better walleye lakes in the country, walleye fishing has been disappointing for a few years. Indications point to improved walleye fishing this year. Unlike most Pennsylvania lakes, walleye fishing is allowed all year at Pymatuning, so that might happen soon.
Some confusion exists about what is and what is not allowed concerning fishing for trout in area lakes and ponds.
There have been changes in regulations, and whenever this happens confusion follows. A phone call to region headquarters revealed that all answers to such questions can be found in the regulations summary or on the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission's website.
Specified waters are designated as Approved Trout Waters Open to Year-Round Fishing. These waters are open to fishing from March 1 to the opening day of regular trout season. However, trout may not be taken or possessed during this period. Local lakes with this designation are East Basin Pond, West Basin Pond, Lake Pleasant, Upper Gravel Pit, Tionesta Creek from the Tionesta Dam outflow to the mouth, Two Mile Run Reservoir and Chapman Dam Reservoir.
Several others area waters are open to year-round trout fishing under other special regulations. A 1.4-mile section of Caldwell Creek, in Warren County, is designated as Catch and Release Fly Fishing Only. A 3.6-mile section of West Branch Caldwell Creek is designated as Catch and Release. A 1.7-mile section of East Hickory Creek in Forest County, and two sections, one 1.6 miles and the other 1 mile, of Oil Creek are designated as Delayed Harvest Artificial Lures Only. Creel regulations may differ.
The Allegheny River, for 8.75 miles from the Kinzua Dam to the mouth of Conewango Creek, is listed under Miscellaneous Special Regulations. Trout fishing is allowed year-round, but from Sept. 3 to 3 a.m. on the opening day of the trout season of the following year no trout may be killed or had in possession.
MIKE BLEECH can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. Read more of his columns at nwpaoutdoors.com.
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PITTSBURGH Bottled water is being produced again at the former LeNature’s plant in Latrobe, Pa., thanks in part to Giant Eagle—and the new owners expect to add flavored water, iced teas and even soft drinks.
Currently the plant is producing Giant Eagle-labeled “Purified Water,” which is being shipped to area Giant Eagle stores. The plant plans to produce other bottled drinks for Giant Eagle, which comprises ready-made market of 158 corporate, 65 franchises and 138 convenience stores in the Pittsburgh region, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland and owns 1 percent of the operation, before branching out to outside customers.
The beverage plant had closed in November 2006, when LeNature’s was forced into bankruptcy. Giant Eagle bought the plant and its state-of-the-art bottling equipment for $22.3 million in September in a bankruptcy court auction, having outbid Cadbury Schweppes. Manufacturing its own products is a new direction for Giant Eagle, the region’s dominant grocer, moving from a competitive business to a more competitive field.
The 300,000-square-foot plant will make flavored waters by the end of the month, iced tea brewed from tea leaves in mid-February and carbonated soft drinks in March, according to Charley Price, company president. The company has not decided yet which flavors it will produce, Price said.
To bring the plant into full production, the company expects to spend about $4 million for clean-up, repairing and recommissioning the equipment, plus adding a line for soft drinks, Price said. He believes that, with the equipment on hand, running 24 hours per day, seven days a week, the plant could make nine million bottles of beverages per year.
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Feyerabend, if I remember, more-or-less equates science with voodoo or astrology, in the rationality stakes.
Did he make any serious attempt to explain of why science has been rather more successful- assuming he'd agree that it is? I can't remember :)
if in fact we have an undersupply of scientists, we ought see the wages paid to them rise, until it becomes an attractive career, and then the supply will increase until equilibrium is reached. Is there a reason this process shouldn’t occur?
The labour market doesn't seem to work that way for fruitpicking or nursing for example, in the real world rather than a Chicago textbook.
Oh bugger off Sacha, I am not a Chicago economist, & have spent the last few posts making reference to factual evidence so am hardly going to start fretting about lack of real worldliness.
The problem of making students think about the financial outcomes of their education affects ALL student numbers in the impecunious subjects. I actually care about ALL people, rather than just brilliant people, who I think have considerably less need than most people to be given extra advantages. We already give them far, far more help than other people. This is not tall poppy syndrome, it’s my sense of fairness and social responsibility.
Well put Ben, the student loan and allowance scheme only holds so much sway in terms of career guidance. With student loans, Governments are investing primarily in aspiration – risky stuff.
My gripe (in keeping with the current draft bill targeted loan sharks and fringe lenders.) is the lack of guardian consent required by the lender soliciting minors:
205 Loan contract enforceable against minor
A loan contract entered into by a borrower (whether before or after the commencement of this section) who is under 18 years of age must be treated, for the purposes of the Minors’ Contracts Act 1969, as if the borrower were aged 18 years.
Nothing personal intended. I was saying the real world doesn't function like 'free' market economic theory suggests. Would be great if supply and demand actually worked.
Yeah, I don't have a heartfelt view. It seems quite possible that every different science could have a different method, that there really is no unifying theory. It also probably doesn't matter at all.
Okay, I've worked out why this thread is getting to me: I'm getting the feeling of a couple of familiar internet arguments, the ones that go "I don't work in your field, but I can tell you all about how it works" and "Because you don't have the blueprints and cost analysis, your solution is invalid". And those being arguments that raise my blood pressure in a way quite unsuitable for my age, I'm done.
I’m in broad agreement with Lucy here.
If you accept that Kitcher’s view of science is somewhere near correct, then two things follow:
(i) people who are able to “think differently” enough to identify previously unrecognised false assumptions are able to act as catalysts, speeding up (unfortunately, to an unpredictable, so before-the-fact-unquantifiable, extent!) the discovery process, and possibly enabling an entirely different, more efficient, route to that discovery than could be obtained through brute-force computation;
(ii) anyone who does not understand this much about the scientific method should not be allowed anywhere near the decision-making process for how science gets funded. There isn’t, and can’t be, any guaranteed minimum return on investment, at least not in the short term. (Which would exclude most of yer stereotypical bean-counters.) Yet, in the medium-to-long-term, we can be pretty confident that R&D will pay off – somehow – even if not necessarily in the direction that was envisaged when the project was funded.
Which is not to say that there is no role for management or funding decisions. There are a few questions that could validly be asked of any research proposal, e.g.:
(i) how important are the questions being asked? (...& yes, that's going to be subjective, and will depend on how much money is made available...)
(ii) what is the likelihood of the proposed method being able to answer those questions?
I for one fully appreciate the detail you've gone into over the past few days Lucy, I've learnt tons.
“How good is it? Is it really worth the cost?”
Both I and Lucy have answered that to the best of our ability. You dismiss our examples as pointless anecdotes and then are offended when I object to you dismissing the examples. What I have described is my personal experience and my understanding of the history of science. I honestly can't do more than that Ben.
You can’t even measure when you’ve got it, nor what it was worth.
Yes we can and by we I mean my fellow scientists. Obviously I can't provide a measure that satisfies you but it should have some effect on you that within the science community not only do we honour and reward those brilliant people when we recognise them. We also express profound regret when it becomes apparent we have failed to recognise their brilliance in their lifetime.
The science community don't have an SI unit for brilliance but that does not mean we don't recognise it and value it. You might stop and ask yourself why we would do that if it had no value.
More likely, you’d be one of the people writing something back to her from the journal saying her ideas are too whack to publish, because you don’t get them, being a self-confessed B grade.
I know you're just trying to be insulting here but I'll treat this seriously because it is very serious. One of the hardest parts about attracting and keeping world class talent is our funding system. You are quite right in that it is very hard to review a brilliant proposal. Sometimes it is beyond your understanding. But even average talents can provide useful reviews if they are aware of their limitations. But we actually don't need to rely on folks like me because we can call on international reviewers to help us decide - and we do - for The Marsden grants.
The real problem comes when you abandon the resource of the international reviewer community. At that point you end up with accountants deciding which grants should get funded and their record of identifying and supporting brilliance is not good.
But ultimately it is the overall lack of funding that is crippling. But we don't have funding because people argue incessantly that we don't actually need talent so the fact that we can't keep talent is of no great import. That is why I'm grumpy about your position Ben, you argue that mediocrity is enough for NZ, you argue that the brilliant don't offer enough to make it worthwhile chasing after them or don't offer enough in a currency that you find acceptable to measure.
If you were right the NZ science scene would be performing at international level. There aren't many in NZ who would argue that to be true.
The science community don’t have an SI unit for brilliance
and lux is not merely the plural of luck .
The contribution of brilliant individuals to research quality is something that can be observed – unlike, say, the supposed value added by CEO performance, which is vastly better remunerated!
and lux is not merely the plural of luck
We've been shooting the breeze online about about Nikolai Tesla.
It strikes me that he's precisely the kind of brilliant individual who achieves what a building full of common-or-garden smart people could not.
Anyway, it's a great read:
Oddly enough, it leaves out the breakthrough I learned about recently -- the one that led to the MRI scanner.
Made my day.
about Nikolai Tesla
The Handsome Family - Tesla's Hotel Room:
Anyway, it’s a great read:
The Oatmeal on Tesla.
Particularly liked "douchebuffalo"
A good example of what happens when too many people stand on your shoulders.
You get squashed.
The treatment Tesla got in his lifetime was symptomatic of the anti-intellectualism of his day, which still lingers to a large degree. The current orthodoxy seems to be anti-intellectualism for fun and profit.
And Tim Hazeldine of the UoA biz school makes the case for quality over quantity at NZ’s universities. My 2c in that article (still in moderation) was basically that when proposals were floated to raise the entry bar for glutted courses like some law and commerce papers, there was a predictable reaction from the bums-on-seats brigade, not least of all a management school professor.
In Oz those who clear the entry bar pay reduced fees; those who don’t can still get in if they pay 100% of the fees. In NZ, international students have made up the vast majority of the latter, as not many NZers could afford to do so.
When we say bums-on-seats brigade, we mean ``people who quote evidence'' right? And Tim Hazeldine talks a lot of self-serving bullshit about national champion status, which plays precisely onto his hands as a lecturer at UoA, and gets a lot of praise.
Look. the thing is, I don't give a fuck about how important what ever the flavour of the month is. All I know is that there are a lot of people spinning self-serving stories about how their disciple ought get a fuck load more cash. Almost none of those stories ever resort to such show-off stuff as wage figures, or unemployment data. Instead, you get this absurd world where actual subsidy figures are ignored (see above) and the numbers that make people feel good are repeated over and over again.
Fundamentally, this is nonsense.
The science community don’t have an SI unit for brilliance
Now that, surprises me because it is all about measurement, no?
It reminds me why I found “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance” so annoying. It goes on about the qualities of the word quality without accepting that quality is nothing in itself but a measure against known qualities in order to render them as subjective and quantitative metaphors for acceptable truth as most people cant handle truth in a less than abstract context.
(W.Coyote, R. Runner, et al)_
If someone has the pre-requisites to take and pass a course, don't they have a right to take it?
In UK they have an artificial 'points' system where universities are ranked by the grades of the students they attract, and the higher ranked ones are assumed to be 'better'. (Often, they have been shown not to have better teaching or course content). It's a means to perpetuate social division (given that good grades correlate to being able to afford to go to schools with effective exam-focused teaching).
I hope we don't go down that track.
In UK they have an artificial ‘points’ system where universities are ranked by the grades of the students they attract, and the higher ranked ones are assumed to be ‘better’. (Often, they have been shown not to have better teaching or course content). It’s a means to perpetuate social division (given that good grades correlate to being able to afford to go to schools with effective exam-focused teaching).
Indeed. What I forgot to mention is that raising the minimum entry grade is too scattershot a solution and comes across as elitist – there have been many cases of school duxes dropping out, and very average students making it to Masters level. But an exception could be made if there are shortages and gluts of graduates in certain areas.
And further on the Aussie system, it’s well-funded but it merely replaces elitist rationing with fiscal discrimination.
Tim Hazeldine talks a lot of self-serving bullshit about national champion status, which plays precisely onto his hands as a lecturer at UoA
Maybe it does, but because it's Tim Hazeldine (who I rate highly as a lecturer) saying it I'm not prepared to just dismiss it as more of the same. He's consistently left-wing in his outlook (read other of his contributions in the Herald, or his quoted comments in articles), and if he thinks this is actually what's needed to improve the quality of tertiary education in this country then it's a pretty stark, if veiled, statement that the "the market will provide" philosophy currently in action is not delivering what's required for us to make the transition away from being a bunch of cockies exporting milk and trees.
Tim Hazeldine, Brian Easton, Rod Oram and Ganesh Nana are the kind of people we need at Treasury, the Reserve Bank and MED right now, instead of the IMF/World Bank finishing school currently in place.
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Gamification has become the digital industry buzz word of 2012, and as this year draws to a close we take a look at the recent developments in this area and what’s in store for 2013.
Gamification has been ranked at number 4 in the Top Digital Marketing trends of 2012, however according to Gamification Co , the phenomenon has seen a slight dip in its popularity due to over inflation from hype and expectations. Due this over inflation and hype many people think that simply adding game elements to something will automatically increase brand engagement and brand loyalty for the end user. However this is not the case and to ensure that Gamification doesn’t lose its mass appeal and popularity in 2013 developers need to take on board certain points . To read more about these points visit http://bit.ly/ZfQ1aS
Despite this slight dip in popularity Gamification is being adopted by a number of industries that you wouldn’t normally associate games with, for example health and fashion. Matmi have been one of the largest supporters for what gamified products can do for brands and other walks of life. To take one example, in healthcare Gamification can aid the administration of medication and even encourage people to exercise and eat healthily.
We are currently working on a project for one of the largest universities in the country developing an education platform incorporating many aspects of the gamification theory. Using games in education to aid learning is nothing new. It is well documented that they can help children develop a positive attitude towards learning and improve attention spans. Matmi are transferring these benefits into the digital space allowing both educator, parent and pupil to be involved in not only the learning process but also track the pupils progress. E-learning software has a long way to come to truly meet its potential and Matmi hope to start to take it to the next level (*ding* 10 points).
As for the future, research suggests that by 2015 50% of organizations will gamify their innovation processes, it has also been suggested that Gamification will become an integrated part of businesses rather than a separate entity. It will impact almost every industry and every consumer segment that exists today. Mobile platform Gamification is expected to increase 90% by 2017 with the whole Gamification market being worth $3.6 billion in total. Perhaps because of this research has shown that demand for employees with Gamification skills and knowledge has shot up by 293% from 2011. In 2012 a number of major brands integrated Gamification into their marketing strategies including MTV, Nike and Expedia.
Gamification may have seen a dip in popularity recently but we can safely say that it will continue to be a key area to consider for those in the digital industry in 2013.
PHONE: 01625 560771
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The grandparent can be notoriously tricky customer when it comes to educating, particularly when that education is a lesson in technology, but, because you're a good person and this is the Good Christmas, you're going to give it a shot by giving them the gift of VoIP.
Now, obviously there are many kinds of grandparent from the younger end right up to the great grandparent. Within that there's also going to be big differences in technical ability and experience from the hardcore silver surfer to the absolute novice. What this is, is a guide for the lowest common denominator. This is how to teach your grandparent who knows nothing about computers how to use Skype, and it's not going to be easy.
The trouble is that the technophobe grandparent can be a highly conflicted creature. On the one hand, they would like their lives to be enriched and they would also, deep down, like to learn and experience new things. At the same time though, they do not wish to be humiliated and they'll get wound up if they start becoming acutely aware of the fact that their brain power is a touch rustier than it once was. Push them into that corner and you’ll find that they give up quickly with statements about not being bothered or it being a waste of time or saying thing like they’re too old or such. Softly, softly is the approach but don’t talk to them like children - only as children of technology.
Do they want to learn?
Your first job before you bother with any of this is to find out whether your grandparent actually wants to use Skype. It's an important consideration and it's no use forcing it on them otherwise they'll bail on the lesson at the first opportunity
They'll probably be aware of the idea of video calling on the Internet but, if not, explain that it's possible, that you can do it to anywhere in the world and, most of all, that it's free. Remove the notion that they could accidentally wrack up three digit phone bills and you'll torn down a chunk of one of the most important barriers in this process - fear.
1. No acronyms. Start using terms like VoIP and they’ll be brushing you off before you’ve even opened a laptop.
2. No external webcams. Make them connect any hardware or do anything more complicated in the set up beyond pressing the on button and it’ll never happen; or, worse still, you’ll end up getting IT support calls at work for the next three months with verbal descriptions and instructions that’ll misunderstood by both parties. Internal devices only.
3. No jargon. Come to think of it, don’t even refer to the thing as a webcam. At worst, it’s a camera; at best, maybe don’t even mention it at all. As for megapixels and Facebook integration, just don’t even think about it.
4. Keep it simple. Humanise the whole process. No need to explain in full details what’s going on when sometimes the idea of things happening by magic might be easier to swallow rather bombarding with fact.
5. Be prepared to fail. Ultimately, this isn’t a guide on how to annoy your grandparents. There’s a very good chance that you’re not going to succeed with this, so let it go if it doesn’t work. There’s no point in getting anyone unduly upset. Give in when they decide that they’ve had enough.
6. Write it down. It’s no good asking people to remember a whole process after telling them once. Make step by step notes for them which they can consult any time they wish. If you can include pictures and screenshots, then so much the better.
A great deal of the stress and complication of this task can be eradicated by some solid prep work done days before you even attempt to teach your grandparent how to use Skype. This is what you’ll need to do.
a. Set up a computer
Now, there’s an excellent chance that your grandparent does not own a computer and possibly has never used one either. This is going to be the hardest part to get around and, again, it's mostly a question of fear.
Do not attempt to set up a new computer with your grandparent next to you. They will lose interest long before you get to Skype. The best thing to do is find an old but not knackered machine for them to keep. A netbook with a reasonable webcam would probably be ideal.
Whatever you choose, strip it down. Clear the storage, remove most of the software and take as many icons off the desktop as possible. Try to keep it down to Skype, Office and your choice of browser. All extraneous manufacturer on-screen docks and tool bars should be deleted. The only decision we’ll leave to you is whether you want to include anti-virus or not. You’ll probably get away without it given that they won’t be using the Internet at large or e-mailing just yet but it’s your call. Do you think they can handle Avast telling them that it’s updated itself or Norton asking for permission to scan?
b. Set up Skype
Much of the hard work can be done before you sit down with your grandparent. What we’re aiming for is open and call usability by the time you’re showing them how it’s done.
The first thing that your grandparent will need is a Skype account. Set that up beforehand. If you start up the program together to find that they already have an amusing name like Granny Lint complete with amusing profile pic, then you might even get a giggle and, remember, giggles buy you more attention span, and more attention span is what you'll need to complete this task successfully.
Tick the box on the front end of Skype to automatically sign in the moment they open the program and you can even set it to start up as soon as the computer logs on as well, all in the same place at the sign in screen.
Your next move is to make sure that the Skype window is maximised. If you leave it like that when you close it, it’ll be the same way every time they open the program. Naturally, they will hit the wrong button at some point up in that top right corner but the good thing about Skype is that minimising and closing basically do the same thing. There’s no need to explain how to shut down Skype at any point.
c. Populate their contacts list
Again, something which can be done on your own time is adding a list of contacts to their account. Get all the family added, making sure that they accept the requests at the other end. That way, you can tell your grandparent that if anyone tries to befriend them on Skype, that they can just ignore the request. You don’t have to demonstrate how that’s done. Just write that tip down and they’ll know what to do at the time. Ultimately, that will either work out as pressing the “Ignore” button or literally just ignoring it. What they won’t do is click "Accept" and that’s what counts.
d. Check the settings
Have a quick play with their Skype account. No need to add many profile details - just a picture if you like - but do head into "Options" under "Tools". Check that the call, video and microphone settings work. Don’t bother with a headset. Keep to what’s built into the laptop, and check the audio settings are at a decent volume level.
Then head to the "Privacy" area and make sure that no one other than known contacts can call, video call or IM your grandparent’s account. Test it all out again from boot, make a test call to check and you should be done.
Step 1: Picking the right time
It might be obvious but don’t underestimate the first step. Don’t explain all about Skype when it suits you, pick a time when it suits your grandparent. They’re probably at their most willing to listen in the mid-morning. There’s no good telly on that they’re going to miss and you’re unlikely to clash with The Archers either. The other advantage is that they’re less likely to be tired at this point in the day and probably more willing to give things a go. So, perhaps check with them first, then brew some tea for the pair of you and even bring in a plate of sliced up Mars bars to keep everyone’s blood sugar nice and high.
Step 2: Powering up
It’s tempting to start explaining all sorts about Windows or Mac OS when it pops up on the screen but don’t. You’ll only be eating through some of that precious attention span and probably wiping out how much in total you’ll get anyway by adding some confusion here and there. Effectively, you’ll be burning the candle at both ends. Avoid this. Stick to the plan and say that you’ll be happy to field any of their non-Skype related questions after the main task. They’ll appreciate the structure.
There are three things you need to teach your grandparent to do. The first is press the on button. Make sure that they take note of the positioning and get them to press it themself. It’s a practical lesson not a demonstration. You’ll have plenty of time to play with your own computer later.
It’s probably worth mentioning that booting up will take a while. Obviously don’t use the work “booting”. It might be best to tell them to wait 60 seconds or so before returning to the machine to make sure that everything has loaded that needs to. We don’t want hour glasses and spinning wheels to start confusing the issue.
What you need to do now is teach them to use the mouse. Sounds silly and obvious but they might not have done this before. Whether you choose to go with a trackpad or a dedicated mouse is your choice. They both have their relative advantages and disadvantages. Whichever you choose, tell them to ignore right click button.
Now, being curious creatures, they're going to ignore anyway, so do show them what happens when you right click and how to get out of it when a little menu pops up. Beyond that, just work on moving the cursor around and left clicking on things here are there. If you want, you don’t even have to bother with double-clicking. If you pin the Skype program to the Taskbar on Windows 7, then it’s a simple one click operation to fire it up. Otherwise, create a desktop icon.
Step 3: Making a call
Ok. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. First up, you need to explain the difference between the status icons. They’re not going to like this. It makes things seem more confusing that they first thought it would have to be, but don’t be perturbed. It won’t take long. Just remember not to actually use the words "status icons". They might think you're talking about a luxury yacht or something.
Click on the drop down by the green tick next to their name in the top left and show how you can change between Away, Busy and Do Not Disturb. It’s also worth pointing out what Offline looks like but no need to worry about Invisible. They’ll ask but fob them off until you decide to come back for advanced lessons. The idea of the status changes isn’t so much to teach your grandparent how to change their own but more to recognise what they’re contacts are doing and why they might not be able to reach them at any given moment.
Now that that’s all sorted, it’s time to make a call. Again, it’s probably best to avoid double-clicking. Instead, get them to click once on the person they’re after in the left pane to make sure they’re highlighted and then click “Video Call” in the main panel. It actually doesn’t matter whether they go with Call or Video Call but pick one and stick to it. Your grandparent can easily start or stop a video once a call is in-progress. Make sure to show them how to do that.
Make your first call together to a family member that you know will be there and, if you’ve reached this point, give yourself a pat on the back. The real reward is about to come as soon as your grandparent gets to enjoy a live face to face conversation. Cue delight.
Once you’ve both had a good chinwag, show them how to hit the red phone icon to hang up. The one next to the person’s name on the contacts panel on the left is probably the easiest place to do it.
Now that your grandparent has the hang of things, log into Skype on your smartphone and get them to call you. Make sure that you sit round the corner, far enough away not to end up in a horrible feedback loop. Give that a whirl a few times. Get them to call you and try calling them back to make sure that they can answer and, if they’ve got that down, then they’re basically there.
Step 4: Changing the volume
The only other thing you'll have to show you grandparent how to do in-call is to change the volume. The message here is not to bother mucking around with the in-app volume control. It's faff compared to using the master volume slider attached to the Taskbar on the bottom right of Windows and at the top on a Mac.
Make sure that the icon is always visible and get your grandparent to mess about with it and see what kind of difference it makes. Also be sure to show what it looks like when it's in mute. It's bound to happen some day by accident and they'll need to know what to do when it does.
Step 5: IM
Calling is, of course, only half of the equation of Skype but, in actuality, it’s probably 90 per cent of what your grandparent wants to use it for. All the same, it’s worth showing them how IM works because it’s going to happen at some point.
Again, you’re going to want to approach this by selecting the relevant contact in the left panel and then by clicking and starting to write in the field on the bottom right. Have a play back and forth first with a remote family member and then a few times with your smartphone. You can leave the likes of emoticons and sharing files for another day.
Step 6: IT Support
You’ll be able to accomplish just about anything else in terms of developing your grandparent’s Skype usage remotely from now on. After all, they’ll be able to video call and IM you for further help and information. The only missing tool is screen sharing and that’s something you’ll be able to instruct them how to do once they need help. Remember that to get it to work, you need to be on a call with them. Then get them to go to the "Call" menu and then to the bottom of that where it says "Share Your Screen".
If you've made it this far, then well done you. You've just enriched someone's life and that's the best thing you can do for anybody. And all it cost you was some time and a little patience. From here on in, the world is your grandparent's oyster. See how they get on with the basics, add in a few extras as time goes by and maybe it'll be time to start on browsing the web at large next year.
Find out more on how to have a Good Christmas with Pocket-lint
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Mali 'hesitant' over UN peacekeeping force
The government of Mali is "hesitant" over the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force, a senior UN official has said.
"We do not have a clear green light from the government of Mali yet for a peacekeeping operation,'' said Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson.
However, he said other countries were increasingly in favour of that option.
Thousands of troops from France and African nations have been sent to Mali to oust Islamist militants.
They have recaptured the major towns in northern Mali, which had been under Islamist control since April 2012.
Most of the urban areas were taken without a fight, with the militants said to have fled into mountainous areas of the Sahara Desert near the Algerian border.
But on Sunday, there was four hours of fighting in the region's biggest town, Gao.
The town is now said to be calm but the BBC's Thomas Fessy in Gao says there are fears some fighters could be hiding among the population.
For all the enormous challenges still facing Mali, it is perhaps worth clinging on to some of the optimism that seems to have flooded through the country over the past month. ”
The city's main market remained closed on Monday, following the violence.
Two checkpoints in Gao were hit by suicide bomb attacks on Friday and Saturday.
The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao) has claimed responsibility for the weekend's violence.
On Saturday, Mujao spokesman Abou Walid Sahraoui said: "We are dedicating ourselves to carrying out more attacks against France and its allies."
Mr Eliasson said UN peacekeepers would only be deployed after the "combat phase" of the operation was over.
Despite Mali's "hesitation", he said he thought "the trend is very much in the direction that we should move into that [peacekeeping] phase".
After sending some 4,000 soldiers to Mali, France has said it wants to start withdrawing them in March.
Several thousand troops from Mali's neighbours, including Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Togo and Senegal have already been sent to Mali to retain control of the retaken northern towns and also to take care of security in the south.
If the UN Security Council agreed to deploy a force, these troops would form the bulk of it.
Mali's army is in disarray after staging a coup in March 2012.
An alliance of Tuareg separatist and Islamist rebel groups took advantage to extend their control over the whole of northern Mali - an area larger than France.
Send your pictures and videos to [email protected] or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.
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When Twitter was born, it was used almost exclusively to broadcast people's frivolous thoughts and opinions and updates from their time at the training centre in Mississauga. Gradually, however, businesses came to realize that a site with so many millions of followers could be used to promote their business and get the word out about their products and services. Thus business tweets were born. Read on to learn more about how you can used Twitter to help your business grow.
Using Twitter as a business is easy, easier even than setting up a Facebook page for your business and much easier than making a website of your own. It's a free service, so all you have to do is sign up, make a profile that contains information about the kind of things Avaya does, and start writing posts. Then users who are interested in what you have to say can "follow" you, which means that they are automatically sent your updates without them having to check your page.
There are millions of users on Twitter who post their own updates and "follow" others' pages. If you can get them interested in your service or product, you can have thousands of people read the messages you post about being a dentist. Ajax based businesses may only have a few hundred followers but some of the bigger businesses have millions of subscribers. And unlike other forms of advertising, you can easily see who is reading your updates and get feedback from them about your posts.
The trick, of course, is getting them interested. The most popular types of Twitter feeds, the ones with the most followers, are not the ones that promote natural gas ETFs or advertise products, but the ones that deal with people's personal lives. Therefore if you want to get people interested, you might consider posting about your life as a business owner or employee of the company and slipping your product news and information into your posts that way.
Twitter only allows you to post 140 characters at a time, which means it appeals most to the ADHD generation and will not allow you to go on in detail about the features your Oakville banquet halls offer. It will challenge you to be concise and force you to write in a way followers won't get bored with. If there's too much info for a tweet, you can always include a link to a product page or website that explains the rest.
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About this blog
The Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival from the interns' point of view
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Blog posting by Kimberly Capehart, Documentary Studies and Production ’16, FLEFF Blogger, Cherry Hill, New Jersey
Wake up. Get ready for the day. Walk down 4 flights of stairs. Walk past the library. Cut through Campus Center. Walk through the parking lot outside of Phillips Hall. Stop and get coffee at the Park cart. Go to class.
This is my daily routine just to get to class. In just 7 months, I’ve walked this route hundreds of times, and it’s safe to say that I could probably walk it with my eyes closed at this point (okay, maybe not with all the stairs).
How often do we get stuck in routines? How often do we neglect to let ourselves explore the environment we live in simply because we don’t need to?
In a world reduced to cell phones and computer screens, it’s more important now, than it has ever been, to break out of our shell of convenience and “comfortability” and actually explore the world that we live in. This is where Dérive app comes in.
The brainchild of Babak Fakhamzadeh, a web guru who is currently situated in Uganda, and Eduardo Cachucho, an architect living in Johannesburg, Dérive app is a web-based application that allows users to “get lost in [their] own city,” states Fakhamzadeh.
The application presents users with a series of cards that dictate a certain action. These digital cards, which are accompanied by drawings, collages, and/or pictures generated by contributors, lead the user on an unpredictable, and purely random route throughout the city, or area, of his or her choosing.
“Follow something yellow”
“Find a fancy sports car”
“Stop for three minutes.”
The cards are simple to follow, yet interesting enough to allow for a full day exploration of a city.
“By using Dérive app, you are specifically avoiding places that everyone else is going to,” says Fakhamzadeh. It allows users to “explore the city merely for being there,” adds Cachucho, “it gets them out of their everyday experience of the city.”
In addition to tracking their dérives (the unofficial name for users’ explorations, which comes from the French verb “deriver” which means “to drift”) users also have the ability to add pictures and notes from their journey. It’s also “a tool to record that experience and share that experience with others,” notes Fakhamzadeh.
So get out there and dedicate a day to exploration. Break out of your routine and explore your surroundings! Find a new favorite place to eat, venture down some back streets, and get lost in your own city.
I’ll be doing a dérive in Philadelphia next week; where will you explore?
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Blog posting written by Shea Lynch, Documentary Production '13, FLEFF Blogger, Glens Falls, New York
Started dérives: 881
Public dérives: 740
Cards drawn: 7863
Distance recorded: 429.415 km
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Blog posting written by Shea Lynch Documentary Studies and Production ’13, FLEFF Blogger, Glens Falls, New York
Co-curator of the Distributed Microtopias Exhibition, Professor Dale Hudson has been working extensively with FLEFF since 2007, translating each season’s theme into a cohesive body of work. Partnered with Sharon Lin Tay, the duo has worked with artists from all over the world.
“In some ways, this year's exhibit responds to the techno-utopianism or cyber-utopianism of the the mid-1990s that imagined the internet as a democratic space where information and knowledge could be distributed equitably to everyone without being utterly naive or indifferent to the built-in controls of these technologies and platforms,” said Hudson.
The Distributed Microtopias Exhibit is a learning and sharing experience for the artists and the curators. This season will be an unusual one as artist Rico Aditjondro selected Null_Sets, a collaborative piece with an Ithaca alum, Evan Meaney.
It is often challenging, said Hudson, tackling key concepts for each piece and presenting them in this “transcultural space.”
“Each piece in the exhibition can be experienced individually, but the exhibition works even better as a whole. Many of the pieces address similar concerns from different perspectives,” said Hudson.
Hudson also utilizes the Dérive app in exploring his own environmental spaces at the New York University of Abu Dhabi, where he teaches film and new media studies, and connecting it to the theme of FLEFF.
“Connected to FLEFF's theme, the Dérive app facilitates research into the mobilities of urban planning that shape our experience of everyday life. Many of the concepts behind the design of the city were derived from British colonial ideas of space transmitted through and refashioned by postcolonial Egyptian ideas of space,” said Hudson.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Blog posting written by Erica Moriarty, Documentary Studies and Production, ’16, FLEFF Intern, Houston, Texas
Some of the biggest exchanges of ideas between people happen at film festivals. FLEFF is no exception. In fact, the exchange is international, and the movement is colossal.
This year, FLEFF will bring in films and scholars from around the world. Fulbright Scholars from Africa, specializing in film and media as well as Kevin Lee from dGenerate films make up only a few of the international crowd coming to this year’s festival. However, the mobility of the Finger Lakes does not stop there.
There’s more than just an international movement of people. The partnership between FLEFF, the Derive App and EngageMedia make the festival move through cyberspace and into international territory in order to enhance the distribution of ideas.
During the week of April 7th, the Finger Lakes will become mobile in sharing people, ideas, objects and even environments. This year’s theme of Mobilities is more than just a motif; it describes what will actually transpire.
Are you ready to join FLEFF for the international movement?
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Blog posting written by Amber Thibault, Cinema and Photography '15, FLEFF Intern, Lewiston, Maine
What does the theme of mobilities mean to me?
That was the question that presented itself. As I was thinking about this year's theme, I started to think about FLEFF and all the hard work that goes into coordinating and funding such a globally significant event. Then I had an epiphany. FLEFF draws people from all our the world. It mobilizes people to come to Ithaca for one week, to share in the same experience, and then take that experience and spread it around the world. And our collaboration with this year's international partners, EngageMedia and Derive App, will only expand FLEFF's global influence even further.
At the same time, the international scholars and filmmakers who attend FLEFF add to the local culture of Ithaca and your own cultural exploration.
So I ask you, what cultural experience are you looking for?
Monday, January 28, 2013
Blog posting written by Erica Moriarty, Documentary Studies ’16, FLEFF Intern, Houston, Texas
Hello, fellow film fest enthusiasts, and welcome to the 16th Annual Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival!
I’m so excited to get started on this year’s blogging staff! This is my first year on the staff, so I’m looking forward to… well pretty much everything. From interviews with the artists to live blogging, I cannot wait to jump in!
Before I dive deeper into the exciting things FLEFF has to offer, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Erica Moriarty all the way from Houston, Texas. Currently, I’m majoring in Documentary Studies and Production here at Ithaca College. Perhaps the most exciting part about this major is exploring the many different facets of journalism from writing to photography to film.
As always, FLEFF will be bringing some amazing films to Ithaca in April. However, there have been some new additions. The new partnership with EngageMedia, an international social justice media forum, will allow the FLEFF movement to be seen around the world.
Also new this year is the partnership between FLEFF and the Derive App. This innovative app allows you to create maps of your city in order to provide others with a different way of taking a walk. The partnership perfectly fits in with this year’s theme of Mobilities.
It’s all about the movement of people, ideas, objects and environments this year, folks! So let’s get this ball rolling. How will you get going to join the FLEFF movement?
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Blog posting written by Dorothea Hinman, Cinema and Photography, '15, FLEFF Intern, Rochester, New York.
Greetings, FLEFF world!
I, Dorothea Hinman, am a sophomore at Ithaca College studying Cinema and Photography with a concentration in screenwriting. A theater minor is also in the works. I come from a small town outside Rochester, NY, and this is my first time on the FLEFF Blogging team! In fact, it is my first year of involvement in the festival, and I cannot wait to take the first step in my own personal FLEFF narrative.
Speaking of movement, this year's theme is "mobilities." Not only is this theme pertinent to the films and environmental issues at the forefront of the festival, it speaks to me on a personal level. A large reason I am so excited to be involved in FLEFF is the professional opportunity it gives me. I see it as an open door into the professional world surrounding film festivals, conversation and networking.
Beyond a personal prevalence, the theme of mobilities resurfaces in all of the aspects of this year's sixteenth annual festival. Whether this be our partnership with EngageMedia or the Dérive app, an innovative urban exploration application, or flash mobs, (coming to a food court near you!) FLEFF is about creating a movement of conversation about environmental issues in Ithaca and around the world. How will you help progress the FLEFF movement forward?
Sunday, January 27, 2013
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On Tuesday September 13, 2011, Dr. Garrett Adams, founder of the Beersheba Springs Medical Clinic testified before the Senate. The occasion was a hearing entitled “Is Poverty a Death Sentence?” The hearing was sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging.
Dr. Garrett Adams testifying before Senator Bernie Sanders’s Senate hearing, “Is Poverty a Death Sentence?”
Dr. Adams was asked to testify at this hearing because of his association with the free clinic in Beersheba Springs, Tennessee.
Dr. Adams’s testimony relates the realities of life and death for twelve patients from Kentucky and Tennessee that he has known, or of whom he has had first-hand knowledge. All of them have suffered or are suffering as a result of a lack of access to appropriate medical care. The testimony is unsettling, but enlightening.
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EARLIER this month, my eye was caught by a short summary of a Dutch-language editorial in the daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad, which seemed to trace a link between privatisation policies made popular by Ronald Reagan, and the rise of populist Dutch politicians like Geert Wilders. Given that this was only a summary, I wrote at the time, I would not put my kicking boots on, but would wait for an English translation to appear on Handelsblad's excellent international website.
Well, the piece is now up in English, and I fear the kicking boots are on. In a truly shoddy piece of work, the writer Marc Chavannes manages to conflate the private provision of public services with a long catalogue of ills, including voter angst about borders made more porous by globalisation, and a case in which an Amsterdam taxi driver beat someone to death.
"...for the past 10 to 15 years, government has asserted that many a public task could best be left to the free market. In a nutshell: the government lost its faith in government as a place to solve public problems and perform formerly public tasks. No public service remained untouched
The Netherlands was late in professing its devotion to Reaganism and Thatcherism. But when it finally did embrace the free market business model in the nineties, it never let go. Public transportation, energy supply, public housing, culture, health care, the way the legal system and education are managed, even the state itself - everything had to be given over to market principles. No public service remained untouched in this giant governance experiment while, at the same time, the quality of education was eroded by endless innovations and cuts.
Significantly, nobody has seriously examined whether any of the promised successes were delivered. But despite a lack of research, the failures are there for all to see. The death of a man who was beaten by an unregulated ('free') Amsterdam taxi driver is a fatal example"
Um, where do I start? The core of Mr Chavannes's piece, if I am reading it right, is the thought that privatisation involves an abdication of responsibility by governments. And because governments are, or should be, democratically answerable to voters, society becomes less and less democratic when public services are outsourced to private enterprise.
This is nonsense on stilts. Private and public enterprises operate within societies based on the rule of law, and great thickets of regulation. Public and private enterprises can be badly regulated, or well regulated. Mr Chavannes blames deregulation for allowing a murderous driver to be allowed to drive an Amsterdam taxi. No, poor supervision or bad regulation is the problem. There is nothing to stop a government from imposing all manner of safety checks on privatised companies. Just think of Europe's largest commercial airlines: private firms, whose employees rarely if ever beat passengers to death.
Ah, but supervision is not enough, says Mr Chavannes, if it is provided within a market-based system. Only control by politicians can provide accountability.
"The responsibility for all the outsourced services was shifted to a newly-created cottage industry of supervisors. Politicians are no longer at the wheel, which leaves some indifferent and others confounded by their lack of authority. The market supremacy in public administration - literally and mentally - has led to a privatisation of politics. The distinction between public and private duties has been deliberately blurred and it is an impossible task to try and find out who can be held accountable for what."
I have never lived in the Netherlands, as it happens. Perhaps the country was infinitely better run before any services were privatised. But I am (just) old enough to remember life in 1970s Britain, and, to pick just one example, the fun of trying to buy a new gas cooker from the Gas Board, the only licensed supplier. Oh, the joy of waiting weeks for a surly man with a clip board to deliver the machine. Ah, the fond memories of plying the same man from the Gas Board with endless cups of tea until he stirred himself to fit it. Not to mention the fun of knowing that calling the ordinary Gas Board telephone number would never elicit a reply if the thing went wrong: only a call to the number reserved for gas leaks would stand a chance of being answered. You see, Mr Chavannes presents state services in the abstract as accountable: I remember them as monopolies with astonishingly bad and high-handed service. You could offer the same anecdotes about nationalised telephone monopolies, nationalised railways, nationalised airlines (remember British Airways before privatisation, and the camp commandant style stewardesses, barking orders at cringing passengers?) True, some countries are better at public services than others. France, for instance, is better than Britain at public services.
I remember vividly as a child the thrill of descending the hill to the ferry port at Dover, and straining for the first sight of the Sealink ferry we were about to take to France. The hope was always to see a ferry run by the French railway company, SNCF, rather than the heart-sinking sight of a British Rail Sealink ferry, with its brown food, filthy interior and morose crew.
Privatisation for British people of my generation meant liberation from monopolies, and thus more power as an ordinary citizen. Private provision of services is not perfect, but give me choice any day, over the theoretical comfort that a state employee is in charge of delivering my cooker.
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Meet Chase Norton.
Bro really likes hiking.
About a month ago, Chase spent a week up in the mountains and completed a hike that no one has completed before. (In modern times at least.)
He hiked the entire length of Oahu’s largest mountain range.
On April 1, 2012, Chase Norton became the first documented person to hike the entire Koolau summit in a single trip.
It took him 8 days. He brought in a two days worth of water and hiked down to streams when he needed to fill up his supply. He carried all his food and camping gear on his back. Nothing was stashed along the trail in advance. He had companions on a couple sections of the trail but for the most part, Chase hiked and camped alone.
When it was done, Chase had traveled by foot from the North Shore of Oahu to the southeast point of the island. From Pupukea to Makapu’u to be more specific. He had covered some 50 miles. With the side hikes needed to collect water, it was probably a bit more. It’s hard for me to imagine trying to even walk that distance on a paved road. Chase did it along the top of a mountain range.
Now, I don’t know how to put this but … this is kind of a big deal. If you’re interested in hiking in Hawaii at least. When you see the Koolaus I’m sure many of you have wondered if anyone has ever hiked the entire thing and if it’s even possible. I know I’ve wondered that and I never knew the answer. But now we know. It’s finally been done and the name Chase Norton is now in the Hawaii hiking record books. (Yes, there are Hawaii hiking record books. And no, that is not at all totally nerdy.)
But even if you’re not interested in hiking, the story of how Chase was able to complete this goal is pretty fascinating. To hike the summit ridge in one shot takes serious mental and physical endurance. And because no one has ever done it before, it took a lot of planning. Four years of planning to be exact. And, one failed attempt from which he learned some major lessons. This was a big project that consumed all of Chase’s free time. Every hike he did for the last four years was done with the purpose of learning the Koolau mountains, finding natural water sources and testing out backpacking gear.
It sounds like a lot of work and it is. But what surprised the heck out of me more was when I asked Chase what activities he was into before he started hiking. I assumed he was a soccer player in college or a runner of some sort. But no, Chase did nothing. Like, he was sedentary. Before he started hiking in Hawaii, he smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, drank beers every night and did nothing active. Then, literally overnight, he switched gears. And over the course of the last four years, Chase has hiked every weekend and transformed himself into a lean healthy endurance athlete who has found his passion in life.
So the lesson we can all learn is that if you move to Hawaii you will become active and healthy and find your passion. Nah nah just kidding. (But seriously, you might.)
In the rest of this post you’ll learn some details about the preparation for this hike, see some photos Chase took during the hike and learn a bit more about the history of this hike. Chase has also written up a day-by-day report on the hike with a full gear list. You can download the PDF here.
DISCLAIMER: Do not attempt what you see in this post. It is extremely dangerous and can lead to death or serious injury. The purpose of this blog post is to tell the story of Chase’s accomplishment and does not serve as a guide of any kind. I am not recommending that you attempt this hike. The website UnrealHawaii.com is for entertainment purposes only.
See more »
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Dr. Roger Norgate is a consultant educational psychologist and has worked in education for nearly 40 years. He completed a doctorate in 2002 relating to exclusion from special schools of pupils with learning difficulties who exhibit severe challenging behaviour. He has served on a number of the DfES research advisory groups, has a particular interest in determining what constitutes an acceptable rate of progress for pupils with SEN and chairs the research governance group on behalf of Children’s Services.
Maria Traill is a psychology research associate (PRA) working with the Research and Evaluation Unit. Maria completed an Honours degree in psychology in 2003 and then worked as a psychology assistant in a variety of NHS settings. During this time she undertook research in physical health, adult mental health and in an adolescent mental health & forensic unit. Maria is currently undertaking a Masters degree in Research Methods through the Open University. She started with the unit in October 2006.
Dr Cara Osborne is also a PRA with the Unit. She completed an Honours degree in Psychology in 2002, an MSc in Research Methods in Psychology in 2004 and a PhD in Psychology at the University of Southampton in 2008, focusing on facial recognition. She started with the Unit in October 2007.
Dr Amy Warhurst is also a PRA. She completed an Honours degree in Psychology in 2004, and a PhD in Psychology at the University of Hull in 2009. Her PhD research focused on dyslexia and other reading problems, and the reading strategies adopted by poor readers. She started with the unit in September 2008.
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Spain's registered jobless ticks up in September
MADRID -- The number of people registered as unemployed in Spain rose by a little under 80,000 people to 4.71 million in September as the summer tourism season came to an end and businesses let workers go, the Labor Ministry said Tuesday.
The country is in its second recession in three years with an overall unemployment rate of nearly 25 percent. The country is debating whether to seek international assistance to help it manage its debts.
Spain has already been granted a (EURO)100 billion ($128 billion) loan from its eurozone partners to help its troubled banking sector and is under pressure to take up the European Central Bank on its offer to buy unlimited amounts of its debt to help bring down the country's borrowing costs.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who has pushed through nine straight months of tough austerity measures, met Tuesday with the leaders of Spain's 17 regional governments about the economic crisis and the latest austerity measures. The regions, some of them heavily indebted, are being forced to push through government cutbacks affecting cherished national health care and education.
Also Tuesday, ratings agency Moody's Investors Service said it would announce the outcome of a review of Spain's sovereign debt rating this month. Moody's had been due to issue the report by the end of September, with many analysts predicting Spain's rating would be reduced to junk.
That would hurt Spanish markets because many pension funds and banks would have to sell Spain's bonds from their portfolios and desist from buying them at auction. That, in turn, would force Spain to pay higher rates to borrow money, further hurting its finances.
Moody's said it "is continuing to assess a number of factors, including Spanish banks' capital needs, the nature and size of support mechanisms, the recently released 2013 budget plan and the consequences for the euro area's crisis management framework of the further advancement of a banking union."
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Studies, and reports on them, like this amaze me. Of course, the pro-life blogs and sources are all over this already like white on rice.
Of COURSE a lot of women suffer long-term trauma with abortion, and of course it's longer-term than miscarrying (pity they didn't also include women's psychological states after childbirth, the first year of parenting and adoption).
You miscarry, everyone says, "Oh, I am so sorry." This is said whether you wanted to be pregnant, whether you planned to bring a pregnancy to term or not. This is not usually the case with abortion: in part because a lot of women don't -- can't -- tell anyone they have even had an abortion.
You are told again and again that a miscarriage is not your fault. Rarely are women told an abortion is not our fault. We are told miscarriage is okay, because it is out of our control. Because we chose to have an abortion somehow that negates the fact that the systems we live in -- which set us up to have sex we don't want, to be ignorant of how our own bodies work, to have less autonomy with our bodies than our male counterparts do, to be without developments in contraception we have every means of funding and having provided for us, to make childbearing and childrearing -- when that is what we'd prefer -- so difficult, which often give so many women no choice BUT to make a reproductive choice after-the-fact -- are out of our control. That in the systems we live in, to even have real autonomy over our bodies and our sexuality is not a given right, but something we must vigilantly and constantly do battle for.
If we live in a culture which stigmatizes something, which punishes us for something, which tells us that we have the right to choose something, but it isn't as good, as noble, as defensible, as acceptable as a different choice, we are likely to feel anguish when we do that thing. This is not complex logic.
If we live in a culture in which we must be silent about any major event in our lives -- be it rape or abortion (made all the more major by cultural mores) or domestic abuse or winning an award or getting a promotion -- in which telling anyone about it without apologizing for it has a likely and negative cost, of course we are going to experience trauma. If we engage in something which we must keep a dirty secret, of course it will upset us, for as long as we have to keep that secret.
If we go to have a service performed in which we know there are people in the world who would like to bomb the room we are having it done in while we are doing it and murder us intentionally; where security measures are in place to keep our clinician from being shot to death for performing that service, of course we are going to feel distress.
If we are told, again and again, that what we are having done MUST upset us greatly, MUST be tragic, MUST be an unfortunate choice, of course, many of us are going to absorb that. (We see this with women who have first intercourse all of the time: they are told it is going to be painful, and so often, it is. They are told they should regret it if it was not fairytale perfect our was outside of marriage, and so, they do.)
The sad thing with studies like this is that, in a world which truly cared about women, the people, communities and forces which perpetuate those attitudes, those approaches, that violence, would read something like this and realize that, at a minimum, they are absolutely hurting women by adding to their pain. And they'd cool it; they'd stop hurting women. They'd acknowledge that at least some of the distress caused, some of the harm done, was of their doing.
If they really felt abortion was the horrendous thing they say it is, they'd act in the real interest of helping women to limit it: after all, no matter how we feel about abortion and our right to it, it's safe to say that no woman WANTS an abortion. No woman is going to try to become pregnant for the sole reason of being able to go run out and get an abortion.
They'd lobby for freely accessible emergency contraception. They'd lobby for more developments in and access to contraception for all women overall, rather than for male impotency drugs. They'd encourage women to start annual sexual healthcare early. They'd work to build a world where women could truly say no to sex and have it instantly, inarguably respected; for a world where women didn't feel obligated to say yes to sex to placate, mollify or calm boyfriends and husbands.
When other studies come up, like recent ones showing that EC isn't massively reducing the teen pregnancy rate in places where it is available, they'd ask WHY: they'd look at why that is, at why, for instance, some very young women often choose to become mothers because they don't feel they can accomplish much else in their lives, or be unconditionally loved any other way, at WHY, even when EC is available easily, young women aren't getting it and if just maybe that has something to do with the world telling them its abortion when it isn't.
They'd support comprehensive sex education for unmarried and married women alike. They'd stop trying to get lesbian women to play straight and marry men. They'd stop personally using (while publicly decrying) pornography which presents women as nothing more than sex objects, as dolls to taint and sully, use and dispose of when another novelty comes by; they'd stop presenting marriage and wifedom as the solution to this, presenting being owned by one man as the alternative to being owned by many. They'd work to get rapists off the streets; they'd nurture sons who don't grow up to be rapists. They'd wiggle a bigger shame-on-you finger at men who guilt-trip, manipulate, force or coerce women into sex with them than the one they wave at women with who abort. They'd stop supporting war, father of rape, where rape was first honed into common practice as a weapon against civilian women and children from the onset and where it still thrives, responsible for unfathomable numbers of unwanted pregnancies and traumatized women. They'd stop perpetuating attitudes which state, imply or elevate women as baby factories or sexual receptacles; which praise subservience, obedience, docility, defining female sexuality only by male sexuality.
But we don't live in that world.
In the world we live in, a study like this will be used to tell women they are harming themselves. It will be used as a weapon to try and limit their rights to their own bodies and wombs even further.
And in this world as it is? It is no less tragic for a woman to bear a child than it is for her to have an abortion. It just feels better because we're told that that choice -- that "choice," even when we're grossly limited in how much of our pregnancy or our choice as to what to do with that pregnancy actually is choice for us, even when we make it out of fear, ignorance, desperation or guilt -- is the best one to be making.
(Original comments for this entry can be found here.)
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Published: June 4th 2012June 4th 2012
And so our path winds on, figuratively of course but in this instance quite literally also. Those who have taken the road from Mendoza to Valparaiso (or Santiago) will recall quite vividly the meandering highway that greets those upon entering Chile. It seems the people responsible for this particular stretch of tarmac fully embraced the idea that there is little point to descending or ascending a mountain in a calm gradient – but rather the quickest way down would be to construct a road boasting twenty-something tightly packed hairpin corners stretching all the way to the very foot of those snowy peaks we had just crossed. A bizarre but interesting introduction to Chile!
We heard from other travellers we had met along the way that Valparaiso was a destination not to be missed in Chile, a city that conjures all manner of adjectives, both good and bad. The city played its part in the California gold rush as the primary exporting port for Chilean wheat bound north up the Pacific, as well as other goods from all over South America which needed to make their way towards America’s west coast. Unfortunately for Valparaiso, its merchants and their business
deserted the city thanks mostly to a devastating earthquake in 1906 (particularly devastating for Valparaiso since the entire city is built on steep hills, hence the San Francisco comparisons) and the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, rendering the port all but useless from an international maritime trading standpoint. As with all such areas that have housed societies’ elite and experienced short lived financial success, what is left behind is a mixture of interesting streets and buildings; grand but aged mansions which in subsequent years have been inhabited by all manner of interesting beings.
We opted to stay in the area of Cerro Concepcion overlooking the port and most of the city itself. In our taxi from the bus station, we were welcomed into the heart of Concepcion with cobbled streets and lots of street art and graffiti, a sight not unlike many of the cobbled streets in Santa Theresa, the area where we stayed back in Rio de Janeiro. However, there seemed something a little more distinctive about Cerro Concepcion, which with its corrugated metal structures for houses adorned in mismatched, colourful paint (which we later learned was left over’s from paint used for ships
in the dockyards below) it provided a little glimpse of what La Boca in Buenos Aires may have been in the not too distant past before it endured as a tourist magnet. As a refreshing alternative, Concepcion is a living, breathing area; a bohemian pocket of energy in a vibrant city.
The graffiti of Cerro Concepcion alone necessitates its own account. Around every corner is a unique story, a tale to be told on each brick. On some corners we saw different odes to beloved former President Salvador Allende, a hero in the eyes of the nation who on September 11th
1973 took his own life rather than live in shame under the US backed Augusto Pinochet military coup (and terrific decision that turned out to be from the good ol’ US of A!). Wandering down another alley, we saw a particularly provocative depiction of a woman stripped down to her underwear, legs wide open and arms wrapped around the back of her head, the name of which we later learned was El Pollo al Treladore, or “The Chicken by the Nightstand.” This particular image we later learned makes light of those bosses who leave work during
the day for a lunch time liaison with their secretaries, a supposedly common occurrence in this city. Our personal favourite were the large words “Tiene Problemas?” inscribed on one particular corner accompanied by a noose dangling ominously from a street lamp above – we didn’t need to know Spanish to understand the meaning.
In order to take in the sights beyond the nooks and crannies of our own neighbourhood, we decided to attend the ‘Tours4Tips ’ walking tour of Valpariso, a voluntary setup where someone from the city takes tourists around the more notable areas and some of the less well known also. As the name suggests, once the tour is over, you tip the guide based on how much you gained from the experience. We got to learn various things about Valparaiso including about Monumento a los Heroes de Iquique, a revered statue commemorating a story about the Bolivian-Chilean war, were once upon a time, a now famous Chilean Naval Captain daringly jumped aboard a Bolivian vessel along with a number of his crew, only to be slaughtered soon after! This heroic/naive act galvanised a nation and subsequently resulted in the ‘big push’ which earned Chile
victory. ‘To the victor go the spoils’ I believe is the saying, and in this case, the Chileans discovered the area of land confiscated from Bolivia, which is now northern Chile, had incalculable amounts of copper beneath the surface, resulting in Chile becoming perhaps the most economically stable South American nation in recent times (leaving Bolivia land locked and now the poorest of South America’s countries). No wonder the statue is revered!
Overall the tour was a good experience if you want to learn about a city in only a short space of time. We finished the day in one of Valparaiso’s more vibrant local bars, where we found families eating unhealthy portions of steak, cheeseburgers and ‘Completo’s’ whilst excitedly watching the Copa Libertadores on the television. The ‘Completo’ as I’m sure you are wondering, is a large hotdog filled with onions, tomato salsa and guacamole and topped with a hefty serving of mustard, a heart-attack in a bun which I had to try. Like all foods which endanger your health, it was delicious!
The following morning we caught a bus for Santiago. A comfortable bus ride (where the speed of the vehicle is
displayed on a digital monitor throughout the journey – safety first!) and a comically dubbed Hollywood movie later and we were in Chile’s capital city.
We checked ourselves into Aji Hostel, in the city’s eastern district, where we found our accommodation teeming with guests. It was not hard to explain the reason for this, as the hostel offered free dinner along with breakfast and naturally the crowds flocked! If you have endless energy to meet new people and party, whilst being able to pinch those pennies, then this is the hostel for you. We are by no means anti-social but we probably draw the line at fifty people cramming themselves into a small living room just to get a free dinner (yes, we were two of the fifty and we perhaps naively expected the place to be a little quieter!).
Santiago as it turned out was a rather dull city, gray of buildings and sky (a smog which apparently engulfs the city all too frequently). Since we would only be spending one full day in the city, we had heard that the Human Rights Museum was very interesting so decided that we would take
in the museum amongst other things in the city. The museum itself was indeed fascinating; housed in a modern structure and boasting four floors all dedicated to explaining the horrors that took place under the Pinochet regime, one which was ignored for too long in the western world. Whilst many of the displays were in Spanish, there were many videos with English subtitles to watch, each representative of a different period of the regime. Despite the lack of English on some of the displays, the museum is one of the more interesting and engaging we have been to and definitely worth a visit.
The remainder of our day was spent wandering around the central areas of the city, including the Plaza de Armas, a social place for local families to come and relax or take in some of the street performances taking place (or for chess enthusiasts to pit their wits against other players in intensely contested games).
I’ve no doubt we could have spent more time in Santiago and taken more from the experience but it seems that much of what makes Chile special is found outside of its cities, in the likes
of the Torres del Paine, a place we both really wanted to visit but giving the frigid temperatures at this time of year it seemed our timing for this particular destination was off. Instead, we found ourselves excited to continue our travels up north into the driest desert in the world, a place where weather conditions and the like are much less of a concern in terms of timing...
There are more photos below
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The architectural history of South Florida is out in full force on a list that names the top buildings in the entire state.
PHOTOS: Top Buildings in South Florida
The Florida Chapter of The American Institute of Architects (AIA Florida) put together a list of noteworthy buildings in the Sunshine State, and 24 of the icons are in South Florida.
The list is part of AIA Florida's "Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places" competition which is now looking for the public to rank the top overall building.
“We are so pleased these facilities in Miami have been recognized,” said Natividad Soto, AIA, AIA Florida vice president, AIA Miami past president and spokesperson for the competition in Miami. “Over the course of the voting period, we will encourage support for these outstanding architectural landmarks by highlighting them in the community and urging our friends and neighbors to vote for them.”
To vote, all you have to do is visit the AIA Florida website and make your choice.
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The Nativity Story infuses the story of Jesus’ with humanity. Read on:
There are two kinds of religious epics at Christmas: the old-fashioned, overblown, cast-of-thousands camp classics (“Oh Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool” — Anne Baxter as Nefretiri in The Ten Commandments) and the modern, grittier recreation that comes with the kind of political and racial subtext that made The Passion of the Christ such a controversial hit.
The new epic is reverent and literal. In Mel Gibson’s vision, it’s also brutal and flirts with racism; in Catherine Hardwicke’s The Nativity Story, it’s historical and flirts only with sanctimony.
Hardwicke, of course, has the easier job. The Nativity Story, which tells of the birth of Christ, has no anti-Semitic undertones. Its Mary and Joseph are both Jewish, living in a Jewish community. The villain is King Herod, a bad guy who has no anti-defamation league to stand up for him. There is even some humour in the movie, courtesy of the three wise men, who are treated with the patronizing affection we reserve for ancient exotics and precocious children.
The Nativity Story is, in many ways, the ultimate Christmas movie. It seems aimed mostly at Hollywood’s newest audience, evangelicals, fundamentalists and also ordinary church-goers who feel left out of the usual menu of sex, violence and ironic dismissal of their religion. It strips the Christmas message of its tinsel and twinkling lights, although it adds a few curlicues of its own: the scene where Jesus is born in Bethlehem is orchestrated to the familiar choir of heavenly voices and 1,000 strings and illuminated by a star that looks like it was borrowed from a gala movie opening. The result is a tableau of kneeling shepherds, wide-eyed wise men and innocent farm animals that wouldn’t be out of place at a school pageant.
The story starts with Herod — driven to mad paranoia by the prophecy of a Messiah who will overthrow his rule — sending his men to Bethlehem to kill all the male children. It then goes back a year to Nazareth, where we meet Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes from Whale Rider), who is betrothed to Joseph (Oscar Isaac), but becomes impregnated by a miracle from God. This causes a scandal that brings her dangerously close to being stoned to death, but Joseph believes her, and the two journey to Bethlehem for the birth.
Click on the link below to read the entire article:
The Nativity Story Movie Posters
View the trailer
In theaters, December 1, 2006
Share on Facebook
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Who are we?
The Cornell Folk Song Society is a non-profit membership organization that seeks to preserve and promote traditional and traditionally-oriented folk music both on and off campus. Membership is open to everyone and is FREE for Cornell Students. Founded in the 1950s, we've been known at one time or another as a "club" or a "society," but we've been a large part of the folk music scene in Ithaca through most of that time. You can read more about our history here.
Members get a discount on concert admission, a voice in deciding about activities and other benefits. Find out more about membership here.
- May 25 - Singing Party
Want to be part of it?
We always need more people interested in spending a few hours helping us out. We need people to help with:
- putting up posters
- helping with set up and breakdown of concerts
- hosting musicians
- hosting sings
We're also looking for someone who would like to get involved with the business management of the society/be a treasurer in training.
If you'd like to become involved, please contact Jumba Seo, js2276
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You know the feeling: opening up your e-mail to find hundreds of messages of varying importance. Some are automated reminders from your favorite sites, some are newsletters you have subscribed to, some are actually from real people trying to contact you, and so on. Separating the wheat from the chaff can be overwhelming much of the time, and even the most carefully crafted filters don't keep up with the ever-changing nature of what's important to you.
Google is hoping to address that problem with a new feature in Gmail called Priority Inbox. Aimed at providing users a way to get through their inboxes as efficiently as possible, Priority Inbox tries to learn your e-mail habits in order to decide which messages are important to you, and move them up to the top where you can see them first.
Gmail looks at the sender and actions you've taken on similar messages in order to decide what to elevate and what to leave alone. (Do you star them? Get rid of them immediately? Reply to them?) Like many spam systems, you can help teach Priority Inbox by telling it which messages are important and which ones aren't.
"We think we can get this to be pretty solid out of the box, but it gets better and better over time. It essentially learns from you," Google's group product manager of Enterprise Apps Rajen Sheth told Ars. "This is just the next evolution in making people more efficient in dealing with information overload."
Google has already been testing Priority Inbox with business and consumer Gmail users for several months—Sheth says he "can't live without it" after using it himself for several months—and claims that people are spending an average of 6 percent less time managing their e-mail after enabling the feature. "That's clearly a significant productivity gain," Sheth told Ars, as it adds up to one full workweek's worth of time per year. More importantly (at least to people like me who stress constantly about e-mail), it helps bring organization to chaos and draws your attention to things that need addressing.
How is this different from setting up a complex set of filters, though? Sheth pointed out that Priority Inbox is more dynamic than anything you could put into a filter, as what's important to you could change over time. "You might look into different subjects, or interact with different people. It also factors in things that change rapidly, such as how quickly you reply to certain messages or how you apply stars," Sheth said. "Mostly though, it's just a lot simpler. My own experience in setting up a filter like that is that it's something I have to think carefully about and keep iterating on. This is useful for users right away as something they can easily tune without knowing how to create filters."
(If you do have filters set up, though, Priority Inbox can work around them if it feels a message is important enough, or it will respect your filters at all costs—depending on how you set it up in the preferences.)
Google paints Priority Inbox as an enterprise offering, but it's available to all Gmail users. The company has already begun rolling it out to all users in all languages, while Google Apps users have to turn on the "pre-release features" setting before they'll be able to see it.
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Front Row - Louis Nowra, Newton Faulkner, Another London Photography Exhibition
London as seen by international photographers; singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner; Australian writer Louis Nowra; Britain's first kitchen-sink film, with Sylvia Syms.
With Kirsty Lang.
Another London is a new exhibition at Tate Britain which reveals the capital as seen through the eyes of photographers from all over the world, from 1930 until 1980. The images chart the city's transformation, from bombed- out ruin to punk playground. Craig Taylor, author of Londoners, considers the capital's many changes.
Louis Nowra is an acclaimed Australian dramatist, who has written two new plays for BBC Radio 4. He tells Kirsty how a serious head-injury, and being the son of an infamous murderess, have shaped his writing - and why he avoids arty types, preferring instead to have a beer with the labourers in his local bar.
Britain's first ever kitchen-sink movie, Woman In A Dressing Gown, is re-released in cinemas this week. Front Row finds out why the film, starring Sylvia Syms and Anthony Quayle, has been neglected for the last 50 years, despite winning several prestigious awards.
Newton Faulkner's first album Hand Built by Robots topped the charts in 2007, and his third album Write It on Your Skin did the same earlier this month. He reflects on the impact of parenthood on his music, and why he was star-struck when he met The Proclaimers.
Producer Ella-mai Robey.
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Jim Wallis: Why should you, a successful businessperson, be worried about the military budget? Why did this become such a life mission for you?
Take Action on This Issue
Ben Cohen: It was the same spirit that led Ben & Jerry's to work to improve the quality of life in the communities that we're a part of. There are things a business can do to integrate concerns for social justice and people who are being oppressed, but there are also things that only a country can do.
When I was working through Ben & Jerry's, it was clear that even big businesses, even huge foundations that have gobs of money, pale in comparison to how much money the federal government has. To restructure the edifice that creates injustice and poverty, you really need to look at the federal budget. That's where there's enough money to solve all these problems, without raising taxes, just by moving some money around. So that’s how I got to that point.
Wallis: How did you first become aware of how much money we're talking about and what that could mean for everything else?
Cohen: Part of it was getting just the vaguest idea of how much $1 billion is. You hear numbers such as 500 million, a billion, 500 billion, and they're all more than you can ever imagine. As Ben & Jerry's became a $100 million business and then a $300 million business, I began to understand how much that really is. Three times that is still less than $1 billion. It is shocking to me that we now spend $700 billion a year on the Pentagon budget. When I first started working on this issue a decade or so ago, the Pentagon budget was about half that amount.
Wallis: How do you help people visualize a number that large?
Cohen: There are two demonstrations I've done that have been incredibly popular. One is the BB demonstration and the other is the Oreo demonstration. The BB demonstration was shown to me by Sen. Alan Cranston of California. He used it to demonstrate the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. He would drop one BB into a container to represent the 15 kiloton bomb that went off over Hiroshima. Then he would drop in 60 BBs to represent enough nuclear weapons to blow up all of Russia. Then he would say, "And now I want to show the number of BBs that represent the U.S. nuclear arsenal," and he would pour in 10,000 BBs, and the noise just went on forever. It was so clearly illogical and irrational, and so clearly a waste, not just of money, but of our spirits and our soul -- in the same way that Martin Luther King Jr. warned that a nation that continues to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
Spending money on unnecessary weapons is taking away from our schools and hospitals and housing, and taking away the hopes of our children and the genius of our times. It's just amazing to think about the huge expenditures of money on these unneeded weapons and what could be done with that same amount of money, if we used it to actually help people, especially people in poverty.
Wallis: Tell me about the Oreo demonstration.
Cohen: That's a demonstration I developed on my own. It makes it easier to understand the federal budget. One Oreo represents $10 billion. The $700 billion Pentagon budget is just a stack of 70 Oreos -- you can understand 70 Oreos. In comparison to that, the federal government spends just four-and-a-half Oreos on education, just one-half an Oreo on alternative energy, and a fraction of an Oreo on Head Start. If you take just seven Oreos off the Pentagon budget, you could provide health care for all the kids who currently don't have it. You could provide Head Start for all the kids who need it. You could eliminate our need for Mideast oil through energy efficiency. You could change our country into one that cares about people, eliminates poverty, and helps people climb their way out, through education.
Wallis: You mentioned Dr. King's comment about a nation that makes these choices being on the path to spiritual death. Are there spiritual roots to your concern about military spending?
Cohen: It's definitely a spiritual issue, as far as I'm concerned. My life is interconnected with the lives of everybody else. When people are suffering, I’m suffering. The thing that motivates me is the understanding that there is no lack of resources. We do have enough money. I've been inspired by a quote from Teilhard de Chardin, who wrote, "The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, [humanity] will have discovered fire."
I believe that we can create Martin Luther King's beloved community. And the thing that just drives me crazy is that we have enough money. We're just spending it in the wrong places.
The military budget grew to half of what it is now during the Cold War, based on the idea that the Soviet Union was spending more than we were, so we were in this neck-and-neck arms race. We had a peer competitor; there were two superpowers. We thought that they were out to get us, so we needed to spend as much as the Soviet Union.
Today, there is no peer competitor. There is no other superpower, and we are spending more than five times as much as the next country that's not an ally. And that country is China, our biggest trading partner; we're not about to go to war with China. And yet we continue to spend this ridiculous sum of money for weapons that we plan never to use.
Wallis: How did you bring these issues into the last presidential campaign?
Cohen: We were trying to encourage presidential candidates to take a stand against militarism, to take a stand in favor of shifting money out of the Pentagon budget and into social needs. We did that by educating people in Iowa and New Hampshire about how the federal budget was spent. We didn't really need to do much convincing.
The huge majority of the population is not aware of how the federal budget is split up, and they're not aware of how much other countries spend on their military compared to us. In a recent poll, 16 percent of people thought that less than 20 percent of the budget goes to the Pentagon, and 64 percent of the people thought that military spending was less than half the budget -- it's actually around 58 percent, not even including the costs of past wars or foreign military aid. The Pentagon happens to be the biggest-ticket item in the entire discretionary budget.
Once you give them that information, you don't need to do anything else. They come to the conclusion themselves that we should shift money out of the Pentagon and put it into stuff that people need today, like better schools.
Wallis: You've done incredible work educating people about this issue. You've convinced people of this pretty readily, but you've had a tougher time with the politicians.
Cohen: That's exactly right. Politicians are deathly afraid of being accused of being "weak on defense." They regard that as political suicide. But the reality is that we are muscle-bound on defense. The reality is that it's our excessive military spending that’s creating the deficit that we have. That's what's making our country uncompetitive economically, because so much of government spending goes into building weapons instead of into creating things that people really need.
Wallis: It really isn't about "defense" anymore, is it?
Cohen: No, it's definitely not about defense. I called it the "military budget" or the "Pentagon budget"; it's definitely not the "defense budget." The huge majority of the money that's being spent is not being spent to defend the United States -- it's being spent to prepare to fight wars of aggression against countries that have not done anything to us. The United States has an ocean on each side that prevents countries from coming and attacking us, and we've got two good allies on the north and south. There's no country that has the ability to attack the U.S.
Wallis: How does the fact that we're engaged in two major wars, and now a third, in Muslim nations affect the politics of military spending?
Cohen: When you take into account the size of the military budgets of our opposition in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now in Libya, they're virtually nothing. They’re way under $10 billion a year. If what we're concerned about is terrorists -- they're spending a lot less than $1 billion a year. So these huge Pentagon expenditures of $700 billion and more, it’s like trying to take an aircraft carrier to hunt down one terrorist. It's overkill.
Wallis: Of course, people would say, sure we have the oceans and allies, but we were attacked on 9/11, and that's what we're afraid of now. How do you defend against terrorism?
Cohen: I don't think that's the reason to go to war. I think the terrorists that attacked us were criminals, and they should be hunted down like criminals and brought to justice. But terrorism is a tactic that's been used for centuries. Other countries have dealt with terrorist attacks, but no other country that I know of has gone to war over it.
Wallis: The Pentagon-related think tank The Rand Corporation put together a pie chart with statistics on how, historically, terrorism has been defeated. One big chunk, 40 percent, involved police tactics, intelligence, preventing things from happening. Another 43 percent involved reaching a political settlement, such as in Northern Ireland. In 10 percent of cases, terrorists win. And only 7 percent of the time has terrorism been defeated by military solutions. So why are we investing all our money in the 7 percent solution? What's driving all this, if it isn't our legitimate defense needs?
Cohen: No, it's definitely not our legitimate defense needs. It comes down to the military-industrial-congressional complex. You’ve got the Pentagon that is run by people whose careers depend upon getting a certain weapon system built, and they are always lobbying Congress to fund these weapon systems. The standard operating procedure is to do what's called "political engineering." Political engineering means to spread out the production of a weapons system across as many congressional districts as possible, so if there's a threat of cutting that weapon system, the majority of members of Congress hear howls of resistance from the people in their districts that have jobs making those weapons. And then you've got the weapons manufacturers themselves that are lobbying Congress to provide more funding, and providing campaign contributions to pressure them, in a form of legalized bribery, to keep the money rolling in from Congress.
Wallis: You told me recently that you thought that we now have the second biggest opportunity ever to really challenge military spending. The first was the end of the Cold War, with the "peace dividend" that never really happened. In fact, we've doubled the Pentagon budget since the end of the Cold War. But you think now might be an opportune time.
Cohen: Absolutely, because of the deficit. Because people are starting to understand that we can't continue to run up all these unpaid bills. When you start looking at where the government spends the money, and you start trying to find places to cut to bring the deficit under control, you realize that over half of all discretionary government spending is the Pentagon. If you're going to start bringing the budget under control, you can't just be fiddling around the margins; you've got to deal with the really big-ticket items. The bipartisan deficit commission came up with $100 billion a year worth of obsolete, unneeded Cold War-era weapons systems that do not need to be built.
The whole time I was running the campaign to cut Pentagon spending, we were desperately trying to make the campaign bipartisan, but we couldn't find any Republicans that would get on board. Now, the campaign to cut Pentagon spending is being led by Republicans. A lot of the people that got elected as part of the tea party have been fighting to cut Pentagon spending. It's logical. You can’t avoid cutting the Pentagon when you take a look at how the federal government spends its money. So you've got tea partiers and libertarians speaking out in a very loud voice about how the Pentagon should be cut.
Wallis: Where are you finding support for your efforts?
Cohen: I think that religious people are likely supporters. They're the people that make so much sense to be on this bandwagon because this is what the Bible and Jesus is all about.
Wallis: We do have these scriptures about beating our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks.
Cohen: It's unbelievable that politicians give all this lip service about how religious they are, but when it comes to putting their money where their mouth is, they don't do it. People talk about the needs of children and education and hunger and poverty, but there's very little money that they ever come up with. On the other side, there's very little talk about the Pentagon budget. It's not really a subject of conversation. And yet that's where all the money is going.
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aa4se economy market Equals Revenue. The mistake a lot of companies make when their sales fall is that they immediately use slash costs. Sadly, the marketing money is usually one of the primary to go to. The aa4se economy market truth is, according to research, the marketing money is directly proportional with a company’s gross revenue. Cutting the marketing budget will not benefit a company in the revenue perspective it’ll only hurt it. Internet Marketing features a direct correlation with revenue, whether the conomy is thriving or stagnant.
Fundamental Marketing EconomicsIf many organisations are reducing their marketing budgets within a recession throughout the market, it doesn’t take an Mba course from Wharton to understand do the aa4se economy market following. You need to continue marketing. If you’re able to to enhance your marketing budget, then do if you fail to then you’ll have to possess a different approach. By searching in the overall ahref Web Desing Web marketing strategy and evaluating things that work and merely what doesn’t work, you’ll be able to effectively change money from non-creating techniques to techniques that leave results. Not in support of the grain by focusing heavily on marketing instead of searching advertising online as purely becoming an overhead expense. Without marketing, there’s absolutely no way your business will see its revenue objectives, specifically in a pokey economy.
Stretch- Don’t Slash- Your Marketing If you fail to seem to locate people additional marketing dollars, you can utilize these simple marketing techniques to help effectively promote your company.
In the study completed by Intuit, developer of QuickBooks, research found the final outcome that despite a stagnant economy, nine from ten small enterprise entrepreneurs saw options for growth. Over 75% of individuals more compact companies expected their company to grow within that exact same year. That was within a downward economic cycle! To assist illustrate my point, 65% in the more compact companies examined inside the study have managed to get an economic downturn before.
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When you open a package delivered to your hotel room in the middle of the night and look inside to find the inside looking back at you it’s probably time to go back to bed. After putting the contents in the fridge, of course:
A hotel guest in the Tasmanian city of Hobart was shocked when he received a foam box on Tuesday night containing a single human eyeball.
The box marked “Live human organs for transplant” was delivered by mistake by an unwitting taxi driver.
Hotel worker Gabriel Winner – who requested the name of the hotel not be used – says the agitated guest brought the esky [an Australian cooler] to reception early yesterday morning.
“The guy left with me with a box with an eyeball in it,” he said.
“He got the box and signed for it and opened it in the middle of the night.
It was not immediately known whether the single eye witness was a left or right one. The eye-ball apparently did not spoil in the Australian summer and was successfully transplanted later that day.
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New Book by EKU Student Veterans Chronicles Their Military Experiences
“When we arrived, the smell of rotting flesh filled the air. I was told to pull the first guard shift around the mass-grave site. During one of my patrols, I made the huge mistake of looking down. The body of a little girl was still there, holding onto a stuffed rabbit. The little girl was wearing a purple dress; she still had a blindfold on her eyes. And she was just thrown on top of all the other bodies. I can’t get that image out of my head.”
Michael Reichert’s harrowing recollection in a short story entitled “My Bosnian Deployment” is just one of many memories chronicled in “The Journal of Military Experience,” a compilation of 29 stories, poems and artwork from 19 Eastern Kentucky University students who have served in the military.
Copies of the book are available for $15 at the Hastings store in Richmond Centre or through the EKU Veterans Affairs Office. Those interested may also contact Lt. Col. Brett Morris, Ret., associate director of veterans affairs in the University’s Student Outreach and Transition Office, [email protected] or 859-622-7838. All proceeds from the book will go toward the next issue and toward funding the Operation Veteran Success scholarship and retention program at EKU.
Travis Martin, an EKU graduate student and military veteran who served as editor, said in his introduction to the book that its contributors are “trying to translate entirely foreign experiences into a language that others – and the writers themselves – can understand. Most of the authors are student veterans making the transition from military to civilian life … re-shaping their skills and knowledge into something palpable for existence in a strange new reality.”
Not all the stories and poems in the 135-page book are about combat or even service overseas. “Some focus solely on that work of translation, making sense of a warrior culture and the mentality of an individual who has been bred, trained, and conditioned by a society in desperate need of a few willing to sacrifice for the many. In this way, all of the works are interrelated – bound by a common bond of service – and speak with a unified voice to a fragmented audience of believers and skeptics alike.”
Martin credits many EKU faculty, staff and students for their assistance in bringing the book to fruition, including Dr. Deborah Core, Dr. Lisa Day-Lindsey and Dr. Susan Kroeg of the English and Theatre faculty; Dr. Russell Helms from EKU’s MFA Creative Writing Program; and Linda Sizemore from EKU Libraries. He also noted the contributions of artists Matthew Foley, Luke Manuel and Micah Owen; fellow veteran student Ryan Donahue; the Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society; and financial support from the EKU Student Government Association and the College of Justice & Safety.
The book stemmed from a newly-developed veterans orientation course at the University, which has earned national recognition (including a number-one “Best for Vets” ranking from Military Times EDGE magazine) for its initiatives to help military veterans further their education.
“During that course, we offered students a chance to discuss their experiences in the military through poetry, prose and artwork,” Lt. Col. Morris recalled. The ultimate result “was this raw, emotionally-packed book.”
Besides serving as a “cathartic process” for the student veterans, Morris added, the book will give readers “an appreciation of the raw depth of emotions that our young men and women are being exposed to very early in their lives.”
As editor, Martin said he has “read these works so many times that I have internalized their lessons. Pride, sadness, honor, and pure, unadulterated terror have been regular parts of my daily routine for some time now. Facilitating a means for these authors to narrate their experiences in a healing way that educates non-veteran readers about the nature of military service is what this is all about.”
In 2010, EKU unveiled Operation Veteran Success, a series of initiatives designed to make Eastern an even more veteran-helpful campus.
Eastern has extended reduced tuition rates to all out-of-state veterans who have completed 36 months of active federal service. Also, the University has: waived the $30 admission application fee for all veterans, added recreational programming that appeals to their adventurous nature, developed a veterans-only orientation course, established a mentoring program pairing freshman veterans with returning student veterans, instituted special cohort classes where veterans can learn together with fellow veterans, and granted veterans priority during class registration to help them arrange schedules around VA appointments.
Veterans are taking notice. Among its 16,000-plus students, EKU now counts more than 700 student veterans and veteran dependents.
Eastern was also recognized by G.I. Jobs magazine as a Military Friendly School in 2009 and 2010.
Another entry in the Journal, “True Life Experiences of an Airman Over the Skies of the Middle East,” came from Steve Johnson: “We were present when the air war was first started on Jan. 16, 1991. Our mission was to take four F-117A stealth fighters into the heart of downtown Baghdad and hit the Iraqi military communications center. I woke up four hours before our scheduled takeoff time and took a shower. As I got dressed for the mission, I thought about a lot of things in my life: ‘Is this going to be my last night on earth?’ and ‘Will I come back?’”
Contact InformationLt. Col. Brett Morris
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|low graphics version | feedback | help|
|You are in: Business|
Thursday, 10 May, 2001, 07:56 GMT 08:56 UK
When not to believe the experts
By BBC News Online's Orla Ryan
Looking for stock market advice? Ask an expert.
This conventional logic has been turned on its head by the boom and collapse in technology shares over the past year.
Many of those who followed financial analyst stock recommendations have seen their investments plummet and are looking for someone to blame.
Merrill Lynch's Henry Blodget is now being sued by a New York doctor, who lost the $800,000 he invested for his children's education after following Blodget's stock recommendations.
Merrill Lynch is set to file an answer to these charges on 22 June and the case is scheduled for trial in February next year.
Dr Kanjalil bought shares in Infospace on the recommendation of his Merrill Lynch broker, who relied on Mr Blodget's recommendation.
His lawyers allege that Mr Blodget did not disclose a conflict of interest, namely that Merrill Lynch represented a company that was being acquired by Infospace.
The issue at stake is whether Mr Blodget - or indeed other analysts at different banks - are recommending shares for the wrong reasons.
The fear is that analysts issue strong buy recommendations because they could result in more business for the bank from the company whose shares they recommend.
"It is a ground breaking case, which seeks for the first time to hold a major firm's analyst responsible for misleading by recommendation on an internet stock," Jacob Zamansky, a lawyer at Zamanksy & Associates, told BBC News Online.
However, Merrill Lynch are quick to dismiss the "meritless claim made by sophisticated, experienced investors who sought high risk investments and made their own decisions."
A spokesman told BBC News Online: "Mr Blodgets' research has not been compromised. One must bear in mind that recommendations are exactly that, recommendations. Mr Blodget is a professional of absolute integrity. Merrill Lynch's compliance process is rigorous and designed to prevent the kind of conflict of interest falsely alleged."
Whatever the outcome of the case, the issue has become a hot one in the US, with Congress to hold hearings on analyst conflict of interest in June.
The Blodget case may centre on conflict of interest - but analysts on both sides of the Atlantic are coming under fire for their patchy success rate when it comes to forecasting share prices.
In particular, analysts face criticism for sticking doggedly to recommendations to buy or hold shares whose price is falling.
Some investors also question the methodology used by some analysts to make recommendations.
Those who track the performance of analyst recommendations - such as website marketperform.com - can unearth some interesting results.
CSFB, for example, has recommended 500 technology stocks since 2 February 1999. Prices increased for 194 of those stocks, but fell for 288 of them, according to marketperform.com.
Several other banks have a similarly patchy track record.
Salomon Smith Barney has recommended 243 internet stocks since April 1999. Prices have only increased for 68 of them, according to the same website.
What is becoming clear is that the glory days of the analyst appear to be nearing their end.
In truth, these heady days were shortlived.
Stock market historian David Schwartz points out that the rise of the analyst is a relatively recent phenomonen.
Stock analysts traditionally provided through research, insight and a guide to the future prospects of a company.
"Analysts were an underpaid segment of the investment community for a long time," Mr Schwartz said.
But the bull market in the 1990 heralded a rush of new companies to market and created an opportunity for some "expert" advice.
"The heyday of an analyst as a celebrity who is one of the public faces of the company out there talking up shares and selling shares and trying to build the company's profile, has passed," Schwartz said.
Just a punchbag?
But there is only so much blame that can be attributed to analysts for individual decisions to buy shares.
In many ways, last year's stock market boom and bust was so illogical and frenzied that investors want to find some to blame.
"The only people visible here, apart from investor stupidity, was the analysts who were making the recommendations," Schwartz admitted.
The only people taken in by analyst recommendations were people who didn't know what they were doing, says Brian Mairs of the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers.
"The situation as pertained to last year was you were damned if you did and damned if you didn't," he said. "If you weren't investing in these stocks, your clients would want to find out why not. If you were, you were exposing yourself to a very volatile market."
Fears mount of world economic slowdown
04 Jan 01 | Business
Analysts 'blamed' for internet share losses
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Life is lived in daily conversations, typically brief and seemingly inconsequential. Yet, every conversation creates unseen ripples in our relationships and out into the world.
It is the belief of the Center for Authentic Leadership that the measure of a man or woman is more than the sum of one’s words or deeds. It is the impact of who we are being as we speak and act that leaves the greatest imprint on others. Take a moment to consider, what is the impact of your life in relation to others, especially in those times when you are feeling disappointed, overwhelmed, tired, irritated or impatient?
Much of how we learned to think and act was shaped from our childhood experiences. The Center’s core work is to help individuals grow beyond their childhood training and realize their unique potential that, when understood and focused, can leave a powerful legacy for the benefit of all.
The Center’s work is designed to help community and business leaders, individuals and families address the following types of common concerns and needs:
- A manager’s or a parent’s concern about being “too tough” or “too soft” on others when trying to get something done.
- A leader’s desire to feel a real sense of fulfillment, beyond accomplishment.
- A desire to have the important relationships of one’s life feel more peaceful, gratifying, and sustaining.
- A desire to feel more connected to one’s children (spouse, parents, siblings …).
- Greater clarity about what to do next with one’s life.
- Greater satisfaction with the legacy one desires to leave.
The Center’s typical clients tend to be accomplished communicators, yet most everyone has areas in their communication where things could be better. We work on what could be “better.” We will help you harness and strengthen your impact.
We believe in living one’s legacy now through the ways one communicates each day, especially in difficult conversations where leadership is most needed. Are you interested in living your life in a way that reflects your deepest passion? Discovering your unique gift is a rare act; “living it” is a soulful act.
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Two Prosecutors At Guantanamo Quit in Protest:
Rather than take part in military
trials they considered
rigged against alleged terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
JESS BRAVIN / Wall Street Journal 1aug2005
Two Air Force prosecutors quit last year rather than take part in military trials they considered rigged against alleged terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Maj. John Carr, then a captain, and Maj. Robert Preston accused fellow prosecutors of ignoring torture allegations, failing to protect exculpatory evidence and withholding information from superiors. Altogether, the actions "may constitute dereliction of duty, false official statements or other criminal conduct," Maj. Carr wrote in a March 15, 2004, email summarizing his complaints to the then-chief prosecutor, Army Col. Fred Borch.
Army Col. Fred Borch
The email is one of several made available by officials in the Defense Department office that provides legal counsel to individuals charged under the military commission system President Bush created in 2001. The officials said defense lawyers obtained the emails last week from Col. Will Gunn, the departing head of the office, who is retiring from the Air Force. He couldn't be reached for comment.
Maj. Carr and Maj. Preston requested that they be reassigned rather than participate in the proceedings. Maj. Carr now handles civil litigation at the Pentagon, according to a colleague, and Maj. Preston is an instructor at the Air Force Judge Advocate General's School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala. Neither returned calls seeking comment.
The Defense Department says the allegations were investigated and found to be without merit, although they did prompt some management changes at the prosecution office.
The Bush administration hopes to restart the military commissions trying Guantanamo prisoners as soon as next month, after a federal appeals court in July found the proceedings lawful. The ruling, by a three-judge panel that included Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr., reversed a lower court that halted the proceedings in November on the grounds that they violated due process and U.S. obligations under the Geneva Conventions.
Lawyers for the Guantanamo defendants say they are pursuing appeals and other court action to declare the proceedings illegal. On Capitol Hill several lawmakers are considering possible legislation to regulate the military commissions and review detainee treatment. The Bush administration argues that congressional action would interfere with counterterrorism efforts.
Defense Department officials say several reviews, including one by a Pentagon inspector general, found nothing to substantiate the Carr and Preston allegations. "We found absolutely no evidence of ethical violations, no evidence of any criminal misconduct," says Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hemingway, legal adviser to the military commissions' appointing authority, as the administrative arm of the trials is called.
Gen. Hemingway acknowledges personality differences and "an awful lot of miscommunications" in the prosecution office, but says organizational problems have since been corrected.
Still, military lawyers assigned to defend accused terrorists say the emails buttress longstanding complaints about the proceedings' fairness. They say they want to review the investigations of the former prosecutors' allegations but haven't been given access to the findings. "It's real concerning," says Air Force Lt. Col. Sharon Shaffer, who is defending alleged al Qaeda accountant Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, who was captured in Afghanistan. "I know both of these Air Force prosecutors, they are very ethical, highly respected individuals."
The emails detail events in the preparation of cases against three of the four Guantanamo prisoners currently facing charges of war crimes.
In his email to Col. Borch, Maj. Carr describes "an environment of secrecy, deceit and dishonesty" in the prosecution office and suggests that despite lack of evidence, officials initially planned to tie the defendants to the most notorious al Qaeda attacks: the U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa, the USS Cole, and the Sept. 11, 2001, strikes on New York and Washington. Such charges were scaled back, he wrote, after Justice Department officials "appeared less than totally comfortable with our theory."
Col. Borch distributed the Carr and Preston emails throughout his office on March 15, 2004, with a cover note calling the allegations "monstrous lies."
The next month, Col. Borch was reassigned to the Army's Judge Advocate General's School in Charlottesville, Va., and later retired from the military. He now is court clerk at the U.S. District Court in Raleigh, N.C. "I've moved on with my life and don't care to discuss the case any more," Mr. Borch said.
Maj. Carr wrote that three prosecutors had suppressed "FBI allegations of abuse at Bagram" by failing to forward to superiors information they learned from Federal Bureau of Investigation agents "over dinner and drinks." Bagram is a military interrogation center in Afghanistan where many prisoners were held before being taken to Guantanamo. Maj. Carr singled out another superior officer for criticism, Navy Cmdr. Scott Lang, accusing him of misrepresentations regarding evidence. "Either he consciously lied to the office or does not know the facts of his case after 18 months of working on it," Maj. Carr wrote.
Specifically, he accused Cmdr. Lang of suppressing statements by defendant Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman al Bahlul that he had been tortured. Prosecutors say Mr. Bahlul, who was captured in Afghanistan, made al Qaeda propaganda videos. He is charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes.
Maj. Carr suggested that Mr. Bahlul told his interrogators that he had been tortured at a detention center after his capture. But Cmdr. Lang denied that there was any evidence of mistreatment during a November 2003 mock trial conducted by prosecutors to prepare for the real trial. Moreover, Maj. Carr wrote, his copy of Cmdr. Lang's notes detailing the torture allegations "is now missing from my notebook."
Maj. Carr added that an FBI agent "related last week that he called and spoke to Cmdr. Lang about the systematic destruction of statements of the detainees, and CDR Lang said that this did not raise any issues."
Cmdr. Lang has since retired from the Navy. He didn't return a telephone call seeking comment.
In his email, Maj. Carr suggests that prosecutors took steps to avoid putting comments or concerns about the proceedings in writing. He contends that prosecutors were providing advice to the appointing authority, the entity that oversees the proceedings and that may rule on defense motions and requests. After Maj. Preston told Col. Borch that advising the authority could create "a potential appearance of partiality, you advised him not to stop giving advice, but to only give advice orally," Maj. Carr wrote to Col. Borch.
Maj. Michael Mori, a Marine Corps lawyer defending another one of the detainees charged with war crimes, David Hicks of Australia, says the emails suggest the prosecution and appointing authority are "all living together, just one big, happy family."
Maj. Carr writes that Col. Borch "repeatedly said to the office that the military panel will be handpicked and will not acquit these detainees, and we only needed to worry about building a record for the review panel."
Criticisms of the prosecution's professionalism are sprinkled throughout the emails. Instead of "at least a minimal effort to establish a fair process and diligently prepare cases against significant accused," Maj. Carr wrote, he found an amateurish attempt "to prosecute fairly low level accused [terrorists] in a process that appears to be rigged. It is difficult to believe that the White House has approved this situation, and I fully expect that one day, soon, someone will be called to answer for what our office has been doing for the last 14 months."
President Bush authorized the military commissions to try non-U.S. citizens alleged to be engaged in terrorism for war crimes. The president directed that the trials be "full and fair" but said they need not offer defendants the same rights required by the U.S. Constitution or afforded U.S. military defendants in courts-martial.
Maj. Preston, in an email dated March 11, 2004, wrote, "I lie awake worrying about this every night ... writing a motion saying that the process will be full and fair when you don't really believe it will be is kind of hard -- particularly when you want to call yourself an officer and a lawyer."
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NEW YORK/LONDON: In the wake of the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, global rights groups have asked India to end the use of executions and move towards abolishing the death penalty.
"Questions need to be asked why the Indian government executed Afzal Guru now," New York-based Human Rights Watch's South Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly said.
"No one argues that those who engage in serious crimes shouldn't be punished, but the death penalty is brutal and irreversible, and there is no convincing evidence to suggest it serves as a deterrent," Ganguly said.
The group said it opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an inherently irreversible, inhumane punishment.
The hanging of Guru comes just three months after India executed the lone surviving 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab in a Pune jail.
"India should end this distressing use of executions as a way to satisfy some public opinion," said Ganguly.
"It should instead join the nations that have chosen to abolish capital punishment," she said.
Guru's execution makes it more urgent for India to reinstate its previous informal moratorium on executions as a step towards abolishing the death penalty, the rights group added.
Meanwhile, London-based Amnesty International has also expressed concern over Afzal's execution.
"We condemn the execution in the strongest possible terms. This very regrettably puts India in opposition to the global trend towards moving away from death penalty", said Shashikumar Velath, Programmes Director at Amnesty International India.
He alleged "serious questions have been raised about the fairness of Afzal Guru's trial. He did not receive legal representation of his choice or a lawyer with adequate experience at the trial stage. These concerns were not addressed".
"Before Ajmal Kasab's execution in November, Indian authorities used to make information about the rejection of mercy petitions and dates of execution available to the public prior to any executions. The new practice of carrying out executions in secret is highly disturbing," Velath said.
Guru was executed early yesterday for providing logistical support in the attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001, in which five heavily-armed gunmen entered the complex and opened fire indiscriminately, killing nine, including six security personnel, two parliament guards, and a gardener. All five attackers were also killed.
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|<< 2 John 1 >>|
Weymouth New testament
Greeting from the Elder
1The Elder to the elect lady and her children. Truly I love you all, and not I alone, but also all who know the truth,
2for the sake of the truth which is continually in our hearts and will be with us for ever.
3Grace, mercy and peace will be with us from God the Father, and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
Walking in the Truth
4It is an intense joy to me to have found some of your children living true Christian lives, in obedience to the command which we have received from the Father.
5And now, dear lady, I pray you—writing to you, as I do, not a new command, but the one which we have had from the very beginning—let us love one another.
6The love of which I am speaking consists in our living in obedience to God's commands. God's command is that you should live in obedience to what you all heard from the very beginning.
Beware of Deceivers
7For many deceivers have gone out into the world—men who do not acknowledge Jesus as Christ who has come in human nature. Such a one is 'the deceiver' and 'the anti-Christ.'
8Keep guard over yourselves, so that you may not lose the results of your good deeds, but may receive back a full reward.
9No one has God, who instead of remaining true to the teaching of Christ, presses on in advance: but he who remains true to that teaching has both the Father and the Son.
10If any one who comes to you does not bring this teaching, do not receive him under your roof nor bid him Farewell.
11He who bids him Farewell is a sharer in his evil deeds.
12I have a great deal to say to you all, but will not write it with paper and ink. Yet I hope to come to see you and speak face to face, so that your happiness may be complete.
13The children of your elect sister send greetings to you.
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Puerto de la Cruz
"Puerto de la Cruz - Nice beaches"
There are many many hotels in Puerto de la Cruz, but they aren't huge and there is still an old part of town with colonial houses.
The beaches are nice and the sand is of course black lava-sand.
"Teide - can be seen from all over the city"
The massive vulcano in the middle of the island, can be seen from all over the city.
This picture shows how the climate changes dramaticly on the island, from the warm subtropical climate at the beaches to the cold snowy top.
Every day the oceans wawes came rolling in and smashed into the shores and therefore many places are protected by hue rocks.
The last day we really got a reminder that the Canary islands are situated in the middle of a huge ocean, when the wawes got really big and even overfloated the promenade and some streets close to the harbour.
Everywhere we went people were looking at the ocean as it was so fantastic to watch, even though it made a huge noice. Eventually the police came and secured some of the promenade, some streets leading down to the harbour and some of the beach, as the wawes washed up.
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|Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous|
My Search for Jewish Cooking in France
By Joan Nathan
Occasionally a cookbook offers both historical perspectives along with equally exciting recipes. Yes, we use the term “exciting” because we consider each cookbook we read an adventure into culinary techniques, foods, and recipes. The new Joan Nathan cookbook Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France is one of these exceptional publications. It gives the reader both insights into the 2,000–year culinary history of Jews in France, along with many delicious and authentic French recipes – each with a kosher interpretation.
According to Joan, the title is reflective of the various Jewish influences in France. “In weaving them together the book is a testament to the Jewish people who, despite waves of persecution, are an integral part of France today, contributing to the glory of its cuisine.”
The book is filled with an eclectic assortment of French–Jewish recipes; based on the historical Jewish European and North Africa cookery. Quiche represents mainstream France – Dairy quiche “sans” ham and bacon is the Jewish interpretation of mainstream France. Kugel, actually means round in German, came from the Alsace region. It is traced to the 10th or 11th century when it was used as the second dish for the Sabbath meal. It accompanied Alsatian stews. Couscous represents the North African Jews. There are currently approximately 600,000 Jews in France and half have North African roots. Couscous is a Friday night tradition with this population.
Joan spent four years of research compiling the recipes and tracing the history of French Jewish cooking. She understood from the outset that invitations to people’s homes in France would not be as forthcoming as is in America, that visiting French-Jewish homes might be a challenge. But, due to her fluency in French and her friends and relatives who live in France, she was invited into several homes, shared meals, and gathered the information for the book. According to Joan, at times she felt “like a peeping Tom” When she had a meal in homes and if she thought something was good, she requested the recipe. Most complied!
We recommend Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France not only for the delicious French recipes, but also for the fascinating and personal stories behind each. Many are heirlooms; culinary treasures passed down through the generations and shared for the very first time.
We met Joan Nathan at Kosherfest, and are providing some excerpts from our conversation:
Are there food professionals whom you admire, and who have inspired you?
What is a typical dinner in your household?
What is a favorite Kitchen gadget?
Joan Nathan is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and other publications and the author of numerous books, including two James Beard award winning publications, Jewish Cooking in America and The New American Cooking.
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Thomas Sowell relates a fable for our time; the fact that it comes from Russia should be a warning:
An old Russian fable tells of two poor peasants – Boris, who had a goat, and Ivan, who didn’t. One day, Ivan came upon a strange-looking lamp; when he rubbed it, a genie appeared. She told him that she could grant him just one wish, but it could be anything he wanted.
Ivan said, “I want Boris’ goat to die.”
There is a lot of misdirection going on in the political world these days:
For years, using the powers of the Community Reinvestment Act and other regulatory powers, along with threats of legal action, politicians have pressured banks and other lending institutions into lending to people they would not lend to otherwise.
Yet, when all this blows up in our faces and the economy turns down, what is the answer? To have more economic decisions made by politicians, because they choose to say that “deregulation” is the cause of our problems.
No matter what happens, for politicians it is “heads I win and tails you lose.” If we keep listening to them and their media allies, we are all going to keep losing big. Keeping our attention focused on CEO pay – Boris’ goat – is all part of this game. We are all goats if we fall for it.
To comment on this post, go here.
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William Stanford is my oldest known Stanford ancestor. Direct evidence of his vital information remains a mystery. Census records lead me to believe that he was born in the Carolinas about 1820 and died in Alabama between 1900 and 1910. The 1870 census shows that most people with the Stanford surname, in Barbour county, over the age of 40, were born in the Carolinas.
The power of writing this blog about my 4x great grand father and divine intervention has shown me that I indeed have direct evidence. I just found marriage evidence. Folks, it is strange and delightfully overwhelming at the same time. Here is the blow by blow: Read the rest of this entry »
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|From within 100 yards, the best golfers in the world expect to knock it close every time. (Nick Serrata/EclipseSportswire.com)|
The fastest way to improve your score is to improve your short game from 100 yards in.
If you watch the best golfers in the world, they all miss the fairway more than 30 percent of the time, but from within 100 yards, they expect to knock it close every time. This is golf's scoring zone; it separates the winners from the losers, the low handicappers from everyone else.
The following golf tips will have you master your short game in no time:
For chip or pitch shots to an uphill or back pin location, adjust your stance so you are lined up parallel to the target. Play the ball in the middle of your stance using a 7, 8 or 9 iron, as opposed to your wedges.
Place your hands slightly ahead of the ball at address, and use the same motion you do when putting (an arm swing gives much better results than too much hand action).
Pitch shots fly higher than the chip shot, but they release and roll out once the ball hits the green. They're used for shorter shots than the chip shot or to pitch over an embankment, high grass or traps where there is plenty of room to land the ball on the green and run it to the pin.
Start by opening up your stance slightly, but keep your clubface square to the target. Play the ball in the middle of your stance, hands slightly ahead of the ball. For these shots, use one of your wedges (which wedge depends on the height of the shot you want to hit).
To hit these shots lower, use an arm swing; to gain more height, use a little more wrist in the shots. Experiment when practicing, and you will create the optimal pitching motion for each shot selection.
To hit a high lob shot to a tight pin, start by taking a narrow stance and open it and the clubface, and play the ball forward off your front toe.
Aim slightly to the left of the target (right-hand golfers) because the ball is going to fly where the clubface is facing. This shot calls for an accelerating and descending motion into the ball. Finally, set your wrists early in the backswing, and use more hand action on these shots.
This is the most difficult short game shot to master, so practice these shots often.
September 16, 2009
Les Miller is longtime Golf Writers of America member who has written golf instruction for several newspapers and golf publications. His many years of experience as a golf professional, director of product development and tour relations for several major golf companies gives him a unique background that helps golfers increase their enjoyment of the game.
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Shipping costs are extremely high, it is thus of benefit to encourage a firm to organize the expansion into Germany to be located closer to the customers. An expansion into Germany may turn out to be the best organizational decision you will ever make. A successful firm that is making high profits through sale of goods or services will certainly have undergone expansion into Germany. An expansion into Germany is bound to grant access to larger supplies of workers, larger areas of land and larger margins of profit. A host of electronic choices for maximising the marketing effort await a firm when participating in expansion into Germany. The expansion into Germany is of great importance to a firm that would like to be represented in all markets of the world. Business depends largely on good relationships with the consumers, this is important to note when undergoing expansion into Germany.
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| 0.971105 | 160 | 1.703125 | 2 |
Each year, Tim Duy organizes the Oregon Economic Forum, and this year he invited David Altig of the Atlanta Fed to talk about monetary policy. I'll be discussing fiscal policy, and one of the questions I'll address is whether more stimulus is needed. The poor condition of job markets will be a key part of that discussion, and this post of David's at macroblog provides additional evidence that the odds of a jobless recovery are increasing:
"Companies across the economy are holding off on hiring even as the profit outlook improves, amid economic uncertainty and their own success at raising productivity in rough waters.
"Hiring always lags behind in economic recoveries, but the outlook this time is worse, many economists say. Most forecasters now expect a prolonged period of high unemployment, even though the government is expected to report next week that the economy grew in the third quarter, after four quarters of contraction."
I'd like to be able to contradict what most forecasters expect, but we at the Atlanta Fed have been building the case for a similar outcome on macroblog. Here are few salient points from previous posts.
Job opportunities are scarce. (Oct. 14, 2009)
"At the end of August there were estimated to be fewer than 2.4 million job openings, equal to only 1.8 percent of the total filled and unfilled positions—a new record low."
This development could, of course, turn around as business activity picks up, but there is more than a little evidence that some structural impediments are afoot.
Job losses have been disproportionately concentrated in small businesses. (Oct. 6, 2009)
As Melinda Pitts pointed out a few weeks back, businesses with fewer than 50 employees account for about one third of net employment gains in expansions. They have accounted for about 45 percent of job losses since the beginning of this recession. Given that these are the types of businesses most likely to be dependent on bank lending—and given that bank lending does not appear poised for a rapid return to being robust—the prognosis for an employment recovery in these businesses is a question mark.
The share of workers reporting that they have been involuntarily cut back to part-time is at a recorded high. (Aug. 14, 2009)
"… the increase in people reporting that they are involuntarily working part-time rather than full-time is considerably higher in this recession than in past recessions. Although the increase in these workers has moderated some since the spring of this year, the number of people in the category of working part-time for economic reasons remains at 8.8 million, well above the level of past contractions in both absolute and relative terms."
One potential implication of this fact is that firms probably have the capacity to expand production without hiring new workers (or increasing worker productivity). All these firms have to do is give more hours to existing workers, who have indicated they would be plenty eager to have them. Good for them—and good for GDP growth—but not much help on the employment front.
Here is one additional concern that we have not previously emphasized.
The percentage of employee separations labeled permanent is at a recorded high.
Underneath the usual total unemployment numbers are the reasons an individual is unemployed: You are on temporary layoff; you quit your job; you have reentered the labor market and have yet to find a job; or you are entering the job market for the first time and have yet to find a job. Or, finally, you have been permanently separated from your previous employer, who has no expectation of hiring you back.
The last category is the dominant reason for unemployment at this time. That might not seem surprising, but it actually is. Never, in the six recessions preceding the latest one, did permanent separations account for more than 45 percent of the unemployed. The current percentage stands at 56 percent as of September and appears to be still climbing:
Of course, none of this is proof positive that we are in for a "jobless recovery," but, to me, the odds appear to be increasing.
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Golden Gardens Park
Seattle Parks and Recreation Information:
(206) 684-4075 | Contact Us TTY Phone: (206) 233-1509
Click to skip down to:
6 a.m. - 11:30 p.m.
ABOUT THE PARK
Located in Ballard on Puget Sound, this popular park offers extraordinary views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains.
The park was named by and developed by Harry W. Treat in 1907 as an "attraction" at the end of the new electric car lines being built by realtors to induce townfolk to take a "Sunday outing" out of town and through the woods to a picnic or swim at a beach. (Along the way they were made aware of the real estate available!) The Carbine ended at Loyal Way (& 85th) with a steep twisting dusty path down into the park - or those owning a "tin lizzie" could drive down a dusty county road (approximately the present drive entering the upper park from the north) and down to a small parking area on the east side of the railroad tracks, then by foot across the tracks to the beach. At that time the northern half of Meadow Point (named by the Coast Guard) was the site of a shipyard until 1913. To the south the beach curved in along the railroad seaway - all the way to Salmon Bay. The State owns the tidelands south of the park, with boat works and yards by the Bay.
LOVE PARKS! You can make a tax deductible donation to this park through the Seattle Parks Foundation.
To learn more about Seattle Parks and Recreation, including historic landmarks, military base reuse, and the Sherwood History Files, view our Park History.
( RETURN TO TOP )
Trip Planner brought to you by King County Metro Transit
I-5 Northbound or Southbound:
Large parking lot along beach & park with overflow parking lot east of park. Plenty of handicapped spots available.
( RETURN TO TOP )
In our large parks and recreation system, we could not do what we do without you.
PROJECTS & PLANNING
Parks & Green Spaces Levy
Plans & Policies
Vegetation Management Plan
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In a high-profile gesture of western solidarity, Mr Blair will visit Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany on Wednesday night, then fly to Paris for breakfast with President Jacques Chirac of France before heading to Washington.
Officials rapidly rescheduled Mr Blair's programme after Mr Bush invited the prime minister to discuss the crisis face-to-face.
But Downing Street has also decided that he should visit Manhattan before flying home for Friday night's EU special summit in Brussels.
At least 190 Britons are now known to have died in the attack.
Last night the new Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith, offered virtual suspension of party politics during the crisis, suggesting that shadow ministers could sit on emergency cabinet committees.
In a series of "non-stop conversations", Mr Blair spoke to two foreign leaders and orchestrated the maximum deployment of British diplomatic muscle to back whatever action British military forces may join against the network which destroyed the World Trade Centre a week ago.
In addition to a Downing Street meeting with Silvio Berlusconi, his Italian counterpart, the prime minister spoke for 15 minutes on the telephone to General Pervez Musharraf, head of Pakistan's military government.
Officials denied that Mr Blair had been putting pressure on the general to support US actions, describing it as "a good, helpful discussion".
It was also confirmed that Iran's help is being sought in isolating the terrorists. The UK's relations with Iran have improved since the fatwah was issued against writer Salman Rushdie. The US has no diplomatic links with Tehran.
However, in reality, Mr Blair's whirlwind of activity amounts to treading water while the US decides how to strike back.
Speaking outside Downing Street yesterday, Mr Blair stressed "complete solidarity" with the US and the support of "the vast majority of decent law-abiding Muslims" around the world.
The prime minister repeated his claim that "in ordinary, everyday terms we are at war with the people who have committed this terrible act". Tough public rhetoric may not reflect Whitehall's private caution in its negotiations with the Bush administration on the appropriate military response but it is necessary to maintaining influence.
Mr Blair is being advised on foreign policy by two former ambassadors, Sir David Manning and Sir Stephen Wall. Each combines his special adviser role with traditional posts as heads of the cabinet office's defence and European secretariats.
Even before the suicide attacks, Mr Blair was said to want Sir David, 51, to take on a role akin to President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.
In two breaches of normal cabinet procedures yesterday, Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, revealed that British intelligence had independent evidence that Osama bin Laden is the "prime suspect" behind the attacks. He called the crisis "the most worrying situation I can remember since the Cuban missile crisis in the 1960s."
Less helpfully for Mr Blair, Clare Short, the international development secretary, spoke for Labour's left when she urged the US to be "intelligent and responsible" in its retaliation and warned it would be "unbearable" if conditions are made worse for long-suffering Afghan civilians.
Liberal Democrat Menzies Campbell said Ms Short had been "quite right". Downing Street said that minimising such casualties "is the government's position".
Council of war: The PM's advisers
No 10 chief of staff and gatekeeper to the PM's office. An ex-diplomat with excellent Washington contacts who gave up his career to throw in his lot with Blair, unlike his elder brother, Charles, who advised Margaret Thatcher as a professional diplomat. Powell Jnr has a political contract.
Sir David Manning
The man emerging as No 10 White House-style "national security adviser". Aged 51, former ambassador to Nato, Soviet specialist and ex-ambassador to Israel, newly appointed head of cabinet office defence and overseas secretariat as well as joint foreign policy adviser. The man the White House knows will speak for Blair. "A very precise thinker."
Sir Stephen Wall
Soft-spoken head of cabinet office EU secretariat and Blair's European foreign policy adviser, crucial to keeping wobbly coalition-dominated allies in line, as No 10 discovered during Kosovo war. He is 54 and served in Downing St under John Major.
Former senior MI6 officer, recently appointed chairman of the joint intelligence committee, which assesses intelligence from all sources and sends reports to ministers. Scarlett, 53, is also the Cabinet Office intelligence coordinator. He is a Russian expert - he was named in 1994 when he was told to leave Moscow in a tit-for-tat "spy row". His predecessor, Peter Ricketts, is still in the loop as FO director for security issues.
Personal assistant to the prime minister and also his oldest friend in politics, she has had her brief expanded since the June election to keep the Labour leader in touch with government departments but also with foreign contacts. Strong personal loyalty to Blair's interests.
No longer the day-to-day media briefer but Blair's director of strategic communications who decides how to hone the message - and even whether the PM will appear on TV in jeans and open-necked shirt. Cut his propaganda teeth on the Mirror, and honed his war-of-words talents reshaping the Nato press team in Brussels during the Kosovo crisis. Aged 44.
Sir John Kerr
Wily permanent secretary to the Foreign Office, due to retire at Christmas, but far more experienced than most of Jack Straw's team. His successor, Sir Michael Jay, is being replaced as Paris ambassador by ex-No 10 adviser, John Holmes, one of several key embassies run by No 10 proteges. But tensions remain between No 10 and FO priorities. New FO Middle East chief, Alan Golty, is seen as too anti-Israel by No 10
Admiral Sir Michael Boyce
New chief of the general staff who enjoys direct access to the PM. He has succeeded the highly political General Sir Charles Guthrie, who made no secret of his fears about US military priorities, notably national missile defence initiative which could make British bases a target. Boyce is also believed to be sceptical.
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Quick Index Board Index Home FAQ Site Map
|The apparent absence of Mr. Knigthley in ch.15...
Written by MarianneR
(4/8/2008 3:32 a.m.)
Reading chapters 14 and 15 it struck me that at first we don´t hear anything of Mr.Knightley. (Emma doesn´t seem to notice him.) But when he finally "steps on to the stage" it´s interesting to see that it takes only a few sentences to give us a deep insight into his character. After Mr.John Knightley´s report on the snow we read:
...and they were still discussing the point, when Mr. Knightley, who had left the room immediately after his brother's first report of the snow, came back again, and told them that he had been out of doors to examine...He had gone beyond the sweep -- some way along the Highbury road...He had seen the coachmen, and they both agreed with him in there being nothing to apprehend.
...and while the others were variously arguing and recommending, Mr. Knightley and Emma settled it in a few brief sentences:
"Your father will not be easy; why do not you go?"
Knightley knows his brother well - he doesn´t trust his assessment. And because he - in contrast to his brother - is rather concerned about the well-being of others than of his own, he puts on his coat and steps out into the snow. He not only takes a few steps out of the door, he even goes some way along the Highbury road.
Groupread is maintained by Myretta with WebBBS 3.21.
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Dumb it down
What record did Apple beat today?
You know how everyone you meet seems to have at least one Apple product these days? Well that translates into an awful lot of money.
So Apple are rich. That’s hardly news.
True but Apple are really, really, rich. In fact, they have just been named as the most valuable company ever today.
Go on, tell us...
Based on their stock price yesterday, Apple is now valued at an astounding $623 billion, or around €500 billion.
So you said they broke a record, what company lost their very golden crown today.
That would be Apple’s old friends Microsoft who reached $621b in 1999, but if the figures were adjusted for inflation, Bill Gates’ lads would still lead by about $200b.
It might be a stupid question but how did Apple get so rich?
Put simply they sell a lot of stuff people want to buy but the rise in their share price in recent weeks is down to anticipation over the new iPhone, the iPhone 5, which should sell like Guinness at the Galway Races and make the company even more money.
Add in rumours about a new, cheaper iPad and you can see why investors think that Apple is only going to go up so they are piling in.
How much is one Apple share now?
A rather prohibitive $665.15.
And how much were they when they floated?
When Apple launched on the stock market, in December 1980, the shares were £3.59. When founder Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997, shares were still only $21.81, so you would be very, very wealthy now if you held onto them.
Just out of interest, how much is Microsoft worth now?
Just a mere $209b.
So what goes up must come down, right?
Market analysts are predicting that Apple shares will climb to around $750 at least, while some are predicting that it won’t be too long until it becomes $1,000 a share.
These are the same lads who failed to see the recent recession coming, right?
Yep, but they all claim that Apple is different.
Oh God, that’s it. I’m keeping my money.
But you will buy the new iPhone?
Of course, but that’s it.
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Joined: Sat Jun 23, 2012 3:54 pm
Curious about ELD
Hi everyone. I've been offered an intermediate-advanced ELD position for mixed middle and high school. I don't know if I should take it or not. The reason why is, this is not my field of speciality, but they seem desperate (and of course, it's a full time job that pays quite well and sure beats out subbing). To be honest, I am an elementary school kind of teacher. I work in the elementary classrooms moreso than middle-high school. I've never had a class full of ESL or ELD students before. In fact, I don't even know what an ELD-specific classroom is suppose to look like! That is one major reason why I'm iffy on accepting (or trying out) for this position, because I fear it might be too stressful for me and possibly a disservice to the kids. On the other hand, I may just be scared and have it in me to do a good job if only I would try.
I guess my questions include:
-What does an ELD-specific classroom look like? For some reason I imagine it like you talk with them, teach direct lessons, they repeat, they write down sentences, and you just have a round table discussion where they hang on every word you say, etc. Especially with middle and high school kids I just see them sitting on top of their desks, I'm sitting on mine, and we're just discussing and they're all getting a chance to speak and construct their own knowledge. (I guess I formed this visual image from a picture I saw once before). But I'm sure it's much more complicated than that.
-What's the difference between beginning ELD, intermediate ELD and advanced ELD? If I get this job, it'll be for the latter two.
-Can a lack-of-ELD-experience predominantly elementary sub teacher jump into a middle-high school ELD-specific class and do a good job? (I know this one is kind of hard to quantify)
-Anything you can say that would help me to weigh the pros and cons?
-Right now in my heart I get the sense I shouldn't try to accept or fight for this job position, but part of me wonders if I can do a good job if only I'd try. I also have to think about do I want to work full time guaranteed this coming Fall, or do I want to continue subbing and hoping for that magical full time elementary school position. I don't want $ to be the ultimate deciding factor though. I much rather base it on strength and fit. The thing is, the school likes me as I've subbed for them before, but not in an ELD capacity. I get along great with their staff. Just a shame this is the only thing they can offer me.
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Healthy Living: Presidential family member totes her battle to fight hunger back to NYC
Hunger and malnutrition have often been called the world’s biggest health threat, and former model Lauren Bush Lauren, who is the niece of former President George W. Bush and granddaughter of former President George H.W. Bush, has answered the call with her own charitable business that has fed millions of children. YNN's Kafi Drexel filed the following report.
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Through the sale of her socially-conscious FEED Projects reusable tote bags, former model and presidential relative Lauren Bush Lauren has helped to feed about 60 million children school meals in some of the poorest countries around the globe.
"I call myself sort of an accidental entrepreneur. It really came from the very simple idea I had after traveling with the UN World Food Programme and really learning about the issues of hunger and poverty firsthand and wanting to do something," says Bush Lauren. "Feeling frustrated that I didn’t have a way to allow other people and myself to get involved and know we were making a measurable impact, that’s when I thought of the FEED bag idea."
Hunger and malnutrition doesn’t just hit the poorest countries, but also strikes right here at home. As FEED Projects marks its fifth anniversary, more resources are also going to her fellow New Yorkers.
"We are here at the Yorkville Common Pantry in East Harlem and it is one of the beneficiaries of our FEED NYC line of bags as well as our FEED NYC Fund," says Bush Lauren. "There is such a need here. In New York, one in eight people are food insecure."
The need is great, as last year Yorkville Common Pantry alone served about 1.9 million meals to more than 25,000 city families.
"This partnership allows us to continue to do what we do which is to provide people with the food and services to be self-sufficient," says Yorkville Common Pantry Executive Director Stephen Grimaldi.
As FEED Projects' home operating base is also in the city, and plans are in the works to do even more there, the organization is putting on a benefit concert at Lincoln Center on May 30. The Clarins Million Meals Concert will be hosted by Nick Cannon, with special appearances by John Legend and former President Bill Clinton, and it aims to raise enough cash in one night to provide one million school meals to children around the city and the world.
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Iconic Hotel Indonesia Celebrates 50 Years
For me, Hotel Indonesia has always been linked with tales of my Indonesian family.
Many times I have heard the story of my mother, who as a young woman found out through a lucky coincidence that the new boss of a German bank was a guest at the hotel. With little knowledge in the world of banking, but the determination and desire to get a good job, she decided to take fate into her own hands and simply knocked on the banker’s door. Startled, but apparently also impressed by my mother’s boldness, he granted her a job interview.
I was also always amused about one of my cousins, who wouldn’t dare enter the hotel because he insisted it was haunted.
“There is one room where Sukarno used to stay,” he used to tell me in a low voice. “It is not rented out to guests anymore, because his ghost still roams around in there.”
And when I was still a kid visiting my relatives in Jakarta over the holidays, one of the highlights during my stay was always a visit to the swimming pool of Hotel Indonesia, seeking temporary refuge in the cool and refreshing water from the blazing sun.
Every Indonesian and foreigner ever having set foot in Jakarta, it seems, has a special memory of Hotel Indonesia, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and was once the only hotel in the city, much as Sarinah, a little further up the road, was the city’s first and sole shopping center.
Hotel Indonesia, which was officially opened on Aug. 5, 1962 by then-president Sukarno, is more than just a place to stay. It was built to mark the country’s entrance as a player on the world stage, and it has been a silent witness to the development of an independent Indonesia.
It has observed five decades of both prosperity and turmoil, and welcomed numerous visitors to its halls throughout the years, from presidents and artists to celebrities and starlets.
The image of the hotel, prominently located on Jalan Thamrin behind the marvelous fountain that features the city’s Welcome Statue, a pair of children happily waving, is in the minds of many, simultaneously the image of Jakarta.
Though it is now managed by Kempinski, the foreign hotel group has dedicated itself to keep Hotel Indonesia’s legacy alive.
More than 50 years ago in his speech, Sukarno equated the opening of the hotel with the opening of Indonesia as a country to the world and hoped it would become one of the vehicles for the rise of Indonesia’s economy and tourism industry.
“[We need to show] that Indonesia is not the nation of tempeh, but a nation that is truly independent that deserves to be respected,” he said.
Before the hotel was officially opened for business, Sukarno ordered a test run so the staff could brush up on its service. Allen Atwalt, an American citizen and employee of the Rockefeller Foundation, became Hotel Indonesia’s first guest.
Abel Sorensen, an American of Danish descent, was trusted with the hotel’s architecture, together with his wife Wendy, also an architect. Although the building has undergone several renovations and makeovers, the hotel has maintained its original shape: two rectangular blocks in the form of the letter “T” and an eye-catching window front, housing 406 rooms.
Back in its prime, Hotel Indonesia was the most happening place in the city. People from all walks of life wanted a piece of it: the richer ones would check in for a night or two to experience a stay in a “world class hotel,” while others were happy enough to try the famous bubur ayam (chicken porridge) for lunch.
Hotel Indonesia was also the starting point for several famous Indonesian musicians.
Legendary singer Bob Tutupoly was among the musicians who regularly performed at the hotel during the 1960s and still holds sweet memories of the time.
“It was an honor and an unforgettable experience for me as a singer and entertainer to be asked to perform for the guests at the Nirwana Supper Club,” the Ambonese singer said.
It was indeed Sukarno’s vision to present a slice of Indonesia’s diverse culture at the hotel, especially to its foreign guests. The hotel even had a dedicated art and culture department that organized music performances and art events on its premises.
It was a big stepping stone for a musician’s career if they were invited to perform at the hotel as it normally led to swift success. “For me, Hotel Indonesia was the place where I could go international,” said Bob, adding that for that reason alone, it would always have a “special place” in his heart.
Indonesian pop diva Titiek Puspa was another singer who regularly graced the stage at the Nirwana Supper Club. When she celebrated her 40th birthday at the hotel in 1977, it was one of the biggest parties the city had ever seen.
“At that time, it was not very common to have big birthday celebrations in a hotel,” the songstress recalled. “It is still a special memory, especially because Ali Sadikin [Jakarta’s former governor] was among the guests. From the 1960s until today, Hotel Indonesia is a place of pride, for myself, but maybe also for Indonesian society in general.”
Sukarno wanted the hotel, as well as boasting a unique entertainment program, to show Indonesia’s national character mainly through art. Paintings, murals and statues from renowned Indonesian artists have decorated the hotel’s halls from the very beginning.
“In my opinion, Hotel Indonesia is very important in the context of Indonesia’s art history,” said Suwarno, a curator and lecturer at Yogyakarta’s Art Institute ISI.
“This hotel was built under a strong influence of Sukarno, who involved Indonesian artists in the process. As we know, Sukarno showed a high appreciation toward the world of art. One might even say that he was an artist himself. All the artwork that can be found in the hotel are made by Indonesia’s most important artists.”
To remember and celebrate the hotel’s 50th anniversary, a series of events will be held this month. One highlight will be a theatrical show by Garin Nugroho called “The Legendary Journey.” The performance will take place on Wednesday and feature stars of the older generation, such as Bob Tutopoly and Titiek Puspa, along with up-and-coming artists like Aryo Wahab and Elfonda “Once” Mekel. The show will feature several stories revolving around the hotel’s history and how it once served as Indonesia’s door to the rest of the world.
Artists and musicians may have found other outlets to have career breakthroughs, and competition in the hotel industry has grown fierce over the years. Jakarta is home to many establishments, ranging from five-star to low-budget accommodation.
Yet, Hotel Indonesia still exudes a sense of glamour and grandeur, because one thing remains: it has withstood the test of time and has become a true icon of the country in the process.
> Continued on 26
> Continued from 25
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A day after Bartlett elected its new school board, several of the winners were meeting as part of the suburb's Education Advisory Commission.
The Wednesday meeting was a continuation of Bartlett's transition plan for preparing for the creation of a school board after Tuesday's election. Other suburbs have set up similar advisory groups.
The outlying cities continue to move down the road toward municipal school systems even though an anticipated judicial ruling could throw a blockade in their plans. U.S. Dist. Judge Samuel "Hardy" Mays is mulling over a question of whether legislation allowing the suburbs to move forward with referendums establishing systems separate from the countywide unified schools is constitutional. And even if that question passes muster, another one exists regarding whether suburban schools would reinstitute segregation.
In the meantime, suburban leaders are pressing forward with their plans for new systems optimistically by next August.
"You've got to keep moving until you have some kind of judgment," Mark Brown, Bartlett's chief administrative officer, said Wednesday.
Several cities are moving toward swearing in school board members early next month.
The suburban cities have pushed for separate school systems since Memphis surrendered its school charter, forcing a merged, countywide school system. All six suburbs — Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland and Millington — passed referendums Aug. 2 to establish municipal school systems. Separate referendums to bump the local option sales tax rate by one-half cent also were approved. A countywide referendum seeking a similar increase failed on Tuesday.
Brown said businesses in the outlying cities began collecting the additional sales tax last month, but the revenues realized from the increase probably won't return to the cities until December.
Collierville Town Administrator James Lewellen said Wednesday that officials were contacting the winners to set up an orientation-type training to advise them about the rules and their responsibilities. There are other training sessions the new school board members will need, some of them mandatory through the state.
In 1990, the Legislature mandated school board members be properly trained during their service on the board and gave the state Board of Education the responsibility to set the minimum requirements, according to the Tennessee School Boards Association website. The board requires every local school board member to participate annually in seven hours of training provided by the School Board Academy training program, administered by the State Department of Education.
School board members in their first year of board service must attend a two-day orientation course. In early December, the Tennessee School Boards Association has such an orientation scheduled.
"We're staying the course and doing everything we have to do to be ready to start a school board," Lewellen said. "We'll keep acting as if we'll open the doors."
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Ever been to the Getty in Malibu, CA?
I love going to the Getty Villa when I'm in California. I'm a native Los Angelino so I do go often. However, one thing that bugs me when touring these fabulous galleries is that the labels do not show any provenience. Where are these gorgeous objects from? Southern Italy? Greece? The Cyclades -- which island? So the latest story -- that follows, condensed -- is quite fascinating but not too surprising:
Getty Museum's Brand Faces Impasse in Italian Artifacts Dispute
By Stephen West
June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Michael Brand, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, has a problem that won't go away: a dispute with the Italian government over ancient artworks in the museum's collection. Once-promising negotiations have completely broken down.
In the 18 months that Brand has led the museum, he's strengthened its acquisition policy, hired several key staff members and helped organize new shows. He also helped repair the museum's reputation and that of the parent Getty Trust, the world's richest art institution with a $5.6 billion endowment. Brand struck an agreement with the Greek government over disputed antiquities, returning four objects this year, and was making progress in talks with Italy's Ministry of Culture over 52 disputed works.
``Everything was going along fine -- which isn't to say it was easy, but we knew what we agreed on and what we had yet to reach agreement on,'' Brand recalled in an interview. ``And then last November they placed a new condition on the table, that without the Getty Bronze there would be no agreement at all.''
The Getty Bronze, or ``Statue of a Victorious Youth,'' is a life-size Greek sculpture of a muscular nude athlete made between 300 B.C. and 100 B.C. that the museum acquired in 1977 for $3.95 million. It's a highlight of the collection, displayed in a special room of its own at the Getty Villa in Malibu.The museum's position is that the statue was made in Greece, looted by the Romans about 2,000 years ago and lost at sea. It was then discovered in 1964, in international waters of the Aegean Sea, by Italian fishermen who brought it ashore and quickly sold the heavily encrusted work to a local art dealer. After it was sold a second time the next year, the sculpture was shipped out of the country and eventually ended up with a Munich art dealer who sold the piece to the Getty.
In 1965, Italian authorities charged the first dealer and three others with theft and illegal sale of state property, claiming the work was part of Italy's cultural heritage. A court in Perugia ruled the next year that the prosecution didn't prove its case, especially that the statue was found in Italian waters and thus was state property. The decision was upheld on appeal.
``We acquired the object after those two cases,'' Brand said. ``At the time, the Italian Ministry of Culture made no claim on the object and made no claim on it after we acquired it.'' More investigations by the Italians in the 1970s and '80s failed to come up with clear proof that the statue was state property.``It's fair to say that the status of that object has entered the realm of domestic politics, for whatever reasons,'' Brand said. ``Which, of course, makes it harder for us, because that's nothing we can deal with.''
The Italian position is that the Getty has completely missed the point: Museums shouldn't buy and display smuggled art. The bronze should be considered illicitly trafficked because none of the people who bought and sold it ever declared the statue's export from Italy, as required by law, Minister of Culture Francesco Rutelli said.
After the U.S. and Italy signed a cultural treaty in 2001 that required the U.S. to return artifacts illegally exported after that year, the Italian government targeted antiquities in several U.S. collections, including the Getty, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.
``We remain absolutely ready to talk anytime if there's something constructive to talk about. There are other objects that we haven't reached agreement on yet, and we're perfectly happy to talk about them.''
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The Associated Press: The annual trustees report on Medicare and Social Security found that Medicare's hospital trust fund will last 12 years longer because of the health overhaul - until 2029 - but only if the government achieves significant savings in health care. Meanwhile, the recession has worsened the near-term outlook for the Social Security trust fund.
Both programs are "facing strains from an aging population and an economy that can't seem to get out of low gear," the AP writes. "And despite assertions to the contrary by the Obama administration, the new health care law doesn't improve Medicare's solvency by much. … Demand for services is going up, and income from payroll taxes can't keep pace. Meanwhile, the government has used trust fund surpluses to pay for other needs, leaving Medicare and Social Security with a pile of IOUs." The trustees include administration officials, but the technical work is performed by the independent Office of the Actuary, a health department body that has irked the White House by raising questions about how the health overhaul will affect Medicare (Alonso-Zaldivar and Crutsinger, 8/5).
The New York Times: "The financial outlook for both Medicare and Social Security improved due to changes mandated by the new law overhauling the health insurance system," according to the programs' trustees. "But Medicare, especially, continues to face insolvency in the long term as the population ages. Medicare's hospital insurance trust fund should remain solvent until 2029, or 12 years more than projected in last year's report, the trustees said. The long-term, 75-year shortfall for the hospital fund also is reduced, as are the projected costs of the separate Medicare Supplementary Insurance program." But the Medicare system will "require additional reforms to be financially sustainable, the trustees say" (Calmes, 8/5).
The Wall Street Journal: "Obama administration officials touted the projections in the annual report from Medicare and Social Security trustees as evidence of improvements brought about because of the health-care law. But they also noted that the improved outlook rests upon the successful implementation of the law." According to The Journal, elements of the health care law that "restrain the growth of Medicare costs" and "increase revenue to the Medicare trust fund by raising payroll tax and imposing a new Medicare tax on investment income" combine to improve the program's solvency (Vaughn and Hughes, 8/5).
Bloomberg: "In 2009, Medicare covered 46.3 million beneficiaries and paid $502 billion in benefits, the report said. The health law cuts payments to medical providers under the Medicare program, reduces future spending and puts in place programs such as the “Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation,” designed to develop future cost efficiencies" (Armstrong, 8/5).
MarketWatch: "Due to the recession the Social Security program is expected to run a deficit of $41 billion this year, before returning to surplus in the years 2012-2014" (Schroeder, 8/5).
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Sons of Iraq made Iraq safer. What's their mission now?
The US military is trying to transition 103,000 Iraqi neighborhood guards into steady work.
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
When a child went missing, SOI members identified and helped detain his kidnappers. But another SOI group also reportedly took over a gas station "for security reasons" and sold the fuel on the black market.
Other problems include infighting among SOI units, with the homegrown Iraqi lawmen giving US forces bogus tips about their rivals' supposed criminal activity. "We learned pretty quick that they were just trying to get us to fight their battles," says Captain Williams, a Newport Beach, Calif., native.
These issues indicate that the shelf life of SOI groups is finite. US and Iraqi officials are now figuring out what to do next with the 103,000 SOI members in Iraq. Many officials worry that if the SOI units are dissolved without transitioning members into steady employment, Baghdad's security will pay the price.
The key to maintaining that security, says Lieutenant Colonel Barnett, is finding them new jobs. "If they have long-term employment, then they don't have to turn to the insurgents for money to live on."
In Adhamiya, a neighborhood in north Baghdad where Barnett's regiment patrols along with some 2,000 SOI members, attacks have plummeted to less than a tenth of pre-SOI levels.
SOI members receive $300 a month from the US, a small amount even by Iraqi standards (low level Iraqi Army soldiers make roughly double). As of June, the US government has spent a total of $216 million on the program. The Iraqi government has committed $163 million to gradually assume Sons of Iraq contracts.
US commanders would like to transition 100 percent of SOI into the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) as soon as possible. But the final decision about incorporating SOI into the police or military will come from the Iraqi government – which is giving mixed signals on the plan.
As of May 31, only 17,000 (about 15 percent) of the SOI had joined the ISF.
Although there has been discussion about creating an additional Iraqi Army brigade here in Adhamiya composed mostly of local SOI members, sectarian politics could impede SOI integration. The SOI consist predominately of Sunnis. The Iraqi military consists of mostly Shiite and Kurdish soldiers.
"The national government is ... a Shiite dominated government," says Lt. Col. Pete Pierce, team leader of a Human Terrain Team in Baghdad who hails from Yorba Linda, Calif. "There are people within the government who are reluctant to incorporate what is seen as a majority Sunni armed force into the police or into the Army, but I don't think they have any choice."
It's rumored that many Iraqis who worked with Al Qaeda only switched allegiances when the SOI came to being. "In this type of environment ... a lot of people revert to what makes them the most money, and insurgency groups offer $200, $300, $400 just to go do some random act [of violence]," says Lieutenant Greene.
To avoid SOI defection to insurgent groups, the US Army is taking several approaches to provide lasting employment. First, it's giving the Iraqi government a list of local SOI members interested in joining the Iraqi Army or police.
The US is also trying to push SOIs into the commercial sector with the Joint Technical Education Reintegration Program (JTERP), a fledgling initiative that will provide paid vocational training in fields like carpentry and plumbing. And the US has created the Adhamiya Civil Service Corps, a collective of workers that can be hired by local contractors.
But, if initial interest is any indication, the Army may have a difficult time. Only about 10 percent of SOI in Adhamiya have applied for the JTERP program, says Capt. Gus Giacoman, ISF coordinator for 1-2 SCR and from Spring Lake, North Carolina. He says the jobs lack prestige.
"It's the Arab honor," says Captain. Giacoman. "Now, they have that honor of 'I guard the neighborhood' ... and you've got to find ways to let them keep it."
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The only breed of poultry to have 5 toes!
Henry, our Dorking cockerel at Mary Arden's Farm
Our graceful cockerel Henry stands proud and self assured with his hen friends surrounding him.
The Dorking is thought to be descended from chickens brought over to Britain by the Romans. With healthy appetites they eat plenty of cereals and pasture grass and as many worms and insects as they can find.
Dorkings are the only breed of poultry to have 5 toes.
Find out more about the other animals you can adopt:
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A few days ago i broke through the n = 6 barrier with a average n back score of 6.05.
The thing that still fascinates me about this is that I’m still seeing slow continuous improvement in my scores. It hasn’t been easy or rapid but steady and pretty continuous. I have felt and seen the difference that clearer thinking can make in day to day and professional life.
It’s really remarkable to reach a max average n back greater than 6… and now i can do 5′s almost without thinking… that just freaks me out.
I’ve been keeping track of my scores in a spreadsheet which enables me to look back on my progress several different ways: number of training days vs progress, number of training sessions vs progress and calendar time vs progress. I’ve completed 303 sessions along the way over the past 9 months.
The most positive and consistent correlate seems to be number of training days with n=back progress. The graph correlating calendar days to training progress is fascinating in showing a long plateau around n=5 last summer.
Thanks to all who have posted in this blog for inspiration and motivation to keep going.
The key learning from this, for me, is that continuous if not rapid improvement in your working memory is possible whether you start out as a genius or not. Hard work can pay off just stick with it. Benefits correlated with improvement in working memory are available to all of us.
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K12 Virtual Curriculum: Love It!
Visitor K12 Review: I currently have two students using the K12 virtual curriculum. We were looking specifically for curriculum that could meet or surpass the high standards of the private school the children had previously attended. The K12 curriculum gave us just that. My younger child was able to complete an entire grade level in math and begin a new one before Christmas. She is thrilled to work at her own pace. To quote her, "Mom, now I don't have to wait on everyone else."
My older child was also previously a straight "A" student, but had to be reminded constantly to complete and turn in homework assignments. We no longer have this battle. She can see her results instantly when she completes an assignment. She has been able to change the order of her lessons to suit her. Somehow this program has removed the nagging burden from me. She is able to see a direct relationship between her completed work and her weekly goals.
The questions we are most often asked about are social activities. My children are still participating in sports, music and other activities with children their own ages. They have always been very outgoing and that has not changed at all. They will tell you that they do not feel isolated at all.
We are making a commitment to K12 for another year. We never know what the future opportunities will be, but at this moment, I can not imagine going back to a regular brick and mortar school.
The flexibility in scheduling accommodates medical issues without a child feeling left out or left behind.
One of my children had an emergency procedure during the first quarter. This would have created a snowball effect in a regular school, but as she was able to do a few lessons while in bed and then continue when she was well, she did not feel so lost. She simply did the next lesson.
This does require some organization and commitment on the part of the adults, but it is so much easier than I imagined.
Top Computer-based Curriculum for Grades 3-12
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We would LOVE more K12 Homeschool Reviews!
Click here to share yours!
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VATICAN CITY, March 12 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI defended clerical celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church Friday after an Austrian cardinal suggested the practice needs examination.
Speaking before a meeting with a German bishop, the pope called celibacy "the sign of full devotion, the entire commitment to the Lord and to the 'Lord's business,' an expression of giving oneself to God and to others," the BBC reported.
Bishop Robert Zollitsch apologized for sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in Germany. The scandal there has touched the pope's brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, with allegations of abuse at a school where he was choir master. Ratzinger has admitted hitting boys but denied being aware of any sexual abuse.
Cardinal Christopher Schoenborn, archbishop of Vienna, wrote this week the church needs to examine how priests are trained, now the "so-called sexual revolution" has affected the church and the doctrine of celibacy.
The church only mandated celibacy for its priests in the 12th century and Eastern Rite priests are still allowed to marry. A number of married Protestant ministers who converted to Catholicism have been allowed to function as priests.
|Additional World News Stories|
DAMASCUS, Va., May 18 (UPI) --Dozens of people were injured Saturday when a car in the Appalachian Trail Days parade in Damascus, Va., plowed into the crowd.
MALMO, Sweden, May 18 (UPI) --Oddsmakers pegged Emmelie de Forest as the favorite to win the Eurovision Song Contest finals in Sweden Saturday.
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Making Space for a Kiosk/Cart Culture from Portland to Accra
[caption id="attachment_9198" align="alignleft" width="290" caption="Portland food carts."]
Kiosks are an opportunity to increase richness in our urban fabric, promote experimentation and deliver goods/services in walkable locations while providing economic development. Urban designers and planners should consider them in their plans, and look for ways to encourage innovation in kiosk design and placement.
Photos and article by Stacy Passmore, re:place Magazine
In Portland you might enjoy a steaming bowl of curry, while in Accra a spicy box of jollof. Both purchased for a low cost and in a convenient location. What is known as a cart in Portland or New York, a kiosk in Accra or Moscow, might also be a booth, pavilion or a stand. Each is a different form of micro-enterprise that plays an increasingly important role in our cities today. A kiosk is an efficient way for an individual to start a business with low costs and short time, while providing an immediate service to an urban area. Congruently, the vibrancy of a neighborhood can be accentuated through the articulation of these small forms. But in spite of their proven role in developing walkable, socially intense communities, kiosks are an afterthought to urban design, and are impaired by insecure tenure, and generally considered undesirable.
Portland’s ‘cart culture’ is primarily oriented to food services, and within this limited sector, operators offer creatively designed structures and a wide variety of cuisine types. The carts are distinctively mobile, often in the form of a trailer or a truck, located on temporary sites. Because of their impermanence, a website called ‘Portland Food Carts’ keeps track of their location and services, helping hungry people find the best taco cart or the closest place to buy barbeque. Yet, the city does not commit to these structures, and only allows them in specially approved locations, typically vacant lots or adjacent to parking.
The City of Vancouver is stricter, limiting both the size of the cart and allowing only a handful of different food types. (Can we please have something besides hotdogs?) Responding to similar pleas, Vancouver’s Town Council has launched a pilot program that will run from July 2010 until April 2011 to test drive an expanded street food-vending program that aims to diversify the culinary options and expand small business opportunities. They have added 17 additional locations to the approved list with a distinct focus on healthy and nutritional options. The pilot program also required applicants to submit a waste management plan that demonstrates how they will reduce the environmental impact of the operation. Some concern came from the retail community, who worry that these new businesses will offer too much competition with lower prices and more convenience. Vancouverites can look for these new kiosks scattered around the city this summer, a list of the locations is available on the City’s website
[caption id="attachment_9199" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="A kiosk in Tema, Ghana."]
By contrast, Ghana’s ‘kiosk culture’ is pervasive and diverse. Set up in public right of ways from shipping containers or wooden sheds, they are rarely mobile by function, yet transient in tenure and construction. If electric connections are made they are hijacked from nearby wires. However, the kiosks are essential to neighborhood life and where most daily needs are purchased – from bread and mangos to cell phone credit. Because there is little regulation and anyone can build a kiosk in a public space without enforcement, they consume all of the sidewalk area, forcing pedestrians to risk their safety walking along the edge of the road. This has a compromising effect on public space and the social utility of the public realm in Ghanian communities.
So how do we find a balance between over and under regulation? Minimize homogeneity and maximize creativity? Where do we make room for kiosks in our dense crowded cities, and in streets where bikes, pedestrians and cars are already competing for space? How can we support kiosk owners in offering a wider range of services and goods, while establishing information networks to help clients find their specialty services? How can their architecture be dynamic and productive, to process stormwater or produce energy, as one architect in West Africa is researching? Distributed throughout our cities they could even play a role in governance, providing information about political or community related topics. They may be a great solution for suburban areas, where small-scale retail may be infeasible due to parking requirements and excessive road widths are asking for additional program.
[caption id="attachment_9200" align="alignright" width="320" caption="Portland cart culture street scene."]
Undoubtedly the answers to the questions will be case specific, and depend on the city and local culture. Kiosks are an opportunity to increase richness in our urban fabric, promote experimentation and deliver goods/services in walkable locations while providing economic development. Urban designers and planners should consider them in their plans, and look for ways to encourage innovation in kiosk design and placement.
Websites about Carts and Kiosks:
Stacy Passmore is a writer and urban design planner. Currently living in Accra Ghana, she has worked in Vancouver, New York, California and Colorado. Her background and travel experience have fueled a passion for land use issues and resilient community planning. She also contributes regularly to PlanningPool.com on topics related to sustainable urban design.
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Today in desperately important gay news, a 26-year-old Physical Education (P.E.) teacher at The Abbey School in Faversham, Kent, faces two years suspension for allegedly having a lesbian affair with a pupil.
Another staff member spotted Nicola Webster and a Year 12 student holding hands and kissing. Allegedly the relationship began on a school skiing trip, the girl shared a one-bedroom flat with Webster, and Webster had booked a week-long Valentine's Day holiday to Majorca for the two of them. The student, referred to in the news as "Pupil A," was a "Sixth Form" student.
The case seems to be a bit of a mess. Nicola Webster claims she is straight and that the allegations against her were made up by Rachel Skelcher, head of PE, in an attempt to get her friend a job. Webster said:
"I can confirm that I have never, and never will enter into a relationship with a pupil. I can also confirm that I am not gay. I am straight, and I know about teacher boundaries and to this day I teach to those boundaries. I am a successful teacher and I love my job."
The General Teaching Council accepted some of the allegations, like that an inappropriate relationship occurred, but rejected others, like "an accusation that they had attended parties as a couple." The whole case is a little bit confusing, but regardless the teacher's final punishment rests at two years suspension, during which she's been encouraged to "reflect on the seriousness of her conduct."
In the UK, it is illegal for persons in a "position of trust," like a doctor or a teacher, to have sex with under-18s in their care. Although I'm not certain why this particular case didn't make its way into criminal court -- perhaps they were unable to prove actual sexual contact occurred -- the circumstance nonetheless raises some interesting questions about other, similar circumstances.
For starters, it is an uncontested fact that women can and do rape other women. However, often teacher/student cases involving two women are perceived differently than those between a man and a woman because men are assumed to be more predatory and manipulative than women. There are often too many factors involved to adequately assess if women get off with lighter sentences than men -- for example, men are more likely to have used physical force or violence than women.
There's also a perceived physical and social power imbalance between men and women (which manifests itself interestingly when approaching cases with a female educator/male victim). Whereas the same situation between an older male teacher and a young female student would initially alarm just about everyone besides the creators of Pretty Little Liars, that's not always the case when the case involves two ladies.
Responding to an increase in reported female sex offenders, a 2007 Seattle News story said:
"The decadelong wave of sexual offenses committed by women — teachers in particular have exposed a cultural double standard: The public is more willing to accept the female abuser's claim that she had a "relationship" with the victim. And in cases in which the male is a teenager, the sexual abuse is more likely to be dismissed as a rite of passage. The questionable, yet overriding assumption, is that women predators are somehow different from men."
The vast majority of female-educator/female-victim situations are clear-cut cases of predatory sexual behavior and assault, like most criminal acts, and are treated as such. But the following cases have been largely referred to as "lesbian affairs.":
+ London, 2009: 15-year-old student, 26-year-old former child prodigy music teacher. Hellen Goddard, the aforementioned prep schoolteacher known as "the Jazz Lady," received a 15-month sentence for her affair with a 15-year-old female student. The student admits that she “instigated” the relationship and felt “guilty” about Goddard’s legal situation. The student's parents were the ones who reported the affair. (In the UK, the age of consent for female-on-female sex is 16, which is clearly above the age of the girl in this case.) When we originally wrote about this case, most of your comments regard our recent redesign and how attractive Hellen Goddard is. The Judge who sentenced Goddard told her he wouldn't prohibit her from seeing the girl after she turned 16.
+ New Jersey, 2007: 17-year old female student, 28-year-old PE teacher and field hockey coach. The teacher was charged with three sex-related offenses, including first-degree aggravated sexual assault. Both parties attest that the relationship was consensual. (In New Jersey, the age of consent for female-on-female sex is 16). The teacher was fired and did not have to register as a sex offender.
+ Ontario, Canada, 2007: 17-year old female student, 37-year-old teacher. Leslie Merlino received a suspended sentence and a 12-month probation in 2009 after pleading guilty to three charges regarding a sexual relationship with the student. Merlino will be in the Sex Offenders databank for the rest of her life. The student refused to file a victim's statement and said she'd renewed contact with Merlino on her own volition. (In Canada, the age of consent for female-on-female sex is 16)
+ Oklahoma, March 2009: 16-year-old female student, 45-year old teacher. The victim said the acts were consensual, she had no regret, and said she'd had sexual relations with another educator at the school. The teacher pled guilty to two counts of oral sodomy and is serving a 2-year prison sentence. (In Oklahoma, the age of consent for female-on-female sex is 16)
Furthermore, the student/teacher lesbian affair trope pops up quite a bit in lesbian media in a compassionate light. Of perhaps 13 lesbian films ever produced, at least three feature student-teacher affairs -- Bloomington (honestly one of the worst movies I've seen in my life), Loving Annabelle (didn't suck) and Mädchen in Uniform (which was made in 1931, way before I was born). The Vagina Monologues include a story of a 13-year old girl and a 24-year-old woman.
Anecdotally I've heard lesbians argue that it's different with girl-on-girl because the actual dating pool is much smaller -- the older woman isn't necessarily choosing a younger woman over someone her own age but rather choosing a younger woman over nobody. Another issue raised was whether homophobia or a need to stay in the closet was a mitigating factor that shouldn't be ignored. One person I talked to mentioned, "I don't know why anyone would want to talk to a teenager, ever, if they didn't have to." I can't even conceive of what these teachers were thinking, however, or why anyone over the age of 18 would be attracted to a teenager BUT moving on.
Do you think there's a double standard for males and females in cases like this? For opposite-sex cases versus same-sex cases? Do you think that it IS different for girls? When a teenager above the age of consent says she consented, what does that mean to you? Do you feel like your response to these situations is tainted by the big lezzie crush you had on your English teacher in high school? Discuss.
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By James Balland and Craig Timberg
The Washington Post
— The rapid spread of cellphones with GPS technology has allowed police to track suspects with unprecedented precision — even as they commit crimes. But the legal fight is only now heating up, with prosecutors and privacy activists sparring over rules governing the use of powerful new investigative tools.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit stirred the debate last week when it supported police use of a drug runner's cellphone signals to locate him — and more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana — at a Texas rest stop. The court decided that the suspect "did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy" over location data from his cellphone and that police were free to collect it over several days, even without a search warrant.
The decision riled civil libertarians, who warned that it opened the door to an extensive new form of government surveillance destined to be abused as sophisticated tracking technology becomes more widely available. On Monday, six days after the appeals court ruling, the U.S. attorney in Arizona cited it in defending the use of cellphone location data to help arrest a suspect accused of tax fraud.
"We're looking at the very frightening prospect of an excessive degree of government intrusiveness in our personal lives," said Gerald L. Gulley Jr., the Knoxville, Tenn., lawyer who represented the drug-running suspect at the Texas rest stop. "I don't think that people who go out and buy cellphones necessarily contemplated . . . the degree of intrusion in their personal life." Gulley says he'll appeal the case.
Many legal experts expect the issue eventually to find its way to the Supreme Court, which touched on it in a January ruling that police violated the rights of an alleged drug dealer in Washington by placing a tracking device on the underside of his car.
About 100 million Americans carry smartphones capable of emitting location data almost continuously. Even some less-sophisticated devices have such capacity, as do the navigation systems in automobiles and some laptop computers. Worldwide, 154 million smartphones were shipped to consumers in just the past three months, according to International Data, a market analysis firm. (The Global Positioning System functions often can be switched off, but that deactivates some phone features.)
Changing technology has long strained the legal strictures of the Fourth Amendment, whose prohibition on "unreasonable" searches and seizures was born of 18th-century law and guides the legal standards for when police can tap phones, use tracking devices and monitor a suspect's Internet activity.
Cellphones always have been trackable to some degree, as users moved among towers that carried the signals necessary to make the devices work, creating an electronic record in the process. But GPS technology is far more sophisticated, narrowing locations typically to within a few feet. Many smartphones relay location data to central servers throughout the day, as users check traffic, search for nearby restaurants or scan weather maps.
Combined with information from toll booths, credit card machines and security cameras, people in highly wired nations often move within a web of data that can allow governments to pinpoint individual movements down to the second.
The location data become even more potentially valuable when associations among people can be mapped, as they are on social media networks. A British research team tracking 25 volunteers in a Swiss town used GPS data, text messages and calling history to pinpoint current movements and predict where individuals were likely to be 24 hours in the future.
Researcher Mirco Musolesi, who teaches computer science at the University of Birmingham, said police could use location data to track suspects, predict crime hot spots, even anticipate political protests if enough potential participants are known. Downloading all the data on a single cellphone tower, as can be done easily with current technology, could allow police to identify those present at a demonstration.
Musolesi said the researchers in their experiment had to sign waivers promising to not use the data to determine where the 25 volunteers lived. "It's just ethics that stops us doing this, as the data are there," he said. "You can . . . construct information about behavior — if he's in a movie theater, find out what he's seeing. It's quite fine-grained, so you can track shops. There are big privacy implications."
The Supreme Court's decision in January was narrow — dealing only with the issue of the police accessing the suspect's car without a valid warrant — and left open the broader question of what rules guide government collection of the personal location data.
The Sixth Circuit Court went further in its ruling last week, noting that previous court cases have established that information legitimately in the public domain — such as an individual's movements on public roadways — can be gathered by police in many situations. Improving technologies, the court said, are permitted to assist police investigations, even if criminals are not aware of the latest techniques.
"When criminals use modern technological devices to carry out criminal acts and to reduce the possibility of detection, they can hardly complain when the police take advantage of the inherent characteristics of those very devices to catch them," the court said.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, which was running the case, acquired a court order — although not a search warrant — to monitor the suspected drug runner's phone. But the court said neither may have been necessary for such cases. (One of the judges on the three-judge appellate panel said a warrant was needed.)
"We have two vague opinions and a lot of concern," said Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor following the issue. "At some point in the next 10 years, the Supreme Court is probably going to have to figure out how it feels about cellphone location information."
The uncertainty has prompted the Justice Department to tell law enforcement officials that, although they may not need search warrants when they seek GPS data, it would be wise to get them until the courts clarify the issue.
Legislation proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) seeks to set the standards. "When the Supreme Court had an opportunity to settle the question, they all but begged the Congress to step in and provide clearer rules," Wyden said.
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Autonomy Watch: Makassar grows with waterfront city concept
The Makassar municipality’s initiative to become a world waterfront city has gained support from international institutions. The World Bank has given the municipality the chance to show the development progress it intends to implement over a 100 day period.
“After the 100 days, precisely when Makassar celebrates its anniversary in September, the World Bank will evaluate the progress that has been made. If it deems that we have met the standards, it will recommend Makassar receive funds from international institutions to finance development as a global city with a waterfront concept,” said Makassar Mayor Ilham Arief Sirajuddin.
Ilham and five of his team members attended the World Cities Summit, which was followed by a training session on waterfront city development in Singapore from May 22 until June 2.
During the summit, Makassar submitted a proposal themed “Makassar Waterfront, River and Canal Development”, approved by the selection committee. The committee invited 23 cities in Southeast Asia to participate in the selection process, where only four cities were selected — Makassar, Metro Manila, Haiphon and Ho Chi Minh City.
The proposal served as a progressive model that will be implemented over a period of 100 days and as a master plan reference of change in Makassar’s development as a global city over the next 20 to 30 years.
“In the next 100 days we will initiate a program to restore river banks and canal areas, including infrastructure development which would later make the city more comfortable for its residents,” said Ilham.
The municipality has planned to relocate residents to flats which it will build in coastal areas, provide employment and good surroundings so people could benefit from the development. According to plan, the Makassar municipality will build a number of flats to relocate residents. It has chosen areas along the Losari coast by reclaiming coastal area.
Hasanuddin University economist Hamid Paddu, who joined the team at the summit, said Makassar had very strong potential to become a global waterfront city given its character and condition, which was similar to other global cities such as Singapore.
He said that Singapore’s condition 28 years ago was as chaotic as Makassar is now, but its government was able to convert the city into a clean and comfortable city with a balanced lifestyle for its residents and the environment.
“The main thing needed to change the city into a global city is the political will from the government. The Makassar city administration has it now. With the support from every element of society, it could be achieved and donor institutions and private investors would surely come and invest in every development sector,” said Hamid.
Hamid said urban development in the city, which spans 175.77 square kilometers and is inhabited by 1.4 million people, would become stagnant if Makassar failed to change its development concept for the next 15 years.
“With redevelopment, the city would become a beautiful and clean city, not only in regards to residences, but also as an interesting tourist destination,” he said,
Hamid added that binding rules in the form of provincial bylaws incorporating a new master plan for Makassar and supported by every element of society were needed so that anyone who becomes the city’s mayor in the future would still be responsible for continuing the development plan.
Dani Pomanto, the architect who designed Makassar’s development concept, said the coastal reclamation concept carried out by the municipality would not disturb or damage the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, as the coast, which is located in the middle of the city, has continued to accumulate silt from sediment carried by the Jeneberang and Tallo rivers that empty into the Makassar Strait.
According to Dani, coastal reclamation would instead block sediment from flowing to the Soekarno-Hatta Port and protect the city.
Selected comments will be published in the Readers’ Forum page of our print newspaper.
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By Lisa Merton
Thursday, January 5, 2012
"Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai" is broadcast tonight on PBS. Here, Lisa Merton looks back on making the film in Kenya and struggling to capture the sense of divinity and hope projected by the recently deceased Nobel laureate.
(WOMENSENEWS)--My engagement with the late Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai began as a 15-minute film and ended with the 54-minute tribute that airs tonight on PBS.
I hope viewers of our film will pick up on the luminous sense of divinity that hovered around Maathai. If so, we will have done our job.
Maathai did what had to be done and never lost hope, however hard things were for her. Her perseverance made it difficult for me to accept, just a bit more than three months ago, that she could really die. I thought I would have her as a friend and mentor for 20 more years, at least.
"Well I must say that when you travel along a path such as the one I have traveled, you must have hope," she said to me in an interview in 2005. "You can't afford to give up. And so no matter how dark the cloud is, there is always a thin silver lining. I always tell myself, just look for that thin silver lining and hold onto it long enough . . . and eventually that silver lining can sometimes become a very big beam of light."
My first meeting with Maathai was in May 2002 when Alan Dater, my husband and filmmaking partner, and I were asked to go to Yale University to interview the Kenyan environmentalist. A board member of the Hartley Film Foundation had heard Maathai give a talk and asked us to produce a 15-minute film based on our interview and some archival footage.
At that time Maathai was the McCluskey visiting fellow in conservation at Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. I remember clearly the moment she walked into the room. Her smile was wide and crinkled up the corners of her eyes with laughter. Her handshake was strong and firm. As her story unfolded, we were in awe.
She had grown up in the Central Highlands of Kenya living on the land; a "child of the soil," as she put it. Everything she said was imbued with that deep rootedness in the natural world and her understanding of humanity's interdependence with nature.
As a University of Nairobi representative to the National Council of Women of Kenya, she came to learn that rural women did not have enough firewood, their children were malnourished and the soil was eroding from their fields. It was then that she made the connection between environmental degradation and poverty and suggested to women that they plant trees to ameliorate their circumstances: trees prevent soil erosion, they supply firewood and nutritious fruit to combat malnutrition and can also provide economic benefits.
In fighting for a healthy environment for rural women, for good governance and human rights, Maathai had walked a path that brought her head to head with Daniel arap Moi, the president who had a stranglehold on power in Kenya for 24 years. In 1989, the Moi regime was behind the proposed construction of the Times Tower, a 62-story skyscraper in central Nairobi's Uhuru Park, "the people's park," as Maathai called it. She successfully stopped the construction of the tower. This was the first of many confrontations that pitted Maathai and Moi against one another.
She had suffered personally and publicly, yet she harbored no bitterness. In February 1992, for example, she demonstrated with the mothers of political prisoners in Uhuru Park at what came to be known as Freedom Corner. Hundreds of people demonstrated for several days. The Moi government sent in the General Service Unit, an arm of the Kenyan military, to brutally break up the demonstration. Maathai was beaten unconscious and was in a coma in a Nairobi hospital for many days.
By Danielle Zielinski
By Miriri Duncan
By Henry Neondo
By Ajitha Menon
By Ellen Spiro
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The City of Knowledge sees itself as a manager of knowledge and a creator of synergies among various institutions. This task has a final goal: to promote in our environment a sustainable human development model whose raw material is scientific and humanistic knowledge, as well as dialog between cultures.
The Foundation's Academic Department is the compass that guides the City of Knowledge toward that goal. The Academic Department team works on consolidating relationships between the academic and entrepreneurial sectors, so as to achieve those knowledge transfers, but also as a specific attempt at attracting and organizing training and research programs with excellence and academic innovation, ensuring their quality, promoting such bonds between organizations, and identifying opportunities for development in these areas for Panama.
There are already various high-quality research centers and academic programs in place at City of Knowledge, and there are courses, seminars, practical workshops, sabbaticals and internships. In addition, the Academic Department facilitates logistics between them and promotes a constant exchange between our visitors and affiliates, as well as with those organizations that usually collaborate with our Foundation. Besides, the Academic Department fosters and develops projects of its own, such as CIDES, aiming particularly at an interconnection of experiences and knowledge transfer.
Learning is more than a right. It is the option for those who are committed to the future.
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Quote of the Day
The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.
If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.
We human beings are strange creatures and still reserve the right to think for ourselves.
The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.
I like Mitt Romney as a person. I think he's a dignified person. But I have no common ground on economics. He doesn't worry about the Federal Reserve. He doesn't worry about foreign policy. He doesn't talk about civil liberties, so I would have a hard time to expect him to ever invite me to campaign with him.
Our worldly successes cannot be guaranteed, but our ability to achieve spiritual success is entirely up to us, thanks to the grace of God. The best advice I know is to give is to give those worldly things your best but never your all - reserve the ultimate hope for the only one who can grant it.
Prices are going up. Unemployment is continue to go up. And we have not had the necessary correction for the financial bubble created by our Federal Reserve system.
We reserve our deepest respect and admiration for those who volunteer for service and give their lives to help keep our nation secure.
Love is a sacred reserve of energy; it is like the blood of spiritual evolution.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.
Our policy is very simple. The Jewish state was set up to defend Jewish lives, and we always reserve the right to defend ourselves.
Well, the chairman of Federal Reserve just made his move to rescue Barack Obama. We're gonna have QE3. We're gonna print some more money.
The reason most people don't express their individuality and actually deny it, is not fear of what prime ministers think of us or the head of the federal reserve, It's what their families and their friends down at the bar are going to think of them.
There are unknown forces in nature; when we give ourselves wholly to her, without reserve, she lends them to us; she shows us these forms, which our watching eyes do not see, which our intelligence does not understand or suspect.
I mean, I'm a conservative. I believe that, you know, if you borrow too much, you just build up debts for your children to pay off. You put pressure on interest rates. You put at risk your economy. That's the case in Britain. We're not a reserve currency, so we need to get on and deal with this issue.
Many a man is praised for his reserve and so-called shyness when he is simply too proud to risk making a fool of himself.
J. B. Priestley
Even though the National Guard and Army Reserve see combat today, it rankles me that people assume it was some kind of waltz in the park back then.
I couldn't be happier that President Bush has stood up for having served in the National Guard, because I can finally put an end to all those who questioned my motives for enlisting in the Army Reserve at the height of the Vietnam War.
In those days, reserve duty lasted for six years, which, I might add, was three times as long as service in the regular army, although to be perfectly honest, I was unable to fulfill my entire obligation because I was taking acting classes and they said I could skip my last year.
The world will never have lasting peace so long as men reserve for war the finest human qualities. Peace, no less than war, requires idealism and self-sacrifice and a righteous and dynamic faith.
John Foster Dulles
No padlocks, bolts, or bars can secure a maiden better than her own reserve.
Miguel de Cervantes
Spending time at the Federal Reserve was a good learning opportunity for me. It helped me to understand economic philosophies and polices that I had not previously known about.
I was Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. As you know, there are twelve banks and they have their citizens board, and I got elected to the Fed Chairmanship for the Federal Reserve Kansas City Bank back in the mid-'90s. It might have been 1995-'96.
The Obama administration's plan is to have the Federal Reserve regulate banks that might pose a 'systemic risk' if they were to fail.
As soon as I got successful, the Scottish press started picking on me. It's something they reserve just for me.
I am artistic so I reserve the right to change my mind at any point. I just like to do different things. What is more important than the name is that people know that I really like acting, I enjoy it and I want people to know that I am serious.
LL Cool J
Mankind will never win lasting peace so long as men use their full resources only in tasks of war. While we are yet at peace, let us mobilize the potentialities, particularly the moral and spiritual potentialities, which we usually reserve for war.
John Foster Dulles
Silence and reserve will give anyone a reputation for wisdom.
You can't fall back on the private sector and say, 'You take care of the nation's banking system.' That's a fundamental function of the government, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury and the FDIC, etc. All of those agencies have a major role to play there.
The Bush administration did stop filling the reserve in 2002 when it helped the oil industry. Now they should do it to help the consumer.
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Dear Friend: Epistolary Novels
On my recent vacation, I sat by the ocean reading Dear Exile: The True Story of Two Friends Separated (For a Year) by an Ocean by Hilary Liftin. Hilary and Kate are best friends who decide to write letters back and forth while Kate serves in the Peace Corps. I loved delving into their letters and the women reminded me of my best friends.
Epistolary novels have been around for many centuries. One of the more famous novels in this form is Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Although written letters seem to be dying out, many authors are still using this popular format for novels today.
Here are a few of my favorites:
- Rosie Dunne by Cecelia Ahern
- Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
- The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot
- Life on the Refrigerator Door: Notes Between a Mother and a Daughter by Alice Kuipers
Stephanie C loves sending letters to her friends. She thinks coming home to a letter in the mailbox from a good friend is a perfect way to end the day.
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1. How did you first learn about permaculture design and which of the three ethics most resonates with you?
My guess is that my work in green business and sustainability morphed into the permaculture sector sometime in early 2011. I earned my PDC from Kevin Bayuk and David Cody at the Urban Permaculture Institute in San Francisco. Right afterwards, I created and led the San Mateo County Permaculture Guild for a short time and founded the community jobs portal for permaculture called PermacultureXchange.com, a short-lived experiment. In my experience, permaculture remains outside of the mainstream and without critical mass of funding mechanisms, jobs and political clout.
“Central to permaculture are the three ethics: earth care, people care and fair share. They form the foundation for permaculture design and are also found in most traditional societies. Ethics are culturally evolved mechanisms that regulate self-interest, giving us a better understanding of good and bad outcomes. The greater the power of humans, the more critical ethics become for long-term cultural and biological survival. Permaculture ethics are distilled from research into community ethics, learning from cultures that have existed in relative balance with their environment for much longer than more recent civilisations. This does not mean that we should ignore the great teachings of modern times, but in the transition to a sustainable future, we need to consider values and concepts outside the current social norm.”
First, I don’t see much ethical behaviour in capitalism. My New Myth series depicts Eras just ahead that will challenge whatever equalitarian ethics we have left. Ethics are founded in the sacred and this source is dwindling, too. As the Chaos Era now explodes in front of us, I will choose Fair Share. This ethic seems to be the best practice or permaculture baseline for our climate challenged Ecos.
2. The fork in the road seems to say “Abundance” this way and “Scarcity” that way but collectively we don’t yet seem to have made up our mind about which way we want to turn. Do you have any suggestions about how to more effectively communicate the opportunity of Abundance and the dangers of the other road?
Huge media corporations and their pro-consumption clients and government lackeys are in firm control of the communication challenges across the globe. More locally, I have yet to gain access to land to farm and feed myself. There are so many fences! My fear is that we will wait until it’s too late to choose between the two and civil strife will erupt followed by martial law.
To me, abundance is a spiritual path or practice and something that we are no longer holding in a shared or sacred space.
[Ed: Willi recorded a workshop earlier this year exploring the new myth Building the story of Cascadia. The video can be viewed here. Image courtesy ofNewMythologist.com]
3. The word “myth” conjures up a large range of images from the stories of ancient Greece to a TV show focused on debunking science misconceptions, what does it mean to you?
Myths to me are now “new myths”, formed by peak-oil and climate change, species depletion and green energy dreams. We need new myths to help us come together and forge a new path. The classic myths are just worn-out and less relevant to many now. New Myths are new stories, art, poetry, etc. that serve as road maps in the future. [See Willi’s Journey to Cascadia: Building a New Global Mythology for more on this topic]
My new myths include new symbols and a tool kit of 5 new alchemies:
Sound: Rock Music
Landscape: Permaculture
Spirit: Transition Movement
Community: Localization
Religion: Dark Green Religion
4. Scientists call the current geological era the “anthropocene” as human activity is now a key driver of global ecosystem changes, how do you see this aligning with the “new myths” you have shared on Permaculturehub.com and NewMythologist.com?
Most of my new myths are set in the Post-Transition Era, a time 35–50 years from now when the impacts of climate warming and corporate war making may be an everyday reality so that some lands on Earth will be available for food production – and settlement – while others will not. The anthropocene will threaten the grid and could be accompanied by a dramatic drop in all population levels. There are many maps we need to create to guide us through this maze!
5. A few years back Malcolm Gladwell popularized the term “tipping point”, describing it as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.” We appear to now be nearing or passing numerous ecological and social tipping points, how are you preparing for what might come next and what suggestions do you have for folks who are trying to figure out how to navigate the transition?
I am building the New Global Mythology Institute on the web and with friends who own a permaculture ranch south of Half Moon Bay. I am learning and creating new spiritual and metaphysical tools that combine old wisdoms and new technologies.
My work in new mythology is collaborative and future focused. My new myths are calls to my brothers and sisters to prepare for a new world. Join the Transition movement. Buy a farm. It’s time.
We are past tipping points and now find ourselves in the melting pools.
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Single moms, who are mainly raising their families on their own, are very often in need of help. One category of help is housing resources for single mothers, and the avenues of assistance available to these females will be examined.
Apart from its being the American dream to own a home with a white picket fence where their children are safe, owning a home is a good investment for a single mother. The house may appreciate in value after a few years because of improvements to the neighborhood in which the house is located. The task may seem daunting, especially for a single mom earning a low income, but there are loans and other facilities available which may just provide the start a single mother needs.
Fortunately for single mothers, there are agencies and organizations that are willing and able to give housing assistance to those in need. We’ve compiled a huge list of housing resources for single mothers that should provide a good starting point for single moms looking to secure some housing assistance.
Housing Assistance Resources
The following resources are available for people looking for some sort of housing assistance options.
Mercy Housing Live in Hope
Mercy Housing is a nonprofit organization at the national level which develops, finances, and operates housing communities that are affordable. These communities target families and other persons with special needs but who do not have the resources to fund them. Their vision is to create healthy communities with supportive programs aimed at transforming neighborhoods and stabilizing lives. Their mission is to operate on the principles of –
- Respect – for the dignity of persons,
- Justice – where persons are treated fairly and impartially, and
- Mercy – which causes a compassionate response to persons’ needs.
There are several Mercy Housing multifamily affordable rental housing locations in a few States. Their corporate office can be reached at 866-338-0557, for assistance with applications and information on available properties.
US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
This federal government organization has a housing choice voucher program which aims to assist very low income families, among others, with decent, safe, and sanitary solutions in private schemes. Participants are issued with vouchers and they are free to choose townhouses, single-family homes or apartments outside of housing projects, as long as they meet the program’s requirements. The rent is subsidized in the amount on the vouchers, and is paid directly to the landlords on the families’ behalf. The families then pay the landlords the difference in the rental charges.
Under special circumstances the public housing agencies (PHAs) may allow families to purchase modest homes with their vouchers. This is facilitated by the Homeownership Voucher Program which targets first-time home owners who need assistance with the monthly mortgage and other homeownership expenses. Additional information, including conditions, is available at http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/public_indian_housing/programs/hcv/homeownership
USDA Rural Development/Housing & Community Facilities Programs (HCFP)
The Housing and Community Facilities Programs enable rural Americans to own, renovate or repair their homes. They also provide financing to low-income residents in multi-unit housing buildings for rental payments.
Several single family housing loans and grants are also available.
The Rural Housing Guaranteed Loan
This is the strictest of the loan facilities, as applicants must meet certain criteria. These include –
- Must be without satisfactory housing
- Must be able to afford the mortgage payments, inclusive of taxes and insurance
- Must have reasonable credit histories.
The Rural Housing Direct Loan
These loans are mainly used to help individuals or families with low income to acquire homes in rural areas. The funds may be used to construct, repair, renovate or even relocate homes. Funds are also available for purchasing and preparing construction areas, and for providing water and sewage facilities.
The Rural Repair and Rehabilitation Loan and Grant
The Very Low-Income Housing Repair program makes loans and grants available to homeowners who have very low income, and who wish to repair or improve their dwelling places. The loans and grants can also be used for modernizing their houses, or removing safety and health hazards.
Mutual Self-Help Loans
These loan facilities target families with very low or low income, with a view to helping them to build their own homes. These participants are usually not able to purchase clean or safe housing using regular methods, and they help to build each other’s homes while being ably supervised. This realizes savings which are used to offset mortgage payments.
Rural Housing Site Loans
These loans aim at providing financing for the purpose of buying and developing housing sites for families with low or moderate income. Low income falls between 50 and 80 percent of the area median income (AMI), while the upper limit for moderate income is $5,500 above the limit for low income.
Individual Water and Waste Water Grants
These grants make government funds available to families living in an area that is recognized as a Colonia before October 1, 1989. Available only in Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Texas, these grants assist residents to connect service lines to residences, install plumbing, etc.
Self-Help Technical Assistance Grants
These grants are made available to nonprofit organizations and public entities so that they can in turn help very needy and low-income families to build homes in the rural areas by utilizing the self-help method.
Technical and Supervisory Assistance Grants
These grants enable low-income rural families to either find housing that adequately meets their housing needs, or make guidance available so that families can continue to live in houses that are already adequate, or both. This is done by established housing delivery projects as well as counseling projects which are managed by eligible applicants.
Housing Finance Agencies (HFA)
The support that these Agencies offer to families and others is wide ranging and can be found in every state at http://www.ncsha.org/housing-help. For example, in the state of Nevada churches may join with the government and so provide housing that is affordable for members of their congregations and other persons. Help is also given to residents who are in danger of losing their homes through the foreclosure route. The Nevada office can be accessed by visiting http://www.ncsha.org/housing-help/state/nevada.
HOME Investment Partnerships Program
HOME is an agency which gives grants to States and communities so that they can build, buy, and rehabilitate housing for affordable renting and ownership, or directly assist persons with low income to pay their rental fees.
National Low Income Housing Coalition
This organization dedicates itself exclusively to achieving a public policy that is socially just, and which ensures that persons with low incomes in the United States are able to have decent and affordable residences. This is done through their programs, some of which deal with –
- Foreclosure intervention
- Disaster recovery
- Housing plus services, and
- Federal housing programs.
The Cohousing Company
This organization is a full-service architectural firm which builds affordable co-housing communities. Cohousing involves intentional planning, designing, and constructing of private homes with common facilities to form neighborhoods that are managed by the residents.
2-1-1 Connecting People in Need with Community Services
This facility enables calls to be made for emergency help for affordable housing as well as other basic human needs. Services are provided by United Way Worldwide and the Alliance for Information and Referral Systems (AIRS). Services include providing a resource for basic human needs in the form of –
- Food banks
- Rent assistance and
- Utility assistance.
Making Home Affordable (MHA) Program
This Program is a crucial part of President Obama’s broad plan and strategy aimed at helping homeowners avoid foreclosure, as well as stabilize the housing market, and improve the nation’s overall economy. As a result of the program, homeowners are able to –
- Lower their payments – as a result of modifications made by the MHA savings of more than $500 monthly may be realized.
- Lower their rates – through refinance programs offered by the MHA, mortgage rates have been more affordable and stable.
- Receive help with a second mortgage – when the current mortgage arrangement is burdensome, MHA has programs designed to alleviate such worries.
- Receive help with a fallen home value – when the housing market causes a decrease in the value of homes, MHA has programs designed to address those concerns.
- Obtain help if unemployed – regarding assistance when –
- More is owed than what the houses value
- There are home equity loans to be paid
- HELOCs or other second liens put pressure on being able to afford their own homes.
- Exit gracefully – when owning a home is not affordable anymore and, in fact becomes burdensome, one of MHA’s programs will facilitate a graceful exit from the property, and provide $3,000 to assist with relocation.
Homelessness Assisance for Moms
Some organizations focus on the matter of homelessness with a view to dealing with it or eradicating it altogether.
National Council of State Housing Agencies (NCSHA)
HFAs also have created the National Council of State Housing Agencies which are nonprofit organizations with plans aimed at putting an end to homelessness and, better yet, to prevent it from occurring in the first place. In order to accomplish this they focus on providing housing stability and choices for mobility to families. They target families who spend more on housing than on anything else, because they were the most likely to pull up roots and move several times in search of more affordable housing. http://www.ncsha.org/blog/center-housing-policy-finds-affordable-housing-provides-families-stability-and-mobility-choice.
Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH)
There is also a program of supportive housing for persons who are already homeless, have low incomes and other serious complex issues challenging their existence. They also work to not just put an end to homelessness, but also to –
- Improve housing stability
- Improve employment
- Improve mental and physical health
- Improve children’s school attendance
- Reduce the active use of drugs and other substances
- Help create more productive lives
- Help build strong and healthy communities
- Improve the safety of neighborhoods
- Beautify city blocks
- Increase or stabilize property values.
Bridge of Hope National
This organization also aims to end and prevent homelessness by targeting and helping churches and families one at a time. They solicit help from donors, and through their affiliates, program sites and church sites, combine the talents of professional staff and mentoring groups so that homeless and mothers who are at risk may be empowered to obtain –
- Permanent housing
- Employment which provides financial stability
- Friendships that are life changing and long lasting
- Growth and a sense of wholeness.
Catholic Charities USA
These agencies serve persons of all beliefs, and offer various kinds of assistance, including housing solutions. In accordance with their motto they work to reduce poverty in the US. Through their housing counseling program they provide –
- Homebuyer education,
- Mortgage delinquency and reverse mortgage counseling, as well as
- Relocation counseling and other services.
Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
This society offers various kinds of assistance to those in need. This includes persons who are struggling to keep their homes or pay their utility bills.
This Agency targets homeless single mothers and their children, with a view to providing confidential and safe transitional housing that has integrated support services. The aim is to successfully re-integrate the residents into the community using proper housing, among other services. Residents are encouraged to stay in the Vision House homes for from 18 months up to two years, or longer if they enroll in a four-year degree program. They can be reached at 425-228-6356 for information.
Fellowship Housing – Hoffman Estates, IL
Fellowship Housing is a transitional living program which operates for two years at a time and targets single mothers and their children who are either homeless or are at risk of acquiring that status. It works to save money to improve the situations of single mothers while providing subsidized housing and mentoring on a one-on-one basis. It operates in the state of Illinois, and its contact number is (847) 882-2511.
CoAbode – Single Mothers House Sharing
CoAbode is a facility which offers a matchmaking service that is quite unique. Single mothers who have one child or more children have the option to choose another single mother with whom they have the opportunity to pool resources and finances while sharing a housing facility. This arrangement has many advantages to both co-habiters.
Community Action Partnership, Sonoma County, CA – Programs
This facility offers two programs –
Single mothers with children, among others, who are working to overcome their homelessness, are provided with affordable housing solutions. This also applies to single mothers who are trying to get off public assistance and are aiming at long term stability. This is achieved by enrolling all residents in an individualized program which plans to –
- Help them find employment
- Help them obtain living wages
- Help them acquire permanent housing.
Chanate Women’s Emergency Shelter
This is Sonoma County’s non-sectarian emergency shelter that is open throughout the year to provide emergency housing and meals, as well as supportive services to homeless adult females. The service is offered on a first come, first served basis, and is open to residents of Sonoma County. The program offers assistance with rental fees or deposits. Interested applicants are required to attend an orientation on either a Monday or a Thursday, and complete and submit an application which is available at the orientation. An information sheet can be found at www.capsonoma.org/forms/oriontatweb.pdf.
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►After a drone strike in Yemen killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American linked to al Qaeda, a question of the legitimacy of killing an American was raised. Is it legal to kill an American overseas without presenting evidence of wrongdoing? CIA general counsel Stephen Preston says it is. Speaking at an American Bar Association national security conference, Preston said “citizenship does not confer immunity on one who takes up arms against his own country.” Jeh Johnson, DoD general counsel agreed saying that if a person is declared an enemy combatant and a U.S. citizen, the prior takes precedence saying “Courts are not equipped to make those types of decisions which very often are based moment-by-moment on an intelligence picture that constantly evolves,” Reuters reported.
►The Canadian Human Rights Commission is urging the Canadian government to pass a law making security organizations monitor their human rights performance and make the data publicly available. “Canada's national security organizations say they don't use racial or ethnic profiling, but Karen Mosher, the secretary general of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, says it's hard to verify those claims,” CBC News reported “Public confidence requires demonstrable proof," acting chief commissioner David Langtry said in a statement.
►Stand-alone stores have higher shrink rates than stores located in strip malls. Loss prevention budgets have slightly increased. And criminal background checks are becoming a primary countermeasure in retail security. In a column for Loss Prevention, Richard C. Hollinger, administrator of the 2010 National Retail Security Survey discusses the survey's final results.
►In a column for Forbes, Torbjorn Ward, CEO of Aptilo Networks, says SIM authentication is the first step to making WiFi networks more secure for the growing number of WiFi enabled smartphones. ♦ On Sunday, 45,000 residents of Koblenz, Germany will be evacuated while explosive ordnance disposal troops disarm a 4,000 pound World War II-era bomb that was recently uncovered. ♦ And a story from the New York Times examines the recent findings of PTSD in military working dogs.
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- ISRAEL21c - http://israel21c.org -
Isaac Berzin to enlist Israelis into the business of green
Posted By Karin Kloosterman On June 4, 2008 @ 8:14 am In | No Comments
TIME Magazine voted him one of the 100 most influential people of 2008. Now Israeli Isaac Berzin has returned to Israel from the US to set up a new biofuel powerhouse in Israel.
While Israel has some of the world’s most promising clean technology companies for producing renewable energy — consider Ormat and its geothermal power station in Nevada or Solel’s solar energy plant in the Mohave Desert – proving viability on Israeli turf has been a sore spot for inventors and would-be international and local investors.
Lack of policy and infrastructure in the Israeli government stalls the rapid implementation of new clean technologies. This harms not only Israelis who need cleaner, alternative fuel sources, but it is a disservice to the environment and people around the world, who would readily adopt this tiny nation’s innovative solutions if proven they could work.
Thanks to a little green vision in the form of algae, Isaac Berzin, the founder of GreenFuel Technologies in Cambridge MA, has returned to Israel to help turn Israeli ingenuity into action. Now a senior fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) in Herzliya, Berzin has plans to build a new Institute for Alternative Energy Policy in Israel under the IDC.
Berzin looks to collect the best-fit alternative energy solutions from across academia and the industry in Israel – about 10 different technology platforms – to build a center of excellence, “10 times bigger and stronger than GreenFuel,” Berzin tells ISRAEL21c
Recently voted as a Time Magazine most influential person for 2008, if anyone could build a biofuel powerhouse in Israel it would be Berzin, who has a kind of rock star popularity in the US for his work with GreenFuel. Continuing on as an advisor in the company, he says, “GreenFuel is doing great, the baby is walking now.”
The father of three, who now lives in Jerusalem, sees the importance of creating a real solution to end the world’s dependence on oil within the next few years. If it’s not found, in 10 years he says, the planet will have “reached the point of no return.”
Taking advantage of Israeli technology and research, Berzin is planning to have a serious biofuel solution ready within five years. While there is no one silver bullet solution, he admits, Israel has all the tools to start making a renewable fuel alternative.
Israel’s toolbox includes decades-long research into water technologies and grey-water irrigation, and the know-how for taking advantage of low-quality land and growing crops on brackish water. “Algae can grow in salt water, with sewage and on any type of land quality,” says Berzin. “The world is moving to a ‘grow your own solution’ for energy crops, and there is no reason why Israel shouldn’t be a leading country in this field,” he says.
The new institute he is currently setting up, will develop sustainable and strategic global alternative energy policies and will collaborate with the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) based in Washington, where Berzin is also a senior fellow.
A representative from the IAGS wrote ISRAEL21c, “[We] congratulate senior fellow Dr. Isaac Berzin for his inclusion in TIME Magazine’s 2008 list of the world’s 100 most influential people. Berzin received this honor for his important scientific contribution to the development of alternative fuels and for his leadership role in the global movement to end the world’s oil dependence.”
Earlier this month, Berzin signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the US Department of Energy as an “honest broker” for helping his new institute choose what technologies and research to implement. The institute, after all, is expected to be a moneymaking endeavor as well.
According to Berzin, investing in the clean fuel solutions of oil-rich algae is a “zero-risk exercise. The solution is attractive, because I am not punishing the industry. The world is moving to producing its own energy crops. Algae for biofuel is (finally) an economically viable solution. It is also a moral solution – not competing with food crops on valuable resources such as fertile land and potable water.”
Article printed from ISRAEL21c: http://israel21c.org
URL to article: http://israel21c.org/environment/isaac-berzin-to-enlist-israelis-into-the-business-of-green/
Copyright © 2012 Israel. All rights reserved.
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It’s hardly a surprise that animators Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis are back in the Oscar hunt again with their new film, Wild Life. Their last short, When The Day Breaks (1999) was an artistic and critical success, garnering the pair numerous awards as well as an Oscar nomination. Their latest film, co-produced by the National Film Board’s Bonnie Thompson and Marcy Page, took 7 years to make, a quirky but realistic depiction of the life and times of a generation of young British men, often of considerable family wealth, who were cast off to seek their fortune in one of the numerous British Colonies (which at that time still represented half the globe). Known as Remittance Men, these mostly clueless chaps with more gumption than sense made their way in large numbers to the “wild west of Canada,” which was short on wild and long on isolation and boredom. The toll prairie life took on scores of people, including these transient Englishmen, was tremendous.
The two animators were moved by family stories of these pioneers and the odd but fascinating place they hold in Canadian history. Wild Life is a deliberate film, austere in a way that doesn’t complicate or suffocate the story. Brilliantly and beautifully animated with vibrant characters and prairie vistas, the film is an intimate, often funny snapshot of a uniquely Canadian experience from over a century ago. We caught up with the pair of directors while they were visiting Los Angeles.
Dan Sarto: Congratulations on the nomination. As an artist, do you ever expect accolades? Do you ever sit back and say, "Yah, this is good. We made a good film. People are going to like this."
Amanda Forbis: We're absolutely delighted but I can't say it was expected. You never really know. When we finished this film, we had a lot of open questions about how it was going to read and what people would think of it. It got off to a very slow start. In Europe, it didn't do very well at all. We spent a lot of time saying, "What did we do wrong? Why isn't it reading? Why aren't people getting it?" You never know what to expect.
Wendy Tilby: Also, compared to When The Day Breaks, I think it has a different audience because there is a lot of talking in it. The language slightly inhibits its potential with a European audience. They just don't "get it" in the same way even with a translation. We knew that going in, we knew having speaking parts was a slightly different thing.
AF: It's also a slightly odd film in its structure. Like Amanda said, we didn't know if it was translating. When you get immersed in a project that goes on for years, one begins to doubt one's ability to tell if it works or not because you're so far into it.
WT: The other thing too is that it's so Canadian. We weren't sure how audiences would respond to such a regional story.
DS: It's a different film from your other work and it's very Canadian. The humor is also very dry.
AF: One of things that causes it not to translate very well in Europe is that for a lot of Europeans, they just can't relate to it. Canadians and Americans, we're nations of immigrants. We all have immigration in our past somewhere. So, it’s part of who we are, whereas for a lot of Europeans, it’s not part of who they are at all. Then, the whole issue of space and isolation. Not a problem in Europe, but certainly a problem in Canada. When that young guy came over, isolation was a big part of the deal. It was kind of terrifying. I'm not sure if you haven't experienced it you could relate to it.
DS: What is the genesis of this story and your desire to make this film?
AF: A number of years ago someone told me about "Remittance Men" in a conversation. They were young men sent over from England by their families at the turn of the century to "become a man" and make something of themselves. They just poured into the Canadian West. There were something like 60,000 in a ten year period. Then they all went off to fight in the First World War and never came back. I was startled by the fact I'd never heard of them. It’s a way with the Canadian West that we don't celebrate our own history because we don't have the knack for mythologizing the West like the US does. Part of it is because it was a lot tamer history. But I mentioned to my dad, "Have you heard of Remittance Men?" and he said, "Oh sure, your mother's family is full of them" which again, was a surprise for me. My grandfather and three of his brothers came over and in Wendy's family, her grandfather came over as an electrical engineer. They just bombed on the prairie. They didn't die, but they did not do very well. They were not well suited to farming. It was a very personal history but I don't think we realized how personal until we started talking about it. Not quite living memory, but pretty close. So that's where it all started from.
DS: In the US, there are few if any greater mythical icons than the cowboy.
AF: Absolutely. That's what the Brit would have heard about and would have been expecting, that culture, when they came to Canada. They dreamed of being that kind of cowboy. But, it wasn't to be. Certainly, there were real cowboys that lived a real hard life. There were lots of stories of Englishmen getting off the boat and picking up their "kit" from a store that outfitted them with a giant cowboy hat, sheepskin chaps and a 6-shooter. They were following the fantasy of the American West. And the locals laughed and laughed and took their money and sent them out to dude ranches to learn to be cowboys. And they took more of their money there and then sent them out on the prairie where they really did play polo and croquet. They really did do that a lot.
DS: It's an interesting period of history. As you say, they probably all went off and died fighting in WWI.
AF: Yep. There was a great line by a fabulous newspaper man in Calgary. He said, "Well, the Remittance Men, they may have been green, but they weren't yellow" when he was talking about them all going off to fight in the First World War.
DS: What would you say was most challenging about the story as well as the production?
WT: The biggest challenge for us was arriving at the technique, the look. A couple years after coming off When The Day Breaks, we were determined not to hand paint the whole film because we knew how much work that was. We were exercising our computer chops and thinking there must be something we can do with the computer to make life easier and get a look we liked. We experimented a lot trying various things, hybrid techniques, a bit of hand drawing, a bit of computer drawing. In the end we felt dissatisfied with it mainly because we needed to capture the textures of the landscape and we found that computer painting just didn’t quite have it, at least at that time. A cleaner look felt wrong for the story, as much as we wanted to do it cleaner. So, we ended up going back to real paint although we animated it using Flash. We printed out every image onto paper and then painted it with gouache, scanned it back into the computer and in some cases did some compositing, and constructed the film that way. It was very, very laborious, but the painting is fun and satisfying. We like the randomness that comes with it and the textures. It was worth it.
AF: Although we came up with the script very early on and the story is much like the script, there was a lot added in the process. The structure changed a lot. It was a constant editing process for both picture and sound. We worked with sound effects right from the beginning and that was challenging. I think that is sort of a typical way for us to work. We don’t tend to set it in stone and then make the film. It’s always a process of revision and evolution.
DS: How did this differ from When the Day Breaks as far as the type stories you want to tell?
WT: This was harder than When The Day Breaks. It was a harder story to tell. It was a harder film to work out visually. Some of them just flow better than others. In terms of the kind of stories we want to tell, I don’t quite know. I need more of a sample of work.
AF: We need to make more films before I know how to answer that one.
WT: For me, with Wild Life, we were moving in a different direction like I mentioned earlier. Its talky, it has a lot of talking. For us, it was an interesting challenge to record voice actors.
AF: That was fun.
WT: Directing voice actors was really fun. You design characters and animate to the voice. That was a fun aspect that we were both keen to try. There was also the faux documentary part of it that was appealing, that we could construct a fake newsreel and have these cool interviews with the local people. We originally set out to do even more of a documentary structure. That was quite different from When The Day Breaks. The musical structure oddly is slightly similar to When The Day Breaks. We have these distinct musical pieces in it. There are some things you can’t change about how you make films as much as you try. We’re always trying to be different from the previous films and they always end up being somewhat the same. What we want to do next is go in a different direction, even more abstract. The abstract elements of When The Day Breaks and Wild Life would be more the direction we would go in. We’re not sure. We tend to not want to repeat ourselves.
DS: How do you push yourselves artistically?
AF: We do like to push ourselves artistically. We did push ourselves pretty hard on this film. I don’t know whether that’s evident or not. You’re always trying to find a balance between your intellectual, rational side and your instinctive side. When do you let your instincts run and when do you force structure and logic and rationality onto it. It’s particularly interesting when you include an element and you don’t actually quite know why it’s there. And then it becomes clear to you down the road. For us, the firing of the bullet was like that. We always wanted to have the firing of the bullet in the film but we weren’t 100% sure why. Then after we finished it, our executive producer David Verrall came up to us and said, “I get the bullet. It’s futility.” And we thought, “Oh, that’s nice. That’s true, that is futility.” But, you just keep including it because some part of you insists on including it but your rational mind is saying, “I don’t know. What does this do? Is it advancing anything? Is it telling anything?” I look forward to getting into those types of questions again on the next film.
DS: Who does what on your films? How do you divide up the work?
WT: It’s truly collaborative in that we both do everything. It’s not divided into one of us animates and one of us paints. We did brainstorm together on the script. We both animated more or less equally. We do have our own strengths and weaknesses that we try to take advantage of. Certainly on Wild Life Amanda had a better grasp on painting it in gouache. I was much better on the When The Day Breaks-style painting, which was much easier for me. Working with a water-based medium on Wild Life, I hadn’t had much experience with so I think Amanda was definitely the better painter. She did more painting than I did, where as I did more of the editing, the construction of the story, the sound. I didn’t do the final sound but I did a lot of the sound work throughout the process. But everything was consultation. Sometimes we both worked on the same shot. One would start, one would finish, one would add something, one would fix something the other did. It was a very back and forth process.
AF: The other part of the collaboration that was very valuable was moral support. I’m sure you know, it’s a very long process, very tedious and difficult sometimes to sustain interest in the project. We had producers that were very helpful that way as well. They have an objective eye. I find that the two of us are more than the sum of our parts. We’re better together than we are individually.
DS: What are you stylistic influences?
AF: An illustrator we looked at a lot in making Wild Life was Maira Kalman. She has illustrated a lot of books, some of them for kids. She has a very low key, gouache painterly style. There is humor in her paintings. She’s very masterful, quite naïve but very adept at the same time. She paints a lot of things like rooms and objects. We looked at her paintings a lot. One of our primary influences would have to be Caroline Leaf in the sense that I only realized just recently that our style of storytelling and the kind of films we make owes an awful lot to her. She is such a master storyteller and has made such a fantastic body of work that it’s always a source of inspiration. For Wild Life, one of my big influences was a book by Wallace Stegner called Wolf Willow that talks about living on the prairie. He distills so many thoughts about being a prairie person that I’ve never been able to articulate. He was certainly an influence from way back on this film.
I think the style of filmmaking comes from a tradition that is very Canadian, that comes from people who have been at the NFB over the years that we can’t help but be influenced by. Apart from that, there is a bunch of Canadian literature that has an austerity to it that is influential to us. They show small moments in life rather than the bigger strokes. Also, some of the characters in the film are people we would have just in the beginnings of our memories. I remember a grade 5 teacher, in elementary school, who was the most terrifying Scottish lady. She had a big pile of red hair and she was just a very angry and stern person. I realized that the Scottish lady in the film is absolutely her. I remember that going into grade 5, I had made the aesthetic decision to continue printing instead of handwriting because I liked printing better. We get into this classroom and she is just in a towering rage and she screams, “Which ones of you are still printing!” I took up handwriting immediately. Every Canadian has had at least one Scottish teacher.
Dan Sarto is the publisher of AWN.com.
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Skewered Fresh Fruit with Celery Seed Dressing
Department store eateries, whether the humble lunch counters at Woolworth’s or the elegant dining rooms of upscale stores like Lord and Taylor or Saks Fifth Avenue, had a definite place in our culture in the 1950s and 1960s; many of the fancier ones became destinations apart from the shopping experience because the food was often that good.
In the 1950s my mother worked as a waitress in a restaurant called The Coin Room in Rike’s Department Store in Dayton, Ohio. The restaurant featured light, well prepared meals for 99 cents plus the 3 cents sales tax bringing the total for a wonderful cooked from scratch luncheon to $1.02. It was great for shoppers who wanted a quick, inexpensive and tasty meal.
My mother brought home The Coin Room recipe for Celery Seed Dressing which was a big hit there and in our home. It was a dressing for a fruit salad. It tasted great on grapefruit, pears, apples– just about any fruit, as well as greens, nuts and other fruit salad accompaniments. However, somewhere along the line it got lost. Rike’s was sold to a conglomerate, The Coin Room disappeared and then, in 1986, my mother died. Then, just this year, tucked in an old cookbook left to me by my mother, there it was. I couldn’t wait to prepare it again and relive those lovely times.
I submitted this recipe for America’s Best Lost Recipes published in 2007 by America’s Test Kitchen. The test kitchen “loved the sweet and sour flavors of this dressing and tasted it on everything from apples to greens (we especially loved it on Bibb lettuce) to a cucumber and radish salad. The taste gets better as it sits, so be sure to allow it the full hour (or days) to develop all of its potential flavor. Also, be sure to use celery seeds, not celery salt, for this recipe.”
Here it is as a refreshing side for your backyard picnic. Serve it chilled alongside skewered cubes of fresh fruit of your choice. Try any combination of kiwi, cantaloupe, watermelon, mango, bananas, papaya, honeydew, strawberries, apples, pears, grapefruit or peaches. Just make sure the fruit is ripe.
Celery Seed Dressing (Makes about 1 cup)
¼ cup sugar
½ t dry mustard
½ t salt
½ t celery seed
2 T grated yellow onion
2 ½T white vinegar
½ cup peanut or canola oil
Stir the sugar, mustard, salt and celery seed together in a medium bowl. Add the onion and the vinegar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Slowly whisk in the oil until well blended. Cover and refrigerate until the flavors meld, about 1 hour. (The dressing can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days. Whisk before serving.)
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| 0.952405 | 625 | 1.53125 | 2 |
DUBAI // Despite widespread support from European countries for visa-free travel for Emiratis, it may still take another year for the process to be finalised.
"Schengen" countries - comprising most of Europe but not the UK or Ireland - have been compiling reports on the economic, political and mutual benefits of a visa waiver for UAE citizens since November.
However, regardless of levels of support, officials said that the process will run into 2014, due to European Commission and European Parliament bureaucracy.
This comes on the back of support voiced by European diplomats in Abu Dhabi, who highlighted the economic and political importance of such a move.
"The [Spanish] minister has reiterated to the European Commissioner the benefits in all aspects, including economic, political and cultural," said Jose Fernandez Valderrama, the Spanish ambassador to the UAE.
The Italian ambassador, Giorgio Starace, added that all the European missions are positive about the move.
"Our embassy has highlighted the benefit of such a move to the Italian government," he said.
However, three countries initially opposed any change to current visa rules - Austria, Germany and Belgium. Although Germany has since changed its position, it is still unknown whether the other two will follow suit.
A lifting of visa restrictions would allow Emiratis to travel without a visa in the Schengen agreement countries.
In addition, there are a number of processes that must be followed before any change could take place, and this will take time.
According to the EU Home Affairs office, the process starts when the European Commission makes a proposal, on which the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union then makes a final decision.
"The vote takes place according to the normal voting procedure in the EU, the so-called co-decision," said a spokesman for Cecilia Malstrom of the EU Home Affairs office.
"The European Parliament will vote on the proposal during one of its plenary sessions and the council will vote according to qualified majority, normally during a session of the Home Affairs Council."
Any proposal to transfer countries to the visa-free list are put forward as part of a regular review process carried out by the European Commission and are based on a case by case assessment of technical requirements and criteria relating, among others, to irregular migration, public policy and security - and to the EU's external relations with third countries, the spokesman said.
Getting past the European Parliament stage will be the trickiest step, according to an Abu Dhabi-based European diplomat.
"In light of the recent Human Rights report - parliamentarians from Germany, France and Italy were involved - it is not possible to forecast how they would vote," the diplomat said.
Mr Valderrama, however, said that he expects his country in the parliament to support the move.
"The European Parliament is independent, with representatives of their different constituencies voting independently," Mr Valderrama said. "My guess is that they have full support for this because it is a question of justice."
He said that a visa exemption would provide reciprocity between the EU and the UAE.
"One hundred per cent of the visa requests for the UAE are granted here and many EU countries see that request is a logical one and support it," he said.
The EU Home Affairs Department added that if the UAE were not to be transferred to the visa-free list this time around, there was still a possibility that the situation could change in the future.
"Future revisions of the lists will, in addition to the existing criteria, also take into account the possible economic benefits for the EU of granting visa-free status to non-EU countries," a spokesman said.
Last week Germany expressed its support to the UAE in a statement from its foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, and interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked Germany for exempting UAE citizens from requiring a visa to enter the Schengen area.
Furthermore, a visit by the Austrian minister of European and international affairs, Dr Michael Spindelegger, was conducted on February 14 to enhance bilateral relations and cooperation. During the Abu Dhabi visit no statement was released on the visa issue.
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| 0.964035 | 855 | 1.625 | 2 |
I remember seeing on The Good Life, Barbara 'icing' the garden, as Tom told Margo.
If I recall correctly, the idea was that difficult to germinate seeds could be started on some damp kitchen paper, then when the roots had started to show, tip all the seeds into a bucket of made up wallpaper paste. The mixture was then squeezed into seed drills with an icing bag.
Did this really work.
I have some wild flower seeds which I hope to sew in an area already overgrown, which made me think this idea might make it easier for the flowers to start.
Last edited by KK21
on Sun Nov 04, 2012 5:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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| 0.976681 | 147 | 1.734375 | 2 |
FHE was founded in 1983 to provide a strong defense against assaults to home education in the Missouri legislature. Closely monitoring legislative activity in the state capitol, through our registered lobbyist, is still one of our most important activities. FHE Early History
FHE’s purpose is to protect the inalienable right of the parents of Missouri to teach their own children without state regulation or control.
FHE represents and supports the rights of all home educators in the state and is not affiliated with any religious or political organization, or special interest group. We work to win support for home education among the general public and before lawmakers and public officials.
A Board of Directors that represents our members from seven regions across the state oversees FHE. View FHE Regions
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| 0.952877 | 154 | 1.5625 | 2 |
It is 6 A.M. on one of those unfailingly blue-sky days in Los Angeles, and Kara Fox is starting the morning as she starts every morning: having a mug of Taster's Choice instant coffee filled liberally with heavy cream. It's unlikely that any other nourishment (if this pale brown breakfast can be called nourishment) will pass her lips until dinnertime—except for maybe an apple, a few spoonfuls of cottage cheese, some trail mix. Fox, 60 and arguably one of the more glamorous grandmothers, is on a kind of perpetual, self-imposed parole of food restriction in order to stay a size zero and continue to fit into some damn beautiful clothes. But all that may change...
The idiosyncratic habits of Fox and three other women, all good sports, were the focus of O's "spy in the house" project. The inspiration was a call to the cofounder of the National Weight Control Registry, a data bank of around 4,500 long-term weight losers. James O. Hill, PhD, sends ethnographers—cultural anthropologists— into the homes of successful dieters to ferret out their secrets. Such a clever method seemed like a good way to investigate the healthy (or not so healthy) behaviors of O's four women. Asking questions about a diet or workout may lead to a somewhat rosy version of the truth, but dispatch a trained observer with an acute eye for detail to poke around the house—dust on the treadmill? cookie crumbs in the bed?—and all habits are laid bare.
Enter (literally) Inga Treitler, PhD, one of Hill's anthropologists and director of ethnography for the TerraNova Group in Atlanta (her job entails observing and evaluating human behavior to compile research, often for corporate clients or health professionals). Treitler agreed to take notebook and camera on the road for O, to get a nonjudgmental and judicious peek into the refrigerators, medicine cabinets, closets, and cars of our subjects, shadowing them at home and at work, at the gym and the grocery, and wherever else they go during a typical day.
Once Treitler completed her four missions, she joined a SWAT team of healthcare professionals, including Hill, to evaluate the findings. Aside from his work with the Registry, Hill is director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, coauthor of The Step Diet Book, and cofounder of America on the Move—a national program that coaches people to take an additional 2,000 steps per day (about a mile), while cutting 100 calories. Pamela Peeke, MD, and Miriam Nelson, PhD, rounded out the team. Peeke, an expert in women's health based in the Washington, D.C., area, is the author of Body for Life for Women and Fight Fat After Forty. Nelson is director of the John Hancock Center for Physical Activity and Nutrition at Tufts University in Boston and the author of the Strong Women book series (Strong Women Stay Young, Strong Women Stay Slim, Strong Women Eat Well).
The goal of this project was for each woman to receive a customized health-upgrade prescription. (We'll check in with them in the August issue to see how well it's working.) But there's no reason they should be the only ones to benefit. "Even without a team of professionals," says Treitler, "people can play investigator to their own lives"—and give their health a lift.
Next: Treitler investigates the first home
We Hear You!
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| 0.952849 | 741 | 1.554688 | 2 |
by Tamara Aparton
San Francisco – Like most kids who grew up in Bayview Hunters Point in the 1980s, Vanessa Banks spent virtually all her free time in Youngblood Coleman Park.
“It was like an amusement park every day,” she recalled. “We never had to worry about equipment. If we didn’t have a ball, the park staff would provide it. They served lunch. Our parents never had to worry about us.”
Though it still boasts sports fields, shady trees and sweeping views of the Bay, Youngblood Coleman is a different place today. Its once-bustling clubhouse has become a city storage facility. Its amphitheater sits empty and families have all but abandoned the neglected park over concerns about crime and drug use.
On June 26, a group of committed residents kicked off a campaign to restore the tarnished gem to its former glory. On the first of what will be many planned service days, residents toured the park, brainstormed ideas for public art and children’s activities and learned about the area’s history.
“Our goal is to bring families back to Youngblood Coleman,” said Banks, who is spearheading the effort, called “We 4 Youngblood Coleman Park Initiative.” Banks has partnered with B-MAGIC (Bayview Mobilization for Adolescent Growth in our Communities), which was funded in 2004 by the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office to help San Francisco families overcome poverty and violence through a supportive network of youth and family agencies and juvenile justice stakeholders.
“We want to have the city and community reinvest in this wonderful park and provide a much-needed makeover,” said BMAGIC Director Lyslynn Lacoste. “The result will be a safe space for children to play and be active.”
Antoinette Mobley of SF Art Everywhere said she envisions a community space invigorated by public art made by Bayview Hunters Point residents, including children and seniors.
“I see art as a tool to unify and beautify our neighborhood park and create a safe space for our children to return,” Mobley said. Also planned are outdoor movie nights featuring up-and-coming filmmakers from the neighborhood. Habitat for Humanity has offered to build a shed so families can once again borrow recreation equipment.
The park became a community treasure after being born of tragedy. In 1974, two 10-year-old boys, Rubin Youngblood and Wardell Coleman Jr., were killed at the site – then a construction area – after a dirt wall caved in on them while they played. The city scrapped its plans to build housing on the lot. It dedicated the park to the boys’ families in 1979.
A mural honoring the boys is included in the planned renovation.
To get involved in the effort, email: [email protected].
Tamara Barak Aparton, communications and policy assistant in the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, can be reached at [email protected] or (415) 575-4390.
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| 0.962005 | 653 | 1.585938 | 2 |
NTSB Identification: CEN09LA555B
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Monday, August 24, 2009 in Arcanum, OH
Probable Cause Approval Date: 04/22/2010
Aircraft: Phantom Aircraft Phantom, registration: None
Injuries: 1 Fatal,1 Serious.
NTSB investigators may not have traveled in support of this investigation and used data provided by various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
The Destiny 2000 powered parachute and the Phantom aircraft were returning from separate local flights when the in-flight collision occurred. The powered parachute was operating out of an east-west grass airstrip located on the pilot’s property. The pilot of the Phantom aircraft was operating out of a separate nearby north-south grass airstrip located on his property. The Phantom aircraft pilot reported that he intended to make one more “large circle” around his property, about 50 feet above ground level, before landing. He reported that as he was coming out of the turn he saw a car on the road and when he looked up again the powered parachute was directly in front of him. He stated that he did not see the powered parachute prior to the collision and believed that the pilot of the powered parachute did not see his aircraft. He noted that trees may have obscured the pilots’ view of the other aircraft. A witness stated that the pilot of the powered parachute appeared to be on final approach to land to the east as the Phantom aircraft converged from the south. The aircraft collided over the west end of the runway. The witness added that neither aircraft appeared to be experiencing any difficulties prior to the collision. A postaccident examination of both aircraft did not reveal any anomalies consistent with a preimpact failure or malfunction. Weather conditions were clear with light winds at the time of the accident. The accident occurred approximately 23 minutes after sunset. Both aircraft were equipped with operating strobe lights. Regulations state that aircraft approaching to land have the right-of-way over other aircraft. However, they also state that “vigilance shall be maintained by each person operating an aircraft so as to see and avoid other aircraft.”
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be: The failure of pilot to maintain an adequate visual lookout in order to avoid the collision with an aircraft on final approach to land. Full narrative available
Index for Aug2009 | Index of months
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Enhance Wellness By Doing Something Different With NLP
Many people would say that it is absolute madness to keep on doing the same thing, time after time, expecting to get a different result or for something different to happen. Alternatively, many people, especially those in the personal development, NLP and wellness fields of varying natures, would describe it as intelligent to have a goal and be wonderfully flexible about how you go about achieving it.
It is this intelligent idea of enhancing wellness that I want to highlight today with NLP.
If what you?re doing isn?t working or increasing your wellness, do something else;
I was working with a corporate client recently and had been working with one of their senior managers using NLP and various other techniques. He had wanted his team to carry out a piece of project work in a certain way. He said to me that he had told them again and again (12 times in total), but they still weren?t doing what he wanted. I pointed out that if he wanted them to change what they were doing, he might have to change what he was doing; I suggested that he be more flexible. Together, We explored some alternative approaches and things started to change.
If you are fed up with getting the same results to certain things over and over, with whatever it is that you are looking to change, use this notion to begin to disrupt your existing pattern. If you are just following the idea through in some way, by definition you are perceiving it differently and doing yourself lots of favours. You'll be increasing your wellness.
So, firstly, identify an area where you?ve been doing the same thing over and over hoping to get a different result. Or an area that you want to increase your wellness. It may relate to a behaviour, habit, circumstance or situation; just choose something that you want to change the outcome of.
Then secondly, clarify your goal, that is, clarify what you want to achieve. Do this by asking yourself what you want and how you will know when you have got it.
Thirdly, construct or create a list of the different approaches and behaviours you have tried already in order to achieve this goal or increased wellness. Or note down what it is that you are doing currently.
Finally and most simply, put together a nice list of some alternative behaviours you will use to achieve the goal and increase wellness. Enlist some help ifyou feel it would help. When you have compiled a good list (put stuff down on that list that may well not seem right for you, it is good to explore avenues that in the past made you feel uncomfortable from time to time). Then, of course, look at starting to do the things that are on your list; do them.
What I am wanting to get across here is the idea of being more bendy.
Your mind and your body really are a single system, so it follows that physical flexibility can often lead to greater mental flexibility. There are certain activities which can greatly increase physical flexibility, including things like Yoga, Martial arts, Dancing, Swimming and lots of other general forms of exercise.
Practicing any of these will increase your overall behavioural and mental flexibility and level of wellness. In addition, find opportunities to break habitual patterns. For instance, most mornings when I shave, I do it in a different way. This requires me to stay aware and vary my patterns. The more flexibility you have, the more flexibility you can bring to situations involving others. Often, when people are seeing me for reducing their weight, I might suggest that they look at the doing things like swapping their knife and fork hands around for a week.
So, go ahead and identify a habitual pattern and change it to enhance your wellness. Especially if it is something you are not entirely happy about.
Here is a list of some things that you can do to interrupt your existing patterns and increase your wellness, you can be as creative as you want with these things.
- Eat a food that you never usually eat
- Go for a walk at an early hour in the morning
- Watch a TV show you would never usually watch
- Take a different journey home from work
- Take a cold shower
- Answer your phone with the opposite hand to usual
- Laugh and smile for no reason
The sooner you start doing this, the more fun you?ll have with it. Then often, the higher your increase in wellness. So many people I encounter, know all this stuff or read it and still don't do these things and wonder why they are not getting what they want. Do soemthing different today and you'll be amazed how your wellness rockets.
About the Author: To receive Adam's amazing bi-monthly newsletter, packed with modern, innovative, psychological tips, techniques and information visit http://www.adam-eason.com You'll also receive a free instantly downloadable hypnosis session to enjoy at home.
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Ubuntu 11.10, code named Oneiric Ocelot, is now available. It has loads of new functions, which puts other operating systems to shame! Here are a few cool features of this new release.
The new Unity interface works well with mouse, keyboard and even touch. The dash allows you to quickly search for files, music, applications and everything in your computer. The launcher allows you to quickly launch your commonly used applications. The ‘must-have’ feature for music lovers is the Music Lens, which allows you to browse and find your music on your computer quickly and easily. You can sort music in folders by author, album or song wise. Similarly any new lenses or filters can be developed to have a multidimensional view of your data.
Mozilla Thunderbird is now the default email application, which happens to also be my favourite. Thunderbird supports all email standards and can manage thousands of emails in a breeze. It also has very good filters to quickly search through your emails.
Firefox 7 is the default browser. Firefox has seen vast improvements over its earlier versions and is now faster and has a much lower memory footprint. For people who prefer other browsers such as Chrome/Chromium, they can easily install those from the Ubuntu Software Centre. Skype, Flash, Acrobat and other popular applications can also be installed from there too.
The Ubuntu Software Centre is your place to install new applications, both free and paid for. With this release it also has application ratings, which makes it easy for you to decide which application to install. The Software Centre has a large collection of applications from education, games, science to development tools and more.
Ubuntu goes social
Ubuntu’s best kept secret is social networking. The Empathy IM client allows you to chat with your Facebook friends as well as integrates the usual suspects such as Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live (MSN), Jabber, ICQ and many others. The Gwibber social networking client collates all of your social messages from Facebook and Twitter. This is integrated with your desktop, so you can see your updates. You can also post your own updates straight from Gwibber.
With Shotwell, you can easily manage your photos, crop them, edit them and publish them on Flickr, Picasa or Facebook. OpenShot Video Editor makes it easy to edit, clip and resize your videos. It supports many effects and file formats. 3D has attracted the attention of OpenShot developers and they have enabled the functionality to add 3D animated titles to your videos.
Data back up is also a key feature in Ubuntu 11.10, and you realise how important it is when you don’t back up and lose data! To make your backup activity easy, Ubuntu bundles Ubuntu One which can automatically backup all the files to the cloud. If you need external backup, you have Déjà Dup, which means you can backup to external media.
Ubuntu One gives you 5GB of free online storage, it can synchronise your data between Ubuntu PCs as well as Windows. It also has clients for iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android so you can access your files on the go. Ubuntu One mobile client also gives you an option to backup your photos automatically. For example if you take a photo on your mobile, it would get backed up automatically to the cloud. It also allows you to stream your music to your mobile device. If you have tons of music and don’t want to carry all of it with you, you can keep it on Ubuntu One and stream it to your mobile phone when you want to listen to them.
This article was first published on Digit.
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MFF RSC 9 Field Trip Sindh
21 November 2012 | News story
Thatta, Sindh, November 21st: Day four brought forward a unique learning and recreational opportunity for over 50 participants at the RSC 9. A daylong fieldtrip was planned where the visitors could enjoy the ancient carvings at the Makli necropolis, have lunch at the Keenjhar lake and spend some quiet, reflective moments at a 16TH century Mughal era monument - the Shahjehan Mosque. After three days of the riveting discussions in the environs of a local hotel, the participants seemed happy to explore the unique heritage and ecology of the country.
An early afternoon autumn breeze greeted the visitors when they arrived at the Makli Hills, of what is known to be the largest necropolises in the world, with a diameter of approximately 8 km. It is the burial place of some 125,000 local rulers and Sufi saints, and some of the ancient tombs have magnificent designs and carvings dating back to over thousand years. Makli necropolis has been on the tentative UNESCO World Heritage List since 1993.
After a brief stop over at a 12-acre patch of freshwater Avicennia marina, the visitors then proceeded to have tea and lunch at the picturesque Keenjhar Lake. Keenjhar Lake commonly known as Kalri Lake, is the second largest fresh water lake of the Pakistan. It is an important source that provides the drinking water to the Thatta District and Karachi city. It’s been declared a Ramsar site, a wildlife sanctuary and is a favorable wintering area for migratory birds like Ducks, Geese, Flamingos, Cormorants, Herons, Egrets, Ibises, Coots and Gulls and breeding area of Night Heron, Cotton Teal and Pheasant Tailed Jacana.
Followed by a quick boat ride around the lake, the Livestock and Fisheries Department of Sindh hosted a scrumptious lunch prepared in traditional spices. There was a beautiful musical performance by the local musicians who held the audience captive with their rendition of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai’s poetry. Highlighting the rich cultural heritage of Sindh, Director General Fisheries, Mr. Ghulam Mohammad Meher thanked the delegation for visiting the area and taking their keen interest in local crafts and music. Ms. Maeve Nightingale, Head of the Coastal and Marine Programme IUCN Asia and Ms Janalezza Morvenna A. Esteban, MFF Regional Knowledge Management Officer acknowledged the local hosts for their warm hospitality.
After a quick stop at the Chillya fish hatchery of the Livestock and Fisheries department of Sindh, the delegation was taken to the architectural jewel of Sindh, the Shahjehan Mosque, built in 1647 during the reign of Mughal Kin Shahjehan. It has been built keeping acoustics in mind, so a person speaking inside one end of the dome can be heard at the other end when the speech exceeds 100 decibels. It is said that Shahjehan built the mosque as a gesture of gratitude to the people of Thatta for sheltering him during his youth, after his father banished him from Delhi. The visitors admired the red bricks and blue glazed Hala tiles used in the construction of the mosque and the beautiful interplay of light inside the mosque.
As the sun started setting in behind the majestic domes of the Shahjehan Mosque, the visitors bid adieu, slowly and reluctantly to the ancient town of Thatta.
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The Irish are travel birds. There's probably not a spot on the globe where they haven't touched down and built a nest or two. And finding corners of Ireland even in the most obscure places is always a fun travel thing to do.
On a trip to London late last year, I stayed at the Cadogan Hotel, which proved the perfect spot for an Irish-tinged weekend (I was in London to attend the premiere of Doubt by Irish-American writer John Patrick Shanley).
Located at 75 Sloane Street, the Cadogan exudes Old World charm with a hint of Edwardian decadence, and it has an Irish connection to boot. It was here that Irish playwright and author Oscar Wilde was arrested in 1895.
Wilde lived a couple of blocks away on Tite Street, and he was a frequent visitor to the hotel, where today a suite is named in his honor. (There is also an Edward VII Suite, named to celebrate the future King of England's liaisons with Oscar's close friend, the actress Lillie Langtry.)
The Oscar Wilde Suite is an experience in sumptuous luxury. Large and airy, with a huge bed, velvet-covered duvet, padded headboard, marble bathroom, and a dressing area where the closet reveals a smoking jacket la Oscar. It is in fact a replica of the one the writer is wearing in a photograph with Bosie (Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, the youthful lover who was Wilde's downfall) that hangs in the room.
The photograph of Oscar Wilde in the suite is the only one of him that I came across in the hotel. The celebrated beauty Lillie Langtry has more of a presence - the restaurant is named in her honor. (I had a wonderful dinner there - Fisherman's Pie with bread pudding for dessert.)
Langtry (Wilde helped launch her theatrical career) lived at the property from 1892 to 1897. She sold the house, in 1895, to the Cadogan Estate, but retained her bedroom and living quarters.
As Richard Ellman says in his biography of Wilde, "She welcomed [Wilde] as a friend. For him, her beauty was a 'form of genius.' He was engaged in the same storming of London by his wits that she was achieving by her looks. Then too, they were both weary, Wilde of being an over-age undergraduate, Mrs. Langtry of being the wife to a nondescript Irish yachtsman, and both eager to perform on a larger stage."
Wilde went to jail.
Found guilty for "acts of gross indecency with other male persons," he was sentenced to two years of hard labor. He emerged from prison in 1897 in poor health, and died three years later in Paris.
The Cadogan is light on Wilde memorabilia. However, the lounge bar (now completely refurbished) has its resident historian and storyteller. John - one would hesitate to call him a server - he would be perfectly cast as an upper-class butler - regaled me with stories of the history of the hotel, Wilde, and his friendship with Lillie Langtry. Meanwhile, the staff of the hotel were most welcoming and helpful, particularly Richie at the front desk, whose mother is from Monaghan, and Fabio, the unflappable Italian manager.
The Cadogan, which has 65 rooms and suites, tennis courts, private garden, conference and banqueting facilities, is the perfect place to stay in London - and if you are not seduced by the Old World charm and connection with Wilde and Langtry, perhaps you will be seduced by Gucci, Tiffany, Harrods and Harvey Nichols, by the 24-hour pulse of the West End and by the grand luxe of this most decadent of Edwardian hotels.
For more information on the Cadogan visit www.cadogan.com
Or telephone + 44 207 235 7141
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Review to be emailed:
Audience: 3rd Grade - 6th Grade
While learning to sail during a visit to his grandmother's at the Connecticut shore, 11-year-old Tony becomes excited about rumors of sunken treasure in the area. He does some digging on his own, and armed with his findings, - and a bit of luck - he sets sail to find it. Soon he catches a wind ...... and a whole lot more!
Date read: 3/27/2009
Library Home |
My Account |
St. Charles Public Library, 1 South 6th Avenue, St. Charles, IL 60174
630-584-0076 • 630-584-9390 Youth Services
Copyright © 2004-2013 St. Charles Public Library. All rights reserved.
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Craig Alternative High School
Enrollment (2011)Total: 8
Student Economic Level (2010)In 2010, Craig Alternative High School had 0% of students eligible for free or reduced price lunch programs. Alaska had 38% of eligible students for free or reduced price lunch programs. Eligibility for the National School Lunch Program is based on family income levels.
Student Ethnicity (2011)
Craig City School District District Spending
In 2011, Craig Alternative High School had 42 students for every full-time equivalent teacher. The Alaska average is 16 students per full-time equivalent teacher.Compare to other schools in Craig City School District
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Enrolling in cosmetology school can provide a variety of great opportunities. If you are interested in skincare, you can study to become an esthetician. This professional specializes in providing treatments and services that can help improve the look and feel of the skin. As an esthetician, you will be able to work with clients of all ages and skin types.
You can learn more about what estheticians do by watching this video. These skincare experts provide an assortment of services, including facials, exfoliation treatments, and facial and body waxing.
If you are interested in pursuing a career as an esthetician, contact the team here at Capri Cosmetology Learning Center today. Give us a call at (845) 623-6339 to learn more about our esthetics programs in Rockland County.
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Helen O'Grady Drama Academy - Sydney
To be happy and successful in today's highly competitive world, confidence and articulation are vital.
Helen O'Grady Drama Academy offers after-school and Saturday drama classes for children aged 5-17 years. With the main aim to increase verbal communication skills, build up confidence and self-esteem. The classes also provide a great outlet for creativity and imagination! (See further down the page for our upcoming School Holiday Program).
Children have a fabulous time engaging in fun drama activities, while our programme works at making them the best they can be!
Our students learn to:
- Become an effective communicator
- Be a more confident person
- Increase their self-esteem
- Empower themselves to participate fully in life
The programme we offer in the Academy is one of self-development. Our stimulating classes cover speech, improvisation, mini-scripts, snippets, movement and production techniques. In Term 4, all classes begin work on a short scripted production, which they put on for parents and friends in med December.
The course aims to increase children's self-confidence, communicative ability and creative talents. Above all our classes are fun!
Your child's growth in confidence, self-esteem and communication skills will delight you! Each lesson is motivational and fun!
Studio Locations and Contact Details:
Sydney East & Inner West - 02 9787 2363
Classes at Marrickville, Five Dock, Homebush, Haberfield, Randwick & Maroubra
Sydney Northern Beaches - 02 9982 9085
Classes at Avalon, Balgowlah, Warriewood, Forrestville & Freshwater
Sydney North Shore - 0404 842 886
Classes at Eastwood, Willoughby, Epping, Wahroonga, St Ives
Sydney South West - 02 4648 2318
Classes at Wattle Grove, Hinchinbrook, Narellan Vale, Greenway Park, Eschol Park, Casula
HOLIDAY WORKSHOPS- Sydney East and Inner West
Our creative arts workshops will include: games, craft, dressing up, face painting, performances, role playing, scripts, movement, outdoor play and lots of fun. Our workshop helps to build children’s confidence, communication skills, and creativity.
For students in Kindy – Year 6.
Five Dock: Mon 1st – Tues 2nd July, Five Dock Public School Hall, Henry Street, Five Dock
Marrickville: Wed 3rd July, St Brigid’s Parish Hall, 196A Livingstone rd, Marrickville (1 Day Workshop)
Maroubra: Thurs 4th – Fri 5th July, Maroubra Bay Public School, Duncan St, Maroubra Bay
8:45am – 3pm
Ask about our Early Bird Specials before 21st June!
Go to our website to download a holiday workshop enrolment form.Visit Website
User reviewsUser Reviews - see how Kidspot parents share their recommendations
Thank you, your review has been posted.
HOGdrama reviewBy ginua1 on 30/07/2012 4:52:45 PM
My daughter started attending HOGDrama classes from end of kindy, and she changed drastically from a shy kid to a confident kid over three years. Her teachers comments' gradually changed from "she not involving in discussion, or raising hand at school" to "she is an excellent student who always asks questions, and deeply involved in the classroom discussions", when she is (...) Read more
A fun and enjoyable confidence builder!By kdyczek on 28/07/2012 12:08:55 AM
My daughter has been attending HODA at Greenway Park which has greatly assisted with her confidence and interactions with other children, at school and the general public. Through doing drama, her speech has also greatly improved and she never likes to miss a session as she enjoys it so much!
HODA ROCKS!By katesmith1972 on 26/07/2012 2:23:11 PM
My daughter was always quiet, shy around others and reluctant to speak in public. HODA has brought her out of her shell and helped her to develop into a confident, well spoken, well mannered young lady who is now being complimented by teachers on her ability to present in class and how well she articulates her ideas. I would recommend HODA to anyone with children of any ag (...) Read more
One of the biggest influences on both my childhood and my adult life!By isabella.turner.984 on 25/07/2012 4:18:38 PM
I attended Helen O'Grady for the full 13 years before coming back to teach and have nothing but the highest praise for the program. As a child I was able to attend fun and stimulating classes where I was given the opportunity to indulge my louder, more energetic side in a creative way. As I got older, the drama and acting side of the program became my focus and my passion, (...) Read more
Something for every chikdBy leda.turner.3 on 25/07/2012 3:28:49 PM
Our three children all benefited from their years at HO'G but in different ways...our first son was an 'outside the square' child with a witty but warped sense of humour. HO'G helped him to channel this 'exuberance' in a positive way and taught him the skills to use his humour, confidence and fidgety behaviour appropriately. Our second son was the reverse, with shy and r (...) Read more
Helen O'Grady Drama Academy works miraclesBy michelle.louise74 on 25/07/2012 1:08:36 PM
My children struggled at school with their confidence and speech. Since they started with the Helen O’Grady Drama Academy they have all improved in their self confidence and verbal communication skills immensely. They are learning and having so much fun at the same time!
Recommendation for Helen O'Grady Drama AcademyBy juliette.overland on 24/07/2012 2:53:41 PM
My daughter has been attending the Helen O'Grady Drama Academy run by Mel Duke for one and a half years and I could not be happier. When she began drama she was a very shy child, lacking in confidence and reluctant to participate in public speaking. In just 18 months she has become a confident young lady, who delights in performing for others and was in the finals of the (...) Read more
Rosekirk1984By anne.brophy.96 on 24/07/2012 2:29:43 PM
My youngest son has attended HODA in the Eastern Suburbs for just on three years. In that time, with Mel coordinating he has increased hugely in confidence, ability to communicate and express himself clearly and socially he is continuing to develop and become more and more certain of his own abilities. The skills he is acquiring through the drama programme reflect in his e (...) Read more
My Helen O'Grady Drama Academy recommendationBy karenlouisebell on 24/07/2012 12:39:47 PM
Both of my girls are attending HODA in the Inner West with Mel Dukes for several years now, the best improvement is with my daughter Sarah who is now a confident speaker who is able to project her voice and stand up in a large crowd with no problem at all. Both Sarah and Emily love the dress up, practice, rehearsal and end of year performance, which is "low key" but also a (...) Read more
Helen O'Grady Drama AcademyBy natasha.pollock.77 on 24/07/2012 11:25:31 AM
Both our boys (9 & 11) have been going to drama for 4 years now and I have seen them grow in confidence so much over that time. At first they were quite shy and reluctant to attend classes and participate in the end of semester performance (with tears of fear for the first one!), but what a turn around there has been over those 4 years. Now they really enjoy attending the (...) Read more
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Say goodbye to ageing and hello to a youthful new you
Look and feel younger, tip 5: Reduce your sugar intake
Not only will reducing your sugar consumption help to improve your appearance by keeping off any excess pounds, it can also help to reduce one of the most bothersome signs of ageing – wrinkles. When blood sugar levels are high, a process called glycation occurs which damages the collagen in your skin, leading to wrinkles and sagging. This process also makes the skin more vulnerable to other ageing factors such as smoking and UV light.
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A Ride on the Wild Side (of a City of Fayetteville Recycling Truck)!
This update comes from Elizabeth Hill, who is serving at the City of Fayetteville Sustainability & Strategic Planning Office
On Tuesday, May 15th, Energy Corps member Liz Hill took a ride on one of the City’s recycling trucks with Jason Davis, who has worked with the Solid Waste and Recycling department for almost 10 years! By the time she met up with him on the route (39), he’d already been going for 4 hours, and work was far from over. The day was getting hotter, and the trash and recycling stinkier. The life of a recycling truck driver (and thus sorter) is fast-paced, and a definite work-out. For the first few stops, Liz had to stay in the truck on the left seat, what is normally the driver’s seat, because they were at businesses on some very busy roads with cars whizzing around the truck at high speeds. Once in a neighborhood, though, the real fun began. That’s when Liz could hop out and help sort (at a seeming snail’s pace, compared to Jason’s quick movements), and then got to hop in on what’s normally the passenger’s side and stand next to Jason while he drove the truck, also standing up! On some of those curves you really test your balance and arm strength holding on tight to stay in the truck. Several residences had materials not accepted in the curbside pick-up in their bins, namely 3-7 plastics, and several also left liquids, like milk, in containers, which spoils and makes a mess when tossing them into the truck compartments. There were definitely residences with no recycling bins and visible recyclable items in their trash cans/bags, as well.
In the moments in the truck between clusters of stops, there was some time for discussing more about the City’s recycling programs. When asked what he thought should be included in an education campaign about recycling in Fayetteville, Jason emphasized educating people about rinsing containers out, saying: “There is just about nothing worse than having a bottle filled with tobacco spit, or rotten milk leak all over you, and have to smell like that the rest of the day.” He also thought the City really needs to focus on providing better recycling services to the bars and restaurants in Fayetteville, as there is so much glass (and to a lesser extent cans and plastic bottles) that is currently going to the landfill from these establishments. He was glad to hear that some recycling is happening at some apartments, and hope that increases. Jason’s other outreach idea was for the City to have some publicly displayed artwork made from recyclable materials to help raise awareness about recycling.
Liz’s final thoughts on the adventure: “I gained a much better appreciation for the hard work that the 10 guys are doing every day Monday through Thursday every week, and can understand why it is hard to keep people in those positions for very long. I hope that we can help increase good participation, meaning, get more people recycling the right way, keeping it clean and easier on our hard workers. It’s something so easy to do, if we can just get people in the habit.”
Green Gadget Giveaway Aims to Spur Public Into Action
Pennsylvania Mid-Term Wrap Up
|Go to the News Archive →|
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File this under you learn something new every day. Until 2004 there was never a major league baseball player with the first name Ian. Ian Snell debuted for the Pirates that season and Ian Kinsler, the Texas second baseman, became the first position Ian last year.
That's pretty surprising. Ian has been one of the 100 most popular names in the United States every year since 1982 in the top 200 since 1972. For the sake of comparison, there have been 20 Vernons in the show and that name hasn't cracked the top 100 since 1937. Six Rex's draw pensions and that name's never ranked in the top 100 and only in the top 200 for two strange stretches, 1933-35 and 1950-56. If you're looking for a depository of useless information the Social Security Administration baby name website is full of it. Wilbur was actually a fairly popular name once but peaked in the teens of the last century. Still there have been six of them as well. Hell, two guys named Ryne preceeded Snell and Kinsler and that name only started appearing on the list when Sandberg won the 1984 MVP Award.
So why hasn't Ian prospered as a big league name? It's hard to say. It could be that kids with the name have to spend a lot of time telling people if it's pronounced Eye-an or E-an and that doesn't leave them sufficient hours for the baseball diamond. It could be worse though. There's never been a major league player named Dylan, Mason or Aidan and all those names are more popular right now than Ian. Perhaps the recent surge in popularity of the name will make Ian the 2010's answer to Irv in the 1910's. That would make Snell and Kinsler true trailblazers. Other leaders:
Tyler Green was the first Tyler in 1993 but has been followed by six others.
Ryan Kurosaki pitched seven games for the Cardinals in 1975 and since then 26 others with that name have had their bags carried to a hotel room. Two Ryan Brauns just this season, even.
Gavin Floyd is the only Gavin to ever make it to the Show and his former teammate Cole Hamels is the only man with that name in the Baseball Encyclopedia.
Evan Longoria, a prospect for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, is the odds-on favorite to inaugurate that name although Tracy Stallard, who served up Roger Maris' 61st homer, was an Evan who went by his middle name.
Snell and Kinsler have each shown signs of being good ballplayers and they do their name proud. It will be quite an effort for them to usurp the clubhouse leader of men named Ian, though. If they keep doing the name proud it's certain that Mr. Ziering will give them all the appropriate acclaim.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://thefeed.blogs.com/the_feed/2007/05/index.html
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| 0.975064 | 581 | 1.507813 | 2 |
For Forbes this morning, I reflect on the publication late last week of the FCC’s “Open Internet” or net neutrality rules and their impact on spectrum auctions past and future. Hint: not good.
An important study last year by Prof. Faulhaber and Prof. Farber, former chief economist and chief technologist, respectively, for the FCC, found that the last-minute imposition of net neutrality limits on the 700 MHz “C” block in the FCC’s 2008 auction reduced the winning bid by 60%–a few billion dollars for the Treasury.
Yet the FCC maintained in the December Report and Order approving similar rules for all broadband providers that the cost impact of these “prophylactic” rules would be minimal, because, after all, they simply endorse practices most providers already follow. (And the need for the new rules, then, came from where?)
In response to oral and written questions directed at the agency by Congress over the course of the last ten months (while the White House mysteriously held up publication of the new rules), the agency maintained with a straight face that a detailed cost-benefit analysis of the new rules was part of the rulemaking. But the Chairman seems unable to identify a single paragraph in the majority’s 200-page report where that analysis can be found.
Well, but perhaps bidders in the 2008 auction misjudged the potential negative impact of the new rules on their ability to best utilize the C block. Perhaps a 60% reduction in bid price was an overreaction to the neutrality limits. Perhaps, but not likely. Already, Verizon, which won the auction and is using the spectrum for its state-of-the-art 4G LTE service, has been hit with a truly frivolous complaint from Free Press regarding Google’s refusal to allow software that tethers Android phones to other devices to share the network connection.
And there were rumblings earlier this year in WIRED that curated app stores would also violate the “no blocking” provision in the C block auction (provisions, recall, that were added at the request of Google as a condition of their participating in the auction). If that were true, then Verizon could never offer an iPhone on the LTE network. A definite and pointless limit to the value of the C block…for consumers most of all.
These seem like complaints unlikely to go anywhere, but then again who knows? Even prevailing in FCC adjudications takes time, money, and uncertainty. Investors don’t like that. And the new net neutrality rules make complaining even easier, as I noted earlier this year.
So the impact of the net neutrality rules, should they survive Congressional and legal challenges, will be to reduce incentives for broadband carriers to continue investing in their networks. It won’t stop them, obviously. But it will surely slow them down. By how much? Well, as much as 60%, apparently. And given that the major facilities-based carriers spend around $20 billion a year in network investments, even a few percentage points of uncertainty translate into real losses.
Balanced out by which benefits, exactly? Oh right–these are “prophylactic” rules. So the benefits aren’t knowable. Until the future. Maybe.
If reduced investment wasn’t a bad enough result, there’s a deeper and more deeply disturbing lesson of last year’s Net Neutrality free-for-all. The FCC, an “expert agency,” has become increasingly political. Its experts are being run over by operative inside and outside the agency with an agenda that lives outside the agency’s expertise, trumping traditional independent values of costs and benefits, and of applying scarce resources to their best and highest use.
That may be one reason Congress has yet to move forward with pending legislation granting the agency authority to conduct Voluntary Incentive Auctions, and why the draft legislation tries to curb the flexibility the agency has if it does get the new authority.
Flexibility, after all, cost the taxpayers a small fortune in the 2008 auction. And it led to conditions being placed on the license that aren’t helping anyone, and which may keep consumers from getting what all but a few loudmouths genuinely value.
A rulemaking whose goal was to “preserve” the Open Internet may wind up having the opposite result. The joke, unfortunately, is on mobile users.
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Campagna Academy is most pleased to announce the opening of our addictions treatment program, called Foundations, offered to all residents of Campagna Academy.
This flexible program offers a multi-level continuum of care that spans from the most Intensive Outpatient Program to prevention and education. Foundations also includes access to adjunct therapies that support individual and family recovery.
We currently offer an expanded array of services for adolescents, which includes on-site assessments that match clients to the appropriate level of treatment. The program also can accommodate clients with co-occurring disorders involving mental health and addictions issues.
The Foundations program defines an innovative approach to treatment utilizing a research-based curriculum to improve treatment outcomes at a reduced cost, while maximizing quality and efficiency. IOP sessions, three hours long and offered three times a week, are available to clients who have more complex issues to address.
In order to provide the most effective treatment of substance abuse and dependence disorders in an individualized program, treatment typically spans 12 to 16 weeks. The program follows clients after discharge as well, setting the stage for long-term recovery.
With this continuum of care, Campagna's goal is to reduce substance use and criminal activity by utilizing motivational interviewing techniques, social learning approaches, and cognitive-behavioral strategies, while providing evidenced-based, substance abuse services to enhance quality of life issues, restore and improve social functioning, and support the integration of youth served in the community.
In order to demonstrate effectiveness and success for the clients served, quality indicators are identified and measured, including decreased substance use, clean drug screens, family engagement, success in school, and participation in treatment. Our goal is to set the foundation for success of youth on many levels and ensure that we know when that is happening through data. The quality of services is a high priority.
Most experts agree that addiction has a ripple effect that brings discord, not only into the home, but to the community as well. Crime, child abuse, school dropouts, unintended pregnancies, domestic violence, and health complications are only a fraction of the results. Our communities simply cannot afford the burden of these consequences.
At Campagna Academy we believe that addiction is preventable and treatable, and recovery is a reality for many youth. Thanks to support from the John W. Anderson Foundation, Lake County Substance Abuse Council, and ICRUD from the Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Campagna Academy is strategically investing in community prevention, treatment, and recovery services to give our communities the necessary tools to prevent and significantly reduce under-age alcohol and substance abuse, effectively treat addiction, and help those affected achieve long-term recovery
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http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/schererville/campagna-academy-offers-new-addictions-treatment-program/article_e450031f-0f81-5ce6-aff9-3b2f3d68f5cb.html?mode=comments
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| 0.946858 | 537 | 1.59375 | 2 |
@ Heretic - Tarantulas are arachnids and arachnids are invertebrates.(no spine) I love the little sugar gliders. My daughter is always hanging with "the sugar glider guy" at the shows in Chicago.
@ Wildspirit - They are venomous as in they possess venom, but the bite from a tarantula is not "medically significant". In most US species, the bite would be about as painful as a bee sting, but less dangerous... there has never been a documented case (of which I'm aware) of anaphylactic shock from a tarantula bite. Most North American species are quite docile... just in case you ever wanted to pick one up and "snuggle". I'll include a pic of one of my favorites... from India... and no.. the pic has not been altered.
Interesting subject! I was just at a relatives house last night and there was one in his room ... I hate to tell you what happened to it! It wasn't pretty!
I did get a picture before it demise ... they "look" kewl ... but, they are still venomous!
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| 0.976758 | 239 | 1.625 | 2 |
If the first words out of your mouth every morning are, “I’ll have a large coffee” — or if you can’t even speak until after you’ve had your java fix — there's a national holiday created especially for you.
America will put staunch tea drinkers to shame on National Coffee Day on Sept. 29, when coffee fiends can rejoice and celebrate their beloved coffee bean with free brew from national chains.
Coffee was first brought to America in the mid-1600s in a shipment en route to “New Amsterdam,” now known as New York, according to the National Coffee Association. We have that shipment and the Boston Tea Party to thank for turning the nation into coffee drinkers.
Jester's Coffee on Federal Road in Brookfield will be celebrating Saturday with 99 cent small coffees for anyone who mentions reading this article on Brookfield Patch.
National coffee chains have also been giving out free cups of coffee all week, including McDonald's restaurants — giving away free 12-ounce coffees through Sept. 29 — and Krispy Kreme — offering one free 12-ounce House Blend Coffee per customer at participating stores on Sept. 29, with no purchase necessary.
Krispy Kreme is also holding a contest in conjunction with their 75th anniversary. Participants will have a chance to win two free bags of coffee per month for the next year.
What’s your favorite blend, and where do you get it? Tell us in the comments.
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| 0.949504 | 309 | 1.710938 | 2 |
“It’s the charity with longest, most difficult name to say” host Deborah Norville justified as she failed to get the name right at the first, second and third time of asking. The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children hosted its annual gala in the Grand Ballroom of The Plaza on Tuesday testing all invitees’ verbal dexterity and generosity. “But it also does the most difficult work.” Good save Ms. Norville.
Founded in 1875, a time when there laws protecting animals but not children from cruelty, the NYSPCC is the oldest children’s charity in the world. It is perhaps surprising that this was honorees John and Margo Catsimatidis first appearance at the gala as they are prolific benefactors of children’s charities across New York. Sitting with them at a well positioned table from which they rarely left, we asked how they got involved.
“We have always been supporters of children’s charities and when we saw the great work that this charity was doing and we wanted to be a part of it.”
Why children’s charities we asked?
“They are our future and need to be nurtured.” Margo was, near verbatim, repeating the brief speech she made earlier in the evening. Read More
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http://observer.com/term/margo-catsimatidis/
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| 0.972265 | 284 | 1.609375 | 2 |
J.J. Johnson, 39
The militia movement was widely seen as overwhelmingly dominated by angry, white men — and it was. James "J.J." Johnson, who offered a black militia face to the TV cameras during a 1995 Senate hearing into the movement, was a rare exception.
Johnson co-founded the first well-known militia in Ohio, the Ohio Unorganized Militia, and described militias as "the civil rights movement of the nineties."
As journalists increasingly pictured the movement as almost all-white, Johnson became an ever more popular speaker, appearing at more than 200 militia gatherings. During the Montana Freeman standoff, he was one of several men signing a declaration warning that militia leaders in 10 states would consider it an "act of war" should any of the Freemen be hurt.
Johnson also circulated a document, "Project Worst Nightmare," that proposed violence if the standoff ended badly. But in 1997, after divorcing his wife Helen and marrying Nancy Lord — the 1992 Libertarian vice-presidential candidate — Johnson left the militia movement, saying it was "ineffective." Moving to Nevada, he ran for local sheriff and lost.
By last year, Johnson had become a favorite speaker on the circuit of neo-Confederates — another milieu dominated by whites. He pleased many new friends with his essay, "I Don't Want to be Black Anymore."
The Extermination Act
Martin Lindstedt, 43
Hailing from Granby, Mo., professional truck driver and perennial candidate Martin Linstedt typifies the mix of racism and antigovernment attitudes that characterized much of the Patriot movement. Linstedt, who while with the U.S. Army helped run a tactical nuclear missile system in Germany, has been for many years the leader of the 7th Missouri Militia.
But at the same time, he ran for a variety of posts, including state representative, governor and U.S. senator, on the Libertarian ticket — until the Libertarians finally booted him out of their party over his homophobia.
During his 1998 Senate run, he listed his top priority as a bill he called The Extermination of Regime Criminals Act, prescribing death for corrupt politicians and lawyers, along with the elimination of public schools.
In 2000, like many other racist radicals, Linstedt came into the Reform Party, running for U.S. senator a second time under presidential candidate Pat Buchanan.
"I want [white] Republicans where they either got the choice of joining the [neo-Nazi] Aryan Nations or becoming some black boy's bitch," Linstedt, a Christian Identity adherent, told a reporter at the time.
"A few people in the Reform Party told me, 'Martin, you gotta tone down the racism,' but I said, 'You guys are trying to go after the moderates, who... [will not] vote for you. At least I got a strategy.'"
Ray Looker, 59
A real estate appraiser and former missionary who used Prozac to control his anxiety, Floyd "Ray" Looker led one of the more radical militia groups of the 1990s. His West Virginia Mountaineer Militia used a manual outlining how to attack trains, highways and power plants.
Two months after the 1995 Oklahoma bombing, 26 "county commanders" of Looker's militia and another from Pennsylvania met at a farm where Looker identified a massive FBI fingerprint facility near Clarksburg as one of three potential bombing targets.
A deputy who was a volunteer in the local fire department photographed blueprints of the facility kept in a locked room and gave them to Looker, who began with other militia members to stockpile plastic explosives, grenades and homemade bombs. But all the while, an FBI informant who Looker selected as his group's "security officer" was collecting tapes of 430 conversations.
In the end, an undercover agent posing as a broker for a fictitious Middle Eastern terrorist group bought the facility blueprints from Looker, prompting Looker's prosecution under a new federal anti-terrorism statute.
Although it turned out that the blueprints were public documents, Looker pleaded guilty to "providing resources" to a terrorist group, and in 1997 was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The Paper Terrorist
Rick McLaren, 47
While thousands during the 1990s used the Patriot "common-law" tactics of filing fraudulent liens and spurious lawsuits against their enemies, few matched Richard "Rick" McLaren for volume and sheer audacity.
The self-styled "chief ambassador" of the Republic of Texas (ROT) — a group that claimed that Texas is a sovereign nation that was never legally annexed by the United States — was fond of lawsuits, however, long before he hooked up with the separatist group.
Looking like something of a mad scientist, McLaren harassed his neighbors with obnoxious lawsuits for years even before he became an ROT leader.
He also amazed them with complaints that space rays — not lack of water — were destroying his nearby vineyard. McLaren and other Republic leaders claimed the government owed them $93 trillion in "war reparations." They tried to pass $3 million in fake checks and placed bogus liens on people including Pope John Paul II.
They "ordered" then-Gov. George W. Bush to vacate his Austin offices. In the end, McLaren's handful of followers kidnapped a neighbor couple, injuring the man badly and precipitating a six-day standoff with hundreds of Texas Rangers.
The militias that McLaren said would come from 22 states to help him never showed — other than a pot-smoking crew arrested in a van as they approached — and McLaren was sent to prison on state and federal charges.
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| 0.967991 | 1,160 | 1.820313 | 2 |
Welcome to your new Drupal website!
Please follow these steps to set up and start using your website:
- Configure your website Once logged in, visit the administration section, where you can customize and configure all aspects of your website.
- Enable additional functionality Next, visit the module list and enable features which suit your specific needs. You can find additional modules in the Drupal modules download section.
- Customize your website design To change the "look and feel" of your website, visit the themes section. You may choose from one of the included themes or download additional themes from the Drupal themes download section.
- Start posting content Finally, you can create content for your website. This message will disappear once you have promoted a post to the front page.
The Universal Immunization Program (UIP) also called Routine Immunization (RI) is primarily implemented by government health services under the National Rural Health Mission. In Uttar Pradesh (UP), it is implemented in all 72 districts. UNICEF office for Uttar Pradesh is supporting Government of UP in RI implementation and bringing up the immunization coverage levels....Read more
Under the Atal Bihari Bajpai Bal Arogya Evam Poshan Mission, a five day training module for ICDS health frontline functionaries (AWWs) was developed. This training module was produced keeping in mind the fact that AWWs should be well informed and confident about using the available mechanisms and platforms for increasing coverage of evidence based interventions as well as have the required skills for performing their tasks effectively....Read more
Tribal/indigenous people are among the most marginalized, exploited and vulnerable groups in our society. Over the years, they have become a disadvantaged and neglected lot. They are also being increasingly displaced from their customary lands and deprived of their natural resources by various vested interests; as a consequence of their exclusion, they are also victims of human rights violations....Read more
C-Quest Capital Malaysia Limited wanted to conduct a monitoring survey to establish the number of CFLs installed and operating under Kapurthala & Jalandhar CPA BLY project....Read more
C-Change works with global,
regional, and...read more
Interns who worked with us in 2012.
... read more
New Concept worked very hard
towards meeting several deadlines related to the
XXVI IMPC 2012...read more
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| 0.936899 | 486 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Once again, HacDC is planning to launch a near-space balloon this weekend (on Saturday if conditions permit) to capture pictures of the Earth’s horizon. To learn about the blimp’s behavior and to assist in the recovery, the payload sends packets of sensor data through the Automatic Packet Reporting System, a quite interesting amateur-radio-based system to distribute real-time information through a repeater network. This time, however, we are parsing this data to send it through a number of useful communication channels.
One of these includes a voice phone number, 202-559-1100, powered by Twilio’s phone application API. By calling this number during the day, people will have the opportunity to listen to the current data about the blimp’s status and location and to receive SMS messages with the same information, including direct links to Google Maps. The flight team will also have the option of recording updates into the phone menu system. And there will be a Twitter feed with the data at @hacdcspaceblimp.
Unfortunately, however, the recovery team is capped according to the “Hackerspaces in Space” contest rules, so we do have to warn against any enterprising people from taking this information and tracking the payload down themselves. However, if you are interested in being involved, there may be opportunities to observe the launch and recovery this weekend.
We also will update this blog with details on the final launch time!
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| 0.93885 | 304 | 1.742188 | 2 |
One of the more popular ways to remove hair is via laser or pulsed light - energy that goes through the hair shaft down to the follicle, where it destroys the hair's root.
Laser hair removal can be done anywhere on the body. The best candidates are women with dark hair and light skin. Lasers won't work on white hair, and they are much less effective on blond hair.
Depilatories are creams that essentially remove unwanted hair. They can be lathered on and then wiped off, taking the hair with them. This is a cheap method that avoids the pain of a slipped razor, but again, it's not the right method for everyone's needs. These creams can be harsh and they can sometimes fall where they don't belong. Not the most precise method, depilatories are good for large areas, such as the legs, but awful for the bikini line and not much fun to use on a lip. Hair removal done in this manner requires frequent touch ups, but not necessarily as many as shaving alone.
Vaniqa is a prescription-only topical cream that has been FDA-approved for reducing and inhibiting the growth of unwanted facial hair. The active ingredient in Vaniqa is eflornithine hydrochloride, which has been used to treat African sleeping sickness and certain cancers. Vaniqa works by inhibiting an enzyme that is needed for cell reproduction and other cell functions necessary for hair growth. Vaniqa is applied twice a day to areas of unwanted facial hair. Noticeable results are usually observed after 4-8 weeks of therapy. Application must be continued for as long as inhibition of hair growth is desired. Vaniqa continues to reduce facial hair growth for up to 8 weeks after discontinuing treatment.
Waxing is an effective method of removing large amounts of hair at one time. In this method wax is warmed to allow it to be spread easily over the skin in the direction of hair growth. The hair becomes embedded in the wax, which cools and firms up grasping the hair. The wax is then quickly pulled off in the opposite direction of the hair growth, pulling the hairs out of the follicles. Cold waxes are available usually attached to strips, which are patted onto the skin. Wax that is still left on the skin must be peeled or scratched off. Caution must be used when heating wax so as not to burn the skin.
The no-no hair removal system is another epilation process that uses heat as a means to remove and burn off the hair literally. This is a hand held device engineered specifically for home use, and guarantees ease of use. This works like an electronic razor (without the blade) that utilizes principles of a smaller scale electrolysis process (without the complications.)
The actually device costs around $250. Manufacturers and distributors of the no-no hair removal system however, advises that the device is not to be used on parts of the body where heat is most damaging like the face, the breasts (especially the nipple area; male chests do not pose as a problem, though) and the genital regions.
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| 0.961864 | 634 | 1.84375 | 2 |
Geographical Index > United States > Washington > Lewis County > Article # 113
Media Article # 113
Article submitted by Richard Noll
Tuesday, March 10, 1998
MAN OFFERING $1 MILLION FOR A BABY BIGFOOT
TOLEDO, Wash. – A construction tycoon in Toledo, Washington, is offering $1 million to the first person who can bring him a live baby Bigfoot.
79-year-old Ray Wallace has tracked Bigfoot for more than 40 years and says he’ s wants to raise a young Sasquatch to
adulthood. Wallace says he plans on treating the Bigfoot with care and respect and would like to train the baby Bigfoot to ride around with him in his pick-up truck and help out with chores around his ranch.
Although Wallace has yet to find his yeti young’ un, he’ s come close a few times: About 10 years ago a hunter offered to sell him the alleged body of male Bigfoot for $100,000.
When he told the Bigfoot bounty hunter that the state of Washington imposes a $10,000 fine on anyone who kills a Bigfoot, the hunter hung up.
CONTACT: Ray Wallace, Toledo, WA; (360) ***-****; Editors and Producers: Please call at a reasonable hour for the Pacific time zone.
Click here to view the original article
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en
| 0.947496 | 285 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Back to Basics – Pen and Ink That Is2009/04/10
Sometimes a writer just has to write and the last few weeks that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. In fact I’ve nearly filled an entire 100 page Staples Eco-Friendly notebook, the one with bagasse paper, and I’ve gone through nearly 20ml of ink. That’s a whole lot of ink but vintage flex nibs lay down a thick line in no time.
Yes, vintage pens. If I could get a vintage Waterman’s nib on a modern pen, I’d be thrilled because my retro kick is all about the nibs, flex nibs to be exact.
When vintage pens beckon, with rare exception I get out my bottle of Waterman Blue Black ink. My collection of blue blacks is not small. There are at least a dozen including samples and WBBk doesn’t have the best color of the lot, in fact not even close. But what it does have is good to excellent shading and it is relatively easy to clean from a lever-filler. It has never harmed one of my pens some of which are a hundred years old and deserving of careful preservation. WBBk is about as safe as an ink can get.
What makes using these vintage lever-fillers possible for me is sticking to the same ink fill after fill. That way if cleaning leaves a little behind, the residue does not adulterate the next fill or damage the pen. I do take care to use the pens often enough to prevent ink drying in the nib which isn’t all that hard when I can mess around like this with it.
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In a statement on Monday, the Justice Department said they concluded the investigation because Google is "unlikely to materially alter" Motorola's "long and aggressive history" of leveraging its intellectual property against its rivals. As such, a transfer of ownership rights from Motorola to Google would not represent a significant change in the competitive landscape.
Google announced last August that it had reached an agreement with Motorola Mobility to acquire the company for $12.5 billion. CEO Larry Page indicated that legal pressure from Apple and Microsoft had forced the company to protect itself by merging with Motorola.
The agency's announcement comes on the heels of regulatory approval of the Google/Motorola deal in the European Union. The European Commission is allowing the merger to go ahead, but it warned that it will keep a close watch on patent litigation due to concerns that Google "can abuse" Motorola's patents by linking them with its Android devices. The DoJ said in its statement that it had "cooperated closely" with the European Commission in its investigation of the deal.
According to the investigation, Google's commitments to FRAND licensing have been "less clear" than Apple and Microsoft's vocal commitments (1, 2) to not threaten competitors with injunctions for standard-essential patents (SEPs). The DoJ notes Google as having stated that it will refrain from pursuing injunctive relief over infringement of SEPs only for disputes involving future license revenues and only if the counterpart agrees not to challenge the validity of the patent, pays the full disputed amount into escrow and agrees to a reciprocal process regarding injunctions.
"Google’s statement therefore does not directly provide the same assurance as [Apple's and Microsoft's] statements concerning the exercise of its newly acquired patent rights," the statement read.
The agency went on to note that it will allow Google's acquisition of Motorola's patents, but it still has concerns about what Google will do with those patents once the deal is completed. It pledged to "continue to monitor" the use of SEPs in the wireless device industry, especially for smartphones and tablets.
Motorola has had some initial success in Europe with wielding its SEPs against Apple. The company won two out of three injunctions for its essential patents in a German court in recent months.
Apple, however, has fought back with an "antisuit lawsuit" against Motorola. The Cupertino, Calif., company alleges that Motorola's German lawsuit is in "direct breach" of a patent licensing agreement with Qualcomm that extends to Apple.
Motorola apparently sent a letter to Qualcomm last year terminating "any and all license and covenant rights with respect to Apple." Qualcomm responded by claiming that Motorola was not entitled to revoke its rights because of Apple's own lawsuits.
Samsung attempted the same maneuver with its FRAND-encumbered patents last year in France, but the court ultimately decided that FRAND declarations required irrevocable licenses to be granted.
Motorola has also come under fire after it was revealed that the company is seeking 2.25 percent of Apple's sales for a patent license. Apple has submitted motions to see Motorola's contracts with other handset vendors to determine whether the 2.25 percent is fair. The requested royalty rate has been characterized as exorbitant by some because handset profits would be quickly eroded if other companies that hold patents for standards demanded similar rates.
Credit: Foss Patents
Monday's announcement also included the news that the Justice Department had closed its investigation into the acquisition of Nortel's patents by a consortium, which includes Apple, Microsoft, Research in Motion and others. Apple's purchase of patents originally owned by Novell was also given the green light by the agency.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
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