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Any devotee of the English language has been tempted to expand the dictionary. With the quick flip of a suffix, you can create a word where there was no word before. The media does this all the time. After Watergate, just about any slight controversy is worthy of a “gate”--like Apple’s Antennagate, or Timberlake/Jackson’s Nipplegate. There’s a whole page of gates over at Wikipedia.
But rarely do these made-up words really sink into the core of our lexicon, so that they’re used by the most upstanding publications without a hint of irony. Writer Stephen Fried has watched his made-up word ”fashionista” snowball over the last 20 years. And in The Atlantic, he tells the story:It is, I must admit, weird to have invented a word. And I’m still amazed at how it happened.
Fashionista first appeared on page 100 of my 1993 book Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia. I created it because as I was writing about the fashion industry--and young model Gia Carangi’s immersion in it--there was no simple way to refer to all the people at a sitting for a magazine photo or print ad. I got tired of listing photographers, fashion editors, art directors, hairstylists, makeup artists, all their assistants, and models as the small army of people who descended on the scene…
…I never gave the word another thought, frankly, until it started showing up in the fall 1995 coverage of the European couture shows, both in the London Evening Standard and the Washington Post. A Lexis/Nexis search showed it was actually used three times in 1994, 26 times in 1995, 54 times in 1996 and 74 times in 1997.
The use of fashionista dramatically expanded in 1998, as did interest in my book, when HBO made a movie about Gia’s life, starring the young (and extremely naked) Angelina Jolie. The word was used more than 200 times in U.S. newspapers that year. Today, “fashionista” resides safely in the The Oxford English Dictionary, to be considered a word long after we’ve all stopped saying it.
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The New Kadampa Tradition is an international association of Mahayana Buddhist meditation centers that follow the Kadampa Buddhist tradition founded by Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.
I'm not trying to wax philosophical here, but writing Buddha Buzz is somewhat of a metaphor for life. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's difficult, and sometimes you're thrown situations that you're not quite sure what to do with.
Case in point: there are some strange Buddhist articles out there. Last week's highlight, for instance, was the story "Wizard arrested for raping Buddhist," which turned out to be a (poorly translated) bizarre and upsetting account of a Chinese self-proclaimed exorcist who would exorcise demons in exchange for sex.
And now there's this article from i09: "In Bhutan, friendly phalluses painted on houses scare off evil spirits." What?
News about Bhutan in the Western media is generally limited to three topics: Buddhism, Gross National Happiness, and the Bhutanese royal couple, who are pretty damn attractive. And even if sometimes an article pops up that deviates from these themes, this sort of deviation isn't exactly expected.
The article begins, "In the tiny landlocked Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, the unique aesthetic tradition of painting erect penises on architecture—a tradition that has persisted for over 500 years—is finally receiving attention on a global scale. Yes, from the mountains to the valleys, Bhutan is covered with disembodied doodles." It then continues, "There are penile places, and then there are veritable penile wonderlands—Bhutan is the latter."
I was at a loss for words when I first read the story on Wednesday, and I still am now. Really? Bhutan is a "penile wonderland"? Oh, the ever-widening realization of my own ignorance. In any case, the article is loaded with lots of photographic evidence, if you wish to satisfy your curiosity.
And further down the rabbit hole we go. An Australian aid organization, the Sydney Morning Herald reports, has started a new vacation trend called "praycations." What's a praycation, you ask? Well, this particular Australian agency can help you become a "Thai monk for a month" or a "Muslim for a month."
(At right: Can you spot the praycationer?)
Spiritual tourism has been around for a long time, but it's usually in the form of pilgrimage. This "monk for a month" program seems to bring it to a whole new level. It is true, as the article relates, that temporary ordination is a large part of Thai culture (for men, that is). And 20% of the program's profits return to Thailand and Burma, which is nice. But why the need to pay to be a monk in the first place? What are you paying for? And if there's money involved, shouldn't it go directly through the monastery? Perhaps I'm overreacting, but let's just say I'm smh (shaking my head) here.
Not all of the Buddhist news this week was kooky, however.
I am extremely sad to relate the news that Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys (Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Internal Excellence) died today after a long battle with cancer. Yauch, a Buddhist and an ardent supporter of the Tibetan cause, leaves behind a colorful music legacy—he is, after all, the writer of both "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)" and "Bodhisattva Vow."
Image: From http://www.smh.com.au/travel/praycations-a-new-source-for-enlightening-travel-stories-20120504-1y438.html.
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Organic EDEN Kamut Soba is made of two energizing, strengthening North American grains: high plains organic Khorasan (kamut) 80% and whole organic buckwheat 20% with a touch of EDEN Sea Salt, traditionally made at the Sobaya Company of Montréal, Canada using the same roll-and-cut process used for soba and udon noodles in Japan. The Sobaya Company imported Japanese equipment for North America's only certified organic, traditional soba and udon factory. They make the finest soba and udon available in the Western hemisphere.
Organic EDEN Kamut Soba begins with fresh milled Eden selected grain. Flour is kneaded with pure water and fine sea salt. Salt binds the dough, enhances flavor, and preserves the dried pasta. Dough is rolled out and folded onto itself eight times, then cut to length. Long strands of noodles are lifted onto racks, rolled into drying rooms, and allowed to dry slowly for up to two days depending upon thickness and ambient temperature, humidity. Dutifully tended, they are hand-cut and packed when perfectly finished. Patience and a no-shortcut approach create superior texture, flavor, and ultimately well nourished well-being.
All EDEN organic traditional Japanese pasta is packaged in boxes made from recycled and recyclable paperboard, one of the most environmentally friendly packages available. According to the 100% Recycled Paperboard Alliance (RPA100.com), "Fourteen trees are saved for each ton of paperboard converted to 100% recycled paperboard. Trees are critical to the sequestration of CO2 (a greenhouse gas) in North America. For each ton of paperboard converted to 100% recycled paperboard, an equal amount of recovered fiber has been diverted from municipal landfills. Production of 100% recycled paperboard uses 50% less energy compared to virgin grades of paperboard, thus significantly reducing the greenhouse gases released into the environment."
Khorasan Triticum turgidum spp. turanicum is an ancient wheat native to Asia Minor and Egypt named Khorasan after the largest province in Persia in its northeast where it once dominated agriculture. Khorasan in Persian means 'place of the sun.' Other common names are Kamut trademarked in 1990, Camel's Tooth, Oriental, Prophet's, or King Tut's wheat. Introduced to the U.S.A. in Montana in 1949, its golden grains or berries are three times the size of modern wheat. It has the highest protein of all wheat, is closely related to the ancient grain spelt, and is a relative of durum wheat.
Many people sensitive to modern wheat find they can thoroughly enjoy this ancient variety. Although it does contain gluten, it is highly water soluble gluten making it easier to digest than common wheat. This is due to kamut's unique nutritional composition. The International Food Allergy Association (IFAA) says, "For most wheat sensitive people, Kamut grain can be an excellent substitute for common wheat." Dr. Ellen Yoder, President of IFAA and a team of independent scientists and physicians arrived at this conclusion after studying two groups of wheat sensitive people - those with immediate immune system responses and those with a delayed immune system response. The delayed immune response group showed a remarkable 70% greater sensitivity to common wheat than to Kamut. With the immediate immune response group, those who were severely allergic, they found that 70% had no, or minor reaction to Kamut. The Kamut Association of America and Europe call kamut 'the wheat you can eat'.
Buckwheat is gluten free with all amino acids. The amino acid composition of buckwheat is nutritionally superior to all cereal grains, including oats. This is due to the especially high amount of lysine, an amino acid that many cereal grains lack. Buckwheat is the best source of rutin, an important vitamin C complex flavonoid.
According to FDA, "Low fat diets rich in fiber-containing grain products, fruits, and vegetables may reduce the risk of some types of cancer, a disease associated with many factors." Organic EDEN Kamut Soba is low in fat and a good source of healthy fiber. Also, "Diets low in sodium may reduce the risk of hypertension or high blood pressure, a disease associated with many factors." Organic EDEN Kamut Soba is low sodium, a good source of protein, iron, thiamin B1, niacin B3, and zinc.
Commercial pasta is highly refined chemically treated flour, processed in minutes through teflon dies and ultra high heat or microwave drying resulting in inferior flavor, diminished nutrition, and dubious value. Organic EDEN Kamut Soba is a wise choice. Light, delicious and nourishing because it's made with patience, care, the best ingredients, and handling that enhances value.
Organic EDEN traditional Japanese pastas are delicious, strengthening and nourishing. With so many different flavors of EDEN pastas (and beans, sea veggies, condiments, and much more ... ) you can stock your pantry and make healthy meals easily with satisfying variety. Delicious in dashi - shoyu soy sauce kombu noodle broth and ideal in salads and stir-fries, with a dipping sauce, or any way you enjoy pasta.
Traditional Cooking Instructions for Japanese Noodles
Soba and Udon can be boiled just like other pasta or you can use a traditional Japanese cooking method which takes a little longer but is well worth it. This method is called the shocking method, cold water is added to boiling water several times during the cooking process creating a firmer, al dente noodle. For this method place 2 quarts of cold water in a large pot, cover, and bring to a boil. Remove the cover, add the noodles, and stir to prevent sticking. As soon as the water comes to a boil again, add enough cold water to stop the water from boiling (about a 1/2 cup). Bring to a boil again, and add cold water again. Repeat one or two additional times until the noodles are done. Periodically check the noodles by removing a strand and biting or cutting it in half. If the center of the noodle strand is white and the outside is darker, the noodles are not done. When the center of the noodle is the same color as the outside, and the noodles are firm yet tender to the bite they are done. Rinse cooked Udon and Soba noodles under cold water. This lowers sodium and prevent clumping.
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Blackpool ICT boss: BYOD doesn't save money
It would cost less for council to cough for new kit
Rolling out bring your own device (BYOD) policy is costing Blackpool Council more than it would to provide the mobiles itself, according to the local authority's head of ICT services.
Councils considering implementing bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives should not think of them as a money-saving exercise, Tony Doyle, head of ICT services at Blackpool council, has warned.
Since starting its BYOD scheme, the council has realised that it is costing more to allow staff to use their own devices than corporate ones once additional requirements such as mobile device management and help-desk support are factored in, Doyle said.
"I don't believe the right reason to introduce a BYOD policy is to make cost savings. My sense at the moment is that it's costing us more because of the extra burden on the helpdesk, and the cost of software to manage the devices," he told the InfoSec conference in London.
"I also think you've got to factor in that if it all goes wrong, the local authority may fall foul of the information commissioner for a breach and get a £500,000 fine."
However, the council is reaping other benefits from BYOD, such as office space rationalisation, including a reduction in the number of desks it provides, the introduction of hotdesking, and flexible working.
Local authorities hoping to introduce similar schemes should view it as a way of supporting employees and helping to bring about job satisfaction, according to Doyle.
Blackpool's supplier, Citrix, offers both a high-security domain and low-security domain for the council's applications, but only allows BYOD users access to the latter, giving them access to email, secure browser, and a staff telephone directory.
"We think the risks are too great [to open up access to the higher security domain,]" Doyle added.
This article was originally published at Guardian Government Computing.
Guardian Government Computing is a business division of Guardian Professional, and covers the latest news and analysis of public sector technology. For updates on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.
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Ninth Circuit Judge William Fletcher: Conservatives Who Propose Constitutional Amendments to Deal With Gay Marriage and Abortion are Ignoring a Much Easier Solution
Can Congress strip the federal courts of power to decide some federal legal questions, like whether gay marriage or abortion are fundamental rights under the Fourteenth Amendment? The answer is “yes”, according to an article earlier this year in the Duke University Law Review by Federal Ninth Circuit Judge William Fletcher. I emphatically agree with Judge Fletcher that Congress can indeed allow the courts of a particular state to make a final decision about whether a particular type of state statute violates the federal Constitution.
Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution says that, “The [federal] judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under the Constitution, [and] the laws of the United States….” (emphasis added). This is the source of the federal courts’ jurisdiction over federal questions. At first glance, this extension of federal question jurisdiction to “all cases” would seem to mean that Congress cannot withdraw some federal question cases from the federal judiciary. However, such a hasty conclusion would be flat wrong.
Judge Fletcher points out that the word “all” in this sentence of the Constitution was intended to allow Congress to strip state courts of jurisdiction over some cases (e.g. federal question cases), whereas the Constitution’s omission of the word “all” in relation to other cases (e.g. diversity controversies) disallows Congress from stripping state courts of jurisdiction. Thus, according to Judge Fletcher, inclusion of the word “all” in Article III, Section 2 expands congressional power with respect to state courts, instead of shrinking congressional power to create exceptions to the federal question jurisdiction of the federal courts.
There are several textual features of the Constitution that I would like to now point out in support of Judge Fletcher’s argument that the word “all” in Article III, Section 2 does not forbid Congress from making exceptions to federal question jurisdiction with respect to the federal courts. Keep in mind that such exceptions would make those particular federal questions subject to final decision in the state courts.
The first textual feature that provides additional support to Judge Fletcher’s argument is that the Constitution repeatedly discusses “cases of impeachment”, as an exception to federal judicial power over federal questions. If those cases were not an exception to federal judicial power, then the Senate would have to be an inferior court whose members serve for life, given that all federal judicial power must be vested in the Article III courts.
The second textual feature supporting Judge Fletcher is that Article III, Section 2 does not include the word “whatsoever” as does Article I, Section 8 which gives Congress power over the District of Columbia “in all cases whatsoever.” When the framers wanted to be categorical, they knew how. If they had wanted to prevent Congress from making any exceptions to the federal judiciary’s jurisdiction over federal questions, they would have said “all cases whatsoever” instead of merely “all cases”.
A third textual feature in support of Judge Fletcher’s position is the Exceptions Clause, which plainly allows exceptions to federal appellate jurisdiction for federal question cases. The only way to maintain federal jurisdiction over those particular federal question cases would be by giving the Supreme Court original jurisdiction over those cases. However, Congress cannot expand the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The canon of exclusio unius indicates that the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction only extends to ambassadorial-type cases plus state-party cases (described in the first sentence of Article III, Section 2).
To my mind, these textual considerations strongly buttress Judge Fletcher’s argument. No recourse is necessary to the private intentions or the secret deliberations of the framers, or to congressional activity after ratification, or to U.S. Supreme Court precedent, or to legislative practice, or to the vast number of law review articles that have been written on this subject. The text of the Constitution is clear that Congress can make exceptions to the federal question jurisdiction of the federal courts.
As Judge Fletcher emphasizes in his closing paragraph, the failure of Congress to do anything simply amounts to an endorsement of what the U.S. Supreme Court has done: “if Congress has the power to strip the federal courts of their jurisdiction, and if it chooses to leave their jurisdiction undiminished, Congress has to that degree in turn accepted and legitimized the exercise of judicial power.”
UPDATE (October 23, 2010): Just thought I’d mention the following line from the Supreme Court’s opinion by Justice Joseph Story in Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee, 14 US 304 (1816): “The judicial power shall extend to all the cases enumerated in the constitution. As the mode is not limited, it may extend to all such cases, in any form, in which judicial power may be exercised” (emphasis added). One could argue that no judicial body can exercise power in cases of impeachment, and so those cases are not an exception to the judicial power granted to the federal courts.
On the other hand, Federalist 83 says: “the judicial authority of the federal judicatures is declared by the Constitution to comprehend certain cases particularly specified. The expression of those cases marks the precise limits, beyond which the federal courts cannot extend their jurisdiction, because the objects of their cognizance being enumerated, the specification would be nugatory if it did not exclude all ideas of more extensive authority.” That’s similar to what the Supreme Court held in Marbury v. Madison, which seems to contradict the argument (by some scholars who believe stripping the federal courts of jurisdiction is unconstitutional) that congressional exceptions to the Court’s appellate jurisdiction signify that the Court instead has original jurisdiction over those excepted cases.
Anyway, this is certainly not a simple issue, and I’ve got an open mind about it, though I still think that Judge Fletcher is correct.
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Mishima can dedicate twenty pages to step-by-step depictions of seventy soldiers disemboweling themselves, but he can also do… this.
Somewhere in his heart he had recognized who she was. His dominant wish, however, was to go a little longer without recognizing her. The woman’s face floating in its dark seclusion, no name yet attached to it, had the character of a mysterious, lovely apparition. It was like the scent of the fragrant olive which, as one walks along a path at night, tells of the blossoms before one sees them. Isao wanted to keep things just as they were, if only for an instant more. At this moment a woman was a woman, not someone with a name attached to her.
And that was not all. Because of her hidden name, because of the agreement not to speak that name, she was transmuted into a marvelous essence, like a moonflower, its supporting vine invisible, floating high up in the darkness. This essence which preceded existence, this phantasm which preceded reality, this portent which preceded the event conveyed with unmistakable force the presence of a substance yet more powerful. This presence which showed itself as gliding through air—this was woman.
Isao had yet to embrace a woman. Still, never so strongly at this moment, when he keenly sensed this “womanliness that preceded woman,” had he felt that he too knew what ecstasy meant. For this was a presence that he could even now embrace. In time, that is, it had drawn near with an exquisite subtlety, and in space it was only a little distant. The affectionate emotion that filled his breast was like a vapor that could envelop her. And yet once she was gone, Isao, like a child, could forget her entirely.
Yukio Mishima, “Runaway Horses” (Chapter 18)
Christ… How does it manage to hold up in translation!?!
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User:Anthony Salvagno/Notebook/Research/2010/03/01/Catching up on class work
I have a bunch of class work to work on and I am going to try and get as much done today as possible. Of course if something pressing research wise comes up, I will work on that as well.
I need to read a review article and I'm going to take notes below.
Mechanical Properties of Biological Nanocomposites
by Baohua Ji and Huajian Gao
- Biological nanocomposites, such as bone, tooth, shell, and wood, exhibit exceptional mechanical properties. Much recent effort has been directed at exploring the basic mechanical principles behind the microstructures of these natural materials to provide guidelines for the development of novel man-made nanocomposites. This article reviews some of the recent studies on mechanical properties of biological nanocomposites, including their stiffness, strength, toughness, interface properties, and elastic stability. The discussion is focused on the mechanical principles of biological nanocomposites, including the generic nanostructure of hard-mineral crystals embedded in a soft protein matrix, the flaw-tolerant design of the hard phase, the role of the soft matrix, the hybrid interface between protein and mineral, and the structural hierarchy. The review concludes with some discussion of and outlook on the development of biomimicking synthetic materials guided by the principles found in biological nanocomposites.
This section begins talking about the TSC model (Tension-Shear Chain model) which I have almost no interest in. It is sad and strange to see how my upbringing in Math and Physics has pretty much excluded me from the field while my side learnings in Biology has welcomed me to the field with open arms.
I'm going to glaze over this section and take no notes, but I will read a little just to get an idea of what they are talking about. There are some useful subsections though.
Role of Protein Matrix
- Template mineralization - controls nucleation and deposition of minerals
- governs size and assembly of mineral crystals
- transfers load through shear
- traps cracks through soft matrix
- dissipates energy through deformation and viscoelastic properties (similar to load transfer)
- act as sources of microcrack nucleation to redistribute stress
They provide several examples of how proteins do this and one description is due to the unfolding of proteins since there are numerous ways this can happen. Interestingly there have been force spectroscopy studies on Collagen (as an example) to understand its force bearing nature.
Through a lot of technical jargon, which is really annoying and only further fails to convey information to the reader, I gathered that there is a large protein-mineral interface and that as one looks at smaller and smaller scales this region increases largely. An example they provide is that in the volume of a raindrop, the interfacial area can be as large as a football field. They didn't clarify if it was American or not. Strength of the interface depends on the size and geometry of the minerals although I guess that's self explanatory. They do a bunch of MD study analysis and for some reason seeing the letters M-D makes me shut my brain off.
Role of Hierarchical Structures
Hierarchy is important and it is shown that biocomposites are structured in this way which provides greater stability and strength. "...The extraordinary toughness of bone is due to the combined action of structural elements at both nanometer and micrometer levels." (From the paper.) There is a lot of model analysis and I can't think about that clearly right now, plus I don't really care.
This section talks about designing synthetic polymers designed to mimic structures found naturally in biocomposite materials. It seems as though many experiments have taken great strides in this regards being able to mimic:
- layer-by-layer construction brick and mortar style
- design of a montmorillonite clay platelet–poly(vinyl alcohol) matrix nacre-mimetic nanocomposite, whatever that means
- multistructure design to mimic seashell structure (which is highly strong and coveted)
- complex hierarchical structures
- developed a zinc oxide and poly(amino acid) system to synthesize a nacre-mimic nanocomposite
I grow bored of this paper, although there is a nice summary at the end that discuss key points in the paper.
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Posted by Googy
on October 30, 2000 at 16:42:53:
In Reply to: Re: GP 1046 posted by Rauly on October 30, 2000 at 01:39:09:
: I am on the initial AMGEN group selected. I just got back from Yale Univ. last week where I completed some baseline physical and imaging testing, I go back in 6 months. I will start taking the compound November 9th at my facility(University of Southern California Medical Center-USC). I will keep you all posted - keep the faith.
: The trial of what is now known as AMGEN 474 has been going on for about 3 months, with an initial group of 30 taking it and another 270 getting underway as we write. So far no reports have come to my attention of problems, and on the other side the results I am aware of look very promising.
: : Chuck
: : : : : This is the most significant progress I have read as of today. Dr. Lieberman posted this article which was published in "Science". Their was a list of what I assume to be the research sites for the study and they are Chicago, Switzerland, Wisconson and France. In "plain English", a factor called GDNF is delivered to the appropriate site attached to a virus. They found the GDNF reversed the process of the dopamine producing neuron's destruction and also induced regeneration of the neurons in primate models of Parkinson's disease. Thw title of the message is "Article from Science of importance to Parkinson's disease patients." Now we have to hold our breath and hope the GDNF factor will work the same way in human subjects and not have any serious side effects. I am impressed! Bruce
: : : : :: Bruce, This seems to be the same article that was in our daily paper. "Relief for Parkinson's Disease"?....Washington: A gene therapy experiment relieved severe symptoms of Parkinson's disease in monkeys and experts say the technique offers promise for treating the 1.2 million Americans who suffer from the disease, experts say. A virus that had been joined with a gene that prompts production of dopamine, a chemical neurotransmitter, was injected into the brains of monkeys who had chemically induced Parkinson's disease. These monkeys that had severe symptoms of Parkinson's were restored to near normal by the gene therapy, said Jeffrey H. Kordower, first author of a study appearing today in the journal Science. Friends, this is another promising avenue for finding THE CURE!!!!!
I haven't kept up with the news.But this sounds like the break we are waiting for.Good Luck Rauly at USC.
: : : Betty D, Yes, I saw the same article in the newspaper and they described it a little different, but it is the same drug. Earlier today Dr. L posted a message about another drug GP 1046 and said it could be taken orally and also stimulated the regeneration of the dopamine producing nwurons. The development of this drug has progresed further than the first drug I mentioned, and Dr. L says their are close to conducting clinical trials on a large scale. Bruce
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I am in urgent need of advice. Right ear of patient has been operated on the ground that infection was in the year and after operation it was told by the doctor that out of three bones, two bones has been damaged. Further, the ear drum was also changed. The tissues were taken for tuberculosis test and test for cancer. The tuberculosis test was found positive. For treatment of tuberculosis the forecox has been prescribed by the doctor and is being taken up regularly from last one week. The recovery of hearing loss is about 10 % only. It is to submit that the left ear is also infected and has hearing loss. I have some doubt which may kindly be solved at your level.
1. Whether there is any test/symptom to locate the tuberculosis and cancer in the ear before operating?
2. The patient might be suffering from the tuberculosis, whether the medicine prescribed for right ear will also work for left ear.
3. In case of cancer, whether operation for left year is advisable?
4. Advice on overall situation, what to do?
Sorry, this question is outside the scope of an audiologist and requires direct medical attention. If you arent' comfortable with your diagnosis, please seek a second opinion from a physician that specializes in treatment of the ear.
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Written by Kate Branciforte, editorial intern
It’s Valentine’s Day and we all know what that means—a day filled with flowers, cards and showing others just how much you care for them. But remember, you need to show yourself a little love too! February is American Heart Month, and the American Heart Association has released a one-of-a-kind Heart Health Forever Stamp to remind you how to be heart-healthy.
In addition to a new design, the stamps also come with heart-health prevention tips. Each sheet includes suggestions for how to eat well, manage stress, fit in exercise and successfully deal with health screenings.
“Prevention is the key to eliminating heart attacks and strokes,” U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, M.D said at a recent press event. “We are giving Americans information and tools to make healthier choices to prevent tobacco use, access healthy food and find enjoyable ways to get regular exercise.”
There are 50 million of the 45-cent stamps available nationwide for sale in sheets of 20. Purchases can be made at most post offices, or at usps.com/shop.
And don’t forget to tune into weight-loss reality show The Biggest Loser tonight: Benjamin and Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe have teamed up with the popular show to help spread the word about these heart-helpful stamps. A new “Watch it. Write it. Win it,” 11-week sweepstakes launches during the show and amazing prizes are up for grabs: an all-expense paid trip to the Biggest Loser Ranch, four weeks of Biggest Loser-prepared meals delivered straight to your door, or two tickets (plus airfare!) to the show’s season 13 finale. All viewers have to do is send letters of encouragement to their favorite The Biggest Loser contestant(s). The more you send, the better the odds of winning—as long as they arrive separately and addressed to one contestant at a time, one letter guarantees one entry and there is no submission limit. Time to put your writing skills to the test!
For more information about the sweepstakes, visit usps.com/biggestloser.
More from FITNESS:
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Collage and acrylic on paper, thread, string, plastic lid
48 x 30 ¼ in.
New York-based artist B. (Bill) Wurtz has been making delicately poetic sculptures for more than four decades, often incorporating everyday household objects into his work. For Untitled (2010), Wurtz has taken a yogurt lid and a supermarket leaflet and fragmented them on the page, creating a sense of their fragility.
Untitled is currently on view as part of "Everyday Abstract - Abstract Everyday," a group show at New York's James Cohan Gallery curated by Matthew Higgs. The show features work by a range of artists, from post-war to contemporary, linked by what Higgs calls, "the grey area between an essentially non-representational image/object and the use of quotidian materials and processes."—TIFFANY ZABLUDOWICZ
I am not treating the paper as a ground. I am thinking of it in sculptural terms as an object in itself. It relates to the supermarket advertising section, but it is also a regular piece of paper. I think of the two items as belonging together. If anything were going to be described as a ground in this case it would be the wall. The holes cut in the paper disrupt its being relegated to one level that one would call a ground. This work is partly about layers. The sculptural qualities occur in small increments. Yes, the work at first glance appears to be flat, but on closer inspection will reveal itself to be definitely not.
I think of the shadows against the wall, made by the paper and the yogurt cap, as part of the composition. They certainly relate to the sculptural qualities. It is a way of making the wall a part of the piece. The hanging system with the loops at the top is a way to again play up the objectness of the piece. It helps to create more pronounced shadows. I certainly never wanted the paper to be matted in a frame or even placed extremely flat against the wall, as that would have eliminated the possibility of the shadows.
First of all I chose the produce section of the supermarket advertising newspaper. The fruits and vegetables have a timeless quality as opposed to branded products. I then chose to cut out certain images of fruits and vegetables and move them to other parts of the larger paper, which I think is perhaps related to buying produce in the store and taking the items home. The holes left behind and the moved pieces of paper start to make the composition more complex. One hole provided a place to tie the thread that holds the yogurt lid.
Over the years a recurring theme of my work has been "food, clothing and shelter," which are the basic ingredients of daily life. I found those subjects to be an interesting way to somewhat limit the found objects I use. Early on I realized that using found objects in my work could be too overwhelming if I didn't place some kind of limit on the possible items. Following that methodology actually opened up more possibilities for experimenting with more abstract concerns in the works.
I have been using newsprint for quite a while. It is a pretty logical candidate for collage work, plus it fits in well with my daily life theme-in this case with food imagery. I like the ubiquitous nature of those supermarket leaflets and that they are mostly overlooked. They are not objects of high design, but I have always been drawn to them for some reason. I think I find their familiarity to be endearing.
I eat yogurt everyday, and all the lids I use come from containers with yogurt that I ate. I basically ignored the lids for years and certainly wasn't in love with the designs of them. I realized at one point that they could come in handy when I wanted circular shapes to use in formal compositions. It appealed to me the idea of just being very accepting of the way they looked, just taking whatever graphics were printed on them and being nonjudgmental about it.
Sometimes a strong wind will flip over the yogurt lid and hid the label. This an annoyance and definitely not something I want to happen. But then I think, "Is this some kind of lesson for me to try to be less controlling of the world?"
In his latest solo exhibition, "non-lieu, non sites" (which one might translate as "dismissed cases, dismissed places"), Algerian-born French art...
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LAHORE: Despite a worldwide ban, the Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) has sent out messages on Twitter and Facebook asking Muslims across the world to donate zakat and fitra during Ramazan.
JuD, through its official Twitter account, not only appealed for donations for itself but also for Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation, an organisation of JuD formed in the aftermath of the UNSC sanctions. JuD, which is allegedly the charitable front and the political arm of al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), had earlier disowned Falah-i-Insaniyat.
JuD’s message on Twitter, which had a link to Facebook as well, called people to donate zakat in any form either by cash, by donating an ambulance or by sponsoring medicines or meals for Sehr and Iftar.
When Interior Minister Rehman Malik was recently asked about the collection of funds during Ramazan, he had categorically denied that any unregistered organisation was involved in such activities. He had also vowed to take action against such organisations involved in collecting funds.
It remains unclear whether the JuD is registered to collect funds within the country or not.
JuD, when contacted by The Express Tribune, said that since the organisation was not banned in Pakistan, it could collect funds. “Everyone knows that when the UNSC placed sanctions on Jamaatud Dawa, we went to the court against the ban and the Lahore High Court had decreed in our favour, categorically saying that the JuD is not a banned organisation,” said Khalid Waleed, the chief coordinator of JuD’s political cell headed by Abdur Rehman Makki.
Makki was recently placed on the US State Department’s Reward for Justice Programme list which offers $500,000 for evidence leading to his role in Mumbai 2008 attacks. JuD chief Hafiz Saeed is in the category of $1 million reward.
He, however, could not explain why the JuD is also collecting funds in the name of Falah-i-Insaniyat. “They are just two different heads of the same account. If someone wants to donate to JuD or Falah, we welcome it,” he said.
On Twitter, JuD has 2,188 followers and the profile says that the aims of the organisation include spreading knowledge, practicing dawah (spreading the message of Islam) and jihad.
More in PakistanMusical chairs: Exit Kamran Shahid, entrée Talat Hussain?
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You often hear about executives that follow their mentors from one company to another. But Paul Duffy, a 31-year veteran of
Sandoz—and then Novartis— followed a molecule to his new post as executive vice president of Alamo Pharmaceuticals.
Back in June 2003, Novartis reallocated the promotional dollars behind Clozaril (clozapine), a product used for treatment-resistant
schizophrenia that faced significant generic competition to newer brands. Although Novartis offered Duffy other opportunities
within the company, he wanted to continue working with the physicians and patients to whom he had devoted the last 13 years
of his life as the brand's steward.
Before very long, Duffy was contacted by Neil R. Cutler, MD, founder of the maker of FazaClo, a drug that enhances the clozapine
molecule by offering an orally disintegrating tablet delivery system. He asked Duffy to run the commercial side of the company,
Alamo Pharmaceuticals, and Duffy accepted.
In February 2004, the FDA approved FazaClo, and put Alamo on the map. Duffy had to get the commercial operation off the ground
by creating Alamo's sales force, and marketing and distribution functions from scratch.
Here, he talks about that challenge, the company's first product, and working with the government to improve access.
Pharm Exec: The industry is using more orally disintegrating tablets. What are the benefits of that formulation?
Duffy: For one, it is very discreet. When patients open the blister packaging, it looks like they're taking a breath mint. The formulation
also helps patients to avoid skipping doses, because they can take their medication even if there is no water available—if
they're at their job as a cashier in a grocery store or if they're on a subway or bus. Patients don't have to stop and say,
"I have to go get some water. It's time to take my medicine." When that happens, they remind themselves, and everybody around
them, that they are ill.
FazaClo's minty taste also makes it easier for the patient to remember. Because it appeals to that sense, patients are more
apt to say, "Gee, I took my last dose this morning. It's time to take another one now."
What type of patent protection does FazaClo have?
FazaClo is manufactured using the patented OraSolv technology, licensed from Cima Labs. We have two patents on the manufacturing
process of the product. This licensed technology presented a unique development opportunity. Often we see brands come onto
the market, followed by generics—and that's the end of the story. Here, we have a brand that is followed by generics, fol
» lowed by a new patent-protected brand. That also is happening in some other places. Klonopin (clonazepam), for example,
was branded in tablets, then followed by generics, and now Roche Laboratories has introduced the new Klonopin wafers.
In our case, it presents some interesting dynamics, particularly with payers, because our patients often rely on Medicaid
to pay for their medications.
What are the dynamics?
One of the biggest issues in antipsychotic therapy today is the use of polypharmacy. Harvard recently conducted a study that
pointed out that polypharmacy can cause more side effects, have increased costs, and offer no better outcome. So if you have
a product that is more effective in a particular disease state and that becomes a generic, and the product loses its champion,
then what rushes in to fill the void are other, newer patented products. But they may not be as effective and may require
polypharmacy to get the same effect. So the revival of the former champion to its original status and its rightful usage levels
will help to reduce polypharmacy and the costs to state payers.
Are payers open to hearing about new formulations of products when generics are available?
It has puzzled them a little bit. We have given numerous presentations to various states, and they have listened carefully.
When we lay out our rationale and give them supporting documentation, they begin to see the sense of our proposal, and that
it is a viable strategy for the states.
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“The Seine will keep flowing, my love. You can look away.”
I could not. I had never felt my blood pound as it did then, had never felt so in synchronisation with anything else in my life. Not even when we held hands and lay on our backs, in the park back home, and tried to see the constellations through cloud cover and smog. I felt his hand, calloused from guitar and stained yellow at the fingertips, rest lightly against my shoulderblade. I did not move. I knew that if I turned away, if I looked into his gentle misunderstanding eyes, the Seine would stop—and I would stop pulsing, too.
I had eighty euros left in my traveller’s pouch, and I think he had perhaps a hundred and twenty. I remembered hearing him swear as I alighted the train in Paris, finally, in Paris. I think he wanted to buy himself some food (they didn’t serve you in the economy carriage—you had to pay for first class if you wanted to drink French hot chocolate before you crossed the border) but I wasn’t listening. I never seemed to listen all that much anymore. I would have to get a job. A job in country where I did not speak the language.
Or perhaps I would melt away into the Seine, instead.
It was warm, summer in this strange land. I wondered if Hemingway had sat where I sat now, or Cole Porter, or Picasso with his women. Back home it was winter, and the first snow would be falling soon, I supposed. I didn’t know. I’d been away for a little over a month. I’d been carrying with me my backpack and my traveller’s pouch and the man who loved me more than Paris. I did not understand that. I did not understand how anybody could love anything more than Paris.
The park bench I sat on was splintered and rough, perhaps from too many tourists, or travellers like me. The Seine flowed in the canal beneath me, and behind me, just to the left and back a few blocks was the Notre Dame. If I had had the courage to look away from the murky grey current, I would have seen the gothic steeples rising into the blue sky, a rare blue sky in the city of grey and memory. All along the pathway we had strolled down were red poppies, their content expressionless faces turned up towards the sun, as if praising the warmth in an eternal silent choir. I would dearly like to be a poppy, I thought. I would dearly like to just photosynthesise. If I were a poppy, I would not have to have his hand on my shoulder.
I felt the bench shudder a little, disturbed as he sat beside me. I heard his trousers tear, and a brief muttering of curses while he fussed over the new hole in his pants. I would have to fix that, tonight in the hostel dorm we were sharing with eight other travellers. None of us talked to each other. They lied when they said you met people you would fall in love with in Paris. Perhaps if I did not have him here with me, I would meet a young writer who smoked on his balcony and lived off baguettes and hot tea. Perhaps I was simply too romantic. Perhaps I had read too many books.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he murmured, and finally, finally, he looked at the Seine too. But I do not think he ever really saw it the way I saw it. There was no intake of breath, no fluttering of fingers for something to hold, no gentle scintillation of eyes to look over this dream. Still, I could not speak, and I could tell he was getting restless. Ever since we had arrived in Paris, I had been unbearably silent. I know it tormented him. Back at home, in our dingy little apartment with the terrible telephone connection I would try to call my parents on every month, I couldn’t stand the silence. I would be screeching or reciting poetry or singing Ella Fitzgerald to the moon. But in Paris I was quiet. He could not tell that the city spoke for me.
“I just feel so eternal,” he sighed, looking up at the willows that shaded us. It sounded like something from a bad teen novel. “And I swear in that moment, we were infinite,” or something like that. And then, like gossamer webs spreading across autumn leaves, his fingers began to inch towards mine. I could not see them, my gaze fixed on the Seine as it was, but I could feel them. The girl I was before I arrived in Paris could sense the man I used to love (if I knew love ‘til now), and could know what he would say, what he would do. He would hold my hand, now, and kiss my cheek and sit in silence for a moment or two (pretending desperately to be content with quiet), before jumping up and suggesting Picasso’s gallery and a croissant.
And his fingers were bare moments away, now, and I took in the Seine, and I breathed in the Seine, and I held the Seine inside my heart so that I would remember this feeling of eternity, this feeling of connection forever and ever and ever amen. I would praise the Seine to the moon, two seconds now, and I would whisper Paris to the stars, one second, and I would fly fly fly escape and he touched me.
And I withered; broke.
And the Seine stopped flowing.
And he left Paris alone.
And I was lost in the Notre Dame, longing for the Seine inside me.
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Making a public statement is part of what weddings are about, but seldom are the statements so loud and clear.
Teresa Guajardo and Tina Roose are getting married in the Capitol Rotunda in Olympia on Dec. 15, and they’re signing up as many other gay and lesbian couples as they can to turn the Capitol into one big wedding chapel that day.
Why the Capitol?
“It’s the people’s house,” Roose said. “It’s where the Senate and House and the governor all supported marriage equality.”
“And,” Guajardo added, “it’s spectacularly beautiful.”
Roose reserved the Rotunda in February after calculating that, if Referendum 74 were approved, Dec. 15 would be the first Saturday after the law went into effect.
“It was an act of faith in the voters of the state of Washington,” she said.
She said that on election night, in the glow of victory, her idea evolved into a plan to have as many couples as possible get married in the Capitol in simultaneous or consecutive ceremonies.
“We just said, ‘Let’s share the joy,’” Guajardo said. “Let’s share the fun and give everybody an opportunity to have a beautiful event in a way that’s somewhat easy.”
Roose, 67, is a retired librarian. Guajardo, 43, is a mental health counselor. They live in Olympia and have been together for 13 years.
Their wedding will begin at 12:30 p.m.
Others – however many there turn out to be – will be conducted from 1-2:30 p.m. on the north, south, east and west balconies on the third floor, with ongoing receptions on the balcony above that.
They’ve ordered wedding cake for 200 and gluten-free cake for 50. And they have a Facebook page: “Get married with us at the State Capitol.”
Elsewhere in the state, hundreds of same-sex couples will get the jump on Guajardo and Roose with ceremonies earlier in the week.
In Seattle, eight municipal judges have volunteered their time to marry couples in City Hall on Dec. 9, the first day a certificate can be signed.
Couples will be able to pick up their marriage licenses and certificates Dec. 6 – one full month after the election. But Washington requires a three-day waiting period before couples actually tie the knot.
R-74 asked voters to approve or reject a state law legalizing same-sex marriage. Gov. Chris Gregoire signed the law in February, but it was put on hold pending the election.
Statewide, 53 percent of voters approved R-74.
In Thurston County, the referendum passed easily, 55.5 percent to 44.5 percent. It failed in Pierce County, but just barely – by about 3,000 votes out of approximately 340,000 votes cast, according to unofficial results.Rob Carson: 253-597-8693
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PHILADELPHIA PA – Did you know you are legally responsible for everything on your tax return, even if another person prepared it for you? Did you also know your tax return paints a unique picture of your financial situation that you can use to make smart financial decisions throughout the year? Those are two of many reasons it’s so important to choose tax preparers who really know their stuff.
The Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants, with offices in Philadelphia, outlines some common mistakes in making this choice, and offers helpful solutions.
Mistake 1: Not Asking What “Preparer” Means
Anyone can use the title “tax preparer,” so find out what kind of training and experience the person actually has. You should be aware that even some preparers who are “registered tax preparers” with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) may have only met certain minimal requirements.
A certified public accountant (CPA), on the other hand, must meet rigorous education standards and pass the demanding Uniform CPA Examination. CPAs are also required to take continuing education throughout their careers to keep their skills sharp and to meet high ethical standards in order to keep their licenses.
Mistake 2: Not Asking About Experience
In choosing preparers, ask how long they have worked with clients in situations like your own and whether they can offer advice on the financial issues that are on your mind.
CPAs have hands-on experience helping a variety of clients understand how to comply with tax laws and minimize their tax outlays. They are familiar with overlooked deductions as well as common mistakes made on returns. You can rely on their expertise to spot challenges and opportunities in your tax filing. Solid experience and training are particularly important if your return will be more complex than average, which could be the case if you are self-employed or if you are dealing with estate issues, a small business, or other complications.
Mistake 3: Not Asking About Fees
To avoid surprises later, find out up front how much preparers will charge. A preparer’s fees may vary based on the complexity of your return and other factors. More experienced preparers may cost a little more but the savings or other financial advice they offer may cover some or all of any added expense.
Keep in mind, too, that you should avoid working with someone whose fee is based on a percentage of your refund or on how much they can save you in taxes. Also ask whether preparers can represent you before the IRS in case your return is audited and what extra charges might be involved if they do.
Mistake 4: Not Reviewing Your Return Once It’s Done
One of the most egregious mistakes you can make is to not review your return. Look it over and make sure you understand it. If you see anything you believe may be incorrect or that doesn’t make sense, contact your preparer and ask questions.
Mistake 5: Setting Your Return Aside and Forgetting About It
Do not ignore your return once it is filed. It is an important financial document. Did you pay too much in taxes last year? Are you taking the right steps to prepare for retirement, a child’s college education, or other long-term goals? Your tax return, which contains vital information about what you earned and how you spent it, can help answer those questions and many more.
If you have more questions about your tax situation or any aspect of your financial life, be sure to consult your local CPA. He or she has the expertise to advise you on all your financial concerns. To find a CPA in Pennsylvania by location or area of expertise, visit www.IneedaCPA.org.
Photo from Google Images
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PEOPLE OF THE LIE: INDEPENDENCE DAY U. S. A.
INDEPENDENCE DAY U. S. A.
PEOPLE OF THE LIE:
INDEPENDENCE DAY U. S. A.
by Patrick H. Bellringer
I attended a Fourth of July patriotic choral concert in our Memorial Park today, July 4, 2002. What was notable was not the choral singers and their unpatriotic music, but the insensitivity and disinterest and apathy of the people, as they paraded back and forth in front of the few who were trying to listen to the concert. There were fat women and fat children stuffing down another “hot dog”, child-parents carting their unkempt and undisciplined children, elderly couples tottering and bent from years of work and illness, rock kids with their rock shirts and cell phones---most with a sad, lost look in their eyes that spoke of inner pain and the loneliness of going nowhere.
The choral group sang Al Greenwood’s “I’m Proud To Be An American”. These people passing by are Americans and this is my America today! A great feeling of sadness passed over me as I thought that I am not proud to be an American. This is not the land of the free and the home of the brave. What has happened to my beloved country?
“As the storm clouds gather, far across the sea, let us raise our voices to a land that’s free. God bless America” - - - - -. Yes, truly we do need God’s blessings, and no, we certainly are not free. We are locked down in total bondage, but most Americans are too brain-dead to notice.
The U.S. Office/Department of Homeland Security is making very sure that our few remaining freedoms will be taken from us very soon. The terrorist actions of 9/11/01 by our own U.S. government, and its evil stooges, and all their threats of terrorism against Americans since 9/11/01 have proven that nearly all Americans are oblivious to what is happening to them. Our illustrious president, George W. Bush, knew that when he made the statement today (July 4, 2002), “Americans always love their country. They love it, even more when it is threatened.” And threatened it is! George W. has made sure of that.
Today in Washington, D.C. our nation’s capitol, government buildings and White House are under double fence security. Twenty-six check points have been set up to search the bags and frisk all of the 500,000 people who are expected to come to “celebrate the fourth on the mall.” The park police are out in full force, 1600 undercover cops roam through the crowds looking for terrorists, the national guard are “guarding” the subways, tunnels, and bridges, special forces are guarding the national monuments, and the U.S. military planes are patrolling the skies overhead—all to stop any act of terrorism. And the media hype is that everyone loves it! And then there is Seattle…….
Does this sound like the America we love, with liberty and freedom and justice for all? What an evil trick has been played on the gullible American people. The real terrorists who did 9/11/01 to us, and all the threats and acts of violence since then, are not outside the borders of our nation. They are not outside the double fences and security guards of Washington, D.C. They are inside those double security fences! They are inside the White House and inside the government buildings of Washington, D.C.—and they are all laughing at us “stupid and gullible Americans”. When are we going to wake up? When is America to discover the Lie and the Truth? Only when they are told the Truth!
On this Fourth of July I am very sad for America, but I am also very angry. I have righteous anger at those who know the Truth but refuse to tell it. I am angry at those who have accepted positions of authority and responsibility to bring balance and harmony to our nation and to our world, but who refuse to act. NESARA (National Economic Stabilization and Recovery Act) is a major part of God Aton’s Plan 2000. Many of the NESARA team do not believe this fact. Some do not understand their God-power within nor their Lighted protection, and thus are too fearful to act. Some of the NESARA team are so unenlightened as to fall prey to the darkside’s blackmail of ego and greed and power.
Why is it that our NESARA team has fallen prey hundreds of times in the past two years to the tricks of the bankers, the attorneys and the politicians? Why are the IMF officials and the World Court judges allowing blackmail and bribery by the darkside to influence their decisions and actions? Why is the highest body of the NESARA team, the “NESARA Decision Team” allowing darkside interference? Under the Constitution of the Republic of the U.S. of A., a U.S. Supreme court Judge, such as Sandra Day O’Conner, who accepted the position on the NESARA Decision Team to uphold and fulfill the NESARA law, but who deliberately and intentionally tried to destroy the NESARA law, would be shot for treason!
Yes, I am angry. It is very obvious to those of us who have followed the NESARA “tug-o-war” over these past months that “something is very rotten in the state of Denmark.” The NESARA “gag order” was a trick of the darkside. Thus, the NESARA team lacks adequate communication. Let us give credit here to the lone voice in the wilderness, who has been nearly the only source of Truth concerning NESARA—the Dove of Oneness. We honor her for her tenacity, compassion, and righteous anger. Those who fear for their life or that of their family, have no comprehension of the protective-interaction of the Lighted Realms nor of their own God-power within. Therefore, they should never have held any positions on the NESARA team and should be removed from those positions immediately. The same is true of the World Court judges or anyone else who holds any authority for the announcement or implementation of NESARA.
The NESARA team has totally underestimated the darkside. This is a spiritual “tug-o-war” and can only be won by using spiritual resources. The darkside has been in control thus far because they are smarter. They use their spiritual evil resources of higher dimension quite successfully. It is time for a thorough “house cleaning” of the NESARA team, and a replacement of those who have failed their duties, with Lightworkers, who understand the resources of the higher dimensions.
NESARA is God’s Plan. Poor planning, inefficiency, failure to use resources, lack of communication, and fear will not defeat the darkside. Only third dimensional people who know and are willing to use their creative God-power within can defeat the darkside and bring NESARA to the people. This task is most difficult because the darkside is frantic and are using all their resources to win. Should NESARA win the day, the darkside loses!
Unless the NESARA team can agree unanimously and act in unison in sincerity to immediately over-ride all darkside interference and announce the true NESARA to the world, I hereby, call upon St. Germain and Sananda and all the Lighted Masters to over-ride freewill ego and bring to our suffering world, NESARA, God Aton’s Plan 2000--- NOW! Earth Shan’s more than eight billion people deserve to know the Truth---Now! Those who stand against NESARA need to go elsewhere to learn their lessons---Now!
Yes, I am still angry, and I trust that you are, too. If you are not, you are probably brain-dead! Why did we pass another Independence Day without having our NESARA “independence”? Our forefathers fought for the freedoms which we have now lost. They declared their independence from the slavery of England. Yet, we have allowed such slavery to again consume us. As Patrick Henry once said, “Give me liberty or give me death!” Do you care that much? If so, stand with me and demand that the true NESARA be implemented---Now!
Then the choral group sang, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. The only truth I found was the phrase, “God’s Truth is marching on.” Indeed! Then they ended by singing, “God Bless America, land that I love, stand beside her, and guide her through the night, with the Light from above…” May that be our prayer! Aho!
I include here Patrick Henry's speech made to the founders of our country, more than a year before they finally declared their independence from Great Britain---"The War Inevitable".
"The War Inevitable"
A speech by Patrick Henry
No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the house. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the house is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at the truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the numbers of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received?
Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlement assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation.
There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free--if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us! They tell us, Sir, that we are weak -- unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.
Three millions of People, armed in the Holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Beside, Sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of Nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone. It is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable. and let it come! I repeat, Sir, let it come!
It is in vain, Sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace! -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our breathren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that Gentlemen wish? What would they have?
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery! Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
--The Phoenix Journal/Contact Newspaper Archive site is at--
--The Bellringer Writings are at--
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At first OFK seems like an insane and radical approach. Women are pointing out that the current system is a total failure. They say a possible fix is better than the continuation of genocide of women in America.
The number one killer of women under the age of 34 isn't cancer or heart attacks or car accidents. It is domestic violence. Unable to free themselves without risking the lives of their children women find themselves in abusive situations for decades. As they age their options for freedom also diminish. Their egos are gone. Their sons have followed the power structure and have begun to beat the moms and sisters. The sisters go off and find a familiar lifestyle with an abuser of their own. The cycle increases and expands from generation to generation. There are estimates that more than two hundred women die every day from domestic violence. The official number is 46 deaths daily.
Raise the Fist has published the details of the proposed statutory change.to Penal Code section 197. http://www.raisethefist.com/?OFK:_Dangerous_or_a_Deterrent_to_Domestic_Violence-35
197. Homicide is also justifiable when committed by any person in any of the following cases:
1.When resisting any attempt to murder any person, or to commit a felony, or to do some great bodily injury upon any person; or,
2.When committed in defense of habitation, property, or person, against one who manifestly intends or endeavors, by violence or surprise, to commit a felony, or against one who manifestly intends and endeavors, in a violent, riotous or tumultuous manner, to enter the habitation of another for the purpose of offering violence to any person therein; or,
3.When committed in the lawful defense of such person, or of a wife or husband, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant of such person, when there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony or to do some great bodily injury, and imminent danger of such design being accomplished; but such person, or the person in whose behalf the defense was made, if he was the assailant or engaged in mutual combat, must really and in good faith have endeavored to decline any further struggle before the homicide was committed; or,
4.When necessarily committed in attempting, by lawful ways and means, to apprehend any person for any felony committed, or in lawfully suppressing any riot, or in lawfully keeping and preserving the peace.
5.When committed by a victim of domestic violence directly against the perpetrator of that domestic violence within 50 years of the date of the commission of that provable act of domestic violence.
OFK is bold. It's goal is to save lives through making men think twice before using violence against women. Will it work? That's the key question.
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In Down-Market Diversity and Bar Passage, I discussed how minority students, particularly Black/African-American, generally have lower LSAT scores than do White/Caucasian students. I also discussed how law schools near the bottom of the market of law students tend to enroll minorities with LSAT scores than more elite law schools. This is particularly true for Historically Black Law Schools. Based on the average LSAT 25th percentiles for the Fall 2006 through Fall 2009 entering classes of mainland law schools, the bottom four schools were Florida A&M (142.50), Southern (142.75), North Carolina Central (143.50) and Texas Southern (145.00), while District of Columbia (148.75) and Howard (149.25) were grouped around the 15th percentile.
If the ABA is serious about increasing the diversity of the legal profession, especially in increasing the number Black/African American lawyers, it needs Historically Black Law Schools ("HBLS"). For Fall 2005 through Fall 2009 combined, even though students at the six Hal's represented only 2.0% of entering classes, those students represented 16.3% of Black/African-American entering students. Within the jurisdictions in which they are located, students at HBLSs represented a much greater proportion of Black/African-American entering students—from 25.9% to 63.6%.
As I discussed in The LSAT-free Illusion, students with lower LSAT scores are at greater risk of failing the Bar. Thus, you would expect the Historically Black Law Schools to have low Bar passage rates, depending on the states in which their graduates take the Bar (Interpretation 301-6: Low LSATs and High Cut Scores”). You would also expect HBLSs to be at much greater risk from the proposed increases in minimum Bar passage rates.
As I discussed in ABA Standards and Bar Passage Rates, the Subcommittee on Bar Passage of the ABA Standards Review Committeeproposes to raise the minimum first-time and cumulative Bar passage rates for law schools. The minimum acceptable first-time Bar passage rate would rise from 15% below the state Bar passage rate for graduates from ABA-approved law schools to 10% below. The minimum acceptable cumulative Bar passage rate would rise from 75% to 80%. The justification for the proposed increases in the Interpretation 301-6 is that the current benchmarks are “inadequate” and “not rigorous enough” (Donald J. Polden, The Standards Review Committee's Comprehensive Review of Accreditation Policy Moves Forward, SYLLABUS, Vol. 42, Issue 4, at 5 (Winter 2011).
As I discuss in my April 2011 comments to the ABA, Endangered: Historically Black Law Schools (revised version, dated May 24, 2010), a 10% below first-time Bar passage rate was the measure used by the ABA before the adoption of Interpretation 301–6. Efforts by the Historically Black Law Schools (“HBLS”) to meet the “10% below” minimum by increasing the LSATs of entering students are associated with decreases in the enrollment of Black/African-American students at HBLSs.
The best example is The University of the District of Columbia--David A. Clarke School of Law ("UDC"), the successor to District of Columbia Law School, which was provisionally accredited by the ABA in 1991. After the law school merged with the University of the District of Columbia, it reapplied for ABA provisional accreditation in 1998. In 1999, UDC received an ABA Action Letter asking it “to examine the relationships of LSAT scores and UGPAs to performance in the law school’s academic program and to the first time bar performance.” Derek Alphran, Tanya Washington & Vincent Eagan, PhD., Yes We Can Pass the Bar. University of the District of Columbia, David A Clarke School of Law Bar Passage Initiatives and Bar Pass Rates—From the Titanic to the Queen Mary, 14 UDC/DCSL L. REV. 9 at 16 n.42 (2011). After the resulting study, UDC changed in its admissions policies” in 2000, id. at 16, and again in 2002, id. at 13 n.24. Its rationale was “the steady increase in statistical profiles of th/e entering class would lead to higher bar passage rates.” Id.at 14 & nn.30-31.
As shown in the following chart, from 1998 through 2005, the LSAT 25th percentile of UDC’s entering classes rose from a low of 138 to 149. At the same time, the proportion of entering students that were Black/African-American fell from almost 70% to a low of about 25% (it has since recovered to about 30%).
More strikingly, as shown in the following table, Black/African-American students are no longer even a plurality of entering students at UDC:
|Average Ethnic Distribution by School
Fall 2007 through 2009 Entering Classes (Combined)
|Univ. of D.C.||5.9%||30.2%||11.7%||44.8%|
|N. C. Central||2.5%||50.6%||2.6%||39.7%|
While the changes in the ethnic composition of entering classes are most dramatic at UDC, the ethnic composition of recent entering classes at the other Historically Black Law Schools are also notable. Over the three most recent academic years for which information has been published in the ABA-LSAC Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools, at Florida A&M, North Carolina Central, and Texas Southern, Black/African-American students constituted at least a plurality of entering students, with the last two hovering near 50% of the class. Only Howard and Southern remain strongly Black/African American institutions. At four of the schools, White/Caucasian students had a substantial representation—at least 35%. At Texas Southern, the second-largest component of entering classes was Hispanic students. Only Howard had no strong representation of students from other racial or ethnic groups.
First-time Bar passage rates for at least half of the HBLSs have generally fallen below the 15%-below minimum, much less the proposed 10%-below minimum. If those HBLSs are going to satisfy 301-6, it will have to be on the basis of cumulative Bar passage rates. Again, the ABA does not publish information regarding cumulative Bar passage rates. But an 80% standard will be harder to meet than the current 75% standard.
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Bachelor of Science in Education (B.S.Ed.)
The Mansfield campus offers a Bachelor's Degree with licensure in early (grades PK-3) and middle (grades 4-9) childhood education. Admission into the licensure program is selective and requires a minimum 2.75 grade point average. At the time of application, it is expected that students have completed the general education pre-major courses and, for those in the middle childhood program, the coursework in two areas of concentration.
A program designed for licensed teachers who want to expand their areas of licensure or knowledge of teaching. It can be tailored to meet students' needs, interests, and aspirations. Areas of concentration include but are not limited to Children's Literature & Literacy, Multicultural Education & Social Studies, Early Childhood, and Math, Science, & Technology.
Education Specialist (Ed.S.) program
The Education Specialist degree (Ed.S.) provides the opportunity for educators with a Master’s degree to further their professional development with a strong grounding in and application of diverse theory and research. The program offers a set of experiences and courses for specialists in PreK-Grade12 instructional leadership positions, such as teacher/team leaders, mentor teachers, department chairs, curriculum developers, or other school- and district-based roles. Students may be able to take some courses on the Mansfield campus, but the program originates from the Columbus campus Department of Teaching and Learning.
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http://www.mansfield.osu.edu/academics/2011-07-05-15-38-16/departments/2011-08-23-17-58-48/degree-programs
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In Oregon an estimated 23 students graduate from physical therapy assistant schools every year. Oregon has 1 physical therapy assistant schools to choose from, if you are interested in studying physical therapy assisting. Yearly tuition at physical therapy assistant schools in Oregon for a degree in physical therapy assisting is $3,521 per year.
Oregon's largest physical therapy assistant school, which is located in Gresham, is Mt Hood Community College. In 2009, a reported 23 students graduated with a physical therapy assisting degree from Mt Hood Community College. This was 100% of the total physical therapy assisting graduates in Oregon for that year. In 2009, tuition at Mt Hood Community College, was approximately $3,521 per year.
Physical Therapy Assistant is the most popular career choice for those who graduate with credentials in physical therapy assisting. If after graduation, you are planning on working in Oregon, it is important to know that the job outlook for physical therapy assisting graduates in the state is good. There are currently an estimated 600 physical therapy assistants working in Oregon. This number is projected to increase to 760 by the year 2018. This indicates a 25% change in the number of physical therapy assistants in Oregon.
As a physical therapy assistant in Oregon you can expect to earn anywhere from less than $20,176 per year to more than $31,377 per year. The median salary for physical therapy assistants in Oregon is $24,500 per year.
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http://www.hackcollege.com/school-finder/schools/oregon/physical-therapy-assistant/
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| 0.970336 | 287 | 1.5625 | 2 |
This concrete bungalow on a remote Japanese island is built to protect its occupants from both extremely bright sunshine and destructive typhoons (+ slideshow).
Designed by architects Harunatsu-Archi, the single-storey Villa 921 is located in Iriomote, an island that can only be accessed by boat and is mostly covered by rainforests and swamps.
The wood and glass walls slide open across the front and rear of the building, allowing the wind to move through the rooms.
Projecting canopies shade the rooms and terrace from harsh sunlight, which the architects claim is five times stronger than on the mainland.
During typhoons, the house and terrace can be screened behind protective screens, which fasten onto the protruding eaves.
Inside the house, rooms are divided into three rows and include a kitchen and bathroom on one side, a bedroom on the opposite side, and a living and a dining room in the centre.
The bedroom has two doors, so that one side can be converted into a children's room in the future.
"The usable area of the house only amounts to about 70 square metres," said architects Shoko Murakaji and Naoto Murakaji. "This is by no means large, but thanks to the amazing views of the landscape, there is never a feeling of narrowness."
Photography is by Kai Nakamura.
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| 0.954852 | 287 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The state’s water park regulator said Thursday it appears a family was injured on a new slide at Rapids Water Park because their combined weight was between 850 and 900 pounds – much heavier than the posted limit for a single raft.
“There were warning signs at the slide. There’s a maximum 700 pounds for riders,” said Terence McElroy, spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
However, a lawyer for the injured family has declined to rule out the possibility that a suit might be filed on behalf of John D. Lenahan and his three children.
Ride inspectors arrived at Rapids Water Park in Riviera Beach on Wednesday afternoon after fire-rescue was called to treat Lenahan and the children, who were injured when their raft flipped over on the new Black Thunder attraction, McElroy said.
One father. Three children aged 11, 14 and 15. 900 lbs. That’s 225 lbs per Lenahan. Unless his children are all strapping football players, I suspect this is another Attack of the American Diet.
What’s really interesting is the sidebar:
Of 206 total accidents at both permanent parks such as Rapids Water Park and traveling carnivals, 186 were found to have been caused by patron error.
No number on how many patrons we’re talking about. But when 90% of the problem is patron error, I would say we’ve safetied these things up to about the public’s level of intelligence.
Not that this means the regulators should go home. Anytime you’re dealing with children and water, supervision is a good idea.
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| 0.972802 | 340 | 1.53125 | 2 |
Make no mistake, all the available evidence suggests that the American political economy is headed for a major crash. Some are even speculating that this is the end of American economic dominance in the world’s financial market. But don’t be deceived by the blame-the-victim rationalizing that’s being floated now. Let’s be clear about what policies and which people are behind the current financial crisis: neoliberal policies and the overwhelmingly majority of economically privileged white men (photo from same link) who created, implemented and benefited from those policies.
Neoliberalism refers to a set of policies that encourage “less government” and unfettered (and unregulated) capitalism. The key elements of neoliberalism include: 1) the rule of the market, 2) reducing government expenditures on social services, 3) deregulation, 4) privatization, and 5) gutting the notion of “the public good.” While this may strike some readers as sounding astonishingly similar to any recent Republican stump speech, neoliberalism has infected Democratic politics as well, and either Clinton’s policies (and way too many of Obama’s, for my tastes), fit neatly within the framework of neoliberalism. Remember, “welfare reform” was a large part of what got Bill Clinton elected, and that’s a quintessential neoliberal policy. Now, it seems self-evident to me what the connection is between neoliberalism and the current financial crisis, but allow me to connect a few of the dots here. As those in the White House and Congress, including John McCain, touted the benefits of deregulation (link opens video of interview with McCain) of the financial markets and passed legislation “freeing” up those industries from any sort of government oversight, whole new markets developed and a few people got very, very rich. Many of those who got very, very rich did so in financial services that are obtuse at best and an elaborate shell game at worse. Others got very, very rich by targeting minority communities for subprime mortgages, the new version of “redlining.” Now, those who conceived of, established and profited from these businesses have either cashed out or, if they’re still in the game, are looking to the U.S. tax-payers (some of the same people who’ve been fleeced by these schemes) for a $700 billion bailout, making the U.S. government the insurer-of-last-resort for these highly risky capitalist ventures. The end result of neoliberal policies is that while a handful of people get very, very rich, these policies simultaneously exacerbate the suffering of just about everyone else and increase domestic and international instability. So, what we’re seeing now is just the logical, perhaps inevitable, result of these policies.
Economically privileged white men have had a disproportionate level of involvement in the development, administration and profit from neoliberalism. If you look at the roster of those in power on Wall Street and in the financial services sector more broadly in the U.S., what you will see is overwhelmingly white men who have gone to elite schools and, for the most part, come from upper-middle class and upper-class backgrounds. Granted, there are token women (usually white) and people of color (some African American men), but these exceptions highlight the prevailing demographic fact about the industry. While the “secret societies” of the wealthy occasionally make the news, the fact is, the power elite has been a feature of American life since before C. Wright Mills wrote about it in the 1950s, yet it rarely gets discussed in any meaningful way in the mainstream news. Instead, we get a lot of reporting about how the bailout failure was the result of partisanship – certainly part of the story, but doesn’t explain why conservative republicans and democrats rejected the plan. Instead, what we need is more reporting, more information about how the state is working to protect the interests of the power elite.
Fortunately, critics on the left have pointed out the elite interests behind this crisis and the proposed bailout. The reality is that bailout or not, the worsening economic landscape is not going to affect everyone in the U.S. – and the world – evenly. Instead, people of color, women, and particularly women of color, are going to get laid off, not have health care, lose their homes and be forced into bankruptcy, while privileged white men may have to sell one of their vacation homes. It’s time to shift this burden back onto the shoulders of the people who created it.
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October 18, 2010
Air France-KLM rapped for in-flight reading
The Paris-based Simon Wiesenthal Center wants an Air France-KLM affiliate to stop selling a French magazine with a cover article that the center says targets Israel.
The article featured on the front page of the Le Point weekly “targets Israel, the Jews of France and the Holocaust,” the Wiesenthal Center’s director for international relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, wrote in a letter to Air France-KLM last week.
Samuels asked Air France-KLM to take disciplinary measures and apologize for choosing the magazine for flights to and from North Africa by its low-cost affiliate Transavia.
The magazine cover headline reads “Gaza, Shoah, Jews of France—Debray’s Accusation against Israel.” An Israeli flag and a pensive portrait of the French philosopher Regis Debray are pictured.
The article, published originally in May, reviews a book by Debray that includes excerpts of the author’s work in which he claims that Israel has “never stopped colonizing and expropriating and uprooting” its Palestinian neighbors. Debray says refugees in Gaza have been victims of “brutality,” and that Israel has humiliated its neighbor while being “blinded” by the Holocaust.
It notes Debray’s criticism of French Jewish leaders for joining political protests in favor of Israel and mixing religion with politics.
The magazine issue also provides follow-up criticism of Debray’s book.
Despite publishing opposing views on Debray’s work in the same issue, Samuels says the damage is done by simply showing what he calls an inflammatory reference to the book on the magazine cover, printed on an in-flight menu, where “it has no place.”
“It concerns me that Air France chose that cover,” Samuels told JTA. “In this case it isn’t the content, it’s the subliminal message.”
The center works particularly hard to “assuage tensions” between French Jews and North Africans, Samuels said, and offering the article as in-flight reading “undermines what we’re trying to do.”
“It is like showing a movie of a plane crash during a flight,” he said.
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Weddings can be so wasteful. Much of the waste is a product of the desire to have things be just right. When ten wedding guests haven’t RSVP’ed and it’s two weeks before the big day, it’s often easier to order extra food and extra wedding favors that may or may not get eaten and taken. If you’re a DIY bride, having more supplies than you need can prevent future disasters. And most wedding gowns are worn only once.
I was incredibly lucky when it came to my own wedding leftovers because I have a grandmother who has a finger in just about every local church and charity. My wedding gown? It was given to the family house of worship so a future bride could wear it. The extra DIY supplies and favors? That same church has an active community theatre, so problem solved. And the massive quantities of leftover food went to a local halfway house that accepts perishables. By the time my wedding day was over, almost everything had been distributed or delivered to the appropriate recipients thanks to gram.
Not every bride has such a thoughtful relative to turn to, however. We’ve discussed wedding gown donation in the past, and it’s pretty easy to unload DIY supplies (think Craiglist or Freecycle), but what about food? The sad fact of the matter is that tons of uneaten yummies from wedding receptions goes into landfills each year because many — if not most — charities do not accept donations of perishable foodstuffs. If you don’t have enough local relatives to ensure that everything goes home with someone who owns a deep freeze, it’s almost guaranteed that perfectly good canapes, entrees, and desserts are going to land in the trash.
Unless, that is, you live in one of the thirty cities that Special E serves. From Boston to Vancouver to London, this service rescues leftover food from events like weddings, then recycles them in ways that help the planet and people in need. Some leftover food from wedding receptions goes to food banks, soup kitchens, and emergency shelters to feed people that are hungry and homeless. What can’t be fed to people in need is converted into organic-rich compost.
Drink containers get similar treatment: Empty cans of beer and soda are collected after wedding receptions, and the recycling proceeds are used to purchase cans of food for abused and abandoned pets. Special E will even rescue leftover remnants of beverage containers such as bottle caps and wine bottle corks to re-purpose them into jewelry and decorative products. Proceeds from the sale of these goods are used to buy beverages for children that are thirsty or don’t have access to a safe supply of drinking water.
Finally, Special E is also happy to take floral arrangements and centerpieces so that these can be delivered to nursing homes, hospitals, and other places people need cheering up. For a complete list of what kinds of donations they can accept, click here. They even come right to your wedding venue to pick up, which means that dealing with wedding leftovers in a responsible way has never been easier!
photo by Bill Jurevich
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Olympic rooftop missiles, designed as surface-to-air defenses for the games, have angered residents of the East End neighborhood where the three-week event will take place. Those living in the Fred Wigg Tower, a 17-story building in Leytonstone, believe that their home becoming a missile base opens the door for terrorist attack.
The Olympic rooftop missiles are capable of destroying a hijacked aircraft aiming to sabotage the July 27-Aug. 12 event, but despite the move for safety, residents brought the move to a lawsuit to attempt to stop the practice.
Marc Willers, who represented the residents in the case, told the High Court that the "fully justified fear that installation or deployment of the missile system on the roof of the Fred Wigg Tower gives rise to the additional risk that the tower itself may become the focus of a terrorist attack," according to the Associated Press.
However, his claims fell on deaf ears. Judge Charles Haddon-Cave ruled Tuesday that the missile system posed "no real threat" to those living in the tower. The consequences were more personal for Brian Whelan, the journalist living in the Fred Wigg Tower who first publicized the issue- his landlords are trying their best to evict him.
"I'm being victimized for what I did," he said at a gathering, according to the Christian Science Monitor. "I am not sure how they are going to face a terrorist threat if that can't even face us."
British security forces, though, are putting significant efforts into the defense of the Olympic Games- especially since there have been increased communications by extremist groups recently, according to intelligence officials. 7,500 soldiers, RAF fighter jets, an aircraft carrier, and various police and private security are being used for the event.
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Rooftop missiles have also been planned for another apartment building in the area, as well as at a reservoir, and along some hillsides in South London.
Per the judge's decision, the missiles should be placed on the Fred Wigg Tower in the next few days.
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http://m.global.christianpost.com/news/olympic-rooftop-missiles-make-residents-fear-terrorist-attack-78013/
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| 0.976642 | 423 | 1.703125 | 2 |
THIS BLOG CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
A very educational podcast.Duit kopi is haram.Duit sekolah is ok.We are learning new umnoputera terminology.
patrick is the NIAMAH KING!no, he is the KING!4RAKYAT
Vice-versa the policemen who took the bribe from you could say that you gave the money to his children's education or wife's marketing. So he cannot be be charged for accepting bribery too.
Sorry, I am all just curious as to what does niamah mean. Care to explain? What i did heard however in school a long time ago was like tiew niamah ka hai....but I am not chinese so I don't know what they meant. I guess those are swearing words that malaysians use occasionally in their conversations and yet I dont know what they mean literally.matt
Patrick,The way you say your 'Niamah' really stylo la.Keep it up. Thanks.
ok, all together: 1, 2, 3 ...NIAMAH !
Patrick =) You're awesome, and you know it! All the stuff you've said, I've thought about in my head too! How amazing is that! I mean you'd think that of all people, surely the Prime Minister of Malaysia would get that, but I guess maybe he's of another breed of "creature". Peace to you, Pat. :)
this reminds me a rap group back in the 90's NWA with their famous song called FCUK DA POLICE..... and i am so not a fan of our police force.. FCUK DA POLICE!!!
Try asking this question to Yang Amat Berbahagia Tun Dr Mamamthir Mamat, and he will tell if you don't want to pay bribery, you might as well go back to live in your kampung. This man has singlehandedly engineered the bribery culture in this country to the point that people no longer see what bribery is. The Father of Modernisation is what his cronies make him out to be, but I think he is the Father of Bribery. This man by the way is a creation of my own imagination, no one is implied or implicated in any way. If, for some reasons, this reminds you of any real character out there, will the real Tun Dr Mamakthir Mamad, please stand up!
Hey Patrick, hope you dont mind me re-posting your podcast on my site. It would be too selfish of me not to share it with the world :)
Hey Mo, post away my friend. It'll be an honour. Thank you.
pat,it's now time to "upgrade"... i meant with video too, not just a black screen.
Aiyo Patrick..u know I know la..its the "macam mana" syndrome...for the benefit of those who has not travelled on Pakistan highways..the highway police there is really professional..once they stop you, no putting their heads into your car window..they will ask for your licence and immediately will write the summon and the other officer acts as a cashier and he will collect the money from you and instantly issue a receipt for your payment. No talking and negotiation at all...if you do not have enough money or do not wish to pay, they wil confiscate your liecense and you will have to return to pay and collect it later from the district traffic police office....btw, if you know The Star's Wong Chun Wai, pls ask him to write something interesting..we have enough of bodekology...
Stop banning non-Muslim societies in schools.There is something wrong here. The deputy education minister claimed that the school administration misinterpreted the government circular. Now it seems some schools in Penang also misinterpreted the circular.I have seen the circular. The contents of the circular is simple, stating that non-Muslim religious societies formed before 2000 need not have to be registered but remain as status quo. Those set up from 2000 onwards need approval by the registrar, which is the state education department director.Legally per the circular, those societies that have been set up prior to 2000 would remain as it is, not dissolved. Action should be taken on the school administration and Education Department officials if they act like little 'Napoleon' to dissolve these societies.Also, such societies should be encouraged to inculcate good values in school. Why the double standard impose on non-Muslim societies?
sembahyang bukan main.. tapi right after sembahyang, amik rasuah.. semua wayang... CHEH!!!!
PatrickCan you please set up MP3 of your podcast for download? They are classics!By the way, I still have some old recordings of your old radio programmes (EMI/Kee Huat stuff) that I recorded on cassette tapes (a bit moldy now) decades ago. I will find time to convert them to MP3 for uploading.
Yeah, what does tiew niamah ka hai mean? I am not a chinese but i overheard this expressions when i was a school gooing kid in cator avenue ipoh back in the 70s. Is niamah the root word of that expression?
In Malay sia , receiving a bribe is a work of art.Careful and meticulous ways are devised so that it won't be a bribe nor as gratuity but as "rezeki " that is worth receiving.Hereby propose that all our "universiti and ipt" to offer this fine and fluid work of art as a major subject.This way we don't have to throw in more money to retrain graduates (The Unemployable)NiaMah !!!
The '1Malaysia' PM Najib Razak and 'Malay first' DPM Muhyiddin Yassin are playing a very dangerous game by supporting this 'little Napolean' Encik Nik and his wrongdoings. As many suspect, the whole episode has been orchestrated by them.Remember, he who laughs last, laughs longest and this won't be too far away. The rakyat has woken up and is impatient to do the right thing when the 13th general election comes. Remember 'ketuanan rakyat' when it comes. Remember the manner the 1Malaysia PM deals with the 'little Napoleons'.
@ Anonymous 8:28 PM"tiew niamah ka hai"meaning:tiew - fuckniamah - your motherka - ???hai - The lower part of the female reproductive tract"niamah" is basically the short form of "tiew niamah ka hai"
If you are a Chinese and you do not know the meaning of Niamah, shame on you.If you are not a Chinese and you do not know its meaning, I suggest you learn proper Mandarin.Niamah without the 'usual pre-fix' is a harmless word.
Najib's defence of Nik Ali smacks not only of double standards, it's a signal for senior government officials to continue to refuse cooperation with Pakatan led state governmentsBoth the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak and the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin have jumped into the fray in the Penang Pakatan Rakyat government's battle against "little Napoleons" in the civil service by choosing to defend the "little Napoleons" and ignoring their outright transgressions.
ha ha2 memang tak cukup pandai UMNO being lawyer. kena kau2 by Niamah.ooi, UMNO guna akal sikit lah.
The people of Selangor decided to save their state from Umno and BN when they rightfully elected Pakatan and Selcat to clean up Selangor from the past corruption, racist characters and bigots running down the state.Umno can only hurl baseless accusation, issue threats, name-calling, insults, personal attacks and empty rhetorics which is their trademark and only 'skills' they have. Umno is a sore loser and will resort to desperate measures to regain power to protect their personal interest. Umno is worried as the people are very happy with the Selangor government. They now have a government who cares for the people.We have FREE water for the poor. We now have the FREEDOM of Information Bill. The people are beginning to see FREEDOM from the corruption of Umno. We are FREE from the oppression of the past regime. We are FREE to bid for projects with the open-tender system.We are FREE from the past racist government. We are finally FREE after 50 years of corruption. Yes, let's save Selangor from Umno.
UMNO yang mengajar masyarakat kita cara nak makan rasuah!
Post a Comment
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The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, in response to that anti-Islam film, went before the United Nations requesting a worldwide ban against offending the Prophet Muhammad.
This ban of course wouldn't fly for us in the United States because we have First Amendment rights protecting free speech. Or, perhaps not. Before we answer definitively on that let's see first what's cooking in our kitchen.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) over the years has done a number of "groundbreaking" studies on hate speech for the FCC, including "The Role of Telecommunications in Hate Crimes" and "Hate Speech on Commercial Radio." In 2009 The National Hispanic Media Coalition kept the burners going by requesting the FCC act on their new petition for new inquiries into hate speech in media.
Then again in 2010 when they added their comments on hate speech into the FCC proceedings "Future of Media and Information Needs of Communities in the Digital Age."
It appears then that Islamic organizations are not alone in their efforts to muzzle free speech.
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Both Solid Hardwood and Engineered Hardwood are real wood. The difference betweeen the two is that Solid Hardwood is one piece of wood milled from lumber where as Engineered Hardwood is three to ten layers of wood called plies that are glued together in a cross-ply construction for added stability.
Beveled Edges have a very distinctive, deep V-groove, where as Microbeveled or Eased Edges have a less distinctive, more shallow V-groove between planks. Kissed Edges are even subtler than Eased Edges, about 1/2 of the depth. Distressed Edges have some slight irregularity often matching the look of distressed planks. Square Edges create a smooth, uniform surface from plank to plank.
From a do-it-yourself
standpoint, a Floating Floor
Installation is the easiest
method to install a Hardwood
Floor. Coming in second would be
a Staple or Nail Down
Installation, and a Glue Down
Installation is the most
difficult of the three methods.
Click-Lock refers to a specific
style of Floating Floors. For
more information check out our
Flooring Installation Guide in
Lock and Fold: flooring is snapped together by hand, generally easier to install (DIY-friendly!)
Click: flooring is installed by lining up the connectors at the side of each board and tapping them together with a mallet and tapping block
Glue: flooring requires adhesive or glue between each seam during installation to ensure a strong seal between each board
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http://www.allmodern.com/Eco-Friendly-Hardwood-Flooring-l1370-c528601-O44179~Eco%5BD%5DFriendly.html?curpage=2
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April 5, 2001
Candidates vie against incumbents for two school board seats.
April 10 is the ultimate day at the track for the nation's second-largest school district. Never before has so much ridden on the backs of campaign horses as in the current race for positions on Los Angeles Unified School District's (LAUSD) Board of Education.
Vying for two of three seats in this term's school board elections are two incumbents whose very experience has put them under fire. If re-elected, Julie Korenstein, representing District 6, which covers major portions of the San Fernando Valley, will be the longest-sitting member of the current school board. Korenstein, who began her career as a teacher's assistant in LAUSD, was first elected to the school board in 1987 and served as president in 1997. The other incumbent, Valerie Fields, represents District 4, which includes West Los Angeles and most of the western San Fernando Valley. Fields, a former LAUSD teacher, joined the board in 1997.
Both Korenstein and Fields face challenges from several interesting opponents who, with one exception, have no experience working in education or with LAUSD. That would suggest slim odds for the challengers save for the fact that they have found backing from a powerful source: the mayor of Los Angeles.
As in any important race, the stakes are high, but this particular election looks to influence not just the careers of a few local officials but the entire direction of the public education in a district serving an enrollment of more than 722,000 children in grades K-12 and employing more than 75,000 people. In recent years, LAUSD has been taken to task for being bloated with bureaucrats and understaffed by qualified teachers, a morass of red tape and a facilities disaster waiting to happen.
It also possesses some of the top students and teachers in California and perhaps the nation, as exemplified by schools like El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, which recently won the state's Academic Decathlon for the fifth time in 10 years. However, incumbent candidates tend to get all the blame and none of the glory for the district's performance.
Of all the candidates, Fields has the longest record of public service. She served on Mayor Tom Bradley's executive staff throughout his five terms as mayor, both as his education adviser and as his liaison to the cultural community, and she developed a Blue Ribbon Committee on Arts Education that has been widely acclaimed for bringing art education back into the schools.
Fields, 74, also serves on the boards of the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Community Relations Committee and the African American/Jewish Leadership Connection. She is endorsed by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA).
Fields says she is proud of the work she has done on behalf of the children, teachers, administrators and parents of LAUSD.
"I am the only candidate who has 20 years experience with making public policy," she said. "I hit the ground running and haven't stopped."
Fields faces three opponents: Matthew Rodman, 32, a commercial real estate developer; Marlene Canter, 52, a former educator who recently sold her teacher training company to Sylvan Learning Centers; and Rick Selan, 51, a special-education advocate from Venice.
Selan, who has managed to raise $800 for his campaign, has been largely ignored by the media.
Canter picked up the endorsement of the Los Angeles Times, and according to the Daily News she intends to spend $330,000 of her own money, more than any other candidate, making this one of the most expensive races for school board in Los Angeles history.
Rodman, a newcomer to politics, won strong backing from Riordan after Fields opposed the mayor in February and voted in favor of a 15.3 percent, one-year wage-and-benefit increase for teachers. Rodman uses Fields' vote on the teachers' contract as an example of why it is time for new blood on the board.
"[Fields] is part of the entrenched bureaucracy of the district," Rodman said. "Her lack of business sense resulted in her voting for a teacher's contract which no one had identified sources from which it would be paid. The superintendent now has to cut $135 million in school programs in order to pay for it. That doesn't even make basic sense, much less business sense."
Talk to Rodman for just a few minutes and you will hear the word "business" a lot. He believes in using a corporate, "local-control" approach to dealing with major issues, such as facilities and cutting costs.
"I want every school to run like a well-run small business, with the principal as CEO and a governing board made up of teachers, parents and community members," he said. "Principals should have control of their budget. They know when they need books, they know when they have a leak in the roof, and they can get things done for significantly less money than the district will."
Ideas like these sound appealing, but they may not be enough to overcome Rodman's negatives, the most glaring being lack of experience in education. He holds a bachelor's degree in public administration from the University of Southern California and attended law school but dropped out to take over his family's real estate business.
Rodman is not yet a parent, although he says he and his wife, Rene, plan to send their children to public school if the schools improve. Rodman does have some experience working with young people as a volunteer adviser for the police department's Explorer Scouts. His main claims to fame are as president of the West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission and former head of the Brentwood Homeowners Association.
While Fields points to her impressive pedigree both in and outside of the system and Rodman holds up his real estate experience, Canter has spent her campaign attempting to straddle the middle ground as both an educator and a businesswoman. She touts her independence from both unions and politicians as her strong point, along with her ability to tell it like it is.
"I think the most serious challenge is how we are going to graduate children who know how to read and write when we have a board that is not making strong enough decisions to provide oversight for the district," Canter said. "What you also have is the power from within. The teachers union is trying to get across an agenda that's not about what is in the best interest of the children. I believe unless you are able to run clearly independent of vested interests, you cannot make good decisions."
Canter is not immune to the exaggeration inherent in most campaigns. For example, on her Web site she talks about her experience in special education, although according to news sources, she last taught in a school setting in the early 1970s. The Web site also fails to mention that both her children, although eligible to attend schools in LAUSD, instead attended private schools.
But other factors make Canter worth a look. She started her own company, Canter & Associates, Inc., which offered professional development programs for educators and resource books for both parents and teachers. She also co-authored a book about getting parents more involved in the classroom and is active in several local charities, including serving on the boards of the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric AIDS Foundation and The Guardians, a fundraising organization supporting the Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda.
Moving on to race No. 2, we find long-shot candidate Tom Riley, the challenger for the seat now held by Korenstein. How he got to this point is baffling. Riley is backed by Riordan but, like Rodman, is not a parent and has no education experience. The Los Angeles Times endorsed him, but a read-through of the newspaper's decision makes it clear he got the nod less for his own merits -- none were mentioned -- than for the simple fact that he is not Korenstein.
Finally, Riley claims to be a business owner but refuses to discuss the nature of his business or what type of organizing he has done with labor groups. (A report in the March 23 edition of the Daily News states that Riley, a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, is the co-founder of a company in Reseda that manufactures proprietary software and hardware for the bingo industry and also supplies electronic equipment for Los Angeles County Charities.)
Despite his sketchy qualifications, Riley-the-outsider has succeeded in attracting attention.
"I can't wait until I have children to do something," he said. "Right now all of our neighbors send their kids to private schools. Every year that [a family] sends out their property tax check and then has to send their child to a private school, they are being robbed. We need better choices."
Riley, 35, blasts the current school board for failing to make its people accountable, pointing as examples to the Belmont situation and the recent discovery of a building rented by the district but never used.
"We are completely out of room for kids in classrooms," he said. "We have to build 85 new schools, and even then they're going to have year-round schedules, which is possibly the worst environment for teaching kids. We've created conditions for kids to learn in that you or I would never tolerate in the workplace," he declared. "This is a real lack of leadership and judgment on the part of the board, and we're paying the price."
Korenstein calls such characterizations unfair.
"What [Riley] doesn't seem to understand is there is no money dedicated by the state for facilities," Korenstein said. "Lottery money is prohibited, so the only money we can use is through bond measures the voters decide on, and for years they voted 'no.' Yet since 1983 we have built 25 schools, including two [magnet] high schools."
Korenstein said she feared that without experienced leadership, the district will lose valuable time.
"We have a group of novices on the board right now, and [if the incumbents lose,] we will have a group of novices with even less information, and there is no time for a learning curve. Too many decisions have to be made right now and cannot wait."
Korenstein, 57, who is endorsed by UTLA and a long list of Democrats headed by Gov. Gray Davis, agreed that this election will have profound repercussions for the future of education throughout Los Angeles.
"My concern is that the mayor is involved and literally buying seats [on the school board]. I consider it a hostile takeover," she said. "I am also concerned about the privatization of public education. Children cannot be treated as a commodity or something to manufacture; each is a unique human being with a multitude of variables. Teachers cannot be treated like workers on an assembly line."
In the end, it is tough to predict the outcome of these two races. Has the toss-the-bums-out approach, so prevalent in the mid-1990s, waned? Or will the population's dissatisfaction with the current state of the LAUSD lead to a loss for the incumbents no matter what their qualifications?
Despite the dark clouds hanging over the current board members, it is clear from talking to teachers that many still hope for a win for Fields and Korenstein. Some educators say their backgrounds are more appropriate for the job; others are fearful that the newcomers, with their heavy business backgrounds, will lead the district down the road to disaster.
"I'm the first to admit that LAUSD has problems, but turning to the business model is not the solution," said Pamela Gibberman, a UTLA activist who has taught music classes in LAUSD for 25 years. "We are not a factory; we do not turn out widgets. Every child needs to be taught in his or her own way, and we as professionals have to have the freedom to meet the needs of every individual we are charged with educating."
Gibberman credits Fields and Korenstein with restoring arts education to the district and with providing support for teachers.
"If voters are looking to maintain the integrity of the Board of Education of LAUSD, they need to consider well the record of the individuals running," she said. "I believe the record of accomplishment of the two ladies in question is far more appropriate and outstanding in meeting the needs of the children of Los Angeles than any of their opponents."
So there you have it. Only one thing remains certain in this race: the winners certainly havetheir work cut out for them.
Jockeys, get ready. The finish line awaits.
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Mayor Bloomberg 's controversial ban on large, sugary sodas fell flat Monday when a judge shredded nearly every legal argument advanced by the mayor’s lawyers and tossed the regulation out.
The sweeping ruling, a day before the ban was to take effect, was a stinging setback for Bloomberg, who won national acclaim in pushing the regulation — and condemnation that he was creating a nanny state.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling dismissed the rule as “arbitrary and capricious,” with too many loopholes and exemptions, siding with soda companies and business groups that had taken the city to court.
Tracing the Board of Health’s powers more than 300 years to the late 1600s under Britain’s King James II, the judge said the city agency simply had no authority to issue it. Only the City Council had that power, he said. “One of the fundamental tenets of democratic governance here in New York, as well as throughout the nation, is the separation of powers. . . . No one person, agency, department or branch is above or beyond this,” the judge said.
Judge Milton A. Tingling put the kibosh on Mayor Bloomberg's ban one day before it was to go into effect.
The rule “would not only violate the separation of powers doctrine, it would eviscerate it,” the judge said.
The rule would have banned sales of sugary sodas larger than 16 ounces by restaurants, movie theaters, pushcarts and sports arenas. (read the whole article here)
Personally, I find it curious that, if Bloomberg wanted to limit the intake of sugary drinks, there was no exemption for sugar-free drinks.
Or anyone owning a gun being unable to report a weapons incident.
Or that anyone who sustains a head injury while riding a bike or motorcycle without wearing a helmet should be denied ER care and can't make an insurance claim. Ditto for drivers injured in an accident because they weren't wearing a seatbelt. Maybe every hospital should add a stupidity or irresponsibility index to its intake triage.
I think if someone is able to pay for the treatment, or has a third party willing to do so, he should be treated regardless of how stupid he was to get into the accident. Now maybe insurance companies will want to put a clause in declaring no helmet/no seatbelt means you aren't covered, unless you purchase an extra rider. I could get behind giving them that option.
If you add up the taxes they pay for their cigarettes these days, I think we could probably conclude they'll have paid for their treatment several times over.
Less than 1:100 smokers get lung transplants. Probably a whole lot fewer, but I will use that as a number for arguments sake.
A packet of cigarettes has at least $3 tax on it (not to mention the employment and taxes paid to create that pack and sell it, but let's leave those aside too)
An average smoker goes through a pack a day (some more, some less but this is an estimate). This means he pays $3 x 365 a year, ie $1,095. Let's add a $5 to that for simplicity of numbers, and call it $1,100.
Now let's add in the other 100 smokers taxes, bringing it to $110,000. This is the annual (vastly underestimated) tax paid in one year by the group.
This means that, according to your estimate of $550,000 for the transplant, every 5 years, the group can afford a transplant.
As a smoker will on average have a 20 year smoking experience, there is now $1,650,000 left from the 20 years taxes to cover other smoking related illnesses for our group of 100 smokers.
If you want to deny smokers medical care (and remember, my study group assumes none of them have medical insurance, which is highly unlikely) then I think you would have to scrap the taxes on cigarettes, or at the very least, explain them.
People love to vilify smokers, because they are seen as fair game because smoking has been labeled as "bad". And there are lots of antisocial elements to smoking, I agree. But financially, smokers are net contributors.
Perhaps one of the best uses of sin taxes is to create a fund for the treatment of those who eventually succumb to the resulting diseases. That could even go for gambling addicts (those who gamble in legal settings anyway).
This leaves the question of those addicted to street drugs.
Anyway, all of the crime committed by street drugs demonstrates a fact about addiction: penalties and taxes aren't much of a deterrent.
It's just economic mathematics. Smokers live shorter lives, according to an abundance of statistics. You have to consider the decrease in the drain on pensions, state assistance for poorer people and institutionalised care for the elderly, too.
if smoking wasn't such a big 'earner' for the authorities, a lot more effort would have been put in to stamp it out.
In 2013, states will collect $25.7 billion from tobacco taxes and legal settlements, but states are spending less than 2% of the $25.7 billion on tobacco control programs.
But that would equally be infringement of freedom of choice. Unless you can prove that anyone drinking a 16oz drink is affecting others around them in an unhealthy manner, you can't really just make it illegal for anyone to have access to medical treatment as a means to stop them from making the choice of drinking large sugary drinks.
I think the best way to do go about this, as usual with most things, bring abut awareness of the situation. At the end of the day all you can do is show someone the door, they have to walk through it by themselves. If an obese person is clogging his/her arteries with junk, it doesn't affect me any way, so its his/her problem if he/she has heart diseases and coronary problems. Don't stop me from getting my drink, not that I would ever drink a 32oz soda drink anyways, but its still my right.
"freedom of choice"
That's not a legislated freedom to my knowledge.
"bring abut awareness"
Last time that worked well was never.
"it doesn't affect me any way"
Until you pay the taxes which go towards health care for these people.
Actually it comes from the 1st Amendment and it falls under Freedom of Speech. Freedom of speech is another term for Freedom of expression, which categorically falls under freedom to chose.. You can't have expression without choices.
The US Supreme Court says:
"Freedom of expression... is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom. With rare aberrations a pervasive recognition of this truth can be traced in our history, political and legal" (Palko v. Connecticut (1937) 302 U.S. 319, 326-27.)
Bring awareness to causes actually does work. It may take time, but it does. Nobody expects a change good or bad to happen immediately.
Actually it doesn't affect me directly. I am not the one losing the heart. However yes part of my taxes does go towards healthcare for those who can't afford it. But that will never change the fact that no matter what law you put in place, there will be people not following it, and resulting in the same status quo as we have now. Our taxes will go towards other's healthcare one way or another. Therefore implementing frivolous laws which only limit people's right have no real use or meaning in society
By that logic, drugs would be legal and you could get drunk in the back seat of a car in the US.
yet drug uses and DWI incidents are prevalent in our society. So much for the legislative enforcement for prevention
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of Americans who signed contracts to buy previously occupied homes fell in August from a two-year high in July.
The National Association of Realtors says its index of sales agreements dropped 2.6% last month to 99.2. In July, the index rose to 101.9. That was the highest level since April 2010, when the market benefited from a federal home-buying tax credit.
A reading of 100 is considered healthy. The index is 10.7% higher than it was a year ago. The index bottomed at 75.88 in June 2010 after the tax credit expired.
Contract signings typically indicate where the housing market is headed. There's generally a one- to two-month lag between a signed contract and a completed deal. Last month, completed sales hit a two-year high.
Average rates on fixed mortgages fell again to new record lows. The decline suggests the Federal Reserve's stimulus efforts may be having an impact on mortgage rates.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan dropped to 3.4%. That's down from last week's rate of 3.49%, which was the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s
The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage, a popular refinancing option, fell to 2.73%, down from the record low of 2.77% last week.
The Fed is spending $40 billion a month to buy mortgage-backed securities. The goal is to lower mortgage rates and help the housing recovery. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says the program will continue until there is substantial improvement in the job market. Some economists expect mortgage rates to fall even further because of the Fed's bond purchases.
The housing market already is benefiting from the lowest mortgage rates on record. Sales of both previously occupied and newly built homes in the U.S. are up from last year. Home prices are rising more consistently. And builders are more confident in the market and are starting to build more homes.
The broader economy is also likely to benefit from a revival in the housing market. When home prices rise, Americans typically feel wealthier and spend more.
Still, the housing market has a long way back. Sales and construction rates remain below healthy levels. And some economists question whether lower rates will make much of a difference. The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage has been below 4% since early December. So most people who can qualify have likely already taken advantage of the lower rates.
Many people who would like to refinance or buy a home can't because they fail to meet stricter lending requirements or don't have enough money to make a down payment.
To calculate average rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week. The average does not include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1% of the loan amount.
The average fee for 30-year loans was 0.6 point, unchanged from last week. The fee for 15-year loans also held steady at 0.6 point.The average rate on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages dipped to 2.6% from 2.61%. The fee for one-year adjustable rate loans was unchanged at 0.4 point.The average rate on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 2.71% from 2.76%. The fee remained at 0.6 point.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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28-Dec-2006 -- Visited during the December 2006 `Īd holidays by Ski Sharp and Sandrine Descat via Wādiy Suwayḥ, and John Edwards with his niece Katrina Edwards via a drier, more circuitous route. Also present on the reconnoiter trips: Paula Edwards, Benjamin Edwards, Tom McDonald, and John Van Wunnick.
A group of expatriates living in Masqaṭ took up the challenge of reaching confluence point 23N 59E in September 2006. From Google Earth and topographical maps it appeared the most likely route up the bank of Wādiy Suwayḥ to the triangular plateau containing 23N 59E was one of the side wādiys above the waterfall several hours walk upstream from Suwayḥ. All agreed this wādiy looked easier to climb out of than the other Wādiy Šija that had defeated Rainer Mautz in April. However, Wādiy Suwayḥ has a permanently flooded gorge that can only be passed by swimming. This is fun in a day trip, more problematic when traveling with packs, so the Masqaṭ crowd split into two teams; one happy to wrap their gear in bin bags, the other looking for a more comfortable route.
A chance encounter with a hundred-year-old Omani living in the nearby fishing village of Qurayāt provided some clues. This trader used to sell fish to the mountain villages, returning with gazelle meat he had hunted whilst traveling the donkey tracks. He said there was a donkey track from Qa'lat, a village near Suwayḥ now occupied by settled Bedouins, and the date plantation village of Sawqa way upstream from Suwayḥ. From this donkey track a side track leads across Wādiy Suwayḥ. It took John Edwards and friends two trips to find a way to this crossing, the same as originally guessed from the satellite picture.
The first trip almost led to dehydration, though we did manage to reach most of the way to Sawqa, missing the sidetrack but finding another way to the crossing point. However, there was not enough time, or water, to attempt what looked like a cliff descent to the bottom of Wādiy Suwayḥ.(p>
The second attempt followed a tortuous route down a side wādiy crossed by the donkey track. This was a technical success, but not very practical as it involved squeezing under boulders – made especially challenging by a rainstorm.
The third attempt was perfect; this time the Bedouins, who were camping at the crossing point in September when they ignored our cries for directions, were on the plateau itself and were much more hospitable. The final trek took 2 ½ days including the return that circumnavigated the plateau, finding a second Wādi Suwayḥ crossing down an impossible looking cliff with the help of one of the Bedouins.
Meanwhile Ski and Sandrine, amused at their friends' aversion to what was now cold water, continued their exploration straight up Wādiy Suwayḥ. On their second attempt they found a way past the waterfall to the crossing point. From this base camp they made an afternoon dash straight across numerous wādiys on the not-so-flat plateau, returning after dark to their camp.
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Burman: UN assembly in New York little more than a sideshow
If next week’s UN summit was an occasion to take a snapshot of the “state of the world” in 2012, much would be out of focus.
As only New Yorkers could experience, it’s late September and the circus is coming to town. Clowns, jugglers, tightrope walkers, acrobats and trained animals — all of them will be on show next week in Manhattan. Attention: will the 67th Session of the United Nations General Assembly please come to order?
More than 130 world leaders will crowd into New York at the UN’s annual summit, and their efforts to dazzle will be limitless. But in spite of their endless talk, we can be certain the following will have occurred by the time they leave town next Friday:
• In Syria, more than 100 innocent civilians, most of them women and children, will have been killed in what Amnesty International described this week as a “relentless and indiscriminate” attack by Syrian forces against their people. The governments of Iran, Russia and China — the Syrian regime’s ardent protectors — show no sign of backing away from beleaguered President Bashar Assad. The key Western nations, for their part, seem to have run out of ideas. So far, more than 27,000 Syrians have been killed in 18 months of conflict.
• In Iran and Israel, the looming showdown over Iran’s nuclear ambitions will have edged closer. There are no signs yet of a breakthrough, although the U.S. is determined to keep a lid on it. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran — a weak and divisive figure at home who will leave office next June — will further embarrass his country in his speech. And in response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will continue his efforts to bully and embarrass the Americans into action.
If next week’s UN summit was an occasion to take a snapshot of the “state of the world” in 2012, much would be out of focus. The international community has utterly failed to resolve the Syrian crisis and risks all-out war if the Iran-Israel nuclear issue is mishandled. On other issues — such as the world economy, the Arab awakening and the growing threat of climate change — there is little more than paralysis.
The painful journey to this point is outlined in stark detail in the new memoir Interventions by Kofi Annan, former UN secretary-general. Annan resigned in August as the UN’s special mediator in Syria after months of failure. He cites it as the latest example of where the international community has refused to come together in the face of global crisis.
In his book, Annan recounts several of the UN’s most glaring errors during his time, particularly with 1990s peacekeeping missions in Somalia, Bosnia and Rwanda, which he described as the UN’s “greatest failures.”
He recalls a cable in January 1994 from Gen. Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian commander of a small UN force in Rwanda, asking for reinforcements. Dallaire concluded his message, “Allons-y (let’s go).” But the UN did nothing, and shortly afterward, more than 800,000 Rwandans were dead. It is that history — one in which Canada has been so constructive in the past — that casts a shadow over next week’s UN leaders’ summit in New York.
Given this, where will Canada fit in next week? Not quite in the centre of the action, it appears. In fact, Canada’s current disdain for the UN will be on full display.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was invited to speak next Thursday but he has declined. Instead, he will be elsewhere in New York City accepting an award from the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, an international organization created in 1965 by a New York rabbi.
The prime minister — who has been criticized for losing Canada’s bid for the UN Security Council, for tilting its Middle East policy overwhelmingly toward Israel, for favouring military over diplomatic initiatives, for killing the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, and for cutting funds to Canadian organizations promoting the expansion of international human rights — will be receiving the foundation’s “Statesman of the Year Award.”
If this award seems an unlikely one for this particular Canadian prime minister, it should be noted that a month ago another prominent figure in the U.S. received the same kind of award under vaguely similar circumstances.
Instead of attending the Republican convention in Tampa, real-estate mogul Donald Trump chose to accept the “Statesman of the Year Award” from the Sarasota County Republican Association. Trump’s speech that night repeated his belief that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
Only in America, as they say.
Tony Burman, former head of Al Jazeera English and CBC News, teaches journalism at Ryerson University. [email protected]
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A story about this — 6 years ago
This book is reminding me more and more of my very favorite book, Einstein’s Dreams, by Alan Lightman.
The city of Sophronia is made up of two half-cities. In one there is the great roller coaster with its steep humps, the carousel with its chain spokes, the Ferris wheel of spinning cages, the death-ride with crouching motorcyclists, the big top with the clump of trapezes hanging in the middle. The other half-city is of stone and marble and cement, with the bank, the factories, the palaces, the slaughterhouse, the school, and all the rest. One of the half-cities is permanent, the other is temporary, and when the period of its sojurn is over, they uproot it, dismantle it, and take it off, transplanting it to the vacant lots of another half-city.
And so every year the day comes when the workmen remove the marble pediments, lower the stone walls, the cement pylons, take down the Ministry, the monument, the docks, the petroleum refinery, the hospital, load them on trailers, to follow from stand to stand their annual itinerary. Here remains the half-Sophronia of the shooting-galleries and the carousels, the shout suspended from the cart of the headlong roller coaster, and it begins to count the months, the days it must wait before the caraven returns and a complete life can begin again. (63)
“Memory’s images, once they are fixed in words, are erased,” Polo said. “Perhaps I am afraid of losing Venice all at once, if I speak of it. Or perhaps, speaking of other cities, I have already lost it, little by little.” (87)
Just one more, I promise.
I thought: “You reach a moment in life when, among the people you have known, the dead outnumber the living. And the mind refuses to accept more faces, more expressions: on every new face you encounter, it prints the old forms, for each one it finds the most suitable mask.” (95)
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Photo: Analog v Digital Cuba
Cuba announced Tuesday that it is “prepared” to perform a digital television test that uses a method developed by Chinese experts, local media reported.
“Cuba is prepared to successfully perform the test” on Wednesday, said the director of the island’s Telecommunications Research and Development Institute, or Lacetel, Glauco Guillen, during the first international digital TV forum being held in Havana.
The official said that Cuba is pushing to transform its analog TV to a digital system using the Chinese approach “in the service of the needs of society.”
The forum - being held within the framework of the 15th International Computer and Telecommunications Fair and Convention taking place this week in Havana - is aimed at pushing for the implementation of China’s DTMB method for digital television and fostering the cooperation of the Asian nation with Latin America.
Cuba wants to shift over from analog to digital TV in keeping with the accords signed between Havana and Beijing to foster technological cooperation.
The deputy director of the industry and technology division of the Chinese National Commission for Development and Reforms, Wu Hao, said that “we want to work together to push this application in Cuba and develop ... digital television and industry ... to benefit (all) peoples.”
He also said that Beijing places great importance on communication with the region, adding that digital TV is “on the rise” worldwide, and thus China and its industries are ready to work with Latin America “at all levels” to contribute to the development of an industry based on the principle of “openness and innovation.”
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Archive for 'Tag Archives: 'art''
Alexandria artist Suzanne Vigil thinks cockroaches are pretty. “When you get up very, very close to one, you see that a cockroach is absolutely beautiful. It’s got jeweled tones to it,” Vigil says. “When I show [...]
Creator of Fox in Sox, The Cat in the Hat and a goo-chewing Goo-goose, you might think you know the great Dr. Seuss. But you don’t. There’s another side to Theodor Seuss Geisel — several sides [...]
After relocating to Old Town Alexandria three months ago, artist Leisa Collins noticed a lack of young people involved in the historic and restoration movement and decided to do something about it. [...]
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New technology, proprietary data, business plans, financial data, research and other ongoing proprietary information are some of a company’s most valuable intellectual property assets. Of necessity these valuable, proprietary assets must be accessed by employees at certain levels in a company. Indeed, key employees are often those who assist in creating these kinds of intellectual property. It can be devastating if a trusted employee leaves, takes such intellectual property and then uses it to compete.
Protection of a company’s intellectual property through carefully prepared employment and non-competition agreements can be one of the most important policies a company can put in place to protect the ownership and control of its intellectual property.
On the other hand, attracting and retaining talented individuals can be impeded by agreements which are overreaching and onerous in nature.
Striking a balance between these concerns requires a thorough understanding of a company’s objectives, its business, technology and research, and other proprietary information, as well as the limitations often imposed by statutes and courts to protect the rights of employees. At Workman Nydegger our attorneys understand the need for this kind of balance and can help you strike the right balance for your unique circumstances.
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Mahatma Gandhi who is considered as Father of the Nation and was an iconic figure had once quipped- “Non-cooperation with the evil is as much a duty as is co-operation with good”. Even Henry Ford had said- “Business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business”. Companies that do not adhere to ethical practices become unstable in due course of time. Therefore integrity is very important. Organizations must have a noble legacy in order to touch base with its customers. When the name of a company gets tainted it can shake its very foundation.
When a company is admired for its high level of integrity, honesty and sincerity it earns the support from its employees as well as customers. This trust enhances the productivity of the company to a great extent. Therefore you will find that the leading companies of the world are those which follow its code of ethics to the core. They understand that to get repeat customers or retain the existing ones they need to uphold ethical business practices.
Therefore companies that swears by and conforms to business ethics are a favorite with both employees and customers. Even rival companies like to associate with such companies for business dealings.
Every year a list is prepared by independent bodies containing the names of the top 100 companies which have earned a name for itself by virtue of its business ethics. Here we present the list of top 10 ethical companies in the world. These are the companies which have been preaching about ethical business practices and following the same as well.
1. Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems is world renowned company dealing in software. Its code of ethics is published every year. The company has appointed a compliance officer to ensure compliance of pre-determined company business practices. If there is any issue which may affect the interests of the company the same is immediately notified to the said officer. Adobe Systems has made it mandatory for all its senior executives to foresee compliance of all rules and regulations connected with government dealings. In addition they are also required to submit important papers on time and with honesty.
2. Campbell Soup Company
The Campbell Soup Company has its own code of ethics. Any wrong committed within the perimeters of the company’s jurisdiction are immediately corrected and for this employees are asked to be on the look out for any discrepancy. They are encouraged to report about it so that the same can be rectified. The code of According to Campbell Soup Company, as of 2004, the company encourages staff to speak up whenever they spot anything wrong, in order to correct it. The code of Campbell Soup Company also mentions clearly about advertisements made by the company and respective cells which can be approached by employees to seek help.
3. Ford Motor Company
The code of ethics of Ford Motor Company clearly defines that any action on the part of company directors, any personal benefit derived by an employee or his/her family which can be termed as wrong and third party dealings that can tarnish the image of the company will be considered as against the interests of the company. Under no circumstances senior executives like directors can use personally assets of the company nor can they accept gifts.
4. L’Oreal SA
The cosmetic giant L’Oreal SA has its won unique code of ethics through which it encourages its employees to come up with any issue voluntarily. It is very particular about child labour and has its own set of tools to analyse risk and in addition has policy papers on the subject which are applied to guide the management. Employees are trained up about company code of ethics and they can freely discuss about what kind of environment they expect to discharge their duties efficiently and honestly.
Wegmans works actively towards community development. It believes in giving back to the society and for this purpose it donates substantially to food banks. All donations are entertained through the company website. Moreover, every week it provides a public bus service for senior citizens in Syracuse and Rochester to enable them to purchase grocery.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://top-10-list.org/tag/ethical/
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| 0.976497 | 795 | 1.8125 | 2 |
EVANSVILLE, IN.- The Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science
, Evansville, IN, will open a unique exhibition, The Luster of Silver, a survey of contemporary silverpoint drawings, on June 28th, 2009. The exhibition will remain open until 13th September, 2009. It is a rare opportunity for lovers of drawings to be able to view a selection of exceptional drawings executed in a medium about which few people know but whose shimmering look is hauntingly memorable.
Silverpoint is a demanding yet subtle medium requiring consummate draftsman skills. Marks are made with fine or sterling silver on a prepared ground, erasures are impossible, and the resultant drawing slowly oxidizes to the warm golden brown of tarnished silver. Interest is steadily growing in this medium, testimony to the power of its lustrous voice that has endured for over eight centuries. Silverpoints history is highly unusual, its practitioners today are superb artists with great diversity in approach, and the Evansville exhibition will reflect the mediums strength and universal appeal.
Twenty-seven US, Canadian and British artists will participate in this show. All have gained widespread recognition for their drawings. While many use a more traditional approach to silverpoint, others are exploring new frontiers in the medium. The exhibition thus offers an array of drawings of great interest and diversity. Many of the artists, such as Koo Schadler, Jeannine Cook, Susan Schwalb, Tom Mazzullo, Curtis Bartone, Sherry Camhy or Carol Prusa, were included in a most successful 2006 metalpoint survey curated by the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia. The Evansville Museums exhibition, The Luster of Silver, will include additional noted silverpoint artists, such as Ephraim Rubenstein, Jane Masters, Timothy Mayhew and Constance McClure. All twenty-seven artists have work in the permanent collections of many museums here and abroad.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.artdaily.com/section/lastweek/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=31412&int_modo=2
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en
| 0.950334 | 396 | 1.554688 | 2 |
Researching "completely" a family you know may do one of several things for you or your research. You may learn something about research or something about the family you did not know before.
Recently I obtained deeds showing how a house and a farm were sold after the owner's died. In both cases, I knew all the vitals on the family. In both cases I understood the records better because I "knew" the family. That helps me understand records later when I don't know the family. Sometimes it is easier to learn about records when the family isn't as foreign to you as the records.
And in one case I learned a few things about the family that were new to me. Another reason to search for everything.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.genealogytipoftheday.blogspot.com/2009/06/research-families-you-know.html
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| 0.992467 | 150 | 1.617188 | 2 |
Green Business & Office Longmeadow MA
Greening the office is not only a great way to reduce costs and increase efficiency, but help the environment as well. It can be as simple as switching to energy-efficient light bulbs or ordering furniture made from recycled materials. Use recycled paper, rechargeable batteries and energy efficient products. Create and encourage recycling practices around the office and make sure your customers know about your green ways because consumers care and green businesses are gaining an advantage.
What if you can’t find money in your budget for your HR Dept. to purchase and implement the advanced programs/services that would allow for a fully automated, electronic data management system? That’s when you need to start with small changes that offer immediate cost savings with only a modest initial investment. Please scroll down for more information and get access to all the related products and services in Longmeadow, MA listed below.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://local.lazyenvironmentalist.com/Green_Business_Office_Longmeadow_MA-t8326_Longmeadow+MA.html
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en
| 0.933851 | 184 | 1.570313 | 2 |
Holiday season is near and here is another tip for the last minute game which you can download for free if you have an iPhone. Ever played the English spelling game when you were little? My favorite was the “hangman”. There is a free version of “ The Hangman RSS “, developed by Finger Arts. The rule is to guess a word from the given space bars, simply place any alphabet on the space. If you guessed the word wrong, a part of the hangman drawing (started with head) will be shown on the app. The little man will not be “executed” if you guess the word correctly. Sounds too simple? Not this one. This is a hangman which you play with real-time news flash (RSS). With the game center setting, you can also play this game with real player on the net. If you don’t read the news, well, it will be hard to play.
The fun part is, you can select the news origins from the menu (I am sorry, there is no Japanese news). The game gives you some clues on the bottom of the screen where you can somewhat guess the meaning of the words. I have tried many times and end up with a little man gets hung in result. Even the “Easy Level” was moderately hard since I am not familiar with the contents of the American news. (Hello, I am living here inJapan).
This app would be great to play with friends and family at the party if you can connect it with TV Screen. I can imagine how many people in my family are going to crash the TV screen when their hangman is completed in 5 seconds. Ho ho ho!
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.atware.co.jp/en/2011/12/21/
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en
| 0.96445 | 353 | 1.578125 | 2 |
Health puritans wants us to stop drinking ‘poison’
YOU boozing in January? Cancer Research UK (CRUK) doesn’t want you to. It’s Dryathlon invites non-drinking drinkers to donate al money they would have spent on booze to fund Cancer Research UK
How about Dry January, the Alcohol Concern:
Feel better. Save money. Make a difference. Your chance to ditch the hangover, reduce the waistline, and save the pennies. Your mission: to avoid that cheeky after work pint, that glass of wine on the sofa, or that big boozy night out, for the whole month. Make a real difference to the lives of those harmed through alcohol misuse by getting family and friends to sponsor you and raise money for Alcohol Concern.
Good one. As the party ends you must go dry. And stop eating that. And run. The British Liver Trust demands it:
The trust’s chief executive, Andrew Langford, said: “It’s not about a quick fix in January, to repair the liver and keep it healthy, people need to follow our three-step plan all-year round: 1) Take two to three days off alcohol every week; 2) get regular exercise; 3) cut down on sugar and fat.”
What is drinking makes you feel better, gets you ahead at work and keeps your brain active? What if you just enjoy it? The experts make a living telling you what to do and what not to do. Ignore them all. You know your limit. And if you don’t, keep a bucket handy…
Photo: The Big Three, Russian President Joseph Stalin, in light uniform, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, facing camera, and British prime Minister Winston Churchill, sit together at the final dinner held in connection with the conference at Yalta, Ukraine on March 3, 1945. Others at dinner are, left, American Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius and Russian diplomat Vyacheslav Molotov, right.
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en
| 0.934199 | 427 | 1.585938 | 2 |
Since 1991, Miss Sissi is produced by the Italian lamp producer Flos. Already created in 1988 by the Popstar of Design – Philippe Starck, Miss Sissi is included in the range of products called “Good Goods” which composed for a catalogue of the mail order business La Redoute. In addition to t-shirts, teddy bears, kayaks and gas masks, Miss Sissi belongs to the “non-products for non-consumers” which Starck wanted to offer for “a moral market of the future” like a “political tool which aims directly at the heart of consumption.” Right after designing Miss Sissi, Starck said about the table lamp: “It was not me who created it, it was all of us.” The form language of Miss Sissi stresses anonymity and functionality and is thus a pretty good example of “non-design”. “In times where the trend on the market goes to far too complicated lamps with a narcissistic design, I thought, it would be necessary to regain the idea of an archetypical, small lamp like it is in all of us. The result is Miss Sissi. The usage of synthetic material facilitates the mass production and ensures that Sissi is affordable for everyone. As Sissi is a model of non-design, its conception arose from our collective memory. The table lamp spreads direct light and diffuse light. Light corpus, diffuser and diffuser holder are made out of injection molded, painted polycarbonate (UL-94 V0), the light's socket ensures stability with included sinker. On and off switch is regulated at the two-branch cable.
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http://www.polyvore.com/flos_miss_sissi_tablelamp/thing?id=64031255
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| 0.954778 | 354 | 1.625 | 2 |
The financial services industry's efforts to suppress paper will be limited until it delivers a digital lifestyle that offers consumers more control, easier accessibility, better information, more personalization, and more safety than they get from paper-based services, according to a new report from Pleastanton, Calif.-based Javelin Strategy & Research. In order to achieve a truly "paperless" institution, banks must not seek to simply to displace paper, or to replicate the utility of paper, but create something better than paper, according to Javelin. Banks can begin to achieve this by thinking even more broadly about how to put the customer's interests first, the report states, and implementing the Javelin seven-point "customer-driven architecture" plan.
According to the firm, the plan recognizes seven "phases" of digital consumerism that banks should target and cater to. These are: Recognizing that customers are always "on" (they will have access to financial account information anytime and anywhere), interactions will be in real time, they will be transparent, the customer will be in control and be able to customize how they receive information, information will be integrated, interactions with financial institutions will be secure and their relationship with a FI with be goal-fulfilling.
Mark Schwanhausser, senior analyst with Javelin and co-author of the report, says that while banks have not yet achieved delivering a full delivery of digital banking as described in the customer-driven architecture plan, the key is to be proactive and invest in technology to enable this experience "at the right time of impact."
Schwanhausser says that banks who achieve this level of customer-focused delivery can change the dynamic of the relationship between the consumer and financial institution. Banks who do so can assume more of a role of service provider and trusted advisor.
For example, he says banks who cater to these seven points can offer a new and more effective kind of PFM.
"Imagine a world where your bank can tell you how each of your expenditures affect your stated financial goals, in real time," he says. "With each swipe of a card or tap of a phone, your bank can help you have a greater understanding of how it affects your larger goals. You can tackle 'unconscious spending' and see how miscellaneous expenses add up. PFM can change from just budgeting to helping you get closer to a financial goal."
Schwanhausser says that nontraditional financial institutions now coming on the scene will embrace these tactics and banks need to stay a step ahead.
"There are new guys coming on saying 'why is the old way of doing banking unassailable?'" he adds. "Bankers ignore what's going on at their peril."
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.banktech.com/channels/banks-must-cater-to-the-digital-financia/232901617
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en
| 0.944459 | 563 | 1.507813 | 2 |
I was pretty psyched when I learned that Google is getting closed captioning incorporated into more YouTube videos, making YouTube more accessible to the deaf and hearing-impaired. I’m delighted to know that there’s now software that reads crossword clues and entries aloud so solvers who are blind or have low vision can enjoy doing crosswords, too.
Spoonbill Software has just released Blind Gamers Crossword Puzzle 1.0, a freeware Windows application that lets solvers open crosswords they’ve downloaded from the Internet (provided the file format is the right one) and hear the clues without using their screen reader. Solvers use the keyboard to communicate with the program. Visit the link to order a copy.
Click below to read more about the program and—this part is key—about getting crossword publishers to provide download links for puzzles in the appropriate file format.
An Australian named Ian Humphreys developed the software in collaboration with the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the UK. Eric Westbrook is a blind member of the RNIB, a crossword setter and solver, and a consultant on BG Crossword Puzzle.
I have also written a series of tutorials so that a blind solver can get solving quickly with the basic keyboard operations and then gradually introducing more advanced features whilst practising the newly learnt concepts and skills. There is an extensive Help File. There is also an introduction to cryptic crosswords so that a blind person could start from scratch.
I would like a blind solver to be able to access crosswords in the same way that sighted solvers do. Many newspaper and crossword websites offer their crosswords freely for online use (advertising revenues) and some by download. In the main this excludes blind and partially sighted solvers. If such websites provided download buttons with appropriate file formats, a blind solver could then download into Ian’s program and get solving – the same puzzles that everyone else is tearing their hair out over, on the same day. The puzzles are then ‘live’ and the blind solver feels part of the crossword community again. Wouldn’t that be terrific?
I can take ‘your’ NYT crosswords for example from Crossword Compiler and export them to the blind program very simply. From then on a blind solver can operate quite independently. I think many of your US compilers use this program, so possible links would be easy.
There is a significant number of blind solvers in the US and of course across the world. Furthermore, taking a lead in this area would produce a considerable feeling of warmth for such a newspaper and that is very good for business.
If you’re a crossword publisher (and not just in print media—I’m thinking here of constructors like Brendan Quigley, Matt Gaffney, and Ben Tausig who send out .puz files or or post them online), it would be fantastic if you’d take the step of making sure your crosswords are accessible to blind and visually impaired solvers.
The Spoonbill Software page also tells you about the other Blind Gamers games. Boggle! Sudoku! Solitaire! Chess! Uno! Yahtzee! Card games! If you or someone you know would get a kick out of these, please do pass along the info.
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http://www.crosswordfiend.com/blog/2010/07/27/crosswords-for-the-blind-no-really/
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en
| 0.939836 | 693 | 1.546875 | 2 |
Minneapolis asks food establishments to be aware of inspections scam
Minneapolis Environmental Health wants local food establishments to be aware of a recent scam in which people misrepresenting themselves as City employees call businesses claiming to want to schedule food quality inspections. While the scammers’ goal is not clear, the City has heard of several recent instances where scammers have called local food businesses. The City of Minneapolis recommends that businesses not call back or respond to these inquiries. If you receive a call, please record the phone number of the caller and file a complaint with the State Attorney General’s office and contact local law enforcement so they are aware of the issue.
Minneapolis Environmental Health inspectors make thousands of inspections in the City each year, but they generally do NOT call ahead to schedule inspections. They will typically arrive at an establishment without advance notice, and follow this procedure:
- Inspectors will enter the establishment through the front door and introduce himself or herself and explain the purpose of the visit (routine, re-inspection, complaint etc.) They do not call business operators in advance prior to the inspection.
- City staff will have a picture ID, inspector badge and business card.
- City inspectors will wash their hands before the inspection.
- City staff will explain the issues with the person-in-charge or the certified food managers and will get a signature from them.
Published Jul. 22, 2010
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.minneapolismn.gov/news/news_20100722foodinspectionsscam
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| 0.939018 | 286 | 1.539063 | 2 |
The Season Is Here: Where to Get Flu Shots in Barnstable
Here's where to get an influenza vaccine, how to recognize symptoms and what to know about treatment if you get sick.
- January 12, 2013
Flu season is coming early in parts of the United States: This time last year, flu cases were lower in Massachusetts than they are now, according to data on Google's Flu Trends.
Overall in Massachusetts, activity is considered high now, while it was considered low to moderate at this time in 2011, according to Flu Trends.
If you're considering getting a flu shot, here are some places in Barnstable that offer the vaccine:
Time spent indoors due to soggy weather will contribute to the spread of the flu virus, so now is the time to get vaccinated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers the following information:
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http://barnstable-hyannis.patch.com/articles/the-season-is-here-where-to-get-flu-shots-in-barnstable
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| 0.963572 | 176 | 1.640625 | 2 |
Imago and crashing heros
Imago: “...an idealized mental image of someone, esp. a parent, that influences your behavior.”
Today I discovered a new word and an old feeling. This stunningly beautiful short film by Cédric Babouche brought both together.
What good does Imago serve? The image of father as hero to a young son is a mesmerizing motivator. It can fill you with the belief that your resources are unlimited and that the world is vast, rich and responding positively to you. Imago is an insane drive for survival probably only available to a young mind. The love for father is so strong that an archetypical image is created. The father gives life to the son and teaches him. But the son makes his father and exploits him.
When fathers die early, it must be tough. When fathers die late, that can be tougher. Seing powers flee from him, bad luck turning on him and human fragility taking over are sobering forces on the son. The love changes in intensity and more so in content. An early death in contrast leaves the dream encapsuled in memory.
Dads are icons and in this beautiful 9.54 minute short-film, there is one who throws himself into the wind.
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http://www.alexome.com/2006/10/imago-and-crashing-heros/
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| 0.94592 | 265 | 1.773438 | 2 |
MINING giant BHP Billiton and the operators of the Ok Tedi copper mine in Papua New Guinea are being sued for civil damages exceeding $US4 billion ($5.08 billion) by villagers on the Ok Tedi River.
PNG lawyer Carmellus Narakobi has lodged the lawsuit in the National Court in Port Moresby on behalf of 13,000 villagers seeking compensation for the destruction of their traditional lands along 38km of the river.
“The Ningerum people have suffered from tonnes and tonnes of arsenic, copper, zinc and other heavy metals dumped into this once pristine habitat where they had lived since time immemorial,” Narokobi told PNG's newspaper The National.
Experts predicted it would take 300 years to clean up the toxic contamination, he said.
Narokobi represents six Ningerum clans who are not signatory to the Community Mine Continuation Agreement between landowners and Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML).
“They offered to pay 50 kina ($22.50) per family a month for damages which is total exploitation and the government of PNG sanctions these kinds of programs,” he said.
Most landowner groups in the region have signed the mine continuation agreements.
OTML management has conceded the environmental damage caused by mine tailings running into the Ok Tedi and Fly Rivers is far worse than first envisaged and is pursuing projects to curb it.
The company points to the mine's huge economic returns to PNG as well as the benefits to affected landowners who receive royalty and compensation payments and development projects.
Raised riverbeds and a process called acid rock drainage have destroyed or contaminated traditional food garden areas while fish and other marine life are expected to be off-limits for eating in future years.
The huge environmental problem was a major prompt for BHP Billiton to divest its 52 per cent shareholding in the mine to the PNG Sustainable Development Program Ltd in 2002.
The PNG government owns 30 per cent of Ok Tedi which is a major producer of copper concentrate for world smelting markets and in 2004 provided more than a quarter of PNG's export earnings.
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14313
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| 0.942986 | 617 | 1.742188 | 2 |
It’s Time for New York to Pass Autism Insurance Reform
This is a guest post by Lorri Unumb, Autism Speaks senior policy advisor and counsel. Lorri also teaches “Autism and the Law” at the George Washington University Law School.
In the past three years, 20 states have passed laws requiring health insurance policies to cover individuals with autism and the treatments prescribed by doctors for autism. The New York legislature is on the verge of passing one of the broadest autism insurance reform bills in the nation, and yet some members of the autism community oppose the bill, largely because of its broadness. I write to offer some historical and legal perspective on a bill that embraces a broad approach to legislating.
I have been following New York’s autism legislation with great interest, not only because of my job as policy advisor with Autism Speaks but also because my son with severe autism has health insurance that is governed by New York law. I have a vested personal and professional interest in the legislation.
Further, I have a somewhat unique historical perspective, given my role in helping to spur the national movement toward autism insurance reform. In 2005, while I was a law professor, I wrote legislation in South Carolina to require health insurance coverage for autism. The bill broadly required that:
A health insurance plan as defined in this section must provide coverage for the treatment of autism spectrum disorder. Coverage provided under this section is limited to treatment that is prescribed by the insured’s treating medical doctor in accordance with a treatment plan.
The bill did not list the particular treatments that insurance must cover; rather, it required insurers to cover whatever the doctor prescribes, within reason. It contained language that protected the insurers from having to pay for treatments that were unnecessary, not evidence-based, provided by family members, and the like:
[T]he coverage required . . . may be subject to other general exclusions and limitations of the health insurance plan, including, but not limited to, coordination of benefits, participating provider requirements, restrictions on services provided by family or household members, utilization review of health care services including review of medical necessity, case management, and other managed care provisions.
This legislation passed in South Carolina in 2007, and since that time, children with autism have been receiving meaningful coverage for mainstream treatments prescribed by their doctors, including psychological care, speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and the most commonly-prescribed treatment for autism, applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy.
The South Carolina law is very similar to Indiana’s autism insurance statute, and individuals with autism in Indiana have likewise been receiving coverage under that state’s broadly written bill.
Since 2007, a number of states have passed autism insurance bills that do not embrace the broad approach; instead, they laundry-list the treatments that must be covered. A typical list from these states includes psychological care, psychiatric care, therapeutic care (OT, PT, ST), pharmacological care, and behavioral therapy (ABA). Also, most bills that have passed since 2007 contain significant limitations of coverage, such as a cap that limits spending on ABA therapy to $50,000 per year or an age cap that requires coverage only through age 21.
In 2009, there were pending in the New York legislature four different autism insurance bills, three of which contained a laundry-list of treatments to be covered. The lists varied considerably, and members of the autism community could not agree on how expansive the list should be. The bills also contained various age and dollar caps on coverage.
In October 2009, the Senate Insurance Committee conducted a hearing on all of the pending autism bills. The all-day hearing included testimony from dozens of witnesses and was extremely comprehensive.
After hearing testimony on the competing bills, the committee chair decided to craft his own bill, which returned to the broad approach of merely legislating coverage and leaving for another body (a regulatory body) the exact specifics of the coverage.
As a parent and a lawyer, I support this approach.
By necessity, legislators are generalists and should not be called upon to list the treatment options from which doctors may choose, or to weigh the evidence supporting one medical treatment against the evidence supporting another. It’s not their job. In the context of insurance legislation, their job is to broadly require coverage if they find coverage lacking and within the public interest.
Critics of this bill don’t like the broad approach. They want the certainty of a legislative laundry-list, as has been provided in numerous other states. However, critics fail to acknowledge that the New York autism community itself could not agree on the list and such disagreement is what led to the broad bill in the first place. I have worked with the autism community in almost all of the states that produced laundry-list-type bills and statutes, and never was there dissension within the community that would have required the legislature to choose among various lists.
Critics lodge several other complaints, too.
First, critics don’t like that the bill limits the insurers’ responsibility to covering treatments that are “evidence-based, peer-reviewed and clinically proven.” Critics say this tripartite standard creates an impossibly high threshold that no treatments will meet.
It is not uncommon for states to limit insurers’ responsibility to covering treatments that are “evidence-based,” which I believe is an appropriate limitation. Generally, premium-payers expect insurers to cover mainstream treatments but do not expect insurers to cover treatments that have not been empirically validated.
The issue in the New York bill is the addition of the terms “peer-reviewed” and “clinically proven.” The addition of these terms does not create a higher standard. To be “evidence-based,” a treatment must have been studied and those studies must be have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Thus, “evidence-based” subsumes “peer-reviewed.”
Similarly, “clinically proven” simply reinforces the concept of “evidence-based” treatment but does not set a higher standard of review.
Critics of the bill have yet to name a single autism treatment that would satisfy the traditional standard of “evidence-based” but would not satisfy the tripartite standard.
It seems that what the bill’s opponents really want is coverage for treatments that are not evidence-based. Certainly, there are many protocols that parents of children with autism try on their children that are lacking sufficient evidence of efficacy. I have used some of them with my own son, and I don’t question the intentions of other parents who do so. But I understand that insurers must draw the line somewhere, and “evidence-based” is where the line is traditionally drawn in health insurance.
The overall success of the autism insurance reform movement over the last three years stems largely from the fact that the autism community has not sought special treatment in insurance matters; we have sought equal treatment. All we have asked is that the mainstream treatments that our doctors prescribe for our medical condition be covered by insurance. To have continued success, we must be willing to limit the treatments for which we seek coverage to those that are evidence-based.
Opponents of the autism bill also criticize “the establishment of a four agency committee . . . to pick out whatever ‘science’ they believe in.” Actually, the bill does not establish a four-agency committee. It simply directs the Commissioner of Health to promulgate regulations (a standard practice following new legislation) and directs the Commissioner to consult with three other relevant agencies in the process. In a field where families and services often suffer because one agency never knows what another agency is doing, it is refreshing to see a collaborative process established from the outset.
Further, I am puzzled by the fear of having the Department of Health determine what treatments must be covered. The opponents wish to have a legislative body (generalists) determine a list of treatments that must be covered, but they fear a regulatory body (health specialists) doing the same?
Finally, opponents of the bill apparently fear losing coverage that currently exists under their health insurance policies or failing to obtain coverage for services like anesthesiological and endocrinological care. S.7000B/A.10372A specifies that it “shall not be construed as limiting the benefits that are otherwise available to an individual under the policy.” As such, if anesthesia is generally covered under a policy, it will still be covered without regard to the list of treatments that the Commissioner of Health develops.
Proponents of S.7000B/A.10372A, who are also parents of children with autism, do not wish to limit the treatments that any family affected by autism wishes to use with their children. Nor do we wish to narrowly restrict what doctors may prescribe for their patients. Rather, we wish to support a bill that is likely to pass – a bill with reasonable limitations that are fair to all parties. Proponents see advantages to broadly-written bills like S.7000B/A.10372A, even for those wishing to include treatments outside the mainstream. For instance, if new treatments emerge, or existing treatments go through the rigors of becoming evidence-based, these can be added through the regulatory process to the list of treatments that must be covered without the need for going back to the legislature to amend the law.
The New York autism bill is good policy. It covers individuals with autism of all ages. It does not impose artificial dollar caps on treatments, as many other states’ autism laws do. It asks the legislative and regulatory systems to operate together, as they were designed to do. And it will offer much-needed relief to individuals with autism and their families, as citizens in 21 other states are now receiving.
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Cricut Settings Table
Saturday, May 9, 2009
One thing that is absolutely critical to making the Cricut cut properly is to have the pressure, speed and depth of blade correct for the type of paper you are using. This, by far, is what makes or breaks your Cricut experience. No one wants to ruin expensive paper by accidently having the wrong settings in place and then shredding their paper! It's certainly happened to me enough times, especially when switching amongst different types of paper like going from heavy cardstock to thin patterned paper.
So as not to forget to check the settings each time before I cut, I created the table shown above, which visually reminds me to check the settings and also tells me what settings are appropriate. These are some good guidelines to follow, but may need some tweaking as the machines can be a little different from one another.
Another important tip to remember is to make sure the blade housing number is SQUARE ON facing you. I had mine slightly off center and none of my cuts looked good! I was ready to throw the Cricut out the window until a friend looked at it and immediately diagnosed that as the problem. Thank goodness for Tammy!
A good guideline to follow also has to do with how intricate the cut is that you are trying to make. The more detailed the cut, the SLOWER the speed. And vice versa. Keep that in mind when setting your machine.
Finally, I love to test my cuts on cardstock from Walmart. You can get a pack of 150 sheets of white cardstock (8.5 x 11) at Walmart for less than $6 and it has saved me from numerous mistakes. Look in the office suppy area for this. Another idea is to set your blade and pressure at 1 and watch how the cut moves across the page. It won't cut the page but will give you an idea of the size of the cut.
To snag a copy of my Cricut settings table, click HERE! I hope it helps you in your Cricutting adventures!
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An elementary school student in Michigan can distribute invitations to church activities to classmates, a federal court ruled Tuesday.
Judge Gerald E. Rosen of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan concluded that the school infringed on the student's First Amendment right to free speech when it denied him the opportunity to pass out the invitations and flyers.
Applauding the ruling, Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel David Cortman commented, "Christians shouldn’t be discriminated against and silenced because of their beliefs. The court made the right decision by acknowledging students’ and community groups’ free speech rights and ruling that the district’s viewpoint-based ban on the distribution of literature with a religious theme is unconstitutional."
The student, identified as J.S., and his mother, Katharine Smith, filed suit in 2009 against Holly Area Schools after he tried to distribute invitations to a youth summer camp held at Cornerstone Church in Highland, Mich.
A second grade student at the time, J.S. placed some of the invitations in cubbyholes, which are receptacles for distributing materials to each student.
Upon learning of this, his teacher and then his principal banned the student from handing out religious materials on school grounds.
Katharine Smith went to the district superintendent who also said affirmed the ban on religious materials.
After the suit was filed, the Patterson Elementary School principal sent a letter home with each student in February of this year advising parents that outside groups and individuals were no longer permitted to submit materials to the school for distribution to students.
Judge Rosen wrote in his opinion that "such a blanket prohibition upon a student’s distribution of materials on the basis of religious viewpoint is not constitutionally permissible."
"The school district cannot reasonably be viewed as having imposed time, place, or manner restrictions upon J.S.’s distribution of these materials; instead, it has flatly forbidden him from giving such materials to his classmates anywhere on school grounds at any time during the school day."
The judge ordered the school district to stop enforcing its ban against students handing out flyers and further ruled that the district could not deny the mother's request to send flyers home with students "on the sole ground that she seeks to distribute materials promoting religious activities" while permitting other community groups to distribute flyers advertising their events.
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Recruiting is not an easy task. Recruits have minds full of questions, doubts, fears and misconceptions. Who can blame them? They watch shows and movies many people enjoy such as “Reno 911,” “Police Academy” and “Super Troopers.” Please don’t misunderstand me, I do find these shows and movies entertaining but I also know what the productions took from reality and where Hollywood stepped in. For recruits, this line isn’t always so clear. The arduous task of correcting these misconceptions for recruits is made even more difficult when your only tool is the city-mandated agency website. These sites serve a wide audience, are very formal and rely heavily on news worthy stories and basic information regurgitation. These sites, while serving their important and necessary task as an Internet base for the agency to relay information to the media and public, do not answer recruits’ questions as efficiently as an audience-tailored and less formal blog site can.
Houston Police Department’s Officer Mike McCoy described the recruits’ dilemma as “a disconnect.” He later founded www.hpdblog.com and I’m honestly speaking when I say that it’s a regular on my web surfing agenda. He used this blog to show recruits what he felt they needed to see and consequently created an outstanding example for other agencies that choose to create a recruitment blog. His blog does many things and I’m highlighting only a few of its most valuable uses.
Insight into Training.
Many people believe they want to be a law enforcement officer; few are able to answer the call. Some cadets are fresh out of high school and others are changing career paths altogether. The transition into the police academy can be scary and their facts can be ambiguous. Through the use of their recruitment blog, HPD brings the wary I-think-I-know-what-I’m-getting-into person up close and personal with current cadets. The blog highlights new classes and even tells the stories of certain cadets’ experiences as they occur. They conducted cadet profiles by reporting the cadets’ opinions and observations on their first day of the academy and throughout the course of their training. Each story contained a picture and included details about what was being taught and how the cadets were fairing. This project spanned multiple stories that were enlightening and packed with information straight from the mouths of current cadets experiencing what these recruits could only ponder and guess about prior to these pieces.
This type of conversation simply doesn’t fit well on a city-mandated website. These personal accounts of what the training entails, what concepts these cadets struggle with and the personal opinions of these average Joes removes some of the concerns the undecided person has before they fill out the application. Ultimately, this transparency can sway a willing and able recruit into the academy and change the mind of a recruit who would spend time in the academy and later decide that the training and the job simply doesn’t suit them.
Insight into corporate culture and values.
It doesn’t matter what your mission statement says, if people cannot see these values reflected in the organization’s actions, nobody will believe this strategically-worded statement. On the blog, HPD honors graduating cadets, congratulates the retirement of long-served officers and discusses their community campaigns. These stories contain pictures and attitude while maintaining a professional yet informal tone that makes readers comfortable.
My favorite stories are always the short, funny ones. One picture showed a dog that jumped into the cruiser to feel the air conditioning on a hot day. Another picture and blurb pair discussed how two officers purchased a window unit for a single mother and her handicapped son after they witnessed the small family’s poor living conditions. These are the stories people enjoy hearing and should hear. Although they won’t make front page news, they show the lighter side of the job and what serving the community means to the organization. Serving is not always cleaning up the streets; sometimes serving is meeting the needs of the community one small, kind gesture at a time. Which stories an agency posts on the blog site gives a glimpse into what the agency values, what it takes pride in while revealing the agency’s unique personality which press releases (which aren’t intended for recruits) cannot do.
An agency is only as good as its employees and these employees must be held accountable for how they live the mission statement through their day-to-day work tasks. Blogging can be used to reinforce the values the organization has and help recruits comprehend and internalize these values.
Joining the conversation.
Yes, I agree face time is important but agencies can’t be everywhere at once. The solution: speak to them where they already are. HPD allows comments to be posted on their stories and pictures. This creates a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that can be used to the agency’s advantage. Recruits, employees and the general public are all watching. So, the blogger posts about a cadet’s experiences and an employee comments. On HPD’s blog employees would congratulate the cadets on accomplishments, offer advice, etc. Cadets could respond and so could recruits. On any given article, multiple audiences conversed about the topic at hand and therefore making connections. What a better way to learn about a career field than to hear it from the workforce? Cadets and recruits ask questions. Employees answer these questions. All of a sudden the agency’s values are expressed again showing the support systems and camaraderie which previously only the mission statement attempted to convey.
Another reason why this type of communication benefits the agency is because of its informality. Recruits and cadets are sometimes hesitant about asking questions or voicing their opinions. It is amazing how this fear subsides when fingers hit a keyboard. Having a medium available to recruits where they are more likely to voice questions without fear of embarrassment gives the agency the opportunity to answer these questions rather than allowing the recruits (or another party) to fill in these knowledge gaps. My rule of thumb is to always be where the conversation is and offer your knowledge whenever possible because if you don’t others will and their information may be false.
All agency sites look the same. Trust me; I look at these sites every day and they all blur into one. The header, mission statement, color scheme, press releases and career information are all presented in a clean and professional fashion which is good for recruits, right? Well, yes but what if? What if you could show them the career in a more personal way? What if you could tell stories, real stories, with the same gusto as an employee would tell it? What if you could answer recruits’ questions in a platform they are more comfortable with and therefore more likely to ask the important questions they’re wrestling with? HPD has proven through their witty blog that of these things can be done with the right goals and the will to type.
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|New King James Version (NKJV)
||New International Version (NIV)
16 Samaria is held guilty, For she has rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword, Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, And their women with child ripped open.
16 The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open."
|Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. (New King James Version)
||Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide. (New International Version Bible Online)
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A newly published book, Class Struggle by Jay Matthews evaluates the public schools of the United States and Manhasset has reason to cheer. In a ranking of 230 of the nation's best, Manhasset ranks seventh, second on Long Island after Jericho. It is the icing on the cake after the district also received high marks from New York State.
This year the New York State Department of Education (SED), for the second year, has issued report cards for each of the state's public schools. As part of a state plan to raise standards, the report cards are intended to enable communities to review information about performance and serve as a foundation for improvement. Educators generally approve of the plan but many have criticized its implementation, finding the cards often inaccurate and difficult to understand. The reports replace the CAR (Comprehensive Assessment Reports) which had previously been the state's method of measuring school performance.
According to Dr. Rainier Mellucci, Manhasset Schools assistant superintendent for instruction, it is not possible to compare this year's report card with last year's because methods of measurement, among other things, have changed. Dr. Mellucci added that statistics can be misleading. For example, if a high school such as Manhasset has 800 students, the state divides that by four and assumes that there are 200 students in each class. In fact there could be 225 in one class and 175 in another. But according to the state's method of measuring, even if all 175 students in a class of 175 pass the Regents, the school only gets a passing percentage of 87. Another source of confusion is the number of students who take a Regents exam. For example, if 20 students are enrolled in a third year French class and all pass the Regents, the school is still considered to have only 10 percent of students passing the French Regents. There is some method behind this apparent madness. In the past, some schools have discouraged students from taking the Regents examinations if the teacher was quite sure they would not pass, substituting for the Regents a local school exam. This gave schools an inflated image, if all those who took the exam passed but not all those who took the course took the exam.
All of that being said, Manhasset's report card was "generally positive," according to Dr. Mellucci. Manhasset has a zero dropout rate. It has 85 percent of its students going on to four-year colleges, with most of the others either going to two-year colleges or to some form of career education. Manhasset is second in Nassau County in the number of Advanced Placement Scholars (31 percent).
One change in this year's report cards is that all students are included in the data. In the past, special education students have been given separate reports. Consequently the overall percentage of students receiving Regents diplomas is lower this year than last year. Two years ago in Manhasset, 70 percent of the students received Regents diplomas. Last year it was 66 percent. Last year, for example, the percentage of Average Grade Enrollment (AGE) who passed the Regents Comprehensive Examination in English was 80 with 36 percent passing with distinction (85 percent or higher).
Data that is included for the first time this year is a comparison of a school district with what the SED calls "similar school districts." Similarity is identified in three ways: the districts teach comparable grade levels; they are part of districts with similar local wealth and similar pupil poverty levels; and they have a similar proportion of pupils who are eligible for free lunches and/or have limited proficiency in English.
The report cards do not give information on what sort of enrichment programs the schools have. In other words, there is no way to discover that Manhasset has an outstanding music program or a remarkably good theater department. In time the state may investigate these programs, but for the moment it is concentrating on the basics. Dr. Mellucci says that although the report cards do not reflect the entire picture of a school district, they do reflect essential academic performance. "Where it can be measured, it should be measured," he says.
One criticism that has been levelled at public schools in the press recently is that teachers are teaching in fields which were not in their area of study. According to Dr. Mellucci, "we have none of that here."
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One of the items in my “crate of shame” was a copy of The Genealogist’s Internet by Peter Christian. I have the first and third editions of this book, partly for the reference material they contain, but mainly for the nostalgia element.
It is not really surprising that genealogy sites have changed so much over recent years, but it seems inconceivable that in the first edition (published in 2001) the ancestry.com website was said to hold “over 2,000 separate datasets” but that the “majority of these are of interest only to those with US ancestry …. there are a number which may be useful to UK genealogists”. How times have changed.
Of course if you are interested in looking at internet history then a trip in the Wayback Machine is essential. Whilst you should not expect much functionality from them, it is still interesting to have a look at some of the changing home pages from sites like ancestry.co.uk, where for example in June 2002 you could “unlock the Records to your Past for as little as £29.95″.
Whilst you are time travelling you could stop in on the infamous 1901 census launch, and re-live the frustrations of the early days of the site, when access was restricted or non-existent. Check out the archives for the beginning of 2002 to see what access to online census records used to be like!
Does anyone know if anyone is recording the history of genealogical websites? Is it only me who is interested in this sort of thing? Perhaps someone would like to create a family tree of genealogy websites, after all ancestry.com now has many offspring!
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Most World War II movies feel as though they're fossilized in amber like a "Jurassic Par" mosquito. There's always a bit of distance and "sit up in your seat there, boy, pay attention"-ness to them.
With "Inglourious Basterds," Quentin Tarantino takes a baseball bat to the amber. He gives us a WWII flick that feels like a dirty story your grandpa would have told you if he got drunk enough. It's officially the most historically accurate film about the war ever made, because it shows how Adolf Hilter actually died in a movie theater, Mike Myers spent his pre-"Wayne's World" career a mugging British officer and everything anybody ever said sounded as zippy as though it had been written by Tarantino.
One of Tarantino's goals in the film seems to be to surpass the grotesqueness of his "Reservoir Dogs" ear-slicing scene. You see Louisville sluggers splatter Nazi brains, knives carve swastikas into foreheads, and let's not even get into all the scalping. It's disgusting, repulsive, and Tarantino through and through. The violence isn't symbolic or profound, it's just there for its own sake. Tarantino just tosses it in there because he can, much the same way he dutifully misspells both words in his title and includes a gratuitous scene to indulge his foot fetish. He's built a mythos on redefining the cinematic world through his own willfully immature, defiantly silly point of view, and Lord bless him for it, because I'd take authoritative voice over talent any day of the week, and Tarantino has both.
Every minute of the film seethes with enthusiasm. Is Tarantino is exposing the moral vacancy of war by swapping the Jewish and Nazi roles as unfeeling slaughterers and meek victims? Maybe, but I doubt such thoughts even crossed his mind as he pounded away at this script over the years. This is revisionist history of the highest order, a Sparks Notes version of trivia culled from drug-addled notes scribbled in the margins.
One of the biggest knocks on the movie from the naysayers, other than the usual gripes about Tarantino's vengeance obsession and self-awareness, is that the characters are among his flattest and his dialogue doesn't sing with the jot-it-down-and-repeat it catch-phrasiness of some of his past work. I think I agree, although it hardly wiped the grin off my face. If this is cardboard cutout puppet theater on a street corner, it's good enough to get me to empty my pocket change into the hat. The performances are all excellently tuned for exactly what the story calls for, particularly Brad Pitt's southern-fried Patton-by-way-of-Knute Rockne motivatinal speeches. Eli Roth is no actor, but his stunned oblivion is exactly what loopy Sgt. Donny Donowitz needs. If mustache-twirling Cristoph Waltz doesn't give a best supporting actor worthy performance as Nazi Jew-hunter Hans Landa is, then I'm incapable of identifying such a turn.
But the real star of the movie is Melanie Laurent, undoubtedly Tarantino's new Uma Thurman, as Shoshanna, the wings-plucked manic pixie dream girl who runs her own theater and concocts a masterplan that changes the course of history.
The movie is perfect for what it is, and a hell of a rebound after it seemed the auteur lost a little off the fastball with "Death Proof." I rank "Inglourious Basterds" behind most of his other films, ahead of only "Death Proof" and "Jackie Brown," but it's in the same ballpark as his ingenious classics and by far the best World War II film I've ever seen.
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(The) Uncorked Cellar is an easy-to-use wine database that can help you to organize your wines ...Written by www.zdnet.com
"Congratulations on a 5-star rating. You've done an outstanding job compiling a list of not only wineries, but wines and wine ratings as well.........
(The) Uncorked Cellar is an easy-to-use wine database that can help you to organize your wines, educate you, and possibly create a broader interest in wines of the world.
You can keep multiple cellar files with all the details about your wines, including wineries, labels, vintage, costs, varietals, regions, and tasting notes. Enter data by clicking on picklists, scroll bars, and radio buttons to choose from the extensive collection of Australian, New Zealand, French, English, Canadian, and U.S. wineries. Alphabetized lists let you research producers and see their recent releases, with details about pricing and more.
A summary for many entries describes the wine, and an address pane helps you to contact the producers. The multipaned window lets you see your holdings and search quickly by autofill entry. There are regional maps of wine growing regions, reports of cellar quantities and value, lots of note space, and a colorful maturity graph.
Reports track cellar contents, value, consumption, and balance.
The online help tells you how to use the program and how to care for and enjoy your wines." ... "ZDNet's Software Library"
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Competition entry seeks to restore balance between the built and natural environments
Top international architecture and design firm Perkins Eastman participated in a design competition to transform an empty lot in one of the most visible and historically significant sections of Shanghai into a world class, mixed-use facility comprising gallery and exhibition space for the city’s premiere modern art institution, the Museum of Modern Art (MoCA).
Despite the strong presence of traditional vernacular architecture in the area, the design team chose to create a modern form complementary to its surroundings. The six-storey, 50,000 sq m (538,400 sq ft) building utilizes basic stacking and strong linear axes combined with stone and glass to complement the neighborhood’s scale and context. The simplicity of the structure belies the complex inner workings of a facility designed to integrate high-end retail and office space, a boutique hotel and spa, a restaurant, as well as the exhibition space in a singular form.
By building up, rather than out, designers were able to incorporate water gardens, green walls, and verdant public plazas throughout the site restoring a balance between the natural and built environments in such a heavily frequented area of the city. Designed as a free-standing structure, the site lines surrounding the building are landscaped to create unobstructed green pathways from one end to the other—a tranquil setting in an otherwise busy hub of Shanghai.
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Posted 12 February 2012 - 02:54 PM (#1)
Posted 12 February 2012 - 03:12 PM (#3)
- Just SFTP into the htdocs directory in the first place and put the files there instead. This would save having to do the SSH part of the process.
- Partly similar to the above, change the http server's root directory to the folder you are currently SFTPing the files to.
A lot of IDEs have the option to upload to the server automatically, either on save or when you want to publish, meaning the above options can be made into one click options
- If you are using Git, you could setup a repo on the server as a remote to your local repository. Then have a post receive hook that checks out the latest commit of a certain branch to the htdocs directory. Then, to publish the latest code, you'd do something like
git push liveon your local machine. Edit: Here's a tutorial for this method
Posted 12 February 2012 - 04:09 PM (#5)
I'm on my phone but can't check, but I think the syntax I normally use is
rsync -avz --progress /home/filesyouwanttocopy username@server:/var/www/whatever
Posted 12 February 2012 - 06:15 PM (#7)
Posted 12 February 2012 - 07:14 PM (#8)
Whilst I would usually suggest learning the absolutely correct way first time around, in this case it makes very little sense to spend time setting up or building a deployment path when Git acts a reasonable, albeit not perfect, stand in. Going the fully correct way raises the question: at what point do you stop trying to emulate a large scale (and finance) site and accept that the tools that you already know, such as Git, work well enough for what you're trying to achieve? Do we decide that pushing to a live server is no good and have to fork out for another? Do we decide that we must have staging servers to test stuff out? All of these things cost time and potentially money, both of which small projects have little of. I'd much rather chuck things at a Git remote until I can be sure the project is going to work out; the staging and other servers can then be what you can strive for as they become a necessity.
Therefore it's all about reaching a balance between learning how to build a solid deployment system and actually having enough time to spend on your product. As your site grows, the deployment is relatively easy to replace, but a bad code-base is a lot harder; so I'd prefer to spend time getting the code right than the deployment.
Posted 12 February 2012 - 09:22 PM (#9)
Posted 12 February 2012 - 09:46 PM (#10)
Last time I tried Rsync for deployment to an EC2 instance it kept giving an error (to do with connection I think. Ports were open on security group), which is a shame because I have it working perfectly for linked hourly local backups. I'll give it a another go sometime soon anyway, perhaps I'll have more luck with something non-AWS.
Posted 12 February 2012 - 10:20 PM (#11)
Posted 13 February 2012 - 03:51 PM (#12)
You need to install rsync on the machine you're SSHing into, as well as the one you're running the tool from. The documentation is useless at clarifying that, but you'll get I/O errors if it's not installed on both client and server.
As for scalability, I don't think that even comes into it; it's just good practice and ease of administration and upkeep. Git has its place within any iterative development -> testing -> deployment cycle, but it's essentially a versioning tool. It's impossible to know whether your apps will ever make it big, so you might as well be prepared for whatever comes. I've been caught out in the past...
Posted 13 February 2012 - 05:29 PM (#13)
man rsync [... bunch of lines ...] SETUP [...] Note that rsync must be installed on both the source and destination machines.
my wife has a new DIY/decorations/floristry blog, wanna take a look? (stay tuned for English translations...)
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It's time for another update on Weta's upcoming Rivendell environment from The Lord Of The Rings. We have previously published updates from the artists, designer Daniel Falconer and model maker David Tremont.
While we're making our way through the final sign-offs and the setup at the factory, a few of the crew were sitting around thinking it might be a good idea to figure out exactly what's gone into the making of this amazing miniature.
So, today we spent some time in David Tremont's workshop actually counting the bits. And even after 30 minutes just staring at the piece, we're fairly certain we haven't seen it all. Every time you look there's something new to discover.
It's an incredible body of work, I'm sure you agree:
And if the roof tiles were individual too (as it is, they were made as larger sections) there would be over 24,000 of them.
All created by 14 sculptors, model makers, mold makers, designers and 3D modellers.
All of whom are very proud of the outcome and hope to be able to show it to you soon.
Great and amazing... but price?
I wonder what would be the estimate cost of this HUGE environment,... Read more.
I wonder what would be the estimate cost of this HUGE environment, would be nice to have a glimpse in advance to be able to be prepared, would be a pity to renounce to such a nice art work!!!! Hide.
1 of 1 people found this useful.
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Two wolves killed by state officials were being transported Tuesday to the state wildlife veterinarian in Fairbanks for testing to determine if they were, in fact, the animals that killed a teacher out jogging near Chignik Lake last week, according to the state Department of Fish and Game.
The wolves, shot from a helicopter in the Chignik drainage, matched the descriptions of wolves seen at the site where 32-year-old Candice Berner, a special-education teacher based in Perryville, was attacked and killed March 8 on a remote road outside town, according to Fish and Game.
Alaska State Troopers say evidence at the scene indicated at least two or three wolves were involved in the attack, which left Berner's body partially predated. It has not been made clear how many wolves Fish and Game intends to kill.
Along with troopers and their helicopter, a Fish and Game biologist, Lem Butler, remains in the Alaska Peninsula community seeking out other wolves that may have been involved. Fish and Game spokeswoman Jennifer Yuhas said in an e-mail that Butler reported Tuesday no more wolves had been killed and that he'd come across many types of tracks but none of them belonging to wolves.
The two wolves killed Monday were to be forensically examined by the state wildlife veterinarian, Dr. Kimberlee Beckmen, to determine if they are the animals that killed Berner, Yuhas said.
Beckmen will compare measurements of the wolves' teeth to the bite marks found on Berner's body, she said. Officials also plan to compare DNA from the wolves to samples taken last week from Berner's body.
The wolves will be tested for disease, including distemper and rabies, Yuhas said. The wolves' brains will be sent to the Alaska Virology Laboratory in Fairbanks to be studied for rabies, which attacks the nervous system and is endemic among foxes and sometimes found in wolves in the Chignik Lake area, she said.
"Given the rarity of such incidents, there is some speculation as to the health of the animals involved," Yuhas said.
Villagers in Chignik Lake say they haven't been much consoled by the deaths of just the two wolves.
"There is still more concern," said Virginia Aleck, a village elder. "I don't think it will ever be the same again."
Villagers know there are more than two wolves in the pack and that the caribou and moose they eat are still scarce, Aleck said. Kids continue to be escorted to school, and armed local hunters are still patrolling town watching for wolves, she said.
Chignik Lake is a predominantly Alutiiq fishing village on the Alaska Peninsula, some 475 miles southwest of Anchorage. Its school mascot is the wolf, though locals are considering a change since Berner's death, Aleck said. Villagers have taken down a stuffed wolf that had been in the school lobby, she said.
"A mascot is something you look up to, something heroic," Aleck said. "This guy is not a role model in my heart or in my mind anymore. He took a human life."
Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.
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This week on Veterans Day I took two of my daughters to go run some errands with me. While at lunch Rachael asked, "Daddy, what is Veterans Day "? She only asked that question after I assured her that the school had no prior knowledge of the rain that would fall all day and they did not cancel school preemptively, which she was pretty sure they did.
I struggled to answer the question. It wasn't that I wasn't sure what Veterans Day was, I just knew there would be more questions to come with it, ones I wasn't sure an 8-year old could understand the answers to.
I started by saying, "Honey, today is a day we honor those that fought and are fighting for the American way of life." I told her that her grandfather was a veteran; he fought for our country in Korea.
The next question she asked was, "What do other countries think of America?"
I wondered if that was an easier question to answer when I was a kid, or maybe when my father was a young boy. If there was a time when a father could say to a child, "America is the greatest nation in the world. We fight, when we have to, to preserve freedom and justice in the world, we strive for equality both within our borders and without."
As I think back about what little I know of American history, I don't really know if that was ever the case. We have been both liberators and the ones who enslave; we have been the country that gives and the country that takes. We have been the country with the power to do what we want, how we want.
The best answer I could come up with for her on this day was that some countries don't like us, they don't appreciate the American way of life and that is why we fight.
"What about God?" she asked. I said, "I don't think that God likes war and that it all stems from man's selfishness and disagreements."
I thought at that moment about some parent who may be answering that very same question, telling their child that God is on our side, or another who may tell their child that America deserves what is coming, and that if there is a God and he ever was on our side that he isn't anymore. It made me realize how we use God to back our views and how that must skew a child's view of God and America, how we can so easily make the assumption that God would choose sides and that somehow he always chooses ours.
In typical 8-year old fashion before I could answer the previous question another was coming, "What is the American way of life?" Simple questions, they seemed, with impossible answers. Freedom may have been an answer at one time, but what hath freedom wrought? Capitalism, and what followed is consumerism, then apathy. Power, and with that power we have been the most giving nation in the world, and yet so consumed with ourselves that we don't realize the chasm that grows between the rich and the poor in this country.
What about so many of us in the middle-class who are entrenched in debt and want to blame it on someone else, but know the responsibility is our own for buying into what has become the American dream? The dream of having what your neighbor has and faster than they can get it, the dream of having the latest greatest everything, is that America?
I didn't think me trying to talk to an 8-year old about what I perceive to be an identity crisis of an entire country would make much sense.
The answer I came up with was something like this, "Those brave men and woman who give their lives for something bigger than themselves do so to preserve the American way of life. What is that exactly? I am not sure that anyone knows right now, and it's a debate that may go on forever, but that is exactly what these veterans have given us, the ability to make choices and decide for ourselves to keep having lively, and hopefully civil debate about what we want America to be. What we do with that freedom is our own choice. What we create America to be is only possible because some brave young men and woman still have faith that we will make the right choices and in turn honor them through our American way of life."
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Seventh Generation, a leading company in "responsible cleaning," recently released a new line of household disinfecting products that uses the thymol disinfectant technology developed by CleanWell. According to the manufacturer, the disinfectant products kill over 99.99% of household germs* naturally and are effective against the Influenza A Virus, including H1N1 (*refer to product labels for full details). The products can be used on hard surfaces and are EPA registered.
The disinfectant line includes the following products:
Our thoughts: The essential oils, including thyme and lemongrass, give these products a plant based fragrance. The thyme oil smell is pronounced but not overwhelming. Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to fragrances of cleaning products. I like the natural, herb scent of this new Seventh Generation line. My husband, however, isn't fond of the earthy, botanical smell. (I guess as long as he doesn't have to do the cleaning, he won't complain.) I've used all three products to clean my home, and I'm happy with the results. I used the Multi-Surface Cleaner in my kitchen to spray down the counter and sink area. The Bathroom Cleaner foams up nicely when sprayed on surfaces and didn't leave streaks or film when wiped off with a damp rag. The formula on the wipes tends to create more of a lather than other wipes I've used in the past, but I didn't notice any other differences. What I like most about the products is that they are manufactured by a company that takes environmental responsibility seriously and focuses on safe products for people and the environment.
A paperback book titled The Conscious Kitchen: The New Way to Buy and Cook Food - to Protect the Earth, Improve Your Health, and Eat Deliciously by Alexandra Zissu was also included with our kit. Zissu's new book, just released this March, discusses sustainability and how to implement money saving and environmentally friendly practices in your home, especially when it comes to making choices involving food. She has partnered with Seventh Generation to educate consumers about no compromise solutions to clean their homes and kitchens. I found several of the tips in the book very handy. She covers all sorts of topics from food storage to choosing beer and wine. We're trying to pay more attention to what we consume and implement ways to reduce our ecological footprint. Resources like Zissu's book help us stay on the right path toward a greener life.
If you'd like to try one of the new disinfecting products out, Seventh Generation is currently offering a $1 off coupon on their website. (Must first join the site to access coupons.) Learn more about the products in this YouTube video:
Getting ready for spring cleaning and Earth Day? Win a kit! Thanks to MyBlogSpark and Seventh Generation, one Brimful Curiosities reader will receive a Seventh Generation "Disinfecting Cleaning Kit" that includes a disinfecting multi-surface cleaner, bathroom cleaner, wipes, a copy of The Conscious Kitchen, a cleaning caddy made from recycled plastic, and two rolls of 100% recycled, unbleached paper towels.
To enter, leave a comment with the best thing you´ve done for the environment this year. Or, do you have any plans for Earth Day next week?
• For contact purposes, if you are a non-blogger or your email is not accessible in your blog profile, please leave a valid email address within the comment section.Three ways to gain extra entries (Maximum total entries is 4; please leave a separate comment for each entry):
• Contest is open to US
• Contest ends on Monday, April 26th, 2010 at 11:59 PM CST.
• Winner will be chosen at random and sent an email notification.
1st extra entry: Blog about this contest then post your link in the comment section.
2nd extra entry: Follow me on twitter (iambrimful) and tweet about the contest.
3rd extra entry: Follow Me! or subscribe by email or RSS reader
Seventh Generation provided me with the free product, information, and gift pack through MyBlogSpark for review purposes. I am an Amazon affiliate and may receive a very small commission for products purchased through my Amazon links. (View my full disclosure statement for more information about my reviews.)
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To avoid an unnecessary funding crisis for America's long-standing and successful public support for agricultural exports, members of the Coalition to Promote U.S. Agricultural Exports strongly urged U.S. House of Representatives' leadership to take action this year on a new five-year Farm Bill in a letter dated Nov. 2.
"With the expiration of the 2008 Farm Bill on Sept. 30, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) currently has no authority to run market promotion and development programs including the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) for fiscal year 2013," the organizations said in their letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner (Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.).
The farm families and small- to medium-size businesses that foot the bill for 60 percent of export development depend on MAP and FMD to conduct export activities they cannot do by themselves. And with a forecast value in fiscal year 2012 of $136.5 billion, agricultural exports are a vital part of the U.S. economic engine. However, federal funds for these programs will end early in 2013 for many organizations that have already started cancelling or reducing activities. The American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) participates in FMD, MAP and other FAS programs, all essential to the marketing of U.S. wool to international markets.
By any measure, MAP and FMD have been tremendously successful and extremely cost-effective. Coalition members cited a recent study by IHS Global Insight, commissioned by USDA, which found U.S. food and agricultural exports increased by $35 for every additional $1 invested by government and industry on market development from 2002 to 2009. The study also found that increased overseas demand over the same period helped reduce U.S. domestic farm support payments by about $54 million annually.
Without funding for these programs, Russia, China, the European Union, Argentina, Brazil, Australia and many other countries will quickly gain a competitive edge in growing overseas markets, coalition members said. In order to continue to be competitive internationally, American agriculture needs the long-term certainty provided by enactment of a new five-year Farm Bill.
The Coalition to Promote U.S. Agricultural Exports is an ad hoc coalition of organizations representing farmers and ranchers, fishermen and forest product producers, cooperatives, small businesses, regional trade organizations and the state departments of agriculture. The American Sheep Industry Association is a member of this coalition.
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Thousands of patients are waiting in agony because health bosses have cancelled their operations, leaders of Britain’s surgeons have revealed.
Patients are being denied new hips, weight loss operations or even cancer treatment because of NHS cost cutting.
The increased rationing is because NHS primary care trusts are ignoring evidence about the effectiveness of certain treatments. They want to balance their books before the Tories’ health bill abolishes them.
The revelation comes as research shows that a key target to ensure patients are treated within 18 weeks has been missed for the first time—leaving almost 30,000 patients waiting longer.
Waiting lists lengthened over the winter as trusts cancelled operations to care for critically ill flu patients. They are likely to increase further as health authorities attempt to make “efficiency savings” of £20 billion over the next four years.
Waiting times in A&E have increased by 63 percent over the past year while more than half of 10,000 planned job cuts are said to be hitting doctors, nurses and midwives.
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21 June, 2011, 07:08 AM
Apple and iCloud
New deal for iCloud: Developer: Apple strikes universal music deal for iCloud - CIOL News Reports
Can anyone let me know, Why Apple uses the letter "i" before almost all its services and devices?
21 June, 2011, 16:45 PM
The "i" was primarily meant to represent the "internet", emphasizing the first iMac's ability to connect to the internet, but the guy who says he invented the name says it can stand for many other things like innovation, intelligence etc. It was successful on the iMac, and so they started applying it to other devices for consistency, which resulted in it being a de-facto brand associated with Apple, which in branding is apparently a good thing. It's also good cause it allows them to have brands which are so close to generic words, yet aren't.
I guess iCloud can simply stand for "Internet Cloud", however redundant that may be.
22 July, 2011, 10:20 AM
Is there any real use of the iCloud. It sells just because of that Apple logo which comes with it..... windows had the azure first
23 July, 2011, 01:25 AM
Well, the iCloud wont be active until this fall so right now nobody is using it. According to Apple's plans though, it will be present and supported on all Apple devices, and allow access to your files on each of those devices. If you also buy a song on iTunes it will be accessible to all your Apple devices (if you have more of them). I think it might get more use than Azure (of which I barely even heard to be honest) simply because of how integrated it will be across Apple's eco-system.
4 January, 2012, 10:54 AM
One great fact about the iCloud is that anything purchased from iTunes is excluded from the storage limit. The most desirable of those being the fact that any gadget that has an internet connection and a web browser can have quick.
5 January, 2012, 06:27 AM
Yes, I means Internet or it's shows look like a logo.
25 May, 2012, 11:24 AM
"I" is not internet. As we know that apple always launch its individual launch. that's why "i=individual" product of apple.
like iPhone,iPod, and iMac etc
10 June, 2012, 07:03 AM
iCloud + added iTunes functionality saved me "Momma pain" when getting her new U.S. phone back up to the equivalent of what she had on the German phone after our recent move. Fairly painless and free.
I'm surprised Apple hasn't been able to successfully patent the letter "I" though
Tags for this Thread
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Reprinted from: http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8674502
Spunky was our first dog to need major surgery. We created our 1st fundraiser for her and though the generousity of many people, the majority of her medical expenses were paid with those funds. Since that time in July of 2008 we have financed other amputaions, orthopedic surgeries 20 heartworm treatments, with several waiting on the list for funds and many other diseases and cases of neglect.
Thank you to all for helping us help the helpless
Her new name is "Spunky."
"She's really outgoing and has a lot of personality," said Dr. Tracy Gullett of Northgate Animal Hospital in Memphis.
Spunky is a puppy who may have saved her life by chewing off her own leg.
"I'm sure she was in a lot of pain," said Gullett. "You wouldn't have known it by the way she acted."
Spunky was one of several pets abandoned by former tenants of a house in Frayser when they bolted.
"I'm a grown man, but I wanted to cry about the situation," said landlord Richard Arendale.
Arendale found Spunky in the back-yard, on the brink of death. He says a cord tied to a tree had gotten tightly tangled around her leg.
"And the leg was either chewed off or rotted off," said Arendale. "And the dog was just back there starving, you know?"
He believes her former owners may have been crack heads.
"When they came in, they stole the air conditioners and a bunch of stuff," said Arendale.
He says their pets were their last priority.
"We see it all the time," said Dr. Gullett. "People leave their animals behind like they're part of the fixtures."
Gullett removed what was left of Spunky's leg.
"We cut it off mid-femur, just above the knee," she said.
The severely infected area is now healing and Spunky is back on her feet.
"Spunky, I think, is going to do really good," said Linda Sutphin with "Dogs 2nd Chance."
The rescue group is now working to find Spunky a new home and teach other owners a lesson.
"It's a lot of people now, with the economy the way it is, that are leaving dogs everywhere," said Sutphin.
Spunky got lucky.
"And she'll get around wonderfully on three legs," said Dr. Gullett.
That's something already becoming second nature for Spunky.
Spunky was adopted by a wonderful couple and has a playful Heeler sister.
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Three years ago, Microsoft unveiled Live OneCare, the corporations first attempt at entering the billion-dollar market for software to protect Windows PCs. It tanked as a paid subscription service, which offered users a free 90 day trial period before forcing them to activate the product and begin paying annual fees.
The service was criticized for being unable to detect a significant number of threats, with one site ranking the service dead last among a comparison of 17 anti-virus services. Last spring, Microsoft acquired Komoku and merged its computer security software in the OneCare service.
Now, the company hopes to provide a stripped-down version of the product for free in order to counter the issue of viruses, spyware, rootkits, and trojan malware that plagues the company's software platform, a problem Apple has regularly cited in its advertisements as a reason to "Get a Mac."
Amy Barzdukas, the senior director of product management for Microsoft's online services stated, "this new, no-cost offering will give us the ability to protect an even greater number of consumers, especially in markets where the growth of new PC purchases is outpaced only by the growth of malware."
Symantec and McAfee are experiencing strong growth trends and have for years, despite the availability of software like Microsofts OneCare and other free alternatives. However, with Microsoft bundling a free version of its anti-virus service with Windows on PCs before they hit the shelf, consumers will have fewer reasons to look for paid anti-virus services or other free alternatives.
That might likely result in the collapse of a viable commercial market for delivering Windows malware tools, eventually giving the company the ability to charge for the product it could not successfully sell in the presence of competition. Both Symantec and McAfee cried foul over changes Microsoft made to secure Vista which they worried would impact their business. However, both companies are now expressing official confidence that the new Morro won't affect their sales, even as the announcement caused dips in their stock.
The two companies also just settled a complaint that claimed they had "renewed software subscriptions without customers' knowledge or authorization" according to an article published by Reuters citing New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Reuters reported that under the terms of the settlement "both companies will make detailed disclosures to consumers about subscription terms and renewal policies, and each company will pay $375,000 in penalties and costs."
Anti-virus vendors have recently eyed growth in the Mac platform as a potential opportunity for expanding outside of Windows, but the lack of any significant malware threats and the problems associated with installing third party security services has largely kept Apple's customers out of reach. Apple bundled McAfee's Virux tool with its .Mac service until the flood of complaints from users resulted in the buggy, performance sapping product being pulled.
Leading Mac security experts, including CanSecWest winner Charlie Miller, have recommended against installing extra security software on the Mac due to the cost and performance overhead it eats up. "I dont think it protects me as well as it says," Miller told Computerworld in an interview. "If I was worried about attacks, I would use it, but Im not worried."
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| 0.956489 | 651 | 1.640625 | 2 |
It is not an uncommon situation. You are reading an interesting article online about some matter of recent religious controversy, but upon reaching the end of the piece you meet the comments area, and try to resist the temptation to scroll further down the page. How many times have you perused such sections before finding yourself infuriated by the base anti-Catholic bigotry you find there?
Still worse, how often have you found your time irretrievably wasted, as you are sucked into futile disputation with secularist trolls who, in the famous words of Churchill, “can’t change their minds, and won’t change the subject”? Like glancing at a car-crash, however, the curiosity can be too great to resist, and you begin to read on…
This experience is hardly atypical for the average Catholic reading online, but it has even become unsurprising to experience similar situations when having a drink in the pub, or while at an otherwise genteel dinner party. Where we are called to defend and expound our Faith in these situations however, we must do so in a constructive way that raises the standard and tone of discussion.
It is regrettable, then, that experience shows us how often Catholics fail to do this effectively. As an illustrative remedy for some of the more common mistakes in this endeavour, here are five brief tips on how not to argue with atheists.
1) Cynically assume the worst in people. Before speaking, or touching that keyboard, imagine your opponent to be an irredeemable ogre, whatever they may have said. Don’t charitably assume they are simply misinformed, or look for the good motivations they may have in arguing as they do. At a false accusation of “homophobia”, don’t try to understand the positive impetus behind this error (genuine concern about abuse and hatred), and refrain from showing how the Church teaches compassion and care for those who experience same-sex attraction – you may help to defuse anger rather than fuel it!
2) Argue as a means of venting emotion. When someone says or writes something shocking or offensive to Catholic piety, our natural reaction is to get angry. Indulge that. Try to forget any Christian goal of defending or expounding the Faith. That will only get in the way of fun. Instead, be determined to show how stupid your opponent is, and punish their ignorance and prejudice with counter-abuse. To be scrupulously gentle and reverent at all times is just far too hard. Of course it could be that, even if someone does not remember your arguments, they may remember what a model of virtue and decency you were in arguing, which might be a good witness that may help them later on – but such considerations should not get in the way of a good bout of rock throwing.
3) Don’t call out bad behaviour, mirror it! If someone is unnecessarily rude or vulgar, feel justified in returning like with like. That “turn the other cheek” stuff is far too high a standard. Simply pointing out your interlocutor’s unkindness (and how it hinders discussion) would be too laborious. And sticking to the substantive arguments that have been produced? What are you,
a robot? Think of our Lord’s response to the liars who accused Him, and the guard who hit Him, in front of the Sanhedrin. What was His answer to calumny and abuse? Well, we all know how that worked out.
It might be that following His example would accentuate the irrational meanness of the person you are engaging with (to themselves and anyone around watching your discourse) and even shame them into changing their behaviour. Don’t worry about all that, though.
4) Adopt the martyr complex. Few things are as convincing as arguing with someone who thinks your ideas will lead inexorably to a new totalitarian regime, or who believe themselves to be “persecuted”. Does this come across as hysterical, and make that person look silly? Of course not. So don’t forget to break out the comparisons with Hitler or Stalin, and be sure to moan about how hard done by Christians are (especially with comparison to Muslims). This is bound to win you lots of sympathy, and isn’t at all clichéd. Not even a bit. No.
5) For heaven’s sake, don’t Pray. Surely an obvious point. Praying before you interact with people, and asking God to give you the words He would have you say, and the sharp but loving mindset He would have you adopt, is just a massive spoiler. So, indeed, is praying for your opponent, that their minds and hearts might be opened, and that your conversation with them might be helpful. Prayer is lethal to good squabbling – so cut it out!
In reality, tailoring our words and our tone to the highest common denominator of human sentiment may not convince the people with whom we are immediately interacting, but may at least begin to win the hearts and minds of any bystanders who are watching. Focusing on how we can best practise the spiritual works of mercy (especially instructing the uninformed, counselling the doubtful, and bearing wrongs patiently) in our arguments with atheists will help us minister to our opponents in the most effective way. In doing so, and in witnessing to the truth of our Faith, humbly, gently and respectfully, we may truly witness to the virtue, as well as the rationality, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Peter D Williams is a Catholic apologist and speaker for Catholic Voices
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What if...Washington and his men got lost half way across the Delaware River. Being men, they were too proud to ask for direction, and made a fateful right turn. By daylight, they had been swept into the Atlantic by the swift current.
Stop busting my chops, Andrew. I didn't see YOU try to walk on the water. And who's this man with the tri-point hat?
Men! Before the ship went down I ran back and grabbed this Bible! I want to read something to encourage all of us! Listen up! ...oh, it's Cruden's Concordance...hmmm....anyone for a game of twenty questions?
The crew was starting to think that there might have been some validity to Stanley's credobaptistic views until the day that he threw the case of rum overboard.
Captain: Look sharp men, thats an Arminian vessel!First Mate: How can you tell Sir?Captain: Because, its a little dingy.
Well, guys...I forgot the map...who wants a twinkie?
The skipper encouraged his "loaded to the gunwales" and "groggy" jacks to set sail since they were "Three sheets to the wind" with only two masts!
Somehow I just know this is all Gilligan's fault.
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Call him Super Volunteer. By night, Robert Zagorski is a medical technologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. By day, he spends most of his time—up to 250 days a year—helping nonprofits. He gets by during the week with “power naps,” often in his car between volunteer assignments, and stays home Saturday nights to recover. “If you do good, you feel good,” Zagorski says.
One of his causes is Higher Achievement, an after-school and summer academic program for middle-school youth in at-risk communities. On average, 95 percent of children who complete the program advance to top academic high schools, and 93 percent go on to college.
The kids call him Mr. Robert. When he teaches them literature, he gives them tough love along with grammar instruction. He also takes them shopping, stressing the importance of budgeting. It’s a subject Zagorski knows well—last year, he taught 24 classes in finance and economic literacy for elementary- and high-schoolers as a volunteer for Junior Achievement of Greater Washington.
Named volunteer of the year in 2009 and 2012 by HandsOn Greater DC Cares, Zagorski has engaged in nearly every project that group operates. He’s worked with DC Central Kitchen and the Capital Area Food Bank, visited residents at the Washington Home & Community Hospices, and mentored Special Olympics athletes. When Higher Achievement asks its scholars to help out in the community, Zagorski is one mentor who always shows up, says Matt Thornton, director of volunteer management.
Zagorski finished his 12 years of active military service in Washington, and he still identifies with soldiers, says his Walter Reed supervisor, Regina Van Brakle, who nominated him for the HandsOn Greater DC Cares honor in 2009. Zagorski takes over shifts at the medical center during holidays so soldiers can be home with their families.
Says Zagorski: “There are 300 million Americans. If 150 million volunteered once a week, think of the parks we could restore, the houses we could build.”
This article appears in the January 2012 issue of The Washingtonian.
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EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
Today's Top News
Declaring Victory, Going Home
Decades ago, while a callow young reporter, I noted favorably that "the
late, great Senator George Aiken" had once famously and wisely offered a
solution to America's Vietnam quagmire: "Declare victory and go home."
I was wrong on two counts: first, what Aiken - a conservative Republican who was Vermont's Senator from 1941 to 1975 - actually said was, "the United States could well declare unilaterally ... that we have 'won' in the sense that our armed forces are in control of most of the field and no potential enemy is in a position to establish its authority over South Vietnam." He added that such a declaration "would herald the resumption of political warfare as the dominant theme in Vietnam.... It may be a far-fetched proposal, but nothing else has worked."
And second, far from being 'late," Aiken was still alive... A few days later, I was greatly chagrined to receive a note thanking me for remembering him while gently pointing out that he was "not dead yet!"
I was reminded of the incident this week, when Colonel Timothy R. Reese, a senior American military adviser in Baghdad, concluded, in what the putative Paper of Record termed "an unusually blunt memo" wisely offering a solution to America's Iraq quagmire, that it is time "for the U.S. to declare victory and go home."
Unlike Senator Aiken, Colonel Reese's conclusion is late--but better late than never. It comes at a time when American combat troops have just met a deadline to withdraw from Iraq's cities -- supposedly the first step toward assuming an "advisory role." His memo "details Iraqi military weaknesses in scathing language, including corruption, poor management and the inability to resist Shiite political pressure," the New York Times noted. Reese argued that extending the American military presence beyond August 2010 would do little to help the situation. "As the old saying goes, 'Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days,' " he wrote. "Since the signing of the 2009 Security Agreement, we are guests in Iraq, and after six years in Iraq, we now smell bad to the Iraqi nose."
Unfortunately, while some military officers do endorse Reese's assessment, despite the stench his superiors - including General Ray Odierno, the senior American commander in Iraq and his Commander in Chief, Barack Obama - apparently do not. A spokeswoman for Odierno told the Times that the memo did not reflect the official stance of the United States military, and American forces are now slated to stay in Iraq for years.
Why should we listen to Colonel Reese and not General Odierno or President Obama? Perhaps because he served as the director of the Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth, the Army's premier intellectual center - or perhaps because he wrote an official Army history of the Iraq war. But Odierno and Obama plan to ignore him. Instead, they will keep the approximately 130,000 American forces in Iraq at least until the national elections in January. Even after that, 50,000 troops will remain there, including six brigades whose "primary role' will be to advise and train Iraqi troops. (Oh, I get it - they won't be combat troops, they will just be military "advisers." Hmmm...that sounds very familiar -where have I heard it before?)
Other experts, like Stephen Biddle, a former adviser to General David Petraeus, disagree with Reese and say we should pull out troops even more slowly. After all, "U.S. leverage is a function of U.S. presence," as Biddle wrote in a recent paper. And Iraq's prime minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki indicated during a recent appearance at the United States Institute of Peace that he foresees a possible role for American forces even after the current December 2011 deadline for the removal of all American troops!
Colonel Reese argues instead that all American forces should withdraw by August 2010, pointing out, "If there ever was a window where the seeds of a professional military culture could have been implanted, it is now long past. U.S. combat forces will not be here long enough or with sufficient influence to change it."
So who's right -- the military and political forces that want to prolong our long national nightmare in Iraq as a means of extending American presence and leverage there, or the expert analyst who literally wrote the book on the U.S. Army's history in Iraq?
Colonel Reese - and the now late, but still great Senator Aiken -- had it right. Out Now!
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THE SAGELY CITY OF TEN THOUSAND BUDDHAS
ENERGIES FOR PEACE
Dharma Talk by Ch'an Master Hsuan Hua
Introduction by former Bhikshuni Heng Yln (Loni Baur)
From the January 1976 issue of Vajra Bodhi Sea
On Sunday, February 15, the Master and the Gold Mountain Sangha headed for Santa Clara where Upasaka Kuo Wei Eriich and his sister Kuo Chung had invited us to speak in Central Park. Kuo Chung and her friends had been up all night, baking for the lunch, and the rotunda was filled with young people, eager to hear the Dharma.
When we arrived, the sky was heavy laden with clouds, and a light mist had just let up. After lunch, the assembly recited the Incense Offering, the Great Compassion Mantra, and circumambulated the makeshift altar reciting the Bodhisattva Kuan Yin's name. The Sangha gave short instructional talks.
Kuo Wei respectfully requested the Master to speak. As he spoke, the clouds rolled back and the sun timidly broke through. Birds began to circle curiously. Gathering on the wires atop the rotunda; they chattered and pecked, but were generally well behaved. The Master spoke to the unasked questions in our hearts. He talked about killing and violence, respect for life and compassion. He told us the only way to bring peace to the world was to bring peace to our own minds. More people joined the crowd. Adults and children, looking serious, now smiling began to draw closer, straining to hear the Master's words over the light breeze.
Then I noticed the sky was a clear, deep blue, with only a layer of fluffy white clouds resting lightly on the distant mountains all around the valley. After the last translation, everyone was silent, as if waiting, waiting to hear more. I glanced up and was struck by the image: the listeners kneeling, standing, sitting, all with bright sun shining on their smiling, attentive faces; overhead, the birds, and in the distance blue sky and white clouds.
The text of the Master's speech was as follows:
"To be here in this park speaking Dharma is an inconceivable event, especially so because it has not rained today. This is probably because all of you have causes and conditions, which have brought you together here today to look into the Buddhadharma. So on this fine day with such fair weather we have come to investigate the Buddhadharma in this delightful place.
"It is a very dangerous time in the world nowadays--when you wake up in the morning, you have no idea what to expect by the time evening rolls around. Some places have storm disasters some places have earthquakes. Here in this peaceful country, we investigate the Buddhadharma and don't have to be frightened or worried about such accidents. This shows that we are people who have affinities with the Buddha. Originally this world was very peaceful, but because people's minds were not peaceful, the dangers grew day by day. In the very beginning, this world's wars were conducted by using earth to fight. How was that done? In the beginning there were no knives, spears, swords, or lances nor were there any bombs or guns. At that time people were compatible with each other. Later people became greedy and decided that the world was not able to hold anyone else but themselves. This led to war. The wars at that time were fought with hands, fists, and feet. "You hit me with your fist, so I will kick you with my foot." Whoever had the most strength was able to defeat the other. This use of hands and feet in combat is called using earth to fight.
"You can see that the birds here in this park still are using earth to fight. 'You flap me with your wing and I will peck you with my beak.' Why do they do it? Because they are fighting for things to eat. People are more or less like these feathered creatures. It is also because they want to get things to eat and to derive profit and benefit for themselves that they fight among themselves.
"The first, then, is using earth to fight. After earth was used to fight, there were those who tried to think of a way--'How can I win? What method can I use? Good. There are trees,' and they took a tree or a stalk of bamboo--a very long one, thinking, 'You use your fists and feet to beat me, so I will use this stick which is longer than your reach and then I can beat you until it hurts. That way I won't get hurt.' This is called using wood to fight. Wood overcomes earth. Wood wins the battle against earth. Today I am just explaining this in the simplest way because there will not be time to go into detail.
"The long sticks used in battles with wood set some people thinking again. It was the muddled among the intelligent who thought and thought-- 'What method can I use to render your long sticks useless? What can I do to defeat you?' They thought and thought and even had dreams about it. Eventually they came up with iron. 'Oh!...if I put a piece of iron on the end of a stick...I can put a stop to your sticks. I can destroy them.' So they put iron on the ends of the sticks and came up knives, spears, swords, and lances, eighteen kinds of military weapons, and all sorts of things. At that point the simple sticks were of no further use. Adding the iron is called using metal to fight. Metal overcomes wood; wood overcomes earth, and metal then overcomes wood.
"This set people to thinking again. 'You have knives, spears, swords, and lances. What plan can I devise that will make those things obsolete?' Once again there were the stupid among the intelligent who invented guns. At first it was guns and canons and the like. Now there are machine guns and hand grenades. What is this? It is using fire to fight. Fire destroyed the iron. Fire overcomes metal.
"Each kind of fighting prevailed for a thousand years. Then there would be a change, and that particular kind of fighting would be outmoded. Fire overcame metal, and at present we have reached the point of using water to fight. So there are atom bombs and hydrogen bombs. These things use the breakdown of water through scientific methods to kill people. Fire was thus defeated. 'Your machine guns and pistols only have a range of a few miles, but using water to fight I can reach several million miles away--clear beyond this world.' At present, for instance, we on earth have reached the moon. These various discoveries have led us into the period of using water to wage wars.
"This period of time is a very dangerous one. If we want peace, how are we to achieve it? This is a real problem. There is no other way but to destroy your own thoughts of killing. You who study the Buddhadharma are merely returning to the element of earth. When you return to the earth, the earth can put an end to the use of water to fight. But when earth subdues water in this way, it is not through battle. Our belief in the Buddha represents earth.
Belief in the Buddha is the level earth. You who believe in the Buddha must not want to kill, steal, or take intoxicants. You put a stop to greed, hatred, and stupidity, and diligently cultivate precepts, samadhi, and wisdom. So now we want to concentrate on making the world peaceful. No one should be greedy. No one should kill. No one should be hateful. No one should be stupid. These various kinds of battles are the result of muddled people inventing weapons to kill other people. This will quickly lead to the extinction of mankind. In the end we will all be annihilated if we keep thinking up new kinds of weapons to kill each other.
If you want the world to be peaceful, it is simply a matter of everyone's not harboring thoughts of killing. Do not kill, do not steal, do not commit sexual misconduct, do not lie, and do not take intoxicants. If you can seriously hold to the five precepts, then this world will certainly be peaceful.
"Today I have given a very simple explanation of an extremely important principle: if people can hold the five precepts and not kill, this world will be peaceful. Therefore it is said:
The pots of stew simmered over hundreds of thousands of years
Have brewed oceans of deep resentment, boiling over into uncontained hate.
If you want to know the reason for the disaster of weapons and troops,
Try listening at the slaughterhouse door to the haunting midnight cries.
If you can understand this verse and refrain from taking life, then this world will very quickly become peaceful. Why is it still not at peace? Because you have not put a stop to your thoughts of killing. One person stops and one person is peaceful. Ten people stop and ten people are peaceful. A hundred people stop and a hundred people are peaceful. A thousand people stop and a thousand people are peaceful. Ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million, a billion people stop their thoughts of killing and the world becomes peaceful. The reason the world is not at peace is because people have not gotten rid of their greed, hatred, and stupidity. If you want the world to be peaceful, you definitely have to stop killing.
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| 0.974756 | 1,988 | 1.6875 | 2 |
Sweatshop Operators Plead Guilty to Forced Slavery Charges
Last August, state and federal agents raided a garment-factory sweatshop in Los Angeles and found 72 Thai immigrants confined to a compound ringed with razor wire and spiked fences. On Friday, seven operators pleaded guilty to violating federal civil rights laws. The immigrants were told that they had to repay the cost of their transportation to Thailand. They were threatened with beatings and made only $2 a day.
The operators will be sentenced in April or May.
Media Resources: Reuters - February 11, 1996
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It seems like nearly every day, I go to a popular website and see examples of how not to design a site. And the number one no-no that all of these highly-trafficked sites commit is that their designs have too much thoughtless clutter.
The worst case is when a seemingly clean site has a random patch of cluttery buttons in the corner somewhere. I took this screenshot yesterday of a popular dictionary site.
Apparently the makers of the site decided to cram as many social networking site buttons into the upper-right corner of the webpage, in hopes of getting attention on social sites.
Would you click on any of those buttons? I know I wouldn’t. Aside from placing those buttons in the last place they’ll be seen on the site, they just add clutter. The buttons have effectively taken attention away from the core section of the site (the definitions and dictionary look-up), and are digitally waving their hands and screaming “look at me! look at me!” in the nose-bleed section of the layout. I think it’s safe to assume that those buttons have a really, really low click-through ratio.
If I was going to use one of these buttons, I’d have to take about 20 minutes to scan through all the buttons just to find the bookmarking service I wanted. Also, the buttons feel like they were hastily added, as an afterthought. It’s as if some big-wig in the company read about social networking in the newspaper the night before, burst into the designer’s cubicle and demanded the designer increase their “social media whatchamacallit” NOW.
Would I Click This?
Every element should pass the “would I click on this?” test. When I’m laying out a design and want to add something (like a button or a link) outside of the content, I always ask myself if I would click on it as a visitor. If I won’t, then visitors probably won’t either.
Every ounce of space is precious. When you have a great minimal design like Unclutterer has, every tiny thing you add to the layout is going to be seen. Especially if the element is added thoughtfully and tastefully.
Take Unclutterer’s new “Subscribe on Twitter” link. Erin mentioned yesterday that the Unclutterer Twitter account had received a ton of new followers last week, probably due to the recent addition of a simple link and button to the sidebar. Compare these two implementations and ask yourself which you would rather click on:
When it comes to design, every bit, every piece, every ounce must be weighed and thought through. Adding even a tiny thing dilutes the rest of the design, but if added carefully and thoughtfully, can actually enhance the overall design.
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Most Active Stories
Fri February 17, 2006
N.C. Community Colleges Give Back Funds
By Catherine M. Welch
Wilmington, NC – The North Carolina Community College system controls funds earmarked for community colleges.
In a process called "reversion" the system calls back a certain percentage to help it make up shortfalls.
This fiscal year, all 58 community colleges have been asked to return 1% of their budget, and now they're being asked to return another .5%.
Kennan Briggs is Vice President for Business and Finance for the North Carolina Community College System. He says the system is getting squeezed between mandatory waivers and rising tuition.
So every time the rates increase, we're writing off a significant number of those dollars as waivers. Then we get out of balance between budget and actual. And so this has been an increasing problem for us the last several years exacerbated by rather large tuition increases.
Briggs says the 1.5% returned this year will generate $9.9 million.
When the fiscal year ends in June, Cape Fear Community College will have returned $310,000, Brunswick Community College $79,000 and Robeson Community College nearly $195,000.
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| 0.941508 | 247 | 1.78125 | 2 |
Our Access to Higher Education (HE) programmes are designed for people who would like to study in HE but who left school without the usual qualifications, such as A Levels, preparing you for study at HE level.
You'll be taught study skills - learning how to approach study and the different techniques that you'll need to be a successful student. The whole package of units will have been designed to ensure that you're thoroughly equipped for studying at university.
Many people are nervous when they start an Access to HE course, particularly if they haven't been in a classroom for some time. Tutors are aware of this and take it into account in their teaching: you won't be 'thrown in at the deep end' or tested on things which you forgot years ago.
Though you can expect the course to be challenging, the whole purpose of an Access to HE course is to help you to be successful. The Access to HE course will help you to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence you need to prepare you for university, without any assumptions about what you may have done in the past.
We also offer a Pre-Access course which focuses on academic skills to enable learners to progress to Access courses.
Take a look at our full time courses in this area below or view part time courses here.
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There are so many (millions?) of recipes contained within my cherished cookbooks, it’s difficult to choose which to feature here. I don’t want to focus solely on “unfortunate” combinations of ingredients, but at the same time I don’t often remember to photograph those I do make. What to do? Well, today concludes the first week of the London Games, so let’s return to the London-published Cookery For Girls (19550, 1955). There are a number of recipes in here that I look forward to testing, but let’s start with one that will use up my last 2 eggs.
Queen of Puddings
½ pint milk
1 oz. butter
1 teacup breadcrumbs
grated rind of 1 lemon
1 oz. sugar
Heat oven. Grease pie-dish. Crumble bread into bowl and add sugar. Warm milk and butter and pour over bread. Soak 10 minutes. Separate yolks and whites, having whites on a plate. Add yolk to mixture in bowl. Mix all ingredients together and pour into pie dish. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F) for ½ hour. Remove from oven and spread top with jam. Beat whites stiffly, fold in 4 ozs. castor sugar, pile meringue on top of pudding. Bake slowly till meringue is pale brown.
Note that the meringue is made with 4 ozs. of sugar which goes unmentioned in the list of ingredients. Also, that a “teacup” of breadcrumbs is somewhat arbitrary, but approximately 6 fluid ounces. I used a ½ cup measure for this preparation. In addition, the reader has to flip to page 17 to determine what a “moderate” oven temperature is, but I’ve included that rather necessary bit of information for you inline with the directions. As for spreading the top with jam: I used about ¼ cup for a thin, but flavorful, layer. Apply while the pudding is still warm enough to melt the jam for an even layer. “Bake slowly until pale brown” took about 20 minutes at 350° at this mile-high altitude.
Result: I quote the boyfriend as saying, “This is damn tasty.” He also made some pun on “Queen,” but that was 12 hours ago and my memory isn’t that good. My notes for repeating this recipe: less sugar in the meringue, and maybe a smaller-in-diameter baking dish to lend a deeper structure to the finished dessert. Maybe it’s supposed to rise, but maybe not. This one didn’t, and looks shallow.
Go forth and bakeify!
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kjv@Deuteronomy:6:1@ Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:
kjv@Deuteronomy:6:2@ That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
kjv@Deuteronomy:6:3@ Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
kjv@Deuteronomy:6:7@ And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
kjv@Deuteronomy:6:8@ And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
kjv@Deuteronomy:6:10@ And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
kjv@Deuteronomy:6:11@ And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
kjv@Deuteronomy:6:12@ Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
kjv@Deuteronomy:6:17@ Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee.
kjv@Deuteronomy:6:18@ And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers,
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In the UK, the National Centre for Domestic Violence has launched a new campaign focusing on men who are the victims of domestic violence. Sounds great, right? The fact that, while women are mostly the victims of intimate partner violence, they are not the only victims of intimate partner violence, is still an issue not discussed very frequently in mainstream culture, so increased visibility for the issue is certainly a good thing.
The problem is, I’m not so sure about the way they’re approaching the campaign. Ideally, I’d love for you to see the image on your own without my prior description, but it could be considered not safe for work. For that reason, I’m placing it below the jump, and am reproducing this description for you to make a call about whether to click through or scroll down:
The campaign, created by JWT London, focuses on the embarrassment experienced by men who often feel too ashamed to report the abuse they have suffered.
This is shown through a provocative image of an emasculated man who appears to have no genitalia.
The image, which was shot by renowned photographer Nadav Kander, is accompanied by the headline ‘We know how it feels to be a victim of male domestic violence’, and directs sufferers to the centre’s website.
The new campaign has been launched following research showing that approximately four million men are affected by domestic violence each year.
Dr Steve Connor, chief executive of the NCDV, said: “As a man, it can be difficult to admit that you are being abused, and many men may feel ashamed, embarrassed or worried that they may be considered less of a man by speaking out against their abusers.
Now, the image itself:
The text on the poster reads: We know how it feels to be a male victim of domestic violence. As a man, telling somebody that your partner is abusing you is difficult. You might feel ashamed, embarrassed, or worried you’ll be viewed as less of a man. But for all victims of domestic abuse, the advice is the same, you are not alone and there is help available.
The campaign doesn’t quite sit right with me for numerous reasons, and I want to explore the several ways I’ve tried looking at this ad below.
My immediate, unfiltered thoughts upon viewing this image with no prior description of it went like this: “that’s a man with a vulva. So, being a male victim of domestic violence is … like being a trans man, WHAT?“
Of course, I then read the accompanying article, and saw the man described as having “no genitals.” I looked more closely and saw that what is actually just a shadow my brain had initially interpreted as labia, likely because labia are not only presented to us in popular culture as very small and hairless, but also because it is ingrained in our culture that if one does not have a penis, one must have a vulva instead.
Certainly, this initial reaction reveals some of my own implicit and subconscious biases. There is no way around that. But I also find it very difficult to believe that — in a world where vulvae are now pretty much always represented as hairless and tiny, where “vagina” is seen as the opposite of “penis,” where everyone is always assumed to have at least and only one of those body parts, and where a penis has been historically construed as something while a vulva has been construed as a lack of something — I am the only one who has subconsciously absorbed those biases and will, casually glancing at this ad as they pass by, see a man with a vulva. Of course, since trans* bodies are regularly treated as nonexistent, and since one’s genitals are regularly treated as indicative of one’s sex and gender, most of those people wouldn’t interpret the image as being of a trans man, but as being of “a man that’s actually a woman.”
Obviously, that interpretation would be incredibly transphobic. Since the image is supposed to represent how a male victim of domestic violence feels, that interpretation would also create the incredibly misogynistic message that being a male victim of domestic violence is like being a woman.
But let’s put my careless first glance at the image aside, and assume that everyone will see the man and perceive him seemingly as intended — not has having a vulva, but as having no genitals. Where does that leave us?
Again, in a cissexist world where men are always assumed to have penises, most aren’t going to truly see a man with no genitalia as “a man with no genitals,” but rather as “a man with no penis.” (Indeed, this article has been posted to Twitter numerous times as “If you’re a domestically abused male, you may not have a penis.”) This still retains the transphobic and gender essentialist idea that a penis equals manhood, even though plenty of men, including some trans men, intersex men, cancer surviving men, and more, do not have penises (or what most people narrowly consider to be a penis) and are still men. And again, when a vulva is still frequently interpreted culturally as the lack of a penis (and vulvae are associated with womanhood), the misogynistic message isn’t so far off, either.
Looking away from the actual genitals or lack thereof, what the image is supposed to symbolize is also problematic. The man’s lack of genitals is supposed to represent his emasculation. In addition to the transphobic elements of this message listed above, the message is further disturbing in how closely society links emasculation with femininity. I hope we can all agree that gender is important to most people, and no one should be degendered or have their gender identity denied, regardless of whether they are trans* or cis. But when masculinity and femininity are routinely (and falsely) presented as the only two gender options, it’s understood that an “emasculated” man is feminine, and a “defeminized” woman is masculine.
And so, again, the message remains that being a male victim of domestic violence is an awful lot like being forcibly feminized. And being a feminized man is an awful lot like being a woman.
But finally, let us for a moment, close our eyes and pretend that social constructions of masculinity and femininity are not connected. Let us pretend further that our culture does not interpret “less of a man” to mean “more of a woman.” And let us also pretend that depictions of penises and manhood as inextricably linked are not transphobic. I know, it’s difficult and kind of ridiculous. But just for a moment.
Forgetting all of those problems, let us just talk about how the targets of this ad — presumably cis men — are likely to view it. While never supporting help for some at the expense of active harm to more marginalized people, the real question here is: Is this ad is helpful?
I’m not a cis man, and I’m not a male victim of domestic violence. So I can only make a rough and quite possibly inaccurate guess as to how those men may feel. That guess is that on the one hand, they would be happy — as am I — to see some visibility for the issue of men who are abused by their partners. On the other hand, is it likely to cause them to get help? Are they likely to see the image and think “yes, I feel emasculated, these people get me, I’m going to call them for assistance, or at least think about it”? Or are they going to see a reinforcement of the idea that being a victim of domestic abuse makes them less of a man, and feel ashamed and to blame for their own abuse all over again?
I don’t know. I really don’t. But my gut feeling is that the latter is more likely. Because I know that as a woman who has been in an abusive relationship, I wouldn’t react positively to an ad that told me I felt a little bit like this image, a pathetic doormat who has been dominated by a man. That ad would strike me as insulting, likely to produce more victim-blaming laughs than sympathetic understanding, and wholly irresponsible. So at the moment, I find it hard to view this ad incredibly differently.
But I really want to know what you think — especially the guys, both trans and cis, though of course both trans and cis ladies, and those who identify as neither guy nor lady, are more than welcome to weigh in. How did your brain initially interpret this image? What ideas about gender, sex, and violence did that interpretation bring to mind? How do you think that men who are victims or have been victims of domestic violence will respond to it? If you are a man who is in or has been in an abusive relationship, how did you respond? If you’re a woman who is in or has been in an abusive relationship, how did you respond? As long as they’re expressed respectfully and in a way that neither reinforces nor discounts other forms of oppression, I’m really interested in hearing all of your views.
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| 0.975984 | 1,971 | 1.71875 | 2 |
January 20, 2001
Re: The AIDS Agenda
Hail to the chief, as they say. You are now our 43rd president, but if your record leaves many HIVers doubting that their concerns will get any traction in your administration, POZ dares you to prove them wrong. Although the Republicans still control Congress, the narrowing of their majorities (particularly in the 50-50 split Senate) is an Rx for gridlock -- a mixed blessing because while little may get done, at least any attempts to roll back the progress made on behalf of HIVers may be stymied.
While AIDS was hardly mentioned in the campaign, it's imperative that you make curing the disease and ending its spread a priority. As the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS underscored last September in its final report to your predecessor, "there is no threat to the global community that demands more urgent leadership and response.... Ultimately, it is an issue not of resources but of will that keeps us from stopping" the epidemic. Whether you keep or kill funding for the council or the Office of National AIDS Policy and AIDS czar, you can do one thing for which the three previous Oval Officers lacked nerve: Take the council's findings seriously.
No great expense or exertion is required to set an AIDS agenda. Start by reading the council's report, "No Time to Spare" (your own aides can find it at www.cdcnpin.org). And to make it even easier for you, POZ has polled some AIDS experts to outline some first steps. We'll begin with those most likely to be rubberstamped by a "compassionate conservative" administration and end with those that call for you to take a courageous stand.
(#1) Protect funding for treatment. After all, it was your dad who (finally, in 1990) signed the Ryan White CARE Act.
With no congressional action at all, you could (#2) streamline the Medicaid eligibility requirements for HIVers seeking Medicaid by issuing waivers, an area that your Health and Human Services nominee Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson pioneered (see "Puppet Master," this page). Susan Dooha, a welfare specialist at Gay Men's Health Crisis, points out that the paperwork is pointlessly painstaking and requires annual recertification. "People with HIV should be given a pass on these stigmatizing, finger-pointing home visits, as well as the limited-eligibility requirements," she said.
You must lead Congress to action on the urgent issue of drug pricing. "Nearly every major Western democracy has some form of price controls for drugs," said the Consumer Project on Technology's Jamie Love. But even if you won't try to persuade Congress to institute limits, you should follow the advice of Robert Fogel, a Chicago lawyer who was a member of Clinton's AIDS advisory council. "The federal government is a large-enough consumer of pharmaceuticals to exert leverage to force lower prices," Fogel said, noting that (#3) combining federal and state purchasing power would increase bargaining clout with Big Pharma. Threatening to withhold reimbursement for overpriced meds could result in dramatically lower negotiated prices. Ask Congress to give you the authority to do this.
Finally, go global with the fight against AIDS by calling for full funding for such (#4) public-private research partnerships as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and at least $100 million a year to develop HIV-preventing vaginal and rectal microbicides. You should take the lead in canceling the debt to the U.S. of the poorest, most AIDS-devastated countries permitting them to develop healthcare infrastructures. And without waiting for Congress, use your current authority under the Bayh-Dole Act to make a raft of AIDS meds developed with U.S. taxpayer dollars available for production immediately by poor countries or nonprofit drug manufacturers.
Here at home, nothing is more critical than (#5) launching a national campaign of AIDS education and prevention. Every hour, two Americans aged 13 to 15 are infected with HIV. As Jamie Fox, executive director of AIDS Action, said, "the president needs to use the bully pulpit to talk about AIDS prevention. Let's get over our neopuritanical nonsense about this, because it's life or death." Take this advice to heart and sign an executive order, requiring any provider receiving federal subsidies or tax credits to make HIV prevention a part of its patient contact -- defined in a report prepared for the Office of National AIDS Policy by the AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth and Families as the need "to provide comprehensive sex education in schools and to provide condoms for sexually active teens." Go up against the "family values" crowd in Congress to appropriate money for this critical work.
Then there's the second (and even more controversial) leg of prevention: (#6) clean needle exchange and single-use syringes. According to the U.S. Surgeon General's review of this issue last October, half of all new infections are caused by sharing dirty needles, as are three out of four AIDS cases among women and children. And he found that (as study after study have shown) clean needles "do not encourage the illegal use
Without Congress' lifting a finger, you could implement a key recommendation in a Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences report: (#7) Change the allocation formula for HIV
prevention funds so that communities with high rates of new infections get the money they need. The current system, known as proportionality, "rewards the reporting of AIDS cases rather than the prevention of new infections."
Catherine Hanssens, an attorney with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, urged that you should (#8) make federal funding for prisons hinge on a just standard of care for HIV positive inmates and on
effective prevention programs, including condom use. Controversial? No doubt. Compassionate? Absolutely. The AIDS advisory council agreed that U.S. Public Health Service Guidelines for Use of Antiretroviral Agents should be applied, insuring that the latest life-extending drugs get to HIVers in prison.
Mr. President, this short list shows that you have the power to take action now, on your own -- regardless of what a deadlocked Congress may do -- that would save tens of thousands of lives here at home and millions abroad. But be warned: As you have reached into previous Republican administrations for a vice president and cabinet nominees, so HIVers and their advocates are ready to return to the activism required during your father's and President Reagan's terms. History will judge you a leader or an ostrich. It's up to you.
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It’s not just a matter of buying presents for people—though presents are important, too. I hate to shop, and I don’t much like to receive stuff myself, so I’m reluctant to give things to people. I’ve been trying to be better about giving gifts when appropriate, and also trying to figure out how to be generous in intangible ways.
Baltasar Gracian wrote, “The great art of giving consists in this: the gift should cost very little and yet be greatly coveted, so that it may be the more highly appreciated.”
A friend of mine told me about a gift she’d just received that’s a perfect example of this kind of generosity. Her friend told her, “For Christmas, I’m going to replace every burned-out lightbulb in your house.” And she did. She went around the house, took out every burned-out bulb, went to the hardware store to buy replacements, and put fresh bulbs in every empty socket.
And when my friend went to her hardware closet over the weekend, she discovered that she’d also received stacks and stacks of spare bulbs.
What a great idea! What a simple yet brilliant gesture. It reminded me of the scene in Anne Lamott’s fantastic memoir Operating Instructions, when a man from her church comes to help her with her new baby, and ends up cleaning her bathroom.
When I was thinking about how to be generous, I found myself thinking, “If I were a professional chef, I could cook…or if I were really good at computers, I could help someone set up their system…but I don’t really have any special skills. What can I do?” Well, I could change some lightbulbs.
Over the last several months, I’ve tried to find ways to be generous that tap into my own nature. Helping friends clean out their closets is my favorite thing to do (I love to do this so much that really, they’re the ones being generous to me, by letting me come over). I’ve reviewed friends’ books on Amazon, given helpful information, repeated behind-the-back compliments I hear (hearing that someone complimented you when you weren’t present is always more gratifying, because it’s presumably more sincere), taken photos of other people’s kids and sending them copies, etc. Sometimes I do buy things for people—for example, I went on a jag of buying people subscriptions to my beloved Slightly Foxed magazine.
What has surprised me (though it’s really not surprising) is that the most effective way to be generous is to connect people. I’ve had a few MAJOR hits—when I’ve introduced people who then made life-altering changes (business and personal) based on that new relationship. And the crazy thing is that it took so little effort on my part. A quick conversation, a few emails, a few prods, and—wham.
And who is made happiest by such an act of generosity? Me! This is the heart of happiness, the fundamental truth that sounds like a commercial for an Oprah episode. Nothing makes me happier than helping someone else to be happy. Do good, feel good! Try it at home!
It sounds so priggish, but zoikes, it really does work.
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| 0.971927 | 718 | 1.617188 | 2 |
BOSTON -- The city of Lowell played a major role Thursday morning as lawmakers and economic-development policy experts met to discuss a new report issued by MassINC that calls for injecting $1.7 billion into the state's 24 Gateway Cities.
Lowell, and in particular the ambitious Hamilton Canal District project, were singled out as successful examples of what can happen when the private and public sectors collaborate on a common investment.
Ben Foreman, executive director of MassINC's Gateway Cities Innovation Institute, told breakfast attendees that "projects like Worcester's CitySquare and Lowell's Hamilton Canal District should serve as a rallying cry that we can do better and we can do more."
The MassINC report does, however, point out that the Hamilton Canal project is still "hobbled by financial uncertainty" and mentions the $14 million renovation of the Freudenberg Nonwovens building as being a tough space to court commercial interests given its mammoth size and the rehab needed to spruce it up.
Trinity Financial Inc., the Boston-based real-estate company at the forefront of the Hamilton Canal project and the Freudenberg rehab, is also helping to jump-start a similar initiative in Brockton.
Regarding Hamilton Canal, Trinity Financial President Jim Keefe said he's "not staying up at night worrying about whether or not we're going to lease it."
"We put together a great plan and have a great community behind us," he added.
He added that the city has witnessed "about $100 million in development" within the blocks ringing the 15-acre Hamilton Canal site.
"That gets at the heart of why projects like these have legs," he said.
Keefe said Lowell's journey actually began in the 1970s, decades before the Hamilton Canal project, when the late U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas spearheaded efforts to create the Lowell National Historical Park.
"We're ahead of a lot of our peers but there's a long way to go," he said. "A city like Brockton is really at the beginning of this journey."
One aspect of Brockton's challenges that Keefe said caught him by surprise was the fact that "there has not been one Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit project, a routine resource."
Baacke pointed out after the meeting that in the past, there had been competition between cities like Lowell and Brockton, whereas now programs like the Gateway Cities initiative are encouraging more teamwork.
Greg Bialecki, the state's Secretary of Housing and Economic Development, called the MassINC paper a "terrific and important report" and said "you can't imagine a prosperous and successful commonwealth where we have cities under-performing and trailing the state's unemployment average."
Bialecki also called for aggregating different state spending programs and following the money to see where "we can think about re-prioritizing funds."
"We know the report calls for additional funding so the challenge of looking for more resources is a big one," he said. "It's going to have to be a real collective effort to get there."
Follow Evan Lips at Twitter.com/evanmlips
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In 2007 Switzerland accidentally invaded Liechtenstein, realized their mistake and apologized! A routine training exercise conducted by Swiss soldiers in the middle of the night got them lost.
They ended up in the neighboring country of Liechtenstein. All 170 infantry soldiers crossed the country’s border at an unmarked area and made it 1.5 kilometers inside the country. Luckily, they soon realized their mistake and turned back.
Though the soldiers had assault rifles, it was said that they were not carrying any ammo and both the Swiss and Liechtenstein governments acknowledged and played down the incident saying that no harm was done. Lucky for those troops, too!
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| 0.982851 | 133 | 1.757813 | 2 |
Singapore: US President Barack Obama can add another accolade to his already long list of awards after being named the world’s most powerful person in an inaugural ranking by Forbes magazine.
Obama, whose popularity at home and abroad has boosted the image of the United States according to numerous surveys, topped the list that also features al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey as people wielding some influence over the world.
Three Indian businessmen find place in the magazine’s first-ever World’s Most Powerful People list: Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, ArcelorMittal chairman Lakshmi N Mittal, and Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata.
Ambani is at 44th place, Mittal in 55th spot and Tata is ranked as the 59th most powerful person in the world.
In compiling the inaugural ranking, Forbes said it had narrowed the list to 67 people, “a number based on the conceit that one can reduce the world’s 6.7 billion people to the one in every 100 million that matter.”
“The goal in compiling this list is to expose power and not glorify it, and over time reveal how influence is as easily lost as it is hard to gain,” the magazine said.
World and industry leaders dominated the top 10 of the list, which Forbes said was assessed on the number of people the person influences, their ability to project power beyond their immediate sphere of influence, their control of financial resources and how actively that person wields power.
Also on the list were financial heavyweights including Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein (18) and billionaire investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett (14), as well as Pope Benedict (11).
Bin Laden came in at number 37 and Winfrey at number 45.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown came in at number 29 while Queen Elizabeth failed to make the list.
The top 10 list is as follows:
1. US President Barack Obama
2. Chinese President Hu Jintao
3. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
4. US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke
5. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page
6. Carlos Slim, chief executive of Mexico’s Telmex
7. Rupert Murdoch, chairman of media group News Corp.
8. Michael T. Duke, chief executive, Wal-Mart Stores
9. Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz
10. Bill Gates, co-chairman, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The livemint.com is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
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NDP P.E.I. Leader Mike Redmond is worried about the impact the HST will have on low-income Islanders.
“We sounded the alarm on the HST back in November,” says Redmond, “And this government has done nothing but provide empty statements that appear to be based on very little information.”
Finance Minister Wes Sheridan commissioned a study on the impact of the HST on businesses, but no study was done on the effects on consumers. UPEI economics professor Jim Sentance predicts that average Islanders will pay up to $80 million in increased taxes, which translates into an extra $570 for each person, the NDP says.
“That’s $570 for each and every citizen, states Redmond, “That is $2,200 more in expenses for a family of four. How the heck is a $200 rebate supposed to offset that?"
Redmond spent last Friday afternoon going door-to-door in Charlottetown’s District 12.
“The conditions that some people are living are nothing short of horrible,” he says, “I just can’t imagine how bad things are going to get for low income Islanders once they have the added burden of the HST.”
"How the heck is a $200 rebate supposed to offset that?" - NDP P.E.I. Leader Mike Redmond
Sheridan continues to tell Islanders that businesses will pass on their tax savings to consumers. Jim Sentance agrees that prices will go down, but that price adjustments could take up to two years to materialize.
Redmond is not so sure.
“There is no incentive for businesses to lower their prices," he continues, “if your business could make more money, wouldn’t you choose that option?”
The NDP is calling on the provincial government to do a study of the impact of the HST on consumers and is committed to ensuring taxation fairness for all Islanders, not just those who own businesses.
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Assessing Fixed-Asset Control Risk
When auditing a company’s assets, don’t forget to take a look at asset control risk features the company has in place. During your audit you can perform tests of internal controls to limit the number of transaction you sample and test, or test every transaction. For many accounts with few transactions, it’s more efficient to forgo control testing in favor of looking at the complete population of transactions.
When you assess a client’s fixed-asset control risk, remember that control risk is directly affected by asset acquisition and disposal internal controls set in place by the business.
In many businesses, property, plant, and equipment (PP&E) consists of just a few high-value assets. If that’s the case for your client, it’s probably more efficient for you to bypass the tests of controls and just assess control risk as high. By doing so, you’d use substantive analytical procedures instead of sampling. Using substantive analytical procedures means that you compare what’s on your client’s books to what you expect to be on the books.
Here are some examples of PP&E substantive analytical tests:
Trend analysis: Compare prior-year balances in both PP&E and depreciation expense with what you see in the current year. Then consider whether any large increases or decreases are to be expected based on your other audit work, such as inspecting the client’s work environment and interviewing management. (For example, did the managers talk about buying new equipment to increase sales?)
Ratio analysis: Compare the ratio of insurance expense for the PP&E being insured to the prior-year ratio. Taking into consideration any normal year-to-year increase in rates, has the ratio of expense to asset stayed consistent?
Reasonability: Is any change up or down in the PP&E and depreciation balances within the expected ranges? A good procedure is to compare what the company budgeted to spend on PP&E with what it actually spent.
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When insurers don’t pay the full amount of the bill, health-care providers are going after patients to make up the difference. It’s known as “balance billing,” and it’s often illegal, BusinessWeek reports. Under state and federal laws, doctors and hospitals generally need to be dealing with the insurers, instead of pressuring vulnerable patients. Have you had any success with fighting balance billing? Leave your story in the comments.
Beware Balance Billing
By September 8, 2008
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The video below shows attorney Rachel Lang of the LGBT group GetEqual dumping glitter on Michelle Bachmann after her speech at the RightOnline conference in Minneapolis. Another video (from Erickson, see #2 below) is at peekURL.com/v8U7dHP and their press release is at .
1. A fundamental American concept is that of speech: if someone says something you disagree with, you respond with speech of your own. You don't throw glitter over them. Throwing glitter isn't an argument, it's not civil, and it only further reduces the low level of discourse in the U.S. Many young children wouldn't do something like that, but here we have a grown woman who's a lawyer acting like only a subset of little kids. It's also counter-productive, portraying gay activists as little kids and ensuring those who might be convinced of their cause that they don't deserve support. It also no doubt increases the resolve of those opposed to their causes.
2. This glittering is part of a coordinated campaign that Get Equal conducts (getequal.org/getglitter), and they use DemocracyInAction.org to solicit help. One of those involved is Robert Erickson (@CGoHome); see his name's link.
3. The video has a good title ("The State of the Modern Left: Throw Stuff at People With Whom You Disagree") and the person who interviews Lang makes a fairly good point, asking whether it would be OK if the rightwing engaged in glitter or pie throwing. That seems to throw her a bit. Later on, someone else tries to shame Lang. However, the questioning doesn't go far enough; it would have been better to probe why she doesn't understand or support fundamental U.S. concepts regarding speech and why she can't make an argument. She's a lawyer, and she thinks such behavior is acceptable and she can't come up with an argument for what she supports? Do her clients know she has trouble making arguments? One would think that a lawyer would be able to defeat mere bloggers in a debate, but not so.
4. That said, the rightwing hasn't exactly set a good example. While they haven't as far as I know started throwing things at politicians, the tea parties long ago decided to act like little kids too: swarming politicians, shouting down their opponents, smearing people, holding up bunny ears behind politicians' heads, and so on. See all the entries on the last link for examples of those and more, and see also the Glenn Reynolds posts. The teapartiers chose to engage in Saul Alinsky-style tactics rather than engaging their opponents in debate. Not only are almost no teaparty activists capable of engaging others in debate, they don't want to.
5. If those who are generally opposed to Bachmann were smart and grown-up, they'd point out that the Right Online conference is sponsored by Americans for Prosperity. AFP is part of the "Kochtopus", those groups funded or directed by the Koch family. There's a good chance that most of the people at RightOnline would be opposed to the other things the Kochs do, such as funding loose borders advocates like Reason Magazine and the Cato Institute. David Koch even joined with George Soros to give millions to the American Civil Liberties Union. If Lang had any sense she'd point that out to as many attendees as possible in a civil fashion, instead of dumping glitter on politicians.
6. The press release informs us that Lang is straight. Now all she needs is a brain transplant and we'll be all set.
getequal . org/2011/06/lgbt-activists-glitter-bachmann-to-protest-anti-gay-rhetoric
Sun, 06/19/2011 - 13:31 · Importance: 4
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My review of Geoffrey Wheatcroft's new book 'Yo, Blair!' appears in this week's edition of The Spectator.
The human commodity
Politico’s, 154pp, £9.99, ISBN 1842732067
Have two words ever said so much? President Bush’s unforgettable greeting to the British Prime Minister at the G8 summit in St Petersburg last summer epitomised how the ‘special relationship’ between Britain and America had descended into one of complete servility. Can anyone imagine Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher or even John Major being addressed in such a condescending way? Geoffrey Wheatcroft can’t, and in his masterly 150-page polemic describes how under Blair’s calamitous premiership, Britain has ceased to be an independent nation. It’s a depressing story of corruption, personal vanity and mendacity unequalled in our country’s political history.
Blair, the self-proclaimed ‘pretty straight guy’, has presided over ten years of lies, spin and subterfuge, the culmination of which has been participation in the disastrous and deceitful war against Iraq. The warning signs were there from early on: someone who can lie about voting in the House of Commons against fox hunting, is, as Wheatcroft points out, also capable of giving grossly exaggerated and distorted reasons for entering needless and illegal wars.
Blair says things ‘which are not only untrue but that a moment’s conscious reflection would show could not be true’. He also demonstrates a remarkable ability to ‘delete words from his personal hard drive’. In September 2004, he abused Charles Kennedy, arguing that if the Liberal Demo- crat leader had had his way ‘Saddam and his sons would still be running Iraq. That is why I took the stand I did.’ Yet, in February 2003, shortly before the outbreak of war, he had told the House, ‘We are offering Saddam the prospect of voluntarily disarming through the United Nations. I detest his regime but even now he could save it by complying with the UN demands.’
Blair, as Wheatcroft says, is something far more dangerous than a common liar — he is a man with no grasp at all of the difference between objective truth and falsehood. He is in many ways the personification of Erich Fromm’s ‘marketing character’, a person for whom everything is transformed into a commodity, not only things, but the person himself, his physical energy, his skills, his knowledge, his opinions, his feelings, even his smiles.
The damage that Britain’s most prominent ‘marketing character’ has done to both his country and the world has been enormous.
One of the effects of Blair’s electoral success has been to dissuade more and more people from voting. After ten years of New Labour, politicians have never been so despised. By his endless war-making, he has destroyed one English tradition which had found a home in the Labour Party — the radical tradition of pacifism and non-interventionism. And by his attack on ancient civil liberties, carried out in the name of the ‘war against terror’, he has destroyed another — the liberal tradition.
Why was it all done?
Blair’s apologists would like us to believe that their man acted out of conviction, but the truth may be rather more prosaic. The going rates for retired politicians on the American lecture circuit are impressive: Bill Clinton gets $250,000 a time, and Blair, as Washington’s most loyal lapdog, will certainly be at the top of the scale. In addition, there are those lucrative book contracts. As Wheatcroft concludes, vast numbers of lives may have been cruelly sacrificed by the Iraq enterprise, but Anthony Charles Linton Blair will surely be a richer man as a result.
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BEIRUT: A leading Syrian opposition group called on newly elected Pope Francis on Thursday to "make a special gesture" for the country where more than 70,000 people have been killed in two years of conflict.
"Our people... hope that the new pope, who brings a message of love and peace, will make a special gesture for Syria, cradle of civilisations and crucible of religions... where peace and faith are being flagrantly violated," the Syrian National Council said.
"The man who was chosen is known for being very close to people's suffering and for being a defender of their rights, and this is a source of joy and hope for our people... who are paying a very high price for their freedom and dignity," it said.
Christians make up some five percent of the population of mainly Muslim Syria.
Many have tried to remain neutral in the country's spiralling conflict. Others have taken President Bashar al-Assad's side, for fear of the Islamists in rebel ranks.
The SNC is the largest armed opposition bloc within the National Coalition, recognised by most Arab and Western governments as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
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Wednesday, June 27, 2007
For decades, companies have engaged in head-to-head competition in search of sustained, profitable growth—fighting for competitive advantage, battling over market share, and struggling for differentiation. What would you say if someone told you that this is not the way to create profitable growth in the future? Through an extensive study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than 100 years and 30 industries, Kim and Mauborgne have found that there's a better way. Rather than battling competitors, they counsel, companies can achieve lasting success by creating "blue oceans:" untapped new market spaces ripe for growth. Such strategic moves—which the authors have dubbed "value innovation"—create powerful leaps in value that often render rivals obsolete for more than a decade.
Posted by ZABS at 8:50 PM
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One of the surprise pleasures of my recent trip to Brisbane, Australia, was the exhibition of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Queensland Art Gallery. It was the most impressive multi-artist contemporary art exhibition I've ever seen. The vast majority of the artworks were exciting, accessible, and visually stunning. I expected a quick in-and-out visit, but found myself immersed in the aesthetic and cultural world of the art for hours.
But there was one exhibit that highlighted a particular frustration of mine. It was a multi-person exhibit that fell just short of inviting strangers to work together. With one simple tweak of the label text, it could have gone from good to great.
The artwork is called I, you, we and was created by Wit Pimkanchanapong. The title is highly descriptive of the piece, which is a little booth where two people can mix photos of their faces into a new image of a face that incorporates bits from each person. You sit down with a partner, make a collaborative image, and then email the composite home to yourself or someone else.
I looked on as many visitors enjoyed this exhibit, which created silly and surprising results. But as a solo visitor, I couldn't find a way in. Here's the label:
This label suggests that the artist is particularly interested in visitors engaging with those who are different from them. And yet there is no invitation for visitors to use the booth with strangers. It's ideally set up for a stranger interaction: the booths are in a public space and are open on both sides, so it doesn't feel like you are being asked to enter an intimate space with someone unknown. The interaction is quick, discrete, and doesn't require sharing anything more personal than your face.
This exhibit is missing just one thing: a statement on the label that says, "Invite a stranger to make a portrait with you." The staff could easily append the cute label shown at the top of this post with this sentence. It would give visitors like me a way into the experience and an opportunity to perform in keeping with the artist's desires. And even for people visiting in groups, it might present the opportunity for a fun interaction with someone new.
If you want to invite people to use your space socially, you have to give them explicit permission to do so. Letting visitors know that an exhibit is a two-person activity is useful information, but it's not enough to help people overcome their fears and approach strangers to help them.
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US 5370403 A
A non-contacting face seal for shafts rotating at high speeds with improved secondary sealing means for low axial drag forces. Secondary sealing means comprise an O-ring with a compliant spring element at its outer circumference.
Compliant spring provides a controlled radial force, which keeps the secondary seal in a more reliable sealing contact with the seal ring and the seal housing balance surface but avoids excessive radial forces, typical for secondary seal located between two machined cylindrical surfaces. Low axial drag forces due to secondary seal displacements are important for prevention of sealing face hang-up and consequent high leakage condition.
1. Device for sealing a fluid at a space between a housing and a rotatable shaft, comprising:
a first seal ring mounted on said shaft for rotation therewith and having a planar front sealing surface,
a second seal ring being axially movable and substantially coaxial with said first seal ring,
said second seal ring having a back surface and a planar front sealing surface defining a clearance with said first seal ring planar front sealing surface,
a cylindrical surface of said housing, engaging coaxially said second seal ring,
an elastic means connected between said housing and said second seal ring for biasing said second seal ring towards said first seal ring to close said clearance,
one of said planar sealing surfaces having a plurality of grooves formed therein, said grooves arranged in spaced relation to each other,
a disc positioned between said elastic means and said back surface,
a secondary seal positioned between said disc and said back surface,
said secondary seal being in sealing contact with said cylindrical surface and said back surface, said secondary seal being an elastomer-type O-ring, and
a compliant spring means externally surrounding said secondary seal and biasing said secondary seal against said cylindrical surface, said spring means reacting radially outwardly against an inner annular surface of said disc.
2. Device according to claim 1, where said compliant spring means is a spring, formed from flat spring stock.
3. Device according to claim 1, where said compliant spring means is a C-shaped, spring-energized PTFE seal.
4. Device according to claim 1, where said compliant spring means is a slanted coil wire spring.
5. Device according to claim 2, where an axial spring means is mounted between said disc and said secondary seal.
6. Device according to claim 3, where said disc is shaped for an edge contact with said secondary seal.
This invention relates to sealing devices for rotating shafts where fluid is employed to generate pressure forces between interacting face-type sealing elements, where one is stationary and the other rotating. These forces provide for slight separation and non-contacting operation of the above sealing elements, thereby minimizing face wear and friction losses while maintaining low fluid leakage.
Non-contacting face seals are usually applied to high-speed, high-pressure rotating equipment, where the use of ordinary mechanical face seals with face contact would result in excessive generation of heat and wear. Non-contacting operation avoids this undesirable face contact when the shaft is rotating above a certain minimum speed, which is often called a lift-off speed.
As with ordinary mechanical seals, a non-contacting face seal consists of two sealing rings, each of which is provided with a very precisely finished sealing surface. These surfaces are perpendicular to and concentric with the axis of rotation. Both rings are positioned adjacent to each other with the sealing surfaces in contact at conditions of zero pressure differential and zero speed of rotation. One of the rings is normally fixed to the rotatable shaft, the other located within the seal housing structure and allowed to move axially. To enable axial movement of the sealing ring and yet prevent leakage of the sealed fluid, a sealing element is placed between the ring and the housing. This sealing element must permit some sliding motion while under pressure, therefore normally a top quality O-ring is selected for that duty. This O-ring is often called the secondary seal.
To achieve non-contacting operation of the seal, one of the two sealing surfaces in contact is usually provided with shallow surface recesses, which act to generate pressure fields that force two sealing surfaces apart. When the magnitude of the forces resulting from these pressure fields is large enough to overcome the forces that urge seal faces closed, the sealing surfaces will separate and form a clearance, resulting in non-contacting operation. The character of the separation forces is such that their magnitude decreases with the increase of face separation. Opposing or closing forces, on the other hand, depend on sealed pressure level and as such are independent of face separation. They result from the sealed pressure and the spring force acting on the back surface of the axially movable sealing ring. Since the separation or opening force depends on the separation distance between sealing surfaces, during the operation of the seal or on imposition of sufficient pressure differential equilibrium separation between both surfaces will establish itself. This occurs when closing and opening forces are in equilibrium and equal to each other. Equilibrium separation constantly changes within the range of gaps. The goal is to have the low limit of this range above zero. Another goal is to make this range as narrow as possible, because on its high end the separation between the faces will lead to increased seal leakage. Since non-contacting seals operate by definition with a clearance between sealing surfaces, their leakage will be higher then that of a contacting seal of similar geometry. Yet, the absence of contact will mean zero wear on the sealing surfaces and therefore a relatively low amount of heat generated between them. It is this low generated heat and lack of wear that enables the application of non-contacting seals to high-speed turbomachinery, where the sealed fluid is gas. Turbocompressors are used to compress this fluid and since gas has a relatively low mass, they normally operate at very high speeds and with a number of compression stages in series.
During a typical period of operation, a turbocompressor is started and the power unit starts the shaft rotating. At the initial warm-up stage of operation, shaft speeds may be quite low. Typically, oil is used to support the shaft at its two radial bearings and one thrust bearing. Oil warms up in oil pumps and also accepts shear heat from compressor bearings. The oil together with process fluid turbulence and compression in turn warm-up the compressor. Once the full operating speed is reached, the compressor reaches in time some elevated equilibrium temperature. On shutdown, shaft rotation stops and the compressor begins to cool down. In this situation, various components of the compressor cool down at different rates and, importantly, the shaft contracts with decreasing temperature at a different rate than the compressor casing. The net result of this at the seal is the axial creeping motion of the shaft and the seal parts fixed to it, which may move the rotatable sealing face away from the stationary sealing face. With often only a spring load behind the stationary sealing ring, the stationary sealing face may not be able to follow the retracting rotating face, if the above mentioned secondary seal has too much friction. These prior art secondary seal arrangements can be found for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,768,790; 5,058,905 or 5,071,141. The term used often in the industry for this phenomenon is "seal face hang-up". In such case there may be a very high leakage of process fluid the next time the compressor is restarted and often in such cases the seal will resist all attempts to reseal it. The seal must then be removed and replaced at a considerable cost in time and lost production.
This invention is aimed at the reduction of friction forces at the secondary seal to prevent its excessive drag and thus the hang-up of the axially movable seal face, causing high process fluid leakage. These friction forces cannot be lowered beyond a certain value with prior art arrangements, where typically an O-ring or a similar elastomer seal would be placed between two cylindrical surfaces. While these surfaces can be machined with a high degree of accuracy to provide for uniform radial clearance to accept the seal, the elastomer-type secondary seal itself is typically quite non-uniform in its cross-section. To eliminate the possibility of leakage, it is then necessary to design the radial clearance for this seal narrower than what is the dimension of the secondary seal at its thinnest point. Given the relatively high non-uniformity of O-ring or similar seal cross-sections, this results in considerable squeeze in areas where the secondary seal is thicker, therefore in considerable friction and drag.
Another aim of the invention is to assure a reliable sealing contact despite secondary seal cross-section non-uniformities. The improvement this invention provides is a compliant spring element at the O-ring or similar secondary seal. The prior art requirement to squeeze the secondary seal into a uniform radial gap with the consequence of high friction forces is thus eliminated. Circumferential compliance of the spring enables the spring to place a considerably lower and more uniform load onto the secondary seal, a load which is relatively independent of variations in the secondary seal cross-section. This results in dramatically lower friction and drag forces and therefore a lesser danger of the seal face hang-up, resulting in a more reliable sealing action.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a non-contacting seal, constructed in accordance with this invention, taken along the longitudinal axis thereof.
FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view of a secondary seal arrangement per prior art.
FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view of another embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 4 is a view of yet another embodiment of the invention, similar to one per FIG. 3.
FIG. 5 is an axial view, partially broken away, of a secondary seal taken in a plane indicated by line 5--5 of FIG. 7.
FIG. 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of the compliant spring per FIGS. 1, 5 & 7.
FIG. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view of another embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 8 is an axial view, partially broken away, of a secondary seal taken in a plane indicated by line 8--8 of FIG. 3.
FIG. 9 is a fragmentary perspective view of the compliant spring per FIGS. 3 & 8.
FIG. 10 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-sectional view of one more embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 11 is an axial view, partially broken away, of a secondary seal taken in a plane indicated by line 11--11 of FIG. 10.
Referring first to FIG. 1, there is shown the invention and its environment. This environment comprises a housing 10 and a rotatable shaft 12, extending through said housing. The invention is applied to seal a fluid within an annular space 14 and to restrict its escape into the fluid environment at 16. The basic components of the invention comprise an annular, axially movable sealing ring 18 in a sealing relationship with an annular rotatable sealing ring 20. The sealing ring 18 is located within a cavity 22 of the housing 10 and held substantially concentric to the rotatable sealing ring 20. Between the housing 10 and the sealing ring 18 is a plurality of springs 24, spaced equidistantly around the cavity 22 of the housing 10. Springs 24 urge the sealing ring 18 into an engagement with the sealing ring 20. An O-ring 26 seals the space between the sealing ring 18 and the housing 10. The compliant spring 28 holds the O-ring 26 in contact with a cylindrical surface 30 of the housing 10. Compliant spring 28 is held within a disc 32, which acts also as a spacer, through which springs 24 transfer an axial force through the O-ring 26 to the sealing ring 18. While a C-shaped spring of unequal legs is shown, other arrangements with different spring shapes and forms may also be effective. The sealing ring 20 is retained in an axial position against a radial extension of the shaft sleeve 34 by a spacer sleeve 36. An O-ring seal 38 precludes leakage between the sealing ring 20 and the shaft sleeve 34. The shaft sleeve 34 is located axially against a step on the shaft 12 by a locknut 40, which is threaded on the shaft 12 as shown. An O-ring seal 42 precludes leakage between the shaft sleeve 34 and the shaft 12. In operation, the radially extending faces of the sealing ring 20 and the sealing ring 18 are in a sealing relationship, maintaining a very narrow clearance, generated by a shallow and concentric hydrodynamic groove pattern 44. The subject pattern has in many cases a shape of the logarithmic spiral. Pattern 44 can be electro-plated, etched or otherwise fabricated into the sealing ring 20 or alternatively into the sealing ring 18. Said narrow clearance prevents generation of friction heat and wear, yet limits the outflow of the sealed fluid, present at space 14.
FIG. 2 shows an enlarged view of the secondary seal of the prior art design. It can be readily observed that there is no significant elasticity within the structure shown other than that of the O-ring itself. Such an O-ring therefore has to be squeezed radially to a dimension smaller than its narrowest cross-section, shown on the picture by flattened areas of the O-ring circumference on its top and bottom. This results in excessive squeeze where the O-ring is thicker, therefore in higher drag forces, resisting axial displacements.
FIG. 3 shows an enlarged view similar to FIG. 2 of another embodiment of the invention, where the compliant spring 52 has a form of a slanted wire spring as per FIGS. 3, 8 & 9.
FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the invention, where the compliant spring 28 is embeded within a PTFE shield 50. The spring-energized PTFE sealing elements of above design are commercially available and would be combined with an O-ring to form an alternate embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 5 shows in an exaggerated fashion the local distortions of the compliant spring 28 due to the non-uniformity of the cross-section of the secondary 0-ring seal 26. The spring shown is one from flat stock per FIGS. 1, 6 & 7. Alternating slots 46 and 48 provide for local and circumferential flexibility.
FIG. 6 shows the compliant spring 28 in a perspective view. There are two kinds of slots made through the compliant spring 28. Slots 46 run completely through the inner longer leg of the compliant spring 28 and slots 48 run completely through the outer shorter leg of the compliant spring 28. Slots 46 and 48 are spaced alternately and evenly around the circumference of the compliant spring 28 to give it circumferential flexibility and an ability to comply locally with the secondary seal cross-section non-uniformities as shown in FIG. 5. The spring shown has straight legs of uneven length, but this is not critical for the proper function of the spring. Other similarly effective flat stock springs can be designed with even legs, curved legs, slots of varying geometries, and even springs of cross-sections other than those in the shape of the letter C.
FIG. 7 is an enlargement of the secondary seal per FIG. 1 with an additional spring element 54 for more compliance in the axial direction.
FIG. 8 shows an axial view of the slanted coil wire spring 52, taken along line 8--8 of FIG. 3. Slanted coils for this view give the spring the radial elasticity needed for the purpose of imposition of the compliant load on the secondary seal 26.
FIG. 9 shows the compliant wire spring 52 in the perspective view. The wire coils shown are nearly rectangular with rounded corners, but the coils could be also round or oval. The main factor is the angle A that coils assume to the longitudinal axis of the spring. With regular coil springs, this angle would be close to 90 than about 60 between the disc 32 and the secondary seal 26 as shown at FIG. 8 for local compliance to cross-sectional changes of the secondary seal 26.
The above-described method of secondary seal loading eliminates the need to place the secondary seal into the radial, circumferentialy uniform gap of the prior art with the resulting excessive sliding friction. The same method can be applied also in the axial direction to deal with the axial secondary seal thickness non-uniformities, which are just as large as those in the radial direction. This would now be easier, because radial spring loading to this invention already minimizes axial non-uniformities. The prior art method of squeezing the secondary seal into a uniform gap caused the most squeeze in places of largest secondary seal thickness and this in turn caused widening of the secondary seal in the axial direction, largest in the very same places where the seal is too thick already. One can appreciate how this effect magnified cross-section non-uniformities in the axial direction. This is not the case with the spring method to this invention. Yet, should the ultimate compliance in the axial direction be desired, it is possible to increase axial penetration of the disc 32 into the secondary seal 26 by providing an edge contact as shown in FIG. 4. This way less axial force will be required for the same depth of penetration and elimination of non-uniformities will therefore require lesser axial force. Another way of increasing axial compliance is the above mentioned use of a spring in the axial direction, such as the formed spring 54 per FIG. 7, with alternating slots like those of the spring 28.
FIG. 10 shows one more embodiment of the invention, this one using an ordinary coil spring 56 in tension. Stretched spring 56 imposes inward pressure onto the secondary seal 26, pressing it into contact with the cylindrical surface 30 of the seal housing 10 with a known force.
FIG. 11 is a side view per section 11--11 of FIG. 10. Again, the force acting through coil spring 56 wires on the secondary seal 26 is relatively independent of its cross-section non-uniformities, such as the narrowing of the cross-section shown on the picture.
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Hänvisningar finns i följande patent
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Melissa Earll owns stacks of classic comic books, baseball cards that include a young Hank Aaron and Whitey Ford and other collectibles she wants to sell.
But she can't do so on eBay, she says. According to Earll, the popular auction site can't confirm her as a seller because she's deaf.
"eBay keeps me from taking advantage of opportunities that other people have and it's because I couldn't hear," Earll, of Nevada, Mo., told CNN affiliate WDAF-TV. "Somebody has to have the courage to stand up and say 'this is not right.'"
At issue, according to Earll, is the way the auction site verifies sellers. eBay says it offered Earll alternative ways of verifying her identity. But the dispute casts a light on a bigger question that some experts say may need to go all the way to the Supreme Court: Just how responsive must the Internet be to the Americans With Disabilities Act?
The Internet has long been seen as an equalizer, granting everyone the same access to information regardless of cultural background or economic status. But for some users with disabilities, it's not so simple.
"The ADA was signed in 1990. The Internet didn't really start going until the 1990s," said William D. Goren, a Decatur, Ga., attorney who specializes in cases involving the federal law. "This is a topic we're going to have to be watching. This is not going away."
In Earll's case, she says she can't use eBay's verification system, which requires sellers to retrieve and submit a password from a telephone call. She can't hear the password and says eBay doesn't use voice-to-text or other technologies deaf people often rely upon.
"They said, can your mom or dad answer the phone for you," said Earll, who lip-reads and speaks with the assistance of a hearing aid. "And I said, I'm a 47-year-old adult woman. No. I don't live at home. No."
A federal judge didn't agree with her argument, though.
U.S. District Judge Edward Davila dismissed her complaint after finding it lacked enough facts. Specifically, he said Earll didn't prove that she tried to register as a seller after talking to eBay about a possible solution.
"eBay is pleased with the court's decision to dismiss the case," company spokeswoman Kari Ramirez said in a written statement. "eBay strives to provide all users with the best customer experiences possible, including those with special access needs. eBay will continue to stand ready to assist those who are deaf or hard of hearing become eBay sellers."
Earll is appealing that ruling.
Little legal agreement
eBay is the most high-profile website to be involved in a disabilities discrimination case since Netflix, which last year agreed to caption all of its online movies and other shows by 2014.
The move, which the National Association for the Deaf called "a model for the streaming video industry," came after Netlix was hit with a 2010 class-action suit because not all of its films were subtitled. A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled in the plaintiffs' favor, saying any new laws regarding the Internet should "complement, not supplant" the Americans With Disabilities Act.
"The Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund," which handled the case, "hopes that this is the beginning of opening the Internet for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals in streamed entertainment, education, government benefits, and more," the group said at the time.
Arguments for both sides in those and other cases point out something of a problem: There seems to be no agreement on how disability issues on the Web should be handled.
Goren, the disability law attorney, said judges have ruled both ways in those cases, and that even those who agreed cited different laws in doing so.
Some have stuck close to the original wording of the ADA, which requires that places of business be physically accessible to people with disabilities. Websites that represent brick-and-mortar stores need to comply, courts have ruled, while Web-only businesses do not.
Other courts have opined that ADA regulations should obviously be extended to Web companies, since the widespread popularity of Web commerce didn't exist when the law was written. It all makes for a confusing jumble of opinions that legal experts say needs to be clarified.
Congress hasn't been much help, either. Even when they made some changes to the original ADA language in 2008, they failed to address online concerns.
To the Supreme Court?
That, Goren says, means the Supreme Court will ultimately need to settle the issue once and for all.
"This is going to go all the way to the top," he said. "There are so many different approaches. You're going to see the courts split. Unless Congress steps in and talks about how the ADA applies to the Internet, the court's going to have to figure it out."
Eric Goldman, a professor of law at Santa Clara University and director of the school's High Tech Law Institute, thinks current law is somewhat more settled. The argument that won the day for eBay -- that the ADA doesn't specifically mention websites and, therefore, doesn't apply to them -- has prevailed except for in "quirky rulings," he says.
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VOIP Firms, Privacy Pros Spar with FCC Over Wiretaps
With a deadline looming in November for emergency 911 services for VOIP service providers, an alliance of civil liberties groups and technology companies recently filed a petition seeking a court ruling that the Federal Communications Commission "exceeded its statutory authority" when it adopted rules to ensure that law enforcement can tap Internet phone calls.
The petition for review was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and firms like Sun Microsystems, Pulver.com, and groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the American Library Association, are the plaintiffs.
The petition asks the court to review the FCCs "First Report and Order" on the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act and Broadband Access and Services, which was published in the Federal Register on October 13, 2005, as 70 Fed. Reg. 59664.
"Petitioners seek relief from the order on the grounds that it exceeds the commissions statutory authority and is arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by substantial evidence, and contrary to law," according to a copy of the lawsuit, obtained by Ziff-Davis Internet.
The petitioners indicate that the FCC is extending federal wiretapping rules to technologies that Congress did not intend it to cover, and also imposes a burdensome mandate on innovators.
Whats more, the petitioners said the rules threaten the "privacy" of users of the Internet.
"Were deeply concerned that extending a law written specifically for the public telephone network to these emerging technologies will stifle the sort of innovation that has been the hallmark of the Internet revolution," said John Morris, staff attorney for the Center for Democracy and Technology, based in Washington D.C., one of the petitioners in the lawsuit.
"Its always troubling when the government seeks to limit how technologists design new products. In this case, its particularly problematic, since the government has offered no evidence that it has any trouble intercepting Internet communications."
The petitioners allege that ISPs will be forced, if the rule remains, and is not vacated by the court, to rebuild their networks to suit the FBI and other police authorities. The requirements would be in place by early 2007.
What kind of technology enhancements would be required?
An attorney, Kurt Opsahl, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the litigants in the suit against the FCC, wrote in his blog recently that the FCCs rules will require Internet broadband providers and VOIP providers to build "backdoors" into their networks to make it easier for law enforcement to "listen in on" private communications.
But some legal and security experts indicate that the government as long as it obtains a proper search warrant or authorization has the right to monitor communications, no matter what technology is involved in its transmission, be it VOIP or regular telephone or wireless telephone.
"No governmental eavesdropping should be permitted except upon reasonable grounds and a judicial warrant," Joseph A. Morris, an attorney in private practice in Chicago, and a former White House lawyer and assistant attorney general of the United States during the Reagan Administration, told Ziff-Davis Internet.
"The rules should be the same, regardless of the technology of communication involved."
Morris, the former Reagan administration official, said that it is proper, and not all sinister, to require that technology "be capable of accommodating the needs of law enforcement, provided that law enforcement agencies are never, ever permitted to overstep their constitutional bounds."
Another expert, Steven R. Gordon, a professor of information technology management at Babson College, in Babson Park, Mass., said that the issue is not really technology at all here, but purely a legal question.
"The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994, or CALEA, which authorizes wiretapping in certain circumstances, clearly exempts information services and applies only to communication carriers," said Gordon, adding that the case likely "hinges on the interpretation" of the law that the court has.
ISPs, Gordon added, would like the law to be interpreted to not apply to them, "as it would exempt them from the need to purchase, install and operate the equipment needed for wiretapping."
Another source, a lawyer who worked on the Department of Justices grant evaluating the Carnivore surveillance technology, agreed.
"This is one variant of whether new technology can be shoehorned into an old statutory framework, somewhat like the Patriot Acts effort to use analogy of pen registers to capture the header information on e-mail," Harold J. Krent, dean and professor of law at Kent College of Law, at the Illinois Institute of Technology, said.
According to Robert Siciliano, anti-terrorism security consultant and author of the book "The Safety Minute," if Internet telephony is not covered by wiretapping rules, terrorists will be more likely to utilize VOIP networks.
"Communication systems are a fundamental terrorist tool that requires monitoring. If VOIP is not monitored then it becomes the path of least resistance for terrorists," said Siciliano, who is based in Boston.
"Electronic snooping technologies run by the National Security Agency have averted over 100 terrorist attacks Since 9-11," added Siciliano.
Furthermore as many as 3,000 terrorists, according to an article in "Newsweek," have been apprehended due to chatter extracted from telephone and e-mail communications."
Still, there are some who see the government acting in a draconian fashion against technology companies.
"Requiring products to be designed for surveillance is un-American," said Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute.
Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, views and analysis on voice over IP and telephony.
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