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Anchored Inflation Expectations and the Expected Misery Index
William Hester, CFA
All rights reserved and actively enforced.
It was about as coordinated a message as we've heard from the Fed of late. Fed Chairman Bernanke began the campaign with his June 9th speech at the Boston Fed saying that policy makers will “strongly resist an erosion of longer-term inflation expectations”. Fed Governor Frederic Mishkin followed up saying that it was “absolutely critical” to contain future price expectations. Fed Vice Chairman Don Kohn also added to the message saying, “It is very important to ensure that policy action anchor inflation expectations… This anchoring is critical.”
The speeches and the sound bites that followed moved the markets. The dollar strengthened, bonds sold off, and investors priced in with near certainty that the Fed would raise interest rate multiple times by the end of the year. Those moves have been mostly unwound in the past week. But it was clear that the Fed's renewed focus on inflation and inflation expectations caught the market off guard.
Bernanke's speech was relatively brief. There were only a few paragraphs discussing the role of inflation expectations and their role in future inflation. But he and other Fed governors have discussed this topic in greater detail in previous speeches and research papers. A speech Bernanke gave last summer to fellow economists at the NBER – and a paper Frederick Mishkin published a month earlier – reveals how much emphasis Bernanke's Fed puts on inflation expectations. And since both sets of ideas were delivered prior to the credit crisis, the views offer a look into the Fed's thinking that is uncorrupted by the economic fires they are currently fighting.
Both Bernanke and Mishkin argued last year that inflation expectations greatly influence actual inflation, and therefore the Fed's attempts at achieving price stability. And potential changes in inflation expectations are highly dependent on how well expectations are anchored. Bernanke writes, “I use the term ‘anchored' to mean relatively insensitive to incoming data. So, for example, if the public experiences a spell of inflation higher than their long-run expectation, but their long-run expectation of inflation changes little as a result, then inflation expectations are well anchored. If, on the other hand, the public reacts to a short period of higher-than-expected inflation by marking up their long-run expectation considerably, then expectations are poorly anchored.”
Inflation expectations have continuously become better anchored over the last 25 years. Since Paul Volker stared down 14 percent inflation in 1980, inflation expectations have been generally falling, with lower volatility. Bernanke argues that this trend of better anchored inflation expectations has occurred at the same time that inflation has become less sensitive to changes in both aggregate demand and to supply shocks. “A lower sensitivity of long-run inflation to supply shocks would imply that such shocks are much less likely to generate economic instability today than they would have been several decades ago. Notably, the sharp increases in energy prices over the past few years have not led either to persistent inflation or to a recession, in contrast to the U.S. experience of the 1970's”, Bernanke said in the speech last summer.
The order of importance that Bernanke argues for is important. In his view, actual changes in demand and supply are less important than the role they play in setting expectations for future price levels. “A one-off change in energy prices can translate into persistent inflation only if it leads to higher expected inflation and a consequent ‘wage-price spiral'. With inflation expectations well anchored, a one-time increase in energy prices should not lead to a permanent increase in inflation but only to a change in relative prices.”
It's easy to see what motivated the Fed to launch a verbal campaign to contain inflation expectations. The graph below shows the average of three surveys that track inflation expectations (the Conference Board's 12-month forward inflation expectation and the University of Michigan's short and long-term expectations index). The pop in expectations put this measure of inflation expectations at its highest level in more than 20 years. Separately, the Conference Board's measure of inflation expectations is at a 20-year high, while the University of Michigan's one-year ahead index is at a 25-year high.
It looks like the swift and substantial change in inflation expectations was a catalyst for the shared message this month. The Fed's views on the role of inflation expectations also helps explain why the Fed has been mostly mum while the price of oil doubled and the dollar lost 13 percent in the year since last summer (outside of brief mentions in the Fed's FOMC minutes).
Neither Bernanke nor Mishkin argue that inflation expectations are forever anchored. A loss by the general public in the perception that the Fed can control prices would quickly unhinge these expectations, much like what happened in the 1970's. Even though inflation expectations seem to play a major role in setting policy, the Fed has also admitted to having an incomplete understanding of the process. “We need a better understanding of how inflation expectations affect actual inflation and of the factors that determine inflation expectations,” Bernanke says. Anchored inflation expectations have been a blessing that the Fed has welcomed, but which they don't fully understand.
If inflation expectations have taken the prominent role in guiding future inflation, some difficult policy situations could arise. It is generally expected that more slack in the labor force should ease inflation. But Bernanke and Mishkin have argued that inflation has become less responsive to the unemployment gap, while inflation expectations have grown in importance. That means it may be more difficult to lower inflation and inflation expectations once they become elevated. If inflation is less responsive to labor slack, more slack – that is, higher unemployment - will be needed to lower inflation (the measure of this tradeoff is often referred to as the sacrifice ratio).
This means that delaying convincing actions that would show that the Fed can contain price levels would require a more severe response further down the road. A credibly tough monetary policy would be a more manageable task if the economy was recovering from a recession, instead of what looks like the early stages of a contraction. Add in credit markets where counter-party fear still dominates, an unemployment rate still rising, and a presidential race looming, and the Fed seems to be left with few effective responses.
The Expected Misery Index
Inflation isn't the only concern when monitoring consumer expectations. Expectations about labor market prospects are also important. These expectations are partially formed by the current trends in the economy. The Misery Index is a metric that tries to capture those trends. It's an index that has a rich history in financial markets and U.S. politics. During the late 1970's and early 1980's politicians were voted into office by quoting the index, and then eventually voted out based on the same measure a few years later. That's when the inflation was at 14 percent and the unemployment rate was at 6 percent, leaving a Misery Index of 20 percent. Considering it's an election year it's not surprising to hear the measure talked about more frequently, including a recent Wall Street Journal article.
The graph below is a twist on the concept, which we'll call The Expected Misery Index. (Although misery is not the word I'd choose to describe the overall current economy, we'll stick with the nomenclature). It's the sum of expected inflation and the Conference Board's survey of Jobs Hard to Get (scaled by 10 to roughly equate changes in the two). Expected inflation is probably a better measure for how consumers are feeling about the changes in price levels compared with reported inflation. Likewise, the Conference Board's survey question asking how difficult it is to find work is also a timely indicator of workers expectations about job security. It tracks well with the unemployment rate and sometimes leads it.
The Expected Misery Index sums different sub-indexes than the original measure, so the levels are not comparable. But the graph shows that the Expected Misery Index hasn't been this elevated since the late 1970's and early 1980's. What's also noteworthy is how quickly expectations have shifted. It seems that consumers had previously been treating rising food and energy prices and early signs of labor market weakness as temporary. That changed in matter of a month or two.
There are other reasons outside of the unemployment rate and inflation expectations for consumers to be - if not miserable – more than a bit gloomy. When economic data trickles in through the month, some numbers look better than others and all the data is compared to what was expected. This process of data digestion can at times make it easy to miss underlying trends. But when you isolate the changes in the finances of consumers over the last year the pressures that consumers continue to face become clearer.
We can think of the typical consumer or household of consumers as a small business. Money comes in by way of employment to purchase assets and cover expenses. Any money that drops down to the bottom line can be saved and invested. And the health of the business or household will be partially determined by the value of the assets they own and the burden of financing the purchase of those assets. When you look at the consumer though this lens, the news continues to be discouraging. The tables below show various indicators of income, borrowings, and assets and liabilities. In each table the latest data is shown along with its year ago level.
The first table shows trends in jobs, income, and equity cash outs – money coming in. Here are some of the details: jobless claims have risen 18 percent over the past year, and are approaching the psychologically important level of 400 thousand; the unemployment rate has jumped a full percentage point, where half of that gain came last month; the percentage of workers finding it difficult to find jobs has risen by 40 percent; real hourly earnings changes are now negative; the change in personal income peaked and has now turned down noticeably; quarterly mortgage equity cash outs have fallen by more than 60 percent.
The second table shows the trends in consumer inflation and in confidence surveys: the CPI has jumped from 2.7 percent last year to 4.2 percent in the most recent report; import inflation is at its highest level in more than 25 years; AAA's index tracking the price of a gallon of regular gasoline has jumped 28 percent in a year to more than $4 a gallon; the Conference Board's measure of expectations has fallen 50 percent in the past 12 months while the University of Michigan's barometer has fallen by more than 30 percent.
One of the trickiest calculations in creating scenarios for the direction of consumer spending and the economy may be how consumers react to lower assets prices. A boom in stock portfolios and home values has buttressed the confidence of consumers for almost two decades. Both are now falling in tandem. By Professor Robert Shiller's latest tally home prices have fallen 14 percent in the last year. April's data are scheduled to be announced this week and economists expect the trend of falling prices to continue. Mortgage rates – which help determine a household's liability burden – are only modestly lower from a year ago. In equity portfolios, the S&P 500 Index has fallen 13 percent over the last year and is down 15 percent from its peak.
Although the personal savings rate isn't the most exciting data series to track, it could become important. Eventually the angst consumers currently report feeling about future inflation and job prospects could flow into their concerns about the level of retirement savings. National savings continues to be less than 1 percent of the reported $12 trillion of personal income. A small change in the savings rate would have important ramifications for the trend in consumer spending. While there doesn't seem to be an immediate cause for a change in savings habits, there's an argument that trends will need to change over the next few years, especially among baby boomers. In its latest survey the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that, “forty-nine percent of workers report total savings and investments (not including the value of their primary residence of any defined benefit plans) of less than $50,000. Twenty-two percent of workers and 28 percent of retirees say they have no savings of any kind.”
Pressures on the finances of consumers show up in some spending data, but not all. The rate of overall consumption has dropped in half from 3 percent a year ago government reports show. The rate of growth in retail sales has also been halved in the last year. Sales of automobiles have fallen by 12 percent. Sales outside of these types of purchases are healthier. The market's focus on the various retail indexes may sharpen further over the next few months.
The Fed is in a tough spot. There are early signs that inflation expectations - an indicator that Ben Bernanke has said has first-order implications for the performance of inflation and the economy – are becoming unanchored. Consumers are beginning to assume that many of the rising prices that they see about them will stick. At the same time the consumers mood is worsening, pushed down by weak labor market trends, economy-wide inflation, sinking asset prices, and rising nest-egg anxieties. With the Fed in a position where it is unable to raise rates materially from these levels, it leaves only the power of the pulpit. Fed officials must convince consumers and households that they will be tough on rising prices, even if they can't directly confront the problem today.
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James Madison Fellowships
Undergrad, or Post UG, or Graduate
Field of Study:
Arts & Humanities
Please check website below for the specific date.
The James Madison Foundation offers James Madison Fellowships to a select group of individuals desiring to become outstanding teachers of the American Constitution. This scholarship is aimed at students who are interested in pursuing an M.A. that focuses on politics, American history, or teaching.
Junior Fellowships are awarded to students who are about to complete, or have recently completed, their undergraduate course of study and plan to begin graduate work on a full-time basis. Junior Fellows have two years to complete their degree. The Fellowships are intended exclusively for graduate study leading to a master's degree. James Madison Fellows can attend any accredited institution of higher education in the United States. Each individual entering the James Madison Fellowship Program will be expected to pursue and complete a master's degree in one of the following (listed in order of preference): master of arts degree (M.A.) in American history or in political science (also referred to as "government and politics" or as "government"); master of arts in teaching degree (M.A.T.) concentrating on either American Constitutional history (in a history department) or American government, political institutions, and political theory (in a political science department); master of education degree (M.Ed.) or the master of arts or master of science in education, with a concentration in American history or American government, political institutions, and political theory.
Visit the James Madison Fellowship site.
Public Affairs Presentation
Amount: Tuition and fees for relevant graduate school, up to $24,000 prorated over course of graduate study
Duration: Two years full-time or five years part-time (for senior fellows)
Fields of Study: Education, US Politics or Government
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By The Rev. Canon Habacuc Ramos-Huerta
The Psalm for today has been a favorite of mine for many years, I can say it by memory is like the canticles of morning or vesper prayer that become so familiar during the days of seminary that you end up saying them or sometimes you even find yourself singing while driving or writing or walking.—Oh, how good and pleasant it is, when brethren live together in unity!— Unity? What is that all about? The love of God has to have an effect in our lives and of course in the life of the Church. But then we find that we all are humans and we make mistakes and we do what we don’t want to do and we say what we don’t want to say and we act the way we don’t want to act and finally we find ourselves struggling, fighting, and probably thinking: I will go away, I don’t want to have nothing to do with my brother or sister in Christ. But wait, hey wait! – Is important to reflect, to sit, to be quiet and I suggest to read Psalm 133 and accept the invitation to receive the fine oil on our head and receive the dew of Hermon and refresh our existence. Knowledge is good, to understand what we do is better and what we do as Christians is to proclaim to all that we know God and that in knowing God we have a challenge for the rest of our live.—“ Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 3 But whoever loves God is known by God.” – So, if we love God we are known by Him and this love should direct us straight to the question again: What is love for if we are not willing to work or live with our neighbor who thinks radically different? If we believe in God we have the greatest challenge and this is to love unconditionally. Unity is love as well as love is unity.
Have you been tested in hard situations about decision taking when there are no options?
How do you act when something hot is on the table: argue, fight, or just leave?
Dear God gives love and knowledge and help us to use it to have a better world. Amen.
he Rev. Canon Habacuc Ramos-Huerta is Secretary General of the Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico
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The issue of gays in the military has been controversial for a long time.
I know. I’ve written about it.
But the death of don’t ask, don’t tell, it turns out, wasn’t the end of the world for the soldiers, airmen and two recruits I met with Tuesday.
Most were fine with its demise. Most, in fact, were ready to be done with it.
You’d be surprised why. It isn’t that people are totally comfortable with gays just yet. Not everyone is, especially in a military that is by its nature conservative, and that’s to be expected even if American society has come a long way on the issue since Congress passed don’t ask, don’t tell in 1993.
Capt. Cory Wallace, a two-tour veteran of Iraq, explained why a military that once found a comfort zone in don’t ask, don’t tell no longer needed it.
His is the first of several soldier voices I plan to share in this space, but I think Wallace nailed it cold. Don’t ask, don’t tell became irrelevant amid the revolving door of deployments to two forever wars.
“DADT,” as it’s called, died of old age in a tired, war-weary Army.
Here is an example of how it happened. There was a gay supply sergeant, the guy who was responsible for getting food, water and ammunition to troops scattered at small, and sometimes very vulnerable, combat outposts in Iraq.
There were other gay troops throughout the armed services just like him.
“And the guy was one of those dudes who could get you everything you wanted, any time of the day or night, just one of the hardest-working guys you ever met. But everyone knew he was gay,” recalled Wallace, who is now working on a master’s degree as part of an Army education program.
“No one cared because, I mean, this guy was able to show up with MREs on time. Anything soldiers needed he always got for them so it’s kind of like, well, gee, are you going to hold the fact that he’s gay against his ability to get us food and ammunition and everything like that? No, I don’t think so.
“Performance trumps whatever you do in your off time or whatever you believe in or what political party you’re affiliated with. It’s just that we’ve been running so hard, so fast, for so long that people just kind of put their differences to the wayside and know it’s not just working toward a common goal. It’s basically staying alive.”
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By IrkPay Payday loans
|Why Airedales Need Rescue|
Everyone loves them because they look so cute and cuddly, and who can resist those innocent eyes and puppy breath? Airedales are so adorable as puppies and adult Airedales are just as cute as the babies! They look like a big cuddly teddy bear so its not hard to imagine why people are drawn to them.
What they do, or fail to do, after bringing one into their home is often the reason we see them surrendered or dumped at the shelter.
Oftentimes the scenario goes something like this: The family decides they want a puppy and choose an Airedale. The puppy comes home and everything is going just as planned. Airedales are intelligent, so potty training is going well. They purchase a crate because puppies need to teethe just like babies, except babies don't have access to the things puppies do, like that favorite pair of shoes or Aunt Betty's antique table. The puppy gets into mischief but he's small so they ignore the mischief, or just put him in his crate.
A few months go by and the puppy is really growing. Soon, what was viewed as mischief (or cute) is downright destruction. It's not so cute anymore and much more difficult to put a 50 pound "puppy" somewhere he really doesn't want to go! Somewhere in the back of your mind you remember someone telling you about Airedales and their level of energy. They may have even mentioned the importance of early training and socialization. If only you had taken the time....
What can you do?? You have a job. You have to go to work everyday. We all have jobs. Well, almost all of us...Except for the puppy who desperately needs a job, for example learning to sit at the door, walk on leash without dragging the owner down the street, cute pet tricks, obedience class, anything!!
Dogs need jobs. If they don't have a job-- don't worry---they will soon become self-employed and believe me--you won't like the occupation they choose! They may choose to be an interior decorator, or a landscaper, garbage collector, the possibilities are endless! They need mental and physical exercise just like their human families. When they are deprived of it, they get into trouble and soon there's a 60 pound dog that is out of control. The family had good intentions in the beginning but now they have a puppy that weighs 50 or 60 pounds with no training and because he's so lonely and bored with nothing to do--you guessed it--he's a self-employed handyman who can do almost anything! He loves his family and can't understand why they seem so angry when they get home. After all, he's so happy to see them since they've been gone all day and he's been working so hard on all the housework!
Things aren't working out too well indoors, from the families perspective, so they decide to move the dog outside to live, after all they do have a fenced yard just for him. For the puppy/dog it's solitary confinement. Dogs are highly social creatures and want nothing more than the love and attention of their human family. This dog has decided his new occupation will be escape artist! Soon he's running the neighborhood and streets. The family makes a couple attempts at bringing him home but one day he disappears... They figure he's found another home... If only they had called rescue, this dog would be on his way to a wonderful forever home! He wasn't so lucky.
Now he sits staring through the fence of his small run surrounded by other dogs who don't understand what happened to their family. He's found another home alright, but unless someone rescues him from this "home" it will be the end of this dogs life.
written by Susan Fox
2013 Calendars are gone.
Thanks for your support
Click here to participate in the 2014 calendar.
Plans have already started for next year's event on April 27th.
Click here for more info.
The mission of SOAR is to rescue purebred Airedale Terriers who have found themselves without a home, and help them get started on the road to a happy, new life.
Fund raising with star power.
Click here for details.
Click here to read about this special fund for Senior Airedales.
Written especially for SOAR, click here to listen, read the words, and see Ryan Humbert's photo.
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Gadhafi Buried, Location Kept Secret
Originally published on Tue October 25, 2011 8:17 am
The bodies of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and his son Muatassim were buried this morning in a secret location, according to officials of the local military council in Misrata, Libya.
Gadhafi was captured and killed last Thursday in his hometown of Sirte. For most of the last four days, his body had been on display in a Misrata commercial food locker.
As NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reported from Tripoli for our Newscast desk, the burials came after much debate in Libya over what to do with Gadhafi's remains. "The leadership, though, always maintained his burial site should remain secret because they didn't want it to turn into a shrine or conversely be defaced by those who hated him," she said.
Lourdes also reported that officials said "Islamic prayers were ... read over the remains" and that some of Gadhafi's relatives were in attendance.
According to al-Jazeera, some of Gadhafi's tribe members "were allowed to pray over the body before it was buried, and then [transitional] commanders took his body into the unknown location in the desert and buried it."
Also buried with Gadhafi and his son was former Libyan Defense Minister Abu Bakr Younis.
As we reported Monday, Libya's interim leaders have said they will investigate the circumstances surrounding Gadhafi's death. Libyan officials have said they believe he was killed in crossfire between his supporters and his captors. A coroner has ruled that a shot to Gadhafi's head was the fatal wound. But videos of the chaotic capture scene indicate he was beaten.
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esponse to the first Cosmic Larva Quiz, this column's Magic-related response to the better known "Cosmo Quiz" of women's magazines, was tremendous. I have therefore resolved to beat this successful device into the ground, until you are all sick of it. Here's Quiz #2.
Quizzes in fashion magazines are always asking the irrelevant stuff: how much does your boyfriend like you? Are you a procrastinator or a doer? What does your belief in horoscopes say about your likelihood to die miserable and alone?
But not this quiz. This Cosmic Larva Quiz will ask the stuff that really matters. For today, it's all about knowing how to play against multiple opponents. Oh, also, it's about taking more gratuitous shots at tournament duel enthusiasts. (Nothing personal, guys – I just like throwing red meat out there from time to time.)
#1: What is the optimal number of opponents in a free-for-all multiplayer Magic game?
- Two, the minimum number.
- Four, since that sets up a comfortable pace without taking too long between turns.
- Nine, because taking turns more frequently than once every quarter hour is an intellectual burden.
- None. Um, isn't the point to win?
- Twenty, because the more opponents there are, the more chances you get to build really cool and intricate alliances with people to help you deal with all those extra enemies.
#2: Which Magic card best symbolizes your approach to multiplayer deck construction?
Laughing Hyena – narrowly focused on being silly
Spiteful Bully – narrowly focused on powerful cards
Master Warcraft – narrowly focused on complex tactics and interactions
Scorched Earth – narrowly focused on destructive power
Political Trickery – narrowly focused on confusing opponents
#3: Which Magic card best symbolizes your approach to multiplayer deck play?
Spiteful Bully – posing continual threats to the board
Master Warcraft – analyzing threats and providing measured response
Scorched Earth – blowing everything up continually
Laughing Hyena – presenting opportunities for humor during the game
Political Trickery – attempting to fool opponents into thinking you're not a threat
#4: If all five players have a single Grizzly Bears and someone attacks you with theirs on their turn, what do you do on your turn?
- Swing back, because the guy's gotta learn not to do that sort of thing.
- Nothing, because it's a long game and two damage doesn't mean anything.
- Nothing, because I blocked, thereby giving three other opponents an opportunity to smack me for two apiece as well.
- Swing at a different player, showing my carefree spirit.
- Swing back, because I have created a network of alliances whereby I have been assured by reliable sources that so-and-so won't attack me if I'm super-nice and get him an ice-cream cone later on in the evening.
#5: What is this?
- Why, that's a ferret, also known as mustela putorius furo – a weasellike, usually albino mammal related to the polecat and often trained to hunt rats or rabbits.
- Why, that's a Ferrett, a creature who enjoys playing Magic but still has difficulty grasping basic principles of multiplayer strategy. Why, he thinks that multiplayer is all about politics! Whadda rat.
- Why, that's a Ferrett, a creature who enjoys playing Magic and has it all right when it comes to basic principles of multiplayer strategy. Hey, didn't he have Anthony beat in a high-profile multiplayer game a few years ago, until someone interfered and proved that there is, in fact, politics in multiplayer?
- Why, I'm pretty sure that's a saproling token. Doesn't matter if it is or not – I'm printing out this page, cutting it out, making a trillion copies, and using it that way for my Doubling Season deck.
- Why, that's a Ferrett, a true idiot savant when it comes to multiplayer Magic. I must follow him and win him over to my side! Come back, pretty ferret, come back!
#6: Describe your reaction to an opponent's Wrath of God.
- "Phew, that was close! I was falling behind in board position."
- "I knew I shouldn't have played that extra creature! Now I only have one left in my hand to recover. Other players will have more."
- "But you killed my creature, which was pounding on you successfully! Why would you do that?
- "HEEEEYYYY! We had a DEEEEEAL! You wouldn't blow up the board, and I wouldn't whine like a TRAAAAAAAAIN whistle!"
#7: Describe your reaction to an opponent's Armageddon.
Beats on the caster.
Beats on the caster.
Beats on the caster.
- "HEEEEYYYY! We had a DEEEEEAL! You wouldn't blow up all lands, and I would get to play my cool CREEEEEEEEATURES!"
#8: Who will survive the longest at this Magic free-for-all?
- The woman with the red hair, since she just played a huge white card like Balance.
- The woman standing, since she's obviously analyzing threats across the entire board.
- The guy closest to us, since he's sneaking peeks at Green Shirt's hand.
- Green Shirt, because he's about to open a can of whoop-ass on Mr. Peeks-a-Lot.
- The small woman in the blue shirt, since she's crouching down and making sure no one notices her.
#9: You are in a six player game. Everybody has five life, your opponents have no cards in hand – and no other non-land permanents except for the five choices below. You have plenty of mana and cards in hand to neutralize ANY TWO of them at instant speed (though only one at a time). What is your best strategy? (Pick the closest to your preference.)
- This looks bleak. Who cares about the second creature? Threaten the Bloodfire Colossus now, forcing the controller to sack it, and accept a tie game.
- Neutralize the Verdant Force now, to stop the token generation. Saprolings are bad. Save the other removal for the first creature that attacks you with lethal damage.
- Neutralize Szadek, Lord of Secrets – he doubles in size, every turn. Save the other removel for the first creature that attacks you with lethal damage.
- Neutralize either the Darksteel Colossus or Akroma now, since they're incredibly hard to remove and you're probably the only one who can. Save the other removal for the first creature that attacks you with lethal damage.
- Leave the board as is. You never know who you can convince to help you down the road.
#10: Complete this argument: "I lost that free-for-all last week because…"
- "…I was too aggressive at the beginning and lost steam toward the end."
- "…I missed a key interaction on the board, which my opponent controlled."
- "…I got mana-screwed."
- "…I could have played my cards differently, but just made bad choices."
- "…everyone ganged up on me."
#11 You are at a critical juncture of a five-player free-for-all. You draw a black card with the artwork below, and have plenty of mana to cast it and/or use any abilities it has. What do you want the text to say?
- Mongo-Eye, 11/11 trampler. When this comes into play, if you have exactly 11 creature cards in your graveyard, you win the game.
- Eye of the Mongo, 4/4 flyer. , sacrifice a creature: Draw a card.
- Get Dizzy With It, Sorcery. All players sacrifice all permanents and discard their hands.
- My Vortex of Pain, Enchantment. Whenever an opponent plays a creature spell, you may pay . If you do, destroy target nonblack creature.
- Big One-Eyed Buddy, 6/6 first striker. At the beginning of your upkeep, choose an opponent. This may not attack that opponent this turn.
Give yourself 1 point for every "a" and "d" answer, and 2 points for every "b" answer. Subtract 2 points for every "c" answer. Do nothing with "e" answers – they get you nowhere to begin with.
-20 to 0: Hopeless. Stick to duels.
1 to 10: Needs Work. Your instincts lead to a certain bias – maybe all combo decks, or decks that are too aggressive – which lead to problems in multiplayer games. Keep your eyes open to the board, and learn to detect real threats.
11 to 15: Solid. Nothing wrong with your game. Like any player, you need to be on the lookout for improvements. Your best bet? Think more consciously about the threats on the board. Which are worth your time? Which are not?
16 to 20: A Multiplayer Maven. You know why you win multiplayer games, and you know why you lose them – it all depends on successful identification, prioritization, and removal of threats.
If you didn't get the score you felt you deserved, or have a concern with the metrics underlying this complex analytical tool…well, then, you missed the point of this amiably intended diversion. Happy holidays.
Anthony has been playing multiple Magic formats for several years, and has been writing for much longer than that. His young adult fantasy novel JENNIFER SCALES AND THE ANCIENT FURNACE, co-written with wife MaryJanice Davidson and published by Berkley Books, is available now.
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“Centralized anything doesn’t really work,” Hager said, adding that he was unperturbed by the prospect of a federal shutdown. “I’m not sure what they do has a big impact on my life.’’
That jaundiced view of the federal government is common here, local leaders say, even though the region’s surging economy is built to a large degree on a foundation of federal spending.
About 7 percent of the area’s workers are federal employees, more than double the U.S. average, according to a Washington Post analysis. Meanwhile, federal spending on roads, a huge Federal Aviation Administration center and a sprawling Air Force base not only keeps more than 20,000 civilians employed but also is helping to nurture entire sectors of the area’s increasingly prosperous and diverse economy.
Overall, the state gets back $1.35 for every dollar its residents and businesses pay in federal taxes, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group. That’s the 15th most generous return among the 50 states.
“On one hand, you have this fairly heavy concentration of federal employees and spending here,” said Cindy Rosenthal, a University of Oklahoma political scientist and mayor of nearby Norman. “On the other hand, there is a lot of sentiment that the federal government is too large, too intrusive and probably too wasteful.”
Reconciling these competing realities has emerged as the defining issue in Congress, where the debate has swung from President Obama’s desire to boost spending on services including education and alternative energy to how much to cut the budget and taxes. Congress has not revealed which programs will be cut in the deal reached Friday, but Oklahoma City could have a lot to lose when details are released this week.
“There is no question that government jobs are great ones to have in a community,” Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said. “They are stable, people have benefits, and there is little turnover. Losing a lot of them would hurt.”
Cornett said that as federal lawmakers went back and forth in budget negotiations with a possible federal shutdown hanging in the balance, he never heard anyone talk about it. “I think the sense was that it would not affect them at all,” he said. Yet Cornett acknowledged the crucial federal role in the region’s growth, even if many voters do not see it. Given what he called the area’s entrepreneurial bent, the mayor said, his city would probably withstand large cutbacks in federal largess “better than most places.” Still, he said, a big reduction would pose significant problems.
In 1995, Oklahoma City became a target of the extreme antipathy some people feel toward the federal government, when domestic terrorists detonated a truck bomb that destroyed the downtown Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and killed 168 people. Residents here were horrified and came together to condemn that crime.
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Today I am back in Redmond, Wa. delivering another Extreme Presentation workshop at Microsoft. I always enjoy debating the causes of (and solutions to) "Death by PowerPoint" with the makers of PowerPoint themselves, and today was no exception.
The question of audience focus came up a lot today, which reminded me that I'd promised to go into more detail about the seven deadly mistakes presenters make, mistakes that result from being presenter-focused, not audience-focused.
Here are the first two:
Mistake #1: Setting presentation objectives in terms of what the presenter intends to do.
Your objectives should not be about what you—the presenter—intend to do in your presentation. Those are not objectives; they’re an agenda. Your objectives should be about how your audience will change as a result of your presentation: how will they think and act differently after they leave the room. If their thinking or behavior is not changed as a result of your presentation, then why are you wasting their time—or yours?
Mistake #2: Focusing on what you want from your audience.
Most of the time, you deliver a presentation because you want something from your audience. You are selling a product or an idea; why else would you go through the bother of writing and delivering a presentation? But that’s your motivation for being there. What is their motivation for listening to you? The only reason your audience is listening to you is they are hoping for some information that will help them solve one of the many problems they are facing in life. If you want to capture and keep their attention, focus your entire presentation deliberately and undividedly on solving an important problem of theirs.
More to come.
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Financial Alchemy Foils Capital Rules as Banks Redefine Risk
Banks in Europe are undercutting regulators’ demands that they boost capital by declaring assets they hold less risky today than they were yesterday.
Banco Santander SA (SAN), Spain’s largest lender, and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA), the second-biggest, say they can go halfway to adding 13.6 billion euros ($18.8 billion) of capital by changing how they calculate risk-weightings, the probability of default lenders assign to loans, mortgages and derivatives. The practice, known as “risk-weighted asset optimization,” allows banks to boost capital ratios without cutting lending, selling assets or tapping shareholders.
Regulators in Europe, seeking to stem the region’s sovereign-debt crisis, ordered banks last month to increase core capital to 9 percent of risk-weighted assets by the end of June. Lenders, facing a 106 billion-euro shortfall, are reluctant to plug the gap by cutting dividends or bonuses and are struggling to sell assets or raise cash in rights offerings. Politicians are trying to stop banks from the alternative, cutting back lending, because it could trigger a recession.
“By allowing sophisticated banks to do their own modeling, we are allowing the poacher to participate in being the game- keeper,” said Adrian Blundell-Wignall, deputy director of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s financial and enterprise affairs division in Paris. “That risks making core capital ratios useless.”
Spanish banks aren’t alone in using the practice. Unione di Banche Italiane SCPA (UBI), Italy’s fourth-biggest bank, said it will change its risk-weighting model instead of turning to investors for the 1.5 billion euros regulators say it needs. Commerzbank AG (CBK), Germany’s second-biggest lender, said it will do the same. Lloyds Banking Group Plc (LLOY), Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, and HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), Europe’s largest bank, both said they cut risk-weighted assets by changing the model.
“It’s probably not the highest-quality way to move to the 9 percent ratio,” said Neil Smith, a bank analyst at West LB in Dusseldorf, Germany. “Maybe a more convincing way would be to use the same models and reduce the risk of your assets.”
European firms, governed by Basel II rules, use their own models to decide how much capital to hold based on an assessment of how likely assets are to default and the riskiness of counterparties. The riskier the asset, the heavier weighting it is assigned and the more capital a bank is required to allocate. The weighting affects the profitability of trading and investing in those assets for the bank.
While firms submit their models to national regulators once a year, they don’t have to disclose them publicly, and risk- weightings for the same assets vary among banks, regulators and analysts say.
“There are potentially significant differences in how different banks calculate RWA,” Daragh Quinn, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. in London, said in a telephone interview. “It’s a very gray area.”
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which has set its own capital standards for banks worldwide independent of those laid out by the European Banking Authority, said in September it planned to review how lenders apply weightings to make sure “the outcomes of the new rules are consistent in practice across banks and jurisdictions.”
That may mean publicly identifying lenders that game the rules, said a person with knowledge of the committee’s talks who declined to be identified because the discussions are private. A spokesman for the Basel committee declined to comment.
Most U.S. banks are governed by Basel I rules, which assign standardized weightings to broad classes of assets, since the U.S. never adopted the second round of regulations.
The proportion of risk-weighted assets to total assets at European banks is half that of American banks, according to an April 6 Barclays Capital report written by analysts Simon Samuels and Mike Harrison. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon in September described the Basel III rules, which give banks until 2019 to increase their core capital ratio to 9.5 percent of risk-weighted assets, as “anti-American.”
Vikram Pandit, chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc. has called for banks to publish details of their risk-weightings on a quarterly basis. At a speech to the Bretton Woods Committee in Washington in September, he said weightings should also be “benchmarked” to ensure consistency across the industry.
Under Basel III, which maintains the same risk-weighting methodology as Basel II, all lenders will be required to use their own models to assess the riskiness of assets and therefore how much capital they need to hold.
“As you move to Basel III, these issues will become more ubiquitous, not less,” the OECD’s Blundell-Wignall said. “The core Tier 1 ratio is a ratio of two meaningless numbers, which itself is a meaningless number because banks can alter the ratio themselves. Basel III does absolutely nothing to address that.”
Sheila Bair, who stepped down as chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in June, has called Europe’s adoption of risk-weighting “naive.” The Washington-based regulator guarantees most consumers’ deposits in U.S. banks.
“It is in a bank manager’s interest to say his assets have low risk, because it enables the bank to maximize leverage and return on equity, which in turn can lead to bigger pay and bonuses,” Bair wrote in Fortune magazine on Nov. 2. “Indeed, even during the Great Recession, as delinquencies and defaults increased, most European banks were saying their assets were becoming safer.”
Some regulators, including Bair, have pushed for a leverage ratio that would require lenders to hold a fixed amount of capital against total assets.
One reason there’s a difference between risk-weighted assets and total assets is that some securities, such as certain sovereign bonds, carry a zero risk-weighting, requiring banks to hold no capital.
‘Gaming the System’
“A basic leverage ratio would be rougher, but it takes away the risk of gaming the system,” said Stephany Griffith- Jones, an economist and lecturer in financial markets at Columbia University in New York. “We need to move away from outsourcing regulation of the banks to the banks.”
European bank stocks have tumbled 31 percent this year, valuing firms at 62 percent of tangible book value. By contrast, U.S. lenders, measured by the 24-company KBW Bank Index (BKX), have fallen 22 percent, valuing banks at 73 percent of book value.
Banco Santander, based in Madrid, and BBVA in Bilbao said they’re justified in adjusting risk-weightings because Spanish regulators have held them to higher standards than elsewhere.
Spanish banks have an average ratio of risk-weighted assets to total assets of 52 percent compared with 32 percent for U.K. banks, 31 percent for French and Benelux banks and 35 percent for German banks, analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., wrote in an Oct. 26 report. A higher figure suggests a riskier balance sheet or a more conservative approach to risk-weighting.
“There’s a bias that penalizes the Spanish banks -- it’s a situation of relative discrimination,” Luis de Guindos, a former deputy finance minister, said at a Nov. 4 conference. “If it’s fair and suitable, investors won’t see it badly.”
Santander said it planned to increase capital by 4 billion euros by optimizing risk-weighted assets and internal models. BBVA said the total effect of revising its model was expected to be 2.1 billion euros of additional capital.
“Santander’s core capital exceeds that of any of its continental banking competitors,” a spokesman for the bank, who asked not to be identified by name in line with company policy, said in a phone interview.
Paul Tobin, a Madrid-based spokesman at BBVA, said the bank is “catching up with practices that are common elsewhere in Europe.” After making the changes, he said, “BBVA will still be one of the banks with the highest, if not the one with the highest, density of RWAs among large European banks.”
Commerzbank Chief Financial Officer Eric Strutz said that adjusting the risk model was only one of four options being considered by the bank.
The lender needs “to look at models where our RWAs are higher than others because of market conditions,” Strutz said on a conference call with reporters Nov. 3. “Commerzbank is more at the upper end compared with other banks.”
UBI, based in Bergamo, Italy, said on Oct. 27 it’s confident of meeting the 9 percent target by converting debt, shedding assets and “the progressive changeover” to an “advanced” risk model.
Spokesmen for UBI and Commerzbank declined to comment, as did a representative of the EBA.
Investors are unlikely be satisfied by banks adjusting risk models to avoid raising capital, said Harrison, the Barclays analyst, who is based in London.
“Gaming RWAs isn’t helpful, particularly if the objective is to convince the market to invest in banks again,” Harrison said. “The risk is that it’s counterproductive, because there is even less faith in what the banks are telling you.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Liam Vaughan in London at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at [email protected]
Bloomberg moderates all comments. Comments that are abusive or off-topic will not be posted to the site. Excessively long comments may be moderated as well. Bloomberg cannot facilitate requests to remove comments or explain individual moderation decisions.
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Rapid In-Place Measurements of Multichannel Venues
It is often useful to have transfer-function measurements of large venues with an audience present. This precludes multiple chirps or other long-duration signals from being used. This paper studies the use of simultaneous, multiple ‘orthogonal’ maximum-length sequences applied to the loudspeakers, captured by a number of microphones at selected listening positions. Such MLS signals last only a few seconds and are noise-like, being minimally disruptive to an audience, yet they allow full transfer-function system identification between each loudspeaker and microphone. The main detractor of the method is that the effective noise level is high. This paper studies implementation issues, and assesses the S/N of such measurements. It turns out that exciting each loudspeaker separately is usually better than simultaneous excitation, except in special circumstances. An example is shown for the simultaneous measurement of two loudspeakers in a room with two microphones.
Click to purchase paper or login as an AES member. If your company or school subscribes to the E-Library then switch to the institutional version. If you are not an AES member and would like to subscribe to the E-Library then Join the AES!
This paper costs $20 for non-members, $5 for AES members and is free for E-Library subscribers.
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Bart wrote:I think there is a gradient of consciousness..
Will wrote:Bart wrote:I think there is a gradient of consciousness..
Bart, Emphatically yes, in my view the exploration of consciousness is a wide open space for exploration containing many gradients. As with any explorer moving into an explored universe it is useful (in my quite limited experience), to rely on such prior experience as may seem useful; and to begin identifying and naming recognizable landmarks, so I can remember where I've been. In beginning an exploration of consciousness, it may be sufficient for some to say this is mine, I know where I am, and everything is arm and fuzzy. If changes to my consciousness occur, the ok, great I'll float along and see where I end up next. This is a perfectly fine, comfortable and livable way.
Others may wish to develop a more detailed concept of the consciousness universe; and will full move from around it, as the need or desire arises. I am more of exploring and moving willfully about. Hence, developing recognizable conceptual landmarks is useful. Pls note that I in no way understand that my own explorations and landmarks in any way represent the truth; or that really is such a thing as aesthetic or conceptual consciousness. These are only names that I (and perhaps others) find useful in navigating a willfully chosen journey through this sea of consciousness through many of us, rather amoeba like, make or way from ephemeral moment to the next.
Nor am I saying that it is n either or description. While I may strive for a more (or mostly) conceptual consciousness while driving; and a more aesthetic while walking in the woods, I rarely achieve a fully pure consciousness doing either. Further, as a good druid and an avowed triphiliac, two identifiable land marks (or recognizable directions, or reference indices) are insufficient to allow navigation through the full universe of consciousness. To grasp the full scope of possible locations within the great sea of consciousness, I must identify three "landmarks; and they must be sufficiently "orthogonal". Three landmarks or reference points that all lie in the same place may describe a comfortably well known niche; but they fail to support exploration and navigation through the greater ocean.
At the moment, I can posit two land marks in the great ocean called consciousness: aesthetic and conceptual. I am not sure I concur with the names, but only note they are names used bu others. I've not "tested" these two as pair to determine if they lead in and describe fully independent spaces within the ocean of consciousness; nor begun to identify a third, except to notionally know (after the myth of Tailtiu and philosophy of CS Peirce) that there is a third. Perhaps spiritual consciousness?. But is that sufficiently orthogonal to both conceptual and aesthetic. Or maybe all three get trashed out; and entirely other trine proves more useful. Again, I do not try to disclose the truth of consciousness's great sea; only to identify a few familiar stars to me help me navigate through one explorer's journey.
Of course, nothing restricts any other consciousness to navigate by my stars as they not determine the true structure consciousness. Nor must I or any other stick to a true course aligned to ant single direction, star or landmark; unless by choice. Nor must any even choose to navigate; both pelagic drifting and littoral residency prove quite nourishing and successful journeys through the great sea.
Gradients there are. Many, In all directions. Enjoy the ride.
Just a thought, Will
Bart wrote:Please be aware you are posting in the skeptical druid. I love to see scientific proof.
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The EU’s new 'smart borders' regime infringes fundamental rights, undermines privacy while creating profits for Europe’s defence contractors.
Borderline, The EU's New Border Surveillance Initiatives
Assessing the Costs and Fundamental Rights Implications of EUROSUR and the "Smart Borders" Proposals
A study by the Heinrich Böll Foundation
Written by Dr. Ben Hayes & Mathias Vermeulen
Preface of the report by Barbara Unmüßig, President Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, & Ska Keller, Member of the European Parliament
The upheavals in North Africa have lead to a short-term rise of refugees to Europe, yet, demonstrably, there has been no wave of refugees heading for Europe. By far most refugees have found shelter in neighbouring Arab countries. Nevertheless, in June 2011, the EU’s heads of state precipitately adopted EU Council Conclusions with far-reaching consequences, one that will result in new border policies “protecting” the Union against migration. In addition to new rules and the re- introduction of border controls within the Schengen Area, the heads of state also insisted on upgrading the EU’s external borders using state-of-art surveillance technology, thus turning the EU into an electronic fortress.
The Conclusions passed by the representatives of EU governments aims to quickly put into place the European surveillance system EUROSUR. This is meant to enhance co-operation between Europe’s border control agencies and promote the surveillance of the EU’s external borders by FRONTEX, the Union’s agency for the protection of its external borders, using state-of-the-art surveillance technologies. To achieve this, there are even plans to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over the Mediterranean and the coasts of North Africa. Such high-tech missions have the aim to spot and stop refugee vessels even before they reach Europe’s borders. A EUROSUR bill has been drafted and is presently being discussed in the European Council and in the European Parliament. Member states also want to introduce so-called “smart borders” to achieve total control over all cross-border movements. Following the US model, the plan is to introduce a massive database that will store information, including fingerprints, of all non-EU citizens leaving or entering the Union. The aim is to identify so-called “over-stayers,” that is, third-country nationals who have overstayed their permission to stay. In the United States, a similar system has been a failure and nationwide exit checks were never introduced. Still, the EU’s heads of state and its government representatives persist – whatever the cost (the EU Commission estimates it will be up to €1.1 billion). Under pressure from member states, it is trying to introduce the smart borders bill during the summer of 2012.
EUROSUR and “smart borders” represent the EU’s cynical response to the Arab Spring. Both are new forms of European border controls – new external border protection policies to shut down the influx of refugees and migrants (supplemented by internal controls within the Schengen Area); to achieve this, the home secretaries of some countries are even willing to accept an infringement of fundamental rights. The present study by Ben Hayes and Mathias Vermeulen demonstrates that EUROSUR fosters EU policies that undermine the rights to asylum and protection. For some time, FRONTEX has been criticised for its “push back” operations during which refugee vessels are being intercepted and escorted back to their ports of origin. In February 2012, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Italy for carrying out such operations, arguing that Italian border guards had returned all refugees found on an intercepted vessel back to Libya – including those with a right to asylum and international protection. As envisioned by EUROSUR, the surveillance of the Mediterranean using UAVs, satellites, and shipboard monitoring systems will make it much easier to spot such vessels. It is to be feared, that co-operation with third countries, especially in North Africa, as envisioned as part of EUROSUR, will lead to an increase of “push back” operations.
Nevertheless, the EU’s announcement of EUROSUR sounds upbeat: The planned surveillance of the Mediterranean, we are being told, using UAVs, satellites, and shipboard monitoring systems, will aid in the rescue of refugees shipwrecked on the open seas. The present study reveals to what extent such statements cover up a lack of substance. Maritime rescue services are not part of EUROSUR and border guards do not share information with them, however vital this may be. Only just recently, the Council of Europe issued a report on the death of 63 migrants that starved and perished on an unseaworthy vessel, concluding that the key problem had not been to locate the vessel but ill-defined responsibilities within Europe. No one came to the aid of the refugees – and that in spite of the fact that the vessel’s position had been known.
In reaction to the Arab Spring, EU member countries are not only promoting a total surveillance of the Mediterranean, they are also pushing for an electronic upgrading of border controls. This means that ordinary travellers, too, will come into the focus of border guards in what one may well call a data juggernaut. Through its “smart borders” programme the EU would create one of the world’s largest biometric databases – not with the aim to fight terrorism or stem cross-border crime (even that would be a questionable endeavour), but solely in order to identify individuals that have overstayed their permission to stay.
One of the fundamental findings of the study is that the EU’s new border regime would not only infringe fundamental rights, it would also, in spite of its questionable benefits, cost billions – and that against the background of pervasive budget cuts and austerity measures. Above all, this would profit Europe’s defence contractors, as they would receive EU funding for “smart gates,” UAVs, and other surveillance technologies. The technological upgrading of the EU’s external borders will obviously open up new markets to European security and armament companies. What we witness is a convergence of business interests and the aims of political hardliners who view migration as a threat to the EU’s homeland security.
The EU’s new border control programmes not only represent a novel technological upgrade, they also show that the EU is unable to deal with migration and refugees. Of the 500,000 refugees fleeing the turmoil in North Africa, less than 5% ended up in Europe. Rather, the problem is that most refugees are concentrated in only a very few places. It is not that the EU is overtaxed by the problem; it is local structures on Lampedusa, in Greece’s Evros region, and on Malta that have to bear the brunt of the burden. This can hardly be resolved by labelling migration as a novel threat and using military surveillance technology to seal borders. For years, instead of receiving refugees, the German government along with other EU countries has blocked a review of the Dublin Regulation in the European Council. For the foreseeable future, refugees and migrants are to remain in the countries that are their first point of entry into the Union.
Within the EU, the hostile stance against migrants has reached levels that threaten the rescue of shipwrecked refugees. During FRONTEX operations, shipwrecked refugees will not be brought to the nearest port – although this is what international law stipulates – instead they will be landed in a port of the member country that is in charge of the operation. This reflects a “nimby” attitude – not in my backyard. This is precisely the reason for the lack of responsibility in European maritime rescue operations pointed out by the Council of Europe. As long as member states are unwilling to show more solidarity and greater humanity, EUROSUR will do nothing to change the status quo.
The way forward would be to introduce improved, Europe-wide standards for the granting of asylum. The relevant EU guidelines are presently under review, albeit with the proviso that the cost of new regulations may not exceed the cost of those in place – and that they may not cause a relative rise in the number of asylum requests. In a rather cynical move, the EU’s heads of government introduced this proviso in exactly the same resolution that calls for the rapid introduction of new surveillance measures costing billions. Correspondingly, the budget of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) is small – only a ninth what goes towards FRONTEX.
Unable to tackle the root of the problem, the member states are upgrading the Union’s external borders. Such a highly parochial approach taken to a massive scale threatens some of the EU’s fundamental values – under the pretence that one’s own interests are at stake. Such an approach borders on the inhumane.
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Sunday, January 03, 2010
WoW account security
I had a couple of reader e-mails on World of Warcraft account security. One reader reported scam e-mails telling you that your account has been hacked, giving you a link where to log in to fix that, which of course is a phishing website, and thus a self-fulfilling prophecy. Another reader tells of several guilds on his servers being hard hit by hackers emptying the guild bank, and the guild raid leader quitting over the stress involved.
Nevertheless account security at Blizzard appears to be better than at NCSoft, where Kill Ten Rats reports that logging into your master NCSoft account can through a bug log you into somebody elses account, where you are free to change the other player's password.
Nevertheless it has to be said that the top three reasons to get hacked are stupidity, stupidity, and stupidity. Sharing your account password with your little brother or guild mates is likely to get you hacked. Using a password like "password", "12345678", or "Patricia" will get you hacked too, especially if you are using a publicly known e-mail address as your Battle.net userID. And the third most common source of hacking is phishing sites, where you were tricked into revealing your password.
The famous Chinese hacker installing a keylogger on your computer to steal your WoW password is if not quite a myth then at least very rare. A decent modem will have a hardware firewall, you should turn on the Windows firewall as well, plus have a (preferably free) anti-virus software running. And with that your computer is safe from hacking by anyone except possibly the CIA, who are unlikely to be interested in your WoW password.
The reason so many people believe in this super-powerful keylogger software is simply shame. Nobody likes to admit that they were stupid choosing or handing out their password. I once talked to a guy complaining loudly about account security, and it turned out that his userID, password, and name of his main character had all been the same word. Duh! At one point, many years in the past, SOE got so fed up with people getting hacked by stupidity, that they declared *being* hacked in Everquest a bannable offence. Yeah, that's right, if you told EQ customer service that your account had been hacked, that account was permanently banned, not handed back to you.
Blizzard, being a little wiser and more politically correct, came up with a much better method, the Blizzard Authenticator. The trick is that the authenticator works *both* against keyloggers and stupidity. Thus you can promise your customers that they'll be safe from advanced keylogging technology, while in fact the main effect is protecting you from having used one of the 100 most common passwords, or your little brother wanting to delete your character out of spite. If you still get hacked, well, maybe you shouldn't have told your little brother where the authenticator was and how to use it. :)
Apart from anecdotal evidence, has anyone of you data on how widespread account hacking in World of Warcraft is?
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WESTMINSTER — Western Maryland College's Decker Center, like most student centers,brims with youthful energy. Students carrying bags of books race through on the way to class, gather for meals and meetings or congregatein its lounges.
For the past month, a startling exhibit has stopped students and visitors in their tracks. Many stared at a fractured image of themselves in two 8-by-8-foot panels of shattered mirrors, which form the background of the "Women's Distorted Body Images" exhibit.
Kelly D. Schoen, who created the exhibit, calls her work a life-size rendition, designed to fit within one room.
"The work revolvesaround three different women, each an example of a certain body type," she said. "In front of mirrored panels, the figures progress from a robust Mother Earth to a near skeletal body. The mirrors distort the body images, and show the pressures society places on women to be acertain type."
She said she hoped viewers would be drawn to theirown reflections as they studied her piece. She said she wants viewers to "see beyond the mirror and accept all parts of themselves, leaving room for flaws."
About 300 people attended the exhibit's opening March 3. Schoen has draped flowers from the reception across the floor in the front of the figures.
"I decided to keep the flowers because they show a loose connection to the loss of traditional beauty," she said.
An art major who plans to graduate in May, the 26-year-old woman used her senior honors piece as a step to her recovery from a 10-year battle with anorexia and bulimia.
"Inspiration came tome through personal experience," she said. "For years, I struggled with the problem of body image vs. health and idealism vs. reality."
As a teen, she said, she felt a conflict between her own expectations of body image and what society considers ideal.
"I felt out of control of my life, alienated from my own body," she said. "I thoughtif I wasn't thin and beautiful, no one would love me."
At one point, her weight plummeted below 90 pounds. She abused laxatives, suffered kidney failure and nearly died. Now, she said she keeps the eating disorders in check and has a healthier outlook.
"You have to admit you have a problem," she said. "Then get help to work through it."
She wanted her work to deal with the body image theme.
"All women have idealized images within them, and devote much of their livessearching for what they are told is perfect," she said. "I wanted tobring the experience of womanhood into my art."
After sculpting the three figures out of chicken-wire armitures, molded out of newspaper, Schoen covered the pieces with gauze and plaster. She left them white and hairless, to give them a "universal" look.
The three figures range from large "Rubenesque" to normal to extremely emaciated models. They are all stark with no definite facial features.
The most graceful, aesthetically pleasing figure is lying down, facing the mirror. Its hand barely touches the "normal" woman in the center of the exhibit. The third woman, with exposed ribs and sunken cheek bones,seems like she is about to race frantically from the scene.
"Lookat the mixed messages women get through the media. We see one commercial that tells us to eat, eat, eat. The next one touts a diet program and urges us to fit into a skimpy bathing suit."
As she worked in the college's studio, she said, she surrounded herself with mirrors, using her own body as a model.
The project involved two months of actual work, but she said she had been cultivating the idea much longer. She submitted a budget of $500 -- underestimating the cost by about $100 -- to the school's creativity grant program and received $300. Friends and family helped finance the rest.
A sketch pad has been placed next to the exhibit for viewers to comment.
"The publicinvitation to comment and judge is as courageous as the work itself," wrote WMC student Dave Neidecker.
Many admitted suffering from similar eating problems. Some men wrote that the piece helped them understand the pressures on women.
"The work will make women rethink how they feel about themselves," wrote Blue Taylor, a sophomore.
"I admire your courage in sharing this part of yourself," wrote student Mike Marceau.
Schoen calls herself a non-traditional student. She lives with her father, Gordon, and grandparents in Silver Run. She has put herself through college, with a "lot of loans and scholarships" and with money earned working as a beauty salon shampoo girl and awaitress. She hopes to continue studying art in a graduate program.
"Eventually, I would like to teach," she said. "Through art, I want to help students become self-motivated and self-confident individuals."
She said she has always been an artist and credits her grandmother, Doris Schoen, with fostering her creative interests.
"When I was a little girl, she would hand me a sketch tablet and take me outside to draw," she said. "Our farm offered lots of material to draw from."
Environmental and women's issues have provided the basis for much of her work.
"My work is more on the expressionistic side, and I am more interested in portraying emotions than making a work picture perfect," she said. "I like to capture the feeling and emotion in art instead of copying. We have cameras for that."
The exhibit closes Tuesday. Schoen doesn't plan to pack it away. She would like to take it on the road, possibly to private galleries in the Baltimorearea.
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By Richard W. Roper and Linda Bentz
Recent criticisms of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey lose sight of the agency’s singular role supporting the bistate region’s economic growth. If the P.A. is indulging in excesses beyond its mission, the root cause is too much political oversight, not too little.
Certainly, the authority should be transparent, but equally important is that it has the autonomy to plan and invest for the region’s future — free of short-term political agendas.
A sensible balance between public oversight and autonomy was established at the agency’s creation. Each governor appoints six members of the board of commissioners to staggered six-year terms. The intent was to appoint a distinguished board of independent commissioners from a mix of civic and business backgrounds. Traditionally, the board chairman is from New Jersey and is expected to ensure the P.A. does not shortchange the state. The executive director is a New York pick, who is approved by the commissioners. The governors can veto the agency’s budget and key decisions, but a respected, independent board helps check against political interference by either governor that would subvert the Port Authority’s regional mission.
This structure served the region reasonably well until 1995, when a chasm of distrust between the governors of the two states ushered in an unprecedented level of gubernatorial micromanagement and political control. That year, Gov. Christie Whitman insisted on appointing the agency’s second-in-command, the deputy executive director, as her price for supporting New York Gov. George Pataki’s executive director choice: an ill-qualified, unsuccessful Conservative Party candidate for mayor of New York named George Marlin.
Previously, the deputy director was named by the executive director to direct day-to-day operations. But Marlin’s politics, his lack of relevant qualifications and concerns he would undermine the professionalism that historically characterized the Port Authority set off alarms in Trenton.
Thus, John Haley, a former New Jersey transportation commissioner, became New Jersey’s first deputy executive director. The practice has continued ever since. The deputy acts as the internal agent of New Jersey’s governor, overseeing all decisions affecting the state. The executive director’s role on these matters was essentially usurped and a bifurcated management structure emerged.
Since then, divided leadership hardened to the point that New Jersey’s governor has virtually no contact with the executive director.
Thus, if New Jersey legislators are unhappy that the executive director fails to appear when called to Port Authority-related hearings, they should direct their complaint to the governor’s office, where the decisions are made regarding who at the P.A. will address them. Invariably, that would be the New Jersey governor’s appointee, the deputy executive director.
The agency’s dual-power structure is now firmly entrenched. Each governor now executes his wishes through his personal representative. The commissioners are bypassed as the two directors impart the governors’ wishes directly to the staff. Decisions are pre-determined in Albany and Trenton before the commissioners convene. The board is increasingly a rubber stamp, not the independent leaders speaking freely to power that was originally envisioned.
The agency’s core mission — investment in infrastructure that fosters interstate commerce within the region, and between the region and the world — has been orphaned. Resources are diverted to fund gubernatorial wish lists, while maintenance and repair of P.A. facilities are reduced for insufficient funds and the agency’s regional focus has been profoundly diminished.
The P.A.’s professional staff and analytic rigor have been neutered. They are expected to unquestioningly implement the governors’ orders.
The debate about increasing transparency and accountability at the Port Authority must focus on ensuring that the needs of the region as a unified economic entity trump the governors’ political interests. A good start would be to restore management under a reinvigorated, independent, publicly minded board of commissioners.
Richard W. Roper was director of the Port Authority’s planning department from 2007 to 2010. Linda Bentz was assistant planning director. Keep the conversation going at njvoices.com.
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When my daughter went through this phase, my go to response was always, "well, then you should try so you get practice until eventually you can. I'll watch you while you try."
If she argued that she shouldn't have to try, I said, "well, the trouble with that is that as your Mom it is my job to teach you things so you can do them on your own, if I just do it for you then I'm not doing my job. Bummer. I guess we can't go anywhere until you give it a shot."
Then I'd watch her try. Often, she was able to do whatever, but it took her longer than it would've taken me which might be why she wanted me to do it. Sometimes she did get stuck somewhere along the line and I could give her useful tips and tricks or help her at the point while encouraging her efforts. "Hey that seemed like a good try, I bet your fingers (or whatever) will just keep getting better at it every time you try."
When she was successful I observed her success, "oh look at that! You got your coat on and you even got one button done! Would you like a little help with some of the other buttons now?"
This method did two things: It showed her I was there and on her team rather than putting us at odds while still insisting on her efforts AND it taught her the value of practice and patience - that it is okay not to be GREAT at it right away.
Now that she is six, she is well-past the "I can't" stage, and when she is facing a frustrating challenge that is proving difficult for her, (hitting a tennis ball in the center of the raquet for example) I often hear her tell herself, "but with practice I'll get it".
This is also what she told my parents when they asked her if she was ready for her first TKD championship the night before. She said, "not really, I'm nervous, but this is a first time so I'll just go and do my best - then next time I won't be so nervous and I'll learn and eventually with practice, I'll get it.
Using this method in combination with Kit Fox's method and making sure to slow it down and understand where your kid is coming from should work wonders.
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This group is created to provide a continuing forum for those 1200 educators who attended the Feb. 15 Symposium at CW Post "More Than a Number - Is the new NYS Teacher and Principal evaluation system undermining effective teaching and learning?"See More
Tell our School Leadership 2.0 community a little bit about yourself. Feel free to post your email address and website. Also feel free to list your areas of interest. This will help other members dialogue with you.
Professor Educational Leadership, Stony Brook University
Author, Preparing for Educational Leadership
What is your present job title?
Consultant, University Faculty
At what school level do you work?
Where do you work?
Nassau County NY, Suffolk County NY
You need to be a member of School Leadership 2.0 to add comments!
School Leadership 2.0 is the premier virtual learning community for school leaders from around the globe. Our community is a subscription based service which will provide school leaders with outstanding resources. Learn more about membership to this service by clicking one our links below.
During the month of May, Bill Brennan and Mike Keany (co-founders of SL 2.0) will donate 100% of the new membership fees collected to the LI 2-Day Walk to Fight Breast Cancer, in memory of Mike's late wife Pat.
SCHOOL LEADERSHIP 2.0 is the "Knowledge Network for School Leaders" - the premier social network connecting thousands of school leaders from around the globe. We offer a rich array of resources and present school leaders and aspiring school leaders to come together to meet present and future challenges.
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Gordon Campbell on Greens housing proposals & Pita Sharples
Gordon Campbell on the Greens housing proposals, and Pita Sharples
In the wake of David Shearer’s Labour party conference speech last year, housing policy has become a crunch test of how well each political party aims to respond to the country’s pressing social needs. Labour for its part, has ambitiously promised to enter the housing market and build 100,000 low cost homes over a ten year period:
Labour says its flagship KiwiBuild policy will help families realise their dream of home ownership and inject $2 billion a year into the economy through jobs and construction.
The party says under the scheme, first-home buyers will be able to buy a modest house for about $300,000.
The policy involves raising $1.5 billion by issuing Housing Affordability Bonds, with two-thirds of the homes to be built in Auckland.
Much of the criticism of Labour’s plan has turned on whether houses can realistically be built for the price stated, and whether even those $300,000 home would be affordable to low income families most in need – both in terms of an initial deposit, and in the capacity to keep up the mortgage re-payments, given that many of the breadwinners involved will have no job security. Even so, the polls are indicating that Labour’s policy has definitely struck a chord with voters.
Meanwhile, National is treating house prices as mainly being a function of land zoning by councils – and is claiming that putting more land in the hands of developers to build more houses will significantly bring house prices down within reach of those most in need. In a speech later today, John Key will reveal the details of the law changes required. Last year, the lobbyists made their wish list – and the rationale for it – fairly clear.
Warwick Quinn, chief executive of the Registered Master Builders Federation, said [that] if land became more readily available through faster consent processing then that would create cost savings, and help bring down house prices, he said. "Land would theoretically be cheaper. Supply should improve faster to meet demand, which would put a cap on prices. Land would be the biggest driver of property prices altogether because of how much it costs." The federation was keen to see a competitor agency for processed resource consents - something the Government has said needs further exploration - to help ensure they were processed as efficiently as possible.
Love that word “theoretically.” Theoretically, land prices would fall but not perhaps, in the real world. We’ll find out later today if the lobbyists got the land re-zoning and separate resource consent agency they’ve asked for. Late last year, Auckland mayor Len Brown tried his best to flag that the urban sprawl that may benefit developers could well bring additional costs for the city in its wake :
"Two areas that require caution are the cost of infrastructure, which can only be funded three ways: through development contributions, rates or taxes. In the end, someone has to pay, the question is who? And with regards to proposed changes to the consent process, the rights of the community must continue to be protected."
Indeed they must. The
third entrant in the housing policy competition arrived this
week, when the Greens announced their programme. The policy
has the virtue of simultaneously tackling the needs of
both home buyers and renters, and it has three main
(a) a rent-to-buy mechanism for home-owners
(b) a ‘warrant of fitness” of basic quality standards that all properties put up for rent would have to meet and
(c) a proposal that rent increases should be only on an annual basis, in order to give renters a measure of home security and a better ability to budget for their housing costs.
Clearly, the Greens model is to be seen as complementary to Labour’s Kiwibuild scheme, and its rent-to-buy element picks up those families near the bottom of the ladder, who would otherwise be at risk of being left behind by Labour’s scheme. The Greens have a policy of building 2,000 new homes a year, in partnership with community organization and iwi. This is a figure arguably more realistic than the 100,000 in 10 years that Labour is advocating. Leaving that aside… rent-to-buy will be merely a strand of the building programmne. within the Kiwibuild target, Turei told RNZ, some houses could be set aside for commercial mortgages for those able to meet those costs, while others would be allocated under the “ progressive ownership” rent-to-buy conditions for families with minimal resources and poor job security.
In scale, the Greens are putting up a quite modest proposal – it is not as if every hard pressed family in the country would be able to walk into the Housing Corporation and demand that a house be built for them. The main virtue of the Greens proposal is that it would save Labour from repeating the same mistake it made with Working for Families – namely, of excluding the families most in need of government help. With Working for Families, beneficiaries got left behind. It is essential this doesn’t happen again to beneficiaries and the working poor, when it comes to housing policy.
Yet as it stands, Labour’s Kiwibuild policy is predicated on families being able to pay the entry costs and sustain the mortgages at commercial rates – or at something very close to them. Under current economic conditions and given the nature of the job market, a growing number of families who are in need of healthy, affordable housing would indeed be at risk of being left behind. As the housing policy debate heats up, this looks like becoming a useful example of how the two centre left parties can usefully fill in each other’s policy gaps.
Bathetically, Key has tried to talk down the housing issue. There isn’t a national housing crisis, Key claimed in his inimitable, grammar scrambled fashion on RNZ this morning
“Its not housing issues all over the country. Really,.its an Auckland, to a s seeondary Christchurch,Wellington issue. Its in the big built up urban centres. We just need to make that [planning consent] process easier, faster, and more predictable.”
So that’s alright then. According to Key, we only need to worry about how to house people in our major cities, and if we treat giving more leeway to developers as being our top priority, then everything will work out just fine.
Sharples At Bay, on Full Pay
So Pita Sharples wants to stay on as a Minister – with the attendant salary and perks - if and when he loses his co-leadership gig with the Maori Party to Te Ururoa Flavell. That plaintive wish only validates the claims made about the interest in ministerial limousines etc levelled at the Maori Party’s parliamentary wing ever since it went into coalition with National. Not to mention the problematic matter of how the issue of mana might be managed if Flavell replaced Sharples as leader, but not within Cabinet – or would a ministerial post and salary have to found for absolutely everyone in the Maori Party?
It seems relevant to the current circus :
[Sharples :] "On the other hand, there are things we find hard representing a people 60 per cent of whom are on lower wages. "Sometimes the monetary bills we have to support are very hard on us." [ Or more like it, them ?]
The Maori Party hoped to be a part of any government, regardless of its leanings. Then he confessed: "Actually, I got so used to the increase in salary I told the Prime Minister you'd better be good because if the other guys get in, I'll go sell myself over there to keep my ministerial salary. I just got a new house, man - I can't afford it on a backbencher salary so I'm up for grabs."
Wow. As they say, many a true word gets spoken in jest.
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Each year, New York's Museum of Modern Art and its contemporary art affiliate MoMA PS1 select an emerging architect to design a temporary, environmentally minded outdoor installation for MoMA PS1.
This year's winning design by CODA -- an Ithaca, New York-based experimental design studio -- calls for the creation of a large wall covered in woven wood scraps, harvested from an eco-friendly Ithaca skateboard manufacturer. The wall is ballasted by water-filled, polyester-based pillows that can be illuminated at night. A series of archways will provide the shade during the day.
The Party Wall, opening in late June, will be the site of MoMA PS1's summer outdoor music series, Warm Up. Part of the wall can be detached to form benches and communal tables, and a shallow wood stage around the base forms micro-stages for various performances. To top it all off, the wall functions as an aqueduct, carrying a stream of water across its top before feeding it into misting fountains and pools.
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.
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Why the heck is this happening to us? What happened to mortgages, to banks, to large retailers, to retirement savings, to stock prices, to the availability of credit? How could so many errors have coincided?
To the media pundits and government officials, this is a market failing that requires the government to take trillions of dollars from you and run the money presses full time. Otherwise we are doomed.
But there is another way to look at the great market collapse of 2008: the whole thing, including the bubble that preceded it, is the fault of the government and the Fed. All attempts to "fix" the problem are like forcing the patient to swallow more of the poison from which he currently suffers.
Mises.org has been making this argument, and warned of the coming crash years ago. But where can you find the argument explained for the average person in a convenient package, without technical jargon and with logic and facts?
Enter Tom Woods with his blockbuster book Meltdown. It's all here, all the information you need to understand what is happening and what to do about it. It is billed as a free-market response to the crisis but it is more precisely an Austrian School response.
He covers the problem of housing subsidies, of low interest loans, of the absurdities of the boom times, and how it was inevitable that they would come to an end. He puts the fault right where it belongs: with the government and the central bank.
He further blasts the political establishment for taking exactly the wrong path in response. Interest rates should be raised, not lowered. Government spending should be cut, not increased. Tax should be reduced. Regulations should be cut, not expanded. On the current path, the bozos in Washington are going to wreck whatever hope for recovery there is.
The great thing about this volume is that it is rooted in serious ideas. We aren't talking about some quicky investment book by a media talking head. Professor Woods is steeped in the ideas of Mises, Hayek, and Rothbard, and never misses a chance to explain the relationship between theory and reality. It contains what might be the clearest explanation of Austrian business cycle theory ever written.
This book is a fantastic weapon in the intellectual battle that is taking place right now. It needs to become a bestseller, and it could. You can do your part by distributing it as widely as possible. History really does hang in the balance.From the Inside Flap
Is Capitalism the Culprit?
The media tells us that "deregulation" and "unfettered free markets" have wrecked our economy and will continue to make things worse without a heavy dose of federal regulation. But the real blame lies elsewhere. In Meltdown, bestselling author Thomas E. Woods Jr. unearths the real causes behind the collapse of housing values and the stock market--and it turns out the culprits reside more in Washington than on Wall Street.
And the trillions of dollars in federal bailouts? Our politicians' ham-handed attempts to fix the problems they themselves created will only make things much worse. Woods, a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute and winner of the 2006 Templeton Enterprise Award, busts the media myths and government spin. He explains how government intervention in the economy--from the Democratic hobby horse called Fannie Mae to affirmative action programs like the Community Redevelopment Act--actually caused the housing bubble.
Most important, Woods, author of the New York Times bestseller The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, traces this most recent boom-and-bust--and all such booms and busts of the past century--back to one of the most revered government institutions of all: the Federal Reserve System, which allows busy-body bureaucrats and ambitious politicians to pull the strings of our financial sector and manipulate the value of the very money we use.
Meltdown also provides a timely history lesson to counter the current clamor for a new New Deal. The Great Depression, Woods demonstrates, was only as deep and as long as it was because of the government interventions by Herbert Hoover (no free-market capitalist, despite what your high school history teacher may have taught you) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (no savior of the American economy, in spite of what the mainstream media says). If you want to understand what caused the financial meltdown--and why none of the big-government solutions being tried today will work--Meltdown explains it all.
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| 0.945305 | 916 | 1.765625 | 2 |
Congo rebels advance to outskirts of Goma
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Rebels in Congo were on the outskirts of the eastern city of Goma on Sunday after pushing back U.N. peacekeepers and government troops, but a spokesman for the M23 rebels said they did not plan to take the city.
In four days of battles, the rebels have advanced closer than at any time in their eight-month-old uprising to Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu and home to the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo.
M23 spokesman Colonel Vianney Kazarama said rebel fighters had advanced to within 2 km of Goma.
"We're not going to take the airport, we are responding to an attack by the army... We're just doing this to break the capacity of the FARDC (Congolese army)," Kazarama said.
Colonel Olivier Hamuli, a spokesman for the Congolese army, spoke to Reuters briefly by telephone before the line was cut.
"There is combat about five kilometers from the airport," he said.
The United Nations has about 6,700 peacekeeping forces in North Kivu, with some 1,400 troops in Goma and the surrounding area. The force has a mandate to protect civilians.
More than three quarters of a million people have fled their homes since the latest fighting in eastern Congo erupted in April when a group of soldiers mutinied to form the M23 group.
On Saturday, U.N. helicopters were dispatched to strafe rebel positions, but insurgents have continued to gain ground in the fresh round of fighting which the United Nations says has forced civilians to flee.
Rebels on Sunday said they were responding to an early morning assault by government forces. No casualty figures were given by either side.
Goma, on the Rwandan border, is home to up to a million people, including hundreds of thousands displaced by conflict. M23 rebels have repeatedly said they do not intend to capture the city.
The rebels deserted government ranks earlier this year, accusing Kinshasa of failing to respect a 2009 peace deal which ended a previous rebellion in North Kivu and integrated insurgents into the national army.
Congo's government and U.N. investigators have accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebels in eastern Congo.
While Rwanda's army has repeatedly sent soldiers into Congo during nearly two decades of conflict in Africa's Great Lakes region, the Rwandan government has strongly denied supporting the M23 in the latest rebellion.
The U.N.'s peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told reporters on Saturday that the M23 rebels had sophisticated equipment, including night vision capacity and 120 mm mortars.
More than 5 million people are estimated to have died from violence, hunger and disease in wars in Congo since 1998, which would make it the deadliest conflict since World War Two.
(Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Rosalind Russell)
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Footwear for formal occasions. Dress shoes are usually made of more delicate materials such as suede, silk, satin, patent leather, or peau de soie. Dress shoes often feature eye-catching designs, richer colors, and decorative ornamentation. Examples are business shoes, evening shoes, bridal shoes, and prom shoes.
About Mid Heel:
Mid heel are shoes which raise the heel of the wearer between 1 1/2" to 2 1/2" higher than the toes and provide moderate elevation. Mid heel shoes come in a variety of styles including sandals, slip-on shoes, pumps and boots. The heels on high heels shoes are also found in many different shapes, including kitten heel, block, tapered, and wedge.
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| 0.935699 | 155 | 1.828125 | 2 |
|<< Isaiah 31 >>|
Woe to Those Relying on Egypt
1WOE to them that go down to Egypt for help, trusting in horses, and putting their confidence in chariots, because they me many: and in horsemen, because they me very strong: and have not trusted in the Holy One of Israel, and have not sought after the Lord.
2But he that is the wise one hath brought evil, and hath not removed his words: and he will rise up against the house of the wicked, and against the aid of them that work iniquity.
3Egypt is man, and not God: and their horses, flesh, and not spirit: and the Lord shall put down his hand, and the helper shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall, and they shall al be confounded together.
4For thus saith the Lord to me: Like as the lion roareth, and the lion's whelp upon his prey, and when a multitude of shepherds shall come against him, he will not fear at their voice, nor be afraid of their multitude: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight upon mount Sion, and upon the hill thereof.
5As birds dying, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem, protecting and delivering, passing over and saving.
6Return as you had deeply revolted, O children of Israel.
7For in that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for you to sin.
8And the Assyrian shall fall by the sword not of a man, and the sword not of a man shall devour him, and he shall flee not at the face of the sword: and his young men shall be tributaries.
9And his strength shall pass away with dread, and his princes fleeing shall be afraid: the Lord hath said it, whose die is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
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may have proposed the capture of Arnold by means of a boat attack on the
Vulture. At any rate, such an inference is warranted from the letter he wrote
to Colonel Nathaniel Wade,1 commanding one of
the Massachusetts militia regiments at the Point,
and his successor in the command of the post. This
has never before been published, and was evidently
written very soon after the return of Washington to
25th Sept'r, 1780.
Dear Sir,—Immediately on Receipt of this, send Ten
Boats properly Manned, to Nelson's Point, where they are
to remain till further Orders. You will pay particular
attention to this matter, as it is indispensably necessary.
I am, dear Sir, your obedient servt,
f p*r\ ,, The Vulture's sailing down the river
-^7^W>tW<a? t&°f •------> prevented any attack on her, and Lamb's letter
&*€*. ^-^^S—-~~ was soon followed by a letter from the Chief
himself to Wade :2
Sir,—General Arnold is gone to the Enemy. I have just received a line from
him, inclosing one to Mrs. Arnold, dated on board the Vulture. From this circumstance,
and Colo. Lamb's being detached on some business, the command of the garrison for the
present devolves upon you. I request you will be as vigilant as possible, and as the
Enemy may have it in contemplation to attempt some enterprise, even to-night, against
these Posts, I wish you to make, immediately after receipt of this, the best disposition you
can of your force, so as to have a proportion of men in each work on the west side of the
River. You will see or hear from me further to-morrow.
I am, Sir,
Your most obt. servt.,
3 There is in the possession of a gentleman in New York an interesting letter of Varick's to his sister Jane. It
is dated soon after these events, and gives a graphic description of Mrs. Arnold's pitiable condition.
As to her possible complicity with her husband, I own to disbelieving it. Burr is the only authority for
crediting it, and if it were a fact, would Arnold have left her alone—or would he have allowed her to be
at the Robinson House at all, instead of remaining in Philadelphia ?
3 When Washington had finished giving Livingston the orders which he had sent for him to receive in person,
he added: " It is a source of gratification to me that the post was in the hands of an officer so devoted as
yourself to the cause of your country."—Lossing.
1 Nathaniel Wade was a native of Ipswich, Mass., where he was born February 27, 1749, and where he died
October 26, 1826. He was a captain of the Ipswich minute-men at Bunker Hill, and saw service, as a
captain in the Twelfth Massachusetts, Colonel Little, at the siege of Boston, the battles of Long Island,
Harlem Heights, White Plains and Trenton. In February, 1778, he became colonel of a militia regiment,
raised in Essex and Suffolk counties, and served as such throughout the war. A singular fact in con-
nection with his West Point experience is his statement of a conversation with one of Arnold's aids—
apparently Franks—shortly before the 23rd. He was returning to the boat, after dining with Arnold.
The Major, accompanying him, said impressively: '' There is something going on here that I do not
understand and cannot find. out. I say this to put you on your guard at the Fort" (West Point) " I fear
there is something brewing about us, and all I can say is, look out! " With this, he abruptly left Wade.
Vet if this was really Franks, the treason was something very different from what he had anticipated, for it
almost upset his reason when the revelation really came. 3 On Lafayette's visit, * This letter, page 45.
Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.
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Founder member of the Scottish Football League 1890. Resigned 1897
Elected to Scottish Division Two 1906
1876-1886 b n u
1887-1889 b n v
Formed by the merger of Dumbarton and Dumbarton Athletic.
1889-1897 b n
1916-early 1919 n
late 1919-1920 n
1924-1925 i n
1927-29 away n
1931-1937 c1 n t
1973-1974 c3 i
early 1977-1978 n
mid 1977-1978 c2 n
1979-1983 n o p s
1984-1985 i s
1985-1986 m p w
1986-1987 p w
1987-1988 p s
1988-1989 p w
1991-1993 m x
1993-1994 d m w
1995-1996 m w
1996-1998 s w
1998-1999 s w
2000-2002 m r x
2002-2004 e f m r x
2004-2006 g m w
2006-2007 a w
2007-2008 a w
2008-2010 a w
2010-2011 a w
2012-2013 a w
In 1872 a group of young men from Dumbarton resolved to form a football club after watching a match between Queen's Park and neighbouring Vale of Leven. A year later Dumbarton FC registered with the Scottish FA and in 1879 they moved into the unattractively named Boghead Park. For five years they remained unbeaten at home, establishing themselves as one of the leading clubs in the West of Scotland. They appeared in six Scottish FA Cup finals, winning the tournament in 1883. They then went on to thrash English FA Cup holders Blackburn Rovers 6-1 to be hailed as unofficial champions of Great Britain. The club's registered colours during this period were navy jerseys, white knickers with a navy stripe and red hose: there is, however, no evidence of a stripe on the knickers in this photograph of the cup winning team from 1883. (The crests worn by various players appear to have been taken from jerseys worn when the players concerned were selected for a Scottish Counties XI that played matches against the Lancashire, Glasgow and Birmingham FA's while two members of the team are sporting their international caps.)
In 1884 the Dunbartonshire FA Cup was inaugurated and over the next 50 years Dumbarton FC won the competition no fewer than 23 times.
According to Alick Milne, HFK's leading Research Associate for Scottish teams, the Sons played in halved tops resembling those of Blackburn Rovers sometime in the mid-1880s. A contemporary newspaper report on the Scottish Cup Final between Hibernian and Dumbarton unearthed by Jim Jenkinson specifically refers to Dumbarton being 'the blue and whites,' which may corroborate this top and place it in the 1886-87 season.
A contemporary press report of the match between Queen's Park and Dumbarton on 27 August 1887, also uncovered by Jim Jenkinson, states, "Jamieson kicked off for the Dumbarton men, who attracted some attention by their new black and gold striped jerseys." This appears to contradict Jim McAllister's "The Sons of the Rock, The Official History of Dumbarton Football Club", which states "...the club would play in black and gold jerseys that had been the club's registered colours since 1886....."
In 1889 the club absorbed neighbours Dumbarton Athletic; the new team continued to play as Dumbarton and to wear that team's black and gold colours.
In 1890 Dumbarton helped form the Scottish Football League and tied with Rangers on points for the title. Since no mechanism had been agreed to separate clubs that finished level on points, a play-off was arranged. After this match was drawn, the two clubs shared the championship. The following season Dumbarton won the competition outright, two points ahead of Celtic.
In 1893 the Scottish FA belatedly recognised professionalism but Dumbarton continued to hold fast to amateur principles. This proved a costly decision as most of their best players moved to clubs where they could earn a wage. In 1895 and 1896 they finished last and had to apply for re-election. They were unsuccessful in 1896 and were relegated to Scottish Division Two. After finishing in last place in 1897 the club resigned.
After several seasons in the non-league wilderness when they almost went out of existence, Dumbarton were elected back into the Scottish Second Division in 1906. In 1911 they won the Second Division championship but failed to be elected to the First Division. In 1913 it was decided to increase the First Division by two members to 20 clubs: despite having finished in sixth place, Dumbarton were elected to fill one of the vacancies along with champions Ayr United. They continued to compete in the First Division throughout the Great War but in 1922 they were relegated to the newly reinstated Scottish Second Division.
During the inter-war period the club generally finished in the top half of the Second Division apart from 1936 when they took the wooden spoon.
After the Second World War, Dumbarton resumed their career in Division B (second tier) and in 1954 they were relegated to Division C, made up largely of reserve teams. Once again the club was on the verge of closing before a new board was appointed to keep the team alive. In 1955 the C divisions were scrapped and Dumbarton returned to an enlarged Second Division.
The club continued to languish in the Second Division and survived yet another financial crisis in the 1960s before going through something of a resurgence. In 1970 they took Celtic to extra-time in a League Cup semi-final before going down 3-4. In 1972 they won the Second Division championship in a dramatic finale by beating Berwick Rangers in the last game of the season. After narrowly surviving their first season back at the highest level for 50 years, Dumbarton found themselves back in the second tier when the Scottish League was restructured in 1975 with the formation of the Premier Division. Although they reached the Scottish Cup semi-final stage in 1976, it would be a long struggle to improve their status.
From 1977 the club crest was worn on the teams' shirts. This features an elephant (representing Dumbarton Rock, a volcanic plug thought to resemble that animal) with a castle on its back (which represents Dumbarton castle, which sits on the top of the famous landmark).
In 1984 Dumbarton were promoted to the Premier Division. Completely out of their depth, they were relegated the following season.
In 1993 the club adopted Diadora as their kit partner but their appears to have been a mix up and for several games the team played in gold and red shirts until the correct ones were delivered.
Instability on and off the field contributed to further relegations and in 1997-98, Dumbarton were playing in the Scottish Third Division (fourth tier).
In 1999 the club's crest was updated although the design remained fundamentally unchanged.
In recent years the club has undergone something of a revival. The
club left their dilapidated Boghead Park in 2000 to move into the all-seat
Strathclyde Homes Stadium and won promotion to the third tier in 2002.
Their new ground nestles beneath Dumbarton rock, a spectacular volcanic
mass rising 240' (73 metres) above the River Clyde. They are known as
"The Sons" from "The Sons of the Rock."
Photograph courtesy of Chris Whitefield.
- (a) Official Dumbarton Website
- (b) Brian McColl
- (c1) London Hearts
- (c2) London Hearts
- (c3) London Hearts
- (c4) London Hearts
- (d) Ayr United FC - Images of Sport (Duncan Carmichael 2002)
- (e) On the Rocks
- (f) Alistair's Heart Monitor
- (g) Red Card Scotland
- (h) House of Shirts
- (i) e-bay
- (j) Classic Kits
- (l) Old Football Shirts
- (m) SNSpix
- (n) Alick Milne
- (o) St Johnstone FC - Images of Sport (Alastair Blair 2003)
- (p) Ralph Pomeroy
- (q) Scottish Football History
- (r) Sean Bangs
- (s) Donald Gellatly
- (t) The Vision Book of Football Records by Clive Batty (Vision Sports Publishing 2009 ISBN 978 1905326 68 6)
- (u) Chris Whitefield
- (v) Jim Jenkinson
- (w) Gary Black
- (x) Keith Ellis
Crests are the property of Dumbarton FC.
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| 0.952671 | 1,792 | 1.695313 | 2 |
London 2012: Canada's Olympic open-water swimmers confess their fear of the deep
Explore This Story
Zsofia Balazs once saw a fish eat another fish while she swam an open-water race.
"That kind of freaked me out," she says.
Richard Weinberger spent much of a river race in Mexico wondering where the crocodiles were lurking.
Canada's two marathon swimmers at the Summer Olympics in London both admit their sport's wild environments can make them feel uneasy.
In the pool, it's man against man in a controlled setting. In open-water swimming, it's man against man and nature.
No pristine water with black lines clearly visible below for Balazs and Weinberger.
Open-water racing is in oceans, rivers, lakes and ponds, where creatures, as well as swimmers, are in competition with each other.
"Just don't look down and think about what's below you," is the advice of Balazs.
Balazs, from Toronto, and Victoria's Weinberger have raced in water so murky they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces.
While that may have kept Weinberger from witnessing any "Wild Kingdom" moments, the 22-year-old isn't sure ignorance is bliss. Sometimes imagination is worse.
"If I see anything I'll freak out, but if I don't see anything I'll freak out," Weinberger says. "It's a lose, lose situation for me."
Open-water swimming made its Olympic debut at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. It was held in a relatively sterile man-made rowing and canoe park.
The 2012 Olympic open-water events are in Hyde Park's Serpentine, a water-fowl pond in London's downtown.
The men and women's races are each 10 kilometres — six laps of a 1.66-kilometre loop.
The Serpentine holds few terrors other than swampy water and perhaps a bewildered duck or swan, but Weinberger feels squeamish about what's below nonetheless.
"It's only a couple metres deep, but I'm afraid to touch the bottom," he says. "It just freaks me out."
Marathon swimmers often can't see where they're going with their heads in the water, so they lift their heads up to grab both a breath and their bearings.
"We try to incorporate breaths up front, lift our heads up almost like a water polo player," Balazs explains. "We just don't keep our heads up. You lift up, look where you're going and put it back down.
"There's usually someone in front of you that you can follow and if they go off course, then we all go off course, so no one is really gaining anything."
Weinberger's coach Ron Jacks invokes the old Red Cross slogan "swim with a buddy" as a race strategy. If you swim by yourself, you might lose the race.
"One of the big things I say to the young kids is 'Don't swim alone,'" Jacks explains. "When there's 10 or 12 people navigating, the tendency is to be pretty straight. If there's one person navigating, you can be off.
"If you're dead tired and you've got half the race left, you'd better try to stay with that group because this is the most important time of your race right now."
In opaque water, it's difficult finding the most efficient line from start to finish, even with a boat guiding the swimmers. Going just a few metres off course adds unwanted distance to an already long swim.
"It happens all the time," Weinberger says. "That's the brilliant part of open-water swimming. Anything can happen. You have to deal with currents, waves, swells, boat waves."
Weinberger says it's helpful to look for large landmarks when he lifts his head. A skyscraper, mountain or boat dock provides a visual cue for navigation.
It also takes the swimmers' minds off any fish-on-fish drama.
"I'm actually scared of open water," Balazs confesses.
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Weebly is a free website builder that allows anybody to build their own websites quickly and with ease. It is a very popular platform, and has more than 6 million registered users for one very simple reason - Weebly is a free website builder, and it's darn easy to use.
This free website builder allows you to build beautiful websites in a very short period of time - even if you do not have any programming background. If you have aspirations to create business websites, e-commerce websites, blogs or just general interest websites, Weebly is an ideal free website builder for you.
Free Versus Paid (Pro)
Yes it's true, Weebly does have a paid feature where once you sign up for its Pro plan, you are granted access to more interesting website builder tools. But fear not, you don't actually need the paid version of Weebly to build awesome websites. The free version of Weebly is more than enough to get the job done.
So what tools do you have access to under Weebly's free website builder program? Let's just say you get ALL the basic tools, except for the following:
• Video player (but you can get around this by uploading your video on to YouTube as Weebly's free version allows you to play YouTube videos)
• Audio player
• Embedded document - allowing you to embed documents such as PDF to your web pages
• Password protection for selected web pages
• 10 websites per account (but you get 2 free accounts under the free account anyway)
• Increased file size limit
• Visitors could upload files to your Weebly website
• Removed advisement from Weebly - the free website building version does have a very small snippet of Weebly advertisement at the footer, but not very intrusive in my opinion
As you can see, Weebly's free website builder program is fully capable of allowing you to build a functional website. Should you need the tools that the paid version provides, you can always upgrade later once you are satisfied with Weebly's free website builder.
Full HTML / CSS Control
One of the best parts about this free website builder is that Weebly does not restrict you in how you want to design your website. By granting you full control of Weebly HTML and CSS access, if you are savvy with coding, you can pretty much create any design you want that suits your website.
If you don't have the necessary expertise to play around with the codes to create your ideal design, there are independent Weebly templates providers that serve up some really beautiful and creative templates that could be integrated with your free or paid Weebly account in a matter of seconds.
Weebly is one of the best free website builder in the market today, for all the reasons provided above. It's very intuitive to use, and its simple drag-and-drop platform has effectively created a way for everybody to build websites in a very quick and painless manner.
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| 0.94927 | 614 | 1.546875 | 2 |
“This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeks Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3: 21-26).
Jeremiah, in the book of Lamentations, begins to weep over the condition and position of his nation. I believe that is where we are right now; entering the time of sorrow over our nation. As we see from Lamentations 3: 21-26, Jeremiah was reminded of the Lord’s faithfulness and it gave him hope. If you are going through a hard time right now, focus on God’s faithfulness and let hope rise in your heart.
It is important to remember that hope is born from the womb of hopelessness.
In Jeremiah’s day, it was not a time to preach judgment for judgment was already set. It was a time to preach hope. I believe the Lord has spoken and I feel like he is saying that 2013 will be a year of HOPE. I know, from Scripture, that God’s judgment is always tempered by mercy. That gives us reason for HOPE.
I want to give you seven reasons to HOPE in the midst of judgment. Write this down, or cut this out of the paper, and keep it in your Bible this year. It will give you hope. Reason number one:
1. Because God is a God of mercy. “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed” (verse 22a). Notice that mercies are plural. God is full of mercy. That is a great reason to hope.
2. Because His compassions do not fail (verse 22b). His compassions are love in action: unselfish, unconditional, unwavering, unchangeable, undying, unfailing, and undividable. That is a great reason to HOPE.
3. Because His mercies are new every morning (verse 23a). The old covenant always had a time period attached to it and had to be renewed annually, but in the new covenant Jesus died once for all. Every morning when you get up, His mercy starts over fresh and new. That’s a great reason to HOPE.
4. Because great is His faithfulness (verse 23b). He remains faithful, even when we are faithless. That is a great reason to HOPE.
5. Because the Lord is my portion (verse 24). The Lord Himself is our reward. That’s grace. Mercy keeps us from what we deserve, but grace gives us what we could never earn. He is our portion and that gives us reason to HOPE.
6. Because the Lord is good (verse 26). Isaiah 40:31 says there are benefits for waiting on the Lord, but we must also remember that every benefit comes out of His goodness. James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights…” Because the Lord is good and every good gift comes from him - That is reason to HOPE.
7. Because salvation comes from the Lord (verse 26). Do you know what you have when you have salvation? Salvation means you have deliverance, preservation, restoration, repentance, redemption, blessing, prosperity and yes, even HOPE. What a wonderful reason to HOPE!
God has provided, in salvation, all we need in life. He is our HOPE. Because God is merciful, compassionate, faithful, and good we have hope right in the middle of trouble. I believe 2013 will be a year of HOPE. Take hold of HOPE because the Bible says, “Hope is the anchor of your soul” (Hebrews 6:19).
He serves as an apostolic leader to many churches as well as in several other countries. He is active in church planting in India and South Africa and is an accomplished author, singer, speaker and encourager, Bro. Rick travels extensively to fulfill the calling God has placed on his life. He can be contacted by writing to Rick Clendenen Ministries, Inc., PO Box 287, Benton, KY 42025. For more info go www.rcminc.org.
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Exceptions to Withholding Policy
CANADA and MEXICO: Married residents of Canada and Mexico may claim an allowance for their spouse if the spouse is not the dependent of another U.S. taxpayer, and if he/she had no taxable income for the U.S. purposes. Mexican and Canadian citizens may also claim their dependents on the same terms as U.S. citizens.
JAPAN and KOREA: Nationals of Japan and Korea may take allowances for their spouse and any dependent children who lived with them in the United States at some time during the tax year. Full dependent allowances are permitted if:
- the spouse and/or children do not have U.S. source income and are not claimed as dependents on someone else's U.S. tax return, and
- the nonresident alien earned ONLY U.S.-source income effectively connected with U.S. trade or business
Japanese or Korean citizens who earned foreign-source income, or U.S.-source income not effectively connected with U.S. trade or business should consul IRS Publication 519 for more information.
INDIA: A student from India my take an additional allowance on line 5 for his/her spouse if the spouse has no gross income, is not claimed as a dependent by another U.S. taxpayer, and the couple does not file a joint return. An allowance for each child who lives with the student in the U.S. and who is a resident of the U.S., Canada or Mexico can also be added to line 5. Since Indian students are entitled to the standard deduction ($3,800 single, $3,175 married), they are not required to write an additional amount on Line 6.
IRS Form 1078
Citizens of countries whose tax treaties permit them to file Form
W-4 as a resident (rather than as a non-resident) must also complete
IRS Form 1078 and attach it to their completed Form W-4 along with
a copy of their I-20,
DS-2019 or I-797 and I-94. This form is available from the Payroll Office or from the IRS.
Certain nonresident aliens may claim more than one withholding allowance as a result of agreements negotiated between their home countries and the United States.
- General Info
- Prospective Students
- New Students
- Current F-1 Students
- Current J-1 Students
- Former Students and Alumni
- J-1 Exchange Visitor Program
- B-1/B-2 Short Term
- H-1B Employment Visa
- TN (Trade NAFTA)
- Applying for US Citizenship
- Employment & Taxes
- Applying for a NH Driver's License
- Bertram Husch International Scholarship Fund
- Employment Links
- Financial Aid
- Food & Lodging
- Guide to Currency Conversion
- Health Insurance Carriers
- Immigration Attorneys & Links
- International Friendship Group
- International Organizations
- Miscellaneous Links
- UNH Links
- U.S. Government Links
- Voltage Standards Around the World
- Getting to Know UNH
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Kiva are a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. Since Kiva was founded in 2005:
- 600,463 Kiva lenders
- $230 million in loans
- 98.80% Repayment rate
WorldBlu is a global network of organizations committed to practicing freedom and democracy in the workplace.
Our purpose is to unleash human potential and inspire freedom by championing the growth of democratic organizations worldwide.
Peacemakers Incorporated has members in 45 countries and in 37 states in the USA. Their mission is to create paths of peace by example and positive action, both locally and globally, through encouragement, communication, education and friendship.
Peacemakers Incorporated, a non-profit, organization was founded in 1987 to sponsor international women’s conferences on peace.
Between conferences, Peacemakers Incorporated supports a variety of peacemaking efforts, both locally and globally. In 1991, Peacemakers Incorporated produced a recording of lullabies from around the world. Proceeds exceeding $13,000 from the “Lullabies for Peace” sales were distributed to women and children in conflict areas of former Yugoslavia, El Salvador, Haiti, Rwanda and Bosnia.
Hunter Medical Research Institute
Established in 1998, the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI) is a unique partnership between Hunter New England Health, the University of Newcastle and the community. The Hunter Region has had a strong export tradition in industrial products and agriculture. However it is increasingly recognised internationally for its strength in health and medical research, education and training. The establishment of HMRI is a unique opportunity to capitalise on the region’s strategic advantage in health and medical research and biotechnology. HMRI has several strategic advantages for health and medical research. The population of the region is stable and well characterised, with a mixture of ages, socio-economic status and urban/rural location that makes it a microcosm of Australia and ideal for population based studies. In addition, there is a strong technical, research and education base combined with a tradition of multidisciplinary research.
Hunter Women’s Centre
The Hunter Women’s Centre is a non-government, not for profit, community based organisation which provides services to improve the health and wellbeing of the women of the Hunter, Newcastle, Australia.
The Centre is run by women for women, has been operating for over 30 years and prioritises services to women who are marginalised, experiencing disadvantage or having difficulty in accessing services elsewhere. Staff at the Hunter Women’s Centre are experienced and qualified and work from a holistic perspective which considers all aspects of a woman’s health and wellbeing. Hunter Women’s Centre is funded by NSW Health via the Hunter New England Area Health Service. The Centre is a member of Women’s Health NSW, the peak body for non-government women’s health services.
Services avaliable include information and referral, counselling, casework, therapeutic and support groups, workshops, advocacy, outreach and community education. Also available at the centre is free legal advice and information and a number of complimentary health therapies and activities.
The Professional Woman Network is an international training organization designed to assist individuals in starting a consulting and seminar business. PWN is dedicated to providing seminars, workshops, and certifications regarding the empowerment of women and youth.
Chiapas International is a non-profit organization that provides funds to help break the cycle of poverty in Latin America. These loans provide seed capital to women to start self-sustaining businesses in their local communities. Chiapas International has helped more than 47,000 women and their families take the first step out of poverty. Chiapas International, formerly known as The Chiapas Project, was founded in 2003 by Dallas real estate developer Lucy Billingsley, and is led by corporate and civic leaders. The organization has raised over $4 million since its inception.
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Shifting Sands at Otis Park
Seaside neighbors envision a makeover for neglected landmark.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
For years, Seaside’s Otis Park had been looking shoddy – weed-covered, sand-swept, and often frequented more by drug dealers than by families.
Inspired by the volunteer clean-ups of nearby Martin and Durante-Farallones parks, Carol Mikkelsen is ready to do something about it. In early April, Mikkelsen marched 200 flyers door-to-door in her neighborhood, drumming up support for a clean-up of the blighted, 2-acre space on Mingo Avenue and Highland Street.
About 30 neighbors attended an April 10 organizational meeting. The group announced its effort at the following City Council meeting, and on April 26 met with city staff.
The next morning, the Seaside Parks Department began hauling off broken concrete and trash, clearing weeds and moving the sand that had obscured park features. Two days later, the crew was still working while Mikkelsen and three fellow activists admired the progress.
“Neighbors are starting to see that it could be a neighborhood park again,” Mikkelsen says.
Ronnie Lindfield visualizes new playground equipment for kids and terraced seating for their parents. Dale Presson suggests surrounding the park’s non-operative cannon with brick pavers bearing the names of local veterans, at $50 each, to raise funds for other improvements.
Volunteer Ann Quamen praises the Parks Department for its quick response, and the Police Department for increasing its presence on the drug-plagued corner.
Assistant City Manager Jill Anderson says the city was ordered several years ago to cut off water for parks; financial and staff resources are also constrained. But the city agrees to help with labor, and possibly matching funds if the neighbors can get a grant.
“We want to leverage the energy and enthusiasm these residents are showing,” she says. “We can get a lot more done working together than separately.”
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Google Points Out That PROTECT IP Would Be A 'Disastrous Precedent' For Free Speech
from the good-for-google dept
While there have been a a couple of politicians speaking out against the very questionable PROTECT IP Act, we hadn't heard much from various companies that would be seriously impacted by the law. Thankfully, they're starting to speak up, starting with Google. Eric Schmidt warned that passing PROTECT IP would set a "disastrous precedent" for free speech, and that Google would fight against it passing, and suggested the company would fight the law in court if it did pass:
"I would be very, very careful if I were a government about arbitrarily [implementing] simple solutions to complex problems," he said. "So, 'let's whack off the DNS'. Okay, that seems like an appealing solution but it sets a very bad precedent because now another country will say 'I don't like free speech so I'll whack off all those DNSs' -- that country would be China.Of course, the problem here is that those in favor of PROTECT IP don't seem to understand the technology that they're regulating. So they don't realize that they're trying to create a "simple solution to complex problems," and don't recognize that they're effectively breaking the internet and infringing on free speech rights. It's not because they don't like free speech. It's because they don't understand what they're doing, and lobbyists for the entertainment industry insist this is needed to "fight piracy." The problem is that this won't "fight piracy" and will have massive unintended consequences. It's good that Google is willing to make this an issue.
"It doesn't seem right. I would be very, very careful about that stuff. If [the UK government] do it the wrong way it could have disastrous precedent setting in other areas."
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March 23, 2012 by eestone
The Armenian History Lecture Series at the University of California, Irvine, continued this month with a lecture by Richard Hovannisian, professor emeritus of Armenian and Near Eastern History at UCLA. Hovannisian’s talk, “The Changing Landscape of Historic Western Armenia: Reflections on a Journey into the Past,” took attendees on a visual journey through contemporary and ancient Armenia using slides from his recent journeys through Armenia and historical photographs.
More than 170 UCI students, faculty and local community members gathered to hear Hovannisian at the University Club. Many in the audience were transported home again, seeing images of Armenia where their parents and grandparents grew up. For most of the students in attendance, this was their first “trip” to Armenia and what better tour guide than Hovannisian, who wrote the definitive encyclopedia on Armenian history.
After the lecture Charles Barsam, on behalf of the Orange County Armenian Professional Society, presented a check for $10,000 to Vicki L. Ruiz, dean of the School of Humanities, to support Armenian history at UCI.
Dr. Vahe and Armine Meghrouni, who last December generously donated $50,000 to fund community lectures and quarterly Armenian courses, matched their 2011 donation with another $50,000. Dr. Meghrouni spoke briefly on the importance of confronting “revisionists, reductionists and deniers” of Armenian history and providing a place where students can get an accurate picture of Armenian history.
Dean Ruiz awarded certificates of appreciation to Sylvie and Garo Tertzakian and the Meghrounis for their continued vision, support and dedication.
A camera crew from USArmenia, the most watched Armenian television network in the world, filmed the lecture and interviewed guests afterwards. Coverage of his talk was broadcast to more than 150 countries.
The quarterly lecture series – made possible through gifts to UCI – offers the local community opportunities to learn more about Armenian history. This past year the series included lectures by Sebouh David Aslanian on his book From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa and Tom Mooradian on his memoir The Repatriate: Love, Basketball and the KGB which chronicles his 13 years behind the Iron Curtain as an Armenian repatriate.
Undergraduate courses in Armenian history continue in the upcoming spring quarter with an offering in modern Armenian history.
Click here to see a clip from the USArmenia broadcast.
About Armenian History at UC Irvine
Armenian History at the University of California, Irvine was established in December 2007 with the goal of providing classes in ancient and modern Armenian history to all interested students on a yearly basis. The first classes occured in the fall of 2008. The mission of the this initiative is to provide intellectual and social space for any student with an interest in Armenian history as well as provide a cultural framework for students who may be interested in learning more about their own heritage or those of their neighbors.
More on the Department of History.
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By Tana Shealey, Reporting
November 18,2008 – It's cold and Flu season, and public health officials are encouraging residents to take precautions and get their Flu shots. The Alabama Department of Public Health reports on average, 226,000 people are hospitalized each year nationwide because of Influenza.
The members of the Alabama Army National Guard's 158th Maintenance Company from Tallassee and Tuskegee will get to spend Thanksgiving at home before being deployed to Iraq. Supporters raised over -20- THOUSAND dollars to bring the Guard members home before being deployed; they had been training in Indiana pending deployment.
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JAMSHEDPUR: Shifting from the routine plantation drive to value addition plantation, the Kolhan divisional forest department has embarked on tribal livelihood enhancement mission through its ongoing saplings plantation programme.
The Kolhan division the state forest department has a job cut out with an ambitious target of 25 lakh sapling plantation in the three districts.
Forest department sources said while the East Singhbhum district will plant 10 lakh saplings, eight lakh saplings will be planted in West Singhbhum. Another 6.5 lakh saplings will be planted in Seraikela-Kharswan district. Social forestry divisions of Chaibasa, Adityapur and Jamshedpur will take care of their respective jurisdictions in ensuring effective plantation through greater participation of local villagers, the sources added.
"This time around the focus is largely on lifting the socio-economic condition of the villagers (through the plantation drive) who are residing on the forest land for centuries," said conservator of forest (Kolhan) Sanjay Kumar.
The ongoing plantation, which will probably end in the next three weeks, is witnessing berry, cocoon, tendu, kusum (Ceylon oak), palash (butea gum tree) and lac saplings being planted in large numbers. Saplings of sheesham and teak have also been planted along with bamboo. In addition, saplings of medicinal and herbal plants are also being planted.
"The objective is not merely to ensure spread of forest cover but also to make value addition to the saplings," Kumar said while maintaining that the outcome of the ongoing exercise will be long-term.
A forest officer in Dhalbhum division who is actively involved in the saplings programme said as forests provide a number of minor products which are utilized in different industries and used in domestic consumption, the current programme is aimed at providing an adequate opportunity to poor villagers to improve their livelihood once the plants start bearing fruits.
"We are spending over Rs 1 crore on the saplings programme with utmost sincerity to build a ground for tribals who in the long term can derive the maximum benefit from the saplings that are being planted today," the officer said.
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Occupy Wall Street Rages On Around The World
Occupy Wall Street, a movement that began as a small band of protesters in Zuccotti Park, gained endorsements from major unions and progressive leaders as well as prominent politicians.
Within a few short weeks, it has come to resemble a movement with more than 900 meetups in 900 cities across the country. It has even gone international with Occupy sites in Australia and London and other cities saddled with long unemployment lines, gross income disparities, and hapless politicians.
Organizers have erected tent cities in town squares and held rallies in front of city halls. Major marches have been held in Las Vegas and Portland, and there have been strong showings in Chicago and Austin, and plenty of free vegan food served by Occupy Baltimore.
It's unclear just where all these general assemby meetings, Twitter updates, and teach-ins are heading. Democratic leaders including Vice President Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi expressed support for the protesters this week and officials such as U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have said they sympathize with the protestors' feelings of anger towards big banks' role in the financial crisis.
Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, Tahrir Square veterans, and notable environmentalists have all made cameo appearances. Organized labor has also backed the protests.
The support has not helped relations with the police. The activists have endured pepper spray, a baton-wielding white-shirt and the mass arrest of more than 700 demonstrators on the Brooklyn Bridge. That incident is now the subject of a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court. These incidents will either come to define the movement or be simply blips onto something more substantial and lasting.
The protesters list of grievances is long, with issues ranging from the foreclosure crisis and work-place discrimination to student loan debt. The protests in New York and other cities focus on income inequality, a theme common in the group's internet presence, including on a Tumblr that showcases Americans dealing with joblessness and other issues.
Even if the protesters were able to narrow their concerns to one, easily defined goal, some organizers say that would miss the point. So what comes next?
If you've been to an Occupy Wall Street event anywhere in the country, we'd like to hear from you. Send OfftheBus your photos, links to videos or first-hand accounts of what you've seen for possible inclusion in The Huffington Posts's coverage at [email protected]. If you would like to sign up to be a citizen journalist through OfftheBus, sign up at offthebus.org.
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Daniel Fisher, Forbes Staff
I cover finance, the law, and how the two interact.
A federal judge in Washington has issued an opinion in a case involving regulation of the milk industry that will resonate with opponents of Obamacare for its attack on the U.S. Supreme Court’s steady diminution of economic rights since the New Deal.
The sharply worded concurrence in a decision by the influential U.S. Court of Appeals D.C. Circuit, which was joined by the chief judge, reveals the deep misgivings some judges have for the hands-off approach the Supreme Court has taken toward economic rights since it acquiesced to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s laws regulating industry and labor in the 1930s. The debate over whether courts should assert more power to overturn laws that intrude on economic rights is at the center of the Supreme Court’s deliberations over the healthcare reform act.
In her opinion, Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the D.C. Circuit, a George W. Bush appointee, bemoans the fact she must uphold a federal law that targeted a single milk producer for punishment because of Supreme Court rulings that have “relegated economic liberty to a lower echelon of constitutional protection than personal or political liberty.”
America’s cowboy capitalism was long ago disarmed by a democratic process increasingly dominated by powerful groups with economic interests antithetical to competitors and consumers. And the courts, from which the victims of burdensome regulation sought protection, have been negotiating the terms of surrender since the 1930s.
Brown was joined in the fiery concurrence by Chief Judge David B. Sentelle, a Reagan appointee.
The law in question was passed in 2006 to fix a seeming loophole in federal regulations that were first passed in the 1930s to prop up milk prices. The law requires milk bottlers and distributors to pay fixed prices into a centralized “producer settlement fund,” which then pays dairies a single price per gallon for their milk regardless of whether it is sold as higher-cost milk or lower value cheese and butter.
Integrated operations with dairies and bottlers created “serious complications for the this system,” however, the court noted, since they didn’t have any opportunity to pay money into the centralized fund. Hein Hettinga, a Dutch immigrant, exploited this to build a highly successful independent dairy and distribution business in Arizona that sold milk to outlets in California like Costco for as much as 20 cents below regulated prices. That drew the wrath of competitors, who got a law through Congress in 2006 that targeted for regulation any producer-handler in the Arizona marketing area that sold in California — basically Hettinga.
He sued to overturn the law on a variety of constitutional grounds, including that violated his equal-protection rights and it was a bill of attainder singling his business out for legislative punishment. The D.C. Circuit upheld the law, however, citing a string of Supreme Court decisions going back to the 1930s that subject economic claims to a lower “rational basis” standard of review than laws that implicate civil rights like the right to vote.
Brown accepted the reasoning behind the decision but took it as an opportunity to list the parade of decisions she thinks created the opportunity for Hettinger’s competitors to do with federal law what they couldn’t accomplish in the free market.
The process began, Brown said, when the Supreme Court allowed state and local governments to regulate property under their general police powers and to “adopt whatever economic policy may reasonably be deemed to promote public welfare.” She cites Nebbia v. New York, a 1934 case upholding a New York law setting minimum milk prices. Then she tees off on U.S. v. Carolene Products, considered one of the most influential Supreme Court cases of the 20th century because of its famous Footnote 4 suggesting that courts should not strike down purely economic laws on discrimination grounds but they might take a closer look at laws that target “discrete and insular minorities.”
“Finally,” Brown writes, “the Court abdicated its constitutional duty to protect economic rights completely, acknowledging that the only recourse for aggrieved property owners lies in the `democratic process.’”
This standard is particularly troubling in light of the pessimistic view of human nature that animated the Framing of the Constitution—a worldview that the American polity and its political handmaidens have, unfortunately, shown to be largely justified.
Sounding the sort of opposition to government-granted favors that animated many of the men who debated the Constitution, Brown goes on to warn about the “political temptation to exploit the public appetite for other people’s money—either by buying consent with broad-based entitlements or selling subsidies, licensing restrictions, tariffs, or price fixing regimes to benefit narrow special interests.” Her ultimate target is rational basis, the court-created doctrine that says judges aren’t competent to determine whether economic regulations make sense. Unless a law is completely irrational — one struggles to think of an example, perhaps a law requiring everyone to buy two left shoes — rational basis suggests courts should leave them alone.
The hope of correction at the ballot box is purely illusory. …In an earlier century, H. L. Mencken offered a blunt assessment of that option: “[G]overnment is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.” And, as the Hettingas can attest, it’s no good hoping the process will heal itself. Civil society, “once it grows addicted to redistribution, changes its character and comes to require the state to ‘feed its habit.’” …The difficulty of assessing net benefits and burdens makes the idea of public choice oxymoronic. …Rational basis review means property is at the mercy of the pillagers. The constitutional guarantee of liberty deserves more respect — a lot more.
Brown, an Alabama native and daughter of a sharecropper, raised the hackles of some Democrats in her 2005 nomination hearings for her comparisons of liberal economic policies with slavery. “We no longer find slavery abhorrent,” she once told the Federalist Society, the New York Times reported at the time. “We embrace it.” She put herself through law school in California after she was widowed shortly following the birth of her son. She was once considered a contender for the Supreme Court, since the D.C. Circuit has served as a warmup box for Justices including Chief Justice John Roberts.
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Ministers call for ban on drink adverts on television and in cinemas to protect children
- MPs also want to look at alcohol advertising ban at major sports events
- Similar advertising ban law already exists in France
- Stephen Dorrell says striking right balance is difficult
Ministers should consider banning television and cinema adverts that promote alcohol to stop children from seeing them, claim MPs.
They also want to investigate whether drink firms should be stopped from sponsoring major sporting events such as football matches or the Olympics.
MPs from the Health Select Committee said drinks makers should only be allowed to promote their products at events that adults attend, such as wine-tasting fairs.
Big change: Ministers should consider banning television and cinema adverts - such as this one for Worthington's beer - that promote alcohol to stop children from seeing them, claim MPs
They pointed out that a similar law already exists in France.
The MPs also said they support the Government’s plan to bring in a minimum price for alcohol to try to cut the rising toll of binge-drinking on society.
The NHS spends £1.3billion a year treating alcohol-related injuries and illnesses while the cost of drink to the economy is estimated at £7.3billion.
Tory MP Stephen Dorrell, chairman of the committee, said: ‘Striking the right balance on alcohol consumption is not straightforward.
'Most people enjoy alcohol without evidence of harm, yet it is not possible to define what is a safe level of consumption as alcohol affects people in different ways.
‘Individuals who drink and the companies which sell it have an obligation to do so in a way which respects the rights and interests of fellow citizens.’
He added that a minimum unit price should remain in place only ‘if it is shown to be effective in reducing harmful drinking’.
Fixture: Ministers want to investigate whether drinks firms should be stopped from sponsoring major sporting events such as the Stella Artois championships
A ban would mean adverts for beer, wine and spirits could not be screened on television - even after the 9pm watershed - or in cinemas.
Earlier this year David Cameron proposed charging no less than 40p per unit - although it is not yet clear when this will be implemented.
The committee said they 'supported' such a move, but that the policy should be scrapped if it failed to cut alcohol deaths or crime.
Economists have calculated that minimum pricing could add an extra £200 to the average family grocery bill.
Sir Ian Gilmore, special adviser on alcohol at the Royal College of Physicians said: 'I am pleased to see the Committee's support for setting a minimum unit price for alcohol and agree that the price should be set at a level that is shown to be effective, and that a clear process is needed for monitoring and adjusting the price over time.
'We will continue to seek a minimum unit price of at least 50p per unit of alcohol.'
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London, Dec 11 (IANS) Nearly a quarter of a million people in Britain aged over 75 will spend Christmas alone because their children are too busy, a study has found.
The majority of over-75 years old (61 percent) have not told their children that they are lonely, mostly because they do not want to bother them.
Around 230,000 people said they will spend the holiday alone, the Daily Express cited the study by the charity WRVS as saying.
It said children were too busy to visit over 360,000 people aged over 75 years at any time.
Almost half of the elderly (48 percent) are visited just once every two to six months.
The report said older people who are visited once a month or less are twice as likely to feel lonely as those who see their children every day.
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by Charing Ball
Democratic Senator James Webb penned an op-ed in the Washington Post last week entitled, “Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege,” which basically argues against government entitlement programs because of their ability to disenfranchise white people. Yeah, you heard me right.
Webb is upping up the race baiting war being played out in the media by arguing that affirmative action has resulted in preferences for groups, particularly Hispanic, Asians and Africans, that cannot claim to be victims of massive, systematic injustices inflicted in the United States. Well that is arguable to say the least, considering that the U.S. has historically not been so welcoming to any of those groups. Ok, but for the sake of argument, I’ll bite.
Webb, a proud Scot-Irish and former Republican, is known for playing the oppressed white male card and has penned a few books including “Born Fighting: How the Scot-Irish has Shaped America,” which claims, among other things, that the WASPs (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) have systematically kept the Scot-Irish oppressed in America.
This sentiment is not new or unheard of. A recent New York Times piece pretty much echoes Webb’s assertions and points out that a “upper-middle-class white applicant was three-times more likely to be admitted than a lower-class white with similar qualifications.”
I would be inclined to agree with Webb as well as the New York Times piece about the varying levels of class distinctions in society, but if the heart of this white angst is the entitlement given to upper class white folks over poor white folks, why then is all this anxiety and angst over entitlements being directed at the “others?”
What’s really at the heart of Webb’s, and others, perfectly-timed, white angst is two folds combined into one: 1).a dog whistle approach to gain votes by 2) using the old Southern Strategy to manipulate fearful white folks, who are unable to accept that white privilege has and does exist. Webb, in his editorial, points out that it is unfair to lump White America into one large entitlement pot and makes the point of arguing that only 5 percent of whites in the south actually owned slaves.
What he fails to admit, even to himself, is that even if a white person, whether they were around during slavery or immigrated from Ireland or some other European country post-slavery, those immigrants were still able to benefit from jobs and other opportunities legally denied to those of African descent – regardless of what part of the Diaspora they originated. That benefit meant a step-ahead in education, employment and other opportunities, making it easier for white-skinned immigrants to assimilate into society and leaving those of the darker persuasion to struggle on the fringes.
Let’s lay out the hard facts: there are about 29.6 million small businesses in this country generating about $9 trillion in revenues. Only 7 percent are minority-owned and only 1.4 million (5 percent) of them are black owned [tag: business week]. Another 1.7 million (6.5 percent) are Hispanic owned. They (all minority owned businesses) account for $694 billion or 7.7 percent of the overall revenues.
And what about the other facts, which Webb ignores, that shows that 73% of all college students in the US are non-Hispanic non-Jewish whites compared to the 27 percent combined college student representatives of all other races [tag: chronicle article]. And while 48 percent of all poor people in America are white, that percentage only accounts for 11 percent of the total white population. Compare that with the 34 percent of American blacks, the 31 percent of Hispanics and 13 percent of Asians, who are living below the poverty line. And shall we mention that
I can certainly sympathize with Webb about the misdirected application of government entitlement programs [i.e. affirmative action], which have historically benefited White women the most (cough), but I cannot support his mischaracterization and virtual whitewashing of certain historical essentials. While poor whites may not have had a hand in creating this racial division in society, enough of them certainly held no qualms about partaking in these divisions including through segregation, racial intimidation (i.e. the Klu Klux Klan) and various other Jim Crow laws.
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In the Magazine | The 1999 Bon Appétit Awards
The 1999 Bon Appétit Awards
Humanitarian: Bill Shore
In 1984, responding to the Ethiopian famine, Bill Shore put out an SOS—literally—to the food industry. His organization, SOS—Share Our Strength—has since distributed more than $50 million to over one thousand anti-hunger, anti-poverty groups worldwide. "I preached not to the choir," he says, "but to those who didn't even have the hunger crusade on their radar screen." It's a philosophy also perfectly expressed in his new book, The Cathedral Within.Shore, a lawyer and former staffer for senators Robert Kerrey and Gary Hart, says that his organization's greatest asset is the legion of six thousand chefs and restaurateurs who donate their talents to the Taste of the Nation fund-raising dinners that are held each spring in 80 cities. But we think SOS's greatest asset is its founder and executive director, Bill Shore.
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Hussam Fawzi Jabar hosts a program on religion on Egyptian TV. In a recent episode, he let his viewers know exactly what he thought of Jews and Der Führer’s plans for them:
Here’s an excerpt from the transcript:
This is the nature of the Jews. By nature, they abhor keeping their commitments. By nature, they hate peace. By nature, they love treachery, betrayal, deception, killing, and blood. This is their nature.
It is very sad to see some of our own people, who speak our own tongue, try to convince their peoples that the Jews are peace-loving, that a solution to the satisfaction of both parties can be reached with them. I say that whoever says this and tries to convince others should either deny what is said in the Koran and the Sunna, and accept what the Jews say as truth, or else deny what the Jews say and accept what is said in the Koran and the Sunna. There is no third alternative.
The Jews are not happy living among their neighbors unless they are harboring hatred toward them, betraying, and deceiving them. They are always ready and prepared to generate reasons for this. This is why the West in its entirety got rid of the Jews, by creating a new country for them in Palestine. They spew them out away from them, and gave them a new country, at the expense of Islam and the Muslims.
At the same time, the West uses the Jews as a pitchfork with which to stab the giant [Islam] whenever it begins to awaken. If Egypt arises, Israel goes to war with it. If Syria arises, Israel begins clashes with it. If Lebanon arises, Israel starts conflicts with it. When Iraq arose, global Zionism mobilized the entire Western world to occupy Iraq. When Afghanistan arose… And so on and so forth… It stabs the giant [Islam] whenever it wants to awaken.
One of the most amazing things I have read is that Hitler said: “I could have annihilated all the Jews of the world, but I left some of them, so that you would understand why I did this to them.” Hitler was right to say what he said and to do what he did to the Jews.
Charming fellow, no? Be sure to watch the whole clip or read the whole transcript, because the genocide-admiring Jabar drinks deep from the well of Islamic paranoia and self-pity, imagining atrocities against Muslims by all sorts of people around the world, not just Jews.
But don’t doubt the special hatred Islam bears for Jews, which predates any contact with the Nazis. Islamic sacred texts are replete admonitions and violence against the Jews, from the Qur’an to the hadiths (sayings and deeds of Muhammad and his earliest companions) and the earliest biography of Muhammad. Islamic law mandates an inferior position for Jews in society. For a good, thorough survey of this topic, see Bostom’s The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism.
Far from being an extremist, Mr. Jabar is well within bounds of orthodox Islamic opinion regarding the “Enemies of Allah,” and it isn’t that of a “religion of tolerance.”
Video and transcript courtesy of MEMRI.
(Crossposted at Sister Toldjah)
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ProVital – strengthens the immune system naturally
A properly functioning immune system plays a key role in your dog's strength, lust for life and vitality, just as it does for humans.
Those who take a holistic approach to nutrition will give priority to natural methods of strengthening the immune defence system. Balanced formulations which prevent deficiencies are one side of the coin. Carefully dosed training of the immune defence system is the other.
BELCANDO® dog food with ProVital provides natural constituents of yeast which stimulate your dog's immune system like the various funguses that a wild dog ingests in his natural environment. The result is a properly stimulated immune system.
Particularly suitable for puppies and young dogs whose immune systems are undergoing development, as well as for older animals with restricted metabolic activity and dogs with little outdoor activity.
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Thursday, November 1, 2007
Gretta's Got It: Ties
If you're a guy looking to add some pizzaz to your wardrobe, ties are a great secret weapon. They add polish and color to any suit or jacket. Today our style expert is tackling ties, Gretta's Got It.
WSVN -- Gretta Monahan: "OK guys, whether it's a special occasion or a board meeting, to polish off any look you've got to tie one on."
Gretta Monahan: "Hey, Robert, thank you. Thanks for having me. Robert Dundon of Thomas Pink says, today, ties are a fashion must.
Robert Dundon: "What we're trying to do with the tie is pull the colors out of the shirt. So, we're using the tie as an accent that really pulls everything together."
Gretta Monahan: "They come in bright bold colors, patterns and stripes, giving men more choices to express themselves."
Robert Dundon: "You can have a great suit and a great shirt, but that tie is the piece that pulls that shirt and your suit together."
Gretta Monahan: "So, it's really important to get that right. The first thing you need to know is know how to rig the right knot."
Gretta Monahan: "OK, Robert, I'm always confused on ties. Show me the basic knots and how to do them."
Robert Dundon: "When you have a bigger spread between the collar, you are going to need to have a bigger knot to fill that up."
Gretta Monahan: "Show me the different knots and on how to do that."
Robert Dundon: "Sure, sure. Well, there is three basic knots."
Gretta Monahan: "They are the full Windsor, the half Windsor and four-in-hand."
Gretta Monahan: "The full Windsor is thick and wide with a triangular shape. It's best suited for spread collar shirts. It's perfect for when you're dressed to impress."
Robert Dundon: "With this one, you're getting a little bit more volume, and with this one you want to give yourself a little bit more room to operate. Start off a little bit shorter. You're going up and around through the other side and up and under."
Gretta Monahan: "Half Windsor: symmetrical and triangular. This knot is slightly more narrow than the full Windsor knot. This is impressive knot and can be worn with any dress shirt."
Robert Dundon: "Better for a semi-spread collar and, in this one, you're coming up and under just to create a little more volume in the knot and up and under again."
Gretta Monahan: "Four-in-hand: narrow, slightly asymmetrical and extremely versatile and the most popular. Its perfect for most button-down dress shirts."
Robert Dundon: "You take it around, you come up through the bottom, and then you go straight down, and this just gives you just the smallest knot."
Gretta Monahan: "But also important to know: where your tie should lie."
Robert Dundon: "The right length is that the tip of the tie should come right to the top of your belt."
Gretta Monahan: "Lastly, some ties dos and don'ts. Do have fun and express your individuality, but don't wear joke ties. They are never appropriate. I'm Gretta for Gretta's Got It."
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The other day a fellow colleague and gentleman asked me if I believe in ghosts, I told him that it didn’t matter if I believed in them or not, they still exist. Or do they? Yes and no. Yes they exist, but no they don’t. It’s one of life’s great mysteries, like the loch ness monster or William Shatner’s hair.
However gentlemanly encounters with the paranormal date as far back as when Shakespeare wrote Hamlet with a ghostwriter or Isaac Newton’s ghost Gravity would throw apples at him.
The paranormal isn’t just reserved for ghosts, there are also supernatural powers like foresight and telepathy. A note of caution however for gentlemen to never get themselves involved with the occult. This should be left to late night television scams.
Indeed, it isn’t just gentlemen having encounters with spooks from beyond this spiritual realm. In some cases it has been the gentlemen themselves who have crossed over!
There can be many problems attributed to paranormal activity, especially if you are haunted by a gentlemanly ghost. One might find his cigars missing and Scotch gone. Not only is theft a problem but now you have a drunk ghost on your hands. This has happened once or twice at Castle Brixley but it usually turns out to be Humphrey Bogart dropping by. However if you do have problems there is only one person to telephone.
Not everybody believes in ghosts though. Many a learned gentleman may have come to the logical conclusion that ghosts simply don’t exist.
There is another theory that states ghosts are not dead people coming back to smoke our cigars, but images from parallel universes crossing over into ours. This of course is preposterous, or is it?
Luckily for us there is one definitive way to work out whether ghosts and other paranormal activity are real or not, and that is to ask Clint Eastwood.
So there you have it.
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This spring the Royal Academy of Arts
presents an exhibition of work from Barbara Rae RA. This exhibition will provide the opportunity to see key works by the acclaimed painter and printmaker and will feature new monoprint works inspired by her recent travels to Ireland and Spain. The works exhibited will illustrate the broad range of printing techniques employed in her work.
Barbara Rae was born in Falkirk, Scotland in 1943 and studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1961 to 1965. She went on to Lecture in Drawing, Painting and Printmaking at Aberdeen College of Education from 1972 to 1974 and lectured in drawing and painting at Glasgow School of Art from 1975 to 1996. Barbara started making monotypes in 1985 and has her own press in her studio in Los Angeles where she edited the selection of monoprints for this exhibition. Barbara says of this practice: I enjoy the excitement of working with different master printers. Unlike the solitary act of painting in the studio, printmaking can be gregarious and the printmakers on the whole are very generous in sharing their ideas, personal techniques and secrets.
Raes work has been widely shown in both solo and group shows, recent exhibitions include: CCA Galleries, Surrey (2008), Adam Gallery, Bath (2008), The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh (2006) and Jorgensen Fine Art, Dublin (2005). Her work can be found in public and private collections worldwide including the British Museum, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Whitworth Gallery, Manchester and Museum of Art for Women, Washington DC. Barbara Rae was elected as a Royal Academician in 1996.
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To receive your free credit report, go to www.annualcreditreport.com, or call 877-322-8228 or write the Annual Credit Report Request Service at P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. To receive your FICO credit score as well, you will have to pay a small fee.
You'll need to provide your name, address, social security number, date of birth and an answer to a question only you would know.
For a small fee you can also order a copy of your credit report directly from one of the national credit reporting agencies listed below. It is advisable to review all 3 credit reports because they main contain different information on your credit history.
National Credit Reporting Agencies
To receive a combined copy of all 3 reports go to: www.myfico.com
Additional Credit Resources
Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS)
For help with repairing your credit or resolving problems with creditors, call 800-388-2227 for the CCCS office nearest you, or visit the CCCS Web site, www.nfcc.org.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
For help with credit reporting problems, call 202-326-2222, or visit the FTC Web site, www.ftc.gov.
For more information about credit scoring, visit Fair Isaac on the Web, www.fairisaac.com.
How to Review Your Credit Report
Review the report carefully, and pay close attention to the number of accounts, total account balances, and the timeliness of payments. Errors can occur in your credit report. If you find any negative information that appears to be incorrect, you should contact the credit reporting agency.
You have the right to question the accuracy of items reported on your credit report if you believe they are incorrect. The credit reporting agency then must investigate any item you believe to be in error on your report within a reasonable period of time. Any errors that the agency finds must be corrected within a reasonable time period (normally within 30 days); any information on the report thought to be in error that cannot be verified as correct by the agency must be deleted from your record.
If the item in question is found to be correct, you have the right to add a personal statement on your credit report explaining what happened to cause the negative item.
Common causes for errors are:
- inconsistent reporting by creditors
- wrong or misplaced dates
- wrong amounts
- double reporting
- incorrect reporting due to common names
- parents and students having the same address and name
- incomplete reporting of demographic information
Errors on your credit report can be corrected, but it may take several months to complete.
What is a Credit Score?
Credit scoring is a quick method of determining the likelihood that you will repay your loans based on your past credit history. A credit score is based directly on the data found on your credit report and reflects credit payment patterns over time. Your score will change as the information on your credit report is updated. It's important to understand your credit report because most lenders will use your score for auto, personal, mortgage and private student loans. Some factors used to calculate your credit score can include promptness in paying bills, number of credit cards, total credit limit, and the amount owed on accounts. Credit-reporting agencies may use different credit-scoring models; however, all generate a score that determines your credit risk.
How to maintain a good credit score:
- Pay bills on time. Delinquent payments will have a negative impact on your score.
- Maintain low balances on credit cards and other revolving credit. High balances may scare a lender.
- Avoid an excessive number of open accounts. They won't necessarily raise a score.
- Check your credit report for errors and protect yourself from fraud.
Student borrowers are often concerned about having multiple student loans and a large amount of education debt; however, this does not necessarily mean you will have a poor credit score. How well you managed credit in the past is the important thing.
Some factors that can negatively affect your credit score are:
- serious delinquency, derogatory public records, or collection accounts
- the proportion of balances to credit limits is too high
- the proportion of loan balances to loan amounts is too high
- too many new accounts
- too many accounts with balances
- insufficient time since account was established
- too many credit inquiries in the past 12 months
- too many finance accounts
Want to borrow an alternative loan, rent an apartment or buy a car or home sometime in the future? Chances are a lender will be pulling your credit report to determine whether or not to lend you money or extend you credit. Your credit report is a snapshot of your credit history. Credit reports typically include information such as the type of debts you have, current balances, payment performance, available credit, public records, and a record of credit inquires in the past two years. Some negative credit information may remain on your credit report for up to 7 years; bankruptcy can remain for 10 years. Student loan default remains on your report for 7 years. These, along with other factors, enable lenders to grade you. What they're grading on is whether and how well you have kept your financial promises.
Checking Your Credit History
You have a credit history if you have at least one credit card, consumer loans such as auto loans, student loans, or any other form of personal credit. It is a good idea to request a copy of your credit report each year to ensure that no errors exist or to resolve errors that do exist. You can request of copy of your credit report from any of the national credit reporting agencies listed below. Note: If you have been denied credit, you have the right to a free copy of the credit report used in this decision within 60 days of the denial from the appropriate credit reporting agency.
Ordering a Credit Report
Review your credit report annually to ensure its accuracy, correct errors and protect yourself from credit card fraud and/or identity theft. Since December 1, 2004 you can obtain a free credit report from the three nationwide consumer reporting companies (Equifax, Experian and Trans Union). An amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires these companies to provide a copy of your credit report, when requested, once every 12 months.
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India has adopted a policy allowing it to shoot down hijacked commercial planes deemed to have become "missiles" heading for strategic targets.
The issue of plane hijackings is sensitive in India
It also rules out giving in to any demands by hijackers, said India's Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee. A law would be introduced soon, he said.
The policy, approved this week by the security cabinet, deems hijacking an act of aggression against the country.
Convicted hijackers will be sentenced to death.
Mr Mukherjee says negotiations will only be held with the aim of ending the hijacking without loss of life and for comforting the passengers and the crew of the aircraft.
According to the new policy, fighter jets will take off immediately to escort any plane that is hijacked and is airborne.
The Indian jet hijacked to Kandahar and freed militant Omar Sheikh
The aim would be to try to get the plane to land and not let it take off again.
It also sets out the procedure for "threat" aircraft thought to have been turned into missiles.
A plane will be declared "rogue" if it deviates from flight plans, refuses to heed warnings and is headed for a strategic target.
The decision to shoot down the aircraft will lie with the security cabinet. But if there is no time for it to convene, the prime minister, defence minister or home minister- or failing that a senior air force official - can make the call.
Six years ago India freed three jailed Islamic militants in exchange for 150 passengers on an Indian jet hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan.
One of the freed men, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, was later implicated in the kidnapping and killing of US journalist Daniel Pearl and another was believed to have formed the militant Jaish-e-Mohammad group.
In January this year Germany and Poland both introduced laws allowing them to shoot down hijacked aircraft as a last resort.
They were following a number of other countries that had adopted such laws following the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.
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| 0.957668 | 420 | 1.726563 | 2 |
SAN FRANCISCO -- Oracle's situation in its intellectual property legal battle against Google is looking more bleak by the day.
At one point in time, Oracle was trying to go after Google with the intent to receive up to $6 billion in damages. Slowly that figure has dwindled down to somewhere around $1 billion and then a few hundred million.
Now, it looks like Oracle could end up with just $150,000 -- if anything at all given that the threat of a mistrial looms and we're still in the middle of the second phase of the trial covering patent infringement.
Judge William Alsup warned Oracle at the U.S. District Court of Northern California on Thursday morning that the "most" the plaintiff might end up with is statutory damages over the nine lines of code in the rangeCheck method -- the only item on the verdict form during phase one of the trial in which the jury found Google's conceded use was copyright infringement.
"The fact that they have nine lines out of many millions, you have no damage study tied in," Alsup exclaimed to Oracle.
Although it is up to the jury to determine damages, the maximum limit for statutory damages is $150,000.
Alsup suggested they "might want to find a way to streamline for some dollar amount," hinting they should try to negotiate a settlement in order to avoid a long third phase of the trial dedicated to determining damages.
Nevertheless, all of this is still to be determined as Google has filed a motion for the copyrights phase of the trial to be declared a mistrial. The judge has not ruled on that issue yet.
Even if Google had to fork over $150,000, it could still be a huge win for the Internet giant considering how much Oracle originally wanted.
In regards to the patents part of the lawsuit -- which as Groklaw described as a "roll of the dice for both parties" -- Google put up a better offer in April for up to $2.8 million in damages over two patents in question. Furthermore, Google also offered a deal of 0.5 percent from Android revenue for one patent through December 2012 and 0.015 percent on a second patent through April 2018. The catch is that this offer was only a stipulation for damages if (and only if) Oracle prevails on patent infringement.
Oracle reportedly rejected it.
- Judge denies Oracle's motion to throw out Google's fair use claim
- Google points to Sun's SEC filings to defend previous testimony
- Android chief says he didn't know about Sun's patent portfolio
- Android chief called back in Oracle-Google trial to discuss patents
- Oracle recalls Google engineer Lindholm in trial's patent phase
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Voices of Media Literacy: International Pioneers Speak : Barry Duncan Interview Transcript
INTERVIEW DATE:MAY 23, 2010
INTERVIEWED BY: DEE MORGENTHALER
BIOGRAPHY OF BARRY DUNCAN
Barry Duncan is an award-winning teacher, author, media consultant and founder and past president of the Ontario based Association for Media Literacy. Officially “retired,” he continues to teach part time at York University and the University of Toronto in the Additional Qualifications course on Media Studies. He continues to produce "Barry's Bulletin," a media education newsletter, for the Media-Awareness Network.
Describe how you became involved in media education?
Where was that? Where did you study under him (Marshall McLuhan)?
What school was that?
Can you tell me a little bit about how you included it into your teaching?
Did you have your students produce media?
What were your overall goals in education or personally in terms of media education?
After teaching, or during your teaching, were there other organizations that you became a part of?
And this guide focused on the Key Concepts? Were there lesson plans?
Does this Guide still exist in some form?
Major milestones in terms of your journey?
Do you feel that you were one of the few studying under him, that you were one of the first to adapt his ideas into the classroom?
How far do you think the field has come? Is it moving in the direction that you think is best?
Where do you see media literacy fit in terms of the school day?
For complete text of interview go to PDF.
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Subliminal Advertising, Like Energizer Bunny, Just Keeps Going… and Going.
By Max Sutherland
Do subliminal ads really work? Like the Energizer bunny, the brouhaha surrounding subliminal advertising just keeps going… and going. In the last few years, heavyweights such as McDonalds and KFC have been accused of using ‘subliminal advertising’. As has George W. Bush. Why? What's behind all this?
On cable TV during an episode of Iron Chef America on the Food Network, a frame of the McDonalds golden arches was discovered in the program. You can view it here.
The network later explained …"It was a technical error on our part and not a subliminal message as suggested by a website running the slow-motion playback," (Food Network spokesman Mark O'Connor.)
And when George W. Bush was running for President against Al Gore, the Republicans were also under fire, accused of using subliminals in their ads. If you look really closely you might just be able to see the word RATS flashed on the screen in the last 20% of this Republican TV ad.
As with the McDonalds commercial, no-one ever really provided a satisfactory explanation as to how this got in there. It makes people think “hmm…. why is it there? Maybe I really should be afraid.”
KFC jolted people upright by telling USA consumers last year that there was a hidden password in one of their USA TV ads. Discover the password and get a free sandwich, they offered. People could use their DVD recorders to watch in slo-mo and get the password. It created a lot of buzz and prompted viewing of the ad … intently. It also triggered people to wonder, yet again about ‘subliminal’ ads and what effect they really have.
The truth is that subliminal advertising is a hoax initiated by a marketing consultant, James Vicary, in the 1950’s. The effect that he reported, of flashing “Drink Coca-Cola” and “Eat popcorn” in a movie theater, struck fear into the public’s mind. Two decades later (in the 1970’s) Vicary admitted that he fabricated his movie theater experiment as a means of promoting his marketing consultancy.
The whole idea was a hoax all along but the public still believes that it works. The fear of subliminal advertising didn’t go away. By the time, Vicary’s admission became public, Wilson Bryan Key #1 had also helped fan the flames of controversy with all his stuff on embeds (e.g. the word sex hidden in the ice cubes of the Gilbeys Gin ad).
Myth will outlast fact and as recently as last year (April 2006), the respected magazine New Scientist re-entered the fray with an article entitled “Subliminal Advertising May Work After All”. Based almost entirely on a study called: “Beyond Vicary’s fantasies: The impact of subliminal priming and brand choice”#2 , it showed that the words ‘Lipton Ice Tea’, screened subliminally, seemed to influence a later choice of beverage (Lipton Ice Tea vs. Spa Rood mineral water). Leaving aside the methodological limitations (like confounding brand name and product type), the audience had to be in a high need state (i.e. already very thirsty) for the effect to occur.
Subliminally flashed images can influence mood and influence a feeling of familiarity with a product but the evidence of its impact on actual choice is very spotty. Pratkanis and Aronson #3 exhaustively researched the literature in 1991 and noted that more than 200 scientific studies had failed to replicate the original study. For every research study that comes along that shows any effect on choice, there are other studies that fail to find such an effect (see for example this one #4 that uses hidden words in music to try to influence choice).
The spotty evidence is just one reason that the fears don’t go away. The other reason is that from time to time, an embed is still discovered in an ad, a movie, a TV program or whatever…and people wonder why the heck it would be there if this stuff really doesn’t work. For example, when Lion King, the movie was released, Disney found itself under huge attack from accusers who said the word S-E-X could be discerned in the dust as the lions were playing.
In my book, Advertising and the Mind of the Consumer I pointed out that these things are motivated often by boredom or a need for self-expression and a practical joke. It is very easy for someone to put something in an ad, a movie or wherever – and it usually goes undetected. (I know one case personally.)
Some years ago, in the London Daily Mirror, owned then by the infamous Robert Maxwell, one of his staff inserted a cartoon with the words, ‘F**k Maxwell’ hidden in tiny letters among the squiggles.#5 Ask yourself, was he practicing some sort of mind manipulation or was this cartoonist just finding an expressive outlet for his angst?
Most of this stuff is visual graffiti and it can be discovered sometimes in the strangest places - even on computer chips (see Daffy Duck image on a microchip, detectable only when put under a microscope.) Usually only the perpetrators ever know these things are there.
I’m not saying that all instances of subliminal advertising that are discovered, originate from practical jokes but that’s what most of them are. When these are discovered, they nevertheless feed the public’s fear that subliminal advertising works, that it is widespread and that it is covertly seducing us all.
For those people who get off on mystique and want to believe in anything from conspiracies to alien abductions, this fits right in. In the entertainment industry, mystique programs like the X Files and Heroes, rate well and this myth of subliminal advertising fits right into the genre. If you have time, check out this video where entertainer, Derren Brown turns the tables on advertising copywriters and uses subliminal influence to affect the copy that they create. If you believe that, and you truly want a credibility stretch, check out this other one where he uses ‘subliminals’ to influence people’s choice of birthday gift. Showmanship rules!
KFC using a hidden password in their TV ad were hardly the first advertiser to use a tongue in cheek, approach to subliminal advertising. Absolut vodka for example ran one some years back with the headline "Absolut Subliminal". More recently, KFC announced a $10 gift certificate to the first 1000 kids who correctly guessed where a ‘mosquito ringtone’ (a high-pitched sound kids ears only are supposed to hear) was placed in a KFC TV commercial. (Watch the ad here and see if you can hear the sound...I could.).
All this is good fun but it does cause a lot of head scratching, each time, about subliminal advertising and why it is there and whether it works.
It is true that there are situations where it can be advantageous for advertisers to communicate outside the full glare of attention. It helps obviate the triggering of conscious defences and counter-arguing. There is also no doubt that subliminal images can influence mood and can create a feeling of familiarity with a product that has not been seen before.#6 But there are already successful and accepted ways to do all that. Product placement is one way. Messages in masquerade are another. Fears of subliminal effects have been grossly overblown while subtle effects that are not so ‘hidden’ from consciousness have much more impact. Advertisers have little need to bury obscure images in ice cubes or rely on things flashed rapidly at sub-threshold speeds, all for uncertain effect.
It is still widely believed that subliminal advertising was made illegal in the USA. In fact, no such legislation was passed (although it was in a number of other countries including the UK and Australia).
You can bet however, that all the fuss over subliminal advertising will keep on going...and going... because you don’t have to be a bunny to be goaded into thinking that this must be real, and widely practised. As Mark Twain once observed: “A good lie will have traveled half way around the world while the truth is putting on her boots.”Notes
1. Wilson Bryan Key, Subliminal Seduction, Signet, N.Y., 1972
2. Karremans, J. C., W. Stroebe, et al. (2006). "Beyond Vicary’s fantasies: The impact of subliminal priming and brand choice." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
4. Egermann, H., R. Kopiez, et al. (2006). "Is there an effect of subliminal messages in music on choice behavior?" Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis 4(2).
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My goal is to deadlift 500 pounds by the end of summer. By deadlifting every other week, I've come pretty close. Yesterday, for example, I did 225 x 10, 315 x 8, 405 x 6, 425 x 3, and then two sets of 445 x 1-which felt pretty heavy. Is there too much warming up? Any tips on how to break on through to the other side?
-Elijah Wheeler, Washington, DC
A: Okay, your goal is 500, and you're currently at about 450. Let's attack this somabitch with everything we got. We'll even use the fatty tissue between your ears for a change.
You're lifting backward, son.
In your sample warm-up, you're doing high reps followed by strength training. Elijah, do me a favor—go run 2 miles before you try and attempt the fastest 40-yard dash of your life, and let me know how it goes. Your high school football coach may have thought that was a great idea, but I'm here to tell you that he was not only wrong, but just plain dumb!
Running 2 miles is unrelated to running an optimal 40 time. You'll pre-fatigue the muscles, and you won't be able to sprint at maximal speeds. It's better to do a few 100-meter sprints at 60 percent and maybe work on some starts. But you wouldn't want to do anything too hard or challenging before the main event.
The same is true with any strength training protocol. After doing some short duration mobility work from Kelly Starrett's Mobilitywod.com, you'll be ready to get yourself into optimal positions to start warming up. Here is a sample warm-up for someone in the 400-to-500-pound deadlift range. You'll notice I like deadlifting with both Sumo and Conventional form in the warm up. They will allow you to hone your form from two directions and give your body a new stimulus:
From here on out, be cautious with the jumps in weight. When you're at 90-to-95 percent of your max, a 50-pound jump can kill your progression and your ego. Make smaller jumps of 15-to-30 pounds to save some face, gauge your strength and form, and prepare yourself for the heavier attempts.
Let's say your max is 445 pounds, it might go down like this: 385 lbs. x 1, 405 lbs. x 1, 425 lbs. x 1, then finishing with 450 lbs. x 1. Hell yeah, you just beat your 1RM by 5 lbs. and your street cred just went through the roof!
And if 450 felt a little too easy, try a harder weight. This is also the perfect time to do any extra rep work. Lower the weight to 315 and try 3 sets of 4-to-6 reps!
Here are a few recommendations for improving your deadlift:
Follow these instructions and you'll kill 500 pounds. Shoot, you may even just put it up over your head, and your new goal might be 600!
You now have all the tools you need. You just need to follow through on your end and bust your ass. Give a key to the inner universe to a thousand men, only one will open the door. Be the one!
Exclusive information from top medical doctors, strength coaches and scientists that you can't find anywhere else, right to your email!
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That should be interesting, Bob. thanks.Bob Ross wrote:Isaac, Jancis is working on page proofs of the third edition. I'll drop her a line and see what she is planning for the definition there. Regards, Bob
Yes, that seems to be the case. There is no accepted definition, agreed upon by all, and so the wordcan be misleading. If I say a wine is dry, I mean one thing. If Thomas says it, he means something completely different. Someone who doesn't know our definitions would have no idea what either of us meant.Rahsaan wrote:What makes strong brewed black tea seem dry?
Um, the fact that it is dry?
You wouldn't put sugar in your tea would you?
Then there's the astringency thing mentioned by Joe..
Anyway, it seems like you guys understand each other, but are just using different definitions..
Ed Draves wrote:in my personal opinion, the perception on dryness is what I concern myself with. In the glass does it really matter what the % of RS is? Or does what you taste matter above all?
Rahsaan wrote:Anyway, it seems like you guys understand each other, but are just using different definitions..
Robin Garr wrote:Rahsaan wrote:Anyway, it seems like you guys understand each other, but are just using different definitions..
I think it goes beyond mere "different definitions," Rahsaan, and this may be why a seemingly technical issue is raising an unusual level of, er, enthusiasm on both sides. I think it goes to a more philosophical difference in approaches to wine tasting, and to differing approaches that many of us hold deeply.
It strikes me as an issue of whether wine analysis can (or should) be quantified, and if so to what extent. Some of us want a rigorous, scientific definition of "dry." Others of us (and, frankly, I join Thomas and Jancis on this side) feel that it's the taste in the mouth that counts, and RS is only one among several inter-related variables. Can a wine with above-threshold RS be defined as "dry" if its overall flavor impression is not one of sweetness? That's the litmus test, and for me, the answer is yes.
Dale Williams wrote:Put me in the camp of using dryness to mean an absence of residual sugar. I certainly recognize that acidity can mask sugar. For instance, while there are exact figures under EU wine law for degrees of dryness, acidity can "stretch" the definition. "Trocken" is 0 to 4 grams per litre (= 0.4%) of residual sugar, "halbtrocken" is 4 to 12 (0.4 to 1.2% RS). But there are exceptions that apply: Trocken" can stretch up to 9 g/l, provided the acidity is not more than 0.2 g/l lower than RS - which is generally not a problem with German or Austrian Riesling
But I strongly disagree with using "dry" as substitute for "tannic" or "astringent".
And more to the initial point, I also strongly disagree with the sommeliers who smirked because a customer said he wanted dry and then mentioned a "butterball" as a wine he liked. Sure, if it was the KJ Vintners Reserve it probably has measurable sugar. But there ARE plenty of buttery Chardonnays that I bet come in at negligable sugar levels- bone dry. And even if they have low acids that means they are dry by my definition.
I also might use "sweet" if reference to a fruit profile in a red Bordeaux -that wine is still dry.
And lastly, I am a male wine drinker and probably AM a jerk.
philosophical difference in approaches to wine tasting, and to differing approaches that many of us hold deeply...Can a wine with above-threshold RS be defined as "dry" if its overall flavor impression is not one of sweetness? That's the litmus test, and for me, the answer is yes.
Rahsaan wrote:Same way I might describe the taste of some of these wacky tofu seitan products by saying "they taste like chicken/beef/etc" but I would never say they are chicken/beef/etc.
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S-STEM: Broadening opportunities for biologists
Broadening Opportunities for Biologists is a National Science Foundation S-STEM Scholarship Program at Oklahoma State University that provides financial, academic, and professional development support to undergraduate students transferring from a two-year school and majoring in biological science, zoology, or physiology.
Scholarships of up to $10,000 per year will be based on financial need and academic potential. Scholarships are renewable for a second year when retention criteria are met. 66 scholarships will be awarded over four years, beginning in Fall 2010.
The goal of our program is to improve recruitment, retention, and graduation rates for students transferring from two-year colleges and pursuing bachelor’s degrees in biological science, zoology, or physiology at Oklahoma State University. S-STEM scholarships will allow students to focus on academics and reduce the burden of seeking other forms of financial support, such as loans, work study positions, or outside employment. Academic support will ease the transition from a two-year college to OSU and provide students with the skills and knowledge necessary to complete their degree at OSU, while also providing skills for searching and applying for jobs, balancing professional and family life, and/or applying for and succeeding in graduate school. Professional development activities will expose students to career options in the life sciences, while encouraging students to develop a network of colleagues in the scientific community. The program is designed with flexible requirements to allow students to adapt their program experiences to their interests and needs.
For more information, please visit the S-STEM website.
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It is a subject that can be argued until St. Peter looks at the clock and orders last call. Who are the top 10 athletes in the history of San Diego? Tough one. We are filthy rich in this stuff.
I was involved in a radio discussion on a similar subject a few weeks back, and there are different ways to look at it. But, for the sake of this column, I’ll limit it to those who at least attended high school in this area, thus eliminating the likes of Tony Gwynn and Marshall Faulk.
And this must be an all-around athlete list, meaning the person had (has) to be proficient at more than one thing. Ted Williams, as a prime example, is our greatest sports star, but he will not make this list — unless we couple his prowess as one of the great fisherman with his magnificent ability to strike a baseball. I won’t, but you can, if you wish. Maureen Connolly, Bill Walton and Terri Mann, same thing.
There won’t be any order to this. They’re real good, so why bother ranking them? Here goes.
Charlie and Art Powell (an entry). The brothers starred in multiple sports during the 1950s at San Diego High. Charlie, who still holds the school’s shot put record, played pro football for the 49ers, minor league baseball and at one time was the fourth-ranked heavyweight boxer in the world (he fought and lost to Muhammad Ali). Art was a terrific wide receiver for the Raiders, making the All-Time AFL team. Younger brother Jerry, a versatile quarterback, was CIF Player of the Year at Lincoln High. Now there’s an athletic family.
Marcus Allen. It’s easy to remember him as the greatest football player this area has produced, but Allen did more than one thing at Lincoln. I saw him score 49 points in the Summer League basketball final at Peterson Gym. He also pitched on the Hornets’ baseball team and could high jump. Just a natural, brilliant athlete.
Junior Seau. Allen’s already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame; Seau’s heading there now that his outstanding NFL career, mostly with the Chargers, has ended. But we forget he also played basketball at Oceanside High. He was CIF Player of the Year in both sports. Pretty damn good athlete.
Harold “Brick” Muller. A brilliant, All-America player on Cal’s famous wonder teams of the early 1920s. When putting together college football’s first all-century team for Sports Illustrated, Dan Jenkins, the best sportswriter who ever lived, included split end Muller. Brick was the state high jump champion for San Diego High and took the silver medal in the event at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics.
Gail Devers. Gail is my exception, because we’re talking track and field exclusively here. But she started running cross country as a freshman at Sweetwater High, then ran the 800 as a sophomore, winning the county title, before moving on to the sprints, long jump and hurdles, eventually winning two Olympic 100-meter sprint gold medals. If Ted Williams were like Babe Ruth and could pitch, too, he might have made the list.
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Three special districts are seeking to protect their customers whenever the City of Hood River’s annexes “urban fringe” areas.
“Instead of butting heads together, let’s try to figure out what’s most advantageous to all of us — including the city,” said Terry Benton, board member from Ice Fountain Water District.
Ice Fountain has joined with Farmers Irrigation and West Side Fire districts to form the Hood River Special Districts Coalition (HRSDC). Each of the involved agencies is represented by two board members and a staffer at the monthly meetings.
Once complex annexation issues have been fully addressed, the HRSDC wants to focus on streamlining local governmental processes. Officials don’t believe that an applicant for a building permit should be required to visit up to eight different offices to obtain all of the signatures necessary for approval.
“It’s frustrating, inefficient, and wasteful,” said West Side Fire Marshall Jim Trammell, who also serves as the Coalition’s director.
The HRSDC united following their individual inability to resolve differences with the city over proposed annexation in 2002. Trammell said the municipality was violating state law by pursuing that action without compensatory agreements in place regarding the incorporation of Urban Growth Areas. The city’s annexation of 45 acres along Interstate 84 was later upheld by the Land Use Board of Appeals after West Side filed a legal challenge. However, the city was required to make some procedural adjustments to the methodology it used for that process.
“It is not the intention of the Coalition to oppose annexation, we recognize the city’s need and right to annex. But we also understand that our districts, collectively, have a fiduciary responsibility to our constituents,” said Trammell.
West Side is funded by property tax revenue and has 58 volunteers who provide protection services to 2,500-3,000 taxable lots over 25 square miles. The infrastructure at Ice Fountain is valued at $9.8 million and provides domestic water to 1,760 users. Farmers Irrigation pipes untreated ground water to 1,600 residences and businesses for use outdoors.
The Coalition is dedicated to working out numerous issues related to annexation. Areas of discussion include how services can be retained when revenue is lost, tabulating the cost that should be assigned to water infrastructure turned over to the city, and setting a rate schedule for the continuation of service to annexed land.
“It is the purpose of our group to identify solutions to annexation issues so that the districts and the city all win,” Trammell said.
Meanwhile, the Coalition remains opposed to any annexation until fair and equitable intergovernmental agreements have been worked out between all parties. While each individual district is negotiating directly with the city, each of the final intergovernmental agreements must be approved by the Coalition.
Lynn Guenther, city manager, said the negotiation process with the districts is complex because there are different issues to address with each entity.
“There can’t be a one size fits all agreement here but we hope to have negotiations with all three districts completed in the near future,” Guenther said.
The Coalition was established in accordance with Oregon law regarding the transfer of annexed properties. Lesley Apple-Haskell, from the Hood River firm of Wyers and Haskell, has been hired to act as the legal liaison between the coalition and the city. The County of Hood River has also offered mediation services if needed.
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Michael Jackson's famous glove: where it all started
Michael Jackson, me, and a glove story: How I witnessed his epiphany of the single white glove.
Nearly 30 years ago, I was a fortunate eyewitness to a pivotal Michael Jackson epiphany: the true glove story.Skip to next paragraph
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As the resident music-head at a Hollywood film production company, I was tapped to design a music video for Michael Jackson and his brothers in 1980. Michael was already a big star – his breakout solo album "Off the Wall" was still riding high on the charts. The Jacksons had re-formed, and it was a long time since the group had garnered a hit. The designated single from their new album was "Can You Feel It," a song with an insistent, "Bolero"-like rhythm.
(Michael was very high on the song and had attempted to leave the six-minute, unedited version on my phone machine a few days before, but it cut off after 30 seconds.)
After a brainstorming session and a riveting a cappella performance of the song by Michael at the kickoff meeting (featuring some gravity-defying dance moves that, alas, predated moon-walking), I was asked to take Michael on a tour of the production facilities at the company, Robert Abel & Associates.
As we walked through the facility's maze of hallways, camera rooms, and special-effects labs, we encountered the chief film editor, Rick Ross, who was cutting and splicing a TV commercial. Rick was wearing a short white cotton glove on his left hand as he ran the film through his fingers, looking for the yellow grease-pencil marks he had made on various frames of film to be edited. To have a little green box of these disposable gloves sitting on the editing bench was standard practice for film editors in those days.
Michael, who hadn't shown any particular enthusiasm for the tour so far, seemed suddenly transfixed by the glove and politely asked a number of questions about it, concluding with, "Could you spare one?" But of course.
The rest, they say, is HIStory.
The single white glove (later covered in silver sequins) made its television debut on Michael's left hand during his stunning performance of "Billy Jean" at Motown's 25th anniversary TV special in 1983. It became the King of Pop's wardrobe icon for the rest of his career, worn by Jackson and his multimillions of adoring fans the world over.
A number of mysteries still surround Michael Jackson's strange life, and some questions may never be answered.
I'm just glad I could shed some light on one of them.
• John Kehe is the Monitor's design director.
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Orchid exists to save men's lives from male cancer through pioneering research and promoting awareness.
Every year, over 37,400 men are diagnosed with prostate, penile or testicular cancer. Yet despite these figures there is still limited knowledge of this cancer amongst the general public.
Early detection, diagnosis and treatment can make a difference, helping to increase survival rates and ultimately save men's lives.
Orchid is a small dynamic charity of eight staff with a successful track record in delivering a range of support services, awareness and educational campaigns and funding an innovative research programme. We are a growing charity that is making a real difference to the lives of people affected by male cancers and those involved in their care. But we want to do even more, especially for the 37,400 men diagnosed each year with male cancer and their families.
Gold Challenge Stadium Event - Sunday 1st April 2012
Orchid supporter Ian Jones was one of the lucky few to have the opportunity to beat Usain Bolt to the new Olympic Track in Stratford on Sunday 1st April at the Gold Challenge Stadium Event. Ian competed in the 100m race coming second and had a fantastic day in the stadium where records are bound to be broken come the Olympics this summer.
“Walking out in front of 20,000 people at the new Olympic Stadium with my family only yards away, was an unforgettable experience and one I will remember for a long time.” Ian Jones, Orchid Gold Challenger 2012
You can see Ian taking off from the blocks (centre in blue Orchid vest) and also pictured with his daughter and British High Jumper Dalton Grant.
Inspired? Why not join Ian in tackling the Gold Challenge for Orchid this year and we’ll support you all the way!
Why Support Orchid
Established in 1996 by a young testicular cancer patient and the oncologist who saved his life, Orchid works to improve the lives of people affected by male cancers in three unique ways: a pioneering world class research programme, raising awareness and via support services. Since 1996, we have invested over £6 million in exceptional projects which have identified new ways to treat and manage male cancer helping to reduce the distressing side effects and improved our understanding of how these cancers work.Over 37,400 men will be diagnosed with a male specific cancer this year and together we can make a difference to their cancer journey through our vital research, awareness and support services.
Registered Charity Number: 1080540
Gold Challenge and Orchid
Over 37,000 men will be diagnosed with a male cancer this year. By choosing to support Orchid together we can make a difference to their cancer journey through our vital research, awareness and support services.
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For many high street businesses, Christmas is a make or break time of year. This is nothing new, but the stakes are that much higher during periods of economic contraction; times when the retail industry is under intense pressure just to stay afloat, and shops will anxiously await the results of the Christmas trading period in the New Year. And yet, it is not just the shops and retail outlets themselves that have a live stake in the success of the high street – the pressures of success and profit filter right the way down the supply chain, and actively influence the following year’s stock volumes that will, in turn, make or break logistics providers.
Indeed, freight forwarding and logistics companies often have a unique insight into the real situations within retail; privy to the scale of order volumes (and the confidence or otherwise that it signifies) a full six months to a year before any goods hit the shop floor. Even at the best of times this can be extremely problematic, but if the economic climate is in a phase of instability or transition, then it can be really damaging. To use the example of this year; how can order volumes made as early as January be certain to be right for December when our economic forecasts have been (significantly) altered at least four times this year?
The problem that retailers face, and the one that freight forwarding companies cannot really solve, is that the cheapest way to transport goods is in huge, cost effective but comparatively slow, ocean liners. This fact not only means that retailers are forced to order very early in the year, but places huge significance on consumer confidence and sales forecasts in terms of deciding on order volumes. Retailers cannot afford to simply look at their own targets and past performance – they need to keep an eye on what the market is doing. After all, in the last five years, the UK has twice dipped into recession, and countless long-established businesses have disappeared from the high street.
One thing to keep in mind is that forecasts are exactly that; forecasts. They are educated predictions that the future often chews up and spits out in a different shape. For example, initial retail predictions for 2012 were on the whole positive, with the London Olympics set to re-ignite an ailing high street and boost the economy, as the Visa expenditure and output report from earlier in the year demonstrates*. And yet, by September many reports were stating precisely the opposite**; that the Olympics had distracted high street consumers, with sales actually falling by 0.2% from July. Somehow, between these polarities, retailers had to decide how much stock to order for Christmas.
Understandably, most will have erred on the side of caution and under-ordered. This has been borne out by a lack of a clear shipping peak in August and September - the months when freight forwarders would traditionally expect to be transporting Christmas stock. However, it is my feeling that the gloomy headlines that may have been influencing the order volumes across the land in those crucial summer months may have underestimated consumer confidence. My hunch, based on forecasts that took a longer-term view at the beginning of the year, is that confidence is considerably higher than has been reported or forecasted.
Statistics in the New Year will prove me right or wrong on this point, but I think that many retailers will have been forced to turn to air freight more this year than last (provisional observations suggests that order volumes will pick up for the high street). If, due to overly conservative under-ordering, this should indeed prove to be the case, then many retailers will quite literally have missed the boat – air freight offers the only feasible way to freight extra goods to outlets in tight times frames (for instance, in time for Christmas). As a result, I would expect to see quite a rise in air freight volumes throughout October, November and maybe even early December.
Naturally, this wouldn’t be a great situation for retailers. Air freight is a more costly option, and the boost of strong sales will be tempered by the knowledge that potential profits are being diverted elsewhere. Indeed, it brings us back to the problem we started with – how can retailers deal with an ordering time lag ill-equipped to manage changing marketing conditions?
I am not talking about a retail turn around as such, but instead a difference in forecasting and ordering that could potentially impact positively on the air freight industry, as well as helping the high street. I said earlier that freight forwarders can do little about either the speed or cost efficiency of big ocean liners, but perhaps there is scope to make air freight more than just a last resort.
For example, October orders would get stock imported in good time for the Christmas rush, give buyers the luxury of consulting more recent retail forecasts and therefore provide a far better chance of ordering the volumes needed. Indeed, with sufficient demand, and then with sufficient competition to meet said demand, in time it’s likely that the prohibitive cost of air freight might reduce. After all, it’s in both retailers and forwarders interests to ensure that consumer demand is met to the very maximum that it can be.
Ultimately, it’s an extremely complex problem, and I certainly wouldn’t claim that either my predications or my solutions are necessarily the only way forward. But in a way that’s exactly the point. My lack of certainty reflects an enduring sector-wide (and even nationwide) economic uncertainty. Unfortunately, in the scenarios discussed in this article, this means that the high street is fighting an uphill battle and often, ironically, contributing to its own difficulties. That said, there’s always a solution out there – we just all need to get our thinking caps on.
Disclaimer text: The views expressed in the above comments do not necessarily express the views of Air Transport Publications Ltd. or any of its publications.
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HUDSON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- Southern Michigan authorities are waiting for court approval to rebury the remains of an unidentified late-19th-century woman who was unearthed during a 2010 road project.
WLEN-FM says a Michigan Department of Transportation crew accidentally uncovered the body with a backhoe during construction on U.S. 127. The site is in Lenawee County's Hudson Township, about 15 miles west of Adrian.
A medical examination and sheriff's department investigation have concluded that the woman was 40 to 50 years old, but efforts to learn her identity have failed.
The sheriff's department, medical examiner and state Department of Transportation have agreed on a plan to re-bury the remains, which are being held in Lansing.
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We believe that our relationships hold the keys to educational success. We now know the factors that determine achievement, well-being and better life chances, and we know that parents, communities and schools must work in partnership to assure these outcomes for every child. To this end Center for RelationaLearning (CRL) offers facilitation, coaching, and training services as well as publications, learning journeys, and conferences. We have spent over 40 years developing our understanding and practices of learning and leading relationally.
We offer this website as a portal to encourage people to attend to relationships as a major way to improve themselves, their communities and their schools. We invite you to enjoy and participate with us as we continue this journey to understand and improve our relationships with ourselves, each other and our environments.
The site offers a listing of our services. It works as a resource and guide to: improving teaching and learning relationships, building educational partnerships, and developing the skills and dispositions needed for relational leadership.
2013 Promises to be a great year for the Center.
1st - Workshops and Consulting George, Susan and other colleagues will be working together for 20 weeks during the year to help Australian schools and communities to build education systems that place highest priority on Families, Schools and Community working together to educate the whole child. The calendar gives the dates. There are many dates open for scheduling for those from Australia interested in working with George and center associates this year.
2nd - Learning Journeys There are already four learning journeys set for 2013. Noble Park Primary School and Elwood Primary will be conducting their fourth study tour in early April. This year Elsternwick Primary School will join in. St. Marks Primary will be conducting its second study tour with 16 people from four other Catholic Education Office of Melbourne (CEOM) schools and will be sending the first group of parents to participate directly in a learning journey.
From April 14-17, a group of primary principals who created a specialized learning journey several years ago return for an in depth look at: personalized learning, parent connectedness, community links and extended learning efforts in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos. I’m sure each group will savor the people, programs, aspirations and culture of New Mexico including the margaritas.
Then in September, CEOM Melbourne will conduct it’s sixth study tour to New Mexico and California, examining how parents, schools and communities are working better when they work together to educate their children.
3rd - Conferences In collaboration with Finders University and the Sydney Myer Chair for Rural Education at Finders (and more sponsors to come), the center will host a major International Conference and Dialogue Oct 3,4,5, in the heart of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The title is Relational Leadership and Learning for Hope-full and Sustainable Futures. The purpose of the Dialogue is to share stories, practices, research, beliefs and values and ‘claim’ the primacy of relationships for learning and leadership formation. The dialogue will culminate with the launching of an International Center for Relationships in Education housed at the Center.
We expect folks from all over the world to come and share their understanding and practice around the center role of relationships in learning.
Susan Chambers- Otero will be offering some special one day Trips Through Time before and after the conference where participants can explore the sacred landscape of New Mexico and discover how communities have related to self, others and the land over time.
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Gore-backed Hara sees profit from low-carbon economy
SAN FRANCISCO |
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An environmental start-up backed by Al Gore's venture capital firm aims to take advantage of coming U.S. climate change legislation by helping companies like Coca Cola and even cities cut pollution.
Hara, a 25-employee company that debuted in 2008, provides online software to help companies reduce their carbon footprint -- a $2.5 billion market that will grow 10-fold if the proposed energy bill, which will require companies to get permits for emissions, becomes law, Chief Executive Amit Chatterjee said.
At the heart of the legislation is a "cap-and-trade" system that will gradually reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by industry, by requiring them to have permits to spew their emissions.
"Then companies will be forced to act, as opposed to seeing the business benefit of acting," he said in an interview, "The debate alone of 'cap and trade' is a driver for our product."
Hara will have to compete with business software companies SAP and Oracle, as well as lesser-known players such as Carbonetworks and Enervity, all of which are hoping to grab a slice of a potential boom market.
Cap and trade sets an ever-decreasing limit on carbon emissions and offers permits for companies exceeding it. Those lacking permits must trade with companies that emit less.
Paying for carbon emissions will mark a sea change in the country's pricing of energy, said AMR Research analyst Stephen Stokes.
"The details need to be worked out but it is absolutely undoubted that carbon markets will be arriving," he said.
Positioning itself for the new market, Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins last year invested $6 million in Hara -- which counts the city of Palo Alto as a client -- with the endorsement of former U.S. Vice President Gore, who is a partner.
"This company would not have existed if Al Gore had not bought off on the idea," said Chatterjee. The venture firm has also snagged important customers, persuading Coca Cola to agree to a three-month test.
Bryan Jacob, who directs Coke's climate protection efforts, liked Hara for its comprehensiveness.
"It's kind of one-stop shopping for all of my greenhouse gas management needs," he said, as opposed to three programs he used before that "don't talk to each other."
Individuals interviewed for this story spoke with Reuters last week.
Hara software first collects information on a company's use of electricity, water, gas and chemicals and compares it to outputs of greenhouse gases, solid waste and waste water.
Then, the online software helps prepare strategy and run "what-if" scenarios. Finally, it tracks the changes.
Analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group said Hara is less precise than rivals but "vastly faster to implement and can be used ... to create a more comprehensive planning and reporting system.
"That is important for government reporting and for providing incentives for change," he said.
(Reporting by David Lawsky; Editing by Edwin Chan and Carol Bishopric)
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"[O]ur achievement in continuous energy saving has given us a competitive advantage in today’s environment of rapidly escalating energy costs," managing director Aslam Omar said in a statement.
The company's Makandura factory received the Gold Flame award for large scale manufacturers in an award scheme run by Sri Lanka's sustainable energy authority which promotes energy conservation and the use of renewable energy.
"These reductions have been made possible by the use of more energy efficient hybrid machines, rearranging of compressed air and chilled water lines for increased efficiency, use of variable speed drive chillers to prevent heat losses," C
Chief executive Hasith Prematillake said energy efficient hybrid machines had been installed, compressed air and chilled water lines had been re-arranged for increased efficiency and variable speed drive chillers have been used to prevent heat losses."A new capacitor bank has also been installed to correct power factors and the use of renewable energy sources such as skylights imported from USA," he said.
The company said earlier this year it had installed Sri Lanka's first all-electric injection molding machine from Japan which can save energy up to 70 percent.
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Submitted By Todd on June 15th at 11:40am
Most incumbents running for reelection are pretending they've never been to Washington. Not Harry Reid - he's bragging about his Pork Power.
The theme of the campaign launch has been "No one can do more," and is intended to remind Nevada voters how lucky they are to have Reid.
Republican Sharron Angle is reminding voters just how much they dislike Reid, who has favorable numbers around 33%.
Reid is rolling out high-profile visitors from Washington and an expensive ad campaign in a bid to show that his newly minted Republican opponent, former state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, is simply too small-time to represent Nevada.Complicating Reid's reelection bid is his son Rory's run for Governor.
Rory Reid, a county commissioner with even fewer political gifts than his fussy father, is now running a multimillion-dollar campaign that every day will remind Nevada voters of what they like least about his father.When Rory talks about how bad things are, it sounds like he's running against his dad.
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Lehi » Two dozen gay-rights advocates rallied outside of Thanksgiving Point on Thursday night as more than 600 Utahns gathered inside to answer what they saw as a "challenge to family and freedom."
Conservative think tank The Sutherland Institute formally launched its Sacred Ground Initiative to counter Equality Utah's push for "common ground," a legislative effort that would offer some basic protections to same-sex couples and make it illegal to fire or evict someone for being gay or transgender.
The Common Ground Initiative, declared former Rep. LaVar Christensen, the author of Utah's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, Amendment 3, "is actually very uncommon."
"It would be groundbreaking and lead to what we just witnessed in California," he told the crowd, referring to California Supreme Court's ruling legalizing gay marriage, which later was overturned when voters approved Proposition 8.
Gay-rights activist Jacob Whipple used Facebook to encourage supporters of the Common Ground Initiative to "infiltrate" the meeting to listen and possibly offer a contrary view to attendees. Despite sending an RSVP to Sutherland, many gay-rights backers were turned away at the door. Those who did get in didn't disrupt the 90-minute program.
"I was surprised that [Sutherland's speakers] didn't mention even one of the Common Ground bills," said gay-rights activist Eric Ethington, noting the focus of the evening was on marriage. Ethington told guests seated near him that it's legal to fire someone in Utah for being gay.
"Every single person around me said, 'That's not right,'" Ethington said. The Sacred Ground proponents "want to scare people with what the future might possibly hold rather than focus on what these bills are now."
Sutherland Institute benefactor Lauralyn Swim encouraged the audience to get involved during the legislative session to defeat the gay-rights push.
"Some claim that standing up for the enduring, even sacred, definitions of marriage and family is showing hate for those who disagree," she said. "They are wrong. Defending marriage and family is an act of love for our children and our children's children."
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A visit to the Emerald Isle is not complete without including Northern Ireland. It offers the tourist a very different but still very Irish world. While the friction between Catholics and Protestants has caused "the Troubles," it also has created some fascinating travel opportunities. It's not dangerous -- and it's reality.
The most important single stop is the capital, Belfast. A visit to Northern Ireland's largest city makes a perfect day trip from Dublin. With the handy two-hour Dublin-Belfast train, you can leave Dublin early and have plenty of time to tour the city before taking the evening train back. And, while Belfast has the rough edges of any industrial big city, you have to look for trouble to find it here.
Wandering through cheery downtown Belfast, it's hard to believe that the bright and bustling pedestrian center used to be a subdued, traffic-free security zone.
Belfast is the birthplace of the Titanic, and the tourism industry here is hoping you'll associate that epic with the city rather than the strife that kept it in headlines in the last generation. To commemorate Belfast's shipbuilding industry -- and the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's only voyage -- the city is opening a visitors center (costing more than 100 million British pounds) in April, called Titanic Belfast.
High-tech displays will tell the tale of the famous cruise liner. A highlight will be a ride through a mock-up of the ship while it was being built. The spacey architecture of the new building is already a landmark on the city's skyline. Six stories tall, it's clad with more than 3,000 aluminum panels that reflect the sunlight.
Another must-see landmark is Belfast's City Hall. This grand structure's 173-foot-tall, green copper dome dominates the city center. Take the worthwhile -- and free -- 45-minute tour, which gives you a rundown on city government and an explanation of the decor that makes this an Ulster political hall of fame.
Another top sight is the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in nearby Cultra. It has an open-air collection of reconstructed buildings from all over Ulster, plus a hodgepodge of trains, planes and cars -- including John DeLorean's iconic sports car from the 1980s, which was made here.
Challenges between the city's sectarian neighborhoods remain. And a Belfast visit wouldn't be complete without a look at the working-class neighborhoods of Falls Road (Catholic) and Shankill Road or Sandy Row (Protestant).
Start in downtown Belfast at the Castle Junction Car Park. It's filled with old black cabs -- and has the only Irish-language signs in that part of the city. These cabs go up the Falls Road to Milltown Cemetery, passing murals celebrating Catholic and Republican martyrs. You can explore this Catholic neighborhood on your own, or hire a trained cabbie to give you a one-hour tour.
I once had a guide who was particularly determined to make his country's struggles vivid. He introduced me to Belfast's Felons' Club, where membership is limited to those who have spent at least a year and a day in a British prison for political crimes. Hearing heroic stories of Irish resistance while sharing a Guinness with a celebrity felon gives you an affinity for their struggles. The next day at Milltown Cemetery, I walked through the green-trimmed gravesites of his prison-mates -- some of whom starved themselves to death for the cause of Irish independence.
But to get the full story, you need to also talk to the other side. While you can ride a shared black cab through the Protestant Shankill Road area, the easiest way to get a dose of the Unionist side is to walk Sandy Row -- a working-class-Protestant street behind Hotel Europa. (Protestant Unionists are keen on maintaining their union with Great Britain, whereas Catholic Republicans feel a stronger kinship with the Republic of Ireland.)
A stop in the Unionist memorabilia shop, a pub, or one of the many cheap eateries here will give you an opportunity to talk to a local. You'll see murals filled with Unionist symbolism, such as the one depicting William of Orange's victory over the Catholic King James II in the Battle of the Boyne.
Instead of Blarney Stones and leprechauns, Belfast offers a refreshing dose of today's reality to balance your Irish vacation.
Rick Steves (www.ricksteves.com) writes European travel guidebooks and his travel shows can be seen locally on WNED-TV.
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Never Underestimate the Power of a Mother
- Wednesday, May 04, 2011
A lot has been said about the influence of moms throughout history -- everything from "The hand the rocks the cradle, rules the world" to "The single most powerful word in any language is 'mother.'" But I think my all-time favorite is "If Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." Ha! Truer words were never spoken! The problem is, we just don't seem to hear such messages anymore.
From the moment our precious little ones are placed in our arms at birth, today's society seems to want to relegate moms to the back bench. From a government education system that makes moms feel as if only the "professionals" can teach our own children, to the modern feminist message that the act of "mothering'" is quite beneath us, we are made to believe that there's nothing really special about our role after all. We're often treated as just baby making machines whose only "mothering" function is the physical act of creating a child.
The truth is that Mom does set the tone for the home, and we have tremendous influence over the moods, actions and lives of everyone who enters our door. And that influence is a fact we cannot change -- no matter how much the pop culture tries. In fact, in national surveys of teens, when asked who has the greatest influence on them, the majority of teens say, "My parents." This, even though many kids are now consuming up to eight hours of media a day.
The take-away message for moms? You have no choice about whether or not you are an influence -- the choice is what type of influence you will be. Your actions and words will either shape your children for good or for bad. And your silence also speaks volumes: when you are too busy or too tired to take the time to talk to your children, the message that comes through loud and clear is that they are not important. If your child is watching a violent or sexually-laden television program and you say nothing, the silence is taken as an endorsement of the behavior.
During this Mother's Day season in which we celebrate moms, it's a wonderful opportunity for all of us moms to recommit to nurturing our children to the fullest of our abilities, to deliberately pass on our values to them, and to unequivocally reject any and all messages that weaken our God-given role. And let us vow every day to know the difference between "running a house" and creating a home that family members really do look forward to "coming home to."
As I describe in my book, 30 Ways in 30 Days to Save Your Family, a house is a place made of walls, and floors and rooms. It is physical structure of function and utility. It is cement and pipes and wood and wiring. It is governed by parameters of the physical world -- the water comes out here, you can access electricity there; paint peels, wood rots, and weeds eventually take over.
A home, on the other hand, is a place of belonging, acceptance, and comfort. It is a place where family members can make mistakes, be challenged to be their best, and experience the warmth that comes with grace, forgiveness, and redemption. It is where life stories are molded, where verses and chapters are added as the years pass. It is a space for development of the soul, the shaping of the spirit, and the expansion of the mind. A home is a place for reflection and quiet -- a respite from the pressures of the world.
Some reading this column will respond with sadness that they never had a mom they could rely on. But such deep past hurts can begin to heal when you work to create the home you always craved. Other moms might feel regret or guilt over past mistakes of their own. Please, do not let the past rob you of the joy and potential of today. Vow to put all ugliness and sorrow behind you and do everything in your power to become the mother of your dreams. Each generation offers an amazing opportunity to start over -- to build a beautiful, loving home that will bless generations to follow.
It's time to stand up and shout, "I'm the Momma!" -- and to live out that amazing calling every day, humbled on our knees before God for his grace, wisdom and guidance. In so doing, we will discover the positive power and joy of mothering.
Originally published April 4, 2009.
Rebecca Hagelin is a public speaker on the family and culture and the author of the new best-seller, 30 Ways in 30 Days to Save Your Family. Visit her website at www.HowToSaveYourFamily.com, where you can sign up to receive her free e-newsletter containing the Culture Challenge of the Week and how to fight back. Hagelin is also senior communications fellow for The Heritage Foundation.
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Terry Mattingly, On Religion
— If the American public is truly changing its mind on marriage, then it's time for Catholic priests to start saying, "We don't," instead of continuing to endorse the government's right to legislate who gets to say, "I do."
At least, that's an option that Catholics, and by implication other religious traditionalists, must be willing to consider, according to scholar George Weigel of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, who is best known as the official biographer of the late Pope John Paul II.
In the wake of President Barack Obama's victory, supporters of same-sex unions will "press the administration to find some way to federalize the marriage issue," argued Weigel, in a syndicated essay that ignited fierce debates once posted at FirstThings.com and elsewhere online. "It seems important to accelerate a serious debate within American Catholicism on whether the Church ought not preemptively withdraw from the civil marriage business, its clergy declining to act as agents of government in witnessing marriages for purposes of state law."
If Catholic leaders take this step now, he noted, they would be "acting prophetically" and underlining the fact that there is a radical, and increasing, chasm between the church's sacramental definition of marriage and the legal meaning now being assigned to that term by judges and legislators.
"If, however, the Church is forced to take this step after 'gay marriage' is the law of the land, Catholics will be pilloried as bad losers who've picked up their marbles and fled the game -- and any witness-value to the Church's withdrawal from the civil marriage business will be lost," argued Weigel.
This action would, in effect, require Catholics and other religious believers who embrace traditional doctrines about marriage to jump the dual marriage hurdles that are already required, for example, in the Netherlands. Couples are united in the eyes of the state in civil ceremonies and then, in the eyes of God, in sacred rites.
It would be rather easy for priests to refuse to sign wedding certificates, thus declining to act as agents of any government that has redefined marriage, noted Maggie Gallagher, co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage. But what are ordinary believers supposed to do?
"If a priest cannot in good conscience cooperate with the state in creating a marriage, can a good Catholic? ... An actual withdrawal of Catholics from the public and civil institution of marriage," she noted, responding to Weigel, requires more than a gesture. Instead, it is "a huge endeavor that would require the creation of alternative means of enforcing the civil aspects of the marriage commitment (or leaving women and children unprotected).
"Abandoning that legal framework could cost us a lot of money potentially, too: Our widows would not get the inheritance exemption, it would take additional money to secure legal parenthood, etc."
Besides, she asked, why is it a prophetic witness for shepherds to opt out of a government system, while members of their flocks are -- if they want to be legally married -- forced to cooperate with that system?
Gallagher concluded: "It's no great sacrifice for the priest not to sign a marriage contract, but it is a potentially great sacrifice for the Catholic family. If it's no sacrifice, what is the witness?"
Meanwhile, strategists who want to defend centuries of traditional teachings about marriage must face the reality that, as important as these legal squabbles may be, the most damaging blows to the institution of marriage are taking place at the grassroots, argued Matthew Warner, blogging for The National Catholic Register. Will refusing to sign off on civil marriages simply push lukewarm believers further from the church?
"People aren't really changing how they feel about marriage based on the civil definition. They are changing the civil definition because their hearts have already long changed about marriage," he noted.
"We've already twisted marriage into a contracepted, childless, self-serving, partnership of convenience that lasts until one person gets bored. Now we want to get picky about which genders can participate, but can't really remember why that matters either.
"Whatever our political tactics at this point, the ship has long been wrecked. You can redefine a floating casket and call it a lifeboat, or you can redefine a wrecked ship as a civilly wrecked ship, and it's not going to fix the real problems."
NEXT WEEK: Is compromise possible on Holy Matrimony?
Terry Mattingly is the director of the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and leads the GetReligion.org project to study religion and the news.
Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS.
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E-lert - March 2012
Luther Seminary graduate launches Living Lutheran Creed
While driving one day, Meta Herrick Carlson, a 2008 Luther Seminary graduate who is currently a pastor at Zion Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, saw a homeless man holding a sign at the exit of the freeway. It gave her an idea. What if, instead of seeing someone holding a cardboard sign that represented scarcity, Lutherans took to the streets with cardboard signs expressing abundance?
Carlson selected the day before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks for Lutherans across the country to positively reflect on how they could promote God's word and invite others to express their faith. She hoped to reach people while they were driving in their cars, listening to the radio give news of war and oppression.
Carlson, who started generating interest in participation through a Facebook invitation to ELCA clergy members, also created a blog that captures images and stories submitted by Lutherans who participated across the country.
Eric Hoffer, M.Div. senior, participated and made a sign that said "Take it from this big sinner ... God loves YOU."
"I was done with internship," said Hoffer, "but I still wanted to do it, so I went out to the streets by myself with the sign and wore my collar."
Bonnie Wilcox, senior pastor at Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church in St. Paul, had a large group participate from her congregation. "We had a lot of honks and thumbs up from passersby," said Wilcox.
"I had no idea how many people would turn out," said Carlson. Best estimates reflect that more than 1,000 people participated. "But it shows that a lot of our biggest risks don't need to be line items in a budget. This is about being brave and asking yourself, 'Why not?'"
Despite the success, Carlson doesn't plan on making this an annual event. Instead, she hopes Living Lutheran Creed Day got people's imaginations engaged to encourage them to think about other ways to be unique and go beyond their personal comfort to share their faith.
For more information and more photos, check out the blog www.livinglutherancreedday.blogspot.com and watch the video made by Ben Cieslik, '10, at www.vimeo.com/28872054.
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Nicholas Kristof on America's Vindication Killing Osama bin Laden "is the single most important success the United States has had in its war against Al Qaeda," writes The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof today. He points out that "Bin Laden's ability to escape from the U.S., and his apparent impunity, fed an image in some Islamist quarters of America as a paper tiger." He also suggests that "Osama's declining image also means that he won’t be a martyr in many circles (although if Americans appear too celebratory and triumphant, dancing on his grave, that may create a sympathetic backlash for Osama)." There's always the possibility of a return attack by Al Qaeda. "But after all Al Qaeda has already been trying to hit us," Kristof notes. "It's not as if it has shown any restraint."
Mark Moyar on Choosing the Right Provisional Leaders "Unfortunately," argues Mark Moyar in The New York Times, "we have repeatedly ruined transitions to democracy by backing provisional leaders who broke promises to govern virtuously and instead focused on staying in power and silencing their political opponents." He recalls examples in Eritrea, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Yemen. For starters, says Moyar, "we can spend more time researching prospective candidates," avoid simply favoring "those who wax eloquent about democracy and moderation, hold advanced degrees and speak English," and instead look for those "with executive experience ... or years of service in parties or legislatures." He argues that Obama must find "personalities strong enough to sweep others along with them, but not so strong that they alienate fellow elites."
Jim Lacey on Questions After Bin Laden's Death Jim Lacey acknowledges Osama bin Laden's death as a victory for the United States and an effective warning to all those who may be plotting against us, but questions whether this will actually bring change. "Since shortly after 9/11, Osama has been little more than a figurehead," losing his authority with his ability to fund al-Qaeda. "The U.S. military has done an outstanding job in tearing the original al-Qaeda to shreds." He points out at the National Review Online that, "Unfortunately, the new al-Qaeda does not need bin Laden to continue operations." Lacey wonders about the intelligence retrieved from the compound in which Osama was killed. "It will be very interesting to discover who helped and protected him all these years," writes Lacey.
Gregory Rodriguez on Sacrificing for Charity The Los Angeles Times' Gregory Rodriguez derides "compassionate consumerism," arguing against the notion "that charity can not only be hip but entirely compatible with living large or even getting rich--no sacrifice necessary." He points to Sister Mary Rose Christy, a late friend who dedicated her life sacrificing for the sake of others. "It's easy enough to see that actively working for a cause is different--and better--than passively supporting it through what you buy," he argues. "And it's easy enough to see that real money or real time spent is genuine sacrifice--you'll have to surrender one thing for the sake of another that is more important."
David Gratzer on Bottom-Up Weight Loss David Gratzer argues at National Review Online that Michelle Obama's new effort to urge "the National Restaurant Association and its members to curb portion sizes," is misguided: American restaurants' over-sized portions are a product of demand, and smaller portions will likely mean people will just buy more. People need to decide on their own to eat less, perhaps with a little extra motivation. He points to the consumer-focused weight-loss campaigns with which the mayors of Oklahoma City and Newark have already had some success. "Politicians can't control your diet or exercise habits from Washington," he notes. "In contrast, all who enlist in these civic fitness campaigns can actually control the outcome of their efforts."
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2012: The Year We Exposed ALEC
Written by Nick Surgey
Common Cause has been working to expose the activities of the American Legislative Exchange Council for several years. But the corporate-backed lobby group was in the public eye like never before in 2012. In February, the tragic death of Trayvon Martin in Florida sparked unprecedented attention to ALEC when a Florida law known as “Stand-Your-Ground” was initially used to protect Martin’s shooter from prosecution. ALEC was instrumental in spreading that law to dozens of states.
With the national conversation that followed the Martin shooting came increased attention to ALEC’s role in advancing the agendas of groups like the National Rifle Association, and the role it plays promoting other types of legislation for sponsors like Koch Industries, Exxon Mobil and PhRMA.
ALEC bills concern almost every area of our lives — education, healthcare, the environment, access to the courts and even our ability to vote. ALEC should not be ignored, and we have worked tirelessly to make sure it is not. Here are some of the highlights of a busy year:
- Challenged ALEC’s charitable tax status. Common Cause filed a 4,000-page whistleblower complaint with the IRS in April, providing extensive evidence of ALEC’s lobbying work on behalf of its corporate members. In December, Bloomberg News obtained an ALEC board memo describing its plan to set up a new organization because of an expected IRS audit.
- Called for state Attorney General investigations into ALEC’s tax status. Common Cause made requests in 48 states for Attorney General and state ethics investigations in 2012. Expect to see more on this in 2013.
- Engaged in cutting edge research. We filed hundreds of public record requests in dozens of states, analyzed thousands of pages of ALEC materials, reviewed legislator disclosures and other corporate documents. This research – done on a shoestring budget- enabled Common Cause to make public hundreds of internal ALEC documents, release the names of ALEC’s corporate members, and shared many other crucial documents that have helped make ALEC a household name in 2012.
- Blew the whistle on ALEC’s legislative agenda. We connected the dots between ALEC and the Stand-Your-Ground legislation, exposed ALEC’s efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act, drew attention to ALEC’ role promoting the Keystone XL pipeline, and discovered the role ALEC play helping Exxon Mobil and the rest of the fracking industry keep their toxic chemicals secret.
- Caught Eric Cantor taking a secret ALEC gift. We exposed House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for an ethics gift rule violation, when he failed to report a gift from ALEC. We alerted the Office of Congressional Ethics, forcing Cantor into making amendments to his financial disclosures.
- Received extensive media coverage. Our ALEC research was featured in a major front page New York Times story in April, and our work has been covered in hundreds of other stories in other national and local publications across the country. We even received favorable coverage on a local Fox TV station. Much of our ALEC research was featured in a Bill Moyers PBS documentary. Common Cause has launched a website to promote his film and to publicize screenings in 2013. Check this out at www.unitedstatesofalec.org
- Released state-level ALEC reports across the country. In 2012, Common Cause co-released reports in six states exposing ALEC’s activities and identifying ALEC member legislators and the model bills they’ve introduced.
- Challenged corporations to quit ALEC. Common Cause supporters helped challenge corporations’ membership in ALEC. The push resulted in at least 42 corporations dumping ALEC in 2012 alone, including Mars, General Electric and Walmart. If you haven’t yet signed our petition, please consider doing so.
All our accomplishments this year couldn’t have happened without your generous support. Make a tax-deductible year-end gift to Common Cause today, and we’ll send you a free DVD of Bill Moyers’ newest documentary, “THE UNITED STATES OF ALEC” as our thanks to you.
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Are you like the rest of the world right now? Caught up in the fascination with Twitter and Facebook? You have tons of games to play or you get breaking news you can read before it even hits the reporters desk. A new study from Travelodge shows that 72 percent of 6,000 people check their social networking before they hit the hay for the night.
Does this come as any surprise to you at all? The study showed that British folk are all about their social networking as a way to end the day. Unlike a good TV show or reading a book like you might have done 10 years ago. The peak time for this activity seems to be falling around the 9:45pm mark.
Don't worry there are plenty of other stats to go with the study as well. According to the report, 18 percent say they have tweeted in bed, 20percent of adults checking Twitter for news about a favorite celeb and a whopping 65% check their text messages before going to sleep. Do you think your social networking usage has taken over your life?
Let's not even talk about social networking taking our time, 1 in 5 people in the survey claimed they have even stopped making love to check a new text message. What is that all about? Has social networking grown to be that big of a part of our lives? Judging by these stats one would have to agree that it has.
Not too mention the fact that you are on these sites in the morning, while at work and right before bed, 27 percent said they have been awoken in the middle of the night by a new text message alert or email. Now we are even losing sleep over social networking, this is getting very much out of hand.
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I am sympathetic with the points raised in John Hibbs's article, "Distance Education Exam at the Pearly Gates" (Hibbs, 2001). Hibbs touches on more than the hypocrisy of distance education professionals who refuse to hold their distance education conferences online; he points to academia's unwillingness in general to revisit some of its cherished presumptions.
Hibbs's main point is that it is contradictory for academically-based distance educators to promote online learning but insist on face-to-face conferences. In my opinion, this is only the surface of a deeper issue that is lost in his presentation. It is not just that conferences are offered face-to-face, but that they are structured in such a way that face-to-face participation is the only possibility.
Consider the Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning, held in August 2000 at the University of Wisconsin. Of the 80 sessions conducted at the conference, only three were available on the World Wide Web, with an additional six links to authors' home pages. The only way to have participated in this conference was to travel to Madison. The presentations were not provided online (though you could order video tapes for $9 per session), and the Web site had no online forum.
It's not that we don't know how to conduct an online conference. In 1995, with my colleague Jeff McLaughlin, I conducted an online workshop for the Canadian Association of Distance Education. McLaughlin and I also hosted a session with Diversity University that same year (Downes and McLaughlin, 1995), and as recently as November I participated in a lively online multimedia debate at Net*Working 2000, the Australian National Training Authority's third online conference. I have also participated in online conferences with the University of Maryland University College and Canadas The Node.
In addition, there is evidence that we are learning how to provide better online conferences and that they are getting easier to manage. As Shimabukuro (2000a) writes, "Most educators already have the minimum skills: they can read and send e-mail, and they can log on to a Web page and explore the site." Shimabukuro (2000b) also describes how online conferences are becoming more flexible and more interactive. There should be no barriers, then, to conference participation online.
Discrediting Online Discourse
Since barriers do exist, however, the only conclusion to be drawn is this: organizers could offer conferences online, but won't. To take the argument a step further, the problem is that distance education professionals at universities don't recognize the legitmacy of online discourse. If an article has not appeared in print, it might as well not exist. To be considered sufficiently academic, an article on distance education must cite primarily, if not exclusively, print publications. Even using the word "available" in citations suggests that online presentation is an alternative and secondary mode of access. Hibbs could have (but unfortunately didn't) pointed out the irony of "major" works about online learning that do not cite a single online source.
Tony Bates's Managing Technological Change is an example of a recent and important work in the field of online learning. Bates lists only a couple of dozen URLs as citations, and in the list of references, not one URL appears. Are we to believe that Bates found no online sources worth crediting? Articles appearing in academic journals are no better: check the references of any paper and you may find one or two URLs listed among dozens of printed works. And while some journals (e.g., the Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education) place all of their articles online, most do not.
Do none of the distance educators publishing articles about online learning read DEOS-L or WWW-DEV? Do they derive no inspiration, no original ideas, from these online sources? If they do not, the credibility of the resultant articles should be questioned. But if they do, their granting credit to print sources only should be questioned.
Accessibility for All?
Hibbs also points out that despite its pretensions to the contrary, the academic world fails to address issues of accessibility and affordability. This failure is most clear when conference presentations are available only by attending the conference, at a cost of $3,000. This failure is less dramatic, but still clear, when academically-based distance educators publish their findings in expensive journals or books while providing only abstracts (or less) on the Internet.
It is revealing that courses offered by traditional institutions cost more when presented online, when in fact online technology reduces cost by an order of magnitude. And while academics may express concerns about the quality of online offerings, it would take a good deal of research to identify the pedagogical weakness in FreeEnglish's English as a Second Language course ($9.95 per month) or advanced computer training from SmartPlanet ($15.95 a month). Again, it seems that universities could offer their courses for less, but wont.
The Corporate and Non-Corporate Worlds of Learning
Finally, I think Hibbs points to a large divide between the corporate and non-corporate worlds of learning. Distance educators who work in the Academy are not very interested in the non-academic world. People working outside this clique find this lack of interest frustrating, not simply because their work goes uncredited (distance educators rework the same material, publish it, and claim credit), but because important insights are overlooked by the academic world. It is hard to believe, for example, that academic writers would not be influenced by Tom Barron's (2000) "A Smarter Frankenstein: The Merging of E-Learning and Knowledge Management," for example, or Harvi Singh's (2000) "The convergence of e-learning and knowledge management," or even my own (Downes, 1998) "The Future of Online Learning," which discuss the convergence of learning and data management. Yet you would struggle to find references to these and similar publications in a book or academic journal.
The hypocrisy is this: while distance educators talk about online learning as inclusive and empowering, their practice remains exclusive and disempowering. In their conferences, courses, and publications we see no move toward a wider audience or a wider base of participation. University professors, long criticized for being an enclave in society, remain an enclave even when they become distance educatiors in an online world. In thirteen years in distance education I have watched distance educators' self-imposed isolation push them ever farther from the mainstream of online learning. I have been criticized for suggesting that traditional academia stands on the brink of an abyss. Hibbs's article suggests it has one foot in the water. Distance educators ought to take heed, for it is a long, uphill swim once you have been swept down the river.
Barron, T. (2000, August). A smarter Frankenstein: the merging of e-learning and knowledge management. Learning Circuits. Retrieved 15 December 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.learningcircuits.org/aug2000/barron.html.
Bates, T. (2000). Managing technological change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Downes, S. (1998) The future of online learning. Paper presented at the NAWeb 98 meeting, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB. Retrieved 15 December 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.atl.ualberta.ca/downes/future/home.html.
Downes, S., & McLaughlin, J. (1995). MOO? No, this is a MAUD! Session Proceedings. Diversity University, June 23, 1995. Retrieved 15 December 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.atl.ualberta.ca/downes/threads/du.htm.
Hibbs, J. (2000, January/February). Distance education exam at the pearly gates. The Technology Source. Retrieved 15 December 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://technologysource.org/?view=article&id=78.
Shimabukuro, J. (2000, January/February). What is an online conference? The Technology Source. Retrieved 18 December 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://technologysource.org/?view=article&id=422.
Shimabukuro, J. (2000, September/October). The evolving virtual conference: implications for professional networking. The Technology Source. Retrieved 18 December 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://technologysource.org/?view=article&id=327.
Singh, H. (2000, December). The convergence of e-learning and knowledge management. E-Learning Magazine. Retrieved 15 December 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.elearningmag.com/issues/dec00/converge.htm.downloadable gameshidden objects gamesaction gamescard gameshidden object gamespuzzle gamesdownloadable pc gamesadventure games
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The University of Toronto is a world-renowned university in a celebrated city where knowledge meets achievement, history meets future and ambition meets inspiration. According to the Times Higher Education Supplement, 2010, U of T is one of six universities world-wide ranked in the top 17 for all fields. The other four are UC Berkeley, Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford and UCLA.
Student life at U of T is all about choice. Our students have access to more academic programs than at any other Canadian university and they participate in more than 1,000 student organizations, athletic teams and academic associations. Working with faculty, staff and other students in close-knit learning communities, our students can tailor their educational experience to match their interests and develop passions that will help them make their mark on the world.
U of T has three campuses, each of which houses specific academic departments in a unique setting. U of T St. George, located in the heart of downtown, offers students the quintessential urban university experience. U of T Mississauga to the west balances urban opportunities with a park-like campus and a smaller community. U of T Scarborough to the east provides a close-knit academic community that fosters learning through experience by maintaining strong ties to the businesses and organizations across greater Toronto.
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Where did I heard that argument? In all antisemitic papers before 1930. The Jews get rich not by honest work but by cheating and conspiring. Recently I read an old German pseudo-scientific study on financial criminality among Jews (in Hungarian, because Hungarians are busily translating old German antisemitic materials). Honest, hardworking Arians are unable to rise out of poverty while cheating Semites get ahead effortlessly.
K, who has first hand experience in academic prizes and admission procedures to elite universities (thanks to his talented daughter), has an easy explanation for Unz's paradox. Supposing Jews do cheat and succeed in getting in, does it mean that the Chinese students cant get in because they dont cheat? because Chinese are famous for falsifying academic records and cheating everywhere they can. The answer:
The problem is that they don't know which part of the game to cheat on. They think that higher is always better so they focus on getting the highest possible score instead of the whole package. Speaking to the admissions officers at MIT, they made it clear that beyond a certain ( fairly high) threshold (though they didn't say this, the threshold varies by race, considerably - maybe 300 points out of 2400 lower for blacks) , a few more points one way or the other meant nothing to them. Asians focus all their efforts on getting the highest score, taking the test more than once, attending special cram school, etc. This actually backfires on them and makes them LESS likely to get in than if they had spent their free time playing football (so does other "typical" Asian activities such a playing violin wonderfully).So it is not that Jews got less intelligent nor they cheat more than others, but they learned to stop wasting time and effort in achieving meaningless academic prizes and focus on things that will get them in the elite. Of course.
My daughter (having a perfectionist personality) wanted to take the SATs again so she could raise her score from 2320 to 2400 (or closer to 2400). I told her under no circumstances was she to do so - they would be much more impressed by someone who had achieved a high score seemingly "effortlessly" on one try. And she was admitted everywhere she applied.
I don't blame the Asian parents for being clueless. Having attended college in the US I now understood the game quite well. I recall that back when I was applying, my own immigrant parents were totally clueless as to what the system was - it would not have been more alien to them if I were applying for a position on a Martian spaceship.
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Year Released: 2005
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 90 minutes
Click to Expand Credits:
Imagine scratched up films full of vivid red colors, featuring women with Chinese military uniforms modified to include short shorts, holding rifles and singing about their love for the Communist party. This isn’t the alternative song to “Springtime for Hitler” from “The Producers,” but an example of the only form of theater, opera and film that was allowed under Mao’s Cultural Revolution. The Chinese documentary “Yang Ban Xi: The 8 Model Works” studies the disturbing but undeniably interesting flare.
Director Yan Ting Yuen has made an odd combination of the documentary and musical genres that is worth seeing simply for its bizarre feel. One moment a man is driving, talking about his favorite childhood Yang Ban Xi—the only genre people could watch—film. The film, of course, is “The Red Woman’s Detachment” which seems to be everyone’s childhood favorite, usually because of the healthy showing of women’s bare legs. The driver then offers to sing a few bars. The next thing you know, two kids get out of the back of the car and start to dance to a remix of the song. Then even more kids come out and fill the street. Another scene looks at people dancing in a club, signifying a newer, less restricted form of self _expression while parodying the overemphasized emotions of the Yang Ban Xi films. The sheer audacity of the filmmaker to pull a stunt like this in a documentary demands admiration.
The other parts of the documentary are standard combinations of interviews and archival footage, made interesting by setting the actors in recreations of their old sets and a voice-over in the character of Mrs. Mao explaining her side of the story. While it sometimes feels like certain subjects should have been cut to make it more focused and fluid, there are several interesting accounts from artists who weren’t allowed to fully express themselves due to government restrictions. The movie also recalls moments like a red sun rising and visits some who wish the Cultural Revolution was still in place, while looking at the creative lives it affected with its rise and fall. The movie is worth seeing for the archival footage and to say you saw a musical documentary.
Posted on January 22, 2005 in Reviews by Jeremy Mathews
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The fire, which caused up to 12,000 recreational users in the San Gabriel Canyon to evacuate on Sunday, has so far steered clear of any structures.
It has caused six minor injuries, such as heat exhaustion, to firefighters but all have been treated and are back on the fire line, said Nathan Judy, fire information officer for the Angeles National Forest.
"Last night, the fire crews made some good progress putting a line around the fire - that's how we went from 5 to 15 percent containment," Judy said. "There was not a lot of active flame last night, just smoke smoke here and there. We're going to hit the fire hard this morning and afternoon with aircraft and (continue putting) boots on the ground to put a containment line around the fire."
Because it's a steep rugged terrain, he added, "we want to make sure our folks can get in there safely," he added.
The San Gabriel Canyon will remain closed Tuesday. The fire is still expected to be fully contained by Sept. 13.
At least some of the estimated 50 residents who were evacuated Sunday from mobile home park Camp Williams Resort on East Fork Road in the San Gabriel Canyon spent Monday night at the American Red Cross Shelter at Glendora High School, Judy said.
About 25 of the mobile home park's
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Monica Diaz, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross Los Angeles region, said that six people stayed the night Monday at the shelter at the Glendora High School gymnasium.
The shelter is equipped with cots, tables, chairs and staff to help residents who need medication refills or anything else, she said.
The American Red Cross will speak with the relevant authorities and reassess the situation at 6 p.m. Tuesday to determine whether or not they will remain open another night.
"As long as we're needed, we'll be there," Diaz said.
626-578-6300, ext. 4496
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The travesty of the Health and Human Services mandate in the Affordable Care Act continues to rankle. The mandate requires employers to underwrite for employees contraceptives, including abortion-inducing drugs such as Ella, and female sterilization through their insurance programs. The law is driving complainants of many religions to court.
Some religious non-profits have a safe harbor and do not have to fund health plans that cover contraceptives and sterilization until after August 2013. For-profit companies, however, are under the gun now. The for-profit business owners who object to the mandate either must violate their consciences and pay for plans that include services they morally oppose or hold to their principles and face backbreaking fines.
The Becket Fund reports that there are 43 cases and over 110 plaintiffs challenging the mandate in court. So far, at least 12 for-profits have obtained initial rulings that take up the merits of their case, and nine of those rulings have granted the companies preliminary injunctive relief against the mandate.
Reasons for the decisions vary. In some instances the court recognizes that the government is likely violating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which forbids the federal government from substantially burdening religious exercise, unless it is the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling government interest. One plaintiff suggested that if the government is bent on saturating the nation with contraceptives, it might hand them out for free rather than force churches and others to pay for them.
A Federal Court in Missouri issued a temporary restraining order on December 31 invoking both the First Amendment and RFRA in Sharpe Holdings, Inc. v. United States Department of Health and Human Services. According to the blog Religion Clause, “the court concluded that under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act the mandate and its penalties would substantially burden plaintiffs’ free exercise rights.” It added also that “for 1st Amendment purposes, the mandate is not a neutral law of general applicability.”
Said the court: “[T]he ACA mandate is not generally applicable because it does not apply to grandfathered health plans, religious employers, or employers with fewer than fifty employees.” It agreed with plaintiffs’ argument that the “mandate’s exemptions clearly prefer secular purposes over religious purposes and some religious purposes over other religious purposes. Burdens cannot be selectively imposed only on conduct motivated by religious belief.”
In Michigan, a federal district court held that the property management company, Domino’s Farms Corp., and its owner Thomas Monaghan (founder of Domino’s Pizza) had adequately alleged that the mandate imposes a substantial burden on Monaghan’s Catholic religious beliefs. The court noted that the Supreme Court has held that “‘putting substantial pressure on an adherent to modify his behavior and to violate his beliefs’ substantially burdens a person’s exercise of religion.” The district court added that for itself, “the Court is in no position to decide whether and to what extent Monaghan would violate his religious beliefs by complying with the mandate.... Other courts have assumed that a law substantially burdens a person’s free exercise of religion based on that person’s assertions.”
The court added that the government had not carried its burden under the RFRA showing that it had a compelling interest or used the least restrictive means in burdening plaintiff’s free exercise.
Decisions conflict. The judge in Grote Indus. v.Sebelius in Indiana ruled against the plaintiff and declared that the burden of the mandate is “likely too remote and attenuated to be considered substantial.”
Personally, it is hard to see how forcing someone, against his conscience, to purchase insurance coverage that includes abortion-inducing drugs could not be a substantial burden. In a Chicago courtroom, the Seventh Circuit judges in Korte v. Sebelius got it right when they responded to similar arguments that “the religious‐liberty violation at issue here is inherent in the coerced coverage of contraception, abortifacients, sterilization, and related services, not—or perhaps more precisely, not only—in the later purchase or use of contraception or related services.”
Simply put, the issue is not about using contraceptives, it is being coerced to offer or purchase a plan that covers them. Clearly courts should not be in the business of telling people – be they businessmen or bishops – what constitutes a substantial burden on their exercise of religion. The few courts that have ruled the wrong way so far have impermissibly delved into a moral analysis of religious claims.
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| 0.960468 | 941 | 1.585938 | 2 |
China A-Share Premium
Restrictions on foreign and local investment that prevent arbitrage with H shares helped make mainland equities more expensive.
It is pretty odd that there is such a large premium that local Chinese investors must pay to own stocks in the same companies available to foreign investors. There has been a discount on the Hong Kong shares (H-shares), of maybe 20-30%, for years. But it seems that either the H-shares are cheap or the Chinese shares are too expensive (or maybe a little of both). I am positive on the outlook for China both in the short and long term. Though investments there do have substantial risks (as they do anywhere). I would imagine this premium for Chinese (A-shares) should also largely disappear over the next decade as the market is allowed to become one (and at least allow arbitrage between to the two markets to reduce the premium).
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| 0.974526 | 186 | 1.632813 | 2 |
OSP Working Paper 17 (June 1985) provides an economic framework within which to analyze GTE's (and others') attempts to exploit the government's affection for competition. To this end, Haring first characterizes "economically optimal" government intervention in the marketplace and then describes a number of circumstances under which nonoptimal intervention is likely to occur.
Haring claims that an important potential source of governmental failure rests in the fallacious notion that deregulation can be permitted by regulators only when markets become "competitive." That notion is fallacious, he contends, because it characterizes competition as a static goal rather than a dynamic process. Competition is a means, not an end. Haring concludes that a failure to draw and act on this important distinction means that policymakers run the risk of creating a wholly artificial industry structure based on inefficient pricing and entry.
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| 0.941542 | 169 | 1.828125 | 2 |
Monday, May 21, 2012
I am glancing through a cookbook that my MIL gave me last week called More-with-Less Cookbook: suggestions by Mennonites on how to eat better and consume less of the world's limited food resources.
Even though it was published in 1976, it sounds very familiar.
The key problems are:
world food shortages
North America consuming far more than other countries
overeating processed foods
overcomplicating our lives
The key solutions are:
a simpler diet
eat more: whole grains, legumes, fruits & veggies, nuts & seeds
use sparingly: eggs, dairy, meats
avoid: superprocessed, superpackaged & convenience foods, foods shipped long distances, and foods heavy in refined sugar and saturated fats
Since I have only been preparing food for myself and others for 9 years, I thought that these guidelines were new. How wrong I was!
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TROMSO, Norway — Located more than 220 miles north of the Arctic Circle, this surprisingly sunny and cheerful little city likes to boast that it has the northernmost university in the world. Also the northernmost brewery and the northernmost Burger King.
In 1989, Tromso was able to claim the northernmost papal visit when Pope John Paul II flew in for a quick mass. And earlier this summer, a golfer on the local links carded the northernmost hole in one.
Boosters of Tromso are now taking aim at a new target: They want to host the northernmost Olympic Games in 2018, fully aware that staging the Games in the Arctic would undoubtedly pose some unique logistical problems.
"The Arctic is an undiscovered area for most people. We are hoping the selection committee will choose us because we think we represent something quite different from the usual winter resort," said Erlend Rian, an adviser to Tromso's Olympic bid committee and the city's former mayor.
During the summer months, Tromso draws a few tourists who come to enjoy the white nights and midnight sun. But during the winter months the opposite conditions prevail. The sun sets on Nov. 21 and doesn't rise again until Jan. 21.
How would the International Olympic Committee feel about holding the Games in darkness?
The IOC, which will select the location of the 2018 Winter Games in 2011, had no comment on Tromso's potential bid. "The process for 2018 has not even started yet," said Sandrine Chabert, an IOC spokeswoman contacted in Lausanne, Switzerland.
But Tromso's bid promoters are confident that solutions can be found to the daylight issue or any other concerns.
Rian points out that the Games in 2018 are supposed to start Feb. 16, almost four weeks after the sun returns. If the committee could be persuaded to push it back just one week, Tromso would have seven or eight hours of sunlight each day.
Rian also notes that a growing number of events in the Winter Olympics, including some ski jumping and slalom racing, now takes place at night under artificial lighting.
Yes, but isn't it also incredibly cold in the Arctic during the winter? January temperatures in Barrow, Alaska, at about the same latitude as Tromso, average about 14 degrees below zero and occasionally dip to 50 below. But Tromso is warmed by the currents of the Gulf Stream. Its deep-water port remains ice-free throughout the year, and the average January temperature is a balmy 25.
One might also ask why a small city of 60,000 would want to add enough hotel rooms and other accommodations to house roughly the same number of visitors and athletes -- rooms that would likely never be needed again. But even to this question, Rian has a perfectly reasonable answer.
With its university and with an increasing international interest in Arctic exploration, Tromso is actually one of Norway's fastest-growing cities. The 4,000-unit Olympic village needed to house the athletes could be designed for easy conversion into suburban housing after the Olympics.
As for the spectators and the large army of media that would descend on the Games, Tromso is planning to build four hotels while accommodating the overflow in however many luxury cruise ships are needed.
Tromso's harbor is large, deep, breathtakingly beautiful and within an easy walk of almost everything in this compact city.
Not everyone in Tromso thinks hosting the Olympics is such a great idea. Bladet Tromso, the local daily, has run stories raising questions about the environmental impact of such a large event and about the wisdom of spending a lot of money on what amounts to a relatively frivolous and fleeting adventure.
But most residents seem to favor the idea.
"Even though this is the Information Age and the 21st Century, people still have stereotyped views about living above the Arctic Circle. This could be a window of opportunity to show the world that we have four seasons and a modern society," said Stein-Gunnar Bondevik, communications director at the University of Tromso.
The Tromso 2018 committee has already spent $3.3 million to prepare its bid. It wanted to compete for the 2014 Olympics, awarded to the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi earlier this year. But the Norwegian government ultimately decided against 2014, figuring that it was too close to the 1994 Lillehammer Games, the last Olympics hosted by Norway.
This time around, a Norwegian bid seems more likely. The Norwegian Sports Confederation has already endorsed Tromso's bid over competing ones from Oslo/Lillehammer and Trondheim.
Next spring, the government's Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs will make a recommendation to the parliament on whether to proceed with the bid.
If the Norwegian government decides to go ahead, Rian said Tromso's stiffest competition would come from Munich and possibly Denver, but Denver is likely to bid only if Chicago fails to win the 2016 Summer Games.
According to Rian, Tromso's ace in the hole is the guarantee of snow. Because of global warming, this is something the traditional winter resort areas can no longer guarantee.
"Our bid will have lots of meteorological data," Rian said. "In years to come, what will winter look like? Nobody knows for sure, but at least in Tromso, you can still be sure of being able to have Winter Games."
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In MS SQL Server how can I do a character replace? Example: In a specific field, how do I replace all spaces with an underscore character, in every record containing a space?
I needed to replace all spaces in a name field with underscore characters, so a different program would recognize the entire field as a single entry. I couldn't think of a quick way so I had to replace about 400 spaces by hand. Not very fun.
T-SQL has a very useful function called
REPLACE. What this does is look for
the occurances of a specified string in your target and replace it with
another one. So we can use this format:
More specific to your case, you need to
Note that I've added the
TRIMs to ensure there's no leading and trailing
spaces, as I don't suppose you would need to convert those to underscores.
|Read Other SQL Guru Questions|
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What type of statistical test should I use?
For some data in a survey I work on, I have two sets of current year-
prior year ratios. I have a set of current-year prior year ratios for
numbers that ended up being changed from what was originally reported
by the data respondent (around 500 numbers in this set) and another
set of current-year prior year ratios for numbers that were not
changed from what was originally reported (around 800,000 numbers in
this set). I wanted to do a statistical test to determine if the
average current year-prior year ratio of the numbers that were changed
on the survey are significantly different from the average current
year prior year ratio of numbers that were not changed. What kind of
test should I use? Also wanted to know if it might be better to
separate the current-year prior year ratios into ratios that increased
from the prior year vs. decreased from the prior year and run tests on
each group?? Thanks for any advice...
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Searching around online has led me to conclude that there are as many recipes for red beans and rice as there have been people who ever lived in or visited New Orleans in the entire course of its history. It’s a very simple dish, theoretically, but the variations are endless.
I collected three or four recipes that looked promising and picked the elements of each that seemed most appealing in order to create this rule, which can now be added to the myriad recipes for the dish already recorded. This one uses a slow cooker.
I started with a cup of dried red kidney beans, soaking them overnight in water. When you measure out a cup it won’t seem like enough beans, but the next day when they’ve absorbed a lot of water, it may well seem like too much.
Drain them and put them in the slow cooker. Fry up four pieces of bacon, remove and drain them when done then pour three tablespoons of the bacon grease over the beans. Crumble the dried bacon into the pot. In the remaining bacon grease sauté two cups of coarsely chopped onions. When they’re lightly browned add them to the pot.
Slice up 12-16 ounces of pre-cooked spicy Louisiana sausages and brown them in the same skillet. Add them to the pot. In the same skillet lightly roast a coarsely chopped and de-seeded green bell pepper. Add it to the pot.
Now cut up and sauté a slice of country ham and add it to the pot. You probably won’t be able to find country ham unless you live in the South or unless you have, as I do, a kindly mother who lives in the South and sends it to you from time to time. If you can’t find it, any sort of ham will do, or you can just fry up some more bacon as a substitute. (Emiril Lagasse uses 1/4 cup chopped tasso ham in his red beans and rice recipe.)
Pour in enough chicken broth to barely cover the contents of the pot, set it to high and wait four and a half to five hours, or until the beans are cooked through. Stir the mixture every hour or so and add more liquid, broth or water, if it dries out.
Some recipes say you should remove a quarter or so of the beans halfway through cooking, mash them up in a skillet and sauté them a bit, then stir them back into the pot. To me this seemed like more trouble than it was worth. (Update — it’s not more trouble than it’s worth. See the comments below.) Some recipes call for adding hot sauce to the pot before cooking, but I see no reason not to add the sauce to taste when the dish is served.
Serve it over rice of course, drink beer with it, while listening to some Louis Armstrong. When Louis asked his last wife Lucille to marry him, he did so on the condition that she would learn to make red beans and rice, without which he felt he could not lead a full and happy life. (He often signed his letters “Red beans and ricely yours”.) She learned to make it, he approved of the results, and they stayed married for the next 29 years, until Louis’s death.
Try the recipe above and you’ll see why red beans and rice was so important to Armstrong.
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Business / Corporate Governance
Corporate GovernanceThis essay Corporate Governance is available for you on Essays24.com! Search Term Papers, College Essay Examples and Free Essays on Essays24.com - full papers database.
Autor: anton 05 November 2010
Words: 2297 | Pages: 10
Thank you and good morning. It's a pleasure to be here with all of you today to discuss the regulation of mutual funds in the United States. In my view, the regulatory scheme governing investment companies is one of the most important areas of the U.S. securities laws. This is because of the tremendous size of the industry that it regulates and the importance of the U.S. fund industry to the financial health of millions of Americ
V. Role of SEC Offices and Divisions
My Division of the SEC, the Division of Investment Management, is responsible for administering and interpreting the provisions of the Investment Company Act. However, we are greatly assisted in efforts to protect investment company investors through the efforts of other Offices and Divisions of the SEC, particularly our Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations, the Office of Investor Education and Assistance, and the Division of Enforcement.
A. Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations
Our Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations conducts the SEC's examination program of investment companies and investment advisers. They conduct inspections to foster compliance with the securities laws, to detect violations of those laws, and to keep the SEC informed of developments in the investment management industry. One of the most important objectives of this program is the quick and informal correction of compliance problems. Violations that appear too serious for informal correction are referred to our Division of Enforcement.
B. Division of Enforcement
Our Division of Enforcement investigates possible violations of the securities laws and, when appropriate, recommends that the SEC file enforcement actions, either in a U.S. federal court or in an administrative proceeding. While the SEC has civil enforcement authority only, we work closely with various criminal law enforcement agencies throughout the country to develop and bring criminal cases when the violations warrant. SEC enforcement actions serve as a significant deterrent to those who would consider violating the securities laws, since the SEC can seek injunctions, cease and desist orders, suspension or revocation of licenses, bars from association with the industry, and monetary penalties.
C. Office of Investor Education and Assistance
Our Chairman, Arthur Levitt, firmly believes that the best defense against fraud and abusive practices is educated investors. Therefore, educational initiatives have been hallmarks of his tenure. To help educate investors about the securities markets generally, the SEC has established the Office of Investor Education and Assistance whose mission includes developing educational programs that will enable investors to better protect themselves and make wiser investment decisions. This office has produced brochures on a variety of topics and posted material on the SEC's website including materials designed to educate mutual fund investors. The SEC has also organized investor and small business town meetings where the public can address questions to the Commissioners and SEC staff.
Since this conference is focused on the internet, I should note that while the internet has brought significant benefits to investors, it has also created significant dangers for the unwary. The internet has helped bring millions of relatively novice participants to the markets, while also providing a mechanism for unscrupulous persons to defraud those participants. As of the end of this year's first quarter, the SEC has filed approximately 120 internet-related enforcement actions. Our Office of Investor Education and Assistance has responded by educating investors about the basics of sound investing so that they can navigate through the maze of information on the web.
Accordingly, through investor education, a comprehensive inspection program, prudent administration and interpretation of our securities laws and aggressive enforcement action when necessary, we have been able to maintain effective oversight of the U.S. mutual industry.
VI. Role of the Investment Company Industry
While I have described the SEC's role in protecting investment company shareholders, I would be remiss if I did not mention the important role the U.S. investment management industry plays in maintaining the confidence that U.S. investors have in the industry. The SEC working with the industry has helped keep mutual funds in the U.S. free from major scandal and contributed to the confidence that investors have in the industry. The U.S. mutual fund industry has for at least 60 years supported laws and regulations designed to protect fund investors. The industry has also supported and developed tough voluntary standards that go beyond the requirements of the law, such as the Investment Company Institute's recommended best practices on personal investing and the role of mutual fund directors.
As a regulator, I know that we cannot legislate honesty and integrity. Without the commitment of the U.S. investment management industry to the maintenance of high fiduciary standards, we would not have the sustained growth and record of integrity that the industry has experienced. I am sure that the success of the investment management industry in Europe is due, in large measure, to a similar commitment on your part.
VII. Current Initiatives and Concerns
While the basic structure of the Investment Company Act has served investors well, we at the SEC are currently in the midst of several significant initiatives designed to further its goal of investor protection, while keeping it apace with the rapid evolution of the financial products and services that the statute regulates.
The financial services industry is in the midst of a technological revolution and mutual funds are at the forefront. The SEC faces the formidable challenge of applying the existing regulatory framework that has helped ensure the integrity of the industry, while at the same time providing a regulatory scheme to keep pace with the increased competition and technological revolution underway in the securities markets. We currently are in the midst of several regulatory initiatives aimed at promoting the integrity of fund governance, enhancing and improving disclosures made to investors, and modernizing the regulatory structure to accommodate the increased competitiveness and globalization of the investment management industry.
A. Fund Governance
One of the most significant initiatives we have undertaken is in the area of fund governance. Last year the SEC issued a comprehensive package of fund governance reforms and a staff interpretive release providing guidance on specific issues relating to independent fund directors.
The rule proposal is designed to reaffirm the important role that independent directors play in protecting fund investors, strengthen their hand in dealing with fund management, reinforce their independence, and provide investors with better information to assess the independence of directors. The proposal would amend certain exemptive rules under the Investment Company Act by adding a number of conditions to the exemptive rules that any fund must meet to rely on the rules. These conditions are: (1) independent directors must constitute at least a majority of their board of directors; (2) independent directors must select and nominate other independent directors; and (3) any legal counsel for the independent directors must be an independent legal counsel.
We also have proposed a number of disclosure requirements that will enhance shareholders' ability to evaluate whether the independent directors can act as an independent, vigorous, and effective force in overseeing fund operations. These proposals would require funds to provide basic information about directors to shareholders annually so that shareholders will know the identity and experience of all directors. The proposal also would require disclosure of directors' ownership of fund shares, information about director's potential conflicts of interest, and information to shareholders on the board's role in governing the fund. By requiring funds to provide this information, the proposals will give shareholders the tools and information to determine how effectively the directors serve their interests.
B. Disclosure Initiatives
In addition to the protections that will be afforded to shareholders as a result of the independent director proposals, the SEC has issued a number of rule proposals, and is considering a number of other proposals, that further our continuing effort to improve the quality of mutual fund disclosure in order to help investors make better-informed decisions.
The SEC completed efforts to streamline and simplify mutual fund prospectus disclosure, encouraging these documents to be drafted in plain, straightforward language understandable to the average investor. In March, the SEC issued a rule proposal to improve disclosure to investors of the effect of taxes on the performance of mutual funds. Taxes in the U.S. are one of the largest costs associated with a mutual fund investment. Estimates show that over two and a half percentage points of the average U.S. stock fund's total return is lost each year to taxes, an amount significantly in excess of average expense ratios for these funds. Our proposal will help investors to understand the magnitude of tax costs and compare the impact of taxes on the performance of different funds. The proposed amendments would require mutual funds to disclose after-tax returns for 1-, 5-, and 10- year periods, based on standardized formulas comparable to the formula currently used to calculate before-tax average annual total returns. The after-tax returns would be required to be disclosed in the fund's prospectus and in the fund's annual report. The proposal also would require funds that include after-tax returns in advertisements and other sales materials to include standardized after-tax returns in those materials.
In our continuing efforts to improve disclosures to shareholders, we also are working on revisions to the shareholder report and financial statement requirements. Our goal is to make the prospectus and the shareholder reports work together to provide information that investors need, when they need it, and in a format that is useful. In a shareholder report, fund management can tell the story of what it has done for shareholders. Our goal will be to facilitate getting that information from management to the fund's shareholders.
C. Fund Advertizing
In addition to enhancing disclosures to shareholders, the SEC also is faced with the regulatory challenges of industry competitiveness, brought about by rapid technological advances and consolidation of the financial services industry. As funds face increased competition, one fear we have is that funds will respond to the competitive environment with overly aggressive advertising.
This is an area of particular concern to Chairman Levitt. He has asked the Division of Investment Management and our Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations to conduct a special review of fund marketing - including websites, sales literature and advertisements. The purpose of the review is to determine whether a fund's actual portfolio performance and investment strategies are consistent with its website statements, its advertising and its prospectus disclosure.
D. New Products
The industry has responded to competitive pressures and rapid technological changes by creating and marketing new types of funds. We need to ensure that the rush to develop attractive products does not come at the expense of products and services that offer investors real financial benefits and value. An area that presents a unique regulatory challenge is the evolution of exchange-traded funds. Assets in exchange traded funds listed on the American Stock Exchange, where almost all of these funds are traded, have risen from $2.4 billion three years ago to over $38 billion. These funds, with names like SPDRs, WEBs, Diamonds, and Cubes, have obtained exemptive relief from the SEC to facilitate secondary market trading in their shares. They are bought and sold throughout the day and are priced continuously, rather than once a day at 4 p.m., which is the pattern for conventional funds. Unlike mutual funds, they can be sold short. Additionally, their expense ratios are a fraction of those charged by an actively managed mutual fund.
There are many issues to consider as these products evolve. For example, we must consider whether the development of these products would encourage investors to view mutual funds as something other than long-term investments and encourage short-term trading of mutual funds. The SEC is currently considering an application that would allow an exchange-traded class of an existing index fund. So far, relief has been extended only to index funds but not to managed funds. Is there even a framework pursuant to which a managed exchange traded fund can work? And what impact, if any, would an exchange-traded class of a managed fund have on an existing non-exchange traded class?
Separately managed accounts that can be opened with as little as $100,000, have become competitive with mutual funds. Today, investment managers routinely have access to personal computers that are more powerful than the computer originally used to send men to the moon. Better software and portfolio management systems make it feasible for a manager, who in the past would only take institutional accounts with a minimum of $5 million or higher, to take on much smaller accounts, including retail accounts.
Financial advisers increasingly are attracting investors from funds by offering customized portfolios. They offer services over the Internet to enable individuals to create and manage their own portfolios or create a virtual mutual fund on-line; tailor-made portfolios that reflect the investor's risk tolerance, time horizon and tax situation. Technology has made customization on a large scale possible. From a regulatory perspective, we will have to consider the implications of these new products.
Another area where there is increasing competition is in the use of electronic media. The SEC recently issued an interpretive release in an effort to clarify the application of the U.S. securities laws to electronic media. The increased use of the Internet by issuers as a means of widespread information dissemination has resulted in uncertainty about the application of the U.S. securities laws to these communications. The release builds on previous SEC interpretations and seeks to remove interpretively some of the barriers to the use of electronic media, while preserving important investor protections. The release provides guidance on the use of electronic media to deliver documents under the U.S. securities laws, addresses an issuer's liability for website content and hyperlinks and outlines basic legal principles that issuers and market intermediaries should consider in conducting online offerings. We recognize, however, that continuing guidance will be necessary in this area as use of electronic media continues to evolve.
1. Paul Roye (2000). FEFSI General Membership Meeting 2000
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NEW YORK — Seeking to combat rising obesity rates, the New York City Board of Health approved a ban on the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, street carts, and movie theaters on Thursday, enacting the first such restriction in the country.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who proposed the measure, celebrated its passage on Twitter. ‘‘NYC’s new sugary drink policy is the single biggest step any gov’t has taken to curb obesity,’’ he wrote. ‘‘It will help save lives.’’
The measure, unless blocked by a judge, will take effect in six months. The health board vote was the only regulatory approval it needed to become binding in the city, but the US soft-drink industry has strongly opposed the plan and vowed this week to try to fight the measure by other means, possibly in the courts.
‘‘This is not the end,’’ Eliot Hoff, a spokesman for New Yorkers for Beverage Choices, an industry-financed group opposed to the soda sales restrictions, said in an e-mail moments after the vote. ‘‘We are exploring legal options, and all other avenues available to us.’’
The plan is a marquee initiative of the Bloomberg administration, which is known for introducing ambitious — and, some say, overreaching — public health policies, including a ban on smoking in bars and the posting of calorie counts on chain restaurant menus.
The soda measure would bar the sale of sweetened drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces, smaller than the size of a common soda bottle. It would affect a range of popular sweetened beverages, including energy drinks, presweetened iced teas, and common brands of nondiet soda.
The restrictions would not affect fruit juices, dairy-based drinks like milkshakes, or alcoholic beverages; no-calorie diet sodas would not be affected, but establishments with self-service drink fountains, like many fast-food restaurants, would not be allowed to stock cups larger than 16 ounces.
Only establishments that receive inspection grades from the health department would have to obey the rules, a group that includes movie theaters and stadium concession stands. Convenience stores, including 7-Eleven with its king-size ‘‘Big Gulp’’ drinks, would be exempt, along with vending machines and some newsstands.
The health board, whose members were appointed by the mayor, voted 8-0, with one abstention, to approve the measure. The member who abstained, Sixto R. Caro, is a former president of the Spanish American Medical Dental Society of New York who was appointed by Bloomberg in 2002. He expressed concern before the vote about the financial impact of the proposal on some small businesses.
The supporters said they believed the measure would help combat obesity.
Sandro Galea, who joined the board this year, said he believed ‘‘the evidence is very clear that sugary drinks are contributing to the obesity epidemic.’’
‘‘The argument that this is restricting choice is a false argument,’’ Galea said, noting that customers could purchase as many smaller drinks as they like. ‘‘The identification of threats to the health of the public is a core function of the department.’’
Dr. Deepthiman K. Gowda, a professor of medicine at Columbia University and a member of the health board, said he recognized that the public had concerns about the plan. But he said he had seen the deadly effect of obesity on patients he treats in the city.
Bloomberg has said the plan does not limit consumers’ choices because there is no restriction on the number of drinks they can purchase. The soft-drink industry, which has spent more than $1 million on a public-relations campaign opposing the plan, argues that the policy restricts consumers’ freedom to buy beverages as they see fit.
Bloomberg has made curbing obesity a top goal for his administration, citing higher rates of diabetes and fatalities among the city’s more overweight neighborhoods. More than half of adult New Yorkers are obese or overweight, according to the city’s health department.
Opinion among other city lawmakers is mixed. Several City Council members, including many members of the council’s minority caucus, said the plan would adversely affect small businesses, particularly in poorer neighborhoods. A resolution against the plan has been circulated in the City Council, but the speaker, Christine C. Quinn, has not put the measure to a vote.
Six in 10 residents said they thought the plan was a bad idea in a recent poll by The New York Times. But advocates have argued that public opinion on health measures can change over time.
Pamela Brier, the president of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn and a member of the health board, said she recognized that ‘‘there a lot of unhappy people’’ who oppose the plan. But she praised the health department for the proposal, saying that New Yorkers would adjust to the smaller sizes. ‘‘Over time, it does become the new norm,’’ she said.
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The positive thing about fires – they give us amazing, beautiful sunsets.
Okay, there are actually many things about fires that are positive but they are also very scary and overwhelming and intense.
I have so much respect for fire – especially now that my brother is a firefighter. I understand it better because he explains it in such great detail.
Did you know that fire grows at a rate of 7:1 per minute? It will reproduce itself seven times over in one minute. The typical Phoenix fire department response is 4 minutes. One small ashtray fire could turn into a very large house fire in 4 minutes.
That is incredible. And scary. And powerful.
The Brins Fire has forced the evacuation of hundreds of people in the Sedona area (a mere 25 miles from Flagstaff). Ash and smoke fills the air of Flagstaff and other surrounding communities.
There are fires on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, in eastern Arizona, and various other places around the state.
Even the smallest of fires are making news tonight (a 2 acre fire was quickly extinguished in an east Flagstaff neighborhood).
What really amazes me, though, is when I see people throw cigarettes out of their cars. Seriously. Okay, could you be MORE stupid? Why not just take a lighter or a match to some dry brush?
Morons. I mean, really. Just plain stupid.
We have professionals fighting our fires. They are good at what they do. Forest fires are hard to contain because it’s difficult to get ahead of them. They can turn in a second and go a direction that wasn’t planned on. But the firefighters that work the fires here in Arizona are awesome.
They really save the day – on more than one day.
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Amaranth found room in Enron loophole
TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: Regulations that cover commodities exchanges are, of necessity, complicated. It takes more than a couple of rules to rein in unrestrained capitalism. But with complicated rules come sophisticated loopholes.
A hedge fund known as Amaranth Advisors fell apart last September after making some bad bets on natural gas futures. At a hearing in Washington today, Senate investigators said Amaranth left consumers and the entire natural gas industry paying higher prices. And it was completely legal.
Jeremy Hobson has more now from Washington.
Jeremy Hobson: Amaranth took advantage of what's called the Enron Loophole. It was slipped into an appropriations bill in 2000 at the request of Enron lobbyists.
The loophole keeps over-the-counter electronic exchanges free from most federal oversight. It allowed Amaranth to trade energy futures largely outside the control of regulators.
Sean Cota: I don't think for a huge chunk of the market that there are any cops on the beat. Where are the cops?
That's the question Sean Cota asked at today's hearing. He's the president of the New England Fuel Institute. He and other industry leaders said when Amaranth bet on higher futures prices, natural gas providers were hit with higher costs. They passed those costs along to consumers.
Senator Carl Levin chairs the subcommittee that held today's hearing.
Carl Levin: It's one thing when speculators gamble with their own money. It's another when they turn U.S. energy markets into a lottery, where everybody is forced to gamble with them.
Amaranth, which collapsed, clearly lost its gamble. But because it wielded so much control over the market, senators say its trading practices should have been regulated.
There are concerns about that idea. Carnegie Mellon Economics Professor Adam Lerrick says Congress is overreacting and that any regulation would be futile.
Adam Lerrick: If you attempt to just regulate specific markets then the trading's going to migrate elsewhere.
Congress has tried to close the Enron loophole before, unsuccessfully.Supporters of regulation hope a series of hearings on Amaranth will revive the issue and give it another chance.
In Washington, I'm Jeremy Hobson for Marketplace.
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The fact that anyone cares about survivors is really good news. Until relatively recently, there were not enough cancer survivors to support such a research and support effort. Now many of us are living well and long enough to experience possible side effects from our treatments--and certainly to experience our lives in a different way.
This is from the Young Survivors Coalition. They are conducting a survey to learn more about our needs and then advocate for us. Please take a moment to read and help:
Long-term Survivors- Meeting the Changing Needs
Long-term survivors of breast cancer have various interests and face unique challenges in their lives well beyond treatment. While some strive to manage lifelong physical and emotional side effects of breast cancer, others may look to connect through education or activism. There is growing attention to these issues, yet there is still a gap in information and support for those diagnosed at a young age.
Recognizing the need to increase information for young women, we are creating a resource for those who have completed treatment for breast cancer five years ago or longer. And we want your help! We value the input of YSC's community and want to know what information you think is most important to include in a long-term survivor resource guide.
If you were diagnosed with breast cancer as a young (<45) woman and finished treatment five or more years ago, please take a few minutes to participate in our anonymous survey. Your thoughts on follow-up care, management of health and side effects, and how you want to be involved will help us to develop a resource for countless women facing the same questions and concerns that you may have.
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To take pictures of Iceland is an experience that lasts a lifetime for a nature photographer. This land is still in transition. Even if one can not see a volcano coming to life, the lava fields of different ages, the steam evaporating from the Earth's crust; the hot springs and geysers keep reminding us of the gigantic forces in action deep below the ground.
The various forms of basalt that are building up most of the island, the rhyolite mountains, the geothermic fields all have breathtaking hues firing the imagination of the photographer; as do the coastline rock formations and the numerous waterfalls. Furthermore there are no trees to block the fantastic views. Rich bird populations and easy-to-approach animals in great numbers inspire animal photographers.
We first visited Iceland in 2008 and worked the summer season with the Wild Wonders of Europe project; an initiative to present the most beautiful natural heritage sites in Europe. Spending time by Lake Myvatn, we witnessed the mass swarming of non-biting midges and captured images of the ducks that live around the lake. We were also photographing puffins, razorbills, common guillemots and northern gannets on the coast and arctic foxes in the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve. We were blessed with dry and mostly sunny weather which was most welcome.
In the spring and fall of 2010 we spent four months in Iceland. Our timing was immaculate as the volcano under the Eyjafjallajökull ice cap broke out the day after our arrival, on 14 April. The weather made it challenging to take pictures of the Eyjafjallajökull, as the crater was mostly shrouded in low hanging clouds. The snow and ash patterns covering the volcano, the height of the ash cloud and the sight of glowing lava kept changing. The weather did too, allowing the volcano to show a different face to us every day.
In the autumn, we went on several hiking tours in the Fjallabak Nature Reserve. This time, the weather was grey and rainy which bizarrely was a good thing for a photographer allowing us to perfectly catch the real colours of the landscape. Even though in mid August we were photographing in a snowstorm near Hrafntinnusker, we had to wait until the end of September to be able to catch the colours of the autumn in the wonderful birch woods near Hraunfossar.
Returning to Iceland in January 2011, we had expected cold and snowy weather but a grey, mild winter awaited us instead. We had almost lost hope to be able to take snowy pictures of Iceland, when winter finally came for a few brief weeks in March. Better late than never, we thought. On snow covered black lava fields the monochrome tones were perfect for photography; the landscape offering some of the most beautiful sights of all in what we called the land of contrasts.
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Last fall they got 87 native speaker teachers to go. We read the account of one earlier:
When we arrive, we aren’t allowed to get on the boat right away, first we all stood in a group and the cameramen filmed us talking, just shooting the breeze, about the blah weather, and the fact that we likely wouldn’t even be able to set foot on Dok-do because the waves would likely be too choppy surrounding the island. After a few close-ups we were let onboard and the crew led the way to our cabins. Each room had 3 bunk beds and our names were on the doors, boys on the left and girls on the right. After claiming our spots and mingling in the hallway while a few were interviewed on camera (What do you think about Dok-do island? Do you think you will have a good visit to Dok-do? Do you feel Dok-do is an important issue?) we were called on deck for the funniest part of the trip…little did I know it was to be one of the last times we’d smile on board this ship. They gave us name tags with the now famous motto: Dok-do is Korean territory, and a picture of our flag so we could all see what country we were from, and then we were rounded up in front of the giant Dok-do banner (it travels) and instructed to wave our flags and say, in Korean, that Dok-do is Korean territory. Are you picking up on the theme? They were going to air this footage on t.v and we were all reasonably sure that we would be forever banned from entering the country of Japan after this little display went public.Anyone who knows anything about Koreans will know this trip will be nothing but a propoganda exercise. Why get involved? Here's what I wrote about not participating in a Dokdo essay contest run by the Korea Times:
I believe that getting involved in a war of words on this unresolvable topic runs antithetical to the spirit of openness and cross-cultural understanding many of us came over here to experience in the first place.
If your motivation for going is to score some points in the office, take it from me that goodwill can dissipate quickly anytime you do, oh, anything.
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Madonsela urges caution before turning to mass action
"Only use mass action as a last resort," she said in Johannesburg.
"Under apartheid, we had to render the state ungovernable because it was a state that wasn't created for us and didn't operate to support us. We now have a state that has built in it a lot of accountability mechanisms."
The youth league and its allies protested in Cape Town on Monday against the proposed closure of 27 schools in the province. It also accused the province of not providing services to poorer communities.
Speaking to reporters, Madonsela said that in a constitutional democracy, no one should make any province or city ungovernable.
A lot of the complaints were around maladministration or socio-economic rights, so people who were unhappy could choose to approach either the public protector or the South African Human Rights Commission, she said.
Democracy a dialogue
Madonsela called on everyone to speak to each other, and said democracy was a dialogue.
"It is your right to go for mass action. Like all rights, you have to use some of them when it is absolutely necessary to use them," Madonsela said.
"My appeal to the nation as a whole, ANC Youth League included, let's use constitutional structures to engage in dialogues with organs of state."
She said she realised that people resorted to mass action to demonstrate peacefully, but said they should be aware that there were other people who joined in who could have ulterior motives.
"Often, people who get into these marches are thugs that have their own agendas," she said.
"And once they are in, you can't really predict what's going to happen. If there are other channels of engagement, rather do not embark on mass action. It doesn't matter who you are."
She said people should rather try to facilitate constructive talks between those in charge.
At Monday's protest, the league insisted on Premier Helen Zille being present to accept its memorandum.
However, she said earlier that she would not do so unless the youth league retracted its threat to make the city "ungovernable".
League spokesperson Magdalene Moonsamy responded by saying: "We will never apologise to the madam, to Zille. Days of apartheid are over." – Sapa
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LANSING (AP) — Gov. Rick Snyder has signed legislation allowing communities to enforce local ordinances targeting drivers considered "super drunk."
Snyder says Wednesday that the legislation gives "communities the tools to be effective partners in protecting Michigan families."
The state's tougher "super drunk" law took effect in 2010, but Snyder's office says police couldn't write such tickets under local ordinances.
Michigan's legal limit is a blood alcohol level of .08 percent. The "super drunk" designation is .17 percent or more.
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At Native Sun we wholeheartedly believe in the importance of clean, pure food. We strive to provide our customers with the highest quality organic and natural products free of the unwanted additives, chemicals, and fillers that contaminate the products lining the shelves of mainstream American supermarkets. While we believe in the importance of eating organic and avoiding ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, artificial sweeteners/colors, nitrates, and antibiotics, one of the most important issues facing the organic and natural foods industry remains the prevalence and continued risk of contamination from Genetically Modified Organisms, or GMOs.
At Native Sun we support the efforts of the Non-GMO project and will soon add their “Non-GMO Project Verified” seal to the products on our shelves. For Native Sun, our support of the Non-GMO project only reinforces our commitment to clean food while providing our customers with additional assurance. We pride ourselves on setting the industry standard, not adopting the industry standard, and for the last decade Native Sun has rigorously researched and scrutinized each and every product on our store shelves. In order for their products to end up in our stores, companies must respond and verify that they operate in accordance with our “GMO letter” which openly questions the quality of the raw materials involved in production as well as each company’s stance on GMOs in general.
We refuse to compromise our standards in an effort to capitalize on industry trends or appease the mass market. If you shop our stores, do so with confidence, understanding that we are continually working to bring you the cleanest products available. GMOs represent the fundamental antagonist to pure foods, jeopardizing the integrity of the food we eat as well as the natural food industry itself. Genetic drift, poorly regulated industry standards, and dishonest manufacturers dirty the lens that magnifies the natural food industry’s every move. Biotech companies anxiously await a fatal misstep that will reveal the supposed hypocrisy of the health food industry that seeks to remedy the ills threatening the future of clean food, not deceive its customer base. Those who manufacture, purchase, and plant GMO seed and produce GMO products fail to understand that they are ruining the food supply we work so diligently to protect.
Ultimately, we are fighting against GMOs to maintain the future integrity of our food supply. If we don’t make an effort to combat GMOs, clean food will become a thing of the past.
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All About Yangire
Starting to learn Japanese is hard, with a vast amount of content on the internet to help you learn it's hard to even start to learn. This guide will go over some resources, and give tips helpful for those starting to learn the language.
Luckly Japanese has many valuable learning resources created for it to help you get better. Like said above, because of that it may be hard to wade through everything, so here are some standouts:
NOTE: I WILL NOT BE LISTING TORRENT SITES IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS PM ME
The Koohii forums - A fantastic place to meet fellow minded people to talk about Japanese. The website mainly attracts self-learners and those who used the RTK method (I will speak more about this under tips), but those using classes won't feel too excluded. Try checking the resources section often to keep up to date with current language learning programs.
All Japanese All The Time blog - The website that pioneered the AJATT method, it holds a fair amount of good articles about learning Japanese. Recently the creator of the blog Khatz has been trying to cash in on the popularity of the blog, try not to spend money there. I suggest you read through the table of contents to skip past most of the advertising that goes on.
Japanese Level Up - A website similar to All Japanese All The Time but personally I find it better as of late. The articles are more frequent and are focused more on Japanese, and not some sales ploy (not to say the website doesn't have any of those). I suggest you check the 'walkthrough' for some reading in your spare time.
Kitsunekko - A website focused on direct downloads for subtitles, clearly you should only use it for Japanese ones. I put the Japanese section in the link only because you should stop using English ones.
Play-Asia - If you have imported any game you probably know of Play-Asia. The prices vary and you might be able to find places with better deals, but they sure are convenient.
HMV Online - A good store that has many DVDs, manga, CDs, and games. The prices are low, but the shipping is high.
Yesasia - Similar to HMV Online, however the prices are usually higher and after a certain amount spent you get free shipping.
Justin TV - You probably already know of Justin TV/Twitch TV, but I'll remind you. If you want a great source of free immersion and listening use this. I also suggest always using Justin over Twitch, you can find Japanese streams quicker.
NicoNico - Come on man, it's NicoNico.
Lang-8 - A website where you pretty much just write about random things in the language you want to learn and those who already know the language correct you. It really improves your writing skills, and you should help improve others English too.
JLPT Study - A website/forum made to help you get through the JLPT.
Hirsgana.com - A site where you can put in a web page and it adds furigana to every Kanji. I haven't used it really, but it might be useful for those starting Japanese.
Real Kana - If you still don't know Katakana/Hiragana than drill them into your brain using this.
iKnow - A website similar to Anki (will talk about that later), but you have to pay for it. It has a better interface and gives you more feedback than Anki, however the review system is a bit worse and you have to pay for it.
RtKWiki - A wikia that focuses on learning Japanese, it's rarely updated but you might as well look.
Easy NHK News - A smart idea while learning a language is to read news sites actively, the problem is that it can take a while to reach that level. So if your not good enough to read NHK normally, try this site.
Koetaba - For some free audio books check here.
Aozora - For transcripts of some audio books check here, and free books in general check here.
Japan P.E.N. Club Digital Library - This website also contains some free books for you to read.
WWWJDIC - A good J-E dictionary.
This section won't be too large, as I haven't tried many programs out there yet. I might update it later.
Anki - The biggest SRS program out there, I highly suggest you use it or something like it. More information will be about SRS in the tips section.
KeyholeTV - A easy, legal way to watch Japanese TV. The quality isn't too great, but if nothing is on Justin TV you might as well try here.
Podcasts - Podcasts aren't really 'programs' but I'll put this here anyways. The Koohii forums have a great podcast thread, check it out.
Sub2srs - This program can take screenshots of your favorite anime and drama, and use the subtitles that you inputted to make a card in Anki. I could never get it to work, but people that can love it.
Rikaisama - A plugin for firefox that translates Japanese words that you mouse over. It allows for J-J translations and audio too!
Don't follow one set way of learning. I gave you links to AJATT and Japanese Level Up, but I suggest you not follow by what they teach you word by word. As an individual you should make your own plan, your own way of studying.
If you aren't studying now, start studying now. The longer you put it off the harder it will be to start, the more time you spend doing something else the better you could have been earlier on. What I'm saying is that you only have a short amount of time in your life, lets say you wanted to study Japanese for months, maybe years. Think about how good you would be if you actually started when you said "I should start learning this". The longer you take, the less time you have to fully enjoy knowing the language in your life.
Personally I procrastinate, if I started Japanese when I said I would I would be a hell of a lot better than I am now. You need to use the time that you haven't been studying as motivation to start studying now. You should look back on the time you lost, but only to make you start doing it now. Japanese takes a while to learn, and the sooner the start the better.
You think Japanese is hard? It isn't as hard as your making it out to be. The hardest thing about learning this language is yourself, whenever you complain, waste time, and make excuses you make the language hard. You have the full capability to learn this language, all you need is time, self control, and the ability to not make excuses for yourself.
Your reason to learn Japanese is as good as any. If you can put into the time and effort to learn this language for whatever reason, that reason is good enough for you to learn the language. You can want to learn Japanese to be able to understand Japanese pornography for all I care, if you can put in the time for that reason it's a good enough reason.
You have enough time, manage it. Don't let time be a reason why you can't study Japanese, most people can find ways to make time for Japanese. You play video games? Play less video games and study until you can learn while playing video games.
Kanji isn't the devil. Buy/download Remembering The Kanji, get the Lazy Kanji Modv2 deck or something similar off of Anki and study. Personally I don't even think you need to do all of that, it certainly helps, but with a bit more effort on your part you can still master words without RTK.
Japan isn't perfect. I doubt you believe this, but I'm just reminding you. No place is perfect, if you think your life will change for the best once you go to Japan stop thinking that.
Immerse yourself, but not too early. I believe immersion is the best way of learning any language, however if you dive in too quickly it can easily lead to burnout. If you can't do what you enjoy in Japanese at whatever stage your in of learning Japanese then don't fully immerse yourself. It will lead to you having nothing to do besides studying, then that will lead to burnout.
Talk to the Japanese, in Japanese. A fantastic way of learning a language is talking to someone that knows your target language in your target language. Find some place like Mixi, Lang-8, or whatever and and talk to some Japanese friends on Skype.
Start buying games with Japanese text. While costly, Japanese games are a fun way to use your Japanese skills. I suggest to start buying them early on in your studying to set short-term goals.
Get a kindle if you want to read on the go. I highly suggest buying a Kindle Paperwhite or something similar and using it to store your manga/books. You can currently buy Japanese kindle books, and you can easily find downloadable manga online. If you plan to read outside of the house there isn't anything better.
I got a bit lazy towards the end of this blog, I might update it later and add more resources/tips. Until then feel free to ask me any questions, if anyone reads this.
My Recent Reviews
Some people just don't have opinions. Like Yangire.
Mar 31, 2013 5:30 pm GMTYangire joined the union Niche Stuff And Off Topic Union
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| 0.963447 | 2,013 | 1.84375 | 2 |
The single most important factor in achieving any measure of sustainable success is commitment. There is no substitute, and no short-cut around it. A contract without commitment is just words on a piece of paper. Without commitment, an athlete with all of the potential in the world never becomes a champion. There is no such thing as an uncommitted leader. There is no such thing as an uncommitted achievement. And there can be no such thing as long-lasting success in your career without commitment.
You see, mediocrity and commitment cannot co-exist. It is an all-or-nothing-take-it-or-leave-it deal. You are either committed or you are not. More importantly, commitment is not reflected in what you say, it is manifested in. It is more than a promise, a pledge, or a vow of assurance. Commitment is simple. Commitment is consistent. Commitment is reliable. Commitment is action.
In fact, commitment is the catalyst for all action. If you pledge yourself to a certain goal or specific purpose, then you act in alignment with that pledge by fulfilling your promise – that is, if your commitment is sincere. Commitment distinguishes what we want versus what we intend. I have said before that wanting will never get you anywhere. We all want to be successful, including your competition. Wanting success is not enough.
To W.A.N.T. is to Wait And Nothing Transpires.
When I ran a sports branding firm, I received résumé after résumé from college students, graduates from business schools, and graduating law school students who wanted a job in professional sports. If someone sends me a résumé and never follows up, I assume that they are not all that committed. What else am I supposed to assume? I could be wrong, but that person has not given me a reason to think otherwise. I, like most employers, will not hire a person who is not committed, so I won’t waste my time following up with that person – not when I have others who will consistently check-in, follow-up, and express their interest. Commitment is a great way to distinguish yourself in today’s flooded marketplace.
Read the rest of the article here.
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App helps traffic wardens catch you out
Filed under: Motoring
So is this a handy parking solution, or a fine-in-waiting?
Shopping with AOL
The systemThe app makes use of a sensor placed on the floor of a parking space, which recognises when someone is parked there. The Metereye system works by sending out a signal from the sensor, which records when the vehicle arrives and when it leaves. It then sends this to a handheld device -which parking companies can use to monitor how people are using the spaces.
It means, for example, that councils can have fewer parking attendants, because they only have to visit spaces when they are occupied. It has so far been taken up by Westminster and Edinburgh Councils.
ConcernsSome councils have been bragging about how this could solve parking problems. Westminster Council released a smartphone app, which uses the technology to help you find a free space. This is doubtless a good idea - as long as you can get to the space before it is filled.
However, The RAC told the Daily Telegraph that this same information could be used by traffic wardens to help them quickly spot people who have overstayed their welcome. Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, told the newspaper: "This gives wardens the equivalent of eyes in the backs of their heads." "Motorists will hope it won't encourage attendants to lie in wait for people who have only slightly overstayed their welcome."
Should you worry?Of course the usual defence applies: only those who are breaking the rules run the risk of being caught out. If you always park legally, then you don't have anything to fear from traffic wardens. You could argue that traffic wardens ought to have the best technology to help them enforce the rules, so we shouldn't complain.
However, we tend to think more flexibly than that when it comes to parking. Life doesn't always allow us the luxury of time and space to park as responsibly as we ought to. And councils don't always have the foresight to provide enough parking in areas of high demand.
In the past there has always been the chance that you could get away with it. Now, with the use of CCTV cameras and this smarter technology, there's a higher chance than ever that a spur-of-the-moment decision to pop to the shops could end up being outlandishly expensive.
We already face more than 8 million parking fines every year - last year there was one handed out every five seconds. Better technology is going to mean you stand an even higher chance of joining the millions paying for their parking mistakes.
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Ten years after the Iraq war, YouGov's Director of Political and Social research, Joe Twyman, discusses the sectarianism that divides the country During the early ... read more
Do Britons understand the US better than Americans? It is often said that a political leader must be a teacher and not just someone who ... read more
No self-respecting Washington policy wonk involved in the fiscal cliff negotiations can turn a blind eye to the public’s response to possible tax and spending ... read more
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One of the emerging stories from the 2012 campaign has been Obama’s success (and Romney’s failure) at data mining and microtargeting. While many pundits have applauded ... read more
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On November 29, the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform conducted hearings on “A Look into the Federal Response to the Rising Rates of ... read more
The secret ballot is now thought to be a central democratic institution in the United States and abroad. We did not always vote in secret, ... read more
In 21st century America, most voters have ceased to regard adultery or homosexuality as barriers to holding senior posts in politics, the military, business or ... read more
In case you hadn't heard, there was a big storm right before the election. Despite no real evidence, pundits, and even some scholars, have tried ... read more
Model Politics’s mission is to help readers engage modern political puzzles by bringing YouGov-collected survey data to bear on popular political questions. The blog is written by professional political scientists and is devoted to the rigorous analysis of data on politics, polling, public affairs, and culture. It aims to replace polemics often found in popular accounts of politics with evidence-based argument.
Model Politics was founded by Doug Rivers(YouGov) and Lynn Vavreck (UCLA) in the summer of 2010, and is produced, funded, and hosted by YouGov. Blog posts rely on survey data run each week on a representative sample of 1000 Americans.
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| 0.954889 | 484 | 1.710938 | 2 |
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